diff --git "a/Ftrain.txt" "b/Ftrain.txt" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/Ftrain.txt" @@ -0,0 +1,96633 @@ +Collected Articles of Frederick Douglass + +by Frederick Douglass + + + + +Contents + + My Escape from Slavery + Reconstruction + + + + +Douglass, Frederick. “My Escape from Slavery.” +The Century Illustrated Magazine 23, n.s. 1 (Nov. 1881): 125-131. + +My Escape from Slavery + + +In the first narrative of my experience in slavery, written nearly +forty years ago, and in various writings since, I have given the public +what I considered very good reasons for withholding the manner of my +escape. In substance these reasons were, first, that such publication +at any time during the existence of slavery might be used by the master +against the slave, and prevent the future escape of any who might adopt +the same means that I did. The second reason was, if possible, still +more binding to silence: the publication of details would certainly +have put in peril the persons and property of those who assisted. +Murder itself was not more sternly and certainly punished in the State +of Maryland than that of aiding and abetting the escape of a slave. +Many colored men, for no other crime than that of giving aid to a +fugitive slave, have, like Charles T. Torrey, perished in prison. The +abolition of slavery in my native State and throughout the country, and +the lapse of time, render the caution hitherto observed no longer +necessary. But even since the abolition of slavery, I have sometimes +thought it well enough to baffle curiosity by saying that while slavery +existed there were good reasons for not telling the manner of my +escape, and since slavery had ceased to exist, there was no reason for +telling it. I shall now, however, cease to avail myself of this +formula, and, as far as I can, endeavor to satisfy this very natural +curiosity. I should, perhaps, have yielded to that feeling sooner, had +there been anything very heroic or thrilling in the incidents connected +with my escape, for I am sorry to say I have nothing of that sort to +tell; and yet the courage that could risk betrayal and the bravery +which was ready to encounter death, if need be, in pursuit of freedom, +were essential features in the undertaking. My success was due to +address rather than courage, to good luck rather than bravery. My means +of escape were provided for me by the very men who were making laws to +hold and bind me more securely in slavery. + +It was the custom in the State of Maryland to require the free colored +people to have what were called free papers. These instruments they +were required to renew very often, and by charging a fee for this +writing, considerable sums from time to time were collected by the +State. In these papers the name, age, color, height, and form of the +freeman were described, together with any scars or other marks upon his +person which could assist in his identification. This device in some +measure defeated itself—since more than one man could be found to +answer the same general description. Hence many slaves could escape by +personating the owner of one set of papers; and this was often done as +follows: A slave, nearly or sufficiently answering the description set +forth in the papers, would borrow or hire them till by means of them he +could escape to a free State, and then, by mail or otherwise, would +return them to the owner. The operation was a hazardous one for the +lender as well as for the borrower. A failure on the part of the +fugitive to send back the papers would imperil his benefactor, and the +discovery of the papers in possession of the wrong man would imperil +both the fugitive and his friend. It was, therefore, an act of supreme +trust on the part of a freeman of color thus to put in jeopardy his own +liberty that another might be free. It was, however, not unfrequently +bravely done, and was seldom discovered. I was not so fortunate as to +resemble any of my free acquaintances sufficiently to answer the +description of their papers. But I had a friend—a sailor—who owned a +sailor’s protection, which answered somewhat the purpose of free +papers—describing his person, and certifying to the fact that he was a +free American sailor. The instrument had at its head the American +eagle, which gave it the appearance at once of an authorized document. +This protection, when in my hands, did not describe its bearer very +accurately. Indeed, it called for a man much darker than myself, and +close examination of it would have caused my arrest at the start. + +In order to avoid this fatal scrutiny on the part of railroad +officials, I arranged with Isaac Rolls, a Baltimore hackman, to bring +my baggage to the Philadelphia train just on the moment of starting, +and jumped upon the car myself when the train was in motion. Had I gone +into the station and offered to purchase a ticket, I should have been +instantly and carefully examined, and undoubtedly arrested. In choosing +this plan I considered the jostle of the train, and the natural haste +of the conductor, in a train crowded with passengers, and relied upon +my skill and address in playing the sailor, as described in my +protection, to do the rest. One element in my favor was the kind +feeling which prevailed in Baltimore and other sea-ports at the time, +toward “those who go down to the sea in ships.” “Free trade and +sailors’ rights” just then expressed the sentiment of the country. In +my clothing I was rigged out in sailor style. I had on a red shirt and +a tarpaulin hat, and a black cravat tied in sailor fashion carelessly +and loosely about my neck. My knowledge of ships and sailor’s talk came +much to my assistance, for I knew a ship from stem to stern, and from +keelson to cross-trees, and could talk sailor like an “old salt.” I was +well on the way to Havre de Grace before the conductor came into the +negro car to collect tickets and examine the papers of his black +passengers. This was a critical moment in the drama. My whole future +depended upon the decision of this conductor. Agitated though I was +while this ceremony was proceeding, still, externally, at least, I was +apparently calm and self-possessed. He went on with his duty—examining +several colored passengers before reaching me. He was somewhat harsh in +tome and peremptory in manner until he reached me, when, strange +enough, and to my surprise and relief, his whole manner changed. Seeing +that I did not readily produce my free papers, as the other colored +persons in the car had done, he said to me, in friendly contrast with +his bearing toward the others: + +“I suppose you have your free papers?” + +To which I answered: + +“No sir; I never carry my free papers to sea with me.” + +“But you have something to show that you are a freeman, haven’t you?” + +“Yes, sir,” I answered; “I have a paper with the American Eagle on it, +and that will carry me around the world.” + +With this I drew from my deep sailor’s pocket my seaman’s protection, +as before described. The merest glance at the paper satisfied him, and +he took my fare and went on about his business. This moment of time was +one of the most anxious I ever experienced. Had the conductor looked +closely at the paper, he could not have failed to discover that it +called for a very different-looking person from myself, and in that +case it would have been his duty to arrest me on the instant, and send +me back to Baltimore from the first station. When he left me with the +assurance that I was all right, though much relieved, I realized that I +was still in great danger: I was still in Maryland, and subject to +arrest at any moment. I saw on the train several persons who would have +known me in any other clothes, and I feared they might recognize me, +even in my sailor “rig,” and report me to the conductor, who would then +subject me to a closer examination, which I knew well would be fatal to +me. + +Though I was not a murderer fleeing from justice, I felt perhaps quite +as miserable as such a criminal. The train was moving at a very high +rate of speed for that epoch of railroad travel, but to my anxious mind +it was moving far too slowly. Minutes were hours, and hours were days +during this part of my flight. After Maryland, I was to pass through +Delaware—another slave State, where slave-catchers generally awaited +their prey, for it was not in the interior of the State, but on its +borders, that these human hounds were most vigilant and active. The +border lines between slavery and freedom were the dangerous ones for +the fugitives. The heart of no fox or deer, with hungry hounds on his +trail in full chase, could have beaten more anxiously or noisily than +did mine from the time I left Baltimore till I reached Philadelphia. +The passage of the Susquehanna River at Havre de Grace was at that time +made by ferry-boat, on board of which I met a young colored man by the +name of Nichols, who came very near betraying me. He was a “hand” on +the boat, but, instead of minding his business, he insisted upon +knowing me, and asking me dangerous questions as to where I was going, +when I was coming back, etc. I got away from my old and inconvenient +acquaintance as soon as I could decently do so, and went to another +part of the boat. Once across the river, I encountered a new danger. +Only a few days before, I had been at work on a revenue cutter, in Mr. +Price’s ship-yard in Baltimore, under the care of Captain McGowan. On +the meeting at this point of the two trains, the one going south +stopped on the track just opposite to the one going north, and it so +happened that this Captain McGowan sat at a window where he could see +me very distinctly, and would certainly have recognized me had he +looked at me but for a second. Fortunately, in the hurry of the moment, +he did not see me; and the trains soon passed each other on their +respective ways. But this was not my only hair-breadth escape. A German +blacksmith whom I knew well was on the train with me, and looked at me +very intently, as if he thought he had seen me somewhere before in his +travels. I really believe he knew me, but had no heart to betray me. At +any rate, he saw me escaping and held his peace. + +The last point of imminent danger, and the one I dreaded most, was +Wilmington. Here we left the train and took the steam-boat for +Philadelphia. In making the change here I again apprehended arrest, but +no one disturbed me, and I was soon on the broad and beautiful +Delaware, speeding away to the Quaker City. On reaching Philadelphia in +the afternoon, I inquired of a colored man how I could get on to New +York. He directed me to the William-street depot, and thither I went, +taking the train that night. I reached New York Tuesday morning, having +completed the journey in less than twenty-four hours. + +My free life began on the third of September, 1838. On the morning of +the fourth of that month, after an anxious and most perilous but safe +journey, I found myself in the big city of New York, a _free man_—one +more added to the mighty throng which, like the confused waves of the +troubled sea, surged to and fro between the lofty walls of Broadway. +Though dazzled with the wonders which met me on every hand, my thoughts +could not be much withdrawn from my strange situation. For the moment, +the dreams of my youth and the hopes of my manhood were completely +fulfilled. The bonds that had held me to “old master” were broken. No +man now had a right to call me his slave or assert mastery over me. I +was in the rough and tumble of an outdoor world, to take my chance with +the rest of its busy number. I have often been asked how I felt when +first I found myself on free soil. There is scarcely anything in my +experience about which I could not give a more satisfactory answer. A +new world had opened upon me. If life is more than breath and the +“quick round of blood,” I lived more in that one day than in a year of +my slave life. It was a time of joyous excitement which words can but +tamely describe. In a letter written to a friend soon after reaching +New York, I said: “I felt as one might feel upon escape from a den of +hungry lions.” Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be +depicted; but gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen +or pencil. During ten or fifteen years I had been, as it were, dragging +a heavy chain which no strength of mine could break; I was not only a +slave, but a slave for life. I might become a husband, a father, an +aged man, but through all, from birth to death, from the cradle to the +grave, I had felt myself doomed. All efforts I had previously made to +secure my freedom had not only failed, but had seemed only to rivet my +fetters the more firmly, and to render my escape more difficult. +Baffled, entangled, and discouraged, I had at times asked myself the +question, May not my condition after all be God’s work, and ordered for +a wise purpose, and if so, Is not submission my duty? A contest had in +fact been going on in my mind for a long time, between the clear +consciousness of right and the plausible make-shifts of theology and +superstition. The one held me an abject slave—a prisoner for life, +punished for some transgression in which I had no lot nor part; and the +other counseled me to manly endeavor to secure my freedom. This contest +was now ended; my chains were broken, and the victory brought me +unspeakable joy. + +But my gladness was short-lived, for I was not yet out of the reach and +power of the slave-holders. I soon found that New York was not quite so +free or so safe a refuge as I had supposed, and a sense of loneliness +and insecurity again oppressed me most sadly. I chanced to meet on the +street, a few hours after my landing, a fugitive slave whom I had once +known well in slavery. The information received from him alarmed me. +The fugitive in question was known in Baltimore as “Allender’s Jake,” +but in New York he wore the more respectable name of “William Dixon.” +Jake, in law, was the property of Doctor Allender, and Tolly Allender, +the son of the doctor, had once made an effort to recapture _Mr. +Dixon_, but had failed for want of evidence to support his claim. Jake +told me the circumstances of this attempt, and how narrowly he escaped +being sent back to slavery and torture. He told me that New York was +then full of Southerners returning from the Northern watering-places; +that the colored people of New York were not to be trusted; that there +were hired men of my own color who would betray me for a few dollars; +that there were hired men ever on the lookout for fugitives; that I +must trust no man with my secret; that I must not think of going either +upon the wharves or into any colored boarding-house, for all such +places were closely watched; that he was himself unable to help me; +and, in fact, he seemed while speaking to me to fear lest I myself +might be a spy and a betrayer. Under this apprehension, as I suppose, +he showed signs of wishing to be rid of me, and with whitewash brush in +hand, in search of work, he soon disappeared. + +This picture, given by poor “Jake,” of New York, was a damper to my +enthusiasm. My little store of money would soon be exhausted, and since +it would be unsafe for me to go on the wharves for work, and I had no +introductions elsewhere, the prospect for me was far from cheerful. I +saw the wisdom of keeping away from the ship-yards, for, if pursued, as +I felt certain I should be, Mr. Auld, my “master,” would naturally seek +me there among the calkers. Every door seemed closed against me. I was +in the midst of an ocean of my fellow-men, and yet a perfect stranger +to every one. I was without home, without acquaintance, without money, +without credit, without work, and without any definite knowledge as to +what course to take, or where to look for succor. In such an extremity, +a man had something besides his new-born freedom to think of. While +wandering about the streets of New York, and lodging at least one night +among the barrels on one of the wharves, I was indeed free—from +slavery, but free from food and shelter as well. I kept my secret to +myself as long as I could, but I was compelled at last to seek some one +who would befriend me without taking advantage of my destitution to +betray me. Such a person I found in a sailor named Stuart, a +warm-hearted and generous fellow, who, from his humble home on Centre +street, saw me standing on the opposite sidewalk, near the Tombs +prison. As he approached me, I ventured a remark to him which at once +enlisted his interest in me. He took me to his home to spend the night, +and in the morning went with me to Mr. David Ruggles, the secretary of +the New York Vigilance Committee, a co-worker with Isaac T. Hopper, +Lewis and Arthur Tappan, Theodore S. Wright, Samuel Cornish, Thomas +Downing, Philip A. Bell, and other true men of their time. All these +(save Mr. Bell, who still lives, and is editor and publisher of a paper +called the “Elevator,” in San Francisco) have finished their work on +earth. Once in the hands of these brave and wise men, I felt +comparatively safe. With Mr. Ruggles, on the corner of Lispenard and +Church streets, I was hidden several days, during which time my +intended wife came on from Baltimore at my call, to share the burdens +of life with me. She was a free woman, and came at once on getting the +good news of my safety. We were married by Rev. J. W. C. Pennington, +then a well-known and respected Presbyterian minister. I had no money +with which to pay the marriage fee, but he seemed well pleased with our +thanks. + +Mr. Ruggles was the first officer on the “Underground Railroad” whom I +met after coming North, and was, indeed, the only one with whom I had +anything to do till I became such an officer myself. Learning that my +trade was that of a calker, he promptly decided that the best place for +me was in New Bedford, Mass. He told me that many ships for whaling +voyages were fitted out there, and that I might there find work at my +trade and make a good living. So, on the day of the marriage ceremony, +we took our little luggage to the steamer _John W. Richmond_, which, at +that time, was one of the line running between New York and Newport, R. +I. Forty-three years ago colored travelers were not permitted in the +cabin, nor allowed abaft the paddle-wheels of a steam vessel. They were +compelled, whatever the weather might be,—whether cold or hot, wet or +dry,—to spend the night on deck. Unjust as this regulation was, it did +not trouble us much; we had fared much harder before. We arrived at +Newport the next morning, and soon after an old fashioned stage-coach, +with “New Bedford” in large yellow letters on its sides, came down to +the wharf. I had not money enough to pay our fare, and stood hesitating +what to do. Fortunately for us, there were two Quaker gentlemen who +were about to take passage on the stage,—Friends William C. Taber and +Joseph Ricketson,—who at once discerned our true situation, and, in a +peculiarly quiet way, addressing me, Mr. Taber said: “Thee get in.” I +never obeyed an order with more alacrity, and we were soon on our way +to our new home. When we reached “Stone Bridge” the passengers alighted +for breakfast, and paid their fares to the driver. We took no +breakfast, and, when asked for our fares, I told the driver I would +make it right with him when we reached New Bedford. I expected some +objection to this on his part, but he made none. When, however, we +reached New Bedford, he took our baggage, including three +music-books,—two of them collections by Dyer, and one by Shaw,—and held +them until I was able to redeem them by paying to him the amount due +for our rides. This was soon done, for Mr. Nathan Johnson not only +received me kindly and hospitably, but, on being informed about our +baggage, at once loaned me the two dollars with which to square +accounts with the stage-driver. Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Johnson reached a +good old age, and now rest from their labors. I am under many grateful +obligations to them. They not only “took me in when a stranger” and +“fed me when hungry,” but taught me how to make an honest living. Thus, +in a fortnight after my flight from Maryland, I was safe in New +Bedford, a citizen of the grand old commonwealth of Massachusetts. + +Once initiated into my new life of freedom and assured by Mr. Johnson +that I need not fear recapture in that city, a comparatively +unimportant question arose as to the name by which I should be known +thereafter in my new relation as a free man. The name given me by my +dear mother was no less pretentious and long than Frederick Augustus +Washington Bailey. I had, however, while living in Maryland, dispensed +with the Augustus Washington, and retained only Frederick Bailey. +Between Baltimore and New Bedford, the better to conceal myself from +the slave-hunters, I had parted with Bailey and called myself Johnson; +but in New Bedford I found that the Johnson family was already so +numerous as to cause some confusion in distinguishing them, hence a +change in this name seemed desirable. Nathan Johnson, mine host, placed +great emphasis upon this necessity, and wished me to allow him to +select a name for me. I consented, and he called me by my present +name—the one by which I have been known for three and forty +years—Frederick Douglass. Mr. Johnson had just been reading the “Lady +of the Lake,” and so pleased was he with its great character that he +wished me to bear his name. Since reading that charming poem myself, I +have often thought that, considering the noble hospitality and manly +character of Nathan Johnson—black man though he was—he, far more than +I, illustrated the virtues of the Douglas of Scotland. Sure am I that, +if any slave-catcher had entered his domicile with a view to my +recapture, Johnson would have shown himself like him of the “stalwart +hand.” + +The reader may be surprised at the impressions I had in some way +conceived of the social and material condition of the people at the +North. I had no proper idea of the wealth, refinement, enterprise, and +high civilization of this section of the country. My “Columbian +Orator,” almost my only book, had done nothing to enlighten me +concerning Northern society. I had been taught that slavery was the +bottom fact of all wealth. With this foundation idea, I came naturally +to the conclusion that poverty must be the general condition of the +people of the free States. In the country from which I came, a white +man holding no slaves was usually an ignorant and poverty-stricken man, +and men of this class were contemptuously called “poor white trash.” +Hence I supposed that, since the non-slave-holders at the South were +ignorant, poor, and degraded as a class, the non-slave-holders at the +North must be in a similar condition. I could have landed in no part of +the United States where I should have found a more striking and +gratifying contrast, not only to life generally in the South, but in +the condition of the colored people there, than in New Bedford. I was +amazed when Mr. Johnson told me that there was nothing in the laws or +constitution of Massachusetts that would prevent a colored man from +being governor of the State, if the people should see fit to elect him. +There, too, the black man’s children attended the public schools with +the white man’s children, and apparently without objection from any +quarter. To impress me with my security from recapture and return to +slavery, Mr. Johnson assured me that no slave-holder could take a slave +out of New Bedford; that there were men there who would lay down their +lives to save me from such a fate. + +The fifth day after my arrival, I put on the clothes of a common +laborer, and went upon the wharves in search of work. On my way down +Union street I saw a large pile of coal in front of the house of Rev. +Ephraim Peabody, the Unitarian minister. I went to the kitchen door and +asked the privilege of bringing in and putting away this coal. “What +will you charge?” said the lady. “I will leave that to you, madam.” +“You may put it away,” she said. I was not long in accomplishing the +job, when the dear lady put into my hand _two silver half-dollars_. To +understand the emotion which swelled my heart as I clasped this money, +realizing that I had no master who could take it from me,—_that it was +mine—that my hands were my own_, and could earn more of the precious +coin,—one must have been in some sense himself a slave. My next job was +stowing a sloop at Uncle Gid. Howland’s wharf with a cargo of oil for +New York. I was not only a freeman, but a free working-man, and no +“master” stood ready at the end of the week to seize my hard earnings. + +The season was growing late and work was plenty. Ships were being +fitted out for whaling, and much wood was used in storing them. The +sawing this wood was considered a good job. With the help of old Friend +Johnson (blessings on his memory) I got a saw and “buck,” and went at +it. When I went into a store to buy a cord with which to brace up my +saw in the frame, I asked for a “fip’s” worth of cord. The man behind +the counter looked rather sharply at me, and said with equal sharpness, +“You don’t belong about here.” I was alarmed, and thought I had +betrayed myself. A fip in Maryland was six and a quarter cents, called +fourpence in Massachusetts. But no harm came from the “fi’penny-bit” +blunder, and I confidently and cheerfully went to work with my saw and +buck. It was new business to me, but I never did better work, or more +of it, in the same space of time on the plantation for Covey, the +negro-breaker, than I did for myself in these earliest years of my +freedom. + +Notwithstanding the just and humane sentiment of New Bedford three and +forty years ago, the place was not entirely free from race and color +prejudice. The good influence of the Roaches, Rodmans, Arnolds, +Grinnells, and Robesons did not pervade all classes of its people. The +test of the real civilization of the community came when I applied for +work at my trade, and then my repulse was emphatic and decisive. It so +happened that Mr. Rodney French, a wealthy and enterprising citizen, +distinguished as an anti-slavery man, was fitting out a vessel for a +whaling voyage, upon which there was a heavy job of calking and +coppering to be done. I had some skill in both branches, and applied to +Mr. French for work. He, generous man that he was, told me he would +employ me, and I might go at once to the vessel. I obeyed him, but upon +reaching the float-stage, where others [sic] calkers were at work, I +was told that every white man would leave the ship, in her unfinished +condition, if I struck a blow at my trade upon her. This uncivil, +inhuman, and selfish treatment was not so shocking and scandalous in my +eyes at the time as it now appears to me. Slavery had inured me to +hardships that made ordinary trouble sit lightly upon me. Could I have +worked at my trade I could have earned two dollars a day, but as a +common laborer I received but one dollar. The difference was of great +importance to me, but if I could not get two dollars, I was glad to get +one; and so I went to work for Mr. French as a common laborer. The +consciousness that I was free—no longer a slave—kept me cheerful under +this, and many similar proscriptions, which I was destined to meet in +New Bedford and elsewhere on the free soil of Massachusetts. For +instance, though colored children attended the schools, and were +treated kindly by their teachers, the New Bedford Lyceum refused, till +several years after my residence in that city, to allow any colored +person to attend the lectures delivered in its hall. Not until such men +as Charles Sumner, Theodore Parker, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Horace +Mann refused to lecture in their course while there was such a +restriction, was it abandoned. + +Becoming satisfied that I could not rely on my trade in New Bedford to +give me a living, I prepared myself to do any kind of work that came to +hand. I sawed wood, shoveled coal, dug cellars, moved rubbish from back +yards, worked on the wharves, loaded and unloaded vessels, and scoured +their cabins. + +I afterward got steady work at the brass-foundry owned by Mr. Richmond. +My duty here was to blow the bellows, swing the crane, and empty the +flasks in which castings were made; and at times this was hot and heavy +work. The articles produced here were mostly for ship work, and in the +busy season the foundry was in operation night and day. I have often +worked two nights and every working day of the week. My foreman, Mr. +Cobb, was a good man, and more than once protected me from abuse that +one or more of the hands was disposed to throw upon me. While in this +situation I had little time for mental improvement. Hard work, night +and day, over a furnace hot enough to keep the metal running like +water, was more favorable to action than thought; yet here I often +nailed a newspaper to the post near my bellows, and read while I was +performing the up and down motion of the heavy beam by which the +bellows was inflated and discharged. It was the pursuit of knowledge +under difficulties, and I look back to it now, after so many years, +with some complacency and a little wonder that I could have been so +earnest and persevering in any pursuit other than for my daily bread. I +certainly saw nothing in the conduct of those around to inspire me with +such interest: they were all devoted exclusively to what their hands +found to do. I am glad to be able to say that, during my engagement in +this foundry, no complaint was ever made against me that I did not do +my work, and do it well. The bellows which I worked by main strength +was, after I left, moved by a steam-engine. + + + + +Douglass, Frederick. “Reconstruction.” +Atlantic Monthly 18 (1866): 761-765. + +Reconstruction + + +The assembling of the Second Session of the Thirty-ninth Congress may +very properly be made the occasion of a few earnest words on the +already much-worn topic of reconstruction. + +Seldom has any legislative body been the subject of a solicitude more +intense, or of aspirations more sincere and ardent. There are the best +of reasons for this profound interest. Questions of vast moment, left +undecided by the last session of Congress, must be manfully grappled +with by this. No political skirmishing will avail. The occasion demands +statesmanship. + +Whether the tremendous war so heroically fought and so victoriously +ended shall pass into history a miserable failure, barren of permanent +results,—a scandalous and shocking waste of blood and treasure,—a +strife for empire, as Earl Russell characterized it, of no value to +liberty or civilization,—an attempt to re-establish a Union by force, +which must be the merest mockery of a Union,—an effort to bring under +Federal authority States into which no loyal man from the North may +safely enter, and to bring men into the national councils who +deliberate with daggers and vote with revolvers, and who do not even +conceal their deadly hate of the country that conquered them; or +whether, on the other hand, we shall, as the rightful reward of victory +over treason, have a solid nation, entirely delivered from all +contradictions and social antagonisms, based upon loyalty, liberty, and +equality, must be determined one way or the other by the present +session of Congress. The last session really did nothing which can be +considered final as to these questions. The Civil Rights Bill and the +Freedmen’s Bureau Bill and the proposed constitutional amendments, with +the amendment already adopted and recognized as the law of the land, do +not reach the difficulty, and cannot, unless the whole structure of the +government is changed from a government by States to something like a +despotic central government, with power to control even the municipal +regulations of States, and to make them conform to its own despotic +will. While there remains such an idea as the right of each State to +control its own local affairs,—an idea, by the way, more deeply rooted +in the minds of men of all sections of the country than perhaps any one +other political idea,—no general assertion of human rights can be of +any practical value. To change the character of the government at this +point is neither possible nor desirable. All that is necessary to be +done is to make the government consistent with itself, and render the +rights of the States compatible with the sacred rights of human nature. + +The arm of the Federal government is long, but it is far too short to +protect the rights of individuals in the interior of distant States. +They must have the power to protect themselves, or they will go +unprotected, spite of all the laws the Federal government can put upon +the national statute-book. + +Slavery, like all other great systems of wrong, founded in the depths +of human selfishness, and existing for ages, has not neglected its own +conservation. It has steadily exerted an influence upon all around it +favorable to its own continuance. And to-day it is so strong that it +could exist, not only without law, but even against law. Custom, +manners, morals, religion, are all on its side everywhere in the South; +and when you add the ignorance and servility of the ex-slave to the +intelligence and accustomed authority of the master, you have the +conditions, not out of which slavery will again grow, but under which +it is impossible for the Federal government to wholly destroy it, +unless the Federal government be armed with despotic power, to blot out +State authority, and to station a Federal officer at every cross-road. +This, of course, cannot be done, and ought not even if it could. The +true way and the easiest way is to make our government entirely +consistent with itself, and give to every loyal citizen the elective +franchise,—a right and power which will be ever present, and will form +a wall of fire for his protection. + +One of the invaluable compensations of the late Rebellion is the highly +instructive disclosure it made of the true source of danger to +republican government. Whatever may be tolerated in monarchical and +despotic governments, no republic is safe that tolerates a privileged +class, or denies to any of its citizens equal rights and equal means to +maintain them. What was theory before the war has been made fact by the +war. + +There is cause to be thankful even for rebellion. It is an impressive +teacher, though a stern and terrible one. In both characters it has +come to us, and it was perhaps needed in both. It is an instructor +never a day before its time, for it comes only when all other means of +progress and enlightenment have failed. Whether the oppressed and +despairing bondman, no longer able to repress his deep yearnings for +manhood, or the tyrant, in his pride and impatience, takes the +initiative, and strikes the blow for a firmer hold and a longer lease +of oppression, the result is the same,—society is instructed, or may +be. + +Such are the limitations of the common mind, and so thoroughly +engrossing are the cares of common life, that only the few among men +can discern through the glitter and dazzle of present prosperity the +dark outlines of approaching disasters, even though they may have come +up to our very gates, and are already within striking distance. The +yawning seam and corroded bolt conceal their defects from the mariner +until the storm calls all hands to the pumps. Prophets, indeed, were +abundant before the war; but who cares for prophets while their +predictions remain unfulfilled, and the calamities of which they tell +are masked behind a blinding blaze of national prosperity? + +It is asked, said Henry Clay, on a memorable occasion, Will slavery +never come to an end? That question, said he, was asked fifty years +ago, and it has been answered by fifty years of unprecedented +prosperity. Spite of the eloquence of the earnest Abolitionists,—poured +out against slavery during thirty years,—even they must confess, that, +in all the probabilities of the case, that system of barbarism would +have continued its horrors far beyond the limits of the nineteenth +century but for the Rebellion, and perhaps only have disappeared at +last in a fiery conflict, even more fierce and bloody than that which +has now been suppressed. + +It is no disparagement to truth, that it can only prevail where reason +prevails. War begins where reason ends. The thing worse than rebellion +is the thing that causes rebellion. What that thing is, we have been +taught to our cost. It remains now to be seen whether we have the +needed courage to have that cause entirely removed from the Republic. +At any rate, to this grand work of national regeneration and entire +purification Congress must now address Itself, with full purpose that +the work shall this time be thoroughly done. The deadly upas, root and +branch, leaf and fibre, body and sap, must be utterly destroyed. The +country is evidently not in a condition to listen patiently to pleas +for postponement, however plausible, nor will it permit the +responsibility to be shifted to other shoulders. Authority and power +are here commensurate with the duty imposed. There are no cloud-flung +shadows to obscure the way. Truth shines with brighter light and +intenser heat at every moment, and a country torn and rent and bleeding +implores relief from its distress and agony. + +If time was at first needed, Congress has now had time. All the +requisite materials from which to form an intelligent judgment are now +before it. Whether its members look at the origin, the progress, the +termination of the war, or at the mockery of a peace now existing, they +will find only one unbroken chain of argument in favor of a radical +policy of reconstruction. For the omissions of the last session, some +excuses may be allowed. A treacherous President stood in the way; and +it can be easily seen how reluctant good men might be to admit an +apostasy which involved so much of baseness and ingratitude. It was +natural that they should seek to save him by bending to him even when +he leaned to the side of error. But all is changed now. Congress knows +now that it must go on without his aid, and even against his +machinations. The advantage of the present session over the last is +immense. Where that investigated, this has the facts. Where that walked +by faith, this may walk by sight. Where that halted, this must go +forward, and where that failed, this must succeed, giving the country +whole measures where that gave us half-measures, merely as a means of +saving the elections in a few doubtful districts. That Congress saw +what was right, but distrusted the enlightenment of the loyal masses; +but what was forborne in distrust of the people must now be done with a +full knowledge that the people expect and require it. The members go to +Washington fresh from the inspiring presence of the people. In every +considerable public meeting, and in almost every conceivable way, +whether at court-house, school-house, or cross-roads, in doors and out, +the subject has been discussed, and the people have emphatically +pronounced in favor of a radical policy. Listening to the doctrines of +expediency and compromise with pity, impatience, and disgust, they have +everywhere broken into demonstrations of the wildest enthusiasm when a +brave word has been spoken in favor of equal rights and impartial +suffrage. Radicalism, so far from being odious, is not the popular +passport to power. The men most bitterly charged with it go to Congress +with the largest majorities, while the timid and doubtful are sent by +lean majorities, or else left at home. The strange controversy between +the President and the Congress, at one time so threatening, is disposed +of by the people. The high reconstructive powers which he so +confidently, ostentatiously, and haughtily claimed, have been +disallowed, denounced, and utterly repudiated; while those claimed by +Congress have been confirmed. + +Of the spirit and magnitude of the canvass nothing need be said. The +appeal was to the people, and the verdict was worthy of the tribunal. +Upon an occasion of his own selection, with the advice and approval of +his astute Secretary, soon after the members of the Congress had +returned to their constituents, the President quitted the executive +mansion, sandwiched himself between two recognized heroes,—men whom the +whole country delighted to honor,—and, with all the advantage which +such company could give him, stumped the country from the Atlantic to +the Mississippi, advocating everywhere his policy as against that of +Congress. It was a strange sight, and perhaps the most disgraceful +exhibition ever made by any President; but, as no evil is entirely +unmixed, good has come of this, as from many others. Ambitious, +unscrupulous, energetic, indefatigable, voluble, and plausible,—a +political gladiator, ready for a “set-to” in any crowd,—he is beaten in +his own chosen field, and stands to-day before the country as a +convicted usurper, a political criminal, guilty of a bold and +persistent attempt to possess himself of the legislative powers +solemnly secured to Congress by the Constitution. No vindication could +be more complete, no condemnation could be more absolute and +humiliating. Unless reopened by the sword, as recklessly threatened in +some circles, this question is now closed for all time. + +Without attempting to settle here the metaphysical and somewhat +theological question (about which so much has already been said and +written), whether once in the Union means always in the +Union,—agreeably to the formula, Once in grace always in grace,—it is +obvious to common sense that the rebellious States stand to-day, in +point of law, precisely where they stood when, exhausted, beaten, +conquered, they fell powerless at the feet of Federal authority. Their +State governments were overthrown, and the lives and property of the +leaders of the Rebellion were forfeited. In reconstructing the +institutions of these shattered and overthrown States, Congress should +begin with a clean slate, and make clean work of it. Let there be no +hesitation. It would be a cowardly deference to a defeated and +treacherous President, if any account were made of the illegitimate, +one-sided, sham governments hurried into existence for a malign purpose +in the absence of Congress. These pretended governments, which were +never submitted to the people, and from participation in which four +millions of the loyal people were excluded by Presidential order, +should now be treated according to their true character, as shams and +impositions, and supplanted by true and legitimate governments, in the +formation of which loyal men, black and white, shall participate. + +It is not, however, within the scope of this paper to point out the +precise steps to be taken, and the means to be employed. The people are +less concerned about these than the grand end to be attained. They +demand such a reconstruction as shall put an end to the present +anarchical state of things in the late rebellious States,—where +frightful murders and wholesale massacres are perpetrated in the very +presence of Federal soldiers. This horrible business they require shall +cease. They want a reconstruction such as will protect loyal men, black +and white, in their persons and property; such a one as will cause +Northern industry, Northern capital, and Northern civilization to flow +into the South, and make a man from New England as much at home in +Carolina as elsewhere in the Republic. No Chinese wall can now be +tolerated. The South must be opened to the light of law and liberty, +and this session of Congress is relied upon to accomplish this +important work. + +The plain, common-sense way of doing this work, as intimated at the +beginning, is simply to establish in the South one law, one government, +one administration of justice, one condition to the exercise of the +elective franchise, for men of all races and colors alike. This great +measure is sought as earnestly by loyal white men as by loyal blacks, +and is needed alike by both. Let sound political prescience but take +the place of an unreasoning prejudice, and this will be done. + +Men denounce the negro for his prominence in this discussion; but it is +no fault of his that in peace as in war, that in conquering Rebel +armies as in reconstructing the rebellious States, the right of the +negro is the true solution of our national troubles. The stern logic of +events, which goes directly to the point, disdaining all concern for +the color or features of men, has determined the interests of the +country as identical with and inseparable from those of the negro. + +The policy that emancipated and armed the negro—now seen to have been +wise and proper by the dullest—was not certainly more sternly demanded +than is now the policy of enfranchisement. If with the negro was +success in war, and without him failure, so in peace it will be found +that the nation must fall or flourish with the negro. + +Fortunately, the Constitution of the United States knows no distinction +between citizens on account of color. Neither does it know any +difference between a citizen of a State and a citizen of the United +States. Citizenship evidently includes all the rights of citizens, +whether State or national. If the Constitution knows none, it is +clearly no part of the duty of a Republican Congress now to institute +one. The mistake of the last session was the attempt to do this very +thing, by a renunciation of its power to secure political rights to any +class of citizens, with the obvious purpose to allow the rebellious +States to disfranchise, if they should see fit, their colored citizens. +This unfortunate blunder must now be retrieved, and the emasculated +citizenship given to the negro supplanted by that contemplated in the +Constitution of the United States, which declares that the citizens of +each State shall enjoy all the rights and immunities of citizens of the +several States,—so that a legal voter in any State shall be a legal +voter in all the States. + + + +These are the things of which men think, who live: of their own selves +and the dwelling place of their fathers; of their neighbors; of work and +service; of rule and reason and women and children; of Beauty and Death +and War. To this thinking I have only to add a point of view: I have +been in the world, but not of it. I have seen the human drama from a +veiled corner, where all the outer tragedy and comedy have reproduced +themselves in microcosm within. From this inner torment of souls the +human scene without has interpreted itself to me in unusual and even +illuminating ways. For this reason, and this alone, I venture to write +again on themes on which great souls have already said greater words, in +the hope that I may strike here and there a half-tone, newer even if +slighter, up from the heart of my problem and the problems of my people. + +Between the sterner flights of logic, I have sought to set some little +alightings of what may be poetry. They are tributes to Beauty, unworthy +to stand alone; yet perversely, in my mind, now at the end, I know not +whether I mean the Thought for the Fancy--or the Fancy for the Thought, +or why the book trails off to playing, rather than standing strong on +unanswering fact. But this is alway--is it not?--the Riddle of Life. + +Many of my words appear here transformed from other publications and I +thank the _Atlantic_, the _Independent_, the _Crisis_, and the _Journal +of Race Development_ for letting me use them again. + +W.E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS. +New York, 1919. + + + + +Contents + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + POSTSCRIPT ix + _Credo_ 1 + +I. THE SHADOW OF YEARS 3 + _A Litany at Atlanta_ 14 + +II. THE SOULS OF WHITE FOLK 17 + _The Riddle of the Sphinx_ 30 + +III. THE HANDS OF ETHIOPIA 32 + _The Princess of the Hither Isles_ 43 + +IV. OF WORK AND WEALTH 47 + _The Second Coming_ 60 + +V. "THE SERVANT IN THE HOUSE" 63 + _Jesus Christ in Texas_ 70 + +VI. OF THE RULING OF MEN 78 + _The Call_ 93 + +VII. THE DAMNATION OF WOMEN 95 + _Children of the Moon_ 109 + +VIII. THE IMMORTAL CHILD 114 + _Almighty Death_ 128 + +IX. OF BEAUTY AND DEATH 130 + _The Prayers of God_ 145 + +X. THE COMET 149 + _A Hymn to the Peoples_ 161 + + + + + + + + +_Credo_ + + +I believe in God, who made of one blood all nations that on earth do +dwell. I believe that all men, black and brown and white, are brothers, +varying through time and opportunity, in form and gift and feature, but +differing in no essential particular, and alike in soul and the +possibility of infinite development. + +Especially do I believe in the Negro Race: in the beauty of its genius, +the sweetness of its soul, and its strength in that meekness which shall +yet inherit this turbulent earth. + +I believe in Pride of race and lineage and self: in pride of self so +deep as to scorn injustice to other selves; in pride of lineage so great +as to despise no man's father; in pride of race so chivalrous as neither +to offer bastardy to the weak nor beg wedlock of the strong, knowing +that men may be brothers in Christ, even though they be not +brothers-in-law. + +I believe in Service--humble, reverent service, from the blackening of +boots to the whitening of souls; for Work is Heaven, Idleness Hell, and +Wage is the "Well done!" of the Master, who summoned all them that labor +and are heavy laden, making no distinction between the black, sweating +cotton hands of Georgia and the first families of Virginia, since all +distinction not based on deed is devilish and not divine. + +I believe in the Devil and his angels, who wantonly work to narrow the +opportunity of struggling human beings, especially if they be black; who +spit in the faces of the fallen, strike them that cannot strike again, +believe the worst and work to prove it, hating the image which their +Maker stamped on a brother's soul. + +I believe in the Prince of Peace. I believe that War is Murder. I +believe that armies and navies are at bottom the tinsel and braggadocio +of oppression and wrong, and I believe that the wicked conquest of +weaker and darker nations by nations whiter and stronger but foreshadows +the death of that strength. + +I believe in Liberty for all men: the space to stretch their arms and +their souls, the right to breathe and the right to vote, the freedom to +choose their friends, enjoy the sunshine, and ride on the railroads, +uncursed by color; thinking, dreaming, working as they will in a kingdom +of beauty and love. + +I believe in the Training of Children, black even as white; the leading +out of little souls into the green pastures and beside the still waters, +not for pelf or peace, but for life lit by some large vision of beauty +and goodness and truth; lest we forget, and the sons of the fathers, +like Esau, for mere meat barter their birthright in a mighty nation. + +Finally, I believe in Patience--patience with the weakness of the Weak +and the strength of the Strong, the prejudice of the Ignorant and the +ignorance of the Blind; patience with the tardy triumph of Joy and the +mad chastening of Sorrow. + + + + +I + +THE SHADOW OF YEARS + + +I was born by a golden river and in the shadow of two great hills, five +years after the Emancipation Proclamation. The house was quaint, with +clapboards running up and down, neatly trimmed, and there were five +rooms, a tiny porch, a rosy front yard, and unbelievably delicious +strawberries in the rear. A South Carolinian, lately come to the +Berkshire Hills, owned all this--tall, thin, and black, with golden +earrings, and given to religious trances. We were his transient tenants +for the time. + +My own people were part of a great clan. Fully two hundred years before, +Tom Burghardt had come through the western pass from the Hudson with his +Dutch captor, "Coenraet Burghardt," sullen in his slavery and achieving +his freedom by volunteering for the Revolution at a time of sudden +alarm. His wife was a little, black, Bantu woman, who never became +reconciled to this strange land; she clasped her knees and rocked and +crooned: + + "Do bana coba--gene me, gene me! + Ben d'nuli, ben d'le--" + +Tom died about 1787, but of him came many sons, and one, Jack, who +helped in the War of 1812. Of Jack and his wife, Violet, was born a +mighty family, splendidly named: Harlow and Ira, Cloe, Lucinda, Maria, +and Othello! I dimly remember my grandfather, Othello,--or "Uncle +Tallow,"--a brown man, strong-voiced and redolent with tobacco, who sat +stiffly in a great high chair because his hip was broken. He was +probably a bit lazy and given to wassail. At any rate, grandmother had a +shrewish tongue and often berated him. This grandmother was Sarah--"Aunt +Sally"--a stern, tall, Dutch-African woman, beak-nosed, but +beautiful-eyed and golden-skinned. Ten or more children were theirs, of +whom the youngest was Mary, my mother. + +Mother was dark shining bronze, with a tiny ripple in her black hair, +black-eyed, with a heavy, kind face. She gave one the impression of +infinite patience, but a curious determination was concealed in her +softness. The family were small farmers on Egremont Plain, between Great +Barrington and Sheffield, Massachusetts. The bits of land were too small +to support the great families born on them and we were always poor. I +never remember being cold or hungry, but I do remember that shoes and +coal, and sometimes flour, caused mother moments of anxious thought in +winter, and a new suit was an event! + +At about the time of my birth economic pressure was transmuting the +family generally from farmers to "hired" help. Some revolted and +migrated westward, others went cityward as cooks and barbers. Mother +worked for some years at house service in Great Barrington, and after a +disappointed love episode with a cousin, who went to California, she met +and married Alfred Du Bois and went to town to live by the golden river +where I was born. + +Alfred, my father, must have seemed a splendid vision in that little +valley under the shelter of those mighty hills. He was small and +beautiful of face and feature, just tinted with the sun, his curly hair +chiefly revealing his kinship to Africa. In nature he was a +dreamer,--romantic, indolent, kind, unreliable. He had in him the making +of a poet, an adventurer, or a Beloved Vagabond, according to the life +that closed round him; and that life gave him all too little. His +father, Alexander Du Bois, cloaked under a stern, austere demeanor a +passionate revolt against the world. He, too, was small, but squarish. I +remember him as I saw him first, in his home in New Bedford,--white hair +close-cropped; a seamed, hard face, but high in tone, with a gray eye +that could twinkle or glare. + +Long years before him Louis XIV drove two Huguenots, Jacques and Louis +Du Bois, into wild Ulster County, New York. One of them in the third or +fourth generation had a descendant, Dr. James Du Bois, a gay, rich +bachelor, who made his money in the Bahamas, where he and the Gilberts +had plantations. There he took a beautiful little mulatto slave as his +mistress, and two sons were born: Alexander in 1803 and John, later. +They were fine, straight, clear-eyed boys, white enough to "pass." He +brought them to America and put Alexander in the celebrated Cheshire +School, in Connecticut. Here he often visited him, but one last time, +fell dead. He left no will, and his relations made short shrift of these +sons. They gathered in the property, apprenticed grandfather to a +shoemaker; then dropped him. + +Grandfather took his bitter dose like a thoroughbred. Wild as was his +inner revolt against this treatment, he uttered no word against the +thieves and made no plea. He tried his fortunes here and in Haiti, +where, during his short, restless sojourn, my own father was born. +Eventually, grandfather became chief steward on the passenger boat +between New York and New Haven; later he was a small merchant in +Springfield; and finally he retired and ended his days at New Bedford. +Always he held his head high, took no insults, made few friends. He was +not a "Negro"; he was a man! Yet the current was too strong even for +him. Then even more than now a colored man had colored friends or none +at all, lived in a colored world or lived alone. A few fine, strong, +black men gained the heart of this silent, bitter man in New York and +New Haven. If he had scant sympathy with their social clannishness, he +was with them in fighting discrimination. So, when the white +Episcopalians of Trinity Parish, New Haven, showed plainly that they no +longer wanted black Folks as fellow Christians, he led the revolt which +resulted in St. Luke's Parish, and was for years its senior warden. He +lies dead in the Grove Street Cemetery, beside Jehudi Ashmun. + +Beneath his sternness was a very human man. Slyly he wrote +poetry,--stilted, pleading things from a soul astray. He loved women in +his masterful way, marrying three beautiful wives in succession and +clinging to each with a certain desperate, even if unsympathetic, +affection. As a father he was, naturally, a failure,--hard, domineering, +unyielding. His four children reacted characteristically: one was until +past middle life a thin spinster, the mental image of her father; one +died; one passed over into the white world and her children's children +are now white, with no knowledge of their Negro blood; the fourth, my +father, bent before grandfather, but did not break--better if he had. He +yielded and flared back, asked forgiveness and forgot why, became the +harshly-held favorite, who ran away and rioted and roamed and loved and +married my brown mother. + +So with some circumstance having finally gotten myself born, with a +flood of Negro blood, a strain of French, a bit of Dutch, but, thank +God! no "Anglo-Saxon," I come to the days of my childhood. + +They were very happy. Early we moved back to Grandfather Burghardt's +home,--I barely remember its stone fireplace, big kitchen, and +delightful woodshed. Then this house passed to other branches of the +clan and we moved to rented quarters in town,--to one delectable place +"upstairs," with a wide yard full of shrubbery, and a brook; to another +house abutting a railroad, with infinite interests and astonishing +playmates; and finally back to the quiet street on which I was +born,--down a long lane and in a homely, cozy cottage, with a +living-room, a tiny sitting-room, a pantry, and two attic bedrooms. Here +mother and I lived until she died, in 1884, for father early began his +restless wanderings. I last remember urgent letters for us to come to +New Milford, where he had started a barber shop. Later he became a +preacher. But mother no longer trusted his dreams, and he soon faded out +of our lives into silence. + +From the age of five until I was sixteen I went to a school on the same +grounds,--down a lane, into a widened yard, with a big choke-cherry tree +and two buildings, wood and brick. Here I got acquainted with my world, +and soon had my criterions of judgment. + +Wealth had no particular lure. On the other hand, the shadow of wealth +was about us. That river of my birth was golden because of the woolen +and paper waste that soiled it. The gold was theirs, not ours; but the +gleam and glint was for all. To me it was all in order and I took it +philosophically. I cordially despised the poor Irish and South Germans, +who slaved in the mills, and annexed the rich and well-to-do as my +natural companions. Of such is the kingdom of snobs! + +Most of our townfolk were, naturally, the well-to-do, shading downward, +but seldom reaching poverty. As playmate of the children I saw the homes +of nearly every one, except a few immigrant New Yorkers, of whom none of +us approved. The homes I saw impressed me, but did not overwhelm me. +Many were bigger than mine, with newer and shinier things, but they did +not seem to differ in kind. I think I probably surprised my hosts more +than they me, for I was easily at home and perfectly happy and they +looked to me just like ordinary people, while my brown face and frizzled +hair must have seemed strange to them. + +Yet I was very much one of them. I was a center and sometimes the leader +of the town gang of boys. We were noisy, but never very bad,--and, +indeed, my mother's quiet influence came in here, as I realize now. She +did not try to make me perfect. To her I was already perfect. She simply +warned me of a few things, especially saloons. In my town the saloon was +the open door to hell. The best families had their drunkards and the +worst had little else. + +Very gradually,--I cannot now distinguish the steps, though here and +there I remember a jump or a jolt--but very gradually I found myself +assuming quite placidly that I was different from other children. At +first I think I connected the difference with a manifest ability to get +my lessons rather better than most and to recite with a certain happy, +almost taunting, glibness, which brought frowns here and there. Then, +slowly, I realized that some folks, a few, even several, actually +considered my brown skin a misfortune; once or twice I became painfully +aware that some human beings even thought it a crime. I was not for a +moment daunted,--although, of course, there were some days of secret +tears--rather I was spurred to tireless effort. If they beat me at +anything, I was grimly determined to make them sweat for it! Once I +remember challenging a great, hard farmer-boy to battle, when I knew he +could whip me; and he did. But ever after, he was polite. + +As time flew I felt not so much disowned and rejected as rather drawn up +into higher spaces and made part of a mightier mission. At times I +almost pitied my pale companions, who were not of the Lord's anointed +and who saw in their dreams no splendid quests of golden fleeces. + +Even in the matter of girls my peculiar phantasy asserted itself. +Naturally, it was in our town voted bad form for boys of twelve and +fourteen to show any evident weakness for girls. We tolerated them +loftily, and now and then they played in our games, when I joined in +quite as naturally as the rest. It was when strangers came, or summer +boarders, or when the oldest girls grew up that my sharp senses noted +little hesitancies in public and searchings for possible public opinion. +Then I flamed! I lifted my chin and strode off to the mountains, where I +viewed the world at my feet and strained my eyes across the shadow of +the hills. + +I was graduated from high school at sixteen, and I talked of "Wendell +Phillips." This was my first sweet taste of the world's applause. There +were flowers and upturned faces, music and marching, and there was my +mother's smile. She was lame, then, and a bit drawn, but very happy. It +was her great day and that very year she lay down with a sigh of content +and has not yet awakened. I felt a certain gladness to see her, at last, +at peace, for she had worried all her life. Of my own loss I had then +little realization. That came only with the after-years. Now it was the +choking gladness and solemn feel of wings! At last, I was going beyond +the hills and into the world that beckoned steadily. + +There came a little pause,--a singular pause. I was given to understand +that I was almost too young for the world. Harvard was the goal of my +dreams, but my white friends hesitated and my colored friends were +silent. Harvard was a mighty conjure-word in that hill town, and even +the mill owners' sons had aimed lower. Finally it was tactfully +explained that the place for me was in the South among my people. A +scholarship had been already arranged at Fisk, and my summer earnings +would pay the fare. My relatives grumbled, but after a twinge I felt a +strange delight! I forgot, or did not thoroughly realize, the curious +irony by which I was not looked upon as a real citizen of my birth-town, +with a future and a career, and instead was being sent to a far land +among strangers who were regarded as (and in truth were) "mine own +people." + +Ah! the wonder of that journey, with its faint spice of adventure, as I +entered the land of slaves; the never-to-be-forgotten marvel of that +first supper at Fisk with the world "colored" and opposite two of the +most beautiful beings God ever revealed to the eyes of seventeen. I +promptly lost my appetite, but I was deliriously happy! + +As I peer back through the shadow of my years, seeing not too clearly, +but through the thickening veil of wish and after-thought, I seem to +view my life divided into four distinct parts: the Age of Miracles, the +Days of Disillusion, the Discipline of Work and Play, and the Second +Miracle Age. + +The Age of Miracles began with Fisk and ended with Germany. I was +bursting with the joy of living. I seemed to ride in conquering might. I +was captain of my soul and master of fate! I _willed_ to do! It was +done. I _wished!_ The wish came true. + +Now and then out of the void flashed the great sword of hate to remind +me of the battle. I remember once, in Nashville, brushing by accident +against a white woman on the street. Politely and eagerly I raised my +hat to apologize. That was thirty-five years ago. From that day to this +I have never knowingly raised my hat to a Southern white woman. + +I suspect that beneath all of my seeming triumphs there were many +failures and disappointments, but the realities loomed so large that +they swept away even the memory of other dreams and wishes. Consider, +for a moment, how miraculous it all was to a boy of seventeen, just +escaped from a narrow valley: I willed and lo! my people came dancing +about me,--riotous in color, gay in laughter, full of sympathy, need, +and pleading; darkly delicious girls--"colored" girls--sat beside me and +actually talked to me while I gazed in tongue-tied silence or babbled in +boastful dreams. Boys with my own experiences and out of my own world, +who knew and understood, wrought out with me great remedies. I studied +eagerly under teachers who bent in subtle sympathy, feeling themselves +some shadow of the Veil and lifting it gently that we darker souls might +peer through to other worlds. + +I willed and lo! I was walking beneath the elms of Harvard,--the name of +allurement, the college of my youngest, wildest visions! I needed money; +scholarships and prizes fell into my lap,--not all I wanted or strove +for, but all I needed to keep in school. Commencement came and standing +before governor, president, and grave, gowned men, I told them certain +astonishing truths, waving my arms and breathing fast! They applauded +with what now seems to me uncalled-for fervor, but then! I walked home +on pink clouds of glory! I asked for a fellowship and got it. I +announced my plan of studying in Germany, but Harvard had no more +fellowships for me. A friend, however, told me of the Slater Fund and +how the Board was looking for colored men worth educating. No thought of +modest hesitation occurred to me. I rushed at the chance. + +The trustees of the Slater Fund excused themselves politely. They +acknowledged that they had in the past looked for colored boys of +ability to educate, but, being unsuccessful, they had stopped searching. +I went at them hammer and tongs! I plied them with testimonials and +mid-year and final marks. I intimated plainly, impudently, that they +were "stalling"! In vain did the chairman, Ex-President Hayes, explain +and excuse. I took no excuses and brushed explanations aside. I wonder +now that he did not brush me aside, too, as a conceited meddler, but +instead he smiled and surrendered. + +I crossed the ocean in a trance. Always I seemed to be saying, "It is +not real; I must be dreaming!" I can live it again--the little, Dutch +ship--the blue waters--the smell of new-mown hay--Holland and the Rhine. +I saw the Wartburg and Berlin; I made the Harzreise and climbed the +Brocken; I saw the Hansa towns and the cities and dorfs of South +Germany; I saw the Alps at Berne, the Cathedral at Milan, Florence, +Rome, Venice, Vienna, and Pesth; I looked on the boundaries of Russia; +and I sat in Paris and London. + +On mountain and valley, in home and school, I met men and women as I had +never met them before. Slowly they became, not white folks, but folks. +The unity beneath all life clutched me. I was not less fanatically a +Negro, but "Negro" meant a greater, broader sense of humanity and +world-fellowship. I felt myself standing, not against the world, but +simply against American narrowness and color prejudice, with the +greater, finer world at my back urging me on. + +I builded great castles in Spain and lived therein. I dreamed and loved +and wandered and sang; then, after two long years, I dropped suddenly +back into "nigger"-hating America! + +My Days of Disillusion were not disappointing enough to discourage me. I +was still upheld by that fund of infinite faith, although dimly about me +I saw the shadow of disaster. I began to realize how much of what I had +called Will and Ability was sheer Luck! _Suppose_ my good mother had +preferred a steady income from my child labor rather than bank on the +precarious dividend of my higher training? _Suppose_ that pompous old +village judge, whose dignity we often ruffled and whose apples we stole, +had had his way and sent me while a child to a "reform" school to learn +a "trade"? _Suppose_ Principal Hosmer had been born with no faith in +"darkies," and instead of giving me Greek and Latin had taught me +carpentry and the making of tin pans? _Suppose_ I had missed a Harvard +scholarship? _Suppose_ the Slater Board had then, as now, distinct ideas +as to where the education of Negroes should stop? Suppose _and_ suppose! +As I sat down calmly on flat earth and looked at my life a certain great +fear seized me. Was I the masterful captain or the pawn of laughing +sprites? Who was I to fight a world of color prejudice? I raise my hat +to myself when I remember that, even with these thoughts, I did not +hesitate or waver; but just went doggedly to work, and therein lay +whatever salvation I have achieved. + +First came the task of earning a living. I was not nice or hard to +please. I just got down on my knees and begged for work, anything and +anywhere. I wrote to Hampton, Tuskegee, and a dozen other places. They +politely declined, with many regrets. The trustees of a backwoods +Tennessee town considered me, but were eventually afraid. Then, +suddenly, Wilberforce offered to let me teach Latin and Greek at $750 a +year. I was overjoyed! + +I did not know anything about Latin and Greek, but I did know of +Wilberforce. The breath of that great name had swept the water and +dropped into southern Ohio, where Southerners had taken their cure at +Tawawa Springs and where white Methodists had planted a school; then +came the little bishop, Daniel Payne, who made it a school of the +African Methodists. This was the school that called me, and when +re-considered offers from Tuskegee and Jefferson City followed, I +refused; I was so thankful for that first offer. + +I went to Wilberforce with high ideals. I wanted to help to build a +great university. I was willing to work night as well as day. I taught +Latin, Greek, English, and German. I helped in the discipline, took part +in the social life, begged to be allowed to lecture on sociology, and +began to write books. But I found myself against a stone wall. Nothing +stirred before my impatient pounding! Or if it stirred, it soon slept +again. + +Of course, I was too impatient! The snarl of years was not to be undone +in days. I set at solving the problem before I knew it. Wilberforce was +a colored church-school. In it were mingled the problems of +poorly-prepared pupils, an inadequately-equipped plant, the natural +politics of bishoprics, and the provincial reactions of a country town +loaded with traditions. It was my first introduction to a Negro world, +and I was at once marvelously inspired and deeply depressed. I was +inspired with the children,--had I not rubbed against the children of +the world and did I not find here the same eagerness, the same joy of +life, the same brains as in New England, France, and Germany? But, on +the other hand, the ropes and myths and knots and hindrances; the +thundering waves of the white world beyond beating us back; the scalding +breakers of this inner world,--its currents and back eddies--its +meanness and smallness--its sorrow and tragedy--its screaming farce! + +In all this I was as one bound hand and foot. Struggle, work, fight as I +would, I seemed to get nowhere and accomplish nothing. I had all the +wild intolerance of youth, and no experience in human tangles. For the +first time in my life I realized that there were limits to my will to +do. The Day of Miracles was past, and a long, gray road of dogged work +lay ahead. + +I had, naturally, my triumphs here and there. I defied the bishops in +the matter of public extemporaneous prayer and they yielded. I bearded +the poor, hunted president in his den, and yet was re-elected to my +position. I was slowly winning a way, but quickly losing faith in the +value of the way won. Was this the place to begin my life work? Was this +the work which I was best fitted to do? What business had I, anyhow, to +teach Greek when I had studied men? I grew sure that I had made a +mistake. So I determined to leave Wilberforce and try elsewhere. Thus, +the third period of my life began. + +First, in 1896, I married--a slip of a girl, beautifully dark-eyed +and thorough and good as a German housewife. Then I accepted a job to +make a study of Negroes in Philadelphia for the University of +Pennsylvania,--one year at six hundred dollars. How did I dare these +two things? I do not know. Yet they spelled salvation. To remain at +Wilberforce without doing my ideals meant spiritual death. Both my +wife and I were homeless. I dared a home and a temporary job. But it +was a different daring from the days of my first youth. I was ready +to admit that the best of men might fail. I meant still to be captain +of my soul, but I realized that even captains are not omnipotent in +uncharted and angry seas. + +I essayed a thorough piece of work in Philadelphia. I labored morning, +noon, and night. Nobody ever reads that fat volume on "The Philadelphia +Negro," but they treat it with respect, and that consoles me. The +colored people of Philadelphia received me with no open arms. They had a +natural dislike to being studied like a strange species. I met again and +in different guise those curious cross-currents and inner social +whirlings of my own people. They set me to groping. I concluded that I +did not know so much as I might about my own people, and when President +Bumstead invited me to Atlanta University the next year to teach +sociology and study the American Negro, I accepted gladly, at a salary +of twelve hundred dollars. + +My real life work was done at Atlanta for thirteen years, from my +twenty-ninth to my forty-second birthday. They were years of great +spiritual upturning, of the making and unmaking of ideals, of hard work +and hard play. Here I found myself. I lost most of my mannerisms. I grew +more broadly human, made my closest and most holy friendships, and +studied human beings. I became widely-acquainted with the real condition +of my people. I realized the terrific odds which faced them. At +Wilberforce I was their captious critic. In Philadelphia I was their +cold and scientific investigator, with microscope and probe. It took but +a few years of Atlanta to bring me to hot and indignant defense. I saw +the race-hatred of the whites as I had never dreamed of it +before,--naked and unashamed! The faint discrimination of my hopes and +intangible dislikes paled into nothing before this great, red monster +of cruel oppression. I held back with more difficulty each day my +mounting indignation against injustice and misrepresentation. + +With all this came the strengthening and hardening of my own character. +The billows of birth, love, and death swept over me. I saw life through +all its paradox and contradiction of streaming eyes and mad merriment. I +emerged into full manhood, with the ruins of some ideals about me, but +with others planted above the stars; scarred and a bit grim, but hugging +to my soul the divine gift of laughter and withal determined, even unto +stubbornness, to fight the good fight. + +At last, forbear and waver as I would, I faced the great Decision. My +life's last and greatest door stood ajar. What with all my dreaming, +studying, and teaching was I going to _do_ in this fierce fight? Despite +all my youthful conceit and bumptiousness, I found developed beneath it +all a reticence and new fear of forwardness, which sprang from searching +criticisms of motive and high ideals of efficiency; but contrary to my +dream of racial solidarity and notwithstanding my deep desire to serve +and follow and think, rather than to lead and inspire and decide, I +found myself suddenly the leader of a great wing of people fighting +against another and greater wing. + +Nor could any effort of mine keep this fight from sinking to the +personal plane. Heaven knows I tried. That first meeting of a knot of +enthusiasts, at Niagara Falls, had all the earnestness of self-devotion. +At the second meeting, at Harper's Ferry, it arose to the solemnity of a +holy crusade and yet without and to the cold, hard stare of the world it +seemed merely the envy of fools against a great man, Booker Washington. + +Of the movement I was willy-nilly leader. I hated the role. For the +first time I faced criticism and _cared_. Every ideal and habit of my +life was cruelly misjudged. I who had always overstriven to give credit +for good work, who had never consciously stooped to envy was accused by +honest colored people of every sort of small and petty jealousy, while +white people said I was ashamed of my race and wanted to be white! And +this of me, whose one life fanaticism had been belief in my Negro blood! + +Away back in the little years of my boyhood I had sold the Springfield +_Republican_ and written for Mr. Fortune's _Globe_. I dreamed of being +an editor myself some day. I am an editor. In the great, slashing days +of college life I dreamed of a strong organization to fight the battles +of the Negro race. The National Association for the Advancement of +Colored People is such a body, and it grows daily. In the dark days at +Wilberforce I planned a time when I could speak freely to my people and +of them, interpreting between two worlds. I am speaking now. In the +study at Atlanta I grew to fear lest my radical beliefs should so hurt +the college that either my silence or the institution's ruin would +result. Powers and principalities have not yet curbed my tongue and +Atlanta still lives. + +It all came--this new Age of Miracles--because a few persons in 1909 +determined to celebrate Lincoln's Birthday properly by calling for the +final emancipation of the American Negro. I came at their call. My +salary even for a year was not assured, but it was the "Voice without +reply." The result has been the National Association for the Advancement +of Colored People and _The Crisis_ and this book, which I am finishing +on my Fiftieth Birthday. + +Last year I looked death in the face and found its lineaments not +unkind. But it was not my time. Yet in nature some time soon and in the +fullness of days I shall die, quietly, I trust, with my face turned +South and eastward; and, dreaming or dreamless, I shall, I am sure, +enjoy death as I have enjoyed life. + + + + + +_A Litany at Atlanta_ + +O Silent God, Thou whose voice afar in mist and mystery hath left our +ears an-hungered in these fearful days-- + +_Hear us, good Lord!_ + +Listen to us, Thy children: our faces dark with doubt are made a mockery +in Thy Sanctuary. With uplifted hands we front Thy Heaven, O God, +crying: + +_We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord!_ + +We are not better than our fellows, Lord; we are but weak and human men. +When our devils do deviltry, curse Thou the doer and the deed,--curse +them as we curse them, do to them all and more than ever they have done +to innocence and weakness, to womanhood and home. + +_Have mercy upon us, miserable sinners!_ + +And yet, whose is the deeper guilt? Who made these devils? Who nursed +them in crime and fed them on injustice? Who ravished and debauched +their mothers and their grandmothers? Who bought and sold their crime +and waxed fat and rich on public iniquity? + +_Thou knowest, good God!_ + +Is this Thy Justice, O Father, that guile be easier than innocence and +the innocent be crucified for the guilt of the untouched guilty? + +_Justice, O Judge of men!_ + +Wherefore do we pray? Is not the God of the Fathers dead? Have not seers +seen in Heaven's halls Thine hearsed and lifeless form stark amidst the +black and rolling smoke of sin, where all along bow bitter forms of +endless dead? + +_Awake, Thou that sleepest!_ + +Thou art not dead, but flown afar, up hills of endless light, through +blazing corridors of suns, where worlds do swing of good and gentle men, +of women strong and free--far from the cozenage, black hypocrisy, and +chaste prostitution of this shameful speck of dust! + +_Turn again, O Lord; leave us not to perish in our sin!_ + +From lust of body and lust of blood,-- + +_Great God, deliver us!_ + +From lust of power and lust of gold,-- + +_Great God, deliver us!_ + +From the leagued lying of despot and of brute,-- + +_Great God, deliver us!_ + +A city lay in travail, God our Lord, and from her loins sprang twin +Murder and Black Hate. Red was the midnight; clang, crack, and cry of +death and fury filled the air and trembled underneath the stars where +church spires pointed silently to Thee. And all this was to sate the +greed of greedy men who hide behind the veil of vengeance! + +_Bend us Thine ear, O Lord!_ + +In the pale, still morning we looked upon the deed. We stopped our ears +and held our leaping hands, but they--did they not wag their heads and +leer and cry with bloody jaws: _Cease from Crime!_ The word was mockery, +for thus they train a hundred crimes while we do cure one. + +_Turn again our captivity, O Lord!_ + +Behold this maimed and broken thing, dear God; it was an humble black +man, who toiled and sweat to save a bit from the pittance paid him. They +told him: _Work and Rise!_ He worked. Did this man sin? Nay, but someone +told how someone said another did--one whom he had never seen nor known. +Yet for that man's crime this man lieth maimed and murdered, his wife +naked to shame, his children to poverty and evil. + +_Hear us, O heavenly Father!_ + +Doth not this justice of hell stink in Thy nostrils, O God? How long +shall the mounting flood of innocent blood roar in Thine ears and pound +in our hearts for vengeance? Pile the pale frenzy of blood-crazed +brutes, who do such deeds, high on Thine Altar, Jehovah Jireh, and burn +it in hell forever and forever! + +_Forgive us, good Lord; we know not what we say!_ + +Bewildered we are and passion-tossed, mad with the madness of a mobbed +and mocked and murdered people; straining at the armposts of Thy throne, +we raise our shackled hands and charge Thee, God, by the bones of our +stolen fathers, by the tears of our dead mothers, by the very blood of +Thy crucified Christ: What meaneth this? Tell us the plan; give us the +sign! + +_Keep not Thou silent, O God!_ + +Sit not longer blind, Lord God, deaf to our prayer and dumb to our dumb +suffering. Surely Thou, too, art not white, O Lord, a pale, bloodless, +heartless thing! + +_Ah! Christ of all the Pities!_ + +Forgive the thought! Forgive these wild, blasphemous words! Thou art +still the God of our black fathers and in Thy Soul's Soul sit some soft +darkenings of the evening, some shadowings of the velvet night. + +But whisper--speak--call, great God, for Thy silence is white terror to +our hearts! The way, O God, show us the way and point us the path! + +Whither? North is greed and South is blood; within, the coward, and +without, the liar. Whither? To death? + +_Amen! Welcome, dark sleep!_ + +Whither? To life? But not this life, dear God, not this. Let the cup +pass from us, tempt us not beyond our strength, for there is that +clamoring and clawing within, to whose voice we would not listen, yet +shudder lest we must,--and it is red. Ah! God! It is a red and awful +shape. + +_Selah!_ + +In yonder East trembles a star. + +_Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord!_ + +Thy Will, O Lord, be done! + +_Kyrie Eleison!_ + +Lord, we have done these pleading, wavering words. + +_We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord!_ + +We bow our heads and hearken soft to the sobbing of women and little +children. + +_We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord!_ + +Our voices sink in silence and in night. + +_Hear us, good Lord!_ + +In night, O God of a godless land! + +_Amen!_ + +In silence, O Silent God. + +_Selah!_ + + + + + +II + +THE SOULS OF WHITE FOLK + + +High in the tower, where I sit above the loud complaining of the human +sea, I know many souls that toss and whirl and pass, but none there are +that intrigue me more than the Souls of White Folk. + +Of them I am singularly clairvoyant. I see in and through them. I view +them from unusual points of vantage. Not as a foreigner do I come, for I +am native, not foreign, bone of their thought and flesh of their +language. Mine is not the knowledge of the traveler or the colonial +composite of dear memories, words and wonder. Nor yet is my knowledge +that which servants have of masters, or mass of class, or capitalist of +artisan. Rather I see these souls undressed and from the back and side. +I see the working of their entrails. I know their thoughts and they know +that I know. This knowledge makes them now embarrassed, now furious. +They deny my right to live and be and call me misbirth! My word is to +them mere bitterness and my soul, pessimism. And yet as they preach and +strut and shout and threaten, crouching as they clutch at rags of facts +and fancies to hide their nakedness, they go twisting, flying by my +tired eyes and I see them ever stripped,--ugly, human. + +The discovery of personal whiteness among the world's peoples is a very +modern thing,--a nineteenth and twentieth century matter, indeed. The +ancient world would have laughed at such a distinction. The Middle Age +regarded skin color with mild curiosity; and even up into the eighteenth +century we were hammering our national manikins into one, great, +Universal Man, with fine frenzy which ignored color and race even more +than birth. Today we have changed all that, and the world in a sudden, +emotional conversion has discovered that it is white and by that token, +wonderful! + +This assumption that of all the hues of God whiteness alone is +inherently and obviously better than brownness or tan leads to curious +acts; even the sweeter souls of the dominant world as they discourse +with me on weather, weal, and woe are continually playing above their +actual words an obligato of tune and tone, saying: + +"My poor, un-white thing! Weep not nor rage. I know, too well, that the +curse of God lies heavy on you. Why? That is not for me to say, but be +brave! Do your work in your lowly sphere, praying the good Lord that +into heaven above, where all is love, you may, one day, be born--white!" + +I do not laugh. I am quite straight-faced as I ask soberly: + +"But what on earth is whiteness that one should so desire it?" Then +always, somehow, some way, silently but clearly, I am given to +understand that whiteness is the ownership of the earth forever and +ever, Amen! + +Now what is the effect on a man or a nation when it comes passionately +to believe such an extraordinary dictum as this? That nations are coming +to believe it is manifest daily. Wave on wave, each with increasing +virulence, is dashing this new religion of whiteness on the shores of +our time. Its first effects are funny: the strut of the Southerner, the +arrogance of the Englishman amuck, the whoop of the hoodlum who +vicariously leads your mob. Next it appears dampening generous +enthusiasm in what we once counted glorious; to free the slave is +discovered to be tolerable only in so far as it freed his master! Do we +sense somnolent writhings in black Africa or angry groans in India or +triumphant banzais in Japan? "To your tents, O Israel!" These nations +are not white! + +After the more comic manifestations and the chilling of generous +enthusiasm come subtler, darker deeds. Everything considered, the title +to the universe claimed by White Folk is faulty. It ought, at least, to +look plausible. How easy, then, by emphasis and omission to make +children believe that every great soul the world ever saw was a white +man's soul; that every great thought the world ever knew was a white +man's thought; that every great deed the world ever did was a white +man's deed; that every great dream the world ever sang was a white man's +dream. In fine, that if from the world were dropped everything that +could not fairly be attributed to White Folk, the world would, if +anything, be even greater, truer, better than now. And if all this be a +lie, is it not a lie in a great cause? + +Here it is that the comedy verges to tragedy. The first minor note is +struck, all unconsciously, by those worthy souls in whom consciousness +of high descent brings burning desire to spread the gift abroad,--the +obligation of nobility to the ignoble. Such sense of duty assumes two +things: a real possession of the heritage and its frank appreciation by +the humble-born. So long, then, as humble black folk, voluble with +thanks, receive barrels of old clothes from lordly and generous whites, +there is much mental peace and moral satisfaction. But when the black +man begins to dispute the white man's title to certain alleged bequests +of the Fathers in wage and position, authority and training; and when +his attitude toward charity is sullen anger rather than humble jollity; +when he insists on his human right to swagger and swear and waste,--then +the spell is suddenly broken and the philanthropist is ready to believe +that Negroes are impudent, that the South is right, and that Japan wants +to fight America. + +After this the descent to Hell is easy. On the pale, white faces which +the great billows whirl upward to my tower I see again and again, often +and still more often, a writing of human hatred, a deep and passionate +hatred, vast by the very vagueness of its expressions. Down through the +green waters, on the bottom of the world, where men move to and fro, I +have seen a man--an educated gentleman--grow livid with anger because a +little, silent, black woman was sitting by herself in a Pullman car. He +was a white man. I have seen a great, grown man curse a little child, +who had wandered into the wrong waiting-room, searching for its mother: +"Here, you damned black--" He was white. In Central Park I have seen the +upper lip of a quiet, peaceful man curl back in a tigerish snarl of rage +because black folk rode by in a motor car. He was a white man. We have +seen, you and I, city after city drunk and furious with ungovernable +lust of blood; mad with murder, destroying, killing, and cursing; +torturing human victims because somebody accused of crime happened to be +of the same color as the mob's innocent victims and because that color +was not white! We have seen,--Merciful God! in these wild days and in +the name of Civilization, Justice, and Motherhood,--what have we not +seen, right here in America, of orgy, cruelty, barbarism, and murder +done to men and women of Negro descent. + +Up through the foam of green and weltering waters wells this great mass +of hatred, in wilder, fiercer violence, until I look down and know that +today to the millions of my people no misfortune could happen,--of death +and pestilence, failure and defeat--that would not make the hearts of +millions of their fellows beat with fierce, vindictive joy! Do you doubt +it? Ask your own soul what it would say if the next census were to +report that half of black America was dead and the other half dying. + +Unfortunate? Unfortunate. But where is the misfortune? Mine? Am I, in my +blackness, the sole sufferer? I suffer. And yet, somehow, above the +suffering, above the shackled anger that beats the bars, above the hurt +that crazes there surges in me a vast pity,--pity for a people +imprisoned and enthralled, hampered and made miserable for such a cause, +for such a phantasy! + +Conceive this nation, of all human peoples, engaged in a crusade to +make the "World Safe for Democracy"! Can you imagine the United States +protesting against Turkish atrocities in Armenia, while the Turks are +silent about mobs in Chicago and St. Louis; what is Louvain compared +with Memphis, Waco, Washington, Dyersburg, and Estill Springs? In short, +what is the black man but America's Belgium, and how could America +condemn in Germany that which she commits, just as brutally, within her +own borders? + +A true and worthy ideal frees and uplifts a people; a false ideal +imprisons and lowers. Say to men, earnestly and repeatedly: "Honesty is +best, knowledge is power; do unto others as you would be done by." Say +this and act it and the nation must move toward it, if not to it. But +say to a people: "The one virtue is to be white," and the people rush to +the inevitable conclusion, "Kill the 'nigger'!" + +Is not this the record of present America? Is not this its headlong +progress? Are we not coming more and more, day by day, to making the +statement "I am white," the one fundamental tenet of our practical +morality? Only when this basic, iron rule is involved is our defense of +right nation-wide and prompt. Murder may swagger, theft may rule and +prostitution may flourish and the nation gives but spasmodic, +intermittent and lukewarm attention. But let the murderer be black or +the thief brown or the violator of womanhood have a drop of Negro blood, +and the righteousness of the indignation sweeps the world. Nor would +this fact make the indignation less justifiable did not we all know that +it was blackness that was condemned and not crime. + +In the awful cataclysm of World War, where from beating, slandering, and +murdering us the white world turned temporarily aside to kill each +other, we of the Darker Peoples looked on in mild amaze. + +Among some of us, I doubt not, this sudden descent of Europe into hell +brought unbounded surprise; to others, over wide area, it brought the +_Schaden Freude_ of the bitterly hurt; but most of us, I judge, looked +on silently and sorrowfully, in sober thought, seeing sadly the prophecy +of our own souls. + +Here is a civilization that has boasted much. Neither Roman nor Arab, +Greek nor Egyptian, Persian nor Mongol ever took himself and his own +perfectness with such disconcerting seriousness as the modern white man. +We whose shame, humiliation, and deep insult his aggrandizement so often +involved were never deceived. We looked at him clearly, with world-old +eyes, and saw simply a human thing, weak and pitiable and cruel, even as +we are and were. + +These super-men and world-mastering demi-gods listened, however, to no +low tongues of ours, even when we pointed silently to their feet of +clay. Perhaps we, as folk of simpler soul and more primitive type, have +been most struck in the welter of recent years by the utter failure of +white religion. We have curled our lips in something like contempt as we +have witnessed glib apology and weary explanation. Nothing of the sort +deceived us. A nation's religion is its life, and as such white +Christianity is a miserable failure. + +Nor would we be unfair in this criticism: We know that we, too, have +failed, as you have, and have rejected many a Buddha, even as you have +denied Christ; but we acknowledge our human frailty, while you, claiming +super-humanity, scoff endlessly at our shortcomings. + +The number of white individuals who are practising with even reasonable +approximation the democracy and unselfishness of Jesus Christ is so +small and unimportant as to be fit subject for jest in Sunday +supplements and in _Punch_, _Life_, _Le Rire_, and _Fliegende Blaetter_. +In her foreign mission work the extraordinary self-deception of white +religion is epitomized: solemnly the white world sends five million +dollars worth of missionary propaganda to Africa each year and in the +same twelve months adds twenty-five million dollars worth of the vilest +gin manufactured. Peace to the augurs of Rome! + +We may, however, grant without argument that religious ideals have +always far outrun their very human devotees. Let us, then, turn to more +mundane matters of honor and fairness. The world today is trade. The +world has turned shopkeeper; history is economic history; living is +earning a living. Is it necessary to ask how much of high emprise and +honorable conduct has been found here? Something, to be sure. The +establishment of world credit systems is built on splendid and +realizable faith in fellow-men. But it is, after all, so low and +elementary a step that sometimes it looks merely like honor among +thieves, for the revelations of highway robbery and low cheating in the +business world and in all its great modern centers have raised in the +hearts of all true men in our day an exceeding great cry for revolution +in our basic methods and conceptions of industry and commerce. + +We do not, for a moment, forget the robbery of other times and races +when trade was a most uncertain gamble; but was there not a certain +honesty and frankness in the evil that argued a saner morality? There +are more merchants today, surer deliveries, and wider well-being, but +are there not, also, bigger thieves, deeper injustice, and more +calloused selfishness in well-being? Be that as it may,--certainly the +nicer sense of honor that has risen ever and again in groups of +forward-thinking men has been curiously and broadly blunted. Consider +our chiefest industry,--fighting. Laboriously the Middle Ages built its +rules of fairness--equal armament, equal notice, equal conditions. What +do we see today? Machine-guns against assegais; conquest sugared with +religion; mutilation and rape masquerading as culture,--all this, with +vast applause at the superiority of white over black soldiers! + +War is horrible! This the dark world knows to its awful cost. But has +it just become horrible, in these last days, when under essentially +equal conditions, equal armament, and equal waste of wealth white men +are fighting white men, with surgeons and nurses hovering near? + +Think of the wars through which we have lived in the last decade: in +German Africa, in British Nigeria, in French and Spanish Morocco, in +China, in Persia, in the Balkans, in Tripoli, in Mexico, and in a dozen +lesser places--were not these horrible, too? Mind you, there were for +most of these wars no Red Cross funds. + +Behold little Belgium and her pitiable plight, but has the world +forgotten Congo? What Belgium now suffers is not half, not even a tenth, +of what she has done to black Congo since Stanley's great dream of 1880. +Down the dark forests of inmost Africa sailed this modern Sir Galahad, +in the name of "the noble-minded men of several nations," to introduce +commerce and civilization. What came of it? "Rubber and murder, slavery +in its worst form," wrote Glave in 1895. + +Harris declares that King Leopold's regime meant the death of twelve +million natives, "but what we who were behind the scenes felt most +keenly was the fact that the real catastrophe in the Congo was +desolation and murder in the larger sense. The invasion of family life, +the ruthless destruction of every social barrier, the shattering of +every tribal law, the introduction of criminal practices which struck +the chiefs of the people dumb with horror--in a word, a veritable +avalanche of filth and immorality overwhelmed the Congo tribes." + +Yet the fields of Belgium laughed, the cities were gay, art and science +flourished; the groans that helped to nourish this civilization fell on +deaf ears because the world round about was doing the same sort of thing +elsewhere on its own account. + +As we saw the dead dimly through rifts of battlesmoke and heard faintly +the cursings and accusations of blood brothers, we darker men said: This +is not Europe gone mad; this is not aberration nor insanity; this _is_ +Europe; this seeming Terrible is the real soul of white culture--back of +all culture,--stripped and visible today. This is where the world has +arrived,--these dark and awful depths and not the shining and ineffable +heights of which it boasted. Here is whither the might and energy of +modern humanity has really gone. + +But may not the world cry back at us and ask: "What better thing have +you to show? What have you done or would do better than this if you had +today the world rule? Paint with all riot of hateful colors the thin +skin of European culture,--is it not better than any culture that arose +in Africa or Asia?" + +It is. Of this there is no doubt and never has been; but why is it +better? Is it better because Europeans are better, nobler, greater, and +more gifted than other folk? It is not. Europe has never produced and +never will in our day bring forth a single human soul who cannot be +matched and over-matched in every line of human endeavor by Asia and +Africa. Run the gamut, if you will, and let us have the Europeans who in +sober truth over-match Nefertari, Mohammed, Rameses and Askia, +Confucius, Buddha, and Jesus Christ. If we could scan the calendar of +thousands of lesser men, in like comparison, the result would be the +same; but we cannot do this because of the deliberately educated +ignorance of white schools by which they remember Napoleon and forget +Sonni Ali. + +The greatness of Europe has lain in the width of the stage on which she +has played her part, the strength of the foundations on which she has +builded, and a natural, human ability no whit greater (if as great) than +that of other days and races. In other words, the deeper reasons for the +triumph of European civilization lie quite outside and beyond +Europe,--back in the universal struggles of all mankind. + +Why, then, is Europe great? Because of the foundations which the mighty +past have furnished her to build upon: the iron trade of ancient, black +Africa, the religion and empire-building of yellow Asia, the art and +science of the "dago" Mediterranean shore, east, south, and west, as +well as north. And where she has builded securely upon this great past +and learned from it she has gone forward to greater and more splendid +human triumph; but where she has ignored this past and forgotten and +sneered at it, she has shown the cloven hoof of poor, crucified +humanity,--she has played, like other empires gone, the world fool! + +If, then, European triumphs in culture have been greater, so, too, may +her failures have been greater. How great a failure and a failure in +what does the World War betoken? Was it national jealousy of the sort of +the seventeenth century? But Europe has done more to break down national +barriers than any preceding culture. Was it fear of the balance of power +in Europe? Hardly, save in the half-Asiatic problems of the Balkans. +What, then, does Hauptmann mean when he says: "Our jealous enemies +forged an iron ring about our breasts and we knew our breasts had to +expand,--that we had to split asunder this ring or else we had to cease +breathing. But Germany will not cease to breathe and so it came to pass +that the iron ring was forced apart." + +Whither is this expansion? What is that breath of life, thought to be so +indispensable to a great European nation? Manifestly it is expansion +overseas; it is colonial aggrandizement which explains, and alone +adequately explains, the World War. How many of us today fully realize +the current theory of colonial expansion, of the relation of Europe +which is white, to the world which is black and brown and yellow? +Bluntly put, that theory is this: It is the duty of white Europe to +divide up the darker world and administer it for Europe's good. + +This Europe has largely done. The European world is using black and +brown men for all the uses which men know. Slowly but surely white +culture is evolving the theory that "darkies" are born beasts of burden +for white folk. It were silly to think otherwise, cries the cultured +world, with stronger and shriller accord. The supporting arguments grow +and twist themselves in the mouths of merchant, scientist, soldier, +traveler, writer, and missionary: Darker peoples are dark in mind as +well as in body; of dark, uncertain, and imperfect descent; of frailer, +cheaper stuff; they are cowards in the face of mausers and maxims; they +have no feelings, aspirations, and loves; they are fools, illogical +idiots,--"half-devil and half-child." + +Such as they are civilization must, naturally, raise them, but soberly +and in limited ways. They are not simply dark white men. They are not +"men" in the sense that Europeans are men. To the very limited extent of +their shallow capacities lift them to be useful to whites, to raise +cotton, gather rubber, fetch ivory, dig diamonds,--and let them be paid +what men think they are worth--white men who know them to be well-nigh +worthless. + +Such degrading of men by men is as old as mankind and the invention of +no one race or people. Ever have men striven to conceive of their +victims as different from the victors, endlessly different, in soul and +blood, strength and cunning, race and lineage. It has been left, +however, to Europe and to modern days to discover the eternal world-wide +mark of meanness,--color! + +Such is the silent revolution that has gripped modern European culture +in the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Its zenith came in +Boxer times: White supremacy was all but world-wide, Africa was dead, +India conquered, Japan isolated, and China prostrate, while white +America whetted her sword for mongrel Mexico and mulatto South America, +lynching her own Negroes the while. Temporary halt in this program was +made by little Japan and the white world immediately sensed the peril of +such "yellow" presumption! What sort of a world would this be if yellow +men must be treated "white"? Immediately the eventual overthrow of Japan +became a subject of deep thought and intrigue, from St. Petersburg to +San Francisco, from the Key of Heaven to the Little Brother of the Poor. + +The using of men for the benefit of masters is no new invention of +modern Europe. It is quite as old as the world. But Europe proposed to +apply it on a scale and with an elaborateness of detail of which no +former world ever dreamed. The imperial width of the thing,--the +heaven-defying audacity--makes its modern newness. + +The scheme of Europe was no sudden invention, but a way out of +long-pressing difficulties. It is plain to modern white civilization +that the subjection of the white working classes cannot much longer be +maintained. Education, political power, and increased knowledge of the +technique and meaning of the industrial process are destined to make a +more and more equitable distribution of wealth in the near future. The +day of the very rich is drawing to a close, so far as individual white +nations are concerned. But there is a loophole. There is a chance for +exploitation on an immense scale for inordinate profit, not simply to +the very rich, but to the middle class and to the laborers. This chance +lies in the exploitation of darker peoples. It is here that the golden +hand beckons. Here are no labor unions or votes or questioning onlookers +or inconvenient consciences. These men may be used down to the very +bone, and shot and maimed in "punitive" expeditions when they revolt. In +these dark lands "industrial development" may repeat in exaggerated form +every horror of the industrial history of Europe, from slavery and rape +to disease and maiming, with only one test of success,--dividends! + +This theory of human culture and its aims has worked itself through warp +and woof of our daily thought with a thoroughness that few realize. +Everything great, good, efficient, fair, and honorable is "white"; +everything mean, bad, blundering, cheating, and dishonorable is +"yellow"; a bad taste is "brown"; and the devil is "black." The changes +of this theme are continually rung in picture and story, in newspaper +heading and moving-picture, in sermon and school book, until, of course, +the King can do no wrong,--a White Man is always right and a Black Man +has no rights which a white man is bound to respect. + +There must come the necessary despisings and hatreds of these savage +half-men, this unclean _canaille_ of the world--these dogs of men. All +through the world this gospel is preaching. It has its literature, it +has its secret propaganda and above all--it pays! + +There's the rub,--it pays. Rubber, ivory, and palm-oil; tea, coffee, and +cocoa; bananas, oranges, and other fruit; cotton, gold, and +copper--they, and a hundred other things which dark and sweating bodies +hand up to the white world from pits of slime, pay and pay well, but of +all that the world gets the black world gets only the pittance that the +white world throws it disdainfully. + +Small wonder, then, that in the practical world of things-that-be there +is jealousy and strife for the possession of the labor of dark millions, +for the right to bleed and exploit the colonies of the world where this +golden stream may be had, not always for the asking, but surely for the +whipping and shooting. It was this competition for the labor of yellow, +brown, and black folks that was the cause of the World War. Other causes +have been glibly given and other contributing causes there doubtless +were, but they were subsidiary and subordinate to this vast quest of the +dark world's wealth and toil. + +Colonies, we call them, these places where "niggers" are cheap and the +earth is rich; they are those outlands where like a swarm of hungry +locusts white masters may settle to be served as kings, wield the lash +of slave-drivers, rape girls and wives, grow as rich as Croesus and send +homeward a golden stream. They belt the earth, these places, but they +cluster in the tropics, with its darkened peoples: in Hong Kong and +Anam, in Borneo and Rhodesia, in Sierra Leone and Nigeria, in Panama and +Havana--these are the El Dorados toward which the world powers stretch +itching palms. + +Germany, at last one and united and secure on land, looked across the +seas and seeing England with sources of wealth insuring a luxury and +power which Germany could not hope to rival by the slower processes of +exploiting her own peasants and workingmen, especially with these +workers half in revolt, immediately built her navy and entered into a +desperate competition for possession of colonies of darker peoples. To +South America, to China, to Africa, to Asia Minor, she turned like a +hound quivering on the leash, impatient, suspicious, irritable, with +blood-shot eyes and dripping fangs, ready for the awful word. England +and France crouched watchfully over their bones, growling and wary, but +gnawing industriously, while the blood of the dark world whetted their +greedy appetites. In the background, shut out from the highway to the +seven seas, sat Russia and Austria, snarling and snapping at each other +and at the last Mediterranean gate to the El Dorado, where the Sick Man +enjoyed bad health, and where millions of serfs in the Balkans, Russia, +and Asia offered a feast to greed well-nigh as great as Africa. + +The fateful day came. It had to come. The cause of war is preparation +for war; and of all that Europe has done in a century there is nothing +that has equaled in energy, thought, and time her preparation for +wholesale murder. The only adequate cause of this preparation was +conquest and conquest, not in Europe, but primarily among the darker +peoples of Asia and Africa; conquest, not for assimilation and uplift, +but for commerce and degradation. For this, and this mainly, did Europe +gird herself at frightful cost for war. + +The red day dawned when the tinder was lighted in the Balkans and +Austro-Hungary seized a bit which brought her a step nearer to the +world's highway; she seized one bit and poised herself for another. Then +came that curious chorus of challenges, those leaping suspicions, raking +all causes for distrust and rivalry and hatred, but saying little of the +real and greatest cause. + +Each nation felt its deep interests involved. But how? Not, surely, in +the death of Ferdinand the Warlike; not, surely, in the old, +half-forgotten _revanche_ for Alsace-Lorraine; not even in the +neutrality of Belgium. No! But in the possession of land overseas, in +the right to colonies, the chance to levy endless tribute on the darker +world,--on coolies in China, on starving peasants in India, on black +savages in Africa, on dying South Sea Islanders, on Indians of the +Amazon--all this and nothing more. + +Even the broken reed on which we had rested high hopes of eternal +peace,--the guild of the laborers--the front of that very important +movement for human justice on which we had builded most, even this flew +like a straw before the breath of king and kaiser. Indeed, the flying +had been foreshadowed when in Germany and America "international" +Socialists had all but read yellow and black men out of the kingdom of +industrial justice. Subtly had they been bribed, but effectively: Were +they not lordly whites and should they not share in the spoils of rape? +High wages in the United States and England might be the skilfully +manipulated result of slavery in Africa and of peonage in Asia. + +With the dog-in-the-manger theory of trade, with the determination to +reap inordinate profits and to exploit the weakest to the utmost there +came a new imperialism,--the rage for one's own nation to own the earth +or, at least, a large enough portion of it to insure as big profits as +the next nation. Where sections could not be owned by one dominant +nation there came a policy of "open door," but the "door" was open to +"white people only." As to the darkest and weakest of peoples there was +but one unanimity in Europe,--that which Hen Demberg of the German +Colonial Office called the agreement with England to maintain white +"prestige" in Africa,--the doctrine of the divine right of white people +to steal. + +Thus the world market most wildly and desperately sought today is the +market where labor is cheapest and most helpless and profit is most +abundant. This labor is kept cheap and helpless because the white world +despises "darkies." If one has the temerity to suggest that these +workingmen may walk the way of white workingmen and climb by votes and +self-assertion and education to the rank of men, he is howled out of +court. They cannot do it and if they could, they shall not, for they are +the enemies of the white race and the whites shall rule forever and +forever and everywhere. Thus the hatred and despising of human beings +from whom Europe wishes to extort her luxuries has led to such jealousy +and bickering between European nations that they have fallen afoul of +each other and have fought like crazed beasts. Such is the fruit of +human hatred. + +But what of the darker world that watches? Most men belong to this +world. With Negro and Negroid, East Indian, Chinese, and Japanese they +form two-thirds of the population of the world. A belief in humanity is +a belief in colored men. If the uplift of mankind must be done by men, +then the destinies of this world will rest ultimately in the hands of +darker nations. + +What, then, is this dark world thinking? It is thinking that as wild +and awful as this shameful war was, _it is nothing to compare with that +fight for freedom which black and brown and yellow men must and will +make unless their oppression and humiliation and insult at the hands of +the White World cease. The Dark World is going to submit to its present +treatment just as long as it must and not one moment longer._ + +Let me say this again and emphasize it and leave no room for mistaken +meaning: The World War was primarily the jealous and avaricious struggle +for the largest share in exploiting darker races. As such it is and must +be but the prelude to the armed and indignant protest of these despised +and raped peoples. Today Japan is hammering on the door of justice, +China is raising her half-manacled hands to knock next, India is +writhing for the freedom to knock, Egypt is sullenly muttering, the +Negroes of South and West Africa, of the West Indies, and of the United +States are just awakening to their shameful slavery. Is, then, this war +the end of wars? Can it be the end, so long as sits enthroned, even in +the souls of those who cry peace, the despising and robbing of darker +peoples? If Europe hugs this delusion, then this is not the end of world +war,--it is but the beginning! + +We see Europe's greatest sin precisely where we found Africa's and +Asia's,--in human hatred, the despising of men; with this difference, +however: Europe has the awful lesson of the past before her, has the +splendid results of widened areas of tolerance, sympathy, and love among +men, and she faces a greater, an infinitely greater, world of men than +any preceding civilization ever faced. + +It is curious to see America, the United States, looking on herself, +first, as a sort of natural peacemaker, then as a moral protagonist in +this terrible time. No nation is less fitted for this role. For two or +more centuries America has marched proudly in the van of human +hatred,--making bonfires of human flesh and laughing at them hideously, +and making the insulting of millions more than a matter of +dislike,--rather a great religion, a world war-cry: Up white, down +black; to your tents, O white folk, and world war with black and +parti-colored mongrel beasts! + +Instead of standing as a great example of the success of democracy and +the possibility of human brotherhood America has taken her place as an +awful example of its pitfalls and failures, so far as black and brown +and yellow peoples are concerned. And this, too, in spite of the fact +that there has been no actual failure; the Indian is not dying out, the +Japanese and Chinese have not menaced the land, and the experiment of +Negro suffrage has resulted in the uplift of twelve million people at a +rate probably unparalleled in history. But what of this? America, Land +of Democracy, wanted to believe in the failure of democracy so far as +darker peoples were concerned. Absolutely without excuse she established +a caste system, rushed into preparation for war, and conquered tropical +colonies. She stands today shoulder to shoulder with Europe in Europe's +worst sin against civilization. She aspires to sit among the great +nations who arbitrate the fate of "lesser breeds without the law" and +she is at times heartily ashamed even of the large number of "new" white +people whom her democracy has admitted to place and power. Against this +surging forward of Irish and German, of Russian Jew, Slav and "dago" her +social bars have not availed, but against Negroes she can and does take +her unflinching and immovable stand, backed by this new public policy of +Europe. She trains her immigrants to this despising of "niggers" from +the day of their landing, and they carry and send the news back to the +submerged classes in the fatherlands. + + * * * * * + +All this I see and hear up in my tower, above the thunder of the seven +seas. From my narrowed windows I stare into the night that looms beneath +the cloud-swept stars. Eastward and westward storms are +breaking,--great, ugly whirlwinds of hatred and blood and cruelty. I +will not believe them inevitable. I will not believe that all that was +must be, that all the shameful drama of the past must be done again +today before the sunlight sweeps the silver seas. + +If I cry amid this roar of elemental forces, must my cry be in vain, +because it is but a cry,--a small and human cry amid Promethean gloom? + +Back beyond the world and swept by these wild, white faces of the awful +dead, why will this Soul of White Folk,--this modern Prometheus,--hang +bound by his own binding, tethered by a fable of the past? I hear his +mighty cry reverberating through the world, "I am white!" Well and good, +O Prometheus, divine thief! Is not the world wide enough for two colors, +for many little shinings of the sun? Why, then, devour your own vitals +if I answer even as proudly, "I am black!" + + + + + +_The Riddle of the Sphinx_ + + + Dark daughter of the lotus leaves that watch the Southern Sea! + Wan spirit of a prisoned soul a-panting to be free! + The muttered music of thy streams, the whisper of the deep, + Have kissed each other in God's name and kissed a world to sleep. + + The will of the world is a whistling wind, sweeping a cloud-swept sky, + And not from the East and not from the West knelled that + soul-waking cry, + But out of the South,--the sad, black South--it screamed from + the top of the sky, + Crying: "Awake, O ancient race!" Wailing, "O woman, arise!" + And crying and sighing and crying again as a voice in the + midnight cries,-- + But the burden of white men bore her back and the white world + stifled her sighs. + + The white world's vermin and filth: + All the dirt of London, + All the scum of New York; + Valiant spoilers of women + And conquerers of unarmed men; + Shameless breeders of bastards, + Drunk with the greed of gold, + Baiting their blood-stained hooks + With cant for the souls of the simple; + Bearing the white man's burden + Of liquor and lust and lies! + + Unthankful we wince in the East, + Unthankful we wail from the westward, + Unthankfully thankful, we curse, + In the unworn wastes of the wild: + I hate them, Oh! + I hate them well, + I hate them, Christ! + As I hate hell! + If I were God, + I'd sound their knell + This day! + Who raised the fools to their glory, + But black men of Egypt and Ind, + Ethiopia's sons of the evening, + Indians and yellow Chinese, + Arabian children of morning, + And mongrels of Rome and Greece? + Ah, well! + And they that raised the boasters + Shall drag them down again,-- + Down with the theft of their thieving + And murder and mocking of men; + Down with their barter of women + And laying and lying of creeds; + Down with their cheating of childhood + And drunken orgies of war,-- + down + down + deep down, + Till the devil's strength be shorn, + Till some dim, darker David, a-hoeing of his corn, + And married maiden, mother of God, + Bid the black Christ be born! + Then shall our burden be manhood, + Be it yellow or black or white; + And poverty and justice and sorrow, + The humble, and simple and strong + Shall sing with the sons of morning + And daughters of even-song: + Black mother of the iron hills that ward the blazing sea, + Wild spirit of a storm-swept soul, a-struggling to be free, + Where 'neath the bloody finger-marks thy riven bosom quakes, + Thicken the thunders of God's Voice and lo! a world awakes! + + + + +III + +THE HANDS OF ETHIOPIA + + +"_Semper novi quid ex Africa_," cried the Roman proconsul, and he voiced +the verdict of forty centuries. Yet there are those who would write +world history and leave out of account this most marvelous of +continents. Particularly today most men assume that Africa is far afield +from the center of our burning social problems and especially from our +problem of world war. + +Always Africa is giving us something new or some metempsychosis of a +world-old thing. On its black bosom arose one of the earliest, if not +the earliest, of self-protecting civilizations, which grew so mightily +that it still furnishes superlatives to thinking and speaking men. Out +of its darker and more remote forest fastnesses came, if we may credit +many recent scientists, the first welding of iron, and we know that +agriculture and trade flourished there when Europe was a wilderness. + +Nearly every human empire that has arisen in the world, material and +spiritual, has found some of its greatest crises on this continent of +Africa, from Greece to Great Britain. As Mommsen says: "It was through +Africa that Christianity became the religion of the world." In Africa +the last flood of Germanic invasions spent itself within hearing of the +last gasp of Byzantium, and it was through Africa that Islam came to +play its great role of conqueror and civilizer. + +With the Renaissance and the widened world of modern thought Africa came +no less suddenly with her new-old gift. Shakespeare's "Ancient Pistol" +cries: + + A foutre for the world and worldlings base! + I speak of Africa and golden joys! + +He echoes a legend of gold from the days of Punt and Ophir to those of +Ghana, the Gold Coast, and the Rand. This thought had sent the world's +greed scurrying down the hot, mysterious coasts of Africa to the Good +Hope of gain, until for the first time a real world-commerce was born, +albeit it started as a commerce mainly in the bodies and souls of men. + +The present problem of problems is nothing more than democracy beating +itself helplessly against the color bar,--purling, seeping, seething, +foaming to burst through, ever and again overwhelming the emerging +masses of white men in its rolling backwaters and held back by those who +dream of future kingdoms of greed built on black and brown and yellow +slavery. + +The indictment of Africa against Europe is grave. For four hundred years +white Europe was the chief support of that trade in human beings which +first and last robbed black Africa of a hundred million human beings, +transformed the face of her social life, overthrew organized government, +distorted ancient industry, and snuffed out the lights of cultural +development. Today instead of removing laborers from Africa to distant +slavery, industry built on a new slavery approaches Africa to deprive +the natives of their land, to force them to toil, and to reap all the +profit for the white world. + +It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader of the essential facts +underlying these broad assertions. A recent law of the Union of South +Africa assigns nearly two hundred and fifty million acres of the best of +natives' land to a million and a half whites and leaves thirty-six +million acres of swamp and marsh for four and a half-million blacks. In +Rhodesia over ninety million acres have been practically confiscated. In +the Belgian Congo all the land was declared the property of the state. + +Slavery in all but name has been the foundation of the cocoa industry in +St. Thome and St. Principe and in the mines of the Rand. Gin has been +one of the greatest of European imports, having increased fifty per +cent. in ten years and reaching a total of at least twenty-five million +dollars a year today. Negroes of ability have been carefully gotten rid +of, deposed from authority, kept out of positions of influence, and +discredited in their people's eyes, while a caste of white overseers and +governing officials has appeared everywhere. + +Naturally, the picture is not all lurid. David Livingstone has had his +successors and Europe has given Africa something of value in the +beginning of education and industry. Yet the balance of iniquity is +desperately large; but worse than that, it has aroused no world protest. +A great Englishman, familiar with African problems for a generation, +says frankly today: "There does not exist any real international +conscience to which you can appeal." + +Moreover, that treatment shows no certain signs of abatement. Today in +England the Empire Resources Development Committee proposes to treat +African colonies as "crown estates" and by intensive scientific +exploitation of both land and labor to make these colonies pay the +English national debt after the war! German thinkers, knowing the +tremendous demand for raw material which would follow the war, had +similar plans of exploitation. "It is the clear, common sense of the +African situation," says H.G. Wells, "that while these precious regions +of raw material remain divided up between a number of competitive +European imperialisms, each resolutely set upon the exploitation of its +'possessions' to its own advantage and the disadvantage of the others, +there can be no permanent peace in the world. It is impossible." + +We, then, who fought the war against war; who in a hell of blood and +suffering held hardly our souls in leash by the vision of a world +organized for peace; who are looking for industrial democracy and for +the organization of Europe so as to avoid incentives to war,--we, least +of all, should be willing to leave the backward world as the greatest +temptation, not only to wars based on international jealousies, but to +the most horrible of wars,--which arise from the revolt of the maddened +against those who hold them in common contempt. + +Consider, my reader,--if you were today a man of some education and +knowledge, but born a Japanese or a Chinaman, an East Indian or a Negro, +what would you do and think? What would be in the present chaos your +outlook and plan for the future? Manifestly, you would want freedom for +your people,--freedom from insult, from segregation, from poverty, from +physical slavery. If the attitude of the European and American worlds is +in the future going to be based essentially upon the same policies as in +the past, then there is but one thing for the trained man of darker +blood to do and that is definitely and as openly as possible to organize +his world for war against Europe. He may have to do it by secret, +underground propaganda, as in Egypt and India and eventually in the +United States; or by open increase of armament, as in Japan; or by +desperate efforts at modernization, as in China; but he must do it. He +represents the vast majority of mankind. To surrender would be far worse +than physical death. There is no way out unless the white world gives up +such insult as its modern use of the adjective "yellow" indicates, or +its connotation of "chink" and "nigger" implies; either it gives up the +plan of color serfdom which its use of the other adjective "white" +implies, as indicating everything decent and every part of the world +worth living in,--or trouble is written in the stars! + +It is, therefore, of singular importance after disquieting delay to see +the real Pacifist appear. Both England and Germany have recently been +basing their claims to parts of black Africa on the wishes and interests +of the black inhabitants. Lloyd George has declared "the general +principle of national self-determination applicable at least to German +Africa," while Chancellor Hertling once welcomed a discussion "on the +reconstruction of the world's colonial possessions." + +The demand that an Africa for Africans shall replace the present +barbarous scramble for exploitation by individual states comes from +singularly different sources. Colored America demands that "the +conquered German colonies should not be returned to Germany, neither +should they be held by the Allies. Here is the opportunity for the +establishment of a nation that may never recur. Thousands of colored +men, sick of white arrogance and hypocrisy, see in this their race's +only salvation." + +Sir Harry H. Johnston recently said: "If we are to talk, as we do, +sentimentally but justly about restoring the nationhood of Poland, about +giving satisfaction to the separatist feeling in Ireland, and about what +is to be done for European nations who are oppressed, then we can hardly +exclude from this feeling the countries of Africa." + +Laborers, black laborers, on the Canal Zone write: "Out of this chaos +may be the great awakening of our race. There is cause for rejoicing. If +we fail to embrace this opportunity now, we fail to see how we will be +ever able to solve the race question. It is for the British Negro, the +French Negro, and the American Negro to rise to the occasion and start a +national campaign, jointly and collectively, with this aim in view." + +From British West Africa comes the bitter complaint "that the West +Africans should have the right or opportunity to settle their future for +themselves is a thing which hardly enters the mind of the European +politician. That the Balkan States should be admitted to the Council of +Peace and decide the government under which they are to live is taken as +a matter of course because they are Europeans, but no extra-European is +credited, even by the extremist advocates of human equality, with any +right except to humbly accept the fate which Europe shall decide for +him." + +Here, then, is the danger and the demand; and the real Pacifist will +seek to organize, not simply the masses in white nations, guarding +against exploitation and profiteering, but will remember that no +permanent relief can come but by including in this organization the +lowest and the most exploited races in the world. World philanthropy, +like national philanthropy, must come as uplift and prevention and not +merely as alleviation and religious conversion. Reverence for humanity, +as such, must be installed in the world, and Africa should be the +talisman. + +Black Africa, including British, French, Belgian, Portuguese, Italian, +and Spanish possessions and the independent states of Abyssinia and +Liberia and leaving out of account Egypt and North Africa, on the one +hand, and South Africa, on the other, has an area of 8,200,000 square +miles and a population well over one hundred millions of black men, +with less than one hundred thousand whites. + +Commercial exploitation in Africa has already larger results to show +than most people realize. Annually $200,000,000 worth of goods was +coming out of black Africa before the World War, including a third of +the world's supply of rubber, a quarter of all of the world's cocoa, and +practically all of the world's cloves, gum-arabic, and palm-oil. In +exchange there was being returned to Africa one hundred millions in +cotton cloth, twenty-five millions in iron and steel, and as much in +foods, and probably twenty-five millions in liquors. + +Here are the beginnings of a modern industrial system: iron and steel +for permanent investment, bound to yield large dividends; cloth as the +cheapest exchange for invaluable raw material; liquor to tickle the +appetites of the natives and render the alienation of land and the +breakdown of customary law easier; eventually forced and contract labor +under white drivers to increase and systematize the production of raw +materials. These materials are capable of indefinite expansion: cotton +may yet challenge the southern United States, fruits and vegetables, +hides and skins, lumber and dye-stuffs, coffee and tea, grain and +tobacco, and fibers of all sorts can easily follow organized and +systematic toil. + +Is it a paradise of industry we thus contemplate? It is much more likely +to be a hell. Under present plans there will be no voice or law or +custom to protect labor, no trades unions, no eight-hour laws, no +factory legislation,--nothing of that great body of legislation built up +in modern days to protect mankind from sinking to the level of beasts of +burden. All the industrial deviltry, which civilization has been driving +to the slums and the backwaters, will have a voiceless continent to +conceal it. If the slave cannot be taken from Africa, slavery can be +taken to Africa. + +Who are the folk who live here? They are brown and black, curly and +crisp-haired, short and tall, and longheaded. Out of them in days +without date flowed the beginnings of Egypt; among them rose, later, +centers of culture at Ghana, Melle, and Timbuktu. Kingdoms and empires +flourished in Songhay and Zymbabwe, and art and industry in Yoruba and +Benin. They have fought every human calamity in its most hideous form +and yet today they hold some similar vestiges of a mighty past,--their +work in iron, their weaving and carving, their music and singing, their +tribal government, their town-meeting and marketplace, their desperate +valor in war. + +Missionaries and commerce have left some good with all their evil. In +black Africa today there are more than a thousand government schools and +some thirty thousand mission schools, with a more or less regular +attendance of three-quarters of a million school children. In a few +cases training of a higher order is given chiefs' sons and selected +pupils. These beginnings of education are not much for so vast a land +and there is no general standard or set plan of development, but, after +all, the children of Africa are beginning to learn. + +In black Africa today only one-seventeenth of the land and a ninth of +the people in Liberia and Abyssinia are approximately independent, +although menaced and policed by European capitalism. Half the land and +the people are in domains under Portugal, France, and Belgium, held with +the avowed idea of exploitation for the benefit of Europe under a system +of caste and color serfdom. Out of this dangerous nadir of development +stretch two paths: one is indicated by the condition of about three per +cent of the people who in Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, and French +Senegal, are tending toward the path of modern development; the other +path, followed by a fourth of the land and people, has local +self-government and native customs and might evolve, if undisturbed, a +native culture along their own peculiar lines. A tenth of the land, +sparsely settled, is being monopolized and held for whites to make an +African Australia. To these later folk must be added the four and +one-half millions of the South African Union, who by every modern device +are being forced into landless serfdom. + +Before the World War tendencies were strongly toward the destruction of +independent Africa, the industrial slavery of the mass of the blacks and +the encouragement of white immigration, where possible, to hold the +blacks in subjection. + +Against this idea let us set the conception of a new African World +State, a Black Africa, applying to these peoples the splendid +pronouncements which have of late been so broadly and perhaps carelessly +given the world: recognizing in Africa the declaration of the American +Federation of Labor, that "no people must be forced under sovereignty +under which it does not wish to live"; recognizing in President Wilson's +message to the Russians, the "principle of the undictated development of +all peoples"; recognizing the resolution of the recent conference of the +Aborigines Protection Society of England, "that in any reconstruction of +Africa, which may result from this war, the interests of the native +inhabitants and also their wishes, in so far as those wishes can be +clearly ascertained, should be recognized as among the principal factors +upon which the decision of their destiny should be based." In other +words, recognizing for the first time in the history of the modern world +that black men are human. + +It may not be possible to build this state at once. With the victory of +the Entente Allies, the German colonies, with their million of square +miles and one-half million black inhabitants, should form such a +nucleus. It would give Black Africa its physical beginnings. Beginning +with the German colonies two other sets of colonies could be added, for +obvious reasons. Neither Portugal nor Belgium has shown any particular +capacity for governing colonial peoples. Valid excuses may in both cases +be advanced, but it would certainly be fair to Belgium to have her start +her great task of reorganization after the World War with neither the +burden nor the temptation of colonies; and in the same way Portugal has, +in reality, the alternative of either giving up her colonies to an +African State or to some other European State in the near future. These +two sets of colonies would add 1,700,000 square miles and eighteen +million inhabitants. It would not, however, be fair to despoil Germany, +Belgium, and Portugal of their colonies unless, as Count Hertling once +demanded, the whole question of colonies be opened. + +How far shall the modern world recognize nations which are not nations, +but combinations of a dominant caste and a suppressed horde of serfs? +Will it not be possible to rebuild a world with compact nations, empires +of self-governing elements, and colonies of backward peoples under +benevolent international control? + +The great test would be easy. Does England propose to erect in India and +Nigeria nations brown and black which shall be eventually independent, +self-governing entities, with a full voice in the British Imperial +Government? If not, let these states either have independence at once +or, if unfitted for that, be put under international tutelage and +guardianship. It is possible that France, with her great heart, may +welcome a Black France,--an enlarged Senegal in Africa; but it would +seem that eventually all Africa south of twenty degrees north latitude +and north of the Union of South Africa should be included in a new +African State. Somaliland and Eritrea should be given to Abyssinia, and +then with Liberia we would start with two small, independent African +states and one large state under international control. + +Does this sound like an impossible dream? No one could be blamed for so +regarding it before 1914. I, myself, would have agreed with them. But +since the nightmare of 1914-1918, since we have seen the impossible +happen and the unspeakable become so common as to cease to stir us; in a +day when Russia has dethroned her Czar, England has granted the suffrage +to women and is in the act of giving Home Rule to Ireland; when Germany +has adopted parliamentary government; when Jerusalem has been delivered +from the Turks; and the United States has taken control of its +railroads,--is it really so far-fetched to think of an Africa for the +Africans, guided by organized civilization? + +No one would expect this new state to be independent and self-governing +from the start. Contrary, however, to present schemes for Africa the +world would expect independence and self-government as the only possible +end of the experiment At first we can conceive of no better way of +governing this state than through that same international control by +which we hope to govern the world for peace. A curious and instructive +parallel has been drawn by Simeon Strunsky: "Just as the common +ownership of the northwest territory helped to weld the colonies into +the United States, so could not joint and benevolent domination of +Africa and of other backward parts of the world be a cornerstone upon +which the future federation of the world could be built?" + +From the British Labor Party comes this declaration: "With regard to the +colonies of the several belligerents in tropical Africa, from sea to +sea, the British Labor Movement disclaims all sympathy with the +imperialist idea that these should form the booty of any nation, should +be exploited for the profit of the capitalists, or should be used for +the promotion of the militarists' aims of government. In view of the +fact that it is impracticable here to leave the various peoples +concerned to settle their own destinies it is suggested that the +interests of humanity would be best served by the full and frank +abandonment by all the belligerents of any dreams of an African Empire; +the transfer of the present colonies of the European Powers in tropical +Africa, however, and the limits of this area may be defined to the +proposed Supernational Authority, or League of Nations." + +Lloyd George himself has said in regard to the German colonies a word +difficult to restrict merely to them: "I have repeatedly declared that +they are held at the disposal of a conference, whose decision must have +primary regard to the wishes and interests of the native inhabitants of +such colonies. None of those territories is inhabited by Europeans. The +governing considerations, therefore, must be that the inhabitants should +be placed under the control of an administration acceptable to +themselves, one of whose main purposes will be to prevent their +exploitation for the benefit of European capitalists or governments." + +The special commission for the government of this African State must, +naturally, be chosen with great care and thought. It must represent, not +simply governments, but civilization, science, commerce, social reform, +religious philanthropy without sectarian propaganda. It must include, +not simply white men, but educated and trained men of Negro blood. The +guiding principles before such a commission should be clearly +understood. In the first place, it ought by this time to be realized by +the labor movement throughout the world that no industrial democracy can +be built on industrial despotism, whether the two systems are in the +same country or in different countries, since the world today so nearly +approaches a common industrial unity. If, therefore, it is impossible in +any single land to uplift permanently skilled labor without also raising +common labor, so, too, there can be no permanent uplift of American or +European labor as long as African laborers are slaves. + +Secondly, this building of a new African State does not mean the +segregation in it of all the world's black folk. It is too late in the +history of the world to go back to the idea of absolute racial +segregation. The new African State would not involve any idea of a vast +transplantation of the twenty-seven million Negroids of the western +world, of Africa, or of the gathering there of Negroid Asia. The Negroes +in the United States and the other Americas have earned the right to +fight out their problems where they are, but they could easily furnish +from time to time technical experts, leaders of thought, and +missionaries of culture for their backward brethren in the new Africa. + +With these two principles, the practical policies to be followed out in +the government of the new states should involve a thorough and complete +system of modern education, built upon the present government, religion, +and customary laws of the natives. There should be no violent tampering +with the curiously efficient African institutions of local +self-government through the family and the tribe; there should be no +attempt at sudden "conversion" by religious propaganda. Obviously +deleterious customs and unsanitary usages must gradually be abolished, +but the general government, set up from without, must follow the example +of the best colonial administrators and build on recognized, established +foundations rather than from entirely new and theoretical plans. + +The real effort to modernize Africa should be through schools rather +than churches. Within ten years, twenty million black children ought to +be in school. Within a generation young Africa should know the essential +outlines of modern culture and groups of bright African students could +be going to the world's great universities. From the beginning the +actual general government should use both colored and white officials +and later natives should be worked in. Taxation and industry could +follow the newer ideals of industrial democracy, avoiding private land +monopoly and poverty, and promoting co-operation in production and the +socialization of income. Difficulties as to capital and revenue would be +far less than many imagine. If a capable English administrator of +British Nigeria could with $1,500 build up a cocoa industry of twenty +million dollars annually, what might not be done in all Africa, without +gin, thieves, and hypocrisy? + +Capital could not only be accumulated in Africa, but attracted from the +white world, with one great difference from present usage: no return so +fabulous would be offered that civilized lands would be tempted to +divert to colonial trade and invest materials and labor needed by the +masses at home, but rather would receive the same modest profits as +legitimate home industry offers. + +There is no sense in asserting that the ideal of an African State, thus +governed and directed toward independence and self-government, is +impossible of realization. The first great essential is that the +civilized world believe in its possibility. By reason of a crime +(perhaps the greatest crime in human history) the modern world has been +systematically taught to despise colored peoples. Men of education and +decency ask, and ask seriously, if it is really possible to uplift +Africa. Are Negroes human, or, if human, developed far enough to absorb, +even under benevolent tutelage, any appreciable part of modern culture? +Has not the experiment been tried in Haiti and Liberia, and failed? + +One cannot ignore the extraordinary fact that a world campaign beginning +with the slave-trade and ending with the refusal to capitalize the word +"Negro," leading through a passionate defense of slavery by attributing +every bestiality to blacks and finally culminating in the evident modern +profit which lies in degrading blacks,--all this has unconsciously +trained millions of honest, modern men into the belief that black folk +are sub-human. This belief is not based on science, else it would be +held as a postulate of the most tentative kind, ready at any time to be +withdrawn in the face of facts; the belief is not based on history, for +it is absolutely contradicted by Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and +Arabian experience; nor is the belief based on any careful survey of the +social development of men of Negro blood to-day in Africa and America. +It is simply passionate, deep-seated heritage, and as such can be moved +by neither argument nor fact. Only faith in humanity will lead the world +to rise above its present color prejudice. + +Those who do believe in men, who know what black men have done in human +history, who have taken pains to follow even superficially the story of +the rise of the Negro in Africa, the West Indies, and the Americas of +our day know that our modern contempt of Negroes rests upon no +scientific foundation worth a moment's attention. It is nothing more +than a vicious habit of mind. It could as easily be overthrown as our +belief in war, as our international hatreds, as our old conception of +the status of women, as our fear of educating the masses, and as our +belief in the necessity of poverty. We can, if we will, inaugurate on +the Dark Continent a last great crusade for humanity. With Africa +redeemed Asia would be safe and Europe indeed triumphant. + +I have not mentioned North and South Africa, because my eye was centered +on the main mass of the Negro race. Yet it is clear that for the +development of Central Africa, Egypt should be free and independent, +there along the highway to a free and independent India; while Morocco, +Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli must become a part of Europe, with modern +development and home rule. South Africa, stripped of its black serfs and +their lands, must admit the resident natives and colored folk to its +body politic as equals. + +The hands which Ethiopia shall soon stretch out unto God are not mere +hands of helplessness and supplication, but rather are they hands of +pain and promise; hard, gnarled, and muscled for the world's real work; +they are hands of fellowship for the half-submerged masses of a +distempered world; they are hands of helpfulness for an agonized God! + + * * * * * + +Twenty centuries before Christ a great cloud swept over seas and settled +on Africa, darkening and well-nigh blotting out the culture of the land +of Egypt. For half a thousand years it rested there, until a black +woman, Queen Nefertari, "the most venerated figure in Egyptian history," +rose to the throne of the Pharaohs and redeemed the world and her +people. Twenty centuries after Christ, Black Africa,--prostrated, raped, +and shamed, lies at the feet of the conquering Philistines of Europe. +Beyond the awful sea a black woman is weeping and waiting, with her sons +on her breast. What shall the end be? The world-old and fearful +things,--war and wealth, murder and luxury? Or shall it be a new +thing,--a new peace and a new democracy of all races,--a great humanity +of equal men? "_Semper novi quid ex Africa_!" + + + + +_The Princess of the Hither Isles_ + + +Her soul was beautiful, wherefore she kept it veiled in lightly-laced +humility and fear, out of which peered anxiously and anon the white and +blue and pale-gold of her face,-beautiful as daybreak or as the laughing +of a child. She sat in the Hither Isles, well walled between the This +and Now, upon a low and silver throne, and leaned upon its armposts, +sadly looking upward toward the sun. Now the Hither Isles are flat and +cold and swampy, with drear-drab light and all manner of slimy, creeping +things, and piles of dirt and clouds of flying dust and sordid scraping +and feeding and noise. + +She hated them and ever as her hands and busy feet swept back the dust +and slime her soul sat silver-throned, staring toward the great hill to +the westward, which shone so brilliant-golden beneath the sunlight and +above the sea. + +The sea moaned and with it moaned the princess' soul, for she was +lonely,--very, very lonely, and full weary of the monotone of life. So +she was glad to see a moving in Yonder Kingdom on the mountainside, +where the sun shone warm, and when the king of Yonder Kingdom, silken in +robe and golden-crowned and warded by his hound, walked down along the +restless waters and sat beside the armpost of her throne, she wondered +why she could not love him and fly with him up the shining mountain's +side, out of the dirt and dust that nested between the This and Now. She +looked at him and tried to be glad, for he was bonny and good to look +upon, this king of Yonder Kingdom,--tall and straight, thin-lipped and +white and tawny. So, again, this last day, she strove to burn life into +his singularly sodden clay,--to put his icy soul aflame wherewith to +warm her own, to set his senses singing. Vacantly he heard her winged +words, staring and curling his long mustaches with vast thoughtfulness. +Then he said: + +"We've found more gold in Yonder Kingdom." + +"Hell seize your gold!" blurted the princess. + +"No,--it's mine," he maintained stolidly. + +She raised her eyes. "It belongs," she said, "to the Empire of the Sun." + +"Nay,--the Sun belongs to us," said the king calmly as he glanced to +where Yonder Kingdom blushed above the sea. She glanced, too, and a +softness crept into her eyes. + +"No, no," she murmured as with hesitating pause she raised her eyes +above the sea, above the hill, up into the sky where the sun hung silent +and splendid. Its robes were heaven's blue, lined and broidered in +living flame, and its crown was one vast jewel, glistening in glittering +glory that made the sun's own face a blackness,--the blackness of utter +light. With blinded, tear-filled eyes she peered into that formless +black and burning face and sensed in its soft, sad gleam unfathomed +understanding. With sudden, wild abandon she stretched her arms toward +it appealing, beseeching, entreating, and lo! + +"Niggers and dagoes," said the king of Yonder Kingdom, glancing +carelessly backward and lighting in his lips a carefully rolled wisp of +fragrant tobacco. She looked back, too, but in half-wondering terror, +for it seemed-- + +A beggar man was creeping across the swamp, shuffling through the dirt +and slime. He was little and bald and black, rough-clothed, sodden with +dirt, and bent with toil. Yet withal something she sensed about him and +it seemed,-- + +The king of Yonder Kingdom lounged more comfortably beside the silver +throne and let curl a tiny trail of light-blue smoke. + +"I hate beggars," he said, "especially brown and black ones." And he +then pointed at the beggar's retinue and laughed,--an unpleasant laugh, +welded of contempt and amusement. The princess looked and shrank on her +throne. He, the beggar man, was--was what? But his retinue,--that +squalid, sordid, parti-colored band of vacant, dull-faced filth and +viciousness--was writhing over the land, and he and they seemed almost +crouching underneath the scorpion lash of one tall skeleton, that looked +like Death, and the twisted woman whom men called Pain. Yet they all +walked as one. + +The King of Yonder Kingdom laughed, but the princess shrank on her +throne, and the king on seeing her thus took a gold-piece from out of +his purse and tossed it carelessly to the passing throng. She watched it +with fascinated eyes,--how it rose and sailed and whirled and struggled +in the air, then seemed to burst, and upward flew its light and sheen +and downward dropped its dross. She glanced at the king, but he was +lighting a match. She watched the dross wallow in the slime, but the +sunlight fell on the back of the beggar's neck, and he turned his head. + +The beggar passing afar turned his head and the princess straightened +on her throne; he turned his head and she shivered forward on her +silver seat; he looked upon her full and slow and suddenly she saw +within that formless black and burning face the same soft, glad gleam of +utter understanding, seen so many times before. She saw the suffering of +endless years and endless love that softened it. She saw the burning +passion of the sun and with it the cold, unbending duty-deeds of upper +air. All she had seen and dreamed of seeing in the rising, blazing sun +she saw now again and with it myriads more of human tenderness, of +longing, and of love. So, then, she knew. She rose as to a dream come +true, with solemn face and waiting eyes. + +With her rose the king of Yonder Kingdom, almost eagerly. + +"You'll come?" he cried. "You'll come and see my gold?" And then in +sudden generosity, he added: "You'll have a golden throne,-up there-when +we marry." + +But she, looking up and on with radiant face, answered softly: "I come." + +So down and up and on they mounted,-the black beggar man and his +cavalcade of Death and Pain, and then a space; and then a lone, black +hound that nosed and whimpered as he ran, and then a space; and then the +king of Yonder Kingdom in his robes, and then a space; and last the +princess of the Hither Isles, with face set sunward and lovelight in her +eyes. + +And so they marched and struggled on and up through endless years and +spaces and ever the black beggar looked back past death and pain toward +the maid and ever the maid strove forward with lovelit eyes, but ever +the great and silken shoulders of the king of Yonder Kingdom arose +between the princess and the sun like a cloud of storms. + +Now, finally, they neared unto the hillsides topmost shoulder and there +most eagerly the king bent to the bowels of the earth and bared its +golden entrails,-all green and gray and rusted-while the princess +strained her pitiful eyes aloft to where the beggar, set 'twixt Death +and Pain, whirled his slim back against the glory of the setting sun and +stood somber in his grave majesty, enhaloed and transfigured, +outstretching his long arms, and around all heaven glittered jewels in a +cloth of gold. + +A while the princess stood and moaned in mad amaze, then with one wilful +wrench she bared the white flowers of her breast and snatching forth her +own red heart held it with one hand aloft while with the other she +gathered close her robe and poised herself. + +The king of Yonder Kingdom looked upward quickly, curiously, still +fingering the earth, and saw the offer of her bleeding heart. + +"It's a Negro!" he growled darkly; "it may not be." + +The woman quivered. + +"It's a nigger!" he repeated fiercely. "It's neither God nor man, but a +nigger!" + +The princess stepped forward. + +The king grasped his sword and looked north and east; he raised his +sword and looked south and west. + +"I seek the sun," the princess sang, and started into the west. + +"Never!" cried the king of Yonder Kingdom, "for such were blasphemy and +defilement and the making of all evil." + +So, raising his great sword he struck with all his might, and more. Down +hissed the blow and it bit that little, white, heart-holding hand until +it flew armless and disbodied up through the sunlit air. Down hissed the +blow and it clove the whimpering hound until his last shriek shook the +stars. Down hissed the blow and it rent the earth. It trembled, fell +apart, and yawned to a chasm wide as earth from heaven, deep as hell, +and empty, cold, and silent. + +On yonder distant shore blazed the mighty Empire of the Sun in warm and +blissful radiance, while on this side, in shadows cold and dark, gloomed +the Hither Isles and the hill that once was golden, but now was green +and slimy dross; all below was the sad and moaning sea, while between +the Here and There flew the severed hand and dripped the bleeding heart. + +Then up from the soul of the princess welled a cry of dark +despair,--such a cry as only babe-raped mothers know and murdered loves. +Poised on the crumbling edge of that great nothingness the princess +hung, hungering with her eyes and straining her fainting ears against +the awful splendor of the sky. + +Out from the slime and shadows groped the king, thundering: "Back--don't +be a fool!" + +But down through the thin ether thrilled the still and throbbing warmth +of heaven's sun, whispering "Leap!" + +And the princess leapt. + + + + +IV + +OF WORK AND WEALTH + + +For fifteen years I was a teacher of youth. They were years out of the +fullness and bloom of my younger manhood. They were years mingled of +half breathless work, of anxious self-questionings, of planning and +replanning, of disillusion, or mounting wonder. + +The teacher's life is a double one. He stands in a certain fear. He +tends to be stilted, almost dishonest, veiling himself before those +awful eyes. Not the eyes of Almighty God are so straight, so +penetrating, so all-seeing as the wonder-swept eyes of youth. You walk +into a room: to the left is a tall window, bright with colors of crimson +and gold and sunshine. Here are rows of books and there is a table. +Somber blackboards clothe the walls to the right and beside your desk is +the delicate ivory of a nobly cast head. But you see nothing of this: +you see only a silence and eyes,--fringed, soft eyes; hard eyes; eyes +great and small; eyes here so poignant with beauty that the sob +struggles in your throat; eyes there so hard with sorrow that laughter +wells up to meet and beat it back; eyes through which the mockery and +ridicule of hell or some pulse of high heaven may suddenly flash. Ah! +That mighty pause before the class,--that orison and benediction--how +much of my life it has been and made. + +I fought earnestly against posing before my class. I tried to be natural +and honest and frank, but it was a bitter hard. What would you say to a +soft, brown face, aureoled in a thousand ripples of gray-black hair, +which knells suddenly: "Do you trust white people?" You do not and you +know that you do not, much as you want to; yet you rise and lie and say +you do; you must say it for her salvation and the world's; you repeat +that she must trust them, that most white folks are honest, and all the +while you are lying and every level, silent eye there knows you are +lying, and miserably you sit and lie on, to the greater glory of God. + +I taught history and economics and something called "sociology" at +Atlanta University, where, as our Mr. Webster used to say, we professors +occupied settees and not mere chairs. I was fortunate with this teaching +in having vivid in the minds of my pupils a concrete social problem of +which we all were parts and which we desperately desired to solve. There +was little danger, then, of my teaching or of their thinking becoming +purely theoretical. Work and wage were thrilling realities to us all. +What did we study? I can tell you best by taking a concrete human case, +such as was continually leaping to our eyes and thought and demanding +understanding and interpretation and what I could bring of prophecy. + + * * * * * + +St. Louis sprawls where mighty rivers meet,--as broad as Philadelphia, +but three stories high instead of two, with wider streets and dirtier +atmosphere, over the dull-brown of wide, calm rivers. The city overflows +into the valleys of Illinois and lies there, writhing under its grimy +cloud. The other city is dusty and hot beyond all dream,--a feverish +Pittsburg in the Mississippi Valley--a great, ruthless, terrible thing! +It is the sort that crushes man and invokes some living superman,--a +giant of things done, a clang of awful accomplishment. + +Three men came wandering across this place. They were neither kings nor +wise men, but they came with every significance--perhaps even +greater--than that which the kings bore in the days of old. There was +one who came from the North,--brawny and riotous with energy, a man of +concentrated power, who held all the thunderbolts of modern capital in +his great fists and made flour and meat, iron and steel, cunning +chemicals, wood, paint and paper, transforming to endless tools a +disemboweled earth. He was one who saw nothing, knew nothing, sought +nothing but the making and buying of that which sells; who out from the +magic of his hand rolled over miles of iron road, ton upon ton of food +and metal and wood, of coal and oil and lumber, until the thronging of +knotted ways in East and real St. Louis was like the red, festering +ganglia of some mighty heart. + +Then from the East and called by the crash of thunderbolts and +forked-flame came the Unwise Man,--unwise by the theft of endless ages, +but as human as anything God ever made. He was the slave for the miracle +maker. It was he that the thunderbolts struck and electrified into +gasping energy. The rasp of his hard breathing shook the midnights of +all this endless valley and the pulse of his powerful arms set the great +nation to trembling. + +And then, at last, out of the South, like a still, small voice, came the +third man,--black, with great eyes and greater memories; hesitantly +eager and yet with the infinite softness and ancient calm which come +from that eternal race whose history is not the history of a day, but +of endless ages. Here, surely, was fit meeting-place for these curiously +intent forces, for these epoch-making and age-twisting forces, for these +human feet on their super-human errands. + +Yesterday I rode in East St. Louis. It is the kind of place one quickly +recognizes,--tireless and with no restful green of verdure; hard and +uneven of street; crude, cold, and even hateful of aspect; conventional, +of course, in its business quarter, but quickly beyond one sees the ruts +and the hollows, the stench of ill-tamed sewerage, unguarded railroad +crossings, saloons outnumbering churches and churches catering to +saloons; homes impudently strait and new, prostitutes free and happy, +gamblers in paradise, the town "wide open," shameless and frank; great +factories pouring out stench, filth, and flame--these and all other +things so familiar in the world market places, where industry triumphs +over thought and products overwhelm men. May I tell, too, how yesterday +I rode in this city past flame-swept walls and over gray ashes; in +streets almost wet with blood and beside ruins, where the bones of dead +men new-bleached peered out at me in sullen wonder? + +Across the river, in the greater city, where bronze St. Louis,--that +just and austere king--looks with angry, fear-swept eyes down from the +rolling heights of Forest Park, which knows him not nor heeds him, there +is something of the same thing, but this city is larger and older and +the forces of evil have had some curbing from those who have seen the +vision and panted for life; but eastward from St. Louis there is a land +of no taxes for great industries; there is a land where you may buy +grafting politicians at far less rate than you would pay for franchises +or privileges in a modern town. There, too, you may escape the buying of +indulgences from the great terminal fist, which squeezes industry out of +St. Louis. In fact, East St. Louis is a paradise for high and frequent +dividends and for the piling up of wealth to be spent in St. Louis and +Chicago and New York and when the world is sane again, across the seas. + +So the Unwise Men pouring out of the East,--falling, scrambling, rushing +into America at the rate of a million a year,--ran, walked, and crawled +to this maelstrom of the workers. They garnered higher wage than ever +they had before, but not all of it came in cash. A part, and an +insidious part, was given to them transmuted into whiskey, prostitutes, +and games of chance. They laughed and disported themselves. God! Had not +their mothers wept enough? It was a good town. There was no veil of +hypocrisy here, but a wickedness, frank, ungilded, and open. To be sure, +there were things sometimes to reveal the basic savagery and thin +veneer. Once, for instance, a man was lynched for brawling on the public +square of the county seat; once a mayor who sought to "clean up" was +publicly assassinated; always there was theft and rumors of theft, +until St. Clair County was a hissing in good men's ears; but always, +too, there were good wages and jolly hoodlums and unchecked wassail of +Saturday nights. Gamblers, big and little, rioted in East St. Louis. The +little gamblers used cards and roulette wheels and filched the weekly +wage of the workers. The greater gamblers used meat and iron and undid +the foundations of the world. All the gods of chance flaunted their wild +raiment here, above the brown flood of the Mississippi. + +Then the world changed; then civilization, built for culture, rebuilt +itself for wilful murder in Europe, Asia, America, and the Southern +Seas. Hands that made food made powder, and iron for railways was iron +for guns. The wants of common men were forgotten before the groan of +giants. Streams of gold, lost from the world's workers, filtered and +trickled into the hands of gamblers and put new power into the +thunderbolts of East St. Louis. + +Wages had been growing before the World War. Slowly but remorselessly +the skilled and intelligent, banding themselves, had threatened the +coffers of the mighty, and slowly the mighty had disgorged. Even the +common workers, the poor and unlettered, had again and again gripped the +sills of the city walls and pulled themselves to their chins; but, alas! +there were so many hands and so many mouths and the feet of the +Disinherited kept coming across the wet paths of the sea to this old El +Dorado. + +War brought subtle changes. Wages stood still while prices fattened. It +was not that the white American worker was threatened with starvation, +but it was what was, after all, a more important question,--whether or +not he should lose his front-room and victrola and even the dream of a +Ford car. + +There came a whirling and scrambling among the workers,--they fought +each other; they climbed on each others' backs. The skilled and +intelligent, banding themselves even better than before, bargained with +the men of might and held them by bitter threats; the less skilled and +more ignorant seethed at the bottom and tried, as of old, to bring it +about that the ignorant and unlettered should learn to stand together +against both capital and skilled labor. + +It was here that there came out of the East a beam of unearthly +light,--a triumph of possible good in evil so strange that the workers +hardly believed it. Slowly they saw the gates of Ellis Island closing, +slowly the footsteps of the yearly million men became fainter and +fainter, until the stream of immigrants overseas was stopped by the +shadow of death at the very time when new murder opened new markets over +all the world to American industry; and the giants with the thunderbolts +stamped and raged and peered out across the world and called for men and +evermore,--men! + +The Unwise Men laughed and squeezed reluctant dollars out of the fists +of the mighty and saw in their dream the vision of a day when labor, as +they knew it, should come into its own; saw this day and saw it with +justice and with right, save for one thing, and that was the sound of +the moan of the Disinherited, who still lay without the walls. When they +heard this moan and saw that it came not across the seas, they were at +first amazed and said it was not true; and then they were mad and said +it should not be. Quickly they turned and looked into the red blackness +of the South and in their hearts were fear and hate! + +What did they see? They saw something at which they had been taught to +laugh and make sport; they saw that which the heading of every newspaper +column, the lie of every cub reporter, the exaggeration of every press +dispatch, and the distortion of every speech and book had taught them +was a mass of despicable men, inhuman; at best, laughable; at worst, the +meat of mobs and fury. + +What did they see? They saw nine and one-half millions of human beings. +They saw the spawn of slavery, ignorant by law and by deviltry, crushed +by insult and debauched by systematic and criminal injustice. They saw a +people whose helpless women have been raped by thousands and whose men +lynched by hundreds in the face of a sneering world. They saw a people +with heads bloody, but unbowed, working faithfully at wages fifty per +cent. lower than the wages of the nation and under conditions which +shame civilization, saving homes, training children, hoping against +hope. They saw the greatest industrial miracle of modern days,--slaves +transforming themselves to freemen and climbing out of perdition by +their own efforts, despite the most contemptible opposition God ever +saw,--they saw all this and what they saw the distraught employers of +America saw, too. + +The North called to the South. A scream of rage went up from the cotton +monopolists and industrial barons of the new South. Who was this who +dared to "interfere" with their labor? Who sought to own their black +slaves but they? Who honored and loved "niggers" as they did? + +They mobilized all the machinery of modern oppression: taxes, city +ordinances, licenses, state laws, municipal regulations, wholesale +police arrests and, of course, the peculiarly Southern method of the mob +and the lyncher. They appealed frantically to the United States +Government; they groveled on their knees and shed wild tears at the +"suffering" of their poor, misguided black friends, and yet, despite +this, the Northern employers simply had to offer two and three dollars a +day and from one-quarter to one-half a million dark workers arose and +poured themselves into the North. They went to the mines of West +Virginia, because war needs coal; they went to the industries of New +Jersey and Pennsylvania, because war needs ships and iron; they went to +the automobiles of Detroit and the load-carrying of Chicago; and they +went to East St. Louis. + +Now there came fear in the hearts of the Unwise Men. It was not that +their wages were lowered,--they went even higher. They received, not +simply, a living wage, but a wage that paid for some of the decencies, +and, in East St. Louis, many of the indecencies of life. What they +feared was not deprivation of the things they were used to and the +shadow of poverty, but rather the definite death of their rising dreams. +But if fear was new-born in the hearts of the Unwise Men, the black man +was born in a house of fear; to him poverty of the ugliest and straitest +type was father, mother, and blood-brother. He was slipping stealthily +northward to escape hunger and insult, the hand of oppression, and the +shadow of death. + +Here, then, in the wide valley which Father Marquette saw peaceful and +golden, lazy with fruit and river, half-asleep beneath the nod of +God,--here, then, was staged every element for human tragedy, every +element of the modern economic paradox. + + * * * * * + +Ah! That hot, wide plain of East St. Louis is a gripping thing. The +rivers are dirty with sweat and toil and lip, like lakes, along the low +and burdened shores; flatboats ramble and thread among them, and above +the steamers bridges swing on great arches of steel, striding with +mighty grace from shore to shore. Everywhere are brick kennels,--tall, +black and red chimneys, tongues of flame. The ground is littered with +cars and iron, tracks and trucks, boxes and crates, metals and coal and +rubber. Nature-defying cranes, grim elevators rise above pile on pile of +black and grimy lumber. And ever below is the water,--wide and silent, +gray-brown and yellow. + +This is the stage for the tragedy: the armored might of the modern world +urged by the bloody needs of the world wants, fevered today by a +fabulous vision of gain and needing only hands, hands, hands! Fear of +loss and greed of gain in the hearts of the giants; the clustered +cunning of the modern workman, skilled as artificer and skilled in the +rhythm of the habit of work, tasting the world's good and panting for +more; fear of poverty and hate of "scabs" in the hearts of the workers; +the dumb yearning in the hearts of the oppressed; the echo of laughter +heard at the foot of the Pyramids; the faithful, plodding slouch of the +laborers; fear of the Shadow of Death in the hearts of black men. + +We ask, and perhaps there is no answer, how far may the captain of the +world's industry do his deeds, despite the grinding tragedy of its +doing? How far may men fight for the beginning of comfort, out beyond +the horrid shadow of poverty, at the cost of starving other and what the +world calls lesser men? How far may those who reach up out of the slime +that fills the pits of the world's damned compel men with loaves to +divide with men who starve? + +The answers to these questions are hard, but yet one answer looms above +all,--justice lies with the lowest; the plight of the lowest man,--the +plight of the black man--deserves the first answer, and the plight of +the giants of industry, the last. + +Little cared East St. Louis for all this bandying of human problems, so +long as its grocers and saloon-keepers flourished and its industries +steamed and screamed and smoked and its bankers grew rich. Stupidity, +license, and graft sat enthroned in the City Hall. The new black folk +were exploited as cheerfully as white Polacks and Italians; the rent of +shacks mounted merrily, the street car lines counted gleeful gains, and +the crimes of white men and black men flourished in the dark. The high +and skilled and smart climbed on the bent backs of the ignorant; harder +the mass of laborers strove to unionize their fellows and to bargain +with employers. + +Nor were the new blacks fools. They had no love for nothings in labor; +they had no wish to make their fellows' wage envelopes smaller, but they +were determined to make their own larger. They, too, were willing to +join in the new union movement. But the unions did not want them. Just +as employers monopolized meat and steel, so they sought to monopolize +labor and beat a giant's bargain. In the higher trades they succeeded. +The best electrician in the city was refused admittance to the union and +driven from the town because he was black. No black builder, printer, or +machinist could join a union or work in East St. Louis, no matter what +his skill or character. But out of the stink of the stockyards and the +dust of the aluminum works and the sweat of the lumber yards the willing +blacks could not be kept. + +They were invited to join unions of the laborers here and they joined. +White workers and black workers struck at the aluminum works in the fall +and won higher wages and better hours; then again in the spring they +struck to make bargaining compulsory for the employer, but this time +they fronted new things. The conflagration of war had spread to America; +government and court stepped in and ordered no hesitation, no strikes; +the work must go on. + +Deeper was the call for workers. Black men poured in and red anger +flamed in the hearts of the white workers. The anger was against the +wielders of the thunderbolts, but here it was impotent because employers +stood with the hand of the government before their faces; it was against +entrenched union labor, which had risen on the backs of the unskilled +and unintelligent and on the backs of those whom for any reason of race +or prejudice or chicane they could beat beyond the bars of competition; +and finally the anger of the mass of white workers was turned toward +these new black interlopers, who seemed to come to spoil their last +dream of a great monopoly of common labor. + +These angers flamed and the union leaders, fearing their fury and +knowing their own guilt, not only in the larger and subtler matter of +bidding their way to power across the weakness of their less fortunate +fellows, but also conscious of their part in making East St. Louis a +miserable town of liquor and lust, leaped quickly to ward the gathering +thunder from their own heads. The thing they wanted was even at their +hands: here were black men, guilty not only of bidding for jobs which +white men could have held at war prices, even if they could not fill, +but also guilty of being black! It was at this blackness that the unions +pointed the accusing finger. It was here that they committed the +unpardonable crime. It was here that they entered the Shadow of Hell, +where suddenly from a fight for wage and protection against industrial +oppression East St. Louis became the center of the oldest and nastiest +form of human oppression,--race hatred. + +The whole situation lent itself to this terrible transformation. +Everything in the history of the United States, from slavery to Sunday +supplements, from disfranchisement to residence segregation, from +"Jim-Crow" cars to a "Jim-Crow" army draft--all this history of +discrimination and insult festered to make men think and willing to +think that the venting of their unbridled anger against 12,000,000 +humble, upstriving workers was a way of settling the industrial tangle +of the ages. It was the logic of the broken plate, which, seared of old +across its pattern, cracks never again, save along the old destruction. + +So hell flamed in East St. Louis! The white men drove even black union +men out of their unions and when the black men, beaten by night and +assaulted, flew to arms and shot back at the marauders, five thousand +rioters arose and surged like a crested stormwave, from noonday until +midnight; they killed and beat and murdered; they dashed out the brains +of children and stripped off the clothes of women; they drove victims +into the flames and hanged the helpless to the lighting poles. Fathers +were killed before the faces of mothers; children were burned; heads +were cut off with axes; pregnant women crawled and spawned in dark, wet +fields; thieves went through houses and firebrands followed; bodies were +thrown from bridges; and rocks and bricks flew through the air. + +The Negroes fought. They grappled with the mob like beasts at bay. They +drove them back from the thickest cluster of their homes and piled the +white dead on the street, but the cunning mob caught the black men +between the factories and their homes, where they knew they were armed +only with their dinner pails. Firemen, policemen, and militiamen stood +with hanging hands or even joined eagerly with the mob. + +It was the old world horror come to life again: all that Jews suffered +in Spain and Poland; all that peasants suffered in France, and Indians +in Calcutta; all that aroused human deviltry had accomplished in ages +past they did in East St. Louis, while the rags of six thousand +half-naked black men and women fluttered across the bridges of the calm +Mississippi. + +The white South laughed,--it was infinitely funny--the "niggers" who had +gone North to escape slavery and lynching had met the fury of the mob +which they had fled. Delegations rushed North from Mississippi and +Texas, with suspicious timeliness and with great-hearted offers to take +these workers back to a lesser hell. The man from Greensville, +Mississippi, who wanted a thousand got six, because, after all, the end +was not so simple. + +No, the end was not simple. On the contrary, the problem raised by East +St. Louis was curiously complex. The ordinary American, tired of the +persistence of "the Negro problem," sees only another anti-Negro mob and +wonders, not when we shall settle this problem, but when we shall be +well rid of it. The student of social things sees another mile-post in +the triumphant march of union labor; he is sorry that blood and rapine +should mark its march,--but, what will you? War is life! + +Despite these smug reasonings the bare facts were these: East St. Louis, +a great industrial center, lost 5,000 laborers,--good, honest, +hard-working laborers. It was not the criminals, either black or white, +who were driven from East St. Louis. They are still there. They will +stay there. But half the honest black laborers were gone. The crippled +ranks of industrial organization in the mid-Mississippi Valley cannot be +recruited from Ellis Island, because in Europe men are dead and maimed, +and restoration, when restoration comes, will raise a European demand +for labor such as this age has never seen. The vision of industrial +supremacy has come to the giants who lead American industry and finance. +But it can never be realized unless the laborers are here to do the +work,--the skilled laborers, the common laborers, the willing laborers, +the well-paid laborers. The present forces, organized however cunningly, +are not large enough to do what America wants; but there is another +group of laborers, 12,000,000 strong, the natural heirs, by every logic +of justice, to the fruits of America's industrial advance. They will be +used simply because they must be used,--but their using means East St. +Louis! + +Eastward from St. Louis lie great centers, like Chicago, Indianapolis, +Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, and New York; in every one +of these and in lesser centers there is not only the industrial unrest +of war and revolutionized work, but there is the call for workers, the +coming of black folk, and the deliberate effort to divert the thoughts +of men, and particularly of workingmen, into channels of race hatred +against blacks. In every one of these centers what happened in East St. +Louis has been attempted, with more or less success. Yet the American +Negroes stand today as the greatest strategic group in the world. Their +services are indispensable, their temper and character are fine, and +their souls have seen a vision more beautiful than any other mass of +workers. They may win back culture to the world if their strength can be +used with the forces of the world that make for justice and not against +the hidden hates that fight for barbarism. For fight they must and fight +they will! + +Rising on wings we cross again the rivers of St. Louis, winding and +threading between the towers of industry that threaten and drown the +towers of God. Far, far beyond, we sight the green of fields and hills; +but ever below lies the river, blue,--brownish-gray, touched with the +hint of hidden gold. Drifting through half-flooded lowlands, with +shanties and crops and stunted trees, past struggling corn and +straggling village, we rush toward the Battle of the Marne and the West, +from this dread Battle of the East. Westward, dear God, the fire of Thy +Mad World crimsons our Heaven. Our answering Hell rolls eastward from +St. Louis. + + * * * * * + +Here, in microcosm, is the sort of economic snarl that arose continually +for me and my pupils to solve. We could bring to its unraveling little +of the scholarly aloofness and academic calm of most white universities. +To us this thing was Life and Hope and Death! + +How should we think such a problem through, not simply as Negroes, but +as men and women of a new century, helping to build a new world? And +first of all, here is no simple question of race antagonism. There are +no races, in the sense of great, separate, pure breeds of men, differing +in attainment, development, and capacity. There are great groups,--now +with common history, now with common interests, now with common +ancestry; more and more common experience and present interest drive +back the common blood and the world today consists, not of races, but of +the imperial commercial group of master capitalists, international and +predominantly white; the national middle classes of the several nations, +white, yellow, and brown, with strong blood bonds, common languages, and +common history; the international laboring class of all colors; the +backward, oppressed groups of nature-folk, predominantly yellow, brown, +and black. + +Two questions arise from the work and relations of these groups: how to +furnish goods and services for the wants of men and how equitably and +sufficiently to satisfy these wants. There can be no doubt that we have +passed in our day from a world that could hardly satisfy the physical +wants of the mass of men, by the greatest effort, to a world whose +technique supplies enough for all, if all can claim their right. Our +great ethical question today is, therefore, how may we justly distribute +the world's goods to satisfy the necessary wants of the mass of men. + +What hinders the answer to this question? Dislikes, jealousies, +hatreds,--undoubtedly like the race hatred in East St. Louis; the +jealousy of English and German; the dislike of the Jew and the Gentile. +But these are, after all, surface disturbances, sprung from ancient +habit more than from present reason. They persist and are encouraged +because of deeper, mightier currents. If the white workingmen of East +St. Louis felt sure that Negro workers would not and could not take the +bread and cake from their mouths, their race hatred would never have +been translated into murder. If the black workingmen of the South could +earn a decent living under decent circumstances at home, they would not +be compelled to underbid their white fellows. + +Thus the shadow of hunger, in a world which never needs to be hungry, +drives us to war and murder and hate. But why does hunger shadow so vast +a mass of men? Manifestly because in the great organizing of men for +work a few of the participants come out with more wealth than they can +possibly use, while a vast number emerge with less than can decently +support life. In earlier economic stages we defended this as the reward +of Thrift and Sacrifice, and as the punishment of Ignorance and Crime. +To this the answer is sharp: Sacrifice calls for no such reward and +Ignorance deserves no such punishment. The chief meaning of our present +thinking is that the disproportion between wealth and poverty today +cannot be adequately accounted for by the thrift and ignorance of the +rich and the poor. + +Yesterday we righted one great mistake when we realized that the +ownership of the laborer did not tend to increase production. The world +at large had learned this long since, but black slavery arose again in +America as an inexplicable anachronism, a wilful crime. The freeing of +the black slaves freed America. Today we are challenging another +ownership,-the ownership of materials which go to make the goods we +need. Private ownership of land, tools, and raw materials may at one +stage of economic development be a method of stimulating production and +one which does not greatly interfere with equitable distribution. When, +however, the intricacy and length of technical production increased, the +ownership of these things becomes a monopoly, which easily makes the +rich richer and the poor poorer. Today, therefore, we are challenging +this ownership; we are demanding general consent as to what materials +shall be privately owned and as to how materials shall be used. We are +rapidly approaching the day when we shall repudiate all private property +in raw materials and tools and demand that distribution hinge, not on +the power of those who monopolize the materials, but on the needs of the +mass of men. + +Can we do this and still make sufficient goods, justly gauge the needs +of men, and rightly decide who are to be considered "men"? How do we +arrange to accomplish these things today? Somebody decides whose wants +should be satisfied. Somebody organizes industry so as to satisfy these +wants. What is to hinder the same ability and foresight from being used +in the future as in the past? The amount and kind of human ability +necessary need not be decreased,--it may even be vastly increased, with +proper encouragement and rewards. Are we today evoking the necessary +ability? On the contrary, it is not the Inventor, the Manager, and the +Thinker who today are reaping the great rewards of industry, but rather +the Gambler and the Highwayman. Rightly-organized industry might easily +save the Gambler's Profit and the Monopolist's Interest and by paying a +more discriminating reward in wealth and honor bring to the service of +the state more ability and sacrifice than we can today command. If we do +away with interest and profit, consider the savings that could be made; +but above all, think how great the revolution would be when we ask the +mysterious Somebody to decide in the light of public opinion whose wants +should be satisfied. This is the great and real revolution that is +coming in future industry. + +But this is not the need of the revolution nor indeed, perhaps, its real +beginning. What we must decide sometime is who are to be considered +"men." Today, at the beginning of this industrial change, we are +admitting that economic classes must give way. The laborers' hire must +increase, the employers' profit must be curbed. But how far shall this +change go? Must it apply to all human beings and to all work throughout +the world? + +Certainly not. We seek to apply it slowly and with some reluctance to +white men and more slowly and with greater reserve to white women, but +black folk and brown and for the most part yellow folk we have widely +determined shall not be among those whose needs must justly be heard and +whose wants must be ministered to in the great organization of world +industry. + +In the teaching of my classes I was not willing to stop with showing +that this was unfair,--indeed I did not have to do this. They knew +through bitter experience its rank injustice, because they were black. +What I had to show was that no real reorganization of industry could be +permanently made with the majority of mankind left out. These +disinherited darker peoples must either share in the future industrial +democracy or overturn the world. + +Of course, the foundation of such a system must be a high, ethical +ideal. We must really envisage the wants of humanity. We must want the +wants of all men. We must get rid of the fascination for exclusiveness. +Here, in a world full of folk, men are lonely. The rich are lonely. We +are all frantic for fellow-souls, yet we shut souls out and bar the ways +and bolster up the fiction of the Elect and the Superior when the great +mass of men is capable of producing larger and larger numbers for every +human height of attainment. To be sure, there are differences between +men and groups and there will ever be, but they will be differences of +beauty and genius and of interest and not necessarily of ugliness, +imbecility, and hatred. + +The meaning of America is the beginning of the discovery of the Crowd. +The crowd is not so well-trained as a Versailles garden party of Louis +XIV, but it is far better trained than the Sans-culottes and it has +infinite possibilities. What a world this will be when human +possibilities are freed, when we discover each other, when the stranger +is no longer the potential criminal and the certain inferior! + +What hinders our approach to the ideals outlined above? Our profit from +degradation, our colonial exploitation, our American attitude toward the +Negro. Think again of East St. Louis! Think back of that to slavery and +Reconstruction! Do we want the wants of American Negroes satisfied? Most +certainly not, and that negative is the greatest hindrance today to the +reorganization of work and redistribution of wealth, not only in +America, but in the world. + +All humanity must share in the future industrial democracy of the world. +For this it must be trained in intelligence and in appreciation of the +good and the beautiful. Present Big Business,--that Science of Human +Wants--must be perfected by eliminating the price paid for waste, which +is Interest, and for Chance, which is Profit, and making all income a +personal wage for service rendered by the recipient; by recognizing no +possible human service as great enough to enable a person to designate +another as an idler or as a worker at work which he cannot do. Above +all, industry must minister to the wants of the many and not to the few, +and the Negro, the Indian, the Mongolian, and the South Sea Islander +must be among the many as well as Germans, Frenchmen, and Englishmen. + +In this coming socialization of industry we must guard against that same +tyranny of the majority that has marked democracy in the making of laws. +There must, for instance, persist in this future economics a certain +minimum of machine-like work and prompt obedience and submission. This +necessity is a simple corollary from the hard facts of the physical +world. It must be accepted with the comforting thought that its routine +need not demand twelve hours a day or even eight. With Work for All and +All at Work probably from three to six hours would suffice, and leave +abundant time for leisure, exercise, study, and avocations. + +But what shall we say of work where spiritual values and social +distinctions enter? Who shall be Artists and who shall be Servants in +the world to come? Or shall we all be artists and all serve? + + + + +_The Second Coming_ + + +Three bishops sat in San Francisco, New Orleans, and New York, peering +gloomily into three flickering fires, which cast and recast shuddering +shadows on book-lined walls. Three letters lay in their laps, which +said: + +"And thou, Valdosta, in the land of Georgia, art not least among the +princes of America, for out of thee shall come a governor who shall rule +my people." + +The white bishop of New York scowled and impatiently threw the letter +into the fire. "Valdosta?" he thought,--"That's where I go to the +governor's wedding of little Marguerite, my white flower,--" Then he +forgot the writing in his musing, but the paper flared red in the +fireplace. + +"Valdosta?" said the black bishop of New Orleans, turning uneasily in +his chair. "I must go down there. Those colored folk are acting +strangely. I don't know where all this unrest and moving will lead to. +Then, there's poor Lucy--" And he threw the letter into the fire, but +eyed it suspiciously as it flamed green. "Stranger things than that have +happened," he said slowly, "'and ye shall hear of wars and rumors of +wars ... for nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against +kingdom.'" + +In San Francisco the priest of Japan, abroad to study strange lands, sat +in his lacquer chair, with face like soft-yellow and wrinkled parchment. +Slowly he wrote in a great and golden book: "I have been strangely +bidden to the Val d' Osta, where one of those religious cults that swarm +here will welcome a prophet. I shall go and report to Kioto." + +So in the dim waning of the day before Christmas three bishops met in +Valdosta and saw its mills and storehouses, its wide-throated and sandy +streets, in the mellow glow of a crimson sun. The governor glared +anxiously up the street as he helped the bishop of New York into his car +and welcomed him graciously. + +"I am troubled," said the governor, "about the niggers. They are acting +queerly. I'm not certain but Fleming is back of it." + +"Fleming?" + +"Yes! He's running against me next term for governor; he's a firebrand; +wants niggers to vote and all that--pardon me a moment, there's a darky +I know--" and he hurried to the black bishop, who had just descended +from the "Jim-Crow" car, and clasped his hand cordially. They talked in +whispers. "Search diligently," said the governor in parting, "and bring +me word again." Then returning to his guest, "You will excuse me, won't +you?" he asked, "but I am sorely troubled! I never saw niggers act so. +They're leaving by the hundreds and those who stay are getting impudent! +They seem to be expecting something. What's the crowd, Jim?" + +The chauffeur said that there was some sort of Chinese official in town +and everybody wanted to glimpse him. He drove around another way. + +It all happened very suddenly. The bishop of New York, in full +canonicals for the early wedding, stepped out on the rear balcony of his +mansion, just as the dying sun lit crimson clouds of glory in the East +and burned the West. + +"Fire!" yelled a wag in the surging crowd that was gathering to +celebrate a southern Christmas-eve; all laughed and ran. + +The bishop of New York did not understand. He peered around. Was it that +dark, little house in the far backyard that flamed? Forgetful of his +robes he hurried down,--a brave, white figure in the sunset. He found +himself before an old, black, rickety stable. He could hear the mules +stamping within. + +No. It was not fire. It was the sunset glowing through the cracks. +Behind the hut its glory rose toward God like flaming wings of cherubim. +He paused until he heard the faint wail of a child. Hastily he entered. +A white girl crouched before him, down by the very mules' feet, with a +baby in her arms,-a little mite of a baby that wailed weakly. Behind +mother and child stood a shadow. The bishop of New York turned to the +right, inquiringly, and saw a black man in bishop's robes that faintly +re-echoed his own. He turned away to the left and saw a golden Japanese +in golden garb. Then he heard the black man mutter behind him: "But He +was to come the second time in clouds of glory, with the nations +gathered around Him and angels--" at the word a shaft of glorious light +fell full upon the child, while without came the tramping of unnumbered +feet and the whirring of wings. + +The bishop of New York bent quickly over the baby. It was black! He +stepped back with a gesture of disgust, hardly listening to and yet +hearing the black bishop, who spoke almost as if in apology: + +"She's not really white; I know Lucy--you see, her mother worked for the +governor--" The white bishop turned on his heel and nearly trod on the +yellow priest, who knelt with bowed head before the pale mother and +offered incense and a gift of gold. + +Out into the night rushed the bishop of New York. The wings of the +cherubim were folded black against the stars. As he hastened down the +front staircase the governor came rushing up the street steps. + +"We are late!" he cried nervously. "The bride awaits!" He hurried the +bishop to the waiting limousine, asking him anxiously: "Did you hear +anything? Do you hear that noise? The crowd is growing strangely on the +streets and there seems to be a fire over toward the East. I never saw +so many people here--I fear violence--a mob--a lynching--I fear--hark!" + +What was that which he, too, heard beneath the rhythm of unnumbered +feet? Deep in his heart a wonder grew. What was it? Ah, he knew! It was +music,--some strong and mighty chord. It rose higher as the +brilliantly-lighted church split the night, and swept radiantly toward +them. So high and clear that music flew, it seemed above, around, behind +them. The governor, ashen-faced, crouched in the car; but the bishop +said softly as the ecstasy pulsed in his heart: + +"Such music, such wedding music! What choir is it?" + + + + +V + +"THE SERVANT IN THE HOUSE" + + +The lady looked at me severely; I glanced away. I had addressed the +little audience at some length on the disfranchisement of my people in +society, politics, and industry and had studiously avoided the while her +cold, green eye. I finished and shook weary hands, while she lay in +wait. I knew what was coming and braced my soul. + +"Do you know where I can get a good colored cook?" she asked. I +disclaimed all guilty concupiscence. She came nearer and spitefully +shook a finger in my face. + +"Why--won't--Negroes--work!" she panted. "I have given money for years +to Hampton and Tuskegee and yet I can't get decent servants. They won't +try. They're lazy! They're unreliable! They're impudent and they leave +without notice. They all want to be lawyers and doctors and" (she spat +the word in venom) "ladies!" + +"God forbid!" I answered solemnly, and then being of gentle birth, and +unminded to strike a defenseless female of uncertain years, I ran; I ran +home and wrote a chapter in my book and this is it. + + * * * * * + +I speak and speak bitterly as a servant and a servant's son, for my +mother spent five or more years of her life as a menial; my father's +family escaped, although grandfather as a boat steward had to fight hard +to be a man and not a lackey. He fought and won. My mother's folk, +however, during my childhood, sat poised on that thin edge between the +farmer and the menial. The surrounding Irish had two chances, the +factory and the kitchen, and most of them took the factory, with all its +dirt and noise and low wage. The factory was closed to us. Our little +lands were too small to feed most of us. A few clung almost sullenly to +the old homes, low and red things crouching on a wide level; but the +children stirred restlessly and walked often to town and saw its +wonders. Slowly they dribbled off,--a waiter here, a cook there, help +for a few weeks in Mrs. Blank's kitchen when she had summer boarders. + +Instinctively I hated such work from my birth. I loathed it and shrank +from it. Why? I could not have said. Had I been born in Carolina instead +of Massachusetts I should hardly have escaped the taint of "service." +Its temptations in wage and comfort would soon have answered my +scruples; and yet I am sure I would have fought long even in Carolina, +for I knew in my heart that thither lay Hell. + +I mowed lawns on contract, did "chores" that left me my own man, sold +papers, and peddled tea--anything to escape the shadow of the awful +thing that lurked to grip my soul. Once, and once only, I felt the sting +of its talons. I was twenty and had graduated from Fisk with a +scholarship for Harvard; I needed, however, travel money and clothes and +a bit to live on until the scholarship was due. Fortson was a +fellow-student in winter and a waiter in summer. He proposed that the +Glee Club Quartet of Fisk spend the summer at the hotel in Minnesota +where he worked and that I go along as "Business Manager" to arrange for +engagements on the journey back. We were all eager, but we knew nothing +of table-waiting. "Never mind," said Fortson, "you can stand around the +dining-room during meals and carry out the big wooden trays of dirty +dishes. Thus you can pick up knowledge of waiting and earn good tips and +get free board." I listened askance, but I went. + +I entered that broad and blatant hotel at Lake Minnetonka with distinct +forebodings. The flamboyant architecture, the great verandas, rich +furniture, and richer dresses awed us mightily. The long loft reserved +for us, with its clean little cots, was reassuring; the work was not +difficult,--but the meals! There were no meals. At first, before the +guests ate, a dirty table in the kitchen was hastily strewn with +uneatable scraps. We novices were the only ones who came to eat, while +the guests' dining-room, with its savors and sights, set our appetites +on edge! After a while even the pretense of meals for us was dropped. We +were sure we were going to starve when Dug, one of us, made a startling +discovery: the waiters stole their food and they stole the best. We +gulped and hesitated. Then we stole, too, (or, at least, they stole and +I shared) and we all fattened, for the dainties were marvelous. You +slipped a bit here and hid it there; you cut off extra portions and gave +false orders; you dashed off into darkness and hid in corners and ate +and ate! It was nasty business. I hated it. I was too cowardly to steal +much myself, and not coward enough to refuse what others stole. + +Our work was easy, but insipid. We stood about and watched overdressed +people gorge. For the most part we were treated like furniture and were +supposed to act the wooden part. I watched the waiters even more than +the guests. I saw that it paid to amuse and to cringe. One particular +black man set me crazy. He was intelligent and deft, but one day I +caught sight of his face as he served a crowd of men; he was playing the +clown,--crouching, grinning, assuming a broad dialect when he usually +spoke good English--ah! it was a heartbreaking sight, and he made more +money than any waiter in the dining-room. + +I did not mind the actual work or the kind of work, but it was the +dishonesty and deception, the flattery and cajolery, the unnatural +assumption that worker and diner had no common humanity. It was uncanny. +It was inherently and fundamentally wrong. I stood staring and thinking, +while the other boys hustled about. Then I noticed one fat hog, feeding +at a heavily gilded trough, who could not find his waiter. He beckoned +me. It was not his voice, for his mouth was too full. It was his way, +his air, his assumption. Thus Caesar ordered his legionaries or +Cleopatra her slaves. Dogs recognized the gesture. I did not. He may be +beckoning yet for all I know, for something froze within me. I did not +look his way again. Then and there I disowned menial service for me and +my people. + +I would work my hands off for an honest wage, but for "tips" and +"hand-me-outs," never! Fortson was a pious, honest fellow, who regarded +"tips" as in the nature of things, being to the manner born; but the +hotel that summer in other respects rather astonished even him. He came +to us much flurried one night and got us to help him with a memorial to +the absentee proprietor, telling of the wild and gay doings of midnights +in the rooms and corridors among "tired" business men and their +prostitutes. We listened wide-eyed and eager and wrote the filth out +manfully. The proprietor did not thank Fortson. He did not even answer +the letter. + +When I finally walked out of that hotel and out of menial service +forever, I felt as though, in a field of flowers, my nose had been held +unpleasantly long to the worms and manure at their roots. + + * * * * * + +"Cursed be Canaan!" cried the Hebrew priests. "A servant of servants +shall he be unto his brethren." With what characteristic complacency did +the slaveholders assume that Canaanites were Negroes and their +"brethren" white? Are not Negroes servants? _Ergo_! Upon such spiritual +myths was the anachronism of American slavery built, and this was the +degradation that once made menial servants the aristocrats among colored +folk. House servants secured some decencies of food and clothing and +shelter; they could more easily reach their master's ear; their personal +abilities of character became known and bonds grew between slave and +master which strengthened from friendship to love, from mutual service +to mutual blood. + +Naturally out of this the West Indian servant climbed out of slavery +into citizenship, for few West Indian masters--fewer Spanish or +Dutch--were callous enough to sell their own children into slavery. Not +so with English and Americans. With a harshness and indecency seldom +paralleled in the civilized world white masters on the mainland sold +their mulatto children, half-brothers and half-sisters, and their own +wives in all but name, into life-slavery by the hundreds and thousands. +They originated a special branch of slave-trading for this trade and the +white aristocrats of Virginia and the Carolinas made more money by this +business during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries than in any +other way. + +The clang of the door of opportunity thus knelled in the ears of the +colored house servant whirled the whole face of Negro advancement as on +some great pivot. The movement was slow, but vast. When emancipation +came, before and after 1863, the house servant still held advantages. He +had whatever education the race possessed and his white father, no +longer able to sell him, often helped him with land and protection. +Notwithstanding this the lure of house service for the Negro was gone. +The path of salvation for the emancipated host of black folk lay no +longer through the kitchen door, with its wide hall and pillared veranda +and flowered yard beyond. It lay, as every Negro soon knew and knows, in +escape from menial serfdom. + +In 1860, 98 per cent of the Negroes were servants and serfs. In 1880, 30 +per cent were servants and 65 per cent were serfs. The percentage of +servants then rose slightly and fell again until 21 per cent were in +service in 1910 and, doubtless, much less than 20 per cent today. This +is the measure of our rise, but the Negro will not approach freedom +until this hateful badge of slavery and mediaevalism has been reduced to +less than 10 per cent. + +Not only are less than a fifth of our workers servants today, but the +character of their service has been changed. The million menial workers +among us include 300,000 upper servants,--skilled men and women of +character, like hotel waiters, Pullman porters, janitors, and cooks, +who, had they been white, could have called on the great labor movement +to lift their work out of slavery, to standardize their hours, to define +their duties, and to substitute a living, regular wage for personal +largess in the shape of tips, old clothes, and cold leavings of food. +But the labor movement turned their backs on those black men when the +white world dinned in their ears. _Negroes are servants; servants are +Negroes._ They shut the door of escape to factory and trade in their +fellows' faces and battened down the hatches, lest the 300,000 should be +workers equal in pay and consideration with white men. + +But, if the upper servants could not escape to modern, industrial +conditions, how much the more did they press down on the bodies and +souls of 700,000 washerwomen and household drudges,--ignorant, +unskilled offal of a millionaire industrial system. Their pay was the +lowest and their hours the longest of all workers. The personal +degradation of their work is so great that any white man of decency +would rather cut his daughter's throat than let her grow up to such a +destiny. There is throughout the world and in all races no greater +source of prostitution than this grade of menial service, and the Negro +race in America has largely escaped this destiny simply because its +innate decency leads black women to choose irregular and temporary +sexual relations with men they like rather than to sell themselves to +strangers. To such sexual morals is added (in the nature of +self-defense) that revolt against unjust labor conditions which +expresses itself in "soldiering," sullenness, petty pilfering, +unreliability, and fast and fruitless changes of masters. + +Indeed, here among American Negroes we have exemplified the last and +worst refuge of industrial caste. Menial service is an anachronism,--the +refuse of mediaeval barbarism. Whey, then, does it linger? Why are we +silent about it? Why in the minds of so many decent and up-seeing folks +does the whole Negro problem resolve itself into the matter of their +getting a cook or a maid? + +No one knows better than I the capabilities of a system of domestic +service at its best. I have seen children who were spiritual sons and +daughters of their masters, girls who were friends of their mistresses, +and old servants honored and revered. But in every such case the Servant +had transcended the Menial, the Service had been exalted above the Wage. +Now to accomplish this permanently and universally, calls for the same +revolution in household help as in factory help and public service. +While organized industry has been slowly making its help into +self-respecting, well-paid men, and while public service is beginning to +call for the highest types of educated and efficient thinkers, domestic +service lags behind and insists upon seeking to evolve the best types of +men from the worst conditions. + +The cause of this perversity, to my mind, is twofold. First, the ancient +high estate of Service, now pitifully fallen, yet gasping for breath; +secondly, the present low estate of the outcasts of the world, peering +with blood-shot eyes at the gates of the industrial heaven. + +The Master spoke no greater word than that which said: "Whosoever will +be great among you, let him be your servant!" What is greater than +Personal Service! Surely no social service, no wholesale helping of +masses of men can exist which does not find its effectiveness and beauty +in the personal aid of man to man. It is the purest and holiest of +duties. Some mighty glimmer of this truth survived in those who made the +First Gentlemen of the Bedchamber, the Keepers of the Robes, and the +Knights of the Bath, the highest nobility that hedged an anointed king. +Nor does it differ today in what the mother does for the child or the +daughter for the mother, in all the personal attentions in the +old-fashioned home; this is Service! Think of what Friend has meant, not +simply in spiritual sympathies, but in physical helpfulness. In the +world today what calls for more of love, sympathy, learning, sacrifice, +and long-suffering than the care of children, the preparation of food, +the cleansing and ordering of the home, personal attendance and +companionship, the care of bodies and their raiment--what greater, more +intimate, more holy Services are there than these? + +And yet we are degrading these services and loathing them and scoffing +at them and spitting upon them, first, by turning them over to the +lowest and least competent and worst trained classes in the world, and +then by yelling like spoiled children if our babies are neglected, our +biscuits sodden, our homes dirty, and our baths unpoured. Let one +suggest that the only cure for such deeds is in the uplift of the doer +and our rage is even worse and less explicable. We will call them by +their first names, thus blaspheming a holy intimacy; we will confine +them to back doors; we will insist that their meals be no gracious +ceremony nor even a restful sprawl, but usually a hasty, heckled gulp +amid garbage; we exact, not a natural, but a purchased deference, and we +leave them naked to insult by our children and by our husbands. + +I remember a girl,--how pretty she was, with the crimson flooding the +old ivory of her cheeks and her gracious plumpness! She had come to the +valley during the summer to "do housework." I met and walked home with +her, in the thrilling shadows, to an old village home I knew well; then +as I turned to leave I learned that she was there alone in that house +for a week-end with only one young white man to represent the family. +Oh, he was doubtless a "gentleman" and all that, but for the first time +in my life I saw what a snare the fowler was spreading at the feet of +the daughters of my people, baited by church and state. + +Not alone is the hurt thus offered to the lowly,--Society and Science +suffer. The unit which we seek to make the center of society,--the +Home--is deprived of the help of scientific invention and suggestion. It +is only slowly and by the utmost effort that some small foothold has +been gained for the vacuum cleaner, the washing-machine, the power tool, +and the chemical reagent. In our frantic effort to preserve the last +vestiges of slavery and mediaevalism we not only set out faces against +such improvements, but we seek to use education and the power of the +state to train the servants who do not naturally appear. + +Meantime the wild rush from house service, on the part of all who can +scramble or run, continues. The rules of the labor union are designed, +not simply to raise wages, but to guard against any likeness between +artisan and servant. There is no essential difference in ability and +training between a subway guard and a Pullman porter, but between their +union cards lies a whole world. + +Yet we are silent. Menial service is not a "social problem." It is not +really discussed. There is no scientific program for its "reform." There +is but one panacea: Escape! Get yourselves and your sons and daughters +out of the shadow of this awful thing! Hire servants, but never be one. +Indeed, subtly but surely the ability to hire at least "a maid" is still +civilization's patent to respectability, while "a man" is the first word +of aristocracy. + +All this is because we still consciously and unconsciously hold to the +"manure" theory of social organization. We believe that at the bottom of +organized human life there are necessary duties and services which no +real human being ought to be compelled to do. We push below this mudsill +the derelicts and half-men, whom we hate and despise, and seek to build +above it--Democracy! On such foundations is reared a Theory of +Exclusiveness, a feeling that the world progresses by a process of +excluding from the benefits of culture the majority of men, so that a +gifted minority may blossom. Through this door the modern democrat +arrives to the place where he is willing to allot two able-bodied men +and two fine horses to the task of helping one wizened beldam to take +the morning air. + +Here the absurdity ends. Here all honest minds turn back and ask: Is +menial service permanent or necessary? Can we not transfer cooking from +the home to the scientific laboratory, along with the laundry? Cannot +machinery, in the hands of self-respecting and well-paid artisans, do +our cleaning, sewing, moving, and decorating? Cannot the training of +children become an even greater profession than the attending of the +sick? And cannot personal service and companionship be coupled with +friendship and love where it belongs and whence it can never be divorced +without degradation and pain? + +In fine, can we not, black and white, rich and poor, look forward to a +world of Service without Servants? + +A miracle! you say? True. And only to be performed by the Immortal +Child. + + + + +_Jesus Christ in Texas_ + + +It was in Waco, Texas. + +The convict guard laughed. "I don't know," he said, "I hadn't thought of +that." He hesitated and looked at the stranger curiously. In the solemn +twilight he got an impression of unusual height and soft, dark eyes. +"Curious sort of acquaintance for the colonel," he thought; then he +continued aloud: "But that nigger there is bad, a born thief, and ought +to be sent up for life; got ten years last time--" + +Here the voice of the promoter, talking within, broke in; he was bending +over his figures, sitting by the colonel. He was slight, with a sharp +nose. + +"The convicts," he said, "would cost us $96 a year and board. Well, we +can squeeze this so that it won't be over $125 apiece. Now if these +fellows are driven, they can build this line within twelve months. It +will be running by next April. Freights will fall fifty per cent. Why, +man, you'll be a millionaire in less than ten years." + +The colonel started. He was a thick, short man, with a clean-shaven face +and a certain air of breeding about the lines of his countenance; the +word millionaire sounded well to his ears. He thought--he thought a +great deal; he almost heard the puff of the fearfully costly automobile +that was coming up the road, and he said: + +"I suppose we might as well hire them." + +"Of course," answered the promoter. + +The voice of the tall stranger in the corner broke in here: + +"It will be a good thing for them?" he said, half in question. + +The colonel moved. "The guard makes strange friends," he thought to +himself. "What's this man doing here, anyway?" He looked at him, or +rather looked at his eyes, and then somehow he felt a warming toward +him. He said: + +"Well, at least, it can't harm them; they're beyond that." + +"It will do them good, then," said the stranger again. + +The promoter shrugged his shoulders. "It will do us good," he said. + +But the colonel shook his head impatiently. He felt a desire to justify +himself before those eyes, and he answered: "Yes, it will do them good; +or at any rate it won't make them any worse than they are." Then he +started to say something else, but here sure enough the sound of the +automobile breathing at the gate stopped him and they all arose. + +"It is settled, then," said the promoter. + +"Yes," said the colonel, turning toward the stranger again. "Are you +going into town?" he asked with the Southern courtesy of white men to +white men in a country town. The stranger said he was. "Then come along +in my machine. I want to talk with you about this." + +They went out to the car. The stranger as he went turned again to look +back at the convict. He was a tall, powerfully built black fellow. His +face was sullen, with a low forehead, thick, hanging lips, and bitter +eyes. There was revolt written about his mouth despite the hang-dog +expression. He stood bending over his pile of stones, pounding +listlessly. Beside him stood a boy of twelve,--yellow, with a hunted, +crafty look. The convict raised his eyes and they met the eyes of the +stranger. The hammer fell from his hands. + +The stranger turned slowly toward the automobile and the colonel +introduced him. He had not exactly caught his name, but he mumbled +something as he presented him to his wife and little girl, who were +waiting. + +As they whirled away the colonel started to talk, but the stranger had +taken the little girl into his lap and together they conversed in low +tones all the way home. + +In some way, they did not exactly know how, they got the impression that +the man was a teacher and, of course, he must be a foreigner. The long, +cloak-like coat told this. They rode in the twilight through the lighted +town and at last drew up before the colonel's mansion, with its +ghost-like pillars. + +The lady in the back seat was thinking of the guests she had invited to +dinner and was wondering if she ought not to ask this man to stay. He +seemed cultured and she supposed he was some acquaintance of the +colonel's. It would be rather interesting to have him there, with the +judge's wife and daughter and the rector. She spoke almost before she +thought: + +"You will enter and rest awhile?" + +The colonel and the little girl insisted. For a moment the stranger +seemed about to refuse. He said he had some business for his father, +about town. Then for the child's sake he consented. + +Up the steps they went and into the dark parlor where they sat and +talked a long time. It was a curious conversation. Afterwards they did +not remember exactly what was said and yet they all remembered a certain +strange satisfaction in that long, low talk. + +Finally the nurse came for the reluctant child and the hostess +bethought herself: + +"We will have a cup of tea; you will be dry and tired." + +She rang and switched on a blaze of light. With one accord they all +looked at the stranger, for they had hardly seen him well in the +glooming twilight. The woman started in amazement and the colonel half +rose in anger. Why, the man was a mulatto, surely; even if he did not +own the Negro blood, their practised eyes knew it. He was tall and +straight and the coat looked like a Jewish gabardine. His hair hung in +close curls far down the sides of his face and his face was olive, even +yellow. + +A peremptory order rose to the colonel's lips and froze there as he +caught the stranger's eyes. Those eyes,--where had he seen those eyes +before? He remembered them long years ago. The soft, tear-filled eyes of +a brown girl. He remembered many things, and his face grew drawn and +white. Those eyes kept burning into him, even when they were turned half +away toward the staircase, where the white figure of the child hovered +with her nurse and waved good-night. The lady sank into her chair and +thought: "What will the judge's wife say? How did the colonel come to +invite this man here? How shall we be rid of him?" She looked at the +colonel in reproachful consternation. + +Just then the door opened and the old butler came in. He was an ancient +black man, with tufted white hair, and he held before him a large, +silver tray filled with a china tea service. The stranger rose slowly +and stretched forth his hands as if to bless the viands. The old man +paused in bewilderment, tottered, and then with sudden gladness in his +eyes dropped to his knees, and the tray crashed to the floor. + +"My Lord and my God!" he whispered; but the woman screamed: "Mother's +china!" + +The doorbell rang. + +"Heavens! here is the dinner party!" exclaimed the lady. She turned +toward the door, but there in the hall, clad in her night clothes, was +the little girl. She had stolen down the stairs to see the stranger +again, and the nurse above was calling in vain. The woman felt +hysterical and scolded at the nurse, but the stranger had stretched out +his arms and with a glad cry the child nestled in them. They caught some +words about the "Kingdom of Heaven" as he slowly mounted the stairs with +his little, white burden. + +The mother was glad of anything to get rid of the interloper, even for a +moment. The bell rang again and she hastened toward the door, which the +loitering black maid was just opening. She did not notice the shadow of +the stranger as he came slowly down the stairs and paused by the newel +post, dark and silent. + +The judge's wife came in. She was an old woman, frilled and powdered +into a semblance of youth, and gorgeously gowned. She came forward, +smiling with extended hands, but when she was opposite the stranger, +somewhere a chill seemed to strike her and she shuddered and cried: + +"What a draft!" as she drew a silken shawl about her and shook hands +cordially; she forgot to ask who the stranger was. The judge strode in +unseeing, thinking of a puzzling case of theft. + +"Eh? What? Oh--er--yes,--good evening," he said, "good evening." Behind +them came a young woman in the glory of youth, and daintily silked, +beautiful in face and form, with diamonds around her fair neck. She came +in lightly, but stopped with a little gasp; then she laughed gaily and +said: + +"Why, I beg your pardon. Was it not curious? I thought I saw there +behind your man"--she hesitated, but he must be a servant, she +argued--"the shadow of great, white wings. It was but the light on the +drapery. What a turn it gave me." And she smiled again. With her came a +tall, handsome, young naval officer. Hearing his lady refer to the +servant, he hardly looked at him, but held his gilded cap carelessly +toward him, and the stranger placed it carefully on the rack. + +Last came the rector, a man of forty, and well-clothed. He started to +pass the stranger, stopped, and looked at him inquiringly. + +"I beg your pardon," he said. "I beg your pardon,--I think I have met +you?" + +The stranger made no answer, and the hostess nervously hurried the +guests on. But the rector lingered and looked perplexed. + +"Surely, I know you. I have met you somewhere," he said, putting his +hand vaguely to his head. "You--you remember me, do you not?" + +The stranger quietly swept his cloak aside, and to the hostess' +unspeakable relief passed out of the door. + +"I never knew you," he said in low tones as he went. + +The lady murmured some vain excuse about intruders, but the rector stood +with annoyance written on his face. + +"I beg a thousand pardons," he said to the hostess absently. "It is a +great pleasure to be here,--somehow I thought I knew that man. I am sure +I knew him once." + +The stranger had passed down the steps, and as he passed, the nurse, +lingering at the top of the staircase, flew down after him, caught his +cloak, trembled, hesitated, and then kneeled in the dust. + +He touched her lightly with his hand and said: "Go, and sin no more!" + +With a glad cry the maid left the house, with its open door, and turned +north, running. The stranger turned eastward into the night. As they +parted a long, low howl rose tremulously and reverberated through the +night. The colonel's wife within shuddered. + +"The bloodhounds!" she said. + +The rector answered carelessly: + +"Another one of those convicts escaped, I suppose. Really, they need +severer measures." Then he stopped. He was trying to remember that +stranger's name. + +The judge's wife looked about for the draft and arranged her shawl. The +girl glanced at the white drapery in the hall, but the young officer was +bending over her and the fires of life burned in her veins. + +Howl after howl rose in the night, swelled, and died away. The stranger +strode rapidly along the highway and out into the deep forest. There he +paused and stood waiting, tall and still. + +A mile up the road behind a man was running, tall and powerful and +black, with crime-stained face and convicts' stripes upon him, and +shackles on his legs. He ran and jumped, in little, short steps, and his +chains rang. He fell and rose again, while the howl of the hounds rang +louder behind him. + +Into the forest he leapt and crept and jumped and ran, streaming with +sweat; seeing the tall form rise before him, he stopped suddenly, +dropped his hands in sullen impotence, and sank panting to the earth. A +greyhound shot out of the woods behind him, howled, whined, and fawned +before the stranger's feet. Hound after hound bayed, leapt, and lay +there; then silently, one by one, and with bowed heads, they crept +backward toward the town. + +The stranger made a cup of his hands and gave the man water to drink, +bathed his hot head, and gently took the chains and irons from his feet. +By and by the convict stood up. Day was dawning above the treetops. He +looked into the stranger's face, and for a moment a gladness swept over +the stains of his face. + +"Why, you are a nigger, too," he said. + +Then the convict seemed anxious to justify himself. + +"I never had no chance," he said furtively. + +"Thou shalt not steal," said the stranger. + +The man bridled. + +"But how about them? Can they steal? Didn't they steal a whole year's +work, and then when I stole to keep from starving--" He glanced at the +stranger. + +"No, I didn't steal just to keep from starving. I stole to be stealing. +I can't seem to keep from stealing. Seems like when I see things, I just +must--but, yes, I'll try!" + +The convict looked down at his striped clothes, but the stranger had +taken off his long coat; he had put it around him and the stripes +disappeared. + +In the opening morning the black man started toward the low, log +farmhouse in the distance, while the stranger stood watching him. There +was a new glory in the day. The black man's face cleared up, and the +farmer was glad to get him. All day the black man worked as he had never +worked before. The farmer gave him some cold food. + +"You can sleep in the barn," he said, and turned away. + +"How much do I git a day?" asked the black man. + +The farmer scowled. + +"Now see here," said he. "If you'll sign a contract for the season, I'll +give you ten dollars a month." + +"I won't sign no contract," said the black man doggedly. + +"Yes, you will," said the farmer, threateningly, "or I'll call the +convict guard." And he grinned. + +The convict shrank and slouched to the barn. As night fell he looked out +and saw the farmer leave the place. Slowly he crept out and sneaked +toward the house. He looked through the kitchen door. No one was there, +but the supper was spread as if the mistress had laid it and gone out. +He ate ravenously. Then he looked into the front room and listened. He +could hear low voices on the porch. On the table lay a gold watch. He +gazed at it, and in a moment he was beside it,--his hands were on it! +Quickly he slipped out of the house and slouched toward the field. He +saw his employer coming along the highway. He fled back in tenor and +around to the front of the house, when suddenly he stopped. He felt the +great, dark eyes of the stranger and saw the same dark, cloak-like coat +where the stranger sat on the doorstep talking with the mistress of the +house. Slowly, guiltily, he turned back, entered the kitchen, and laid +the watch stealthily where he had found it; then he rushed wildly back +toward the stranger, with arms outstretched. + +The woman had laid supper for her husband, and going down from the house +had walked out toward a neighbor's. She was gone but a little while, and +when she came back she started to see a dark figure on the doorsteps +under the tall, red oak. She thought it was the new Negro until he said +in a soft voice: + +"Will you give me bread?" + +Reassured at the voice of a white man, she answered quickly in her soft, +Southern tones: + +"Why, certainly." + +She was a little woman, and once had been pretty; but now her face was +drawn with work and care. She was nervous and always thinking, wishing, +wanting for something. She went in and got him some cornbread and a +glass of cool, rich buttermilk; then she came out and sat down beside +him. She began, quite unconsciously, to tell him about herself,--the +things she had done and had not done and the things she had wished for. +She told him of her husband and this new farm they were trying to buy. +She said it was hard to get niggers to work. She said they ought all to +be in the chain-gang and made to work. Even then some ran away. Only +yesterday one had escaped, and another the day before. + +At last she gossiped of her neighbors, how good they were and how bad. + +"And do you like them all?" asked the stranger. + +She hesitated. + +"Most of them," she said; and then, looking up into his face and putting +her hand into his, as though he were her father, she said: + +"There are none I hate; no, none at all." + +He looked away, holding her hand in his, and said dreamily: + +"You love your neighbor as yourself?" + +She hesitated. + +"I try--" she began, and then looked the way he was looking; down under +the hill where lay a little, half-ruined cabin. + +"They are niggers," she said briefly. + +He looked at her. Suddenly a confusion came over her and she insisted, +she knew not why. + +"But they are niggers!" + +With a sudden impulse she arose and hurriedly lighted the lamp that +stood just within the door, and held it above her head. She saw his dark +face and curly hair. She shrieked in angry terror and rushed down the +path, and just as she rushed down, the black convict came running up +with hands outstretched. They met in mid-path, and before he could stop +he had run against her and she fell heavily to earth and lay white and +still. Her husband came rushing around the house with a cry and an oath. + +"I knew it," he said. "It's that runaway nigger." He held the black man +struggling to the earth and raised his voice to a yell. Down the highway +came the convict guard, with hound and mob and gun. They paused across +the fields. The farmer motioned to them. + +"He--attacked--my wife," he gasped. + +The mob snarled and worked silently. Right to the limb of the red oak +they hoisted the struggling, writhing black man, while others lifted the +dazed woman. Right and left, as she tottered to the house, she searched +for the stranger with a yearning, but the stranger was gone. And she +told none of her guests. + +"No--no, I want nothing," she insisted, until they left her, as they +thought, asleep. For a time she lay still, listening to the departure of +the mob. Then she rose. She shuddered as she heard the creaking of the +limb where the body hung. But resolutely she crawled to the window and +peered out into the moonlight; she saw the dead man writhe. He stretched +his arms out like a cross, looking upward. She gasped and clung to the +window sill. Behind the swaying body, and down where the little, +half-ruined cabin lay, a single flame flashed up amid the far-off shout +and cry of the mob. A fierce joy sobbed up through the terror in her +soul and then sank abashed as she watched the flame rise. Suddenly +whirling into one great crimson column it shot to the top of the sky and +threw great arms athwart the gloom until above the world and behind the +roped and swaying form below hung quivering and burning a great crimson +cross. + +She hid her dizzy, aching head in an agony of tears, and dared not look, +for she knew. Her dry lips moved: + +"Despised and rejected of men." + +She knew, and the very horror of it lifted her dull and shrinking +eyelids. There, heaven-tall, earth-wide, hung the stranger on the +crimson cross, riven and blood-stained, with thorn-crowned head and +pierced hands. She stretched her arms and shrieked. + +He did not hear. He did not see. His calm dark eyes, all sorrowful, were +fastened on the writhing, twisting body of the thief, and a voice came +out of the winds of the night, saying: + +"This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise!" + + + + +VI + +OF THE RULING OF MEN + + +The ruling of men is the effort to direct the individual actions of many +persons toward some end. This end theoretically should be the greatest +good of all, but no human group has ever reached this ideal because of +ignorance and selfishness. The simplest object would be rule for the +Pleasure of One, namely the Ruler; or of the Few--his favorites; or of +many--the Rich, the Privileged, the Powerful. Democratic movements +inside groups and nations are always taking place and they are the +efforts to increase the number of beneficiaries of the ruling. In 18th +century Europe, the effort became so broad and sweeping that an attempt +was made at universal expression and the philosophy of the movement said +that if All ruled they would rule for All and thus Universal Good was +sought through Universal Suffrage. + +The unrealized difficulty of this program lay in the widespread +ignorance. The mass of men, even of the more intelligent men, not only +knew little about each other but less about the action of men in groups +and the technique of industry in general. They could only apply +universal suffrage, therefore, to the things they knew or knew +partially: they knew personal and menial service, individual +craftsmanship, agriculture and barter, taxes or the taking of private +property for public ends and the rent of land. With these matters then +they attempted to deal. Under the cry of "Freedom" they greatly relaxed +the grip of selfish interests by restricting menial service, securing +the right of property in handiwork and regulating public taxes; +distributing land ownership and freeing trade and barter. + +While they were doing this against stubborn resistance, a whole new +organization of work suddenly appeared. The suddenness of this +"Industrial Revolution" of the 19th century was partly fortuitous--in +the case of Watt's teakettle--partly a natural development, as in the +matter of spinning, but largely the determination of powerful and +intelligent individuals to secure the benefits of privileged persons, as +in the case of foreign slave trade. + +The result was on the one hand a vast and unexampled development of +industry. Life and civilization in the late 19th and early 20th century +were Industry in its whole conception, language, and accomplishment: the +object of life was to make goods. Now before this giant aspect of +things, the new democracy stood aghast and impotent. It could not rule +because it did not understand: an invincible kingdom of trade, business, +and commerce ruled the world, and before its threshold stood the Freedom +of 18th century philosophy warding the way. Some of the very ones who +were freed from the tyranny of the Middle Age became the tyrants of the +industrial age. + +There came a reaction. Men sneered at "democracy" and politics, and +brought forth Fate and Philanthropy to rule the world--Fate which gave +divine right to rule to the Captains of Industry and their created +Millionaires; Philanthropy which organized vast schemes of relief to +stop at least the flow of blood in the vaster wounds which industry was +making. + +It was at this time that the lowest laborers, who worked hardest, got +least and suffered most, began to mutter and rebel, and among these were +the American Negroes. Lions have no historians, and therefore lion hunts +are thrilling and satisfactory human reading. Negroes had no bards, and +therefore it has been widely told how American philanthropy freed the +slave. In truth the Negro revolted by armed rebellion, by sullen refusal +to work, by poison and murder, by running away to the North and Canada, +by giving point and powerful example to the agitation of the +abolitionists and by furnishing 200,000 soldiers and many times as many +civilian helpers in the Civil War. This war was not a war for Negro +freedom, but a duel between two industrial systems, one of which was +bound to fail because it was an anachronism, and the other bound to +succeed because of the Industrial Revolution. + +When now the Negro was freed the Philanthropists sought to apply to his +situation the Philosophy of Democracy handed down from the 18th century. + +There was a chance here to try democratic rule in a new way, that is, +against the new industrial oppression with a mass of workers who were +not yet in its control. With plenty of land widely distributed, staple +products like cotton, rice, and sugar cane, and a thorough system of +education, there was a unique chance to realize a new modern democracy +in industry in the southern United States which would point the way to +the world. This, too, if done by black folk, would have tended to a new +unity of human beings and an obliteration of human hatreds festering +along the color line. + +Efforts were begun. The 14th and 15th amendments gave the right to vote +to white and black laborers, and they immediately established a public +school system and began to attack the land question. The United States +government was seriously considering the distribution of land and +capital--"40 acres and a mule"--and the price of cotton opened an easy +way to economic independence. Co-operative movements began on a large +scale. + +But alas! Not only were the former slave-owners solidly arrayed against +this experiment, but the owners of the industrial North saw disaster in +any such beginnings of industrial democracy. The opposition based its +objections on the color line, and Reconstruction became in history a +great movement for the self-assertion of the white race against the +impudent ambition of degraded blacks, instead of, in truth, the rise of +a mass of black and white laborers. + +The result was the disfranchisement of the blacks of the South and a +world-wide attempt to restrict democratic development to white races and +to distract them with race hatred against the darker races. This +program, however, although it undoubtedly helped raise the scale of +white labor, in much greater proportion put wealth and power in the +hands of the great European Captains of Industry and made modern +industrial imperialism possible. + +This led to renewed efforts on the part of white European workers to +understand and apply their political power to its reform through +democratic control. + +Whether known as Communism or Socialism or what not, these efforts are +neither new nor strange nor terrible, but world-old and seeking an +absolutely justifiable human ideal--the only ideal that can be sought: +the direction of individual action in industry so as to secure the +greatest good of all. Marxism was one method of accomplishing this, and +its panacea was the doing away with private property in machines and +materials. Two mighty attacks were made on this proposal. One was an +attack on the fundamental democratic foundation: modern European white +industry does not even theoretically seek the good of all, but simply of +all Europeans. This attack was virtually unanswered--indeed some +Socialists openly excluded Negroes and Asiatics from their scheme. From +this it was easy to drift into that form of syndicalism which asks +socialism for the skilled laborer only and leaves the common laborer in +his bonds. + +This throws us back on fundamentals. It compels us again to examine the +roots of democracy. + +Who may be excluded from a share in the ruling of men? Time and time +again the world has answered: + +The Ignorant +The Inexperienced +The Guarded +The Unwilling + +That is, we have assumed that only the intelligent should vote, or those +who know how to rule men, or those who are not under benevolent +guardianship, or those who ardently desire the right. + +These restrictions are not arguments for the wide distribution of the +ballot--they are rather reasons for restriction addressed to the +self-interest of the present real rulers. We say easily, for instance, +"The ignorant ought not to vote." We would say, "No civilized state +should have citizens too ignorant to participate in government," and +this statement is but a step to the fact: that no state is civilized +which has citizens too ignorant to help rule it. Or, in other words, +education is not a prerequisite to political control--political control +is the cause of popular education. + +Again, to make experience a qualification for the franchise is absurd: +it would stop the spread of democracy and make political power +hereditary, a prerequisite of a class, caste, race, or sex. It has of +course been soberly argued that only white folk or Englishmen, or men, +are really capable of exercising sovereign power in a modern state. The +statement proves too much: only yesterday it was Englishmen of high +descent, or men of "blood," or sovereigns "by divine right" who could +rule. Today the civilized world is being ruled by the descendants of +persons who a century ago were pronounced incapable of ever developing a +self-ruling people. In every modern state there must come to the polls +every generation, and indeed every year, men who are inexperienced in +the solutions of the political problems that confront them and who must +experiment in methods of ruling men. Thus and thus only will +civilization grow. + +Again, what is this theory of benevolent guardianship for women, for the +masses, for Negroes--for "lesser breeds without the law"? It is simply +the old cry of privilege, the old assumption that there are those in the +world who know better what is best for others than those others know +themselves, and who can be trusted to do this best. + +In fact no one knows himself but that self's own soul. The vast and +wonderful knowledge of this marvelous universe is locked in the bosoms +of its individual souls. To tap this mighty reservoir of experience, +knowledge, beauty, love, and deed we must appeal not to the few, not to +some souls, but to all. The narrower the appeal, the poorer the culture; +the wider the appeal the more magnificent are the possibilities. +Infinite is human nature. We make it finite by choking back the mass of +men, by attempting to speak for others, to interpret and act for them, +and we end by acting for ourselves and using the world as our private +property. If this were all, it were crime enough--but it is not all: by +our ignorance we make the creation of the greater world impossible; we +beat back a world built of the playing of dogs and laughter of children, +the song of Black Folk and worship of Yellow, the love of women and +strength of men, and try to express by a group of doddering ancients the +Will of the World. + +There are people who insist upon regarding the franchise, not as a +necessity for the many, but as a privilege for the few. They say of +persons and classes: "They do not need the ballot." This is often said +of women. It is argued that everything which women with the ballot might +do for themselves can be done for them; that they have influence and +friends "at court," and that their enfranchisement would simply double +the number of ballots. So, too, we are told that American Negroes can +have done for them by other voters all that they could possibly do for +themselves with the ballot and much more because the white voters are +more intelligent. + +Further than this, it is argued that many of the disfranchised people +recognize these facts. "Women do not want the ballot" has been a very +effective counter war-cry, so much so that many men have taken refuge in +the declaration: "When they want to vote, why, then--" So, too, we are +continually told that the "best" Negroes stay out of politics. + +Such arguments show so curious a misapprehension of the foundation of +the argument for democracy that the argument must be continually +restated and emphasized. We must remember that if the theory of +democracy is correct, the right to vote is not merely a privilege, not +simply a method of meeting the needs of a particular group, and least of +all a matter of recognized want or desire. Democracy is a method of +realizing the broadest measure of justice to all human beings. The world +has, in the past, attempted various methods of attaining this end, most +of which can be summed up in three categories: + +The method of the benevolent tyrant. +The method of the select few. +The method of the excluded groups. + +The method of intrusting the government of a people to a strong ruler +has great advantages when the ruler combines strength with ability, +unselfish devotion to the public good, and knowledge of what that good +calls for. Such a combination is, however, rare and the selection of the +right ruler is very difficult. To leave the selection to force is to put +a premium on physical strength, chance, and intrigue; to make the +selection a matter of birth simply transfers the real power from +sovereign to minister. Inevitably the choice of rulers must fall on +electors. + +Then comes the problem, who shall elect. The earlier answer was: a +select few, such as the wise, the best born, the able. Many people +assume that it was corruption that made such aristocracies fail. By no +means. The best and most effective aristocracy, like the best monarchy, +suffered from lack of knowledge. The rulers did not know or understand +the needs of the people and they could not find out, for in the last +analysis only the man himself, however humble, knows his own condition. +He may not know how to remedy it, he may not realize just what is the +matter; but he knows when something hurts and he alone knows how that +hurt feels. Or if sunk below feeling or comprehension or complaint, he +does not even know that he is hurt, God help his country, for it not +only lacks knowledge, but has destroyed the sources of knowledge. + +So soon as a nation discovers that it holds in the heads and hearts of +its individual citizens the vast mine of knowledge, out of which it may +build a just government, then more and more it calls those citizens to +select their rulers and to judge the justice of their acts. + +Even here, however, the temptation is to ask only for the wisdom of +citizens of a certain grade or those of recognized worth. Continually +some classes are tacitly or expressly excluded. Thus women have been +excluded from modern democracy because of the persistent theory of +female subjection and because it was argued that their husbands or other +male folks would look to their interests. Now, manifestly, most +husbands, fathers, and brothers will, so far as they know how or as they +realize women's needs, look after them. But remember the foundation of +the argument,--that in the last analysis only the sufferer knows his +sufferings and that no state can be strong which excludes from its +expressed wisdom the knowledge possessed by mothers, wives, and +daughters. We have but to view the unsatisfactory relations of the sexes +the world over and the problem of children to realize how desperately we +need this excluded wisdom. + +The same arguments apply to other excluded groups: if a race, like the +Negro race, is excluded, then so far as that race is a part of the +economic and social organization of the land, the feeling and the +experience of that race are absolutely necessary to the realization of +the broadest justice for all citizens. Or if the "submerged tenth" be +excluded, then again, there is lost from the world an experience of +untold value, and they must be raised rapidly to a place where they can +speak for themselves. In the same way and for the same reason children +must be educated, insanity prevented, and only those put under the +guardianship of others who can in no way be trained to speak for +themselves. + +The real argument for democracy is, then, that in the people we have +the source of that endless life and unbounded wisdom which the rulers of +men must have. A given people today may not be intelligent, but through +a democratic government that recognizes, not only the worth of the +individual to himself, but the worth of his feelings and experiences to +all, they can educate, not only the individual unit, but generation +after generation, until they accumulate vast stores of wisdom. Democracy +alone is the method of showing the whole experience of the race for the +benefit of the future and if democracy tries to exclude women or Negroes +or the poor or any class because of innate characteristics which do not +interfere with intelligence, then that democracy cripples itself and +belies its name. + +From this point of view we can easily see the weakness and strength of +current criticism of extension of the ballot. It is the business of a +modern government to see to it, first, that the number of ignorant +within its bounds is reduced to the very smallest number. Again, it is +the duty of every such government to extend as quickly as possible the +number of persons of mature age who can vote. Such possible voters must +be regarded, not as sharers of a limited treasure, but as sources of new +national wisdom and strength. + +The addition of the new wisdom, the new points of view, and the new +interests must, of course, be from time to time bewildering and +confusing. Today those who have a voice in the body politic have +expressed their wishes and sufferings. The result has been a smaller or +greater balancing of their conflicting interests. The appearance of new +interests and complaints means disarrangement and confusion to the older +equilibrium. It is, of course, the inevitable preliminary step to that +larger equilibrium in which the interests of no human soul will be +neglected. These interests will not, surely, be all fully realized, but +they will be recognized and given as full weight as the conflicting +interests will allow. The problem of government thereafter would be to +reduce the necessary conflict of human interests to the minimum. + +From such a point of view one easily sees the strength of the demand for +the ballot on the part of certain disfranchised classes. When women ask +for the ballot, they are asking, not for a privilege, but for a +necessity. You may not see the necessity, you may easily argue that +women do not need to vote. Indeed, the women themselves in considerable +numbers may agree with you. Nevertheless, women do need the ballot. They +need it to right the balance of a world sadly awry because of its brutal +neglect of the rights of women and children. With the best will and +knowledge, no man can know women's wants as well as women themselves. To +disfranchise women is deliberately to turn from knowledge and grope in +ignorance. + +So, too, with American Negroes: the South continually insists that a +benevolent guardianship of whites over blacks is the ideal thing. They +assume that white people not only know better what Negroes need than +Negroes themselves, but that they are anxious to supply these needs. As +a result they grope in ignorance and helplessness. They cannot +"understand" the Negro; they cannot protect him from cheating and +lynching; and, in general, instead of loving guardianship we see anarchy +and exploitation. If the Negro could speak for himself in the South +instead of being spoken for, if he could defend himself instead of +having to depend on the chance sympathy of white citizens, how much +healthier a growth of democracy the South would have. + +So, too, with the darker races of the world. No federation of the world, +no true inter-nation--can exclude the black and brown and yellow races +from its counsels. They must equally and according to number act and be +heard at the world's council. + +It is not, for a moment, to be assumed that enfranchising women will not +cost something. It will for many years confuse our politics. It may even +change the present status of family life. It will admit to the ballot +thousands of inexperienced persons, unable to vote intelligently. Above +all, it will interfere with some of the present prerogatives of men and +probably for some time to come annoy them considerably. + +So, too, Negro enfranchisement meant reconstruction, with its theft and +bribery and incompetency as well as its public schools and enlightened, +social legislation. It would mean today that black men in the South +would have to be treated with consideration, have their wishes respected +and their manhood rights recognized. Every white Southerner, who wants +peons beneath him, who believes in hereditary menials and a privileged +aristocracy, or who hates certain races because of their +characteristics, would resent this. + +Notwithstanding this, if America is ever to become a government built on +the broadest justice to every citizen, then every citizen must be +enfranchised. There may be temporary exclusions, until the ignorant and +their children are taught, or to avoid too sudden an influx of +inexperienced voters. But such exclusions can be but temporary if +justice is to prevail. + +The principle of basing all government on the consent of the governed is +undenied and undeniable. Moreover, the method of modern democracy has +placed within reach of the modern state larger reserves of efficiency, +ability, and even genius than the ancient or mediaeval state dreamed of. +That this great work of the past can be carried further among all races +and nations no one can reasonably doubt. + +Great as are our human differences and capabilities there is not the +slightest scientific reason for assuming that a given human being of any +race or sex cannot reach normal, human development if he is granted a +reasonable chance. This is, of course, denied. It is denied so volubly +and so frequently and with such positive conviction that the majority of +unthinking people seem to assume that most human beings are not human +and have no right to human treatment or human opportunity. All this goes +to prove that human beings are, and must be, woefully ignorant of each +other. It always startles us to find folks thinking like ourselves. We +do not really associate with each other, we associate with our ideas of +each other, and few people have either the ability or courage to +question their own ideas. None have more persistently and dogmatically +insisted upon the inherent inferiority of women than the men with whom +they come in closest contact. It is the husbands, brothers, and sons of +women whom it has been most difficult to induce to consider women +seriously or to acknowledge that women have rights which men are bound +to respect. So, too, it is those people who live in closest contact with +black folk who have most unhesitatingly asserted the utter impossibility +of living beside Negroes who are not industrial or political slaves or +social pariahs. All this proves that none are so blind as those nearest +the thing seen, while, on the other hand, the history of the world is +the history of the discovery of the common humanity of human beings +among steadily-increasing circles of men. + +If the foundations of democracy are thus seen to be sound, how are we +going to make democracy effective where it now fails to +function--particularly in industry? The Marxists assert that industrial +democracy will automatically follow public ownership of machines and +materials. Their opponents object that nationalization of machines and +materials would not suffice because the mass of people do not understand +the industrial process. They do not know: + + What to do + How to do it + Who could do it best + or + How to apportion the resulting goods. + +There can be no doubt but that monopoly of machines and materials is a +chief source of the power of industrial tyrants over the common worker +and that monopoly today is due as much to chance and cheating as to +thrift and intelligence. So far as it is due to chance and cheating, the +argument for public ownership of capital is incontrovertible even though +it involves some interference with long vested rights and inheritance. +This is being widely recognized in the whole civilized world. But how +about the accumulation of goods due to thrift and intelligence--would +democracy in industry interfere here to such an extent as to discourage +enterprise and make impossible the intelligent direction of the mighty +and intricate industrial process of modern times? + +The knowledge of what to do in industry and how to do it in order to +attain the resulting goods rests in the hands and brains of the workers +and managers, and the judges of the result are the public. Consequently +it is not so much a question as to whether the world will admit +democratic control here as how can such control be long avoided when the +people once understand the fundamentals of industry. How can +civilization persist in letting one person or a group of persons, by +secret inherent power, determine what goods shall be made--whether bread +or champagne, overcoats or silk socks? Can so vast a power be kept from +the people? + +But it may be opportunely asked: has our experience in electing public +officials led us to think that we could run railways, cotton mills, and +department stores by popular vote? The answer is clear: no, it has not, +and the reason has been lack of interest in politics and the tyranny of +the Majority. Politics have not touched the matters of daily life which +are nearest the interests of the people--namely, work and wages; or if +they have, they have touched it obscurely and indirectly. When voting +touches the vital, everyday interests of all, nominations and elections +will call for more intelligent activity. Consider too the vast unused +and misused power of public rewards to obtain ability and genius for the +service of the state. If millionaires can buy science and art, cannot +the Democratic state outbid them not only with money but with the vast +ideal of the common weal? + +There still remains, however, the problem of the Majority. + +What is the cause of the undoubted reaction and alarm that the citizens +of democracy continually feel? It is, I am sure, the failure to feel the +full significance of the change of rule from a privileged minority to +that of an omnipotent majority, and the assumption that mere majority +rule is the last word of government; that majorities have no +responsibilities, that they rule by the grace of God. Granted that +government should be based on the consent of the governed, does the +consent of a majority at any particular time adequately express the +consent of all? Has the minority, even though a small and unpopular and +unfashionable minority, no right to respectful consideration? + +I remember that excellent little high school text book, "Nordhoff's +Politics," where I first read of government, saying this sentence at the +beginning of its most important chapter: "The first duty of a minority +is to become a majority." This is a statement which has its underlying +truth, but it also has its dangerous falsehood; viz., any minority which +cannot become a majority is not worthy of any consideration. But suppose +that the out-voted minority is necessarily always a minority? Women, +for instance, can seldom expect to be a majority; artists must always be +the few; ability is always rare, and black folk in this land are but a +tenth. Yet to tyrannize over such minorities, to browbeat and insult +them, to call that government a democracy which makes majority votes an +excuse for crushing ideas and individuality and self-development, is +manifestly a peculiarly dangerous perversion of the real democratic +ideal. It is right here, in its method and not in its object, that +democracy in America and elsewhere has so often failed. We have +attempted to enthrone any chance majority and make it rule by divine +right. We have kicked and cursed minorities as upstarts and usurpers +when their sole offense lay in not having ideas or hair like ours. +Efficiency, ability, and genius found often no abiding place in such a +soil as this. Small wonder that revolt has come and high-handed methods +are rife, of pretending that policies which we favor or persons that we +like have the anointment of a purely imaginary majority vote. + +Are the methods of such a revolt wise, howsoever great the provocation +and evil may be? If the absolute monarchy of majorities is galling and +inefficient, is it any more inefficient than the absolute monarchy of +individuals or privileged classes have been found to be in the past? Is +the appeal from a numerous-minded despot to a smaller, privileged group +or to one man likely to remedy matters permanently? Shall we step +backward a thousand years because our present problem is baffling? + +Surely not and surely, too, the remedy for absolutism lies in calling +these same minorities to council. As the king-in-council succeeded the +king by the grace of God, so in future democracies the toleration and +encouragement of minorities and the willingness to consider as "men" the +crankiest, humblest and poorest and blackest peoples, must be the real +key to the consent of the governed. Peoples and governments will not in +the future assume that because they have the brute power to enforce +momentarily dominant ideas, it is best to do so without thoughtful +conference with the ideas of smaller groups and individuals. +Proportionate representation in physical and spiritual form must come. + +That this method is virtually coming in vogue we can see by the minority +groups of modern legislatures. Instead of the artificial attempts to +divide all possible ideas and plans between two great parties, modern +legislatures in advanced nations tend to develop smaller and smaller +minority groups, while government is carried on by temporary coalitions. +For a time we inveighed against this and sought to consider it a +perversion of the only possible method of practical democracy. Today we +are gradually coming to realize that government by temporary coalition +of small and diverse groups may easily become the most efficient method +of expressing the will of man and of setting the human soul free. The +only hindrance to the faster development of this government by allied +minorities is the fear of external war which is used again and again to +melt these living, human, thinking groups into inhuman, thoughtless, and +murdering machines. + +The persons, then, who come forward in the dawn of the 20th century to +help in the ruling of men must come with the firm conviction that no +nation, race, or sex, has a monopoly of ability or ideas; that no human +group is so small as to deserve to be ignored as a part, and as an +integral and respected part, of the mass of men; that, above all, no +group of twelve million black folk, even though they are at the physical +mercy of a hundred million white majority, can be deprived of a voice in +their government and of the right to self-development without a blow at +the very foundations of all democracy and all human uplift; that the +very criticism aimed today at universal suffrage is in reality a demand +for power on the part of consciously efficient minorities,--but these +minorities face a fatal blunder when they assume that less democracy +will give them and their kind greater efficiency. However desperate the +temptation, no modern nation can shut the gates of opportunity in the +face of its women, its peasants, its laborers, or its socially damned. +How astounded the future world-citizen will be to know that as late as +1918 great and civilized nations were making desperate endeavor to +confine the development of ability and individuality to one sex,--that +is, to one-half of the nation; and he will probably learn that similar +effort to confine humanity to one race lasted a hundred years longer. + +The doctrine of the divine right of majorities leads to almost humorous +insistence on a dead level of mediocrity. It demands that all people be +alike or that they be ostracized. At the same time its greatest +accusation against rebels is this same desire to be alike: the +suffragette is accused of wanting to be a man, the socialist is accused +of envy of the rich, and the black man is accused of wanting to be +white. That any one of these should simply want to be himself is to the +average worshiper of the majority inconceivable, and yet of all worlds, +may the good Lord deliver us from a world where everybody looks like his +neighbor and thinks like his neighbor and is like his neighbor. + +The world has long since awakened to a realization of the evil which a +privileged few may exercise over the majority of a nation. So vividly +has this truth been brought home to us that we have lightly assumed that +a privileged and enfranchised majority cannot equally harm a nation. +Insane, wicked, and wasteful as the tyranny of the few over the many may +be, it is not more dangerous than the tyranny of the many over the few. +Brutal physical revolution can, and usually does, end the tyranny of the +few. But the spiritual losses from suppressed minorities may be vast and +fatal and yet all unknown and unrealized because idea and dream and +ability are paralyzed by brute force. + +If, now, we have a democracy with no excluded groups, with all men and +women enfranchised, what is such a democracy to do? How will it +function? What will be its field of work? + +The paradox which faces the civilized world today is that democratic +control is everywhere limited in its control of human interests. Mankind +is engaged in planting, forestry, and mining, preparing food and +shelter, making clothes and machines, transporting goods and folk, +disseminating news, distributing products, doing public and private +personal service, teaching, advancing science, and creating art. + +In this intricate whirl of activities, the theory of government has been +hitherto to lay down only very general rules of conduct, marking the +limits of extreme anti-social acts, like fraud, theft, and murder. + +The theory was that within these bounds was Freedom--the Liberty to +think and do and move as one wished. The real realm of freedom was found +in experience to be much narrower than this in one direction and much +broader in another. In matters of Truth and Faith and Beauty, the +Ancient Law was inexcusably strait and modern law unforgivably stupid. +It is here that the future and mighty fight for Freedom must and will be +made. Here in the heavens and on the mountaintops, the air of Freedom is +wide, almost limitless, for here, in the highest stretches, individual +freedom harms no man, and, therefore, no man has the right to limit it. + +On the other hand, in the valleys of the hard, unyielding laws of matter +and the social necessities of time production, and human intercourse, +the limits on our freedom are stern and unbending if we would exist and +thrive. This does not say that everything here is governed by +incontrovertible "natural" law which needs no human decision as to raw +materials, machinery, prices, wages, news-dissemination, education of +children, etc.; but it does mean that decisions here must be limited by +brute facts and based on science and human wants. + +Today the scientific and ethical boundaries of our industrial activities +are not in the hands of scientists, teachers, and thinkers; nor is the +intervening opportunity for decision left in the control of the public +whose welfare such decisions guide. On the contrary, the control of +industry is largely in the hands of a powerful few, who decide for their +own good and regardless of the good of others. The making of the rules +of Industry, then, is not in the hands of All, but in the hands of the +Few. The Few who govern industry envisage, not the wants of mankind, but +their own wants. They work quietly, often secretly, opposing Law, on the +one hand, as interfering with the "freedom of industry"; opposing, on +the other hand, free discussion and open determination of the rules of +work and wealth and wages, on the ground that harsh natural law brooks +no interference by Democracy. + +These things today, then, are not matters of free discussion and +determination. They are strictly controlled. Who controls them? Who +makes these inner, but powerful, rules? Few people know. Others assert +and believe these rules are "natural"--a part of our inescapable +physical environment. Some of them doubtless are; but most of them are +just as clearly the dictates of self-interest laid down by the powerful +private persons who today control industry. Just here it is that modern +men demand that Democracy supplant skilfully concealed, but all too +evident, Monarchy. + +In industry, monarchy and the aristocracy rule, and there are those who, +calling themselves democratic, believe that democracy can never enter +here. Industry, they maintain, is a matter of technical knowledge and +ability, and, therefore, is the eternal heritage of the few. They point +to the failure of attempts at democratic control in industry, just as we +used to point to Spanish-American governments, and they expose, not +simply the failures of Russian Soviets,--they fly to arms to prevent +that greatest experiment in industrial democracy which the world has yet +seen. These are the ones who say: We must control labor or civilization +will fail; we must control white labor in Europe and America; above all, +we must control yellow labor in Asia and black labor in Africa and the +South, else we shall have no tea, or rubber, or cotton. And yet,--and +yet is it so easy to give up the dream of democracy? Must industry rule +men or may men rule even industry? And unless men rule industry, can +they ever hope really to make laws or educate children or create beauty? + +That the problem of the democratization of industry is tremendous, let +no man deny. We must spread that sympathy and intelligence which +tolerates the widest individual freedom despite the necessary public +control; we must learn to select for public office ability rather than +mere affability. We must stand ready to defer to knowledge and science +and judge by result rather than by method; and finally we must face the +fact that the final distribution of goods--the question of wages and +income is an ethical and not a mere mechanical problem and calls for +grave public human judgment and not secrecy and closed doors. All this +means time and development. It comes not complete by instant revolution +of a day, nor yet by the deferred evolution of a thousand years--it +comes daily, bit by bit and step by step, as men and women learn and +grow and as children are trained in Truth. + +These steps are in many cases clear: the careful, steady increase of +public democratic ownership of industry, beginning with the simplest +type of public utilities and monopolies, and extending gradually as we +learn the way; the use of taxation to limit inheritance and to take the +unearned increment for public use beginning (but not ending) with a +"single tax" on monopolized land values; the training of the public in +business technique by co-operation in buying and selling, and in +industrial technique by the shop committee and manufacturing guild. + +But beyond all this must come the Spirit--the Will to Human Brotherhood +of all Colors, Races, and Creeds; the Wanting of the Wants of All. +Perhaps the finest contribution of current Socialism to the world is +neither its light nor its dogma, but the idea back of its one mighty +word--Comrade! + + + + +The Call + + +In the Land of the Heavy Laden came once a dreary day. And the King, who +sat upon the Great White Throne, raised his eyes and saw afar off how +the hills around were hot with hostile feet and the sound of the mocking +of his enemies struck anxiously on the King's ears, for the King loved +his enemies. So the King lifted up his hand in the glittering silence +and spake softly, saying: "Call the Servants of the King." Then the +herald stepped before the armpost of the throne, and cried: "Thus saith +the High and Mighty One, who inhabiteth Eternity, whose name is +Holy,--the Servants of the King!" + +Now, of the servants of the king there were a hundred and forty-four +thousand,--tried men and brave, brawny of arm and quick of wit; aye, +too, and women of wisdom and women marvelous in beauty and grace. And +yet on this drear day when the King called, their ears were thick with +the dust of the enemy, their eyes were blinded with the flashing of his +spears, and they hid their faces in dread silence and moved not, even at +the King's behest. So the herald called again. And the servants cowered +in very shame, but none came forth. But the third blast of the herald +struck upon a woman's heart, afar. And the woman straightway left her +baking and sweeping and the rattle of pans; and the woman straightway +left her chatting and gossiping and the sewing of garments, and the +woman stood before the King, saying: "The servant of thy servants, O +Lord." + +Then the King smiled,--smiled wondrously, so that the setting sun burst +through the clouds, and the hearts of the King's men dried hard within +them. And the low-voiced King said, so low that even they that listened +heard not well: "Go, smite me mine enemies, that they cease to do evil +in my sight." And the woman quailed and trembled. Three times she lifted +her eyes unto the hills and saw the heathen whirling onward in their +rage. And seeing, she shrank--three times she shrank and crept to the +King's feet. + +"O King," she cried, "I am but a woman." + +And the King answered: "Go, then, Mother of Men." + +And the woman said, "Nay, King, but I am still a maid." Whereat the King +cried: "O maid, made Man, thou shalt be Bride of God." + +And yet the third time the woman shrank at the thunder in her ears, and +whispered: "Dear God, I am black!" + +The King spake not, but swept the veiling of his face aside and lifted +up the light of his countenance upon her and lo! it was black. + +So the woman went forth on the hills of God to do battle for the King, +on that drear day in the land of the Heavy Laden, when the heathen raged +and imagined a vain thing. + + + + +VII + +THE DAMNATION OF WOMEN + + +I remember four women of my boyhood: my mother, cousin Inez, Emma, and +Ide Fuller. They represented the problem of the widow, the wife, the +maiden, and the outcast. They were, in color, brown and light-brown, +yellow with brown freckles, and white. They existed not for themselves, +but for men; they were named after the men to whom they were related and +not after the fashion of their own souls. + +They were not beings, they were relations and these relations were +enfilmed with mystery and secrecy. We did not know the truth or believe +it when we heard it. Motherhood! What was it? We did not know or greatly +care. My mother and I were good chums. I liked her. After she was dead I +loved her with a fierce sense of personal loss. + +Inez was a pretty, brown cousin who married. What was marriage? We did +not know, neither did she, poor thing! It came to mean for her a litter +of children, poverty, a drunken, cruel companion, sickness, and death. +Why? + +There was no sweeter sight than Emma,--slim, straight, and dainty, +darkly flushed with the passion of youth; but her life was a wild, awful +struggle to crush her natural, fierce joy of love. She crushed it and +became a cold, calculating mockery. + +Last there was that awful outcast of the town, the white woman, Ide +Fuller. What she was, we did not know. She stood to us as embodied filth +and wrong,--but whose filth, whose wrong? + +Grown up I see the problem of these women transfused; I hear all about +me the unanswered call of youthful love, none the less glorious because +of its clean, honest, physical passion. Why unanswered? Because the +youth are too poor to marry or if they marry, too poor to have children. +They turn aside, then, in three directions: to marry for support, to +what men call shame, or to that which is more evil than nothing. It is +an unendurable paradox; it must be changed or the bases of culture will +totter and fall. + +The world wants healthy babies and intelligent workers. Today we refuse +to allow the combination and force thousands of intelligent workers to +go childless at a horrible expenditure of moral force, or we damn them +if they break our idiotic conventions. Only at the sacrifice of +intelligence and the chance to do their best work can the majority of +modern women bear children. This is the damnation of women. + +All womanhood is hampered today because the world on which it is +emerging is a world that tries to worship both virgins and mothers and +in the end despises motherhood and despoils virgins. + +The future woman must have a life work and economic independence. She +must have knowledge. She must have the right of motherhood at her own +discretion. The present mincing horror at free womanhood must pass if we +are ever to be rid of the bestiality of free manhood; not by guarding +the weak in weakness do we gain strength, but by making weakness free +and strong. + +The world must choose the free woman or the white wraith of the +prostitute. Today it wavers between the prostitute and the nun. +Civilization must show two things: the glory and beauty of creating life +and the need and duty of power and intelligence. This and this only will +make the perfect marriage of love and work. + + God is Love, + Love is God; + There is no God but Love + And Work is His Prophet! + +All this of woman,--but what of black women? + +The world that wills to worship womankind studiously forgets its darker +sisters. They seem in a sense to typify that veiled Melancholy: + + "Whose saintly visage is too bright + To hit the sense of human sight, + And, therefore, to our weaker view + O'er-laid with black." + +Yet the world must heed these daughters of sorrow, from the primal black +All-Mother of men down through the ghostly throng of mighty womanhood, +who walked in the mysterious dawn of Asia and Africa; from Neith, the +primal mother of all, whose feet rest on hell, and whose almighty hands +uphold the heavens; all religion, from beauty to beast, lies on her +eager breasts; her body bears the stars, while her shoulders are +necklaced by the dragon; from black Neith down to + + "That starr'd Ethiop queen who strove + To set her beauty's praise above + The sea-nymphs," + +through dusky Cleopatras, dark Candaces, and darker, fiercer Zinghas, to +our own day and our own land,--in gentle Phillis; Harriet, the crude +Moses; the sybil, Sojourner Truth; and the martyr, Louise De Mortie. + +The father and his worship is Asia; Europe is the precocious, +self-centered, forward-striving child; but the land of the mother is and +was Africa. In subtle and mysterious way, despite her curious history, +her slavery, polygamy, and toil, the spell of the African mother +pervades her land. Isis, the mother, is still titular goddess, in +thought if not in name, of the dark continent. Nor does this all seem to +be solely a survival of the historic matriarchate through which all +nations pass,--it appears to be more than this,--as if the great black +race in passing up the steps of human culture gave the world, not only +the Iron Age, the cultivation of the soil, and the domestication of +animals, but also, in peculiar emphasis, the mother-idea. + +"No mother can love more tenderly and none is more tenderly loved than +the Negro mother," writes Schneider. Robin tells of the slave who bought +his mother's freedom instead of his own. Mungo Park writes: "Everywhere +in Africa, I have noticed that no greater affront can be offered a Negro +than insulting his mother. 'Strike me,' cries a Mandingo to his enemy, +'but revile not my mother!'" And the Krus and Fantis say the same. The +peoples on the Zambezi and the great lakes cry in sudden fear or joy: +"O, my mother!" And the Herero swears (endless oath) "By my mother's +tears!" "As the mist in the swamps," cries the Angola Negro, "so lives +the love of father and mother." + +A student of the present Gold Coast life describes the work of the +village headman, and adds: "It is a difficult task that he is set to, +but in this matter he has all-powerful helpers in the female members of +the family, who will be either the aunts or the sisters or the cousins +or the nieces of the headman, and as their interests are identical with +his in every particular, the good women spontaneously train up their +children to implicit obedience to the headman, whose rule in the family +thus becomes a simple and an easy matter. 'The hand that rocks the +cradle rules the world.' What a power for good in the native state +system would the mothers of the Gold Coast and Ashanti become by +judicious training upon native lines!" + +Schweinfurth declares of one tribe: "A bond between mother and child +which lasts for life is the measure of affection shown among the Dyoor" +and Ratzel adds: + +"Agreeable to the natural relation the mother stands first among the +chief influences affecting the children. From the Zulus to the Waganda, +we find the mother the most influential counsellor at the court of +ferocious sovereigns, like Chaka or Mtesa; sometimes sisters take her +place. Thus even with chiefs who possess wives by hundreds the bonds of +blood are the strongest and that the woman, though often heavily +burdened, is in herself held in no small esteem among the Negroes is +clear from the numerous Negro queens, from the medicine women, from the +participation in public meetings permitted to women by many Negro +peoples." + +As I remember through memories of others, backward among my own family, +it is the mother I ever recall,--the little, far-off mother of my +grandmothers, who sobbed her life away in song, longing for her lost +palm-trees and scented waters; the tall and bronzen grandmother, with +beaked nose and shrewish eyes, who loved and scolded her black and +laughing husband as he smoked lazily in his high oak chair; above all, +my own mother, with all her soft brownness,--the brown velvet of her +skin, the sorrowful black-brown of her eyes, and the tiny brown-capped +waves of her midnight hair as it lay new parted on her forehead. All the +way back in these dim distances it is mothers and mothers of mothers who +seem to count, while fathers are shadowy memories. + +Upon this African mother-idea, the westward slave trade and American +slavery struck like doom. In the cruel exigencies of the traffic in men +and in the sudden, unprepared emancipation the great pendulum of social +equilibrium swung from a time, in 1800,--when America had but eight or +less black women to every ten black men,--all too swiftly to a day, in +1870,--when there were nearly eleven women to ten men in our Negro +population. This was but the outward numerical fact of social +dislocation; within lay polygamy, polyandry, concubinage, and moral +degradation. They fought against all this desperately, did these black +slaves in the West Indies, especially among the half-free artisans; they +set up their ancient household gods, and when Toussaint and Cristophe +founded their kingdom in Haiti, it was based on old African tribal ties +and beneath it was the mother-idea. + +The crushing weight of slavery fell on black women. Under it there was +no legal marriage, no legal family, no legal control over children. To +be sure, custom and religion replaced here and there what the law +denied, yet one has but to read advertisements like the following to see +the hell beneath the system: + + "One hundred dollars reward will be given for my two fellows, Abram + and Frank. Abram has a wife at Colonel Stewart's, in Liberty + County, and a mother at Thunderbolt, and a sister in Savannah. + + "WILLIAM ROBERTS." + + + "Fifty dollars reward--Ran away from the subscriber a Negro girl + named Maria. She is of a copper color, between thirteen and + fourteen years of age--bareheaded and barefooted. She is small for + her age--very sprightly and very likely. She stated she was going + to see her mother at Maysville. + + + "SANFORD THOMSON." + + "Fifty dollars reward--Ran away from the subscriber his Negro man + Pauladore, commonly called Paul. I understand General R.Y. Hayne + has purchased his wife and children from H.L. Pinckney, Esq., and + has them now on his plantation at Goose Creek, where, no doubt, the + fellow is frequently lurking. + + "T. DAVIS." + + +The Presbyterian synod of Kentucky said to the churches under its care +in 1835: "Brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands and +wives, are torn asunder and permitted to see each other no more. These +acts are daily occurring in the midst of us. The shrieks and agony often +witnessed on such occasions proclaim, with a trumpet tongue, the +iniquity of our system. There is not a neighborhood where these +heartrending scenes are not displayed. There is not a village or road +that does not behold the sad procession of manacled outcasts whose +mournful countenances tell that they are exiled by force from all that +their hearts hold dear." + +A sister of a president of the United States declared: "We Southern +ladies are complimented with the names of wives, but we are only the +mistresses of seraglios." + +Out of this, what sort of black women could be born into the world of +today? There are those who hasten to answer this query in scathing terms +and who say lightly and repeatedly that out of black slavery came +nothing decent in womanhood; that adultery and uncleanness were their +heritage and are their continued portion. + +Fortunately so exaggerated a charge is humanly impossible of truth. The +half-million women of Negro descent who lived at the beginning of the +19th century had become the mothers of two and one-fourth million +daughters at the time of the Civil War and five million grand-daughters +in 1910. Can all these women be vile and the hunted race continue to +grow in wealth and character? Impossible. Yet to save from the past the +shreds and vestiges of self-respect has been a terrible task. I most +sincerely doubt if any other race of women could have brought its +fineness up through so devilish a fire. + +Alexander Crummell once said of his sister in the blood: "In her +girlhood all the delicate tenderness of her sex has been rudely +outraged. In the field, in the rude cabin, in the press-room, in the +factory she was thrown into the companionship of coarse and ignorant +men. No chance was given her for delicate reserve or tender modesty. +From her childhood she was the doomed victim of the grossest passion. +All the virtues of her sex were utterly ignored. If the instinct of +chastity asserted itself, then she had to fight like a tiger for the +ownership and possession of her own person and ofttimes had to suffer +pain and lacerations for her virtuous self-assertion. When she reached +maturity, all the tender instincts of her womanhood were ruthlessly +violated. At the age of marriage,--always prematurely anticipated under +slavery--she was mated as the stock of the plantation were mated, not to +be the companion of a loved and chosen husband, but to be the breeder of +human cattle for the field or the auction block." + +Down in such mire has the black motherhood of this race +struggled,--starving its own wailing offspring to nurse to the world +their swaggering masters; welding for its children chains which +affronted even the moral sense of an unmoral world. Many a man and woman +in the South have lived in wedlock as holy as Adam and Eve and brought +forth their brown and golden children, but because the darker woman was +helpless, her chivalrous and whiter mate could cast her off at his +pleasure and publicly sneer at the body he had privately blasphemed. + +I shall forgive the white South much in its final judgment day: I shall +forgive its slavery, for slavery is a world-old habit; I shall forgive +its fighting for a well-lost cause, and for remembering that struggle +with tender tears; I shall forgive its so-called "pride of race," the +passion of its hot blood, and even its dear, old, laughable strutting +and posing; but one thing I shall never forgive, neither in this world +nor the world to come: its wanton and continued and persistent insulting +of the black womanhood which it sought and seeks to prostitute to its +lust. I cannot forget that it is such Southern gentlemen into whose +hands smug Northern hypocrites of today are seeking to place our women's +eternal destiny,--men who insist upon withholding from my mother and +wife and daughter those signs and appellations of courtesy and respect +which elsewhere he withholds only from bawds and courtesans. + +The result of this history of insult and degradation has been both +fearful and glorious. It has birthed the haunting prostitute, the +brawler, and the beast of burden; but it has also given the world an +efficient womanhood, whose strength lies in its freedom and whose +chastity was won in the teeth of temptation and not in prison and +swaddling clothes. + +To no modern race does its women mean so much as to the Negro nor come +so near to the fulfilment of its meaning. As one of our women writes: +"Only the black woman can say 'when and where I enter, in the quiet, +undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing +or special patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with +me.'" + +They came first, in earlier days, like foam flashing on dark, silent +waters,--bits of stern, dark womanhood here and there tossed almost +carelessly aloft to the world's notice. First and naturally they assumed +the panoply of the ancient African mother of men, strong and black, +whose very nature beat back the wilderness of oppression and contempt. +Such a one was that cousin of my grandmother, whom western Massachusetts +remembers as "Mum Bett." Scarred for life by a blow received in defense +of a sister, she ran away to Great Barrington and was the first slave, +or one of the first, to be declared free under the Bill of Rights of +1780. The son of the judge who freed her, writes: + + "Even in her humble station, she had, when occasion required it, an + air of command which conferred a degree of dignity and gave her an + ascendancy over those of her rank, which is very unusual in persons + of any rank or color. Her determined and resolute character, which + enabled her to limit the ravages of Shay's mob, was manifested in + her conduct and deportment during her whole life. She claimed no + distinction, but it was yielded to her from her superior + experience, energy, skill, and sagacity. Having known this woman as + familiarly as I knew either of my parents, I cannot believe in the + moral or physical inferiority of the race to which she belonged. + The degradation of the African must have been otherwise caused than + by natural inferiority." + +It was such strong women that laid the foundations of the great Negro +church of today, with its five million members and ninety millions of +dollars in property. One of the early mothers of the church, Mary Still, +writes thus quaintly, in the forties: + + "When we were as castouts and spurned from the large churches, + driven from our knees, pointed at by the proud, neglected by the + careless, without a place of worship, Allen, faithful to the + heavenly calling, came forward and laid the foundation of this + connection. The women, like the women at the sepulcher, were early + to aid in laying the foundation of the temple and in helping to + carry up the noble structure and in the name of their God set up + their banner; most of our aged mothers are gone from this to a + better state of things. Yet some linger still on their staves, + watching with intense interest the ark as it moves over the + tempestuous waves of opposition and ignorance.... + + "But the labors of these women stopped not here, for they knew well + that they were subject to affliction and death. For the purpose of + mutual aid, they banded themselves together in society capacity, + that they might be better able to administer to each others' + sufferings and to soften their own pillows. So we find the females + in the early history of the church abounding in good works and in + acts of true benevolence." + +From such spiritual ancestry came two striking figures of +war-time,--Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. + +For eight or ten years previous to the breaking out of the Civil War, +Harriet Tubman was a constant attendant at anti-slavery conventions, +lectures, and other meetings; she was a black woman of medium size, +smiling countenance, with her upper front teeth gone, attired in coarse +but neat clothes, and carrying always an old-fashioned reticule at her +side. Usually as soon as she sat down she would drop off in sound sleep. + +She was born a slave in Maryland, in 1820, bore the marks of the lash on +her flesh; and had been made partially deaf, and perhaps to some degree +mentally unbalanced by a blow on the head in childhood. Yet she was one +of the most important agents of the Underground Railroad and a leader of +fugitive slaves. She ran away in 1849 and went to Boston in 1854, where +she was welcomed into the homes of the leading abolitionists and where +every one listened with tense interest to her strange stories. She was +absolutely illiterate, with no knowledge of geography, and yet year +after year she penetrated the slave states and personally led North over +three hundred fugitives without losing a single one. A standing reward +of $10,000 was offered for her, but as she said: "The whites cannot +catch us, for I was born with the charm, and the Lord has given me the +power." She was one of John Brown's closest advisers and only severe +sickness prevented her presence at Harper's Ferry. + +When the war cloud broke, she hastened to the front, flitting down along +her own mysterious paths, haunting the armies in the field, and serving +as guide and nurse and spy. She followed Sherman in his great march to +the sea and was with Grant at Petersburg, and always in the camps the +Union officers silently saluted her. + +The other woman belonged to a different type,--a tall, gaunt, black, +unsmiling sybil, weighted with the woe of the world. She ran away from +slavery and giving up her own name took the name of Sojourner Truth. She +says: "I can remember when I was a little, young girl, how my old mammy +would sit out of doors in the evenings and look up at the stars and +groan, and I would say, 'Mammy, what makes you groan so?' And she would +say, 'I am groaning to think of my poor children; they do not know where +I be and I don't know where they be. I look up at the stars and they +look up at the stars!'" + +Her determination was founded on unwavering faith in ultimate good. +Wendell Phillips says that he was once in Faneuil Hall, when Frederick +Douglass was one of the chief speakers. Douglass had been describing the +wrongs of the Negro race and as he proceeded he grew more and more +excited and finally ended by saying that they had no hope of justice +from the whites, no possible hope except in their own right arms. It +must come to blood! They must fight for themselves. Sojourner Truth was +sitting, tall and dark, on the very front seat facing the platform, and +in the hush of feeling when Douglass sat down she spoke out in her deep, +peculiar voice, heard all over the hall: + +"Frederick, is God dead?" + +Such strong, primitive types of Negro womanhood in America seem to some +to exhaust its capabilities. They know less of a not more worthy, but a +finer type of black woman wherein trembles all of that delicate sense of +beauty and striving for self-realization, which is as characteristic of +the Negro soul as is its quaint strength and sweet laughter. George +Washington wrote in grave and gentle courtesy to a Negro woman, in 1776, +that he would "be happy to see" at his headquarters at any time, a +person "to whom nature has been so liberal and beneficial in her +dispensations." This child, Phillis Wheatley, sang her trite and halting +strain to a world that wondered and could not produce her like. Measured +today her muse was slight and yet, feeling her striving spirit, we call +to her still in her own words: + + "Through thickest glooms look back, immortal shade." + +Perhaps even higher than strength and art loom human sympathy and +sacrifice as characteristic of Negro womanhood. Long years ago, before +the Declaration of Independence, Kate Ferguson was born in New York. +Freed, widowed, and bereaved of her children before she was twenty, she +took the children of the streets of New York, white and black, to her +empty arms, taught them, found them homes, and with Dr. Mason of Murray +Street Church established the first modern Sunday School in Manhattan. + +Sixty years later came Mary Shadd up out of Delaware. She was tall and +slim, of that ravishing dream-born beauty,--that twilight of the races +which we call mulatto. Well-educated, vivacious, with determination +shining from her sharp eyes, she threw herself singlehanded into the +great Canadian pilgrimage when thousands of hunted black men hurried +northward and crept beneath the protection of the lion's paw. She became +teacher, editor, and lecturer; tramping afoot through winter snows, +pushing without blot or blemish through crowd and turmoil to conventions +and meetings, and finally becoming recruiting agent for the United +States government in gathering Negro soldiers in the West. + +After the war the sacrifice of Negro women for freedom and uplift is one +of the finest chapters in their history. Let one life typify all: Louise +De Mortie, a free-born Virginia girl, had lived most of her life in +Boston. Her high forehead, swelling lips, and dark eyes marked her for a +woman of feeling and intellect. She began a successful career as a +public reader. Then came the War and the Call. She went to the orphaned +colored children of New Orleans,--out of freedom into insult and +oppression and into the teeth of the yellow fever. She toiled and +dreamed. In 1887 she had raised money and built an orphan home and that +same year, in the thirty-fourth year of her young life, she died, saying +simply: "I belong to God." + +As I look about me today in this veiled world of mine, despite the +noisier and more spectacular advance of my brothers, I instinctively +feel and know that it is the five million women of my race who really +count. Black women (and women whose grandmothers were black) are today +furnishing our teachers; they are the main pillars of those social +settlements which we call churches; and they have with small doubt +raised three-fourths of our church property. If we have today, as seems +likely, over a billion dollars of accumulated goods, who shall say how +much of it has been wrung from the hearts of servant girls and +washerwomen and women toilers in the fields? As makers of two million +homes these women are today seeking in marvelous ways to show forth our +strength and beauty and our conception of the truth. + +In the United States in 1910 there were 4,931,882 women of Negro +descent; over twelve hundred thousand of these were children, another +million were girls and young women under twenty, and two and a +half-million were adults. As a mass these women were unlettered,--a +fourth of those from fifteen to twenty-five years of age were unable to +write. These women are passing through, not only a moral, but an +economic revolution. Their grandmothers married at twelve and fifteen, +but twenty-seven per cent of these women today who have passed fifteen +are 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,--over +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. + +The family group, however, which is the ideal of the culture with 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. What is the inevitable result of +the clash of such ideals and such facts in the colored group? Broken +families. + +Among native white women one in ten is separated from her husband by +death, divorce, or desertion. Among Negroes the ratio is one in seven. +Is the cause racial? No, it is economic, because there is the same high +ratio among the white foreign-born. The breaking up of the present +family is the result of modern working and sex conditions and it hits +the laborers with terrible force. The Negroes are put in a peculiarly +difficult position, because the wage of the male breadwinner is below +the standard, while the openings for colored women in certain lines of +domestic work, and now in industries, are many. Thus while toil holds +the father and brother in country and town at low wages, the sisters and +mothers are called to the city. As a result the Negro women outnumber +the men nine or ten to eight in many cities, making what Charlotte +Gilman bluntly calls "cheap women." + +What shall we say to this new economic equality in a great laboring +class? Some people within and without the race deplore it. "Back to the +homes with the women," they cry, "and higher wage for the men." But how +impossible this is has been shown by war conditions. Cessation of +foreign migration has raised Negro men's wages, to be sure--but it has +not only raised Negro women's wages, it has opened to them a score of +new avenues of earning a living. Indeed, here, in microcosm and with +differences emphasizing sex equality, is the industrial history of labor +in the 19th and 20th centuries. We cannot abolish the new economic +freedom of women. We cannot imprison women again in a home or require +them all on pain of death to be nurses and housekeepers. + +What is today the message of these black women to America and to the +world? The uplift of women is, next to the problem of the color line and +the peace movement, our greatest modern cause. When, now, two of these +movements--woman and color--combine in one, the combination has deep +meaning. + +In other years women's way was clear: to be beautiful, to be petted, to +bear children. Such has been their theoretic destiny and if perchance +they have been ugly, hurt, and barren, that has been forgotten with +studied silence. In partial compensation for this narrowed destiny the +white world has lavished its politeness on its womankind,--its chivalry +and bows, its uncoverings and courtesies--all the accumulated homage +disused for courts and kings and craving exercise. The revolt of white +women against this preordained destiny has in these latter days reached +splendid proportions, but it is the revolt of an aristocracy of brains +and ability,--the middle class and rank and file still plod on in the +appointed path, paid by the homage, the almost mocking homage, of men. + +From black women of America, however, (and from some others, too, but +chiefly from black women and their daughters' daughters) this gauze has +been withheld and without semblance of such apology they have been +frankly trodden under the feet of men. They are and have been objected +to, apparently for reasons peculiarly exasperating to reasoning human +beings. When in this world a man comes forward with a thought, a deed, a +vision, we ask not, how does he look,--but what is his message? It is of +but passing interest whether or not the messenger is beautiful or +ugly,--the _message_ is the thing. This, which is axiomatic among men, +has been in past ages but partially true if the messenger was a woman. +The world still wants to ask that a woman primarily be pretty and if she +is not, the mob pouts and asks querulously, "What else are women for?" +Beauty "is its own excuse for being," but there are other excuses, as +most men know, and when the white world objects to black women because +it does not consider them beautiful, the black world of right asks two +questions: "What is beauty?" and, "Suppose you think them ugly, what +then? If ugliness and unconventionality and eccentricity of face and +deed do not hinder men from doing the world's work and reaping the +world's reward, why should it hinder women?" + +Other things being equal, all of us, black and white, would prefer to be +beautiful in face and form and suitably clothed; but most of us are not +so, and one of the mightiest revolts of the century is against the +devilish decree that no woman is a woman who is not by present standards +a beautiful woman. This decree the black women of America have in large +measure escaped from the first. Not being expected to be merely +ornamental, they have girded themselves for work, instead of adorning +their bodies only for play. Their sturdier minds have concluded that if +a woman be clean, healthy, and educated, she is as pleasing as God wills +and far more useful than most of her sisters. If in addition to this she +is pink and white and straight-haired, and some of her fellow-men prefer +this, well and good; but if she is black or brown and crowned in curled +mists (and this to us is the most beautiful thing on earth), this is +surely the flimsiest excuse for spiritual incarceration or banishment. + +The very attempt to do this in the case of Negro Americans has strangely +over-reached itself. By so much as the defective eyesight of the white +world rejects black women as beauties, by so much the more it needs them +as human beings,--an enviable alternative, as many a white woman knows. +Consequently, for black women alone, as a group, "handsome is that +handsome does" and they are asked to be no more beautiful than God made +them, but they are asked to be efficient, to be strong, fertile, +muscled, and able to work. If they marry, they must as independent +workers be able to help support their children, for their men are paid +on a scale which makes sole support of the family often impossible. + +On the whole, colored working women are paid as well as white working +women for similar work, save in some higher grades, while colored men +get from one-fourth to three-fourths less than white men. The result is +curious and three-fold: the economic independence of black women is +increased, the breaking up of Negro families must be more frequent, and +the number of illegitimate children is decreased more slowly among them +than other evidences of culture are increased, just as was once true in +Scotland and Bavaria. + +What does this mean? It forecasts a mighty dilemma which the whole world +of civilization, despite its will, must one time frankly face: the +unhusbanded mother or the childless wife. God send us a world with +woman's freedom and married motherhood inextricably wed, but until He +sends it, I see more of future promise in the betrayed girl-mothers of +the black belt than in the childless wives of the white North, and I +have more respect for the colored servant who yields to her frank +longing for motherhood than for her white sister who offers up children +for clothes. Out of a sex freedom that today makes us shudder will come +in time a day when we will no longer pay men for work they do not do, +for the sake of their harem; we will pay women what they earn and insist +on their working and earning it; we will allow those persons to vote who +know enough to vote, whether they be black or female, white or male; and +we will ward race suicide, not by further burdening the over-burdened, +but by honoring motherhood, even when the sneaking father shirks his +duty. + + * * * * * + +"Wait till the lady passes," said a Nashville white boy. + +"She's no lady; she's a nigger," answered another. + +So some few women are born free, and some amid insult and scarlet +letters achieve freedom; but our women in black had freedom thrust +contemptuously upon them. With that freedom they are buying an +untrammeled independence and dear as is the price they pay for it, it +will in the end be worth every taunt and groan. Today the dreams of the +mothers are coming true. We have still our poverty and degradation, our +lewdness and our cruel toil; but we have, too, a vast group of women of +Negro blood who for strength of character, cleanness of soul, and +unselfish devotion of purpose, is today easily the peer of any group of +women in the civilized world. And more than that, in the great rank and +file of our five million women we have the up-working of new +revolutionary ideals, which must in time have vast influence on the +thought and action of this land. + +For this, their promise, and for their hard past, I honor the women of +my race. Their beauty,--their dark and mysterious beauty of midnight +eyes, crumpled hair, and soft, full-featured faces--is perhaps more to +me than to you, because I was born to its warm and subtle spell; but +their worth is yours as well as mine. No other women on earth could +have emerged from the hell of force and temptation which once engulfed +and still surrounds black women in America with half the modesty and +womanliness that they retain. I have always felt like bowing myself +before them in all abasement, searching to bring some tribute to these +long-suffering victims, these burdened sisters of mine, whom the world, +the wise, white world, loves to affront and ridicule and wantonly to +insult. I have known the women of many lands and nations,--I have known +and seen and lived beside them, but none have I known more sweetly +feminine, more unswervingly loyal, more desperately earnest, and more +instinctively pure in body and in soul than the daughters of my black +mothers. This, then,--a little thing--to their memory and inspiration. + + + + +_Children of the Moon_ + + + I am dead; + Yet somehow, somewhere, + In Time's weird contradiction, I + May tell of that dread deed, wherewith + I brought to Children of the Moon + Freedom and vast salvation. + + I was a woman born, + And trod the streaming street, + That ebbs and flows from Harlem's hills, + Through caves and canons limned in light, + Down to the twisting sea. + + That night of nights, + I stood alone and at the End, + Until the sudden highway to the moon, + Golden in splendor, + Became too real to doubt. + + Dimly I set foot upon the air, + I fled, I flew, through the thrills of light, + With all about, above, below, the whirring + Of almighty wings. + + I found a twilight land, + Where, hardly hid, the sun + Sent softly-saddened rays of + Red and brown to burn the iron soil + And bathe the snow-white peaks + In mighty splendor. + + Black were the men, + Hard-haired and silent-slow, + Moving as shadows, + Bending with face of fear to earthward; + And women there were none. + + "Woman, woman, woman!" + I cried in mounting terror. + "Woman and Child!" + And the cry sang back + Through heaven, with the + Whirring of almighty wings. + + Wings, wings, endless wings,-- + Heaven and earth are wings; + Wings that flutter, furl, and fold, + Always folding and unfolding, + Ever folding yet again; + Wings, veiling some vast + And veiled face, + In blazing blackness, + Behind the folding and unfolding, + The rolling and unrolling of + Almighty wings! + + I saw the black men huddle, + Fumed in fear, falling face downward; + Vainly I clutched and clawed, + Dumbly they cringed and cowered, + Moaning in mournful monotone: + + O Freedom, O Freedom, + O Freedom over me; + Before I'll be a slave, + I'll be buried in my grave, + And go home to my God, + And be free. + + It was angel-music + From the dead, + And ever, as they sang, + Some winged thing of wings, filling all heaven, + Folding and unfolding, and folding yet again, + + Tore out their blood and entrails, + 'Til I screamed in utter terror; + And a silence came-- + A silence and the wailing of a babe. + + Then, at last, I saw and shamed; + I knew how these dumb, dark, and dusky things + Had given blood and life, + To fend the caves of underground, + The great black caves of utter night, + Where earth lay full of mothers + And their babes. + + Little children sobbing in darkness, + Little children crying in silent pain, + Little mothers rocking and groping and struggling, + Digging and delving and groveling, + Amid the dying-dead and dead-in-life + And drip and dripping of warm, wet blood, + Far, far beneath the wings,-- + The folding and unfolding of almighty wings. + + I bent with tears and pitying hands, + Above these dusky star-eyed children,-- + Crinkly-haired, with sweet-sad baby voices, + Pleading low for light and love and living-- + And I crooned: + + "Little children weeping there, + God shall find your faces fair; + Guerdon for your deep distress, + He shall send His tenderness; + For the tripping of your feet + Make a mystic music sweet + In the darkness of your hair; + Light and laughter in the air-- + Little children weeping there, + God shall find your faces fair!" + + I strode above the stricken, bleeding men, + The rampart 'ranged against the skies, + And shouted: + "Up, I say, build and slay; + Fight face foremost, force a way, + Unloose, unfetter, and unbind; + Be men and free!" + + Dumbly they shrank, + Muttering they pointed toward that peak, + Than vastness vaster, + Whereon a darkness brooded, + "Who shall look and live," they sighed; + And I sensed + The folding and unfolding of almighty wings. + + Yet did we build of iron, bricks, and blood; + We built a day, a year, a thousand years, + Blood was the mortar,--blood and tears, + And, ah, the Thing, the Thing of wings, + The winged, folding Wing of Things + Did furnish much mad mortar + For that tower. + + Slow and ever slower rose the towering task, + And with it rose the sun, + Until at last on one wild day, + Wind-whirled, cloud-swept and terrible + I stood beneath the burning shadow + Of the peak, + Beneath the whirring of almighty wings, + While downward from my feet + Streamed the long line of dusky faces + And the wail of little children sobbing under earth. + + Alone, aloft, + I saw through firmaments on high + The drama of Almighty God, + With all its flaming suns and stars. + "Freedom!" I cried. + "Freedom!" cried heaven, earth, and stars; + And a Voice near-far, + Amid the folding and unfolding of almighty wings, + Answered, "I am Freedom-- + Who sees my face is free-- + He and his." + + I dared not look; + Downward I glanced on deep-bowed heads and closed eyes, + Outward I gazed on flecked and flaming blue-- + But ever onward, upward flew + The sobbing of small voices,-- + Down, down, far down into the night. + + Slowly I lifted livid limbs aloft; + Upward I strove: the face! the face! + Onward I reeled: the face! the face! + To beauty wonderful as sudden death, + Or horror horrible as endless life-- + Up! Up! the blood-built way; + (Shadow grow vaster! + Terror come faster!) + Up! Up! to the blazing blackness + Of one veiled face. + + And endless folding and unfolding, + Rolling and unrolling of almighty wings. + The last step stood! + The last dim cry of pain + Fluttered across the stars, + And then-- + Wings, wings, triumphant wings, + Lifting and lowering, waxing and waning, + Swinging and swaying, twirling and whirling, + Whispering and screaming, streaming and gleaming, + Spreading and sweeping and shading and flaming-- + Wings, wings, eternal wings, + 'Til the hot, red blood, + Flood fleeing flood, + Thundered through heaven and mine ears, + While all across a purple sky, + The last vast pinion. + Trembled to unfold. + + I rose upon the Mountain of the Moon,-- + I felt the blazing glory of the Sun; + I heard the Song of Children crying, "Free!" + I saw the face of Freedom-- + And I died. + + + + + +VIII + +THE IMMORTAL CHILD + + +If a man die shall he live again? We do not know. But this we do know, +that our children's children live forever and grow and develop toward +perfection as they are trained. All human problems, then, center in the +Immortal Child and his education is the problem of problems. And first +for illustration of what I would say may I not take for example, out of +many millions, the life of one dark child. + + * * * * * + +It is now nineteen years since I first saw Coleridge-Taylor. We were in +London in some somber hall where there were many meeting, men and women +called chiefly to the beautiful World's Fair at Paris; and then a few +slipping over to London to meet Pan-Africa. We were there from Cape +Colony and Liberia, from Haiti and the States, and from the Islands of +the Sea. I remember the stiff, young officer who came with credentials +from Menelik of Abyssinia; I remember the bitter, black American who +whispered how an army of the Soudan might some day cross the Alps; I +remember Englishmen, like the Colensos, who sat and counseled with us; +but above all, I remember Coleridge-Taylor. + +He was a little man and nervous, with dark-golden face and hair that +bushed and strayed. His fingers were always nervously seeking hidden +keys and he was quick with enthusiasm,--instinct with life. His bride of +a year or more,--dark, too, in her whiter way,--was of the calm and +quiet type. Her soft contralto voice thrilled us often as she sang, +while her silences were full of understanding. + +Several times we met in public gatherings and then they bade me to their +home,--a nest of a cottage, with gate and garden, hidden in London's +endless rings of suburbs. I dimly recall through these years a room in +cozy disorder, strewn with music--music on the floor and music on the +chairs, music in the air as the master rushed to the piano now and +again to make some memory melodious--some allusion real. + +And then at last, for it was the last, I saw Coleridge-Taylor in a +mighty throng of people crowding the Crystal Palace. We came in facing +the stage and scarcely dared look around. On the stage were a full +orchestra, a chorus of eight hundred voices, and some of the world's +famous soloists. He left his wife sitting beside me, and she was very +silent as he went forward to lift the conductor's baton. It was one of +the earliest renditions of "Hiawatha's Wedding Feast." We sat at rapt +attention and when the last, weird music died, the great chorus and +orchestra rose as a man to acclaim the master; he turned toward the +audience and then we turning for the first time saw that sea of faces +behind,--the misty thousands whose voices rose to one strong shout of +joy! It was a moment such as one does not often live. It seemed, and +was, prophetic. + +This young man who stepped forth as one of the most notable of modern +English composers had a simple and uneventful career. His father was a +black surgeon of Sierra Leone who came to London for study. While there +he met an English girl and this son was born, in London, in 1875. + +Then came a series of chances. His father failed to succeed and +disappeared back to Africa leaving the support of the child to the poor +working mother. The child showed evidences of musical talent and a +friendly workingman gave him a little violin. A musician glancing from +his window saw a little dark boy playing marbles on the street with a +tiny violin in one hand; he gave him lessons. He happened to gain +entrance into a charity school with a master of understanding mind who +recognized genius when he saw it; and finally his beautiful child's +treble brought him to the notice of the choirmaster of St. George's, +Croyden. + +So by happy accident his way was clear. Within his soul was no +hesitation. He was one of those fortunate beings who are not called to +_Wander-Jahre_, but are born with sails set and seas charted. Already +the baby of four little years was a musician, and as choir-boy and +violinist he walked unhesitatingly and surely to his life work. He was +graduated with honors from the Royal Academy of Music in 1894, and +married soon after the daughter of one of his professors. Then his life +began, and whatever it lacked of physical adventure in the conventional +round of a modern world-city, it more than gained in the almost +tempestuous outpouring of his spiritual nature. Life to him was neither +meat nor drink,--it was creative flame; ideas, plans, melodies glowed +within him. To create, to do, to accomplish; to know the white glory of +mighty midnights and the pale Amen of dawns was his day of days. Songs, +pianoforte and violin pieces, trios and quintets for strings, incidental +music, symphony, orchestral, and choral works rushed from his fingers. +Nor were they laboriously contrived or light, thin things made to meet +sudden popularity. Rather they were the flaming bits that must be said +and sung,--that could not wait the slower birth of years, so hurried to +the world as though their young creator knew that God gave him but a +day. His whole active life was scarcely more than a decade and a half, +and yet in that time, without wealth, friends, or influence, in the face +of perhaps the most critical and skeptical and least imaginative +civilization of the modern world, he wrote his name so high as a +creative artist that it cannot soon be forgotten. + +And this was but one side of the man. On the other was the +sweet-tempered, sympathetic comrade, always willing to help, never +knowing how to refuse, generous with every nerve and fiber of his being. +Think of a young musician, father of a family, who at the time of his +death held positions as Associate of the Royal College of Music, +Professor in Trinity College and Crystal Palace, Conductor of the Handel +Choral Society and the Rochester Choral Society, Principal of the +Guildhall School of Music, where he had charge of the choral choir, the +orchestra, and the opera. He was repeatedly the leader of music +festivals all over Great Britain and a judge of contests. And with all +this his house was open in cheering hospitality to friends and his hand +ever ready with sympathy and help. + +When such a man dies, it must bring pause to a reasoning world. We may +call his death-sickness pneumonia, but we all know that it was sheer +overwork,--the using of a delicately-tuned instrument too commonly and +continuously and carelessly to let it last its normal life. We may well +talk of the waste of wood and water, of food and fire, but the real and +unforgivable waste of modern civilization is the waste of ability and +genius,--the killing of useful, indispensable men who have no right to +die; who deserve, not for themselves, but for the world, leisure, +freedom from distraction, expert medical advice, and intelligent +sympathy. + +Coleridge-Taylor's life work was not finished,--it was but well begun. +He lived only his first period of creative genius, when melody and +harmony flashed and fluttered in subtle, compelling, and more than +promising profusion. He did not live to do the organized, constructive +work in the full, calm power of noonday,--the reflective finishing of +evening. In the annals of the future his name must always stand high, +but with the priceless gift of years, who can say where it might not +have stood. + +Why should he have worked so breathlessly, almost furiously? It was, we +may be sure, because with unflinching determination and with no thought +of surrender he faced the great alternative,--the choice which the +cynical, thoughtless, busy, modern world spreads grimly before its +greater souls--food or beauty, bread and butter, or ideals. And +continually we see worthier men turning to the pettier, cheaper +thing--the popular portrait, the sensational novel, the jingling song. +The choice is not always between the least and the greatest, the high +and the empty, but only too often it is between starvation and +something. When, therefore, we see a man, working desperately to earn a +living and still stooping to no paltry dickering and to no unworthy +work, handing away a "Hiawatha" for less than a song, pausing for +glimpses of the stars when a world full of charcoal glowed far more +warmly and comfortably, we know that such a man is a hero in a sense +never approached by the swashbuckling soldier or the lying patriot. + +Deep as was the primal tragedy in the life of Coleridge-Taylor, there +lay another still deeper. He smiled at it lightly, as we all do,--we who +live within the veil,--to hide the deeper hurt. He had, with us, that +divine and African gift of laughter, that echo of a thousand centuries +of suns. I mind me how once he told of the bishop, the well-groomed +English bishop, who eyed the artist gravely, with his eye-glass--hair +and color and figure,--and said quite audibly to his friends, "Quite +interesting--looks intelligent,--yes--yes!" + +Fortunate was Coleridge-Taylor to be born in Europe and to speak a +universal tongue. In America he could hardly have had his career. His +genius was, to be sure, recognized (with some palpitation and +consternation) when it came full-grown across the seas with an English +imprint; but born here, it might never have been permitted to grow. We +know in America how to discourage, choke, and murder ability when it so +far forgets itself as to choose a dark skin. England, thank God, is +slightly more civilized than her colonies; but even there the path of +this young man was no way of roses and just a shade thornier than that +of whiter men. He did not complain at it,--he did not + + "Wince and cry aloud." + +Rather the hint here and there of color discrimination in England +aroused in him deeper and more poignant sympathy with his people +throughout the world. He was one with that great company of +mixed-blooded men: Pushkin and Dumas, Hamilton and Douglass, Browning +and many others; but he more than most of these men knew the call of the +blood when it came and listened and answered. He came to America with +strange enthusiasm. He took with quite simple and unconscious grace the +conventional congratulations of the musical world. He was used to that. +But to his own people--to the sad sweetness of their voices, their +inborn sense of music, their broken, half-articulate voices,--he leapt +with new enthusiasm. From the fainter shadowings of his own life, he +sensed instinctively the vaster tragedy of theirs. His soul yearned to +give voice and being to this human thing. He early turned to the sorrow +songs. He sat at the faltering feet of Paul Laurence Dunbar and he asked +(as we sadly shook our heads) for some masterpiece of this world-tragedy +that his soul could set to music. And then, so characteristically, he +rushed back to England, composed a half-dozen exquisite harmonies +haunted by slave-songs, led the Welsh in their singing, listened to the +Scotch, ordered great music festivals in all England, wrote for Beerbohm +Tree, took on another music professorship, promised a trip to Germany, +and at last, staggering home one night, on his way to his wife and +little boy and girl, fell in his tracks and in four days was dead, at +the age of thirty-seven. They say that in his death-throe he arose and +facing some great, ghostly choir raised his last baton, while all around +the massive silence rang with the last mist-music of his dying ears. + +He was buried from St. Michael's on September 5, 1912, with the acclaim +of kings and music masters and little children and to the majestic +melody of his own music. The tributes that followed him to his grave +were unusually hearty and sincere. The head of the Royal College calls +the first production of "Hiawatha" one of the most remarkable events in +modern English musical history and the trilogy one of the most +universally-beloved works of modern English music. One critic calls +Taylor's a name "which with that of Elgar represented the nation's most +individual output" and calls his "Atonement" "perhaps the finest passion +music of modern times." Another critic speaks of his originality: +"Though surrounded by the influences that are at work in Europe today, +he retained his individuality to the end, developing his style, however, +and evincing new ideas in each succeeding work. His untimely death at +the age of thirty-seven, a short life--like those of Schubert, +Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Hugo Wolf--has robbed the world of one of its +noblest singers, one of those few men of modern times who found +expression in the language of musical song, a lyricist of power and +worth." + +But the tributes did not rest with the artist; with peculiar unanimity +they sought his "sterling character," "the good husband and father," the +"staunch and loyal friend." And perhaps I cannot better end these +hesitating words than with that tribute from one who called this master, +friend, and whose lament cried in the night with more of depth and +passion than Alfred Noyes is wont in his self-repression to voice: + + "Through him, his race, a moment, lifted up + Forests of hands to beauty, as in prayer, + Touched through his lips the sacramental cup + And then sank back, benumbed in our bleak air." + +Yet, consider: to many millions of people this man was all wrong. +_First_, he ought never to have been born, for he was the mulatto son of +a white woman. _Secondly_, he should never have been educated as a +musician,--he should have been trained, for his "place" in the world and +to make him satisfied therewith. _Thirdly_, he should not have married +the woman he loved and who loved him, for she was white and the niece of +an Oxford professor. _Fourthly_, the children of such a union--but why +proceed? You know it all by heart. + +If he had been black, like Paul Laurence Dunbar, would the argument have +been different? No. He should never have been born, for he is a +"problem." He should never be educated, for he cannot be educated. He +should never marry, for that means children and there is no place for +black children in this world. + + * * * * * + +In the treatment of the child the world foreshadows its own future and +faith. All words and all thinking lead to the child,--to that vast +immortality and the wide sweep of infinite possibility which the child +represents. Such thought as this it was that made the Master say of old +as He saw baby faces: + +"And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones, it is better for +him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into +the sea." + +And yet the mothers and fathers and the men and women of my race must +often pause and ask: Is it worth while? Ought children be born to us? +Have we any right to make human souls face what we face today? The +answer is clear: If the great battle of human right against poverty, +against disease, against color prejudice is to be won, it must be won, +not in our day, but in the day of our children's children. Ours is the +blood and dust of battle; theirs the rewards of victory. If, then, they +are not there because we have not brought them into the world, we have +been the guiltiest factor in conquering ourselves. It is our duty, then, +to accomplish the immortality of black blood, in order that the day may +come in this dark world when poverty shall be abolished, privilege be +based on individual desert, and the color of a man's skin be no bar to +the outlook of his soul. + +If it is our duty as honest colored men and women, battling for a great +principle, to bring not aimless rafts of children to the world, but as +many as, with reasonable sacrifice, we can train to largest manhood, +what in its inner essence shall that training be, particularly in its +beginning? + +The first temptation is to shield the child,--to hedge it about that it +may not know and will not dream of the color line. Then when we can no +longer wholly shield, to indulge and pamper and coddle, as though in +this dumb way to compensate. From this attitude comes the multitude of +our spoiled, wayward, disappointed children. And must we not blame +ourselves? For while the motive was pure and the outer menace undoubted, +is shielding and indulgence the way to meet it? + +Some Negro parents, realizing this, leave their children to sink or swim +in this sea of race prejudice. They neither shield nor explain, but +thrust them forth grimly into school or street and let them learn as +they may from brutal fact. Out of this may come strength, poise, +self-dependence, and out of it, too, may come bewilderment, cringing +deception, and self-distrust. It is, all said, a brutal, unfair method, +and in its way it is as bad as shielding and indulgence. Why not, +rather, face the facts and tell the truth? Your child is wiser than you +think. + +The truth lies ever between extremes. It is wrong to introduce the child +to race consciousness prematurely; it is dangerous to let that +consciousness grow spontaneously without intelligent guidance. With +every step of dawning intelligence, explanation--frank, free, guiding +explanation--must come. The day will dawn when mother must explain +gently but clearly why the little girls next door do not want to play +with "niggers"; what the real cause is of the teacher's unsympathetic +attitude; and how people may ride in the backs of street cars and the +smoker end of trains and still be people, honest high-minded souls. + +Remember, too, that in such frank explanation you are speaking in nine +cases out of ten to a good deal clearer understanding than you think and +that the child-mind has what your tired soul may have lost faith +in,--the Power and the Glory. + +Out of little, unspoiled souls rise up wonderful resources and healing +balm. Once the colored child understands the white world's attitude and +the shameful wrong of it, you have furnished it with a great life +motive,--a power and impulse toward good which is the mightiest thing +man has. How many white folk would give their own souls if they might +graft into their children's souls a great, moving, guiding ideal! + +With this Power there comes, in the transfiguring soul of childhood, the +Glory: the vision of accomplishment, the lofty ideal. Once let the +strength of the motive work, and it becomes the life task of the parent +to guide and to shape the ideal; to raise it from resentment and revenge +to dignity and self-respect, to breadth and accomplishment, to human +service; to beat back every thought of cringing and surrender. + +Here, at last, we can speak with no hesitation, with no lack of faith. +For we know that as the world grows better there will be realized in our +children's lives that for which we fight unfalteringly, but vainly now. + +So much for the problem of the home and our own dark children. Now let +us look beyond the pale upon the children of the wide world. What is the +real lesson of the life of Coleridge-Taylor? It is this: humanly +speaking it was sheer accident that this boy developed his genius. We +have a right to assume that hundreds and thousands of boys and girls +today are missing the chance of developing unusual talents because the +chances have been against them; and that indeed the majority of the +children of the world are not being systematically fitted for their life +work and for life itself. Why? + +Many seek the reason in the content of the school program. They +feverishly argue the relative values of Greek, mathematics, and manual +training, but fail with singular unanimity in pointing out the +fundamental cause of our failure in human education: That failure is due +to the fact that we aim not at the full development of the child, but +that the world regards and always has regarded education first as a +means of buttressing the established order of things rather than +improving it. And this is the real reason why strife, war, and +revolution have marked the onward march of humanity instead of reason +and sound reform. Instead of seeking to push the coming generation ahead +of our pitiful accomplishment, we insist that it march behind. We say, +morally, that high character is conformity to present public opinion; we +say industrially that the present order is best and that children must +be trained to perpetuate it. + +But, it is objected, what else can we do? Can we teach Revolution to the +inexperienced in hope that they may discern progress? No, but we may +teach frankly that this world is not perfection, but development: that +the object of education is manhood and womanhood, clear reason, +individual talent and genius and the spirit of service and sacrifice, +and not simply a frantic effort to avoid change in present institutions; +that industry is for man and not man for industry and that while we must +have workers to work, the prime object of our training is not the work +but the worker--not the maintenance of present industrial caste but the +development of human intelligence by which drudgery may be lessened and +beauty widened. + +Back of our present educational system is the philosophy that sneers at +the foolish Fathers who believed it self-evident, "that all men were +created free and equal." Surely the overwhelming evidence is today that +men are slaves and unequal. But is it not education that is the creator +of this freedom and equality? Most men today cannot conceive of a +freedom that does not involve somebody's slavery. They do not want +equality because the thrill of their happiness comes from having things +that others have not. But may not human education fix the fine ideal of +an equal maximum of freedom for every human soul combined with that +minimum of slavery for each soul which the inexorable physical facts of +the world impose--rather than complete freedom for some and complete +slavery for others; and, again, is not the equality toward which the +world moves an equality of honor in the assigned human task itself +rather than equal facility in doing different tasks? Human equality is +not lack of difference, nor do the infinite human differences argue +relative superiority and inferiority. And, again, how new an aspect +human differences may assume when all men are educated. Today we think +of apes, semi-apes, and human beings; tomorrow we may think of Keir +Hardies, Roosevelts, and Beethovens--not equals but men. Today we are +forcing men into educational slavery in order that others may enjoy +life, and excuse ourselves by saying that the world's work must be done. +We are degrading some sorts of work by honoring others, and then +expressing surprise that most people object to having their children +trained solely to take up their father's tasks. + +Given as the ideal the utmost possible freedom for every human soul, +with slavery for none, and equal honor for all necessary human tasks, +then our problem of education is greatly simplified: we aim to develop +human souls; to make all intelligent; to discover special talents and +genius. With this course of training beginning in early childhood and +never ceasing must go the technical training for the present world's +work according to carefully studied individual gifts and wishes. + +On the other hand, if we arrange our system of education to develop +workmen who will not strike and Negroes satisfied with their present +place in the world, we have set ourselves a baffling task. We find +ourselves compelled to keep the masses ignorant and to curb our own +thought and expression so as not to inflame the ignorant. We force +moderate reformers and men with new and valuable ideas to become red +radicals and revolutionists, since that happens to be the only way to +make the world listen to reason. Consider our race problem in the South: +the South has invested in Negro ignorance; some Northerners proposed +limited education, not, they explained, to better the Negro, but merely +to make the investment more profitable to the present beneficiaries. +They thus gained wide Southern support for schools like Hampton and +Tuskegee. But could this program be expected long to satisfy colored +folk? And was this shifty dodging of the real issue the wisest +statesmanship? No! The real question in the South is the question of the +permanency of present color caste. The problem, then, of the formal +training of our colored children has been strangely complicated by the +strong feeling of certain persons as to their future in America and the +world. And the reaction toward this caste education has strengthened the +idea of caste education throughout the world. + +Let us then return to fundamental ideals. Children must be trained in a +knowledge of what the world is and what it knows and how it does its +daily work. These things cannot be separated: we cannot teach pure +knowledge apart from actual facts, or separate truth from the human +mind. Above all we must not forget that the object of all education is +the child itself and not what it does or makes. + +It is here that a great movement in America has grievously sinned +against the light. There has arisen among us a movement to make the +Public School primarily the hand-maiden of production. America is +conceived of as existing for the sake of its mines, fields and +factories, and not those factories, fields and mines as existing for +America. Consequently, the public schools are for training the mass of +men as servants and laborers and mechanics to increase the land's +industrial efficiency. + +Those who oppose this program, especially if they are black, are accused +of despising common toil and humble service. In fact, we Negroes are but +facing in our own children a world problem: how can we, while +maintaining a proper output of goods and furnishing needed services, +increase the knowledge of experience of common men and conserve genius +for the common weal? Without wider, deeper intelligence among the masses +Democracy cannot accomplish its greater ends. Without a more careful +conservation of human ability and talent the world cannot secure the +services which its greater needs call for. Yet today who goes to +college, the Talented or the Rich? Who goes to high school, the Bright +or the Well-to-Do? Who does the physical work of the world, those whose +muscles need the exercise or those whose souls and minds are stupefied +with manual toil? How is the drudgery of the world distributed, by +thoughtful justice or the lash of Slavery? + +We cannot base the education of future citizens on the present +inexcusable inequality of wealth nor on physical differences of race. We +must seek not to make men carpenters but to make carpenters men. + +Colored Americans must then with deep determination educate their +children in the broadest, highest way. They must fill the colleges with +the talented and fill the fields and shops with the intelligent. Wisdom +is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom. + +But why am I talking simply of "colored" children? Is not the problem of +their education simply an intensification of the problem of educating +all children? Look at our plight in the United States, nearly 150 years +after the establishment of a government based on human intelligence. + +If we take the figures of the Thirteenth Census, we find that there were +five and one-half million illiterate Americans of whom 3,184,633 were +white. Remembering that illiteracy is a crude and extreme test of +ignorance, we may assume that there are in the United States ten million +people over ten years of age who are too ignorant either to perform +their civic duties or to teach industrial efficiency. Moreover, it does +not seem that this illiteracy is disappearing rapidly. + +For instance, nine percent of American children between ten and +nineteen years of age cannot read and write. Moreover, there are +millions of children who, judging by the figures for the school year +1909-10, are not going to learn to read and write, for of the Americans +six to fourteen years of age there were 3,125,392 who were not in school +a single day during that year. If we take the eleven million youths +fifteen to twenty years of age for whom vocational training is +particularly adapted, we find that nearly five per cent of these, or +448,414, are absolutely illiterate; it is not too much to assume that a +million of them have not acquired enough of the ordinary tools of +intelligence to make the most of efficient vocational training. + +Confining ourselves to the white people, over fifteen per cent of the +white children six to fourteen years of age, or 2,253,198, did not +attend school during the school year 1909-10. Of the native white +children of native parents ten to fourteen years of age nearly a tenth +were not in school during that year; 121,878 native white children of +native parents, fifteen to nineteen years of age, were illiterate. + +If we continue our attention to the colored children, the case is, of +course, much worse. + +We cannot hope to make intelligent workmen and intelligent citizens of a +group of people, over forty per cent of whose children six to fourteen +years of age were not in school a single day during 1909-10; for the +other sixty per cent the school term in the majority of cases was +probably less than five months. Of the Negro children ten to fourteen +years of age 18.9 per cent were illiterate; of those fifteen to nineteen +years of age 20.3 per cent were illiterate; of those ten to fourteen +years of age 31.4 per cent did not go to school a single day in 1909-10. + +What is the trouble? It is simple. We are spending one dollar for +education where we should spend ten dollars. If tomorrow we multiplied +our effort to educate the next generation ten-fold, we should but begin +our bounden duty. The heaven that lies about our infancy is but the +ideals come true which every generation of children is capable of +bringing; but we, selfish in our own ignorance and incapacity, are +making of education a series of miserable compromises: How ignorant can +we let a child grow to be in order to make him the best cotton mill +operative? What is the least sum that will keep the average youth out of +jail? How many months saved on a high school course will make the +largest export of wheat? + +If we realized that children are the future, that immortality is the +present child, that no education which educates can possibly be too +costly, then we know that the menace of Kaiserism which called for the +expenditure of more than 332 thousand millions of dollars was not a whit +more pressing than the menace of ignorance, and that no nation tomorrow +will call itself civilized which does not give every single human being +college and vocational training free and under the best teaching force +procurable for love or money. + +This world has never taken the education of children seriously. Misled +by selfish dreamings of personal life forever, we have neglected the +true and practical immortality through the endless life of children's +children. Seeking counsels of our own souls' perfection, we have +despised and rejected the possible increasing perfection of unending +generations. Or if we are thrown back in pessimistic despair from making +living folk decent, we leap to idle speculations of a thousand years +hereafter instead of working steadily and persistently for the next +generation. + +All our problems center in the child. All our hopes, our dreams are for +our children. Has our own life failed? Let its lesson save the +children's lives from similar failure. Is democracy a failure? Train up +citizens that will make it succeed. Is wealth too crude, too foolish in +form, and too easily stolen? Train up workers with honor and consciences +and brains. Have we degraded service with menials? Abolish the mean +spirit and implant sacrifice. Do we despise women? Train them as workers +and thinkers and not as playthings, lest future generations ape our +worst mistake. Do we despise darker races? Teach the children its fatal +cost in spiritual degradation and murder, teach them that to hate +"niggers" or "chinks" is to crucify souls like their own. Is there +anything we would accomplish with human beings? Do it with the immortal +child, with a stretch of endless time for doing it and with infinite +possibilities to work on. + +Is this our attitude toward education? It is not--neither in England nor +America--in France nor Germany--with black nor white nor yellow folk. +Education to the modern world is a burden which we are driven to carry. +We shirk and complain. We do just as little as possible and only threat +or catastrophe induces us to do more than a minimum. If the ignorant +mass, panting to know, revolts, we dole them gingerly enough knowledge +to pacify them temporarily. If, as in the Great War, we discover +soldiers too ignorant to use our machines of murder and destruction, we +train them--to use machines of murder and destruction. If mounting +wealth calls for intelligent workmen, we rush tumultuously to train +workers--in order to increase our wealth. But of great, broad plans to +train all men for all things--to make a universe intelligent, busy, +good, creative and beautiful--where in this wide world is such an +educational program? To announce it is to invite gasps or Brobdingnagian +laughter. It cannot be done. It will cost too much. + +What has been done with man can be done with men, if the world tries +long enough and hard enough. And as to the cost--all the wealth of the +world, save that necessary for sheer decent existence and for the +maintenance of past civilization, is, and of right ought to be, the +property of the children for their education. + +I mean it. In one year, 1917, we spent $96,700,000,000 for war. We blew +it away to murder, maim, and destroy! Why? Because the blind, brutal +crime of powerful and selfish interests made this path through hell the +only visible way to heaven. We did it. We had to do it, and we are glad +the putrid horror is over. But, now, are we prepared to spend less to +make a world in which the resurgence of such devilish power will be +impossible? + +Do we really want war to cease? + +Then educate the children of this generation at a cost no whit less and +if necessary a hundred times as great as the cost of the Great War. + +Last year, 1917, education cost us $915,000,000. + +Next year it ought to cost us at least two thousand million dollars. We +should spend enough money to hire the best teaching force possible--the +best organizing and directing ability in the land, even if we have to +strip the railroads and meat trust. We should dot city and country with +the most efficient, sanitary, and beautiful school-houses the world +knows and we should give every American child common school, high +school, and college training and then vocational guidance in earning a +living. + +Is this a dream? + +Can we afford less? + +Consider our so-called educational "problems"; "How may we keep pupils +in the high school?" Feed and clothe them. "Shall we teach Latin, Greek, +and mathematics to the 'masses'?" If they are worth teaching to anybody, +the masses need them most. "Who shall go to college?" Everybody. "When +shall culture training give place to technical education for work?" +Never. + +These questions are not "problems." They are simply "excuses" for +spending less time and money on the next generation. Given ten millions +of dollars a year, what can we best do with the education of a million +children? The real answer is--kill nine hundred and ninety thousand of +them quickly and not gradually, and make thoroughly-trained men and +women of the other ten thousand. But who set the limit of ten million +dollars? Who says it shall not be ten thousand millions, as it ought to +be? You and I say it, and in saying it we sin against the Holy Ghost. + +We sin because in our befuddled brains we have linked money and +education inextricably. We assume that only the wealthy have a real +right to education when, in fact, being born is being given a right to +college training. Our wealth today is, we all know, distributed mainly +by chance inheritance and personal favor and yet we attempt to base the +right to education on this foundation. The result is grotesque! We bury +genius; we send it to jail; we ridicule and mock it, while we send +mediocrity and idiocy to college, gilded and crowned. For three hundred +years we have denied black Americans an education and now we exploit +them before a gaping world: See how ignorant and degraded they are! All +they are fit for is education for cotton-picking and dish-washing. When +Dunbar and Taylor happen along, we are torn between something like +shamefaced anger or impatient amazement. + +A world guilty of this last and mightiest war has no right to enjoy or +create until it has made the future safe from another Arkansas or +Rheims. To this there is but one patent way, proved and inescapable, +Education, and that not for me or for you but for the Immortal Child. +And that child is of all races and all colors. All children are the +children of all and not of individuals and families and races. The whole +generation must be trained and guided and out of it as out of a huge +reservoir must be lifted all genius, talent, and intelligence to serve +all the world. + + + + +Almighty Death[1] + + + Softly, quite softly-- + For I hear, above the murmur of the sea, + Faint and far-fallen footsteps, as of One + Who comes from out beyond the endless ends of Time, + With voice that downward looms thro' singing stars; + Its subtle sound I see thro' these long-darkened eyes, + I hear the Light He bringeth on His hands-- + Almighty Death! + Softly, oh, softly, lest He pass me by, + And that unquivering Light toward which my longing soul + And tortured body through these years have writhed, + Fade to the dun darkness of my days. + + Softly, full softly, let me rise and greet + The strong, low luting of that long-awaited call; + Swiftly be all my good and going gone, + And this vast veiled and vanquished vigor of my soul + Seek somehow otherwhere its rest and goal, + Where endless spaces stretch, + Where endless time doth moan, + Where endless light doth pour + Thro' the black kingdoms of eternal death. + + Then haply I may see what things I have not seen, + Then I may know what things I have not known; + Then may I do my dreams. + + Farewell! No sound of idle mourning let there be + To shudder this full silence--save the voice + Of children--little children, white and black, + Whispering the deeds I tried to do for them; + While I at last unguided and alone + Pass softly, full softly. + +[Footnote 1: For Joseph Pulitzer, October 29, 1911.] + + + + + +IX + +OF BEAUTY AND DEATH + + +For long years we of the world gone wild have looked into the face of +death and smiled. Through all our bitter tears we knew how beautiful it +was to die for that which our souls called sufficient. Like all true +beauty this thing of dying was so simple, so matter-of-fact. The boy +clothed in his splendid youth stood before us and laughed in his own +jolly way,--went and was gone. Suddenly the world was full of the +fragrance of sacrifice. We left our digging and burden-bearing; we +turned from our scraping and twisting of things and words; we paused +from our hurrying hither and thither and walking up and down, and asked +in half-whisper: this Death--is this Life? And is its beauty real or +false? And of this heart-questioning I am writing. + + * * * * * + +My friend, who is pale and positive, said to me yesterday, as the tired +sun was nodding: + +"You are too sensitive." + +I admit, I am--sensitive. I am artificial. I cringe or am bumptious or +immobile. I am intellectually dishonest, art-blind, and I lack humor. + +"Why don't you stop all this?" she retorts triumphantly. + +You will not let us. + +"There you go, again. You know that I--" + +Wait! I answer. Wait! + +I arise at seven. The milkman has neglected me. He pays little attention +to colored districts. My white neighbor glares elaborately. I walk +softly, lest I disturb him. The children jeer as I pass to work. The +women in the street car withdraw their skirts or prefer to stand. The +policeman is truculent. The elevator man hates to serve Negroes. My job +is insecure because the white union wants it and does not want me. I try +to lunch, but no place near will serve me. I go forty blocks to +Marshall's, but the Committee of Fourteen closes Marshall's; they say +white women frequent it. + +"Do all eating places discriminate?" + +No, but how shall I know which do not--except-- + +I hurry home through crowds. They mutter or get angry. I go to a +mass-meeting. They stare. I go to a church. "We don't admit niggers!" + +Or perhaps I leave the beaten track. I seek new work. "Our employees +would not work with you; our customers would object." + +I ask to help in social uplift. + +"Why--er--we will write you." + +I enter the free field of science. Every laboratory door is closed and +no endowments are available. + +I seek the universal mistress, Art; the studio door is locked. + +I write literature. "We cannot publish stories of colored folks of that +type." It's the only type I know. + +This is my life. It makes me idiotic. It gives me artificial problems. I +hesitate, I rush, I waver. In fine,--I am sensitive! + +My pale friend looks at me with disbelief and curling tongue. + +"Do you mean to sit there and tell me that this is what happens to you +each day?" + +Certainly not, I answer low. + +"Then you only fear it will happen?" + +I fear! + +"Well, haven't you the courage to rise above a--almost a craven fear?" + +Quite--quite craven is my fear, I admit; but the terrible thing +is--these things do happen! + +"But you just said--" + +They do happen. Not all each day,--surely not. But now and then--now +seldom, now, sudden; now after a week, now in a chain of awful minutes; +not everywhere, but anywhere--in Boston, in Atlanta. That's the hell of +it. Imagine spending your life looking for insults or for hiding places +from them--shrinking (instinctively and despite desperate bolsterings of +courage) from blows that are not always but ever; not each day, but each +week, each month, each year. Just, perhaps, as you have choked back the +craven fear and cried, "I am and will be the master of my--" + +"No more tickets downstairs; here's one to the smoking gallery." + +You hesitate. You beat back your suspicions. After all, a cigarette with +Charlie Chaplin--then a white man pushes by-- + +"Three in the orchestra." + +"Yes, sir." And in he goes. + +Suddenly your heart chills. You turn yourself away toward the golden +twinkle of the purple night and hesitate again. What's the use? Why not +always yield--always take what's offered,--always bow to force, whether +of cannon or dislike? Then the great fear surges in your soul, the real +fear--the fear beside which other fears are vain imaginings; the fear +lest right there and then you are losing your own soul; that you are +losing your own soul and the soul of a people; that millions of unborn +children, black and gold and mauve, are being there and then despoiled +by you because you are a coward and dare not fight! + +Suddenly that silly orchestra seat and the cavorting of a comedian with +funny feet become matters of life, death, and immortality; you grasp the +pillars of the universe and strain as you sway back to that befrilled +ticket girl. You grip your soul for riot and murder. You choke and +sputter, and she seeing that you are about to make a "fuss" obeys her +orders and throws the tickets at you in contempt. Then you slink to your +seat and crouch in the darkness before the film, with every tissue +burning! The miserable wave of reaction engulfs you. To think of +compelling puppies to take your hard-earned money; fattening hogs to +hate you and yours; forcing your way among cheap and tawdry idiots--God! +What a night of pleasure! + + * * * * * + +Here, then, is beauty and ugliness, a wide vision of world-sacrifice, a +fierce gleam of world-hate. Which is life and what is death and how +shall we face so tantalizing a contradiction? Any explanation must +necessarily be subtle and involved. No pert and easy word of +encouragement, no merely dark despair, can lay hold of the roots of +these things. And first and before all, we cannot forget that this world +is beautiful. Grant all its ugliness and sin--the petty, horrible snarl +of its putrid threads, which few have seen more near or more often than +I--notwithstanding all this, the beauty of this world is not to be +denied. + +Casting my eyes about I dare not let them rest on the beauty of Love and +Friend, for even if my tongue were cunning enough to sing this, the +revelation of reality here is too sacred and the fancy too untrue. Of +one world-beauty alone may we at once be brutally frank and that is the +glory of physical nature; this, though the last of beauties, is divine! + +And so, too, there are depths of human degradation which it is not fair +for us to probe. With all their horrible prevalence, we cannot call them +natural. But may we not compare the least of the world's beauty with the +least of its ugliness--not murder, starvation, and rapine, with love and +friendship and creation--but the glory of sea and sky and city, with the +little hatefulnesses and thoughtfulnesses of race prejudice, that out +of such juxtaposition we may, perhaps, deduce some rule of beauty and +life--or death? + + * * * * * + +There mountains hurl themselves against the stars and at their feet lie +black and leaden seas. Above float clouds--white, gray, and inken, while +the clear, impalpable air springs and sparkles like new wine. Last night +we floated on the calm bosom of the sea in the southernmost haven of +Mount Desert. The water flamed and sparkled. The sun had gone, but above +the crooked back of cumulus clouds, dark and pink with radiance, and on +the other sky aloft to the eastward piled the gorgeous-curtained mists +of evening. The radiance faded and a shadowy velvet veiled the +mountains, a humid depth of gloom behind which lurked all the mysteries +of life and death, while above, the clouds hung ashen and dull; lights +twinkled and flashed along the shore, boats glided in the twilight, and +the little puffing of motors droned away. Then was the hour to talk of +life and the meaning of life, while above gleamed silently, suddenly, +star on star. + +Bar Harbor lies beneath a mighty mountain, a great, bare, black mountain +that sleeps above the town; but as you leave, it rises suddenly, +threateningly, until far away on Frenchman's Bay it looms above the town +in withering vastness, as if to call all that little world petty save +itself. Beneath the cool, wide stare of that great mountain, men cannot +live as giddily as in some lesser summer's playground. Before the +unveiled face of nature, as it lies naked on the Maine coast, rises a +certain human awe. + +God molded his world largely and mightily off this marvelous coast and +meant that in the tired days of life men should come and worship here +and renew their spirit. This I have done and turning I go to work again. +As we go, ever the mountains of Mount Desert rise and greet us on our +going--somber, rock-ribbed and silent, looking unmoved on the moving +world, yet conscious of their everlasting strength. + +About us beats the sea--the sail-flecked, restless sea, humming its tune +about our flying keel, unmindful of the voices of men. The land sinks to +meadows, black pine forests, with here and there a blue and wistful +mountain. Then there are islands--bold rocks above the sea, curled +meadows; through and about them roll ships, weather-beaten and patched +of sail, strong-hulled and smoking, light gray and shining. All the +colors of the sea lie about us--gray and yellowing greens and doubtful +blues, blacks not quite black, tinted silvers and golds and dreaming +whites. Long tongues of dark and golden land lick far out into the +tossing waters, and the white gulls sail and scream above them. It is a +mighty coast--ground out and pounded, scarred, crushed, and carven in +massive, frightful lineaments. Everywhere stand the pines--the little +dark and steadfast pines that smile not, neither weep, but wait and +wait. Near us lie isles of flesh and blood, white cottages, tiled and +meadowed. Afar lie shadow-lands, high mist-hidden hills, mountains +boldly limned, yet shading to the sky, faint and unreal. + +We skirt the pine-clad shores, chary of men, and know how bitterly +winter kisses these lonely shores to fill yon row of beaked ice houses +that creep up the hills. We are sailing due westward and the sun, yet +two hours high, is blazoning a fiery glory on the sea that spreads and +gleams like some broad, jeweled trail, to where the blue and distant +shadow-land lifts its carven front aloft, leaving, as it gropes, shades +of shadows beyond. + + * * * * * + +Why do not those who are scarred in the world's battle and hurt by its +hardness travel to these places of beauty and drown themselves in the +utter joy of life? I asked this once sitting in a Southern home. Outside +the spring of a Georgia February was luring gold to the bushes and +languor to the soft air. Around me sat color in human flesh--brown that +crimsoned readily; dim soft-yellow that escaped description; cream-like +duskiness that shadowed to rich tints of autumn leaves. And yet a +suggested journey in the world brought no response. + +"I should think you would like to travel," said the white one. + +But no, the thought of a journey seemed to depress them. + +Did you ever see a "Jim-Crow" waiting-room? There are always exceptions, +as at Greensboro--but usually there is no heat in winter and no air in +summer; with undisturbed loafers and train hands and broken, +disreputable settees; to buy a ticket is torture; you stand and stand +and wait and wait until every white person at the "other window" is +waited on. Then the tired agent yells across, because all the tickets +and money are over there-- + +"What d'ye want? What? Where?" + +The agent browbeats and contradicts you, hurries and confuses the +ignorant, gives many persons the wrong change, compels some to purchase +their tickets on the train at a higher price, and sends you and me out +on the platform, burning with indignation and hatred! + +The "Jim-Crow" car is up next the baggage car and engine. It stops out +beyond the covering in the rain or sun or dust. Usually there is no step +to help you climb on and often the car is a smoker cut in two and you +must pass through the white smokers or else they pass through your part, +with swagger and noise and stares. Your compartment is a half or a +quarter or an eighth of the oldest car in service on the road. Unless it +happens to be a thorough express, the plush is caked with dirt, the +floor is grimy, and the windows dirty. An impertinent white newsboy +occupies two seats at the end of the car and importunes you to the point +of rage to buy cheap candy, Coco-Cola, and worthless, if not vulgar, +books. He yells and swaggers, while a continued stream of white men +saunters back and forth from the smoker to buy and hear. The white train +crew from the baggage car uses the "Jim-Crow" to lounge in and perform +their toilet. The conductor appropriates two seats for himself and his +papers and yells gruffly for your tickets before the train has scarcely +started. It is best not to ask him for information even in the gentlest +tones. His information is for white persons chiefly. It is difficult to +get lunch or clean water. Lunch rooms either don't serve niggers or +serve them at some dirty and ill-attended hole in the wall. As for +toilet rooms,--don't! If you have to change cars, be wary of junctions +which are usually without accommodation and filled with quarrelsome +white persons who hate a "darky dressed up." You are apt to have the +company of a sheriff and a couple of meek or sullen black prisoners on +part of your way and dirty colored section hands will pour in toward +night and drive you to the smallest corner. + +"No," said the little lady in the corner (she looked like an ivory cameo +and her dress flowed on her like a caress), "we don't travel much." + + * * * * * + +Pessimism is cowardice. The man who cannot frankly acknowledge the +"Jim-Crow" car as a fact and yet live and hope is simply afraid either +of himself or of the world. There is not in the world a more disgraceful +denial of human brotherhood than the "Jim-Crow" car of the southern +United States; but, too, just as true, there is nothing more beautiful +in the universe than sunset and moonlight on Montego Bay in far Jamaica. +And both things are true and both belong to this our world, and neither +can be denied. + + * * * * * + +The sun, prepared to cross that awful border which men call Night and +Death, marshals his hosts. I seem to see the spears of mighty horsemen +flash golden in the light; empurpled banners flame afar, and the low +thunder of marching hosts thrills with the thunder of the sea. Athwart +his own path, screening a face of fire, he throws cloud masses, masking +his trained guns. And then the miracle is done. The host passes with +roar too vast for human ear and the sun is set, leaving the frightened +moon and blinded stars. + +In the dusk the green-gold palms turn their star-like faces and stretch +their fan-like fingers, lifting themselves proudly, lest any lordly leaf +should know the taint of earth. + +Out from the isle the serpent hill thrusts its great length around the +bay, shouldering back the waters and the shadows. Ghost rains sweep +down, smearing his rugged sides, yet on he writhes, undulant with pine +and palm, gleaming until his low, sharp head and lambent tongue, grown +gray and pale and silver in the dying day, kisses the molten gold of the +golden sea. + +Then comes the moon. Like fireflies nesting in the hand of God gleams +the city, dim-swathed by fairy palms. A long, thin thumb, mist-mighty, +points shadowy to the Spanish Main, while through the fingers foam the +Seven Seas. Above the calm and gold-green moon, beneath the wind-wet +earth; and here, alone, my soul enchained, enchanted! + + * * * * * + +From such heights of holiness men turn to master the world. All the +pettiness of life drops away and it becomes a great battle before the +Lord. His trumpet,--where does it sound and whither? I go. I saw Montego +Bay at the beginning of the World War. The cry for service as high as +heaven, as wide as human feeling, seemed filling the earth. What were +petty slights, silly insults, paltry problems, beside this call to do +and dare and die? We black folk offered our services to fight. What +happened? Most Americans have forgotten the extraordinary series of +events which worked the feelings of black America to fever heat. + +First was the refusal to accept Negro volunteers for the army, except in +the four black regiments already established. While the nation was +combing the country for volunteers for the regular army, it would not +let the American Negro furnish even his proportionate quota of regular +soldiers. This led to some grim bantering among Negroes: + +"Why do you want to volunteer?" asked many. "Why should you fight for +this country?" + +Before we had chance to reply to this, there came the army draft bill +and the proposal by Vardaman and his ilk to except Negroes. We protested +to Washington in various ways, and while we were insisting that colored +men should be drafted just as other citizens, the bill went through with +two little "jokers." + +First, it provided that Negroes should be drafted, but trained in +"separate" units; and, secondly, it somewhat ambiguously permitted men +to be drafted for "labor." + +A wave of fear and unrest spread among Negroes and while we were looking +at both these provisions askance, suddenly we received the draft +registration blank. It directed persons "of African descent" to "tear +off the corner!" Probably never before in the history of the United +States has a portion of the citizens been so openly and crassly +discriminated against by action of the general government. It was +disheartening, and on top of it came the celebrated "German plots." It +was alleged in various parts of the country with singular unanimity that +Germans were working among the Negroes, and it was further intimated +that this would make the Negroes too dangerous an element to trust with +guns. To us, of course, it looked as though the discovery and the +proposition came from the same thinly-veiled sources. + +Considering carefully this series of happenings the American Negro +sensed an approaching crisis and faced a puzzling dilemma. Here was +evidently preparing fertile ground for the spread of disloyalty and +resentment among the black masses, as they were forced to choose +apparently between forced labor or a "Jim-Crow" draft. Manifestly when a +minority group is thus segregated and forced out of the nation, they can +in reason do but one thing--take advantage of the disadvantage. In this +case we demanded colored officers for the colored troops. + +General Wood was early approached and asked to admit suitable candidates +to Plattsburg. He refused. We thereupon pressed the government for a +"separate" camp for the training of Negro officers. Not only did the War +Department hesitate at this request, but strong opposition arose among +colored people themselves. They said we were going too far. "We will +obey the law, but to ask for voluntary segregation is to insult +ourselves." But strong, sober second thought came to our rescue. We said +to our protesting brothers: "We face a condition, not a theory. There is +not the slightest chance of our being admitted to white camps; +therefore, it is either a case of a 'Jim-Crow' officers' training camp +or no colored officers. Of the two things no colored officers would be +the greater calamity." + +Thus we gradually made up our minds. But the War Department still +hesitated. It was besieged, and when it presented its final argument, +"We have no place for such a camp," the trustees of Howard University +said: "Take our campus." Eventually twelve hundred colored cadets were +assembled at Fort Des Moines for officers' training. + +The city of Des Moines promptly protested, but it finally changed its +mind. Des Moines never before had seen such a class of colored men. They +rapidly became popular with all classes and many encomiums were passed +upon their conduct. Their commanding colonel pronounced their work first +class and declared that they presented excellent material for officers. + +Meantime, with one accord, the thought of the colored people turned +toward Colonel Young, their highest officer in the regular army. Charles +Young is a heroic figure. He is the typical soldier,--silent, +uncomplaining, brave, and efficient! From his days at West Point +throughout his thirty years of service he has taken whatever task was +assigned him and performed it efficiently; and there is no doubt but +that the army has been almost merciless in the requirements which it has +put upon this splendid officer. He came through all with flying colors. +In Haiti, in Liberia, in western camps, in the Sequoia Forests of +California, and finally with Pershing in Mexico,--in every case he +triumphed. Just at the time we were looking to the United States +government to call him to head the colored officers' training at Des +Moines, he was retired from the army, because of "high blood pressure!" +There is no disputing army surgeons and their judgment in this case may +be justified, but coming at the time it did, nearly every Negro in the +United States believed that the "high blood pressure" that retired +Colonel Young was in the prejudiced heads of the Southern oligarchy who +were determined that no American Negro should ever wear the stars of a +General. + +To say that Negroes of the United States were disheartened at the +retirement of Colonel Young is to put it mildly,--but there was more +trouble. The provision that Negroes must be trained separately looked +simple and was simple in places where there were large Negro +contingents, but in the North with solitary Negroes drafted here and +there we had some extraordinary developments. Regiments appeared with +one Negro where the Negro had to be separated like a pest and put into a +house or even a village by himself while the commander frantically +telegraphed to Washington. Small wonder that one poor fellow in Ohio +solved the problem by cutting his throat. The whole process of drafting +Negroes had to be held up until the government could find methods and +places for assembling them. + +Then came Houston. In a moment the nation forgot the whole record of one +of the most celebrated regiments in the United States Army and its +splendid service in the Indian Wars and in the Philippines. It was the +first regiment mobilized in the Spanish-American War and it was the +regiment that volunteered to a man to clean up the yellow fever camps +when others hesitated. It was one of the regiments to which Pershing +said in December: + +"Men, I am authorized by Congress to tell you all that our people back +in the States are mightily glad and proud at the way the soldiers have +conducted themselves while in Mexico, and I, General Pershing, can say +with pride that a finer body of men never stood under the flag of our +nation than we find here tonight." + +The nation, also, forgot the deep resentment mixed with the pale ghost +of fear which Negro soldiers call up in the breasts of the white South. +It is not so much that they fear that the Negro will strike if he gets a +chance, but rather that they assume with curious unanimity that he has +_reason_ to strike, that any other persons in his circumstances or +treated as he is would rebel. Instead of seeking to relieve the cause of +such a possible feeling, most of them strain every effort to bottle up +the black man's resentment. Is it inconceivable that now and then it +bursts all bounds, as at Brownsville and Houston? + +So in the midst of this mental turmoil came Houston and East St. Louis. +At Houston black soldiers, goaded and insulted, suddenly went wild and +"shot up" the town. At East St. Louis white strikers on war work killed +and mobbed Negro workingmen, and as a result 19 colored soldiers were +hanged and 51 imprisoned for life for killing 17 whites at Houston, +while for killing 125 Negroes in East St. Louis, 20 white men were +imprisoned, none for more than 15 years, and 10 colored men with them. + + * * * * * + +Once upon a time I took a great journey in this land to three of the +ends of our world and over seven thousand mighty miles. I saw the grim +desert and the high ramparts of the Rocky Mountains. Three days I flew +from the silver beauty of Seattle to the somber whirl of Kansas City. +Three days I flew from the brute might of Chicago to the air of the +Angels in California, scented with golden flowers, where the homes of +men crouch low and loving on the good, broad earth, as though they were +kissing her blossoms. Three days I flew through the empire of Texas, but +all these shall be tales untold, for in all this journey I saw but one +thing that lived and will live eternal in my soul,--the Grand Canon. + +It is a sudden void in the bosom of the earth, down to its entrails--a +wound where the dull titanic knife has turned and twisted in the hole, +leaving its edges livid, scarred, jagged, and pulsing over the white, +and red, and purple of its mighty flesh, while down below--down, down +below, in black and severed vein, boils the dull and sullen flood of the +Colorado. + +It is awful. There can be nothing like it. It is the earth and sky gone +stark and raving mad. The mountains up-twirled, disbodied and inverted, +stand on their peaks and throw their bowels to the sky. Their earth is +air; their ether blood-red rock engreened. You stand upon their roots +and fall into their pinnacles, a mighty mile. + +Behold this mauve and purple mocking of time and space! See yonder peak! +No human foot has trod it. Into that blue shadow only the eye of God has +looked. Listen to the accents of that gorge which mutters: "Before +Abraham was, I am." Is yonder wall a hedge of black or is it the rampart +between heaven and hell? I see greens,--is it moss or giant pines? I see +specks that may be boulders. Ever the winds sigh and drop into those +sun-swept silences. Ever the gorge lies motionless, unmoved, until I +fear. It is a grim thing, unholy, terrible! It is human--some mighty +drama unseen, unheard, is playing there its tragedies or mocking comedy, +and the laugh of endless years is shrieking onward from peak to peak, +unheard, unechoed, and unknown. + +One throws a rock into the abyss. It gives back no sound. It falls on +silence--the voice of its thunders cannot reach so far. It is not--it +cannot be a mere, inert, unfeeling, brute fact--its grandeur is too +serene--its beauty too divine! It is not red, and blue, and green, but, +ah! the shadows and the shades of all the world, glad colorings touched +with a hesitant spiritual delicacy. What does it mean--what does it +mean? Tell me, black and boiling water! + +It is not real. It is but shadows. The shading of eternity. Last night +yonder tesselated palace was gloom--dark, brooding thought and sin, +while hither rose the mountains of the sun, golden, blazing, +ensanguined. It was a dream. This blue and brilliant morning shows all +those burning peaks alight, while here, shapeless, mistful, brood the +shadowed towers. + +I have been down into the entrails of earth--down, down by straight and +staring cliffs--down by sounding waters and sun-strewn meadows; down by +green pastures and still waters, by great, steep chasms--down by the +gnarled and twisted fists of God to the deep, sad moan of the yellow +river that did this thing of wonder,--a little winding river with death +in its depth and a crown of glory in its flying hair. + +I have seen what eye of man was never meant to see. I have profaned the +sanctuary. I have looked upon the dread disrobing of the Night, and yet +I live. Ere I hid my head she was standing in her cavern halls, glowing +coldly westward--her feet were blackness: her robes, empurpled, flowed +mistily from shoulder down in formless folds of folds; her head, +pine-crowned, was set with jeweled stars. I turned away and dreamed--the +canon,--the awful, its depths called; its heights shuddered. Then +suddenly I arose and looked. Her robes were falling. At dim-dawn they +hung purplish-green and black. Slowly she stripped them from her gaunt +and shapely limbs--her cold, gray garments shot with shadows stood +revealed. Down dropped the black-blue robes, gray-pearled and slipped, +leaving a filmy, silken, misty thing, and underneath I glimpsed her +limbs of utter light. + + * * * * * + +My God! For what am I thankful this night? For nothing. For nothing but +the most commonplace of commonplaces; a table of gentlewomen and +gentlemen--soft-spoken, sweet-tempered, full of human sympathy, who made +me, a stranger, one of them. Ours was a fellowship of common books, +common knowledge, mighty aims. We could laugh and joke and think as +friends--and the Thing--the hateful, murderous, dirty Thing which in +American we call "Nigger-hatred" was not only not there--it could not +even be understood. It was a curious monstrosity at which civilized folk +laughed or looked puzzled. There was no elegant and elaborate +condescension of--"We once had a colored servant"--"My father was an +Abolitionist"--"I've always been interested in _your people_"--there was +only the community of kindred souls, the delicate reverence for the +Thought that led, the quick deference to the guest. You left in quiet +regret, knowing that they were not discussing you behind your back with +lies and license. God! It was simply human decency and I had to be +thankful for it because I am an American Negro, and white America, with +saving exceptions, is cruel to everything that has black blood--and +this was Paris, in the years of salvation, 1919. Fellow blacks, we must +join the democracy of Europe. + + * * * * * + +Toul! Dim through the deepening dark of early afternoon, I saw its +towers gloom dusky toward the murk of heaven. We wound in misty roads +and dropped upon the city through the great throats of its walled +bastions. There lay France--a strange, unknown, unfamiliar France. The +city was dispossessed. Through its streets--its narrow, winding streets, +old and low and dark, carven and quaint,--poured thousands upon +thousands of strange feet of khaki-clad foreigners, and the echoes threw +back awkward syllables that were never French. Here was France beaten to +her knees yet fighting as never nation fought before, calling in her +death agony across the seas till her help came and with all its strut +and careless braggadocio saved the worthiest nation of the world from +the wickedest fate ever plotted by Fools. + + * * * * * + +Tim Brimm was playing by the town-pump. Tim Brimm and the bugles of +Harlem blared in the little streets of Maron in far Lorraine. The tiny +streets were seas of mud. Dank mist and rain sifted through the cold air +above the blue Moselle. Soldiers--soldiers everywhere--black soldiers, +boys of Washington, Alabama, Philadelphia, Mississippi. Wild and sweet +and wooing leapt the strains upon the air. French children gazed in +wonder--women left their washing. Up in the window stood a black Major, +a Captain, a Teacher, and I--with tears behind our smiling eyes. Tim +Brimm was playing by the town-pump. + +The audience was framed in smoke. It rose ghost-like out of +memories--bitter memories of the officer near dead of pneumonia whose +pain was lighted up by the nurses waiting to know whether he must be +"Jim-Crowed" with privates or not. Memories of that great last morning +when the thunders of hell called the Ninety-second to its last drive. +Memories of bitter humiliations, determined triumphs, great victories, +and bugle-calls that sounded from earth to heaven. Like memories framed +in the breath of God, my audience peered in upon me--good, brown faces +with great, kind, beautiful eyes--black soldiers of America rescuing +beloved France--and the words came in praise and benediction there in +the "Y," with its little stock of cigarettes and candies and its rusty +wood stove. + +"_Alors_," said Madame, "_quatre sont morts_"--four dead--four tall, +strong sons dead for France--sons like the sweet and blue-eyed daughter +who was hiding her brave smile in the dusk. It was a tiny stone house +whose front window lipped the passing sidewalk where ever tramped the +feet of black soldiers marching home. There was a cavernous wardrobe, a +great fireplace invaded by a new and jaunty iron stove. Vast, thick +piles of bedding rose in yonder corner. Without was the crowded kitchen +and up a half-stair was our bedroom that gave upon a tiny court with +arched stone staircase and one green tree. We were a touching family +party held together by a great sorrow and a great joy. How we laughed +over the salad that got brandy instead of vinegar--how we ate the golden +pile of fried potatoes and how we pored over the post-card from the +Lieutenant of the Senegalese--dear little vale of crushed and risen +France, in the day when Negroes went "over the top" at Pont-a-Mousson. + + * * * * * + +Paris, Paris by purple facade of the opera, the crowd on the Boulevard +des Italiens and the great swing of the Champs Elysees. But not the +Paris the world knows. Paris with its soul cut to the core--feverish, +crowded, nervous, hurried; full of uniforms and mourning bands, with +cafes closed at 9:30--no sugar, scarce bread, and tears so interwined +with joy that there is scant difference. Paris has been dreaming a +nightmare, and though she awakes, the grim terror is upon her--it lies +on the sand-closed art treasures of the Louvre. Only the flowers are +there, always the flowers, the Roses of England and the Lilies of +France. + + * * * * * + +New York! Behind the Liberty that faces free France rise the white +cliffs of Manhattan, tier on tier, with a curving pinnacle, towers +square and twin, a giant inkwell daintily stoppered, an ancient pyramid +enthroned; beneath, low ramparts wide and mighty; while above, +faint-limned against the turbulent sky, looms the vast grace of that +Cathedral of the Purchased and Purchasing Poor, topping the world and +pointing higher. + +Yonder the gray cobwebs of the Brooklyn bridges leap the sea, and here +creep the argosies from all earth's ends. We move to this swift home on +dun and swelling waters and hear as we come the heartbeats of the new +world. + + * * * * * + +New York and night from the Brooklyn Bridge: The bees and fireflies flit +and twinkle in their vast hives; curved clouds like the breath of gods +hover between the towers and the moon. One hears the hiss of lightnings, +the deep thunder of human things, and a fevered breathing as of some +attendant and invincible Powers. The glow of burning millions melts +outward into dim and fairy outlines until afar the liquid music born of +rushing crowds drips like a benediction on the sea. + + * * * * * + +New York and morning: the sun is kissing the timid dew in Central Park, +and from the Fountain of Plenty one looks along that world street, Fifth +Avenue, and walks toward town. The earth life and curves graciously down +from the older mansions of princes to the newer shops of luxury. Egypt +and Abyssinia, Paris and Damascus, London and India caress you by the +way; churches stand aloof while the shops swell to emporiums. But all +this is nothing. Everything is mankind. Humanity stands and flies and +walks and rolls about--the poor, the priceless, the world-known and the +forgotten; child and grandfather, king and leman--the pageant of the +world goes by, set in a frame of stone and jewels, clothed in scarlet +and rags. Princes Street and the Elysian Fields, the Strand and the +Ringstrasse--these are the Ways of the World today. + + * * * * * + +New York and twilight, there where the Sixth Avenue "L" rises and leaps +above the tenements into the free air at 110th Street. It circles like a +bird with heaven and St. John's above and earth and the sweet green and +gold of the Park beneath. Beyond lie all the blue mists and mysteries of +distance; beneath, the city rushes and crawls. Behind echo all the roar +and war and care and maze of the wide city set in its sullen darkening +walls, flashing weird and crimson farewells. Out at the sides the stars +twinkle. + + * * * * * + +Again New York and Night and Harlem. A dark city of fifty thousand rises +like magic from the earth. Gone is the white world, the pale lips, the +lank hair; gone is the West and North--the East and South is here +triumphant. The street is crowd and leisure and laughter. Everywhere +black eyes, black and brown, and frizzled hair curled and sleek, and +skins that riot with luscious color and deep, burning blood. Humanity is +packed dense in high piles of close-knit homes that lie in layers above +gray shops of food and clothes and drink, with here and there a +moving-picture show. Orators declaim on the corners, lovers lark in the +streets, gamblers glide by the saloons, workers lounge wearily home. +Children scream and run and frolic, and all is good and human and +beautiful and ugly and evil, even as Life is elsewhere. + + * * * * * + +And then--the Veil. It drops as drops the night on southern seas--vast, +sudden, unanswering. There is Hate behind it, and Cruelty and Tears. As +one peers through its intricate, unfathomable pattern of ancient, old, +old design, one sees blood and guilt and misunderstanding. And yet it +hangs there, this Veil, between Then and Now, between Pale and Colored +and Black and White--between You and Me. Surely it is a thought-thing, +tenuous, intangible; yet just as surely is it true and terrible and not +in our little day may you and I lift it. We may feverishly unravel its +edges and even climb slow with giant shears to where its ringed and +gilded top nestles close to the throne of God. But as we work and climb +we shall see through streaming eyes and hear with aching ears, lynching +and murder, cheating and despising, degrading and lying, so flashed and +fleshed through this vast hanging darkness that the Doer never sees the +Deed and the Victim knows not the Victor and Each hates All in wild and +bitter ignorance. Listen, O Isles, to these Voices from within the Veil, +for they portray the most human hurt of the Twentieth Cycle of that poor +Jesus who was called the Christ! + + * * * * * + +There is something in the nature of Beauty that demands an end. Ugliness +may be indefinite. It may trail off into gray endlessness. But Beauty +must be complete--whether it be a field of poppies or a great life,--it +must end, and the End is part and triumph of the Beauty. I know there +are those who envisage a beauty eternal. But I cannot. I can dream of +great and never-ending processions of beautiful things and visions and +acts. But each must be complete or it cannot for me exist. + +On the other hand, Ugliness to me is eternal, not in the essence but in +its incompleteness; but its eternity does not daunt me, for its eternal +unfulfilment is a cause of joy. There is in it nothing new or +unexpected; it is the old evil stretching out and ever seeking the end +it cannot find; it may coil and writhe and recur in endless battle to +days without end, but it is the same human ill and bitter hurt. But +Beauty is fulfilment. It satisfies. It is always new and strange. It is +the reasonable thing. Its end is Death--the sweet silence of perfection, +the calm and balance of utter music. Therein is the triumph of Beauty. + +So strong is the spell of beauty that there are those who, contradicting +their own knowledge and experience, try to say that all is beauty. They +are called optimists, and they lie. All is not beauty. Ugliness and hate +and ill are here with all their contradiction and illogic; they will +always be here--perhaps, God send, with lessened volume and force, but +here and eternal, while beauty triumphs in its great completion--Death. +We cannot conjure the end of all ugliness in eternal beauty, for beauty +by its very being and definition has in each definition its ends and +limits; but while beauty lies implicit and revealed in its end, ugliness +writhes on in darkness forever. So the ugliness of continual birth +fulfils itself and conquers gloriously only in the beautiful end, Death. + + * * * * * + +At last to us all comes happiness, there in the Court of Peace, where +the dead lie so still and calm and good. If we were not dead we would +lie and listen to the flowers grow. We would hear the birds sing and see +how the rain rises and blushes and burns and pales and dies in beauty. +We would see spring, summer, and the red riot of autumn, and then in +winter, beneath the soft white snow, sleep and dream of dreams. But we +know that being dead, our Happiness is a fine and finished thing and +that ten, a hundred, and a thousand years, we shall lie at rest, unhurt +in the Court of Peace. + + + + +_The Prayers of God_ + + + Name of God's Name! + Red murder reigns; + All hell is loose; + On gold autumnal air + Walk grinning devils, barbed and hoofed; + While high on hills of hate, + Black-blossomed, crimson-sky'd, + Thou sittest, dumb. + + Father Almighty! + This earth is mad! + Palsied, our cunning hands; + Rotten, our gold; + Our argosies reel and stagger + Over empty seas; + All the long aisles + Of Thy Great Temples, God, + Stink with the entrails + Of our souls. + And Thou art dumb. + + Above the thunder of Thy Thunders, Lord, + Lightening Thy Lightnings, + Rings and roars + The dark damnation + Of this hell of war. + Red piles the pulp of hearts and heads + And little children's hands. + + Allah! + Elohim! + Very God of God! + + Death is here! + Dead are the living; deep--dead the dead. + Dying are earth's unborn-- + The babes' wide eyes of genius and of joy, + Poems and prayers, sun-glows and earth-songs, + Great-pictured dreams, + Enmarbled phantasies, + High hymning heavens--all + In this dread night + Writhe and shriek and choke and die + This long ghost-night-- + While Thou art dumb. + + Have mercy! + Have mercy upon us, miserable sinners! + Stand forth, unveil Thy Face, + Pour down the light + That seethes above Thy Throne, + And blaze this devil's dance to darkness! + Hear! + Speak! + In Christ's Great Name-- + + I hear! + Forgive me, God! + Above the thunder I hearkened; + Beneath the silence, now,-- + I hear! + + (Wait, God, a little space. + It is so strange to talk with Thee-- + Alone!) + + This gold? + I took it. + Is it Thine? + Forgive; I did not know. + + Blood? Is it wet with blood? + 'Tis from my brother's hands. + (I know; his hands are mine.) + It flowed for Thee, O Lord. + + War? Not so; not war-- + Dominion, Lord, and over black, not white; + Black, brown, and fawn, + And not Thy Chosen Brood, O God, + We murdered. + To build Thy Kingdom, + To drape our wives and little ones, + And set their souls a-glitter-- + For this we killed these lesser breeds + And civilized their dead, + Raping red rubber, diamonds, cocoa, gold! + + For this, too, once, and in Thy Name, + I lynched a Nigger-- + + (He raved and writhed, + I heard him cry, + I felt the life-light leap and lie, + I saw him crackle there, on high, + I watched him wither!) + + _Thou?_ + _Thee?_ + _I lynched Thee?_ + + Awake me, God! I sleep! + What was that awful word Thou saidst? + That black and riven thing--was it Thee? + That gasp--was it Thine? + This pain--is it Thine? + Are, then, these bullets piercing Thee? + Have all the wars of all the world, + Down all dim time, drawn blood from Thee? + Have all the lies and thefts and hates-- + Is this Thy Crucifixion, God, + And not that funny, little cross, + With vinegar and thorns? + Is this Thy kingdom here, not there, + This stone and stucco drift of dreams? + + Help! + I sense that low and awful cry-- + + Who cries? + Who weeps? + With silent sob that rends and tears-- + Can God sob? + + Who prays? + I hear strong prayers throng by, + Like mighty winds on dusky moors-- + Can God pray? + + Prayest Thou, Lord, and to me? + _Thou_ needest me? + Thou _needest_ me? + Thou needest _me_? + Poor, wounded soul! + Of this I never dreamed. I thought-- + + _Courage, God, + I come!_ + + + + + +X + +THE COMET + + +He stood a moment on the steps of the bank, watching the human river +that swirled down Broadway. Few noticed him. Few ever noticed him save +in a way that stung. He was outside the world--"nothing!" as he said +bitterly. Bits of the words of the walkers came to him. + +"The comet?" + +"The comet----" + +Everybody was talking of it. Even the president, as he entered, smiled +patronizingly at him, and asked: + +"Well, Jim, are you scared?" + +"No," said the messenger shortly. + +"I thought we'd journeyed through the comet's tail once," broke in the +junior clerk affably. + +"Oh, that was Halley's," said the president; "this is a new comet, quite +a stranger, they say--wonderful, wonderful! I saw it last night. Oh, by +the way, Jim," turning again to the messenger, "I want you to go down +into the lower vaults today." + +The messenger followed the president silently. Of course, they wanted +_him_ to go down to the lower vaults. It was too dangerous for more +valuable men. He smiled grimly and listened. + +"Everything of value has been moved out since the water began to seep +in," said the president; "but we miss two volumes of old records. +Suppose you nose around down there,--it isn't very pleasant, I suppose." + +"Not very," said the messenger, as he walked out. + +"Well, Jim, the tail of the new comet hits us at noon this time," said +the vault clerk, as he passed over the keys; but the messenger passed +silently down the stairs. Down he went beneath Broadway, where the dim +light filtered through the feet of hurrying men; down to the dark +basement beneath; down into the blackness and silence beneath that +lowest cavern. Here with his dark lantern he groped in the bowels of the +earth, under the world. + +He drew a long breath as he threw back the last great iron door and +stepped into the fetid slime within. Here at last was peace, and he +groped moodily forward. A great rat leaped past him and cobwebs crept +across his face. He felt carefully around the room, shelf by shelf, on +the muddied floor, and in crevice and corner. Nothing. Then he went back +to the far end, where somehow the wall felt different. He sounded and +pushed and pried. Nothing. He started away. Then something brought him +back. He was sounding and working again when suddenly the whole black +wall swung as on mighty hinges, and blackness yawned beyond. He peered +in; it was evidently a secret vault--some hiding place of the old bank +unknown in newer times. He entered hesitatingly. It was a long, narrow +room with shelves, and at the far end, an old iron chest. On a high +shelf lay the two missing volumes of records, and others. He put them +carefully aside and stepped to the chest. It was old, strong, and rusty. +He looked at the vast and old-fashioned lock and flashed his light on +the hinges. They were deeply incrusted with rust. Looking about, he +found a bit of iron and began to pry. The rust had eaten a hundred +years, and it had gone deep. Slowly, wearily, the old lid lifted, and +with a last, low groan lay bare its treasure--and he saw the dull sheen +of gold! + +"Boom!" + +A low, grinding, reverberating crash struck upon his ear. He started up +and looked about. All was black and still. He groped for his light and +swung it about him. Then he knew! The great stone door had swung to. He +forgot the gold and looked death squarely in the face. Then with a sigh +he went methodically to work. The cold sweat stood on his forehead; but +he searched, pounded, pushed, and worked until after what seemed endless +hours his hand struck a cold bit of metal and the great door swung again +harshly on its hinges, and then, striking against something soft and +heavy, stopped. He had just room to squeeze through. There lay the body +of the vault clerk, cold and stiff. He stared at it, and then felt sick +and nauseated. The air seemed unaccountably foul, with a strong, +peculiar odor. He stepped forward, clutched at the air, and fell +fainting across the corpse. + +He awoke with a sense of horror, leaped from the body, and groped up the +stairs, calling to the guard. The watchman sat as if asleep, with the +gate swinging free. With one glance at him the messenger hurried up to +the sub-vault. In vain he called to the guards. His voice echoed and +re-echoed weirdly. Up into the great basement he rushed. Here another +guard lay prostrate on his face, cold and still. A fear arose in the +messenger's heart. He dashed up to the cellar floor, up into the bank. +The stillness of death lay everywhere and everywhere bowed, bent, and +stretched the silent forms of men. The messenger paused and glanced +about. He was not a man easily moved; but the sight was appalling! +"Robbery and murder," he whispered slowly to himself as he saw the +twisted, oozing mouth of the president where he lay half-buried on his +desk. Then a new thought seized him: If they found him here alone--with +all this money and all these dead men--what would his life be worth? He +glanced about, tiptoed cautiously to a side door, and again looked +behind. Quietly he turned the latch and stepped out into Wall Street. + +How silent the street was! Not a soul was stirring, and yet it was +high-noon--Wall Street? Broadway? He glanced almost wildly up and down, +then across the street, and as he looked, a sickening horror froze in +his limbs. With a choking cry of utter fright he lunged, leaned giddily +against the cold building, and stared helplessly at the sight. + +In the great stone doorway a hundred men and women and children lay +crushed and twisted and jammed, forced into that great, gaping doorway +like refuse in a can--as if in one wild, frantic rush to safety, they +had rushed and ground themselves to death. Slowly the messenger crept +along the walls, wetting his parched mouth and trying to comprehend, +stilling the tremor in his limbs and the rising terror in his heart. He +met a business man, silk-hatted and frock-coated, who had crept, too, +along that smooth wall and stood now stone dead with wonder written on +his lips. The messenger turned his eyes hastily away and sought the +curb. A woman leaned wearily against the signpost, her head bowed +motionless on her lace and silken bosom. Before her stood a street car, +silent, and within--but the messenger but glanced and hurried on. A +grimy newsboy sat in the gutter with the "last edition" in his uplifted +hand: "Danger!" screamed its black headlines. "Warnings wired around the +world. The Comet's tail sweeps past us at noon. Deadly gases expected. +Close doors and windows. Seek the cellar." The messenger read and +staggered on. Far out from a window above, a girl lay with gasping face +and sleevelets on her arms. On a store step sat a little, sweet-faced +girl looking upward toward the skies, and in the carriage by her +lay--but the messenger looked no longer. The cords gave way--the terror +burst in his veins, and with one great, gasping cry he sprang +desperately forward and ran,--ran as only the frightened run, shrieking +and fighting the air until with one last wail of pain he sank on the +grass of Madison Square and lay prone and still. + +When he rose, he gave no glance at the still and silent forms on the +benches, but, going to a fountain, bathed his face; then hiding himself +in a corner away from the drama of death, he quietly gripped himself and +thought the thing through: The comet had swept the earth and this was +the end. Was everybody dead? He must search and see. + +He knew that he must steady himself and keep calm, or he would go +insane. First he must go to a restaurant. He walked up Fifth Avenue to a +famous hostelry and entered its gorgeous, ghost-haunted halls. He beat +back the nausea, and, seizing a tray from dead hands, hurried into the +street and ate ravenously, hiding to keep out the sights. + +"Yesterday, they would not have served me," he whispered, as he forced +the food down. + +Then he started up the street,--looking, peering, telephoning, ringing +alarms; silent, silent all. Was nobody--nobody--he dared not think the +thought and hurried on. + +Suddenly he stopped still. He had forgotten. My God! How could he have +forgotten? He must rush to the subway--then he almost laughed. No--a +car; if he could find a Ford. He saw one. Gently he lifted off its +burden, and took his place on the seat. He tested the throttle. There +was gas. He glided off, shivering, and drove up the street. Everywhere +stood, leaned, lounged, and lay the dead, in grim and awful silence. On +he ran past an automobile, wrecked and overturned; past another, filled +with a gay party whose smiles yet lingered on their death-struck lips; +on past crowds and groups of cars, pausing by dead policemen; at 42nd +Street he had to detour to Park Avenue to avoid the dead congestion. He +came back on Fifth Avenue at 57th and flew past the Plaza and by the +park with its hushed babies and silent throng, until as he was rushing +past 72nd Street he heard a sharp cry, and saw a living form leaning +wildly out an upper window. He gasped. The human voice sounded in his +ears like the voice of God. + +"Hello--hello--help, in God's name!" wailed the woman. "There's a dead +girl in here and a man and--and see yonder dead men lying in the street +and dead horses--for the love of God go and bring the officers----" And +the words trailed off into hysterical tears. + +He wheeled the car in a sudden circle, running over the still body of a +child and leaping on the curb. Then he rushed up the steps and tried the +door and rang violently. There was a long pause, but at last the heavy +door swung back. They stared a moment in silence. She had not noticed +before that he was a Negro. He had not thought of her as white. She was +a woman of perhaps twenty-five--rarely beautiful and richly gowned, with +darkly-golden hair, and jewels. Yesterday, he thought with bitterness, +she would scarcely have looked at him twice. He would have been dirt +beneath her silken feet. She stared at him. Of all the sorts of men she +had pictured as coming to her rescue she had not dreamed of one like +him. Not that he was not human, but he dwelt in a world so far from +hers, so infinitely far, that he seldom even entered her thought. Yet as +she looked at him curiously he seemed quite commonplace and usual. He +was a tall, dark workingman of the better class, with a sensitive face +trained to stolidity and a poor man's clothes and hands. His face was +soft and slow and his manner at once cold and nervous, like fires long +banked, but not out. + +So a moment each paused and gauged the other; then the thought of the +dead world without rushed in and they started toward each other. + +"What has happened?" she cried. "Tell me! Nothing stirs. All is silence! +I see the dead strewn before my window as winnowed by the breath of +God,--and see----" She dragged him through great, silken hangings to +where, beneath the sheen of mahogany and silver, a little French maid +lay stretched in quiet, everlasting sleep, and near her a butler lay +prone in his livery. + +The tears streamed down the woman's cheeks and she clung to his arm +until the perfume of her breath swept his face and he felt the tremors +racing through her body. + +"I had been shut up in my dark room developing pictures of the comet +which I took last night; when I came out--I saw the dead! + +"What has happened?" she cried again. + +He answered slowly: + +"Something--comet or devil--swept across the earth this morning +and--many are dead!" + +"Many? Very many?" + +"I have searched and I have seen no other living soul but you." + +She gasped and they stared at each other. + +"My--father!" she whispered. + +"Where is he?" + +"He started for the office." + +"Where is it?" + +"In the Metropolitan Tower." + +"Leave a note for him here and come." + +Then he stopped. + +"No," he said firmly--"first, we must go--to Harlem." + +"Harlem!" she cried. Then she understood. She tapped her foot at first +impatiently. She looked back and shuddered. Then she came resolutely +down the steps. + +"There's a swifter car in the garage in the court," she said. + +"I don't know how to drive it," he said. + +"I do," she answered. + +In ten minutes they were flying to Harlem on the wind. The Stutz rose +and raced like an airplane. They took the turn at 110th Street on two +wheels and slipped with a shriek into 135th. + +He was gone but a moment. Then he returned, and his face was gray. She +did not look, but said: + +"You have lost--somebody?" + +"I have lost--everybody," he said, simply--"unless----" + +He ran back and was gone several minutes--hours they seemed to her. + +"Everybody," he said, and he walked slowly back with something film-like +in his hand which he stuffed into his pocket. + +"I'm afraid I was selfish," he said. But already the car was moving +toward the park among the dark and lined dead of Harlem--the brown, +still faces, the knotted hands, the homely garments, and the +silence--the wild and haunting silence. Out of the park, and down Fifth +Avenue they whirled. In and out among the dead they slipped and +quivered, needing no sound of bell or horn, until the great, square +Metropolitan Tower hove in sight. Gently he laid the dead elevator boy +aside; the car shot upward. The door of the office stood open. On the +threshold lay the stenographer, and, staring at her, sat the dead clerk. +The inner office was empty, but a note lay on the desk, folded and +addressed but unsent: + + Dear Daughter: + + I've gone for a hundred mile spin in Fred's new Mercedes. Shall not + be back before dinner. I'll bring Fred with me. + + J.B.H. + +"Come," she cried nervously. "We must search the city." + +Up and down, over and across, back again--on went that ghostly search. +Everywhere was silence and death--death and silence! They hunted from +Madison Square to Spuyten Duyvel; they rushed across the Williamsburg +Bridge; they swept over Brooklyn; from the Battery and Morningside +Heights they scanned the river. Silence, silence everywhere, and no +human sign. Haggard and bedraggled they puffed a third time slowly down +Broadway, under the broiling sun, and at last stopped. He sniffed the +air. An odor--a smell--and with the shifting breeze a sickening stench +filled their nostrils and brought its awful warning. The girl settled +back helplessly in her seat. + +"What can we do?" she cried. + +It was his turn now to take the lead, and he did it quickly. + +"The long distance telephone--the telegraph and the cable--night rockets +and then--flight!" + +She looked at him now with strength and confidence. He did not look like +men, as she had always pictured men; but he acted like one and she was +content. In fifteen minutes they were at the central telephone exchange. +As they came to the door he stepped quickly before her and pressed her +gently back as he closed it. She heard him moving to and fro, and knew +his burdens--the poor, little burdens he bore. When she entered, he was +alone in the room. The grim switchboard flashed its metallic face in +cryptic, sphinx-like immobility. She seated herself on a stool and +donned the bright earpiece. She looked at the mouthpiece. She had never +looked at one so closely before. It was wide and black, pimpled with +usage; inert; dead; almost sarcastic in its unfeeling curves. It +looked--she beat back the thought--but it looked,--it persisted in +looking like--she turned her head and found herself alone. One moment +she was terrified; then she thanked him silently for his delicacy and +turned resolutely, with a quick intaking of breath. + +"Hello!" she called in low tones. She was calling to the world. The +world _must_ answer. Would the world _answer_? Was the world---- + +Silence! + +She had spoken too low. + +"Hello!" she cried, full-voiced. + +She listened. Silence! Her heart beat quickly. She cried in clear, +distinct, loud tones: "Hello--hello--hello!" + +What was that whirring? Surely--no--was it the click of a receiver? + +She bent close, she moved the pegs in the holes, and called and called, +until her voice rose almost to a shriek, and her heart hammered. It was +as if she had heard the last flicker of creation, and the evil was +silence. Her voice dropped to a sob. She sat stupidly staring into the +black and sarcastic mouthpiece, and the thought came again. Hope lay +dead within her. Yes, the cable and the rockets remained; but the +world--she could not frame the thought or say the word. It was too +mighty--too terrible! She turned toward the door with a new fear in her +heart. For the first time she seemed to realize that she was alone in +the world with a stranger, with something more than a stranger,--with a +man alien in blood and culture--unknown, perhaps unknowable. It was +awful! She must escape--she must fly; he must not see her again. Who +knew what awful thoughts-- + +She gathered her silken skirts deftly about her young, smooth +limbs--listened, and glided into a sidehall. A moment she shrank back: +the hall lay filled with dead women; then she leaped to the door and +tore at it, with bleeding fingers, until it swung wide. She looked out. +He was standing at the top of the alley,--silhouetted, tall and black, +motionless. Was he looking at her or away? She did not know--she did not +care. She simply leaped and ran--ran until she found herself alone amid +the dead and the tall ramparts of towering buildings. + +She stopped. She was alone. Alone! Alone on the streets--alone in the +city--perhaps alone in the world! There crept in upon her the sense of +deception--of creeping hands behind her back--of silent, moving things +she could not see,--of voices hushed in fearsome conspiracy. She looked +behind and sideways, started at strange sounds and heard still stranger, +until every nerve within her stood sharp and quivering, stretched to +scream at the barest touch. She whirled and flew back, whimpering like a +child, until she found that narrow alley again and the dark, silent +figure silhouetted at the top. She stopped and rested; then she walked +silently toward him, looked at him timidly; but he said nothing as he +handed her into the car. Her voice caught as she whispered: + +"Not--that." + +And he answered slowly: "No--not that!" + +They climbed into the car. She bent forward on the wheel and sobbed, +with great, dry, quivering sobs, as they flew toward the cable office on +the east side, leaving the world of wealth and prosperity for the world +of poverty and work. In the world behind them were death and silence, +grave and grim, almost cynical, but always decent; here it was hideous. +It clothed itself in every ghastly form of terror, struggle, hate, and +suffering. It lay wreathed in crime and squalor, greed and lust. Only in +its dread and awful silence was it like to death everywhere. + +Yet as the two, flying and alone, looked upon the horror of the world, +slowly, gradually, the sense of all-enveloping death deserted them. They +seemed to move in a world silent and asleep,--not dead. They moved in +quiet reverence, lest somehow they wake these sleeping forms who had, at +last, found peace. They moved in some solemn, world-wide _Friedhof_, +above which some mighty arm had waved its magic wand. All nature slept +until--until, and quick with the same startling thought, they looked +into each other's eyes--he, ashen, and she, crimson, with unspoken +thought. To both, the vision of a mighty beauty--of vast, unspoken +things, swelled in their souls; but they put it away. + +Great, dark coils of wire came up from the earth and down from the sun +and entered this low lair of witchery. The gathered lightnings of the +world centered here, binding with beams of light the ends of the earth. +The doors gaped on the gloom within. He paused on the threshold. + +"Do you know the code?" she asked. + +"I know the call for help--we used it formerly at the bank." + +She hardly heard. She heard the lapping of the waters far below,--the +dark and restless waters--the cold and luring waters, as they called. He +stepped within. Slowly she walked to the wall, where the water called +below, and stood and waited. Long she waited, and he did not come. Then +with a start she saw him, too, standing beside the black waters. Slowly +he removed his coat and stood there silently. She walked quickly to him +and laid her hand on his arm. He did not start or look. The waters +lapped on in luring, deadly rhythm. He pointed down to the waters, and +said quietly: + +"The world lies beneath the waters now--may I go?" + +She looked into his stricken, tired face, and a great pity surged within +her heart. She answered in a voice clear and calm, "No." + +Upward they turned toward life again, and he seized the wheel. The +world was darkening to twilight, and a great, gray pall was falling +mercifully and gently on the sleeping dead. The ghastly glare of reality +seemed replaced with the dream of some vast romance. The girl lay +silently back, as the motor whizzed along, and looked half-consciously +for the elf-queen to wave life into this dead world again. She forgot to +wonder at the quickness with which he had learned to drive her car. It +seemed natural. And then as they whirled and swung into Madison Square +and at the door of the Metropolitan Tower she gave a low cry, and her +eyes were great! Perhaps she had seen the elf-queen? + +The man led her to the elevator of the tower and deftly they ascended. +In her father's office they gathered rugs and chairs, and he wrote a +note and laid it on the desk; then they ascended to the roof and he made +her comfortable. For a while she rested and sank to dreamy somnolence, +watching the worlds above and wondering. Below lay the dark shadows of +the city and afar was the shining of the sea. She glanced at him timidly +as he set food before her and took a shawl and wound her in it, touching +her reverently, yet tenderly. She looked up at him with thankfulness in +her eyes, eating what he served. He watched the city. She watched him. +He seemed very human,--very near now. + +"Have you had to work hard?" she asked softly. + +"Always," he said. + +"I have always been idle," she said. "I was rich." + +"I was poor," he almost echoed. + +"The rich and the poor are met together," she began, and he finished: + +"The Lord is the Maker of them all." + +"Yes," she said slowly; "and how foolish our human distinctions +seem--now," looking down to the great dead city stretched below, +swimming in unlightened shadows. + +"Yes--I was not--human, yesterday," he said. + +She looked at him. "And your people were not my people," she said; "but +today----" She paused. He was a man,--no more; but he was in some larger +sense a gentleman,--sensitive, kindly, chivalrous, everything save his +hands and--his face. Yet yesterday---- + +"Death, the leveler!" he muttered. + +"And the revealer," she whispered gently, rising to her feet with great +eyes. He turned away, and after fumbling a moment sent a rocket into the +darkening air. It arose, shrieked, and flew up, a slim path of light, +and scattering its stars abroad, dropped on the city below. She scarcely +noticed it. A vision of the world had risen before her. Slowly the +mighty prophecy of her destiny overwhelmed her. Above the dead past +hovered the Angel of Annunciation. She was no mere woman. She was +neither high nor low, white nor black, rich nor poor. She was primal +woman; mighty mother of all men to come and Bride of Life. She looked +upon the man beside her and forgot all else but his manhood, his strong, +vigorous manhood--his sorrow and sacrifice. She saw him glorified. He +was no longer a thing apart, a creature below, a strange outcast of +another clime and blood, but her Brother Humanity incarnate, Son of God +and great All-Father of the race to be. + +He did not glimpse the glory in her eyes, but stood looking outward +toward the sea and sending rocket after rocket into the unanswering +darkness. Dark-purple clouds lay banked and billowed in the west. Behind +them and all around, the heavens glowed in dim, weird radiance that +suffused the darkening world and made almost a minor music. Suddenly, as +though gathered back in some vast hand, the great cloud-curtain fell +away. Low on the horizon lay a long, white star--mystic, wonderful! And +from it fled upward to the pole, like some wan bridal veil, a pale, wide +sheet of flame that lighted all the world and dimmed the stars. + +In fascinated silence the man gazed at the heavens and dropped his +rockets to the floor. Memories of memories stirred to life in the dead +recesses of his mind. The shackles seemed to rattle and fall from his +soul. Up from the crass and crushing and cringing of his caste leaped +the lone majesty of kings long dead. He arose within the shadows, tall, +straight, and stern, with power in his eyes and ghostly scepters +hovering to his grasp. It was as though some mighty Pharaoh lived again, +or curled Assyrian lord. He turned and looked upon the lady, and found +her gazing straight at him. + +Silently, immovably, they saw each other face to face--eye to eye. Their +souls lay naked to the night. It was not lust; it was not love--it was +some vaster, mightier thing that needed neither touch of body nor thrill +of soul. It was a thought divine, splendid. + +Slowly, noiselessly, they moved toward each other--the heavens above, +the seas around, the city grim and dead below. He loomed from out the +velvet shadows vast and dark. Pearl-white and slender, she shone beneath +the stars. She stretched her jeweled hands abroad. He lifted up his +mighty arms, and they cried each to the other, almost with one voice, +"The world is dead." + +"Long live the----" + +"Honk! Honk!" Hoarse and sharp the cry of a motor drifted clearly up +from the silence below. They started backward with a cry and gazed upon +each other with eyes that faltered and fell, with blood that boiled. + +"Honk! Honk! Honk! Honk!" came the mad cry again, and almost from their +feet a rocket blazed into the air and scattered its stars upon them. She +covered her eyes with her hands, and her shoulders heaved. He dropped +and bowed, groped blindly on his knees about the floor. A blue flame +spluttered lazily after an age, and she heard the scream of an answering +rocket as it flew. + +Then they stood still as death, looking to opposite ends of the earth. + +"Clang--crash--clang!" + +The roar and ring of swift elevators shooting upward from below made the +great tower tremble. A murmur and babel of voices swept in upon the +night. All over the once dead city the lights blinked, flickered, and +flamed; and then with a sudden clanging of doors the entrance to the +platform was filled with men, and one with white and flying hair rushed +to the girl and lifted her to his breast. "My daughter!" he sobbed. + +Behind him hurried a younger, comelier man, carefully clad in motor +costume, who bent above the girl with passionate solicitude and gazed +into her staring eyes until they narrowed and dropped and her face +flushed deeper and deeper crimson. + +"Julia," he whispered; "my darling, I thought you were gone forever." + +She looked up at him with strange, searching eyes. + +"Fred," she murmured, almost vaguely, "is the world--gone?" + +"Only New York," he answered; "it is terrible--awful! You know,--but +you, how did you escape--how have you endured this horror? Are you well? +Unharmed?" + +"Unharmed!" she said. + +"And this man here?" he asked, encircling her drooping form with one arm +and turning toward the Negro. Suddenly he stiffened and his hand flew to +his hip. "Why!" he snarled. "It's--a--nigger--Julia! Has he--has he +dared----" + +She lifted her head and looked at her late companion curiously and then +dropped her eyes with a sigh. + +"He has dared--all, to rescue me," she said quietly, "and I--thank +him--much." But she did not look at him again. As the couple turned +away, the father drew a roll of bills from his pockets. + +"Here, my good fellow," he said, thrusting the money into the man's +hands, "take that,--what's your name?" + +"Jim Davis," came the answer, hollow-voiced. + +"Well, Jim, I thank you. I've always liked your people. If you ever want +a job, call on me." And they were gone. + +The crowd poured up and out of the elevators, talking and whispering. + +"Who was it?" + +"Are they alive?" + +"How many?" + +"Two!" + +"Who was saved?" + +"A white girl and a nigger--there she goes." + +"A nigger? Where is he? Let's lynch the damned----" + +"Shut up--he's all right-he saved her." + +"Saved hell! He had no business----" + +"Here he comes." + +Into the glare of the electric lights the colored man moved slowly, with +the eyes of those that walk and sleep. + +"Well, what do you think of that?" cried a bystander; "of all New York, +just a white girl and a nigger!" + +The colored man heard nothing. He stood silently beneath the glare of +the light, gazing at the money in his hand and shrinking as he gazed; +slowly he put his other hand into his pocket and brought out a baby's +filmy cap, and gazed again. A woman mounted to the platform and looked +about, shading her eyes. She was brown, small, and toil-worn, and in one +arm lay the corpse of a dark baby. The crowd parted and her eyes fell on +the colored man; with a cry she tottered toward him. + +"Jim!" + +He whirled and, with a sob of joy, caught her in his arms. + + + + +_A Hymn to the Peoples_ + + + O Truce of God! + And primal meeting of the Sons of Man, + Foreshadowing the union of the World! + From all the ends of earth we come! + Old Night, the elder sister of the Day, + Mother of Dawn in the golden East, + Meets in the misty twilight with her brood, + Pale and black, tawny, red and brown, + The mighty human rainbow of the world, + Spanning its wilderness of storm. + + Softly in sympathy the sunlight falls, + Rare is the radiance of the moon; + And on the darkest midnight blaze the stars-- + The far-flown shadows of whose brilliance + Drop like a dream on the dim shores of Time, + Forecasting Days that are to these + As day to night. + + So sit we all as one. + So, gloomed in tall and stone-swathed groves, + The Buddha walks with Christ! + And Al-Koran and Bible both be holy! + + Almighty Word! + In this Thine awful sanctuary, + First and flame-haunted City of the Widened World, + Assoil us, Lord of Lands and Seas! + + We are but weak and wayward men, + Distraught alike with hatred and vainglory; + Prone to despise the Soul that breathes within-- + High visioned hordes that lie and steal and kill, + Sinning the sin each separate heart disclaims, + Clambering upon our riven, writhing selves, + Besieging Heaven by trampling men to Hell! + We be blood-guilty! Lo, our hands be red! + Not one may blame the other in this sin! + But here--here in the white Silence of the Dawn, + Before the Womb of Time, + With bowed hearts all flame and shame, + We face the birth-pangs of a world: + We hear the stifled cry of Nations all but born-- + The wail of women ravished of their stunted brood! + We see the nakedness of Toil, the poverty of Wealth, + We know the Anarchy of Empire, and doleful Death of Life! + And hearing, seeing, knowing all, we cry: + + Save us, World-Spirit, from our lesser selves! + Grant us that war and hatred cease, + Reveal our souls in every race and hue! + Help us, O Human God, in this Thy Truce, + To make Humanity divine! + + + + + + 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 + + + AMERICAN CRISIS BIOGRAPHIES + + Edited by + + Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, Ph. D. + + + + + The American Crisis Biographies + + +Edited by Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, Ph.D. With the counsel and advice of +Professor John B. McMaster, of the University of Pennsylvania. + +Each 12mo, cloth, with frontispiece portrait. Price $1.25 net; by mail, +$1.37. + + These biographies will constitute a complete and comprehensive + history of the great American sectional struggle in the form of + readable and authoritative biography. The editor has enlisted the + co-operation of many competent writers, as will be noted from the + list given below. An interesting feature of the undertaking is that + the series is to be impartial, Southern writers having been assigned + to Southern subjects and Northern writers to Northern subjects, but + all will belong to the younger generation of writers, thus assuring + freedom from any suspicion of war-time prejudice. The Civil War will + not be treated as a rebellion, but as the great event in the history + of our nation, which, after forty years, it is now clearly + recognized to have been. + + Now ready: + + =Abraham Lincoln.= By ELLIS PAXSON OBERHOLTZER. + =Thomas H. Benton.= By JOSEPH M. ROGERS. + =David G. Farragut.= By JOHN R. SPEARS. + =William T. Sherman.= By EDWARD ROBINS. + =Frederick Douglass.= By BOOKER T. WASHINGTON. + =Judah P. Benjamin.= By PIERCE BUTLER. + =Robert E. Lee.= By PHILIP ALEXANDER BRUCE. + =Jefferson Davis.= By PROF. W. E. DODD. + =Alexander H. Stephens.= By LOUIS PENDLETON. + =John C. Calhoun.= By GAILLARD HUNT. + =“Stonewall” Jackson.= By HENRY ALEXANDER WHITE. + =John Brown.= By W. E. BURGHARDT DUBOIS. + + In preparation: + + =Daniel Webster.= By PROF. C. H. VAN TYNE. + =William Lloyd Garrison.= By LINDSAY SWIFT. + =Charles Sumner.= By Prof. GEORGE H. HAYNES. + =William H. Seward.= By EDWARD EVERETT HALE, Jr. + =Stephen A. Douglas.= By PROF. HENRY PARKER WILLIS. + =Thaddeus Stevens.= By PROF. J. A. WOODBURN. + =Andrew Johnson.= By PROF. WALTER L. FLEMING. + =Henry Clay.= By THOMAS H. CLAY. + =Ulysses S. Grant.= By PROF. FRANKLIN S. EDMONDS. + =Edwin M. Stanton.= By EDWIN S. CORWIN. + =Jay Cooke.= By ELLIS PAXSON OBERHOLTZER. + +[Illustration: John Brown] + + AMERICAN CRISIS BIOGRAPHIES + + + + + JOHN BROWN + + + by + + W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS, Ph. D. + + _Professor of Sociology, Atlanta University_ + + Author of “The Suppression of the African Slave Trade,” “The + Philadelphia Negro,” “The Souls of Black Folk,” etc. + + +[Illustration] + + + PHILADELPHIA + GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY + PUBLISHERS + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY + GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY + _Published September, 1909_ + + + _All rights reserved_ + Printed in U. S. A. + + + + + _To + the memory of + ELIZABETH_ + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PREFACE + + +After the work of Sanborn, Hinton, Connelley, and Redpath, the only +excuse for another life of John Brown is an opportunity to lay new +emphasis upon the material which they have so carefully collected, and +to treat these facts from a different point of view. The view-point +adopted in this book is that of the little known but vastly important +inner development of the Negro American. John Brown worked not simply +for Black Men—he worked with them; and he was a companion of their daily +life, knew their faults and virtues, and felt, as few white Americans +have felt, the bitter tragedy of their lot. The story of John Brown, +then, cannot be complete unless due emphasis is given this phase of his +activity. Unfortunately, however, few written records of these +friendships and this long continued intimacy exist, so that little new +material along these lines can be adduced. For the most part one must be +content with quoting the authors mentioned (and I have quoted them +freely), and other writers like Anderson, Featherstonhaugh, Barry, +Hunter, Boteler, Douglass and Hamilton. But even in the absence of +special material the great broad truths are clear, and this book is at +once a record of and a tribute to the man who of all Americans has +perhaps come nearest to touching the real souls of black folk. + + W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHRONOLOGY 11 + + I. AFRICA AND AMERICA 15 + + II. THE MAKING OF THE MAN 21 + + III. THE WANDERJAHRE 28 + + IV. THE SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP 48 + + V. THE VISION OF THE DAMNED 75 + + VI. THE CALL OF KANSAS 123 + + VII. THE SWAMP OF THE SWAN 145 + + VIII. THE GREAT PLAN 198 + + IX. THE BLACK PHALANX 235 + + X. THE GREAT BLACK WAY 273 + + XI. THE BLOW 308 + + XII. THE RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX 338 + + XIII. THE LEGACY OF JOHN BROWN 365 + + BIBLIOGRAPHY 397 + + INDEX 401 + + + + + CHRONOLOGY + + + BOYHOOD AND YOUTH + + 1800— John Brown is born in Torrington, Conn., May 9th. Attempted + insurrection of slaves under Gabriel in Virginia, in + September. + + 1805— The family migrates to Ohio. + + 1812— John Brown meets a slave boy. + + 1816— He joins the church. + + 1819— He attends school at Plainfield, Mass. + + + THE TANNER + + 1819–1825— John Brown works as a tanner at Hudson, O. + + 1821— He marries Dianthe Lusk, June 21st. + + 1822— Attempted slave insurrection in South Carolina in June. + + 1825–1835— He works as a tanner at Randolph, Pa., and is postmaster. + + 1831— Nat Turner’s insurrection, in Virginia, August 21st. + + 1832— His first wife dies, August 10th. + + 1833— He marries Mary Ann Day, July 11th. + + 1834— He outlines his plan for Negro education, November 21st. + + 1835–1840— He lives in and near Hudson, O., and speculates in land. + + 1837— He loses heavily in the panic. + + 1839— He and his family swear blood-feud with slavery. + + 1840— He surveys Virginia lands for Oberlin College, and proposes + buying 1,000 acres. + + + THE SHEPHERD + + 1841— John Brown begins sheep-farming. + + 1842— He goes into bankruptcy. + + 1843— He loses four children in September. + + 1844— He forms the firm of “Perkins and Brown, wool-merchants.” + + 1845–51— He is in charge of the Perkins and Brown warehouse, + Springfield, O. + + 1846— Gerrit Smith offers Adirondack farms to Negroes, August 1st. + + 1847— Frederick Douglass visits Brown and hears his plan for a + slave raid. + + 1849— He goes to Europe to sell wool, and visits France and + Germany, August and September. + + 1849— First removal of his family to North Elba, N. Y. + + 1850— The new Fugitive Slave Law is passed. + + 1851–1854— Winding up of the wool business. + + 1851— He founds the League of Gileadites, January 15th. + + + IN KANSAS + + 1854— Kansas and Nebraska Bill becomes a law, May 30th. Five sons + start for Kansas in October. + + 1855— John Brown at the Syracuse convention of Abolitionists in + June. He starts for Kansas with a sixth son and his + son-in-law in September. Two sons take part in Big Springs + convention in September. John Brown arrives in Kansas, + October 6th. He helps to defend Lawrence in December. + + 1856— He attends a mass meeting at Osawatomie in April. He visits + Buford’s camp in May. The sacking of Lawrence, May 21st. + The Pottawatomie murders, May 23–26th. Arrest of two sons, + May 28th. Battle of Black Jack, June 2d. Goes to Iowa with + his wounded son-in-law and joins Lane’s army, July and + August. Joins in attacks to rid Lawrence of surrounding + forts, August. Battle of Osawatomie, August 30th. + Missouri’s last invasion of Kansas, September 15th. Geary + arrives and induces Brown to leave Kansas, September. + Brown starts for the East with his sons, September 20th. + + + THE ABOLITIONIST + + 1857— John Brown is in Boston in January. He attends the New York + meeting of the National Kansas Committee, in January. + Before the Massachusetts legislature in February. Tours + New England to raise money, March and April. Contracts for + 1,000 pikes in Connecticut. + + 1857— He starts West, May. He is at Tabor, I., August and + September. He founds a military school in Iowa, December. + + 1858— John Brown returns to the East, January. He is at Frederick + Douglass’s house, February. He reveals his plan to Sanborn + in February. He is in Canada, April. Forbes’ disclosures, + May. Chatham convention, May 8–10th. Hamilton’s massacre + in Kansas, May 19th. Plans postponed, May 20th. John Brown + starts West, June 3d. He arrives in Kansas, June 25th. + He is in South Kansas, coöperating with Montgomery, + July-December. The raid into Missouri for slaves, December + 20th. + + + THE HARPER’S FERRY RAID + + 1859— John Brown starts with fugitives for Canada, January 20th. + He arrives in Canada, March 12th. He speaks in Cleveland, + March 23d. Last visit of John Brown to the East, April and + May. He starts for Harper’s Ferry, June. He and three + companions arrive at Harper’s Ferry, July 3d. He gathers + twenty-two men and munitions, June-October. He starts on + the foray, Sunday, October 16th at 8 P. M. The town and + arsenal are captured, Monday, October 17th at 4 A. M. + Gathering of the militia, Monday, October 17th at 7 A. M. + to 12 M. Brown’s party is hemmed in, Monday, October 17th + at 12 M. He withdraws to the engine-house, Monday, October + 17th at 12 M. Kagi’s party is killed and captured, Monday, + October 17th at 3 P. M. Lee and 100 marines arrive, + Monday, October 17th at 12 P. M. Brown is captured, + Tuesday, October 18th at 8 A. M. + + 1859— Preliminary examination, October 25th. Trial at Charleston + (then Virginia, now West Virginia), October 27th-November + 4th. Forty days in prison, October 16th-December 2d. + Execution of John Brown at Charleston, December 2d. Burial + of John Brown at North Elba, N. Y., December 8th. + + + + + JOHN BROWN + + + + + CHAPTER I + AFRICA AND AMERICA + + “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the + prophet saying, ‘Out of Egypt have I called My son.’” + + +The mystic spell of Africa is and ever was over all America. It has +guided her hardest work, inspired her finest literature, and sung her +sweetest songs. Her greatest destiny—unsensed and despised though it +be,—is to give back to the first of continents the gifts which Africa of +old gave to America’s fathers’ fathers. + +Of all inspiration which America owes to Africa, however, the greatest +by far is the score of heroic, men whom the sorrows of these dark +children called to unselfish devotion and heroic self-realization: +Benezet, Garrison and Harriet Stowe; Sumner, Douglass and Lincoln—these +and others, but above all, John Brown. + +John Brown was a stalwart, rough-hewn man, mightily yet tenderly carven. +To his making went the stern justice of a Cromwellian “Ironside,” the +freedom-loving fire of a Welsh Celt, and the thrift of a Dutch +housewife. And these very things it was—thrift, freedom, and +justice—that early crossed the unknown seas to find asylum in America. +Yet they came late, for before they came greed, and greed brought black +slaves from Africa. + +The Negroes came on the heels, if not on the very ships of Columbus. +They followed De Soto to the Mississippi; saw Virginia with D’Ayllon, +Mexico with Cortez, Peru with Pizarro; and led the western wanderings of +Coronado in his search for the Seven Cities of Cibola. Something more +than a a decade after the Cavaliers, and a year before the Pilgrims, +they set lasting foot on the North American continent. + +These black men came not of their willing, but because of the hasty +greed of new America selfishly and half thoughtlessly sought to revive +in the New World the dying but unforgotten custom of enslaving the +world’s workers. So with the birth of wealth and liberty west of the +seas, came slavery, and slavery all the more cruel and hideous because +it gradually built itself on a caste of race and color, thus breaking +the common bonds of human fellowship and weaving artificial barriers of +birth and appearance. + +The result was evil, as all injustice must be. At first, the black men +writhed and struggled and died in their bonds, and their blood reddened +the paths across the Atlantic and around the beautiful isles of the +Western Indies. Then as the bonds gripped them closer and closer, they +succumbed to sullen indifference or happy ignorance, with only here and +there flashes of wild red vengeance. + +For, after all, these black men were but men, neither more nor less +wonderful than other men. In build and stature, they were for the most +part among the taller nations and sturdily made. In their mental +equipment and moral poise, they showed themselves full brothers to all +men—“intensely human”; and this too in their very modifications and +peculiarities—their warm brown and bronzed color and crisp curled hair +under the heat and wet of Africa; their sensuous enjoyment of the music +and color of life; their instinct for barter and trade; their strong +family life and government. Yet these characteristics were bruised and +spoiled and misinterpreted in the rude uprooting of the slave trade and +the sudden transplantation of this race to other climes, among other +peoples. Their color became a badge of servitude, their tropical habit +was deemed laziness, their worship was thought heathenish, their family +customs and the government were ruthlessly overturned and debauched; +many of their virtues became vices, and much of their vice, virtue. + +The price of repression is greater than the cost of liberty. The +degradation of men costs something both to the degraded and those who +degrade. While the Negro slaves sank to listless docility and vacant +ignorance, their masters found themselves whirled in the eddies of +mighty movements: their system of slavery was twisting them backward +toward darker ages of force and caste and cruelty, while forward swirled +swift currents of liberty and uplift. + +They still felt the impulse of the wonderful awakening of culture from +its barbaric sleep of centuries which men call the Renaissance; they +were own children of the mighty stirring of Europe’s conscience which we +call the Reformation; and they and their children were to be prime +actors in laying the foundations of human liberty in a new a century and +new land. Already the birth pains of the new freedom were felt in that +land. Old Europe was begetting in the new continent a vast longing for +spiritual space. So it was builded into America the thrift of the +searchers of wealth, the freedom of the Renaissance and the stern +morality of the Reformation. + +Three lands typified these three things which time planted in the New +World: England sent Puritanism, the last white flower of the Lutheran +revolt; Holland sent the new vigor and thrift of the Renaissance; while +Celtic lands and bits of lands like France and Ireland and Wales, sent +the passionate desire for personal freedom. These three elements came, +and came more often than not in the guise of humble men—an English +carpenter on the _Mayflower_, an Amsterdam tailor seeking a new +ancestral city, and a Welsh wanderer. From three such men sprang in the +marriage of years, John Brown. + +To the unraveling of human tangles, we would gladly believe that God +sends especial men—chosen vessels that come to the world’s deliverance. +And what could be more fitting than that the human embodiments of +freedom, Puritanism and trade—the great new currents sweeping across the +back eddies of slavery, should give birth to the man who in years to +come pointed the way to liberty and realized that the cost of liberty +was less than the price of repression? So it was. In bleak December +1620, a carpenter and a weaver landed at Plymouth—Peter and John Brown. +This carpenter Peter came from goodly stock, possibly, though not sure, +from that very John Brown of the early sixteenth century whom bluff King +Henry VIII of England burned for his Puritanism, and whose son was all +too near the same fate. Thirty years after Peter Brown had landed, came +the Welshman, John Owen, to Windsor, Conn., to help in the building of +that commonwealth, and near him settled Peter Mills, the tailor of +Holland. The great-grandson of Peter Brown, born in Connecticut in 1700, +had for a son a Revolutionary soldier, who married one of the Welshman’s +grandchildren and had in turn a son, Owen Brown, the father of John +Brown, in February of 1771. This Owen Brown a neighbor remembers “very +distinctly, and that he was very much respected and esteemed by my +father. He was an earnestly devout and religious man, of the old +Connecticut fashion; and one peculiarity of his impressed his name and +person indelibly upon my memory: he was inveterate and most painful +stammerer—the first specimen of that infirmity that I had ever seen, +and, according to my recollection, the worst that I had ever known to +this day. Consequently, though we removed from Hudson to another +settlement early in the summer of 1807, and returned to Connecticut in +1812, so that I rarely saw any of that family afterward, I have never to +this day seen a man struggling and half strangled with a word stuck to +his throat, without remembering good Mr. Owen Brown, who could not speak +without stammering, except in prayer.”[1] + +In 1800, May 9th, wrote this Owen Brown: “John was born, one hundred +years after his great-grandfather. Nothing else very uncommon.”[2] + + + + + CHAPTER II + THE MAKING OF THE MAN + + “There was a man called of God and his name was John.” + + +A tall big boy of twelve or fifteen, “barefoot and bareheaded, with +buckskin breeches, suspended often with one leather strap over his +shoulder”[3] roamed in the forests of northern Ohio. He remembered the +days of his coming to the strange wild land—the lowing oxen, the great +white wagon that wandered from Connecticut to Pennsylvania and over the +swelling hills and mountains, where the wide-eyed urchin of five sat +staring at the new world of a wild beast and the wilder brown men. Then +came life itself in its realness—the driving of cows and the killing of +rattlesnakes, and swift free rides on great mornings alone with earth +and tree and the sky. He became “a rambler in the wild new country, +finding birds and squirrels and sometimes a wild turkey’s nest.” At +first, the Indians filled him with a strange fear. But his kindly old +father thought of Indians as neither vermin nor property and this fear +“soon wore off and he used to hang about them quite as much as was +consistent with good manners.” + +The tragedy and comedy of this broad silent life turned on things +strangely simple and primitive—the stealing of “three large brass pins”; +the disappearance of the wonderful yellow marble which an Indian boy had +given him; the love and losing of a little bob-tailed squirrel for which +he wept and hunted the world in vain; finally the shadow of death which +is ever here—the death of a ewe-lamb and the death of the boy’s mother. + +All these things happened before he was eight and they were his main +education. He could dress leather and make whip-lashes; he could herd +cattle and talk Indian; but of books and formal schooling he had little. + +“John was never quarrelsome, but was excessively fond of the hardest and +roughest kind of plays, and could never get enough of them. Indeed when +for a short time, he was sometimes sent to school, the opportunity it +afforded to wrestle and snowball and run and jump and knock off old +seedy wool hats, offered to him almost the only compensation for the +confinements and restraints of school. + +“With such a feeling and but little chance of going to school at all, he +did not become much of a scholar. He would always choose to stay at home +and work hard rather than be sent to school.” Consequently, “he learned +nothing of grammar, nor did he get at school so much knowledge of common +arithmetic as the four ground rules.” + +Almost his only reading at the age of ten was a little history to which +the open bookcase of an old friend tempted him. He knew nothing of games +or sports; he had few or no companions, but, “to be sent off through the +wilderness alone to very considerable distances was particularly his +delight.... By the time he was twelve years old he was sent off more +than a hundred miles with companies of cattle.” So his soul grew apart +and alone and yet untrammeled and unconfined, knowing all the depths of +secret self-abasement, and the heights of confident self-will. With +others he was painfully diffident and bashful, and little sins that +smaller souls would laugh at and forget loomed large and awful to his +heart-searching vision. John had “a very bad foolish habit.... I mean +telling lies, generally to screen himself from blame or from +punishment,” because “he could not well endure to be reproached and I +now think had he been oftener encouraged to be entirely frank ... he +would not have been so often guilty of this fault, nor have been (in +after life) obliged to struggle so long with so mean a habit.” + +Such a nature was in its very essence religious, even mystical, but +never superstitious nor blindly trustful in half-known creeds and +formulas. His family was not rigidly Puritan in its thought and +discipline but had rather fallen into the mild heathenism of the +hard-working frontier until just before John’s birth. Then, his father +relates in quaint Calvinistic _patois_: “I lived at home in 1782; this +was a memorable year, as there was a great revival of religion in the +town of Canton. My mother and my older sisters and brother John dated +their hopes of salvation from that summer’s revival under the ministry +of the Rev. Edward Mills. I cannot say as I was a subject of the work; +but this I can say that I then began to hear preaching. I can now +recollect most if not all of those I heard preach, and what their texts +were. The change in our family was great; family worship set up by +brother John was ever afterward continued. There was a revival of +singing in Canton and our family became singers. Conference meetings +were kept up constantly and singing meetings—all of which brought our +family into a very good association—a very great aid of restraining +grace.” + +Thus this young freeman of the woods was born into a religious +atmosphere; not that of stern, intellectual Puritanism, but of a milder +and a more sensitive type. Even this, however, the naturally skeptical +bent of his mind did not receive unquestioningly. The doctrines of his +day and church did not wholly satisfy him and he became only “to some +extent a convert to Christianity.” One answer to his questionings did +come, however, bearing its own wonderful credentials—and credentials all +the more wonderful to the man of few books and narrow knowledge of the +world of thought—the English Bible. He grew to be “a firm believer in +the divine authenticity of the Bible. With this book he became very +familiar.” He read and reread it; he committed long passages to memory; +he copied the simple vigor of its English, and wove into the very +essence of his being, its history, poetry, philosophy and truth. To him +the cruel grandeur of the Old Testament was as true as the love and +sacrifice of the New, and both mingled to mold his soul. “This will give +you some general idea of the first fifteen years of his life, during +which time he became very strong and large of his age, and ambitious to +perform the full labor of a man at almost any kind of hard work.” + +Young John Brown’s first broad contact with life and affairs came with +the War of 1812, during which Hull’s disastrous campaign brought the +scene of fighting near his western home. His father, a simple wandering +old soul, thrifty without foresight, became a beef contractor, and the +boy drove his herds of cattle and hung about the camp. He met men of +position, was praised for his prowess and let listen to talk that seemed +far beyond his years. Yet he was not deceived. The war he felt was real +war and not the war of fame and fairy tale. He saw shameful defeat, +heard treason broached, and knew of cheating and chicanery. Disease and +death left its slimy trail as it crept homeward through the town of +Hudson from Detroit: “The effect of what he saw during the war went so +far to disgust him with military affairs that he would neither train nor +drill.” + +But in all these early years of the making of this man, one incident +stands out as foretaste and prophecy—an incident of which we know only +the indefinite outline, and yet one which unconsciously foretold to the +boy the life deed of the man. It was during the war that a certain +landlord welcomed John to his home whither the boy had ridden with +cattle, a hundred miles through the wilderness. He praised the big, +grave and bashful lad to his guests and made much of him. John, however, +discovered something far more interesting than praise and good food in +the landlord’s parlor, and that was another boy in the landlord’s yard. +Fellow souls were scarce with this backwoodsman and his diffidence +warmed to the kindly welcome of the stranger, especially because he was +black, half-naked, and wretched. In John’s very ears the kind voices of +the master and his folk turned to harsh abuse with this black boy. At +night the slave lay in the bitter cold and once they beat the wretched +thing before John’s very eyes with an iron shovel, and again and again +struck him with any weapon that chanced. In wide-eyed silence John +looked on and questioned, Was the boy bad or stupid? No, he was active, +intelligent and with the great warm sympathy of his race did the +stranger “numerous little acts of kindness,” so that John readily, in +his straightforward candor, acknowledged him “fully if not more than his +equal.” That the black worked and worked hard and steadily was in John’s +eyes no hardship—rather a pleasure. Was not the world work? But that +this boy was fatherless and motherless, and that all slaves must of +necessity be fatherless and motherless with none to protect them or +provide for them, save at the will or caprice of the master—this was to +the half-grown man a thing of fearful portent and he asked, “Is God +their Father?” And what he asked, a million and a half black bondmen +were asking through the land. + + + + + CHAPTER III + THE WANDERJAHRE + + “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell + asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the + creation.” + + +In 1819 a tall, sedate, dignified young man named John Brown was entered +among the students of the Rev. Moses Hallock at Plainfield, Mass., where +men were prepared for Amherst College. He was beginning his years of +wandering—spiritual searching for the way of life, physical wandering in +the wilderness where he must earn his living. In after years he wrote to +a boy: + +“I wish you to have some definite plan. Many seem to have none; others +never stick to any that they do form. This was not the case with John. +He followed up with great tenacity whatever he set about as long as it +answered his general purpose; hence he rarely failed in some degree to +effect the things he undertook. This was so much the case that he +habitually expected to succeed in his undertakings.”[4] In this case he +expected to get an education and he came to his task equipped with that +rare mixture of homely thrift and idealism which characterized his whole +life. His father could do little to help him, for the war was followed +by the “hard times” which are the necessary fruit of fighting. As the +father wrote: “Money became scarce, property fell and that which I +thought well bought would not bring its cost. I had made three or four +large purchases, in which I was a heavy loser.” + +It was therefore as a poor boy ready to work his way that John started +out at Plainfield. The son of the principal tells how “he brought with +him a piece of sole leather about a foot square, which he had himself +tanned for seven years, to resole his boots. He had also a piece of +sheepskin which he had tanned, and of which he cut some strips about an +eighth of an inch wide, for other students to pull upon. Father took one +string, and winding it around his finger said with a triumphant turn of +the eye and mouth, ‘I shall snap it.’ The very marked, yet kind +immovableness of the young man’s face on seeing father’s defeat, +father’s own look, and the position of the people and the things in the +old kitchen somehow gave me a fixed recollection of this little +incident.”[5] + +But all his thrift and planning here were doomed to disappointment. He +was, one may well believe, no brilliant student, and his only chance of +success lay in long and steady application. This he was prepared to make +when inflammation of the eyes set in, of so grave a type that all hopes +of long study must be given up. Several times before he had attempted +regular study, but for the most part these excursions to New England +schools had been but tentative flashes on a background of hard work in +his father’s Hudson tannery: “From fifteen to twenty years of age he +spent most of his time working at the tanner’s and currier’s trade;” and +yet, naturally, ever looking here and there in the world to find his +place. And that place, he came gradually to decide in his quiet firm +way, was to be an important one. He felt he could do things; he grew +used to guiding and commanding men. He kept his own lonely home and was +both foreman and cook in the tannery. His “close attention to business +and success in its management, together with the way he got along with a +company of men and boys, made him quite a favorite with the serious and +more intelligent portion of older persons. This was so much the case and +secured for him so many little notices from those he esteemed, that his +vanity was very much fed by it, and he came forward to manhood quite +full of self-conceit and self-confidence, notwithstanding his extreme +bashfulness. The habit so early formed of being obeyed rendered him in +after life too much disposed to speak in an imperious or dictating +way.”[6] Thus he spoke of himself, but others saw only that peculiar +consciousness of strength and quiet self-confidence, which characterized +him later on. + +Just how far his failure to get a college training was a disappointment +to John Brown one is not able to say with certainty. It looks, however, +as if his attempts at higher training were rather the obedient following +of the conventional path, by a spirit which would never have found in +those fields congenial pasture. One suspects that the final decision +that college was impossible came to this strong free spirit with a +certain sense of relief—a relief marred only by the perplexity of +knowing what ought to be the path for his feet, if the traditional way +to accomplishment and distinction was closed. + +That he meant to be not simply a tanner was disclosed in all his doing +and thinking. He undertook to study by himself, mastering common +arithmetic and becoming in time an expert surveyor. He “early in life +began to discover a great liking to fine cattle, horses, sheep, and +swine.” Meantime, however, the practical economic sense of his day and +occupation pointed first of all to marriage, as his father, who had had +three wives and sixteen or more children, was at pains to impress upon +him. Nor was John Brown himself disinclined. He was as he quaintly says, +“naturally fond of females, and withal extremely diffident.” One can +easily imagine the deep disappointment of this grave young man in his +first unfortunate love affair, when he felt With many another unloved +heart, this old world through, “a steady, strong desire to die.” + +But youth is stronger even than first love, and the widow who came to +keep house for him had a grown daughter, a homely, good-hearted and +simple-minded country lass; the natural result was that John Brown was +married at the age of twenty to Dianthe Lusk, whom he describes as “a +remarkably plain, but neat, industrious and economical girl, of +excellent character, earnest piety and practical common sense.”[7] + +Then ensued a period of life which puzzles the casual onlooker with its +seemingly aimless changing character, its wandering restlessness, its +planless wavering. He was now a land surveyor, now a tanner and now a +lumber dealer; a postmaster, a wool-grower, a stock-raiser, a shepherd, +and a farmer. He lived at Hudson, at Franklin and at Richfield in Ohio; +in Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts. And yet in all this +wavering and wandering, there were certain great currents of growth, +purpose and action. First of all he became the father of a family: in +the eleven years from 1821 to 1832, seven children were born—six sons +and one girl. The patriarchal ideal of family life handed down by his +fathers, strengthened by his own saturation in Hebrew poetry, and by his +own bent, grew up in his home. + +His eldest son and daughter tell many little incidents illustrating his +family government: “Our house, on a lane which connects two main roads, +was built under father’s direction in 1824, and still stands much as he +built it with the garden and orchard around it which he laid out. In the +rear of the house was then a wood, now gone, on a knoll leading down to +the brook which supplied the tan-pits.”[8] + +“Father used to hold all his children while they were little at night +and sing his favorite songs,” says the eldest daughter. “The first +recollection I have of father was being carried through a piece of woods +on Sunday to attend a meeting held at a neighbor’s house. After we had +been at the house a little while, father and mother stood up and held +us, while the minister put water on our faces. After we sat down father +wiped my face with a brown silk handkerchief with yellow spots on it in +diamond shape. It seemed beautiful to me and I thought how good he was +to wipe my face with that pretty handkerchief. He showed a great deal of +tenderness in that and other ways. He sometimes seemed very stern and +strict with me, yet his tenderness made me forget he was stern.... + +“When he would come home at night tired out with labor, he would before +going to bed, ask some of the family to read chapters (as was his usual +course night and morning); and would almost always say: ‘Read one of +David’s Psalms.’... + +“Whenever he and I were alone, he never failed to give me the best of +advice, just such as a true and anxious mother would give a daughter. He +always seemed interested in my work, and would come around and look at +it when I was sewing or knitting; and when I was learning to spin he +always praised me if he saw that I was improving. He used to say: ‘Try +to do whatever you do in the very best possible manner.’”[9] + +“Father had a rule not to threaten one of his children. He commanded and +there was obedience,” writes his eldest son. “My first apprenticeship to +the tanning business consisted of a three years’ course at grinding bark +with a blind horse. This, after months and years, became slightly +monotonous. While the other children were out at play in the sunshine, +where the birds were singing, I used to be tempted to let the old horse +have a rather long rest, especially when father was absent from home; +and I would then join the others at their play. This subjected me to +frequent admonitions and to some corrections for eye-service as father +termed it.... He finally grew tired of these frequent slight admonitions +for my laziness and other shortcomings, and concluded to adopt with me a +sort of book-account something like this: + + “John, Jr., + “For disobeying mother—8 lashes. + “For unfaithfulness at work—3 lashes. + “For telling a lie—8 lashes. + +“This account he showed to me from time to time. On a certain Sunday +morning he invited me to accompany him from the house to the tannery, +saying that he had concluded it was time for a settlement. We went into +the upper or finishing room, and after a long and tearful talk over my +faults, he again showed me my account, which exhibited a fearful footing +up of debits. I had no credits or offsets and was of course bankrupt. I +then paid about one-third of the debt, reckoned in strokes from a nicely +prepared blue-beach switch, laid on ‘masterly.’ Then to my utter +astonishment, father stripped off his shirt and seating himself on a +block gave me the whip and bade me lay it on to his bare back. I dared +not refuse to obey, but at first I did not strike hard. ‘Harder,’ he +said, ‘harder, harder!’ until he received the balance of the account. +Small drops of blood showed on his back where the tip end of the +tingling beach cut through. Thus ended the account and settlement, which +was also my first practical illustration of the doctrine of the +atonement.”[10] + +Even the girls did not escape whipping. “He used to whip me often for +telling lies,” says a daughter, “but I can’t remember his ever punishing +me but once when I thought I didn’t deserve, and then he looked at me so +stern that I didn’t dare to tell the truth. He had such a way of saying, +‘Tut, tut!’ if he saw the first sign of a lie in us, that he often +frightened us children. + +“When I first began to go to school,” she continues, “I found a piece of +calico one day behind one of the benches—it was not large, but seemed +quite a treasure to me, and I did not show it to any one until I got +home. Father heard me then telling about it and said, ‘Don’t you know +what girl lost it?’ I told him I did not. ‘Well, when you go to school +to-morrow take it with you and find out if you can who lost it. It is a +trifling thing but always remember that if you should lose anything you +valued, no matter how small, you would want the person who found it to +give it back to you.’” He “showed a great deal of tenderness to me,” +continues the daughter, “and one thing I always noticed was my father’s +peculiar tenderness and devotion to his father. In cold weather he +always tucked the bedclothes around grandfather when he went to bed, and +would get up in the night to ask him if he slept warm—always seeming so +kind and loving to him that his example was beautiful to see.” + +Especially were his sympathy and devotion evident in sickness: “When his +children were ill with scarlet fever, he took care of us himself and if +he saw persons coming to the house, would go to the gate and meet them, +not wishing them to come in, for fear of spreading the disease.[11]... +When any of the family were sick he did not often trust watchers to care +for the sick one, but sat up himself and was like a tender mother. At +one time he sat up every night for two weeks while mother was sick, for +fear he would oversleep if he went to bed, and then the fire would go +out and she take cold.”[12] + +The death of one little girl shows how deeply he could be moved: “He +spared no pains in doing all that medical skill could do for her +together with the tenderest care and nursing. The time that he could be +at home was mostly spent in caring for her. He sat up nights to keep an +even temperature in the room, and to relieve mother from the constant +care which she had through the day. He used to walk with the child and +sing to her so much that she soon learned his step. When she heard him +coming up the steps to the door, she would reach out her hands and cry +for him to take her. When his business at the wool store crowded him so +much that he did not have time to take her, he would steal around +through the wood-shed into the kitchen to eat his dinner, and not go +into the dining-room where she could see or hear him. I used to be +charmed myself with his singing to her. He noticed a change in her one +morning and told us he thought she would not live through the day, and +came home several times to see her. A little before noon he came home +and looked at her and said, ‘She is almost gone.’ She heard him speak, +opened her eyes and put up her little wasted hands with such a pleading +look for him to take her that he lifted her up from the cradle with the +pillows she was lying on, and carried her until she died. He was very +calm, closed her eyes, folded her hands and laid her in her cradle. When +she was buried father broke down completely and sobbed like a +child.”[13] + +Dianthe Lusk, John Brown’s first wife, died in childbirth, August 10, +1832, having borne him seven children, two of whom died very young. On +July 11, 1833, now thirty-three years of age, he married Mary Ann Day, a +girl of seventeen, only five years older than his oldest child. She bore +him thirteen children, seven of whom died young. Thus seven sons and +four daughters grew to maturity and his wife, Mary, survived him +twenty-five years. It was, all told, a marvelous family—large and +well-disciplined, yet simple almost to poverty, and hard-working. No +sooner were the children grown than the wise father ceased to command +and simply asked or advised. He wrote to his eldest son when first he +started in life in characteristic style: + +“I think the situation in which you have been placed by Providence at +this early period of your life will afford to yourself and others some +little test of the sway you may be expected to exert over minds in after +life and I am glad on the whole to have you brought in some measure to +the test in your youth. If you cannot now go into a disorderly country +school and gain its confidence and esteem, and reduce it to good order +and waken up the energies and the very soul of every rational being in +it—yes, of every mean, ill-behaved, ill-governed boy and girl that +compose it, and secure the good-will of the parents,—then how are you to +stimulate asses to attempt a passage of the Alps? If you run with +footmen and they should weary you, how should you contend with horses? +If in the land of peace they have wearied you, then how will you do in +the swelling of Jordan? Shall I answer the question myself? ‘If any man +lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth liberally and upbraideth +not.’”[14] + +Not that Brown was altogether satisfied with his method of dealing with +his children; he said to his wife: “If the large boys do wrong, call +them alone into your room and expostulate with them kindly, and see if +you cannot reach them by a kind but powerful appeal to their honor. I do +not claim that such a theory accords very well with my practice; I +frankly confess it does not; but I want your face to shine even if my +own should be dark and cloudy.”[15] + +The impression which he made on his own family was marvelous. A +granddaughter writes me of him, saying: “The attitude of John Brown’s +family and descendants has always been one of exceeding reverence toward +him. This speaks for something. Stern, unyielding, Puritanic, requiring +his wife and daughters to dress in sober brown, disliking show and +requesting that mourning colors be not worn for him—a custom which still +obtains with us—laying the rod heavily upon his boys for their boyish +pranks, he still was wonderfully tender—would invariably walk up hill +rather than burden his horse, loved his family devotedly, and when +sickness occurred, always installed himself as nurse.” + +In his personal habits he was austere: severely clean, sparing in his +food so far as to count butter an unnecessary luxury; once a moderate +user of cider and wine—then a strong teetotaler; a lover of horses with +harassing scruples as to breeding race-horses. All this gave an air of +sedateness and maturity to John Brown’s earlier manhood which belied his +years. Having married at twenty, he was but twenty-one years older than +his eldest son; and while his many children and his varied occupations +made him seem prematurely aged, he was, in fact, during this period, +during the years from twenty to forty, experiencing the great formative +development of his spiritual life. This development was most interesting +and fruitful. + +He was not a man of books: he had Rollins’ _Ancient History_, Josephus +and Plutarch and lives of Napoleon and Cromwell. With these went +Baxter’s _Saints’ Rest_, Henry _On Meekness_ and _Pilgrim’s Progress_. +“But above all others the Bible was his favorite volume and he had such +perfect knowledge of it that when any person was reading he would +correct the least mistake.”[16] + +Into John Brown’s religious life entered two strong elements; the sense +of overruling inexorable fate, and the mystery and promise of death. He +pored over the Old Testament until the freer religious skepticism of his +earlier youth became more formal and straight. The brother of his first +wife says, “Brown was an austere fellow,” and when the young man called +on the sister and mother Sundays, as his only holiday, Brown said to +him: “Milton, I wish you would not make your visits here on the +Sabbath.” + +When the panic of 1837 nearly swept Brown from his feet, he saw behind +it the image of the old Hebrew God and wrote his wife: “We all must try +to trust in Him who is very gracious and full of compassion and of +almighty power; for those that do will not be made ashamed. Ezra the +prophet prayed and afflicted himself before God, when himself and the +Captivity were in a strait and I have no doubt you will join with me +under similar circumstances. Don’t get discouraged, any of you, but hope +in God, and try all to serve Him with a perfect heart.”[17] + +When Napoleon III seized France and Kossuth came to America, Brown +looked with lofty contempt on the “great excitement” which “seems to +have taken all by surprise.” “I have only to say in regard to those +things, I rejoice in them from the full belief that God is carrying out +His eternal purpose in them all.”[18] + +The gloom and horror of life settled early on John Brown. His childhood +had had little formal pleasure, his young manhood had been serious and +filled with responsibility, and almost before he himself knew the full +meaning of life, he was trying to teach it to his children. The iron of +bitterness entered his soul with the coming of death, and a deep +religious fear and foreboding bore him down as it took away member after +member of his family. In 1831 he lost a boy of four and in 1832 his +first wife died insane, and her infant son was buried with her. In 1843 +four children varying in ages from one to nine years were swept away. +Two baby girls went in 1846 and 1859 and an infant boy in 1852. The +struggle of a strong man to hold his faith is found in his words, “God +has seen fit to visit us with the pestilence and four of our number +sleep in the dust; four of us that are still living have been more or +less unwell.... This has been to us all a bitter cup indeed and we have +drunk deeply; but still the Lord reigneth and blessed be His holy name +forever.” Again three years later he writes his wife from the edge of a +new-made grave: “I feel assured that notwithstanding that God has +chastised us often and sore, yet He has not entirely withdrawn Himself +from us nor forsaken us utterly. The sudden and dreadful manner in which +He has seen fit to call our dear little Kitty to take her leave of us, +is, I need not tell you how much, in my mind. But before Him I will bow +my head in submission and hold my peace.... I have sailed over a +somewhat stormy sea for nearly half a century, and have experienced +enough to teach me thoroughly that I may most reasonably buckle up and +be prepared for the tempest. Mary, let us try to maintain a cheerful +self-command while we are tossing up and down, and let our motto still +be action, action,—as we have but one life to live.”[19] + +His soul gropes for light in the great darkness: “Sometimes my +imagination follows those of my family who have passed behind the +scenes; and I would almost rejoice to be permitted to make them a +personal visit. I have outlived nearly half of all my numerous family, +and I ought to realize that in any event a large proportion of my life +is traveled over.”[20] + +Then there rose grimly, as life went on in its humdrum round of failure +and trouble, the thought that in some way his own sin and shortcomings +were bringing upon him the vengeful punishment of God. He laments the +fact that he has done little to help others and the world: “I feel +considerable regret by turns that I have lived so many years and have in +reality done so little to increase the amount of human happiness. I +often regret that my manner is not more kind and affectionate to those I +really love and esteem. But I trust my friends will overlook my harsh +rough ways, when I cease to be in their way as an occasion of pain and +unhappiness.”[21] + +The death of a friend fills him with self-reproach: “You say he expected +to die, but do not say how he felt in regard to the change as it drew +near. I have to confess my unfaithfulness to my friend in regard to his +most important interest.... When I think how very little influence I +have even tried to use with my numerous acquaintances and friends in +turning their minds toward God and heaven, I feel justly condemned as a +most wicked and slothful servant; and the more so as I have very seldom +had any one refuse to listen when I earnestly called him to hear. I +sometimes have dreadful reflections about having fled to go down to +Tarshish.”[22] + +Especially did the religious skepticism of his children, so like his own +earlier wanderings, worry and dismay the growing man until it loomed +before his vision as his great sin, calling for mighty atonement. He +pleads with his older children continually: + +“My attachments to this world have been very strong and divine +Providence has been cutting me loose, one cord after another. Up to the +present time notwithstanding I have so much to remind me that all ties +must soon be severed, I am still clinging like those who have hardly +taken a single lesson. I really hope some of my family may understand +that this world is not the home of man, and act in accordance. Why may I +not hope this for you? When I look forward as regards the religious +prospects of my numerous family—the most of them,—I am forced to say, +and feel too, that I have little—very little to cheer. That this should +be so is, I perfectly well understand, the legitimate fruit of my own +planting; and that only increases my punishment. Some ten or twelve +years ago I was cheered with the belief that my elder children had +chosen the Lord to be their God and I relied much on their influence and +example in atoning for my deficiency and bad example with the younger +children. But where are we now? Several have gone where neither a good +nor a bad example from me will better their condition or prospects or +make them worse. I will not dwell longer on this distressing subject but +only say that so far as I have gone it is from no disposition to reflect +on any one but myself. I think I can clearly discover where I wandered +from the road. How now to get on it with my family is beyond my ability +to _see_ or my courage to _hope_. God grant you thorough conversion from +sin, and full purpose of heart to continue steadfast in His way through +the very short season you will have to pass.”[23] + +And again he writes: “One word in regard to the religious belief of +yourself and the ideas of several of my children. My affections are too +deep-rooted to be alienated from them; but ‘my gray hairs must go down +in sorrow to the grave’ unless the true God forgive their denial and +rejection of Him and open their eyes.” + +And again: “I would fain hope that the spirit of God has not done +striving in our hard hearts. I sometimes feel encouraged to hope that my +sons will give up their miserable delusions and believe in God and in +His Son, our Saviour.”[24] + +All this is evidence of a striving soul, of a man to whom the world was +a terribly earnest thing. Here was neither the smug content of the man +beyond religious doubt, nor the carelessness of the unharassed +conscience. To him the world was a mighty drama. God was an actor in the +play and so was John Brown. But just what his part was to be his soul in +the long agony of years tried to know, and ever and again the chilling +doubt assailed him lest he be unworthy of his place or had missed the +call. Often the brooding masculine mind which demanded “Action! Action!” +sought to pierce the mystic veil. His brother-in-law became a +spiritualist, and he himself hearkened for voices from the Other Land. +Once or twice he thought he heard them. Did not the spirit of Dianthe +Lusk guide him again and again in his perplexity? He once said it did. + +And so this saturation in Hebrew prophecy, the chastisement of death, +the sense of personal sin and shortcoming and the voices from nowhere, +deepened, darkened and broadened his religious life. Yet with all this +there went a peculiar common sense, a spirit of thrift and stickling for +detail, a homely shrewd attention to all the little facts of daily +existence. Sometimes this prosaic tinkering with things burdened, buried +and submerged the spiritual life and striving. There was nothing left +except the commonplace, unstable tanner, but ever as one is tempted thus +to fix his place in the world, there wells up surging spiritual life out +of great unfathomed depths—the intellectual longing to see, the moral +wistfulness of the hesitating groping doer. This was the deeper, truer +man, although it was not the whole man. “Certainly I never felt myself +in the presence of a stronger religious influence than while in this +man’s house,” said Frederick Douglass in 1847. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + THE SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP + + “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, + keeping watch over their flock by night. + + “And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the + Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid.” + + +The vastest physical fact in the life of John Brown was the Alleghany +Mountains—that beautiful mass of hill and crag which guards the sombre +majesty of the Maine coast, crumples the rivers on the rocky soil of New +England, and rolls and leaps down through busy Pennsylvania to the misty +peaks of Carolina and the red foothills of Georgia. In the Alleghanies +John Brown was all but born; their forests were his boyhood wonderland; +in their villages he married his wives and begot his clan. On the sides +of the Alleghanies, he tended his sheep and dreamed of his terrible +dream. It was the mystic, awful voice of the mountains that lured him to +liberty, death and martyrdom within their wildest fastness, and in their +bosom he sleeps his last sleep. + +So, too, in the development of the United States from the War of 1812 to +the Civil War, it was the Alleghanies that formed the industrial centre +of the land and lured young men to their waters and mines, valleys and +factories, as they lured John Brown. His life from 1805 to 1854 was +almost wholly spent on the western slope of the Alleghanies in a small +area of Ohio and Pennsylvania, beginning eighty miles north of Pittsburg +and ending twenty-five miles southeast of Cleveland. Here in a +half-dozen small towns, but chiefly in Hudson, O., he worked in his +young manhood to support his growing family. From 1819 to 1825, he was a +tanner at Hudson. Then he moved seventy miles westward toward the crests +of the Alleghanies in Pennsylvania, where he set up his tannery again +and became a man of importance in the town. John Quincy Adams made him +postmaster, the village school was held at his log house and the new +feverish prosperity of the post-bellum period began to stir him as it +stirred this whole western world. Indeed, the economic history of the +land from the War of 1812 to the Civil War covers a period of +extraordinary developments—so much so that no man’s life which fell in +these years may be written without knowledge of and allowance for the +battling of gigantic social forces and welding of material, out of which +the present United States was designed. + +Three phases roughly mark these days: First, the slough of despond +following the war, when England forced her goods upon us at nominal +prices to kill the new-sprung infant industries; secondly, the new +protection from the competition of foreign goods from 1816 to 1857, +rising high in the prohibitory schedules of 1828, and falling to the +lower duties of the forties and the free trade of the fifties, and +stimulating irregularly and spasmodically but tremendously the cotton, +woolen and iron manufactories; and finally, the three whirlwinds of +1819, 1837–1839, and 1857, marking frightful maladjustments in the +mushroom growth of our industrial life. + +John Brown, coming to full industrial manhood in the buoyant prosperity +of 1825, soon began to sense the new spirit. After ten years’ work in +Pennsylvania, he again removed westward, nearer the projected +transportation lines between East and West. He began to invest his +surplus in land along the new canal routes, became a director in one of +the rapidly multiplying banks and was currently rated to be worth +$20,000 in 1835. But his prosperity, like that of his neighbors, and +indeed, of the whole country, was partly fictitious, and built on a fast +expanding credit which was far outstretching the rapid industrial +development. Jackson’s blind tinkering with banking precipitated the +crisis. The storm broke in 1837. Over six hundred banks failed, ten +thousand employees were thrown out of work, money disappeared and prices +went down to a specie level. John Brown, his tannery and his land +speculations, were sucked into the maelstrom. + +The overthrow was no ordinary blow to a man of thirty-seven with eight +children, who had already trod the ways of spiritual doubt and unrest. +For three or four years he seemed to flounder almost hopelessly, +certainly with no settled plan or outlook. He bred race-horses till his +conscience troubled him; he farmed and did some surveying; he inquired +into the commission business in various lines, and still did some +tanning. Then gradually he began to find himself. He was a lover of +animals. In 1839 he took a drove of cattle to Connecticut and wrote to +his wife: “I have felt distressed to get my business done and return +ever since I left home, but know of no way consistent with duty but to +make thorough work of it while there is any hope. Things now look more +favorable than they have but I may still be disappointed.”[25] His diary +shows that he priced certain farms for sale, but especially did he +inquire carefully into sheep-raising and its details, and eventually +bought a flock of sheep, which he drove home to Ohio. This marked the +beginning of a new occupation, that of shepherd, “being a calling for +which in early life he had a kind of enthusiastic longing.” He began +sheep-farming near Hudson, keeping his own and a rich merchant’s sheep +and also buying wool on commission. + +This industry in the United States had at that time passed through many +vicissitudes. The change from household to factory economy and the +introduction of effective machinery had been slow, and one of the chief +drawbacks was ever the small quantity of good wool. Consequently our +chief supply came from England until the embargo and war cut off that +supply and stimulated domestic manufacture. Between 1810 and 1815 the +value of the manufacture increased five-fold, but after the war, when +England sent goods over here below the price, Americans rightly clamored +for tariff protection. This they got, but their advantage was nearly +upset by the wool farmers who also got protection on the commodity, +although less on low than on better qualities; and it was the low grades +that America produced. From 1816 to 1832 the tariff wall against wool +and woolens rose steadily until it reached almost prohibitive figures, +save on the cheapest kind. In this way the wool manufacture had by 1828 +recovered its war-time prosperity; by 1840 the mills were sending out +twenty and a half million dollars’ worth of goods yearly, and nearly +fifty millions by 1860 even though meanwhile the tariff wall was +weakening. Thus by 1841 when John Brown turned his attention to +sheep-farming, there was a large and growing demand for wool, especially +of the better grades, and by the abolition of the English tariff in +1824, there was even a chance of invading England. + +Because, then, of his natural liking for the work, and the growing +prosperity of the wool trade, John Brown chose this line of employment. +But not for this alone. His spirit was longing for air and space. He +wanted to think and read; time was flying and his life as yet had been +little but a mean struggle for bread and that, too, only partially +successful. Already he had had a vision of vast service. Already he had +broached the matter to friends and family, and at the age of thirty-nine +he entered his new life distinctly and clearly with “the idea that as a +business it bid fair to afford him the means of carrying out his +greatest or principal object.”[26] + +His first idea was to save enough from the wreck of his fortune to buy +and stock a large sheep farm, and in accordance with his already forming +plans as to Negro emancipation, he wanted this farm in or near the +South. A chance seemed opening when through his father, a trustee of +Oberlin College, he learned of the Virginia lands lately given that +institution by Gerrit Smith, whom Brown came to know better. Oberlin +College was dear to John Brown’s heart, for it had almost from the +beginning taken a strong anti-slavery stand. The titles to the Virginia +land, however, were clouded by the fact of many squatters being in +possession, which gave ample prospects of costly lawsuits. Brown wrote +the trustees early in 1840, proposing to survey the lands for a nominal +price, provided he could be allowed to buy on reasonable terms and +establish his family there. He also spoke of school facilities which he +proposed for Negroes as well as whites, according to a long cherished +plan. The college records in April, 1840, say: “Communication from +Brother John Brown of Hudson was presented and read by the secretary, +containing a proposition to visit, survey and make the necessary +investigation respecting boundaries, etc., of those lands, for one +dollar per day and a moderate allowance for necessary expenses; said +paper frankly expressing also his design of viewing the lands as a +preliminary step to locating his family upon them, should the opening +prove a favorable one; whereupon, _voted_ that said proposition be +acceded to, and that a commission and needful outfit be furnished by the +secretary and treasurer.”[27] The treasurer sent John Brown fifty +dollars and wrote his father, as a trustee of Oberlin, commending the +son’s purpose and hoping “for a favorable issue both for him and the +institution.” He added, “Should he succeed in clearing up titles without +difficulty or lawsuits, it would be easy, as it appears to me, to make +provision for religious and school privileges and by proper efforts with +the blessing of God, soon see that wilderness bud and blossom as the +rose.”[28] + +Thus John Brown first saw Virginia and looked upon the rich and heavy +land which rolls westward to the misty Blue Ridge. That he visited +Harper’s Ferry on this trip is doubtful but possible. The lands of +Oberlin, however, lay two hundred miles westward in the foothills and +along the valley of the Ohio. He wrote home from Ripley, Va., in April +(for he had gone immediately): “I like the country as well as I +expected, and its inhabitants rather better; and I have seen the spot +where if it be the will of Providence, I hope one day to live with my +family.... Were the inhabitants as resolute and industrious as the +Northern people and did they understand how to manage as well, they +would become rich.”[29] + +By the summer of 1840 his work was accomplished with apparent success. +He had about selected his dwelling-place, having “found on the right +branch of Big Battle a valuable spring, good stone-coal, and excellent +bottoms, good timber, sugar orchard, good hill land and beautiful +situation for dwelling—all right. Course of this branch at the forks is +south twenty-one degrees west from a beautiful white oak on which I +marked my initials, 23d April.”[30] + +The Oberlin trustees in August, “voted, that the Prudential Committee be +authorized to perfect negotiations and convey by deed to Brother John +Brown of Hudson, one thousand acres of our Virginia land on the +conditions suggested in the correspondence which has already transpired +between him and the committee.”[31] + +Here, however, negotiations stopped, for the renewal of the panic in +1839 overthrew all business calculations until 1842 and later, and +forced John Brown to take refuge in formal bankruptcy in 1842. This +step, his son says, was wholly “owing to his purchase of land on +credit—including the Haymaker farm at Franklin, which he bought in +connection with Seth Thompson, of Hartford, Trumbull County, Ohio, and +his individual purchase of three rather large adjoining farms in Hudson. +When he bought those farms, the rise in value of his place in Franklin +was such that good judges estimated his property worth fully twenty +thousand dollars. He was then thought to be a man of excellent business +judgment and was chosen one of the directors of a bank at Cayahoga +Falls.”[32] Probably after the crash of 1837, Brown hoped to extricate +enough to buy land in Virginia and move there, but things went from bad +to worse. Through endorsing a note for a friend, one of his best pieces +of farm property was attached, put up at auction and bought by a +neighbor. Brown, on legal advice, sought to retain possession, but was +arrested and placed in the Akron jail. The property was lost. Legal +bankruptcy followed in October, 1842, but Brown would not take the full +advantage of it. He gave the New England Woolen Company of Rockville, +Conn., a note declaring that “whereas I, John Brown, on or about the +15th day of June, A. D. 1839, received of the New England Company +(through their agent, George Kellogg, Esq.) the sum of twenty-eight +hundred dollars for the purchase of wool for said company, and +imprudently pledged the same for my own benefit and could not redeem it; +and whereas I have been legally discharged from my obligations by the +laws of the United States—I hereby agree (in consideration of the great +kindness and tenderness of said company toward me in my calamity, and +more particularly of the moral obligation I am under to render to all +their due) to pay the same and the interest thereon from time to time as +divine Providence shall enable me to do.”[33] + +He wrote Mr. Kellogg at the same time: “I am sorry to say that in +consequence of the unforeseen expense of getting the discharge, the loss +of an ox, and the destitute condition in which a new surrender of my +effects has placed me, with my numerous family, I fear this year must +pass without my effecting in the way of payment what I have encouraged +you to expect.”[34] He was still paying this debt when he died and left +fifty dollars toward it in his will. + +It was a labyrinth of disaster in which the soul of John Brown was +well-nigh choked and lost. We hear him now and then gasping for breath: +“I have been careful and troubled with so much serving that I have in a +great measure neglected the one thing needful, and pretty much stopped +all correspondence with heaven.”[35] He goes on to tell his son: “My +worldly business has borne heavily and still does; but we progress some, +have our sheep sheared, and have done something at our haying. Have our +tanning business going on in about the same proportion—that is, we are +pretty fairly behind in business and feel that I must nearly or quite +give up one or the other of the branches for want of regular troops on +whom to depend.”[36] He again tells his son: “I would send you some +money, but I have not yet received a dollar from any source since you +left. I should not be so dry of funds, could I but overtake my +work;”[37] and then follows the teeth-gritting word of a man whose grip +is slipping: “But all is well; all is well.”[38] + +Gradually matters began to mend. His tannery, perhaps never wholly +abandoned, was started again and his wool interests increased. Early in +1844 “we seem to be overtaking our business in the tannery,” he says, +and “I have lately entered into a co-partnership with Simon Perkins, +Jr., of Akron, with a view of carrying on the sheep business +extensively. He is to furnish all the feed and shelter for wintering, as +a set-off against our taking all the care of the flock. All other +expenses we are to share equally, and to divide the property equally.” +John Brown and his family were to move to Akron and he says: “I think +that is the most comfortable and the most favorable arrangement of my +worldly concerns that I ever had and calculated to afford us more +leisure for improvement by day and by night than any other. I do hope +that God has enabled us to make it in mercy to us, and not that He +should send leanness into our souls. Our time will all be at our own +command, except the care of the flock. We have nothing to do with +providing for them in the winter, excepting harvesting rutabagas and +potatoes. This I think will be considered no mean alliance for our +family and I most earnestly hope they will have wisdom given to make the +most of it. It is certainly endorsing the poor bankrupt and his family, +three of whom were but recently in Akron jail in a manner quite +unexpected, and proves that notwithstanding we have been a company of +‘belted knights,’ our industrious and steady endeavors to maintain our +integrity and our character have not been wholly overlooked.”[39] + +Indeed, the offer seemed to John Brown a flood of light: a beloved +occupation with space and time to think, to study and to dream, to get +acquainted with himself and the world after the long struggle for bread +and butter and the deep disappointment of failure almost in sight of +success. By July, 1844, Brown was reporting 560 lambs raised and 2,700 +pounds of wool, for which he had been offered fifty-six cents a pound, +showing it to be of high grade. He began closing up his tanning +business. “The general aspect of our worldly affairs is favorable. Hope +we do not entirely forget God,”[40] he writes. + +His daughter says: “As a shepherd, he showed the same watchful care over +his sheep. I remember one spring a great many of his sheep had a disease +called ‘grub in the head,’ and when the lambs came, the ewes would not +own them. For two weeks he did not go to bed, but sat up or slept an +hour or two at a time in his chair, and then would take a lantern, go +out and catch the ewes, and hold them while the lambs sucked. He would +very often bring in a little dead-looking lamb, and put it in warm water +and rub it until it showed signs of life, and then wrap it in a warm +blanket, feed it warm milk with a teaspoon, and work over it with such +tenderness that in a few hours it would be capering around the room. One +Monday morning I had just got my white clothes in a nice warm suds in +the wash-tub, when he came in bringing a little dead-looking lamb. There +seemed to be no sign of life about it. Said he, ‘Take out your clothes +quick, and let me put this lamb in the water.’ I felt a little vexed to +be hindered with my washing, and told him I didn’t believe he could make +it live; but in an hour or two he had it running around the room, and +calling loudly for its mother. The next year he came from the barn and +said to me, ‘Ruth, that lamb I hindered you with when you were washing, +I have just sold for one hundred dollars.’ It was a pure-blooded Saxony +lamb.”[41] + +By 1845 wealth again seemed all but within the grasp of John Brown. The +country was entering fully upon one of the most remarkable of many +note-worthy periods of industrial expansion and the situation in the +wool business was particularly favorable. The flock of Saxony sheep +owned by Perkins and Brown was “said to be the finest and most perfect +flock in the United States and worth about $20,000.” The only apparent +danger to the prosperity of the western wool-growers was the increasing +power of the manufacturers and their desire for cheap wool. The tariff +on woolen goods was lower than formerly, but until war-time, remained at +about twenty to thirty per cent. _ad valorem_, which afforded sufficient +protection. The tariff on cheap wool decreased until, in 1857, all wool +costing less than twenty cents a pound came in free and in 1854 Canadian +wool of all grades was admitted without duty. This meant practically +free trade in wool. The manufacturers of hosiery and carpets increased +and the demand for domestic wool was continually growing. There were, +however, many difficulties in realizing just prices for domestic wool: +it was bought up by the manufacturer’s agents, dealing with isolated, +untrained farmers and offering the lowest prices; it was bought in bulk +ungraded and as wool differs enormously in quality and price, the lowest +grade often set the price for all. No sooner did John Brown grasp the +details of the wool business than he began to work out plans of +amelioration. And he conceived of this amelioration not as measured +simply in personal wealth. To him business was a philanthropy. We have +not even to-day reached this idea, but, urged on by the Socialists, we +are faintly perceiving it. Brown proposed nothing Quixotic or +unpractical, but he did propose a more equitable distribution of the +returns of the whole wool business between the producers of the raw +material and the manufacturers. He proceeded first to arouse and +organize the wool-growers. He traveled extensively among the farmers of +Pennsylvania and Ohio. “I am out among the wool-growers, with a view to +next summer’s operations,” he writes March 24, 1846; “our plan seems to +meet with general favor.” And then thinking of greater plans he adds: +“Our unexampled success in minor affairs might be a lesson to us of what +unity and perseverance might do in things of some importance.”[42] For +what indeed were sheep as compared with men, and money weighed with +liberty? + +The plan outlined by Brown before a convention of wool-growers involved +the placing of a permanent selling agent in the East, the grading and +warehousing of the wool, and a pooling of profits according to the +quality of the fleece. The final result was that in 1846 Perkins and +Brown sent out a circular, saying: “The undersigned, commission +wool-merchants, wool-graders, and exporters, have completed arrangements +for receiving wool of growers and holders, and for grading and selling +the same for cash at its real value, when quality and condition are +considered.”[43] + +John Brown was put in special charge of this business while his son ran +the sheep farm in Ohio. The idea underlying this movement was excellent +and it was soon started successfully. John Brown went to live in +Springfield with his family. In December, 1846, he writes: “We are +getting along with our business slowly, but prudently, I trust, and as +well as we could reasonably expect under all the circumstances; and so +far as we can discover, we are in favor with this people, and also with +the many we have had to do business with.”[44] + +In two weeks during 1847 he has “turned about four thousand dollars’ +worth of wool into cash since I returned; shall probably make it up to +seven thousand by the 16th.”[45] + +Yet great as was this initial prosperity, the business eventually failed +and was practically given up in 1851. Why? It was because of one of +those strange economic paradoxes which bring great moral questions into +the economic realm;—questions which we evaded yesterday and are trying +to evade to-day, but which we must answer to-morrow. Here was a man +doing what every one knew was for the best interests of a great +industry,—grading and improving the quality of its raw material and +systematizing its sale. His methods were absolutely honest, his +technical knowledge was unsurpassed and his organization efficient. Yet +a combination of manufacturers forced him out of business in a few +months. Why? The ordinary answer of current business ethics would be +that John Brown was unable to “corner” the wool market against the +manufacturers. But this he never tried to do. Such a policy of financial +free-booting never occurred to him, and he would have repelled it +indignantly if it had. He wished to force neither buyer nor seller. He +was offering worthy goods at a fair price and making a just return for +them. That this system was best for the whole trade every one knew, yet +it was weak. It was weak in the same sense that the merchants of the +Middle Ages were weak against the lawless onslaughts of robber barons. +Any compact organization of manufacturers could force John Brown to take +lower prices for his wool—that is, to allow the farmer a smaller +proportion of the profit of the business of clothing human beings. In +other words, well-organized industrial highwaymen could hold up the wool +farmer and make him hand over some of his earnings. But John Brown knew, +as did, indeed, the manufacturing gentlemen of the road that the farmers +were getting only moderate returns. It was the millmen who made +fortunes. Now it was possible to oppose the highwaymen’s demand by +counter organization like the Middle-Age Hanse. The difficulty here +would be to bring all the threatened parties into an organization. They +could be forced in by killing off or starving out the ignorant or +recalcitrant. This is the modern business method. Its result is arraying +two industrial armies in a battle whose victims are paupers and +prostitutes, and whose victory comes by compromising, whereby a +half-dozen millionaires are born to the philanthropic world. + +On the other hand, to offer no opposition to organized economic +aggression is to depend on the simple justice of your cause in an +industrial world that recognizes no justice. It means industrial death +and that was what it meant to John Brown. The Tariff of 1846 had cut the +manufacturers’ profits. The growing woolen trade would more than recoup +them in a few years, but they “were not in business for their health”; +that is, they recognized no higher moral law than money-making and +therefore determined to keep present profits where they were, and add +possible future profits to them. They continued their past efforts to +force down the price of wool and got practical free trade in wool by +1854. Meantime local New England manufacturers began to boycott John +Brown. They expected him to see his danger and lower his prices on the +really fine grades he carried. He was obdurate. His prices were right +and he thought justice counted in the wool business. The manufacturers +objected. He was not playing according to the rules of the game. He was, +as a fellow merchant complained, “no _trader_: he waited until his wools +were graded and then fixed a price; if this suited the manufacturers +they took the fleeces; if not, they bought elsewhere.... Yet he was a +scrupulously honest and upright man—hard and inflexible, but everybody +had just what belonged to him. Brown was in a position to make a fortune +and a regular bred merchant would have done so.”[46] + +Thereupon the combination turned the screws a little closer. Brown’s +clerks were bribed, and other “competitive” methods resorted to. But +Brown was inflexible and serene. The prospect of great wealth did not +tempt but rather repelled him. Indeed this whole warehouse business, +successful and important as it had hitherto been, was drawing him away +from his plans of larger usefulness. It took his time and thought, and +his surroundings more and more made it mere money-getting. The +manufacturers were after dollars, of course; his clients were waiting +simply for returns, and his partner was ever anxiously scanning the +balance-sheet. This whole aspect of things more and more disquieted +Brown. He therefore writes soberly in December, 1847: + +“Our business seems to be going on middling well and will not probably +be any the worse for the pinch in the money concerns. I trust that +getting or losing money does not entirely engross our attention; but I +am sensible that it quite occupies too large a share in it. To get a +little property together to leave, as the world would have done, is +really a low mark to be firing at through life. + + “‘A nobler toil may I sustain, + A nobler satisfaction gain.’”[47] + +The next year, however, came a severe money pressure, “one of the +severest known for many years. The consequence to us has been, that some +of those who have contracted for wool of us are as yet unable to pay for +and take the wool as they agreed, and we are on that account unable to +close our business.”[48] This brought a fall in the price and complaint +on all sides: on the part of the wool-growers, because their profits +were not continuing to rise; and from manufacturers who demurred more +and more clamorously at the prices demanded by Brown. + +He writes early in 1849: “We have been selling wool middling fast of +late, on contract, at 1847 prices;” but he adds, scenting the coming +storm: “We have in this part of the country the strongest proofs that +the great majority have made gold their hope, their only hope.”[49] + +Evidently a crisis was approaching. The boycott against the firm was +more evident and the impatience of wool farmers growing. The latter kept +calling for advances on their stored wool. If they had been willing to +wait quietly, there was still a chance, for Perkins and Brown had +undoubtedly the best in the American market and as good as the better +English grades. But the growers were restive and in some cases poor. The +result was shown in the balance-sheet of 1849. Brown had bought 130,000 +pounds of wool and paid for it, including freight and commissions, +$57,884.48. His sales had amounted to $49,902.67, leaving him $7,981.81 +short, and 200,000 pounds of wool in the warehouse.[50] Perkins +afterward thought Brown was stubborn. It would have been easily possible +for them to have betrayed the growers and accepted a lower price. Their +commissions would have been larger, the manufacturers were friendly, and +the sheepmen too scattered and poor to protest. Indeed, low prices and +cash pleased them better than waiting. But John Brown conceived that a +principle was at stake. He knew that his wool was worth even more than +he asked. He knew that English wool of the same grade sold at good +prices. Why not, then, he argued, take the wool to England and sell it, +thus opening up a new market for a great American product? Then, too, he +had other and, to him, better reasons for wishing to see Europe. He +decided quickly and in August, 1849, he took his 200,000 pounds of wool +to England. He had graded every bit himself, and packed it in new sacks: +“The bales were firm, round, hard and true, almost as if they had been +turned out in a lathe.”[51] + +In this English venture John Brown showed one weakness of his character: +he did not know or recognize the subtler twistings of human nature. He +judged it ever from his own simple, clear standpoint and so had a sort +of prophetic vision of the vaster and the eternal aspects of the human +soul. But of its kinks and prejudices, its little selfishnesses and +jealousies and dishonesties, he knew nothing. They always came to him as +a sort of surprise, uncalculated for and but partially comprehended. He +could fight the devil and his angels, and he did, but he could not cope +with the million misbirths that hover between heaven and hell. + +Thus to his surprise he found his calculations all at fault in England. +His wool was good, his knowledge of the technique of sorting and grading +unsurpassed and yet because Englishmen believed it was not possible to +raise good wool in America, they obstinately refused to take the +evidence of their own senses. They “seemed highly pleased”; they said +that they “had never seen superior wools” and that they “would see me +again” but they did not offer decent prices. Then, too, American woolen +men had long arms and they were tipped with gold. They fingered busily +across the seas about this prying Yankee, and English wool-growers +responded very willingly, so that John Brown acknowledged mournfully +late in September, “I have a great deal of stupid obstinate prejudice to +contend with, as well as conflicting interests both in this country and +from the United States.”[52] In the end the wool was sacrificed at +prices fifty per cent. below its American value and some of it actually +resold in America. The American woolen men chuckled audibly: + +“A little incident occurred in 1850. Perkins and Brown’s clip had come +forward, and it was beautiful; the little compact Saxony fleeces were as +nice as possible. Mr. Musgrave of the Northampton Woolen Mill, who was +making shawls and broadcloths, wanted it, and offered Uncle John [Brown] +sixty cents a pound for it. ‘No, I am going to send it to London.’ +Musgrave, who was a Yorkshire man, advised Brown not to do it, for +American wool would not sell in London,—not being thought good. He tried +hard to buy it, but without avail.... Some little time after, long +enough for the purpose, news came that it was sold in London, but the +price was not stated. Musgrave came into my counting-room one forenoon +all aglow, and said he wanted me to go with him,—he was going to have +some fun. Then he went to the stairs and called Uncle John, and told him +he wanted him to go over to the Hartford depot and see a lot of wool he +had bought. So Uncle John put on his coat, and we started. When we +arrived at the depot, and just as we were going into the freight-house, +Musgrave says: ‘Mr. Brune, I want you to tell me what you think of this +lot of wull that stands me in just fifty-two cents a pund.’ One glance +at the bags was enough. Uncle John wheeled, and I can see him now as he +‘put back’ to the lofts, his brown coat-tails floating behind him, and +the nervous strides fairly devouring the way. It was his own clip, for +which Musgrave, some three months before, had offered him sixty cents a +pound as it lay in the loft. It had been graded, new bagged, shipped by +steamer to London, sold, and reshipped, and was in Springfield at eight +cents in the pound less than Musgrave offered.”[53] + +It was a great joke and it made American woolen men smile. + +This English venture was a death-blow to the Perkins and Brown wool +business. It was not entirely wound up until four years later, but in +1849 Brown removed his family from Springfield up to the silent forests +of the farthest Adirondacks, where the great vision of his life unfolded +itself. It was, however, not easy for him to extricate himself from the +web wound about him. Two currents set for his complete undoing: the +wool-growers whom he had over-advanced and who did not deliver the +promised wool; and certain manufacturers to whom the firm had contracted +to deliver this wool which they could not get. Claims and damages to the +amount of $40,000 appeared and some of these got into court; while, on +the other hand, the scattered and defaulting wool-growers were scarcely +worth suing by the firm. Long drawn-out legal battles ensued, intensely +distasteful to Brown’s straightforward nature and seemingly endless. +Collections and sales continued hard and slow and Perkins began to get +restless. John Brown sighed for the older and simpler life of his young +manhood with its love and dreams: “I can look back to our log cabin at +the centre of Richfield with a supper of porridge and johnny cake as a +place of far more interest to me than the Massasoit of Springfield.”[54] +He says to his children on the Ohio sheep farm: “I am much pleased with +the reflection that you are all three once more together, and all +engaged in the same calling that the old patriarchs followed. I will say +but one word more on that score, and that is taken from their history: +‘See that ye fall not out by the way; and all will be exactly right in +the end.’ I should think matters were brightening a little in this +direction in regard to our claims, but I have not yet been able to get +any of them to a final issue. I think, too, that the prospect for the +fine wool business rather improves. What burdens me most of all is the +apprehension that Mr. Perkins expects of me in the way of bringing +matters to a close, what no living man can possibly bring about in a +short time and that he is getting out of patience and becoming +distrustful.”[55] + +Meantime Brown was racing from court to court in Boston, New York, Troy +and elsewhere, seeking to settle up the business and know where he stood +financially, and, above all, to keep peace with and do justice to his +partner. Cases were now settled and now appealed and the progress was +“miserably slow. My journeys back and forth this winter have been very +tedious.” Then, too, his mind was elsewhere. The nation was in turmoil +and so was he. At the time Anthony Burns was arrested in Boston he was +advising with his lawyers at Troy. Redpath says: + +“The morning after the news of the Burns affair reached here, Brown went +at his work immediately after breakfast; but in a few minutes started up +from his chair, walked rapidly across the room several times, then +suddenly turned to his counsel, and said, ‘I am going to Boston.’ ‘Going +to Boston!’ said the astonished lawyer. ‘Why do you want to go to +Boston?’ Old Brown continued walking vigorously, and replied, ‘Anthony +Burns must be released, or I will die in the attempt.’ The counsel +dropped his pen in consternation. Then he began to remonstrate; told him +the suit had been in progress a long time, and a verdict just gained. It +was appealed from, and that appeal must be answered in so many days, or +the whole labor would be lost; and no one was sufficiently familiar with +the whole case except himself. It took a long earnest talk with old +Brown to persuade him to remain. His memory and acuteness in that long +and tedious lawsuit—not yet ended, I am told—often astonished his +counsel. While here he wore an entire suit of snuff-colored cloth, the +coat of a decidedly Quakerish cut in collar and skirt. He wore no beard, +and was a clean-shaven, scrupulously neat, well-dressed, quiet old +gentleman. He was, however, notably resolute in all that he did.”[56] + +He spent the time not taken up by his lawsuits at Akron, and in the +manner of a patriarch of old, temporarily brought his family back to +Ohio. “I wrote you last week that the family is on the road: the boys +are driving on the cattle, and my wife and little girls are at Oneida +depot waiting for me to go on with them.”[57] He returned to farming +again with interest, taking prizes for his stock at state fairs and +raising many sheep. He had 550 lambs in 1853 and Perkins is urging him +to continue with him, but things changed and on January 25, 1854, he +writes: “This world is not yet freed from real malice and envy. It +appears to be well settled now that we go back to North Elba in the +spring. I have had a good-natured talk with Mr. Perkins about going away +and both families are now preparing to carry out that plan.”[58] His +departure was delayed a year, but he was finally able to remove with a +little surplus on hand. + +Back then to the crests and forests of the Alleghanies came John Brown +at the age of fifty-four. “A tall, gaunt, dark-complexioned man ... a +grave, serious man ... with a marked countenance and a natural dignity +of manner,—that dignity which is unconscious, and comes from a superior +habit of mind.”[59] + + + + + CHAPTER V + THE VISION OF THE DAMNED + + “Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them.” + + +There was hell in Hayti in the red waning of the eighteenth century, in +the days when John Brown was born. The dark wave of the French +Revolution had raised the brilliant sinister Napoleon to its crest. +Already he had stretched greedy arms toward American empire in the rich +vale of the Mississippi, when in a flash, out of the dirt and sloth and +slavery of the West Indies, the black inert and heavy cloud of African +degradation writhed to sudden life and lifted up the dark figure of +Toussaint. Ten thousand Frenchmen gasped and died in the fever-haunted +hills, while the black men in sudden frenzy fought like devils for their +freedom and won it. Napoleon saw his gateway to the Mississippi closed; +armed Europe was at his back. What was this wild and empty America to +him, anyway? So he sold Louisiana for a song and turned to the shame of +Trafalgar and the glory of Austerlitz. + +John Brown was born just as the shudder of Hayti was running through all +the Americas, and from his earliest boyhood he saw and felt the price of +repression—the fearful cost that the western world was paying for +slavery. From his earliest boyhood he had dimly conceived, and the +conception grew with his growing, that the cost of liberty was less than +the price of repression. Perhaps he was so near the humanistic +enthusiasm of the French Revolution that he undervalued the cost of +liberty. But yet he was right, for it was scarce possible to overrate +the price of repression. True, in these latter days men and women of the +South, and honest ones, too, have striven feverishly to paint Negro +slavery in bright alluring colors. They have told of childlike devotion, +faithful service and light-hearted irresponsibility, in the fine old +aristocracy of the plantation. Much they have said is true. But when all +is said and granted, the awful fact remains congealed in law and +indisputable record that American slavery was the foulest and filthiest +blot on nineteenth century civilization. As a school of brutality and +human suffering, of female prostitution and male debauchery; as a +mockery of marriage and defilement of family life; as a darkening of +reason, and spiritual death, it had no parallel in its day. It took +millions upon millions of men—human men and lovable, light and +liberty-loving children of the sun, and threw them with no sparing of +brutality into one rigid mold: humble, servile, dog-like devotion, +surrender of body, mind and soul, and unaspiring animal content—toward +this ideal the slave might strive, and did. Wonderful, even beautiful +examples of humble service he brought forth and made the eternal +heritage of men. But beyond this there was nothing. All were crushed to +this mold and of them that did not fit, the sullen were cowed, the +careless brutalized and the rebellious killed. Four things make life +worthy to most men: to move, to know, to love, to aspire. None of these +was for Negro slaves. A white child could halt a black man on the +highway and send him slinking to his kennel. No black slave could +legally learn to read. And love? If a black slave loved a lass, there +was not a white man from the Potomac to the Rio Grande that could not +prostitute her to his lust. Did the proud sons of Virginia and Carolina +stoop to such bestial tyranny? Ask the grandmothers of the two million +mulattoes that dot the states to-day. Ask the suffering and humiliated +wives of the master caste. If a Negro married a wife, there was not a +master in the land that could not take her from him. + +John Brown’s father, Owen Brown, saw such a power stretched all the way +from Virginia to Connecticut. A Southern slaveholding minister, Thomson +by name, had brought his slaves North and preached in the local church. +Then he attempted to take the unwilling chattels back South. Of what +followed, Owen Brown says: “There was some excitement amongst the +people, some in favor and some against Mr. Thomson; there was quite a +debate, and large numbers to hear. Mr. Thomson said he should carry the +woman and children, whether he could get the man or not. An old man +asked him if he would part man and wife, contrary to their minds. He +said: ‘I married them myself, and did not enjoin obedience on the +woman.’” Owen Brown added, “Ever since I have been an Abolitionist.”[60] + +If a slave begat children, there was not a law south of the Ohio that +could stop their eventual sale to any brute with the money. Aspiration +in a slave was suspicious, dangerous, fatal. For him there was no +inviting future, no high incentive, no decent reward. The highest +ambition to which a black woman could aspire was momentarily to supplant +the white man’s wife as a concubine; and the ambition of black men ended +with the carelessly tossed largess of a kinglet. To reduce the slave to +this groveling, what was the price which the master paid? Tyranny, +brutality, and lawlessness reigned and to some extent still reign in the +South. The sweeter, kindlier feelings were blunted: brothers sold +sisters to serfdom and fathers debauched even their own dark daughters. +The arrogant, strutting bully, who shot his enemy and thrashed his dogs +and his darkies, became a living, moving ideal from the cotton-patch to +the United States Senate from 1808 onward. No worthy art nor literature, +nor even the commerce of daily life could thrive in this atmosphere. + +Society there was of a certain type—courtly and lavish, but quarrelsome; +seductive and lazy; with a half Oriental sheen and languor spread above +peculiar poverty of resource; a fineness and delicacy in certain +details, coupled with coarseness and self-indulgence in others; a +mingling of the sexes only in play and seldom in work, with its +concomitant tendency toward seclusion and helplessness among its whiter +women. Withal a society strong indeed, but wholly without vigor or +invention. + +It was not all as dark as it might have been. Human life, thank God, is +never as bad as it may be, but it is too often desperately bad. Nor do +men easily realize how bad life about them is. The full have scant +sympathy with the empty,—the rich know all the faults of the poor, and +the master sees the horrors of slavery with unseeing eyes. True, there +were flashes of light and longing here and there—noble sacrifice, eager +help, determined emancipation. But all this was local, spasmodic and +exceptional. The unrelenting dead brutality of human bondage to a +thousand tyrants, petty wills and caprice was the rule from Florida to +Missouri and from the Mississippi to the sea. Under it the wretched +writhed like some great black and stricken beast. The flaming fury of +their mad attempts at vengeance echoes all down the blood-swept path of +slavery. In Jamaica they upturned the government and harried the land +until England crept and sued for peace. In the Danish Isles they started +a whirlwind of slaughter; in Hayti they drove their masters into the +sea; and in South Carolina they rose twice like a threatening wave +against the terror-stricken whites, but were betrayed. Such outbreaks +here and there foretold the possibility of coördinate action and organic +development. To be sure, the successful outbreaks were few and +spasmodic; but the flare of Hayti lighted the night and made the world +remember that these, too, were men. + +Among these black men, changes significant and momentous, were coming. +The native born Africans were passing away, with their native tongues +and their wild customs. Such were the slaves of John Brown’s father’s +time. “When I was a child four or five years old,” writes Owen Brown, +“one of the nearest neighbors had a slave that was brought from Guinea. +In the year 1776 my father was called into the army at New York, and +left his work undone. In August, our good neighbor, Captain John Fast, +of West Simsbury, let my mother have the labor of his slave to plough a +few days. I used to go out into the field with this slave,—called +Sam,—and he used to carry me on his back, and I fell in love with him. +He worked but a few days, and went home sick with the pleurisy, and died +very suddenly. When told that he would die, he said he should go to +Guinea, and wanted victuals put up for the journey. As I recollect, this +was the first funeral I ever attended in the days of my youth.” + +Such slaves and others went into the Revolutionary army and three +thousand of them fought for their masters’ freedom. After the war, their +bravery, the upheaval in Hayti, and the new enthusiasm for human rights, +led to a wave of emancipation which started in Vermont during the +Revolution and swept through New England and Pennsylvania, ending +finally in New York and New Jersey early in the nineteenth century. This +freeing of the Northern slaves led to new complications, for in the +South, after a hesitating pause, the opposite course was pursued and the +thumbscrews were applied; the plantations were isolated, the roads were +guarded, the refractory were whipped till they screamed and crawled, and +the ringleaders were lynched. 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. + +Thus the great black mass of Southern slaves were cowed, but they were +not conquered. Stretched as they were over wide miles of land, and +isolated; guarded in speech and religion; peaceful and light-hearted as +was their nature, still the fire of liberty burned in them. In Louisiana +and Tennessee and twice in Virginia they raised the night cry of revolt, +and once slew fifty Virginians, holding the state for weeks at bay there +in those same Alleghanies which John Brown loved and listened to. On the +ships of the sea they rebelled and murdered; to Florida they fled and +turned like beasts on their pursuers till whole armies dislodged them +and did them to death in the everglades; and again and again over them +and through them surged and quivered a vast unrest which only the +eternal vigilance of the masters kept down. Yet the fear of that great +bound beast was ever there—a nameless, haunting dread that never left +the South and never ceased, but ever nerved the remorseless cruelty of +the master’s arm. + +One thing saved the South from the blood-sacrifice of Hayti—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. What was +the system that could enslave a Frederick Douglass? They saved it too by +joining the free Negroes of the North, and with them organizing +themselves into a great black phalanx that worked and schemed and paid +and finally fought for the freedom of black men in America. + +Thus it was that John Brown, even as a child, saw the puzzling anomalies +and contradictions in human right and liberty all about him. Ever and +again he saw this in the North, leading to concerted action among the +free Negroes, especially in cities where they were brought in contact +with one another, and had some chance of asserting their nominal +freedom. Just at the close of the eighteenth century, first in +Philadelphia and then in New York, small groups of them withdrew from +the white churches to escape disgraceful discrimination and established +churches of their own, which still live with millions of adherents. In +the year of John Brown’s birth, 1800, Gabriel planned his formidable +uprising in Virginia, and the year after his marriage, 1821, Denmark +Vesey of South Carolina went grimly to the scaffold, after one of the +shrewdest Negro plots that ever frightened the South into hysterics. Of +all this John Brown, the boy and young man, knew little. In after years +he learned of Gabriel and Vesey and Turner, and told of their exploits +and studied their plans; but at the time he was far off from the world, +carrying on his tannery and marrying a wife. Perhaps as a lad he heard +some of the oratory that celebrated the act of 1808, stopping the slave +trade, as the beginning of the end of slavery. Perhaps not, for the act +did little good until it was reënforced in 1820. All the time, however, +John Brown’s keen eyes were searching for the way of life and his tender +heart was sensitive to injustice and wrong everywhere. Indeed, it is not +unlikely that the first black folk to gain his aid and sympathies and +direct his thoughts to what afterward became his life-work, were the +fugitive slaves from the South. + +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 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. While +John Brown was a tanner at Hudson, he began helping these dark panting +refugees who flitted by in the night. His eldest son says: + +“When I was four or five years old, and probably no later than 1825, +there came one night a fugitive slave and his wife to father’s +door—sent, perhaps, by some townsman who knew John Brown’s compassion +for such wayfarers, then but few. They were the first colored people I +had seen; and when the woman took me upon her knee and kissed me, I ran +away as quick as I could, and rubbed my face ‘to get the black off’; for +I thought she would ‘crock’ me, like mother’s kettle. Mother gave the +poor creatures some supper; but they thought themselves pursued and were +uneasy. Presently father heard the trampling of horses crossing a bridge +on one of the main roads, half a mile off; so he took his guests out the +back door and down into the swamp near the brook to hide, giving them +arms to defend themselves, but returning to the house to await the +event. It proved a false alarm; the horsemen were people of the +neighborhood going to Hudson village. Father then went out into the dark +wood,—for it was night,—and had some difficulty in finding his +fugitives; finally he was guided to the spot by the sound of the man’s +heart throbbing for fear of capture. He brought them into the house +again, sheltered them a while, and sent them on their way.”[61] + +The atmosphere in these days was becoming more and more charged with the +slavery problem. That same Louisiana which Toussaint had given America, +was gradually filling with settlers until the question of admitting +parts of it as states faced the nation, and led to the Missouri +Compromise. The discussion of the measure was fierce in John Brown’s +neighborhood, and it must have strengthened his dislike of slavery and +turned his earnest mind more and more toward the Negroes. + +In the very year that death first entered his family and took a boy of +four, and just before the sombre days when his earnest young wife died +demented in childbirth and was buried with her babe, occurred the Nat +Turner insurrection in Virginia, the most successful and bloody of slave +uprisings since Hayti. + +Squire Hudson, the father of the town where John Brown lived and one of +the founders of Western Reserve University, heard the news in stern joy; +a neighbor met him “one day in September, 1831, coming from his +post-office, and reading a newspaper he had just received, which seemed +to excite him very much as he read. As Mr. Wright came within hearing, +the old Calvinist was exclaiming, ‘Thank God for that! I am glad of it! +Thank God they have risen at last!’ Inquiring what the news was, Squire +Hudson replied, ‘Why, the slaves have risen down in Virginia, and are +fighting for their freedom as we did for ours. I pray God that they may +get it.’”[62] + +They did not get freedom but death. And yet there on the edge of Dismal +Swamp they slaughtered fifty whites, held the land in terror for more +than a month, and set going a tremendous wave of reaction. In the South, +Negro churches and free Negro schools were sternly restricted, just at +the time Great Britain was freeing her West Indian slaves. In the North, +came two movements: a determined anti-slavery campaign, and an opposing +movement which disfranchised Negroes, burned their churches and schools, +and robbed them of their friends. The Negroes rushed together for +counsel and defense, and held their first national meeting in +Philadelphia, where they deliberated earnestly on migration to Canada +and on schools. But schools for Negroes were especially feared North as +well as South, and in John Brown’s native state of Connecticut a white +woman was shamefully persecuted for attempting to teach Negroes. All +this aroused John Brown’s antipathy to slavery and made it more definite +and purposeful. In November of the year which witnessed the burning of +Prudence Crandall’s school, and a year after his second marriage, he +wrote to his brother: + +“Since you have left me, I have been trying to devise some means whereby +I might do something in a practical way for my poor fellow men who are +in bondage; and having fully consulted the feelings of my wife and my +three boys, we have agreed to get at least one Negro boy or youth, and +bring him up as we do our own,—viz., give him a good English education, +learn him what we can about the history of the world, about business, +about general subjects, and, above all, try to teach him the fear of +God. We think of three ways to obtain one: First, to try to get some +Christian slaveholder to release one to us. Second, to get a free one, +if no one will let us have one that is a slave. Third, if that does not +succeed, we have all agreed to submit to considerable privation in order +to buy one. This we are now using means in order to effect, in the +confident expectation that God is about to bring them all out of the +house of bondage. + +“I will just mention that when this subject was first introduced, Jason +had gone to bed; but no sooner did he hear the thing hinted, than his +warm heart kindled, and he turned out to have a part in the discussion +of a subject of such exceeding interest. I have for years been trying to +devise some way to get a school a-going here for blacks, and I think +that on many accounts it would be a most favorable location. Children +here would have no intercourse with vicious people of their own kind, +nor with openly vicious persons of any kind. There would be no powerful +opposition influence against such a thing; and should there be any, I +believe the settlement might be so effected in future as to have almost +the whole influence of the place in favor of such a school. Write me how +you would like to join me, and try to get on from Hudson and thereabouts +some first-rate Abolitionist families with you. I do honestly believe +that our united exertions alone might soon, with the good hand of our +God upon us, effect it all.”[63] + +Nothing came of this project, except that John Brown grew more deeply +interested. He was now worth $20,000, a man of influence and he felt +more and more moved toward definite action to help the Negroes. They +were keeping up their conventions and the stream of fugitives was +augmenting. The problem, however, was not simply one of slavery. The +plight of the free Negro was particularly pitiable. He was liable to be +seized and sold South whether an actual slave or not; he was +discriminated against and despised in all walks. This was bad enough in +every-day life, but to a straightforward religious soul like John Brown +it was simply intolerable in the church of God. His eldest daughter +says: + +“One evening after he had been singing to me, he asked me how I would +like to have some poor little black children that were slaves +(explaining to me the meaning of slaves) come and live with us; and +asked me if I would be willing to divide my food and clothes with them. +He made such an impression on my sympathies, that the first colored +person that I ever saw (it was a man I met on the street in Meadville, +Pa.) I felt such pity for, that I wanted to ask him if he did not want +to come and live at our house. When I was six or seven years old, a +little incident took place in the church at Franklin, O. (of which all +the older part of our family were members), which caused quite an +excitement.”[64] + +His son tells the details of this incident: + +“About 1837, mother, Jason, Owen and I, joined the Congregational Church +at Franklin, the Rev. Mr. Burritt, pastor. Shortly after, the other +societies, including Methodists and Episcopalians, joined ours in an +undertaking to hold a protracted meeting under the special management of +an evangelist preacher from Cleveland, named Avery. The house of the +Congregationalists being the largest, it was chosen as the place for +this meeting. Invitations were sent out to church folks in adjoining +towns to ‘come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty;’ and soon +the house was crowded, the assembly occupying by invitation the pews of +the church generally. Preacher Avery gave us in succession four sermons +from one text,—‘Cast ye up, cast ye up! Prepare ye the way of the Lord; +make His paths straight!’ Soon lukewarm Christians were heated up to a +melting condition, and there was a bright prospect of a good shower of +grace. There were at that time in Franklin a number of free colored +persons and some fugitive slaves. These became interested and came to +the meetings, but were given seats by themselves, where the stove had +stood, near the door,—not a good place for seeing ministers or singers. +Father noticed this, and when the next meeting (which was at evening) +had fairly opened, he arose and called attention to the fact that, in +seating the colored portion of the audience, a discrimination had been +made, and said that he did not believe God ‘is a respecter of persons.’ +He then invited the colored people to occupy his slip. The blacks +accepted, and all of our family took their vacated seats. This was a +bombshell, and the Holy Spirit in the hearts of Pastor Burritt and +Deacon Beach at once gave up His place to another tenant. The next day +father received a call from the deacons to admonish him and ‘labor’ with +him; but they returned with new views of Christian duty. The blacks +during the remainder of that protracted meeting continued to occupy our +slip, and our family the seats around the stove. We soon after moved to +Hudson, and though living three miles away, became regular attendants at +the Congregational Church in the centre of the town. In about a year we +received a letter from good Deacon Williams, informing us that our +relations with the church in Franklin were ended in accordance with a +rule made by the church since we left, that ‘any member being absent a +year without reporting him or herself to that church should be cut off.’ +This was the first intimation we had of the existence of the rule. +Father, on reading the letter, became white with anger. This was my +first taste of the pro-slavery diabolism that had intrenched itself in +the church, and I shed a few uncalled for tears over the matter, for +instead I should have rejoiced in my emancipation. From that day my +theological shackles were a good deal broken, and I have not worn them +since (to speak of),—not even for ornament.”[65] + +The years of 1837 and 1838 were the years of persecution for the +Abolition cause. Lovejoy was murdered in Illinois and mobs raged in +Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Hall, in Philadelphia, was +burned, and Marlborough Chapel in Boston, where John Brown himself seems +to have been present fighting back the people, was sacked. Indeed, as he +afterward said, he had seen some of the “principal Abolition mobs.” + +Whatever John Brown may have wished to do at this time was frustrated by +the panic, which swept away his fortune, and left him bankrupt. Yet +something he must do—he must at least promise God that he and his family +would eternally oppose slavery. How, he did not know—he was not sure—but +somehow he was determined, and his old idea of educating youth was still +uppermost. + +It was in 1839, when a Negro preacher named Fayette was visiting Brown, +and bringing his story of persecution and injustice, that this great +promise was made. Solemnly John Brown arose; he was then a man of nearly +forty years, tall, dark and clean-shaven; by him sat his young wife of +twenty-two and his oldest boys of eighteen, sixteen and fifteen. Six +other children slept in the room back of the dark preacher. John Brown +told them of his purpose to make active war on slavery, and bound his +family in solemn and secret compact to labor for emancipation. And then, +instead of standing to pray, as was his wont, he fell upon his knees and +implored God’s blessing on his enterprise. + +This marks a turning-point in John Brown’s life: in his boyhood he had +disliked slavery and his antipathy toward it grew with his years; yet of +necessity it occupied but little of a life busy with breadwinning. +Gradually, however, he saw the gathering of the mighty struggle about +him; the news of the skirmish battles of the greatest moral war of the +century aroused and quickened him, and all the more when they struck the +tender chords of his acquaintanceships and sympathies. He saw his +friends hurt and imposed on until at last, gradually, then suddenly, it +dawned upon him that he must fight this monster slavery. He did not now +plan physical warfare—he was yet a non-resistant, hating war, and did +not dream of Harper’s Ferry; but he set his face toward the goal and +whithersoever the Lord led, he was ready to follow. He still, too, had +his living to earn—his family to care for. Slavery was not yet the sole +object of his life, but as he passed on in his daily duties he was +determined to seize every opportunity to strike it a blow. + +This, at least it seems to me, is a fair interpretation of John Brown’s +thought and action from the evidence at hand. Some have believed that +John Brown planned Harper’s Ferry or something similar in 1839; others +have doubted whether he had any plans against slavery before 1850. The +truth probably lies between these extreme views. Human purposes grow +slowly and in curious ways; thought by thought they build themselves +until in their full panoplied vigor and definite outline not even the +thinker can tell the exact process of the growing, or say that here was +the beginning or there the ending. Nor does this slow growth and +gathering make the end less wonderful or the motive less praiseworthy. +Few Americans recognized in 1839 that the great central problem of +America was slavery; and of that few, fewer still were willing to fight +it as they knew it should be fought. Of this lesser number, two men +stood almost alone, ready to back their faith by action—William Lloyd +Garrison and John Brown. + +These men did not then know each other—they had in these early days +scarcely heard each other’s names. They never came to be friends or +sympathizers. When John Brown was in Boston he never went to _The +Liberator_ office, and in after years, now and then, he dropped words +very like contempt for “non-resistants”; while Garrison flayed the +leader of the Harper’s Ferry raid. They were alike only in their intense +hatred of slavery, and spiritually they crossed each other’s paths in +curious fashion, Garrison drifting from a willingness to fight slavery +in all ways or in any way to a fateful attitude of non-resistance and +withdrawal from the contamination of slaveholders; John Brown drifting +from non-resistance to the red path of active warfare. + +Nowhere did the imminence of a great struggle show itself more clearly +than among the Negroes themselves. Organized insurrection ceased in the +South, not because of the increased rigors of the slave system, but +because the great safety-valve of escape northward was opened wider and +wider, and the methods were gradually coördinated into that mysterious +system known as the Underground Railroad. The slaves and freedmen +started the work and to the end bore the brunt of danger and hardship; +but gradually they more and more secured the coöperation of men like +John Brown, and of others less radical but just as sympathetic. Here and +there the free Negroes in the North began to gain economic footing as +servants in cities, as farmers in Ohio and even as _entrepreneurs_ in +the great catering business of Philadelphia and New York. + +The schools were still for the most part closed to them. They made +strenuous efforts to counteract this and established dozens of schools +of their own all over the land. At last in 1839 Oberlin was founded and +certain earnest students of Cincinnati, disgusted with the color line at +Lane College, seceded to Oberlin and brought the color question there. +It was fairly met and Negroes were admitted. + +It was the establishment of Oberlin College in 1839 and the appointment +of his father as trustee that gave John Brown a new vision of life and +usefulness—of a life which would at once combine the pursuit of a great +moral ideal and the honest earning of a good living for a family. Brown +proposed to survey the Virginia lands of Oberlin, as we have shown, +locate a large farm for himself and settle there with his family. Here +he undoubtedly expected to carry out the plan previously laid before his +brother Frederick. He consulted the Oberlin authorities concerning +“provision for religious and school privileges” and they thought it +possible to have these, although nothing was said specifically of +Negroes. The position was strategic and John Brown knew it: in the +non-slaveholding portion of a slave state, near the river and not far +from the foothills of mountains, beyond which lay the Great Black Way, +was formed a highway for the Underground Railroad and a place for +experiment in the uplift of black men. That he would meet opposition, +and strong opposition, John Brown must have known, but probably at this +time he counted on the prevalence of law and justice and the stern +principles of his religion rather than on the sword of Gideon, which was +his later reliance. But it was not the “will of Providence” as we have +seen, that Brown should then settle in Virginia, since his increasing +financial straits and final bankruptcy overthrew all plans of purchasing +the one thousand acres for which he had already bargained. + +The slough of despond through which John Brown passed in the succeeding +years, from 1842 to 1846, was never fully betrayed by this stern, +self-repressing Puritan. Yet the loss of a fortune and the shattering of +a dream, the bankruptcy and imprisonment, and the death of five +children, while around him whirled the struggle of the churches with +slavery and Abolition mobs, all dropped a sombre brooding veil of stern +inexorable fate over his spirit—a veil which never lifted. The dark +mysterious tragedy of life gripped him with awful intensity—the iron +entered his soul. He became sterner and more silent. He brooded and +listened for the voice of the avenging God, and girded up his loins in +readiness. + +“My husband always believed,” said his wife in after years, “that he was +to be an instrument in the hands of Providence, and I believed it +too.... Many a night he had lain awake and prayed concerning it.”[66] + +It began to dawn upon him that he had sinned in the selfish pursuit of +petty ends: that he must be about his Father’s business of giving the +death-blow to that “sum of all villanies—slavery.” He had erred in +making his great work a side object—a secondary thing; it must be his +first and only duty, and let God attend to the nurture of his family. As +his conception of his own relation to slavery thus broadened and +deepened, so too did his plan of attacking the system become clearer and +more definite and he spent hours discussing the matter. In Springfield, +“he used to talk much on the subject, and had the reputation of being +quite ultra. His bookkeeper tells me that he and his eldest son used to +discuss slavery by the hour in his counting-room, and he used to say +that it was right for slaves to kill their masters and escape, and +thought slaveholders were guilty of a very great wickedness.”[67] + +He studied the census returns and the distribution of the Negroes and +made maps of fugitive slave routes with roads, plantations, and +supplies. He learned of Isaac, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner and the +Cumberland region insurrections in South Carolina, Virginia, and +Tennessee; he knew of the organized resistance to slave-catchers in +Pennsylvania, and the history of Hayti and Jamaica. + +It needed, as he soon saw, something more radical than schools and moral +suasion; so deep-seated and radical a disease demanded “Action! Action!” +He welcomed his new and long-loved calling of shepherd because of the +leisure it gave him to study out his great moral problem. He sought and +gained the acquaintance of Negro leaders like Garnet, Loguen, Gloucester +and McCune Smith. As his sheep business broadened, he traveled about and +probably at this time first saw Harper’s Ferry—the mighty pass where +Potomac and Shenandoah, hurling aside the mountain masses, rush to their +singular wedding. + +Thus the distraction of the Springfield wool business came to John Brown +almost in the guise of a temptation to be shunned. For a moment about +1845 he looked again on the lure of wealth and dreamed how useful it +would be to what was now his great life object. But only for a moment, +for when he realized the price he must pay—the time, the chicanery, the +petty detail—he turned from it in disgust. It was at this time that he +studied the history of insurrection and became familiar with the +Abolition movement; as early as 1846 his Harper’s Ferry project began to +form itself more or less clearly in his mind. + +One thing alone reconciled him to his Springfield sojourn and that was +the Negroes whom he met there. He had met black men singly here and +there all his life, but now he met a group. It was not one of the +principal Negro groups of the day—they were in Philadelphia and New +York, Cincinnati and Boston, and in Canada, working largely alone with +only imperfect intercommunication, but working manfully and effectively +for emancipation and full freedom. The Springfield group was a smaller +body without conspicuous leadership, and on that account more nearly +approximated the great mass of their enslaved race. He sought them in +home and church and out on the street, and he hired them in his +business. He came to them on a plane of perfect equality—they sat at his +table and he at theirs. He neither descended upon them from above nor +wallowed with their lowest, and the result was that as Redpath says, +“Captain Brown had a higher notion of the capacity of the Negro race +than most white men. I have often heard him dwell on this subject, and +mention instances of their fitness to take care of themselves, saying, +in his quaint way, that ‘they behaved so much like “folks” that he +almost thought they were so.’ He thought that perhaps a forcible +separation of the connection between master and slave was necessary to +educate the blacks for self-government; but this he threw out as a +suggestion merely.”[68] + +Nor did this appreciation of the finer qualities and capacity of the +Negroes blind him to their imperfections. He found them “intensely +human,” but with their human frailties weakened by slavery and caste; +and with perfect faith in their ability to rise above their faults, he +criticized and inspired them. In his quaint essay on “Sambo’s Mistakes,” +putting himself in the black man’s place, he enumerates his errors: His +failure to improve his time in good reading; his waste of money in +indulgent luxuries and societies and consequent lack of capital; his +servile occupations; his talkativeness and inaptitude for organization; +his sectarian bias. In part of his arraignment, which will bear +thoughtful reading to-day by black men as well as white, he makes his +Sambo say: + +“Another trifling error of my life has been, that I have always expected +to secure the favor of the whites by tamely submitting to every species +of indignity, contempt, and wrong, instead of nobly resisting their +brutal aggressions from principle, and taking my place as a man, and +assuming the responsibilities of a man, a citizen, a husband, a father, +a brother, a neighbor, a friend,—as God requires of every one (if his +neighbor will allow him to do it); but I find that I get, for all my +submission, about the same reward that the Southern slaveocrats render +to the dough-faced statesmen of the North, for being bribed and browbeat +and fooled and cheated, as Whigs and Democrats love to be, and think +themselves highly honored if they may be allowed to lick up the spittle +of a Southerner. I say to get the reward. But I am uncommon +quick-sighted; I can see in a minute where I missed it.”[69] + +No one knew better than John Brown how slavery had contributed to these +faults: for how many slaves could read anything, or when had they been +taught the use of money or the A. B. C. of organization? Not in +condemnation but in faith was this excellent paper written and +delicately worded as from one who has learned his own faults and will +not repeat those of others. + +Not only did John Brown thus criticize, but he led these black folk. As +early as 1846 he revealed something of his final plans to Thomas Thomas, +his black porter and friend, with whom he once was photographed in +mutual friendly embrace, holding the sign “S. P. W.”—“Subterranean Pass +Way” of slaves to freedom. + +“How early shall I come to-morrow?” asked Thomas one morning. + +“We begin work at seven,” answered John Brown. “But I wish you would +come around earlier so that I can talk with you.” Then Brown disclosed a +plan of increasing and systematizing the work of the Underground +Railroad by running off larger bodies of slaves. This was the first form +of his Harper’s Ferry plan and it rapidly grew in detail, so that its +disclosure to Douglass in 1847 showed thought and advance. + +The first national Negro leader, Frederick Douglass, had delivered his +wonderful salutatory in New Bedford in 1844. After publishing his +biography, he went to England for safety, but returned in 1847, ransomed +from slavery and ready to launch his paper, _The North Star_. No sooner +had he landed than the black Wise Men of New York told him of the new +Star in the East, whispering of the strange determined man of +Springfield who flitted silently here and there among the groups of +black folk and whose life was devoted to eternal war upon slavery. Both +were eager to meet each other—John Brown to become acquainted with the +greatest leader of the race which he aimed to free; Frederick Douglass +to know an intense foe of slavery. The historic meeting took place in +Springfield and is best told in Douglass’ own words: + +“About the time I began my enterprise [_i. e._, his newspaper] in +Rochester, I chanced to spend a night and a day under the roof of a man +whose character and conversation, and whose objects and aims in life, +made a very deep impression upon my mind and heart. His name had been +mentioned to me by several prominent colored men; among whom were the +Rev. Henry Highland Garnet and J. W. Loguen. In speaking of him their +voices would drop to a whisper, and what they said of him made me very +eager to see and to know him. Fortunately, I was invited to see him at +his own house. At the time to which I now refer this man was a +respectable merchant in a populous and thriving city, and our first +place of meeting was at his store. This was a substantial brick building +on a prominent, busy street. A glance at the interior, as well as at the +massive walls without, gave me the impression that the owner must be a +man of considerable wealth. My welcome was all that I could have asked. +Every member of the family, young and old, seemed glad to see me, and I +was made much at home in a very little while. I was, however, a little +disappointed with the appearance of the house and its location. After +seeing the fine store I was prepared to see a fine residence in an +eligible locality, but this conclusion was completely dispelled by +actual observation. In fact, the house was neither commodious nor +elegant, nor its situation desirable. It was a small wooden building on +a back street, in a neighborhood chiefly occupied by laboring men and +mechanics; respectable enough, to be sure, but not quite the place, I +thought, where one would look for the residence of a flourishing and +successful merchant. + +“Plain as was the outside of this man’s house, the inside was plainer. +Its furniture would have satisfied a Spartan. It would take longer to +tell what was not in this house than what was in it. There was an air of +plainness about it which almost suggested destitution. My first meal +passed under the misnomer of tea, though there was nothing about it +resembling the usual significance of that term. It consisted of +beef-soup, cabbage, and potatoes—a meal such as a man might relish after +following the plow all day or performing a forced march of a dozen miles +over a rough road in frosty weather. Innocent of paint, veneering, +varnish, or table-cloth, the table announced itself unmistakably of pine +and of the plainest workmanship. There was no hired help visible. The +mother, daughters, and sons did the serving, and did it well. They were +evidently used to it, and had no thought of any impropriety or +degradation in being their own servants. It is said that a house in some +measure reflects the character of its occupants; this one certainly did. +In it there were no disguises, no illusions, no make-believes. +Everything implied stern truth, solid purpose, and rigid economy. I was +not long in company with the master of this house before I discovered +that he was indeed the master of it, and was likely to become mine too +if I stayed long enough with him. His wife believed in him, and his +children observed him with reverence. Whenever he spoke his words +commanded earnest attention. His arguments, which I ventured at some +points to oppose, seemed to convince all; his appeals touched all, and +his will impressed all. Certainly I never felt myself in the presence of +a stronger religious influence than while in this man’s house. + +“In person he was lean, strong, and sinewy, of the best New England +mold, built for times of trouble and fitted to grapple with the +flintiest hardships. Clad in plain American woolen, shod in boots of +cowhide leather, and wearing a cravat of the same substantial material, +under six feet high, less than 150 pounds in weight, aged about fifty, +he presented a figure straight and symmetrical as a mountain pine. His +bearing was singularly impressive. His head was not large, but compact +and high. His hair was coarse, strong, slightly gray and closely +trimmed, and grew low on his forehead. His face was smoothly shaved, and +revealed a strong, square mouth, supported by a broad and prominent +chin. His eyes were bluish gray, and in conversation they were full of +light and fire. When on the street, he moved with a long, springing, +racehorse step, absorbed by his own reflections, neither seeking nor +shunning observation. Such was the man whose name I had heard in +whispers; such was the spirit of his house and family; such was the +house in which he lived; and such was Captain John Brown, whose name has +now passed into history, as that of one of the most marked characters +and greatest heroes known to American fame. + +“After the strong meal already described, Captain Brown cautiously +approached the subject which he wished to bring to my attention; for he +seemed to apprehend opposition to his views. He denounced slavery in +look and language fierce and bitter; thought that slaveholders had +forfeited their right to live; that the slaves had the right to gain +their liberty in any way they could; did not believe that moral suasion +would ever liberate the slave, or that political action would abolish +the system. He said that he had long had a plan which could accomplish +this end, and he had invited me to his house to lay that plan before me. +He said he had been for some time looking for colored men to whom he +could safely reveal his secret, and at times he had almost despaired of +finding such men; but that now he was encouraged, for he saw heads of +such rising up in all directions. He had observed my course at home and +abroad, and he wanted my coöperation. His plan as it then lay in his +mind had much to commend it. It did not, as some suppose, contemplate a +general rising among the slaves, and a general slaughter of the +slave-masters. An insurrection, he thought, would only defeat the +object; but his plan did contemplate the creating of an armed force +which should act the very heart of the South. He was not averse to the +shedding of blood, and thought the practice of carrying arms would be a +good one for the colored people to adopt, as it would give them a sense +of their manhood. No people, he said, could have self-respect, or be +respected, who would not fight for their freedom. He called my attention +to a map of the United States, and pointed out to me the far-reaching +Alleghanies, which stretch away from the borders of New York into the +Southern states. + +“‘These mountains,’ he said, ‘are the basis of my plan. God has given +the strength of the hills to freedom; they were placed here for the +emancipation of the Negro race; they are full of natural forts, where +one man for defense will be equal to a hundred for attack; they are full +also of good hiding-places, where large numbers of brave men could be +concealed, and baffle and elude pursuit for a long time. I know these +mountains well, and could take a body of men into them and keep them +there despite of all efforts of Virginia to dislodge them. The true +object to be sought is first of all to destroy the money value of +slavery property; and that can only be done by rendering such property +insecure. My plan, then, is to take at first about twenty-five picked +men, and begin on a small scale; supply them with arms and ammunition +and post them in squads of fives on a line of twenty-five miles. The +most persuasive and judicious of these shall go down to the fields from +time to time, as opportunity offers, and induce the slaves to join them, +seeking and selecting the most restless and daring.’ + +“He saw that in this part of the work the utmost care must be used to +avoid treachery and disclosure. Only the most conscientious and skilful +should be sent on this perilous duty. With care and enterprise he +thought he could soon gather a force of one hundred hardy men, men who +would be content to lead the free and adventurous life to which he +proposed to train them; when these were properly drilled, and each man +had found the place for which he was best suited, they would begin work +in earnest; they would run off the slaves in large numbers, retain the +brave and strong ones in the mountains, and send the weak and timid to +the North by the Underground Railroad. His operations would be enlarged +with increasing numbers and would not be confined to one locality. + +“When I asked him how he would support these men, he said emphatically +that he would subsist them upon the enemy. Slavery was a state of war, +and the slave had a right to anything necessary to his freedom. ‘But,’ +said I, ‘suppose you succeed in running off a few slaves, and thus +impress the Virginia slaveholders with a sense of insecurity in their +slaves further south.’ ‘That,’ he said, ‘will be what I want first to +do; then I would follow them up. If we could drive slavery out of one +county, it would be a great gain; it would weaken the system throughout +the state.’ ‘But they would employ bloodhounds to hunt you out of the +mountains.’ ‘That they might attempt,’ said he, ‘but the chances are, we +should whip them, and when we should have whipped one squad, they would +be careful how they pursued.’ ‘But you might be surrounded and cut off +from your provisions or means of subsistence.’ He thought that this +could not be done so that they could not cut their way out; but even if +the worst came he could but be killed, and he had no better use for his +life than to lay it down in the cause of the slave. When I suggested +that we might convert the slaveholders, he became much excited, and said +that could never be. He knew their proud hearts and they would never be +induced to give up their slaves, until they felt a big stick about their +heads. + +“He observed that I might have noticed the simple manner in which he +lived, adding that he had adopted this method in order to save money to +carry out his purposes. This was said in no boastful tone, for he felt +that he had delayed already too long, and had no room to boast either +his zeal or his self-denial. Had some men made such display of rigid +virtue, I should have rejected it as affected, false, and hypocritical, +but in John Brown, I felt it to be real as iron or granite. From this +night spent with John Brown in Springfield, Mass., 1847, while I +continued to write and speak against slavery, I became all the same less +hopeful of its peaceful abolition. My utterances became more and more +tinged by the color of this man’s strong impressions.”[70] + +Tremendously impressed as was Douglass in mind and heart with John Brown +and his plan, his reason was never convinced even up to the last; and +naturally because here two radically opposite characters saw slavery +from opposite sides of the shield. Both hated it with all their +strength, but one knew its physical degradation, its tremendous power +and the strong sympathies and interests that buttressed it the world +over; the other felt its moral evil and knowing simply that it was +wrong, concluded that John Brown and God could overthrow it. That was +all—a plain straightforward path; but to the subtler darker man, more +worldly-wise and less religious, the arm of the Lord was not revealed, +while the evil of this world had seared his vitals. He uncovered himself +if not reverently, certainly respectfully before the Seer; he gave him +much help and information; he turned almost imperceptibly but surely +toward Brown’s darker view of the blood-sacrifice of slavery, but he +could never quite believe that John Brown’s tremendous plan was humanly +possible. And this attitude of Douglass was in various degrees and +strides the attitude of the leading Negroes of his day. They believed in +John Brown but not in his plan. They knew he was right, but they knew +that for any failure in his project they, the black men, would probably +pay the cost. And the horror of that cost none knew as they. + +If John Brown was to carry out his idea as he had now definitely +conceived it, he must first find the men who could help him. On this +point there seems to have been deliberation and development of plan, +particularly as he consulted Douglass and the Negro leaders. His earlier +scheme probably looked toward the use of Negro allies almost exclusively +outside his own family. This was eminently fitting but impractical, as +Douglass and his fellows must have urged. White men could move where +they would in the United States, but to introduce an armed band +exclusively or mainly of Negroes from the North into the South was +difficult, if not impossible. Nevertheless, some Negroes of the right +type were needed and to John Brown’s mind the Underground Railroad was +bringing North the very material he required. It could not, however, be +properly trained in cities whither it drifted both for economic reasons +and for self-protection. Brown therefore heard of Gerrit Smith’s offer +of August 1, 1846, with great interest. This wealthy leader of the New +York Abolition group took occasion at the celebration of the twelfth +anniversary of British emancipation to offer free Negroes 100,000 acres +of his lands in the Adirondack region on easy terms. It was not a well +thought-out scheme: the climate was bleak for Negroes, the methods of +culture then suitable, were unknown to them; while the surveyor who laid +out these farms cheated them as cheerily as though philanthropy had no +concern with the project. The Gerrit Smith offer was not wholly a +failure. It turned out some good Negro farmers, gave some of its best +Negro citizens of to-day to northern New York, and trained a bishop of +the British African Church. But it did far less than it might have done +if better planned, and much if not all of its success was due to John +Brown. He saw possibilities here both to shelter his family when he +turned definitely to what was now his single object in life, and to +train men to help him. He went to Gerrit Smith at Peterboro, N. Y., in +April, 1848, and said: “I am something of a pioneer; I grew up among the +woods and wild Indians of Ohio and am used to the climate and the way of +life that your colony find so trying. I will take one of your farms +myself, clear it up and plant it, and show my colored neighbors how such +work should be done; will give them work as I have occasion, look after +them in all needful ways and be a kind of father to them.”[71] + +His offer was gladly accepted and he moved his family there the +following year. It was a wild, lonely place. Thomas Wentworth Higginson +wrote once: “The Notch seems beyond the world, North Elba and its +half-dozen houses are beyond the Notch, and there is a wilder little +mountain road which rises beyond North Elba. But the house we seek is +not even on that road, but behind it and beyond it; you ride a mile or +two, then take down a pair of bars; beyond the bars faith takes you +across a half-cleared field, through the most difficult of wood-paths, +and after half a mile of forest you come out upon a clearing. There is a +little frame house, unpainted, set in a girdle of black stumps, and with +all heaven about it for a wider girdle; on a high hillside, forests on +north and west,—the glorious line of the Adirondacks on the east, and on +the south one slender road leading off to Westport, a road so straight +that you could sight a United States marshal for five miles.”[72] + +To his family John Brown’s word was usually not merely law but wish. +They went to North Elba cheerfully and with full knowledge of the import +of the change, for the father was frank. The daughter Ruth writes: +“While we were living in Springfield, our house was plainly furnished, +but very comfortably, all excepting the parlor. Mother and I had often +expressed a wish that the parlor might be furnished too, and father +encouraged us that it should be; but after he made up his mind to go to +North Elba he began to economize in many ways. One day he called us +older ones to him and said: ‘I want to plan with you a little; and I +want you all to express your minds. I have a little money to spare; and +now shall we use it to furnish the parlor, or spend it to buy clothing +for the colored people who may need help in North Elba another year?’ We +all said, ‘Save the money.’”[73] + +It was no paradise, even for the enthusiast. Redpath says: “It is too +cold to raise corn there; they can scarcely, in the most favorable +seasons, obtain a few ears for roasting. Stock must be wintered there +nearly six months in every year. I was there on the first of November, +the ground was snowy, and winter had apparently begun—and it would last +till the middle of May. They never raise anything to sell off that farm, +except sometimes a few fleeces. It was well, they said, if they raised +their own provisions, and could spin their own wool for clothing.”[74] + +Meantime the scattered isolated eddies of the anti-slavery battles were +swirling to one great current, and more and more John Brown was becoming +the man of one idea. Impatiently he neglected his pressing wool +business. Instead of keeping his eye on his critical London venture, he +hastened across Europe perfecting military observations. He returned to +America in time to hear all the feverish discussion of the Fugitive +Slave Law and see its final passage. In November, 1850, he writes his +wife from Springfield: “It now seems that the Fugitive Slave Law was to +be the means of making more Abolitionists than all the lectures we have +had for years. It really looks as if God had His hand on this wickedness +also. I of course keep encouraging my colored friends to ‘trust in God +and keep their powder dry.’ I did so to-day at Thanksgiving meeting +publicly.”[75] + +His Springfield meetings led to the formation of his “League of +Gileadites,” the first of his steps toward the armed organization of +Negroes. Forty-four Negroes signed the following agreement: + +“As citizens of the United States of America, trusting in a just and +merciful God, whose spirit and all-powerful aid we humbly implore, we +will ever be true to the flag of our beloved country, always acting +under it. We, whose names are hereunto affixed, do constitute ourselves +a branch of the United States League of Gileadites. That we will provide +ourselves at once with suitable implements, and will aid those who do +not possess the means, if any such are disposed to join us. We invite +every colored person whose heart is engaged in the performance of our +business, whether male or female, old or young. The duty of the aged, +infirm, and young members of the League shall be to give instant notice +to all members in case of an attack upon any of our people. We agree to +have no officers except a treasurer and secretary pro tem., until after +some trial of courage and talent of able-bodied members shall enable us +to elect officers from those who shall have rendered the most important +services. Nothing but wisdom and undaunted courage, efficiency, and +general good conduct shall in any way influence us in electing +officers.”[76] + +To this was added exhortation and advice by John Brown. + +“Nothing so charms the American people as personal bravery,” he wrote. +“Witness the case of Cinques, of everlasting memory, on board the +_Amistad_. The trial for life of one bold and to some extent successful +man, for defending his rights in good earnest, would arouse more +sympathy throughout the nation than the accumulated wrongs and +sufferings of more than three millions of our submissive colored +population. We need not mention the Greeks struggling against the +oppressive Turks, the Poles against Russia, nor the Hungarians against +Austria and Russia combined, to prove this. No jury can be found in the +Northern states that would convict a man for defending his rights to the +last extremity. This is well understood by Southern congressmen, who +insisted that the right of trial by jury should not be granted to the +fugitive. Colored people have ten times the number of fast friends among +the whites than they suppose, and would have ten times the number they +have now were they but half as much in earnest to secure their dearest +rights as they are to ape the follies and extravagances of their white +neighbors, and to indulge in idle show, in ease and luxury. Just think +of the money expended by individuals in your behalf for the last twenty +years! Think of the number who have been mobbed and imprisoned on your +account! Have any of you seen the branded hand? Do you remember the +names of Lovejoy and Torrey?”[77] + +He then gives definite advice as to procedure in case the arrest and the +deportation of a fugitive slave were attempted: + +“Should one of your number be arrested, you must collect together as +quickly as possible, so as to outnumber your adversaries, who are taking +an active part against you. Let no able-bodied man appear on the ground +unequipped, or with his weapons exposed to view: let that be understood +beforehand. Your plans must be known only to yourself, and with the +understanding that all traitors must die, wherever caught and proven to +be guilty. ‘Whosoever is fearful or afraid, let him return and depart +early from Mount Gilead’ (Judges 7:3; Deut. 20:8). Give all cowards an +opportunity to show it on condition of holding their peace. Do not delay +one moment after you are ready; you will lose all your resolution if you +do. Let the first blow be the signal for all to engage; and when engaged +do not do your work in halves, but make clean work with your +enemies,—and be sure you meddle not with any others. By going about your +business quietly, you will get the job disposed of before the number +that an uproar would bring together can collect; and you will have the +advantage of those who come out against you, for they will be wholly +unprepared with either equipments or matured plans; all with them will +be confusion and terror. Your enemies will be slow to attack you after +you have done up the work nicely; and if they should, they will have to +encounter your white friends as well as you; for you may safely +calculate on a division of the whites, and may by that means get to an +honorable parley. + +“Be firm, determined, and cool; but let it be understood that you are +not to be driven to desperation without making it an awful dear job to +others as well as to you. Give them to know distinctly that those who +live in wooden houses should not throw fire, and that you are just as +able to suffer as your white neighbors. After effecting a rescue, if you +are assailed, go into the houses of your most prominent and influential +white friends with your wives; and that will effectually fasten upon +them the suspicion of being connected with you, and will compel them to +make a common cause with you, whether they would otherwise live up to +their profession or not. This would leave them no choice in the matter. + +“Some would doubtless prove themselves true of their own choice; others +would flinch. That would be taking them at their own words. You may make +a tumult in the court room where a trial is going on by burning +gunpowder freely in paper packages, if you cannot think of any better +way to create a momentary alarm, and might possibly give one or more of +your enemies a hoist. But in such case the prisoner will need to take +the hint at once, and bestir himself; and so should his friends improve +the opportunity for a general rush. A lasso might possibly be applied to +a slave-catcher for once with good effect. Hold on to your weapons, and +never be persuaded to leave them, part with them, or have them far away +from you. Stand by one another and by your friends, while a drop of +blood remains; and be hanged if you must, but tell no tales out of +school. Make no confession. Union is strength. Without some well +digested arrangements, nothing to any good purpose is likely to be done, +let the demand be never so great. Witness the case of Hamlet and Long in +New York, when there was no well defined plan of operations or suitable +preparation beforehand. The desired end may be effectually secured by +the means proposed; namely, the enjoyment of our inalienable +rights.”[78] + +There is evidence that this league did effective rescue work, as did +other groups of Negroes in Boston, Philadelphia, Albany, New York and +elsewhere. In this service the Negroes could not act alone—it would have +meant mob violence on purely racial lines;—but given a few determined +white men to join in, they could and did bear the brunt of the fighting. + +John Brown himself was active in such rescue work. He helped in the +release of “Jerry” in Syracuse, and writes in 1851 from Springfield: +“Since the sending off to slavery of Long from New York, I have improved +my leisure hours quite busily with colored people here, in advising them +how to act, and in giving them all the encouragement in my power. They +very much need encouragement and advice; and some of them are so alarmed +that they tell me they cannot sleep on account of either themselves or +their wives and children. I can only say I think I have been able to do +something to revive their broken spirits. I want all my family to +imagine themselves in the same dreadful condition. My only spare time +being taken up (often till late hours at night) in the way I speak of, +has prevented me from the gloomy homesick feelings which had before so +much oppressed me: not that I forget my family at all.”[79] + +His hateful lawsuits hung like a weight about John Brown’s neck, and a +feverish impatience was seizing him: “Father did not close up his wool +business in Springfield when he went to North Elba, and had to make +several journeys back and forth in 1819–50. He was at Springfield in +January, 1851, soon after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, and +went around among his colored friends there, who had been fugitives, +urging them to resist the law, no matter by what authority it should be +enforced. He told them to arm themselves with revolvers, men and women, +and not to be taken alive. When he got to North Elba, he told us about +the Fugitive Slave Law, and bade us resist any attempt that might be +made to take any fugitive from our town, regardless of fine or +imprisonment. Our faithful boy Cyrus was one of that class; and our +feelings were so aroused that we would all have defended him, though the +women folks had resorted to hot water. Father at this time said, ‘Their +cup of iniquity is almost full.’ One evening as I was singing, ‘The +Slave Father Mourning for his Children,’ containing these words,— + + “‘Ye’re gone from me, my gentle ones, + With all your shouts of mirth; + A silence is within my walls, + A darkness round my hearth,’— + +father got up and walked the floor, and before I could finish the song, +he said, ‘O Ruth! Don’t sing any more; it is too sad!’”[80] + +At the same time his thrifty careful attention to minutiæ did not desert +him. He keeps his eye on North Elba even after his wife and part of the +family returned to Akron and writes: “The colored families appear to be +doing well, and to feel encouraged. They all send much love to you. They +have constant preaching on the Sabbath; and intelligence, morality and +religion appear to be all on the advance.”[81] + +His daughter says: “He did not lose interest in the colored people of +North Elba, and grieved over the sad fate of one of them, Mr. Henderson, +who was lost in the woods in the winter of 1852 and perished with the +cold. Mr. Henderson was an intelligent and good man, and was very +industrious and father thought much of him.”[82] + +Once we find him saying: “If you find it difficult for you to pay for +Douglass’ paper, I wish you would let me know, as I know I took +liberty in ordering it continued. You have been very kind in helping +me and I do not mean to make myself a burden.” And again he writes: “I +am much rejoiced at the news of a religious kind in Ruth’s letter and +would be still more rejoiced to learn that all the sects who hear the +Christian name would have no more to do with that mother of all +abominations—man-stealing.”[83] + +And the sects were thinking. All men were thinking. A great unrest was +on the land. It was not merely moral leadership from above—it was the +push of physical and mental pain from beneath;—not simply the cry of the +Abolitionist but the up-stretching of the slave. The vision of the +damned was stirring the western world and stirring black men as well as +white. Something was forcing the issue—call it what you will, the Spirit +of God or the spell of Africa. It came like some great grinding ground +swell,—vast, indefinite, immeasurable but mighty, like the dark low +whispering of some infinite disembodied voice—a riddle of the Sphinx. It +tore men’s souls and wrecked their faith. Women cried out as cried once +that tall black sibyl, Sojourner Truth: + +“Frederick, is God dead?” + +“No,” thundered the Douglass, towering above his Salem audience. “No, +and because God is not dead, slavery can only end in blood.” + + + + + CHAPTER VI + THE CALL OF KANSAS + + “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my + people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” + + +Just three hundred years before John Brown pledged his family to warfare +against slavery, a black man stood on the plains of the Southwest +looking toward Kansas. It was the Negro Steven, once slave of Dorantes, +now leader and interpreter of the Fray Marcos explorers, and the first +man of the Old World to look upon the great Southwest, if not upon +Kansas itself. Whiter men have since ignored and ridiculed his work, +sensualists have charged him with sensuality, lords of greed have called +him greedy, and yet withal the plain truth remains: he led the +expedition that foreran Coronado, reported back the truth of what he saw +and then returned to lay down his life among the savages.[84] + +The land he looked upon in those young years of the sixteenth century +was big with the tragic fate of his people. Planted far to the eastward +a century later, their dark faces traveled fast westward until slavery +was secure in the valley of the Mississippi and in the lower Southwest. +Then the slave barons looked behind them, and saw to their own dismay +that there could be no backward step. The slavery of the new Cotton +Kingdom in the nineteenth century must either die or conquer a nation—it +could not hesitate or pause. It was an industrial system built on +ignorance, force and the cotton plant. The slaves must be curbed with an +iron hand. A moment of relaxation and lo! they would be rising either in +revenge or ambition. And slavery had made revenge and ambition one. Such +a system could not compete with intelligence, nor with individual +freedom, nor with miscellaneous and care-demanding crops. It could not +divide territory with these things;—to do so meant economic death and +the sudden, perhaps revolutionary upheaval of a whole social system. +This the South saw as it looked backward in the years from 1820 to 1840. +Then its bolder vision pressed the gloom ahead, and dreamed a dazzling +dream of empire. It saw the slave system triumphant in the great +Southwest—in Mexico, in Central America and the islands of the sea. Its +softer souls, timid with a fear prophetic of failure, still held +halfheartedly back, but bolder leaders like Davis, Toombs and Floyd went +relentlessly, ruthlessly on. Three steps they and their forerunners took +in that great western wilderness, and other steps were planned. Three +steps—that cost uncounted treasure in gold and blood: the first in 1820, +when they set foot beyond the Mississippi into Missouri; the second and +bolder when they set their seal on the spoils of raped Mexico and made +it possible slave soil; and the third and boldest, when on the soil of +Kansas they fought to enslave all territory of the Union. + +That these steps would cost much the leaders knew, but they did not +rightly reckon how much. They risked the upheaval of parties, the enmity +of sections and the angry agitation of visionaries. If worse came to +worst, they held the trump-card of disrupting the nation and founding a +mighty slave aristocracy to stretch from the Ohio to Venezuela and from +Cuba to Texas. One thing alone they did not count upon and that was +armed force. + +The three steps did raise tremendous opposition. The enslaving of +Missouri gave birth to the early Abolitionists—the conscience of the +nation awakened to find slavery not dead or dying but growing and +aggressive; and in these days John Brown, typifying one phase of that +terrible conscience, swore blood-feud with this “sum of all villanies.” +Thus the first step cost. + +The second step went some ways awry since California was lost to +slavery, but a new law to catch runaways brought compensation and +brought too redoubled cost, for it raised in opposition to the whole +slave system not only Abolitionists, but Free Soilers—those who hated +not slavery but slaves. This was a costlier move, for the sneers that +checked philanthropy were powerless against democracy, and when the +echoes of this step reached the ears of John Brown, he laid aside all +and became the man of one idea, and that idea the extinction of slavery +in the United States. + +But it was the third step that was costliest—the step that sought to +impose slavery by law and blood on free labor lands despite the lands’ +wish. Of all the steps it was the wildest and most foolish, for it +arrayed against slavery not only philanthropy and democracy, but all the +world-old forces of plain justice. It compelled those who loved the +right to meet law and force by force and lawlessness, and one man that +led that lawless fight on the plains of Kansas and struck its bloodiest +blow, was John Brown. + +John Brown’s decision to go to Kansas was sudden. Unexpectedly the +centre of the slavery battle had swung westward. A shrewd bidder for the +presidency offered the South the unawaited bribe of Kansas territory for +their votes and they eagerly sprang at the offer. Stephen Douglas drove +the bill through Congress, and Kansas stood ready for its slave +population. But not only for slaves—also for freemen as Eli Thayer +quickly saw, and the representations of him and his associates aroused +the sons of John Brown. + +John Brown himself looked on with interest, but he had other plans. He +wrote to his son John: “If you or any of my family are disposed to go to +Kansas or Nebraska with a view to help defeat Satan and his legions in +that direction, I have not a word to say; but I feel committed to +operate in another part of the field. If I were not so committed, I +would be on my way this fall.”[85] + +John Brown’s plans were in the Alleghanies. At North Elba lay his +northern stronghold, and at Harper’s Ferry lay the gates to the Great +Black Way. Here he was convinced was the keystone of the slavery arch +and here he must strike. So in former years Gabriel and Turner believed; +so in after years others believed; but it was not till Grant floated +down this path in a sea of blood that slavery finally fell. + +The sons of John Brown were, however, greatly attracted by the new +western lands. His eldest son writes: + +“During the years of 1853 and 1854, most of the leading Northern +newspapers were not only full of glowing accounts of the extraordinary +fertility, healthfulness, and beauty of the territory of Kansas, then +newly opened for settlement, but of urgent appeals to all lovers of +freedom who desired homes in a new region to go there as settlers, and +by their votes save Kansas from the curse of slavery. Influenced by +these considerations, in the month of October, 1854, five of the sons of +John Brown,—John, Jr., Jason, Owen, Frederick, and Salmon,—then +residents of the state of Ohio, made their arrangements to emigrate to +Kansas. Their combined property consisted chiefly of eleven head of +cattle, mostly young, and three horses. Ten of this number were valuable +on account of the breed. Thinking these especially desirable in a new +country, Owen, Frederick, and Salmon took them by way of the lakes to +Chicago, thence to Meridosia, Ill., where they were wintered; and in the +following spring drove them into Kansas to a place selected by these +brothers for settlement, about eight miles west of the town of +Osawatomie. My brother Jason and his family, and I with my family +followed at the opening of navigation in the spring of 1855, going by +way of Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to St. Louis. There we purchased two +small tents, a plough, and some smaller farming tools, and a hand-mill +for grinding corn. At this period there were no railroads west of St. +Louis; our journey must be continued by boat on the Missouri at a time +of extremely low water, or by stage at great expense. We chose the river +route, taking passage on the steamer _New Lucy_ which too late we found +crowded with passengers, mostly men from the South bound for Kansas. +That they were from the South was plainly indicated by their language +and dress; while their drinking, profanity, and display of revolvers and +bowie-knives—openly worn as an essential part of their make-up—clearly +showed the class to which they belonged, and that their mission was to +aid in establishing slavery in Kansas. + +“A box of fruit trees and grape-vines which my brother Jason had brought +from Ohio, our plough, and the few agricultural implements we had on the +deck of that steamer looked lonesome; for these were all we could see +which were adapted to the occupation of peace. Then for the first time +arose in our minds the query: Must the fertile prairies of Kansas, +through a struggle at arms, be first secured to freedom before freemen +can sow and reap? If so, how poorly we were prepared for such work will +be seen when I say that for arms five of us brothers had only two small +squirrel rifles and one revolver. But before we reached our destination, +other matters claimed our attention. Cholera, which then prevailed to +some extent at St. Louis, broke out among our passengers, a number of +whom died. Among these brother Jason’s son, Austin, aged four years, the +elder of his two children, fell a victim to this scourge; and while our +boat lay by for repair of a broken rudder at Waverly, Mo., we buried him +at night near the panic-stricken town, our lonely way illumined only by +the lightning of a furious thunderstorm. True to his spirit of hatred of +Northern people, our captain, without warning to us on shore, cast off +his lines and left us to make our way by stage to Kansas City to which +place we had already paid our fare by boat. Before we reached there, +however, we became very hungry, and endeavored to buy food at various +farmhouses on the way; but the occupants, judging from our speech that +we were not from the South, always denied us, saying, ‘We have nothing +for you.’ The only exception to this answer was at the stage house at +Independence, Mo. + +“Arrived in Kansas, her lovely prairies and wooded streams seemed to us +indeed like a haven of rest. Here in prospect we saw our cattle +increased to hundreds and possibly to thousands, fields of corn, +orchards and vineyards. At once we set about the work through which only +our visions of prosperity could be realized. Our tents would suffice to +shelter until we could plough our land, plant corn and other crops, +fruit trees, and vines, cut and secure as hay enough of the waving grass +to supply our stock the coming winter. These cheering prospects beguiled +our labors through the late spring until midsummer, by which time nearly +all of our number were prostrated by fever and ague that would not stay +cured; the grass cut for hay mouldered in the wet for the want of the +care we could not bestow, and our crop of corn wasted by cattle we could +not restrain. If these minor ills and misfortunes were all, they could +be easily borne; but now began to gather the dark clouds of war. + +“An election for a first territorial legislature had been held on the +30th of March of this year. On that day the residents of Missouri along +the borders came into Kansas by thousands, and took forcible possession +of the polls. In the words of Horace Greeley, ‘There was no disguise, no +pretense of legality, no regard for decency. On the evening before and +the day of the election, nearly a thousand Missourians arrived at +Lawrence in wagons and on horseback, well armed with rifles, pistols and +bowie-knives, and two pieces of cannon loaded with musket balls. +Although but 831 legal electors in the Territory voted, there were no +less than 6,320 votes polled. They elected all the members of the +legislature, with a single exception in either house,—the two Free +Soilers being chosen from a remote district which the Missourians +overlooked or did not care to reach.’ + +“Early in the spring and summer of this year the actual settlers at +their convention repudiated this fraudulently chosen legislature, and +refused to obey its enactments. Upon this, the border papers of Missouri +in flaming appeals urged the ruffian horde that had previously invaded +Kansas to arm, and otherwise prepare to march again into the territory +when called upon, as they soon would be, to ‘aid in enforcing laws.’ War +of some magnitude, at least, now appeared to us brothers to be +inevitable; and I wrote to our father, whose home was in North Elba, N. +Y., asking him to procure and send us, if he could, arms and ammunition, +so that we could be better prepared to defend ourselves and our +neighbors.”[86] + +John Brown hesitated. His fighting blood was stirred and yet there was +the plan of years yet unrealized. Then a new vision dawned in his mind. +Perhaps this was the call of the Lord and the path to Virginia might lie +through Kansas. He hurriedly consulted his friends—Douglass, McCune +Smith, the cultured Negro physician of New York, and Gerrit Smith, and +in November, 1854, wrote home: “I feel still pretty much determined to +go back to North Elba; but expect Owen and Frederick will set out for +Kansas on Monday next, with cattle belonging to John, Jason and +themselves, intending to winter somewhere in Illinois.... Gerrit Smith +wishes me to go back to North Elba; from Douglass and Dr. McCune Smith I +have not yet heard.”[87] + +His business delayed him in Ohio and he still wrote of his going to +North Elba. Then followed the Syracuse convention of Abolitionists and a +new revelation to John Brown. For the first time he came into contact +with the great Abolition movement. He found that money was forthcoming. +Here were men willing to pay if others would work. It was the call of +God and he answered: “Here am I.” + +Redpath says: “When in session John Brown appeared in that convention +and made a very fiery speech, during which he said he had four sons in +Kansas, and had three others who were desirous of going there, to aid in +fighting the battles of freedom. He could not consent to go unless he +could go armed, and he would like to arm all his sons; but his poverty +prevented him from doing so. Funds were contributed on the spot; +principally by Gerrit Smith.”[88] + +He writes joyfully home: + +“Dear wife and children,—I reached here on the first day of the +convention, and I have reason to bless God that I came; for I have met +with a most warm reception from all, so far as I know, and except by a +few sincere, honest, peace friends, a most hearty approval of my +intention of arming my sons and other friends in Kansas. I received +to-day donations amounting to a little over sixty dollars,—twenty from +Gerrit Smith, five from an old British officer; others giving smaller +sums with such earnest and affectionate expression of their good wishes +as did me more good than money even. John’s two letters were introduced, +and read with such effect by Gerrit Smith as to draw tears from numerous +eyes in the great collection of people present. The convention has been +one of the most interesting meetings I ever attended in my life; and I +made a great addition to the number of warm-hearted and honest +friends.”[89] + +The die was cast and John Brown left for Kansas. Instead of sending the +money and arms, says his son John, “he came on with them himself, +accompanied by his brother-in-law, Henry Thompson, and my brother +Oliver. In Iowa he bought a horse and covered wagon; concealing the arms +in this and conspicuously displaying his surveying implements, he +crossed into Missouri near Waverly, and at that place disinterred the +body of his grandson, and brought all safely through to our settlement, +arriving there about the 6th of October, 1855.”[90] + +His daughter says: “On leaving us finally to go to Kansas that summer, +he said, ‘If it is so painful for us to part with the hope of meeting +again, how dreadful must be the feelings of hundreds of poor slaves who +are separated for life.’”[91] + +So John Brown reached Kansas to strike the blow for freedom. Not that he +was the central figure of Kansas territorial history so far as casual +eyes could see, or the acknowledged leader of men and measures; rather +he seemed and was but a humble coworker, appearing and disappearing here +and there,—now startling men with the grim decision of his actions, now +lost and hidden from public view. But it is not always the apparent +leaders who do the world’s work. More often those who sit in high +places, whom men see and hear, do but represent or mask public opinion +and the social conscience, while down in the blood and dust of battle +stoop those who delivered the master-stroke—the makers of the thoughts +of men. So in Kansas Robinson, Lane, Atchison and Geary were the +conspicuous public leaders: Robinson, the canny Yankee, whose astute +reading of the signs of the times proved in the end wise and correct but +left him always the opportunist and politician; Lane, whose impetuous +daring and rough devotion led thousands of immigrants out of the North +and drove hundreds of slaveholders back to Missouri; Atchison, who led +the determination and ruffianism of the South; and Geary, who voiced the +saner nation. And yet one cannot read Kansas history without feeling +that the man who in all this bewildering broil was least the puppet of +circumstances—the man who most clearly saw the real crux of the +conflict, most definitely knew his own convictions and was readiest at +the crisis for decisive action, was a man whose leadership lay not in +his office, wealth or influence, but in the white flame of his utter +devotion to an ideal. + +To comprehend this, one must pick from the confused tangle of Kansas +territorial history the main thread of its unraveling and then show how +Brown’s life twined with it. And this is no easy task. Some time before +or after 1850 Southern leaders had tacitly fixed the westward extension +of the Compromise line of 1820 at the northern line of Missouri. When, +then, the bill for organizing this western territory appeared innocently +in Congress, it was hustled back to committee, and appeared finally as +the celebrated Kansas-Nebraska Bill which formed two territories, Kansas +and Nebraska. It was the secret understanding of the promoters of the +bill that Kansas would become slave territory and Nebraska free, and +this tacit compact was expressed in the formula that the people of each +territory should have the right “to form and regulate their domestic +institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the +United States.” But the game was so easy, and the price so cheap that +the Southern leaders and their office-hunting Northern tools were not +satisfied, even with the gain of territory, and so juggled the bill as +virtually to leave all territory open to slavery even against the will +of its people, while eventually they fortified their daring by a Supreme +Court decision. + +The North, on the other hand, angry enough at even the necessity of +disputing slavery north of the long established line, nevertheless began +in good faith to prepare to vote slavery out of Kansas by pouring in +free settlers. + +Thereupon ensued one of the strangest duels of modern times—a political +battle between two economic systems: On the one side were all the +machinery of government, close proximity to the battle-field and a +deep-seated social ideal which did not propose to abide by the rules of +the game; on the other hand were strong moral conviction, pressing +economic necessity and capacity for organization. It took four years to +fight the battle—from the middle of 1854, when the Kansas-Nebraska Bill +was passed and the Indians were hustled out of their rights, until 1858, +when the pro-slavery constitution was definitely buried under free state +votes. + +In the beginning, the fall of 1854, the fatal misunderstanding of the +two sections was clear: The New England Emigrant Aid Society assumed +that the contest was simply a matter of votes, and that if they hurried +settlers to Kansas from the North a majority for freedom was reasonably +certain. Missouri and the South, on the other hand, assumed that Kansas +was already of right a slave state and resented as an impertinence the +attempt to make it free by any means. Thus at Lawrence, on August 1st, +the bewildered and unarmed Northern settlers and their immediate +successors, such as John Brown’s sons, were literally pounced upon by +the furious Missourians, who crossed the border like an invading army. +“To those who have qualms of conscience as to violating laws, state or +national, the time has come when such impositions must be disregarded, +as your rights and property are in danger,” cried Stringfellow of +Missouri. Thereupon 5,000 Missourians proceeded to elect a pro-slavery +legislature and Congressional delegate; and led by what Sumner called +“hirelings, picked from the drunken spew and vomit of an uneasy +civilization,” flourished their pistols and bowie-knives, driving some +of the free state immigrants back home and the rest into apprehensive +inaction and silence. + +Snatching thus the whip-hand, with pro-slavery governor, judges, marshal +and legislature, they then proceeded in 1855 to deliver blow upon blow +to the free state cause until it seemed inevitable that Kansas should +become a slave state, with a code of laws which made even an assertion +against the right of slaveholding a felony punishable with imprisonment. + +The free state settlers hesitatingly began to take serious counsel. They +found themselves in three parties: a few who hated slavery, more who +hated Negroes, and many who hated slaves. Easily the political +_finesse_, afterward unsuccessfully attempted, might now have pitted the +parties against one another in such irreconcilable difference as would +slip even slavery through. But unblushing force and fraud united them to +an appeal for justice at Big Springs in the fall of 1855—where John +Brown’s sons were present and active—and a declaration of passive, with +a threat of active, resistance to the “bogus” legislature. A peace +program was laid down: they would ignore the patent fraud, organize a +state and appeal to Congress and the nation. This they did in October +and November, 1855, making Topeka their nominal and Lawrence their real +capital. + +The pro-slavery party, however, was quick to see the weakness of this +program and they took the first opportunity to force the free state men +into collision with the authorities. A characteristic occasion soon +arose: a peaceful free state settler was brutally killed and instead of +arresting the murderer, the pro-slavery sheriff arrested the chief +witness against him. A few of the bolder free state neighbors released +the prisoner and took him to Lawrence. Immediately the sheriff gathered +an army of 1,500 deputies from Missouri, and surrounded 500 free state +men in Lawrence just after John Brown arrived in Kansas. Things looked +serious enough even to the drunken governor, and with the aid of some +artifice, liquor and stormy weather, the threatened clash was +temporarily averted. The wild and ice-bound winter that fell on Kansas +gave a moment’s pause, but with the opening spring the pro-slavery +forces gathered themselves for a last crushing blow. Armed bands came +out of the South with flying banners, the Missouri River was blockaded +to Northern immigrants, and the border ruffians rode unhindered over the +Missouri line. The free state men, alarmed, appealed to the East and +immigrants were hurried forward; but slavery “with the chief justice, +the tamed and domesticated chief justice who waited on him like a +familiar spirit,” declared the passive resistance movement “constructive +treason” and the pro-slavery marshal arrested the free state leaders +from the governor down, and clapped them into prison. Two thousand +Missourians then surrounded Lawrence and while the hesitating free state +men were striving to keep the peace, sacked and half burned the town on +the day before Brooks broke Sumner’s head in the Senate chamber, for +telling the truth about Kansas. + +The deed was done. Kansas was a slave territory. The free state program +had been repudiated by the United States government and had broken like +a reed before the assaults of the pro-slavery party. There were +mutterings in the East but the cause of freedom was at its lowest ebb. +Then suddenly there came the flash of an awful stroke—a deed of +retaliation from the free state side so bloody, relentless and cruel +that it sent a shudder through all Kansas and Missouri, and aroused the +nation. In one black night, John Brown, four of his sons, a son-in-law +and two others, the chosen executors of the boldest free state leaders, +seized and killed five of the worst of the border ruffians who were +harrying the free state settlers, and practically swept out of existence +the “Dutch Henry” pro-slavery settlement in the Swamp of the Swan. The +rank and file of the free state men themselves recoiled at first in +consternation and loudly, then faintly, disclaimed the deed. Suddenly +they saw and laid the lie aside, and seized their Sharps rifles. There +was war in Kansas—a quick sweeping change from the passive appeal to law +and justice which did not respond, to the appeal to force and blood. The +deed did not make Kansas free—no one, least of all John Brown, dreamed +that it would. But it brought to the fore in free state councils the men +who were determined to fight for freedom, and it meant the end of +passive resistance. The carnival of crime and rapine that ensued was a +disgrace to civilization but it was the cost of freedom, and it was less +than the price of repression. There were pitched battles, the building +and besieging of forts, the burning of homes, stealing of property, +raping of women and murder of men, until the scared governor signed a +truce, exchanged prisoners and fled for his life. The wildest +pro-slavery elements, now loosed from all restraint, planned a last +desperate blow. Nearly 3,000 men were mustered in Missouri. The new +governor, whose _cortège_ barely escaped highway robbery, found +“desolation and ruin” on every hand; “homes and firesides were deserted; +the smoke of burning dwellings darkened the atmosphere; women and +children, driven from their habitations, wandered over the prairies and +among the woodlands, or sought refuge and protection even among the +Indian tribes; the highways were infested with numerous predatory bands, +and the towns were fortified and garrisoned by armies of conflicting +partisans, each excited almost to frenzy, and determined upon mutual +extermination.” Not only that, but the territorial “treasury was +bankrupt, there were no pecuniary resources within herself to meet the +exigencies of the time; the Congressional appropriations intended to +defray the expenses of a year, were insufficient to meet the demands of +a fortnight; the laws were null, the courts virtually suspended and the +civil arm of the government almost entirely powerless.”[92] + +Governor Geary came in the nick of time and he came with peremptory +orders from the frightened government at Washington, who saw that they +must either check the whirlwind they had raised, or lose the +presidential election of 1856. For not only was there “hell in Kansas” +but the North was aflame—the very thing which John Brown and Lane and +their fellows designed. A great convention met at Buffalo and +mass-meetings were held everywhere. Clothes, money, arms, and men began +to pour out of the North. It was no longer a program of peaceful voting; +it was fight. The Southern party was certain to be swamped by an army of +men, who, though most of them had few convictions as to slavery, did not +propose to settle among slaves. The wilder pro-slavery men did not heed. +When Shannon ran away and before Geary came, they planned to strike +their blow at the free state forces. An army of nearly three thousand +was collected; one wing sacked Osawatomie and the main body was to +capture and destroy Lawrence. No sooner was this done than the force of +the United States army was to be called in to keep the conquered down. +The success of the plan at this juncture might have precipitated Civil +War in 1856 instead of 1861, and Geary hurried breathlessly to ward off +the mad blow. He succeeded, and by strenuous exertions he was able with +some truth to report in Washington before election time: “Peace now +reigns in Kansas.” + +The news, though it helped to elect Buchanan, was received but coldly in +Washington, for the Southerners knew how high a price Geary had paid. So +evidently was the governor out of favor that before the spring of 1857, +the third governor fled in mad haste from his post because of the enmity +of his own supporters. It was clear to Washington that Geary’s +recognition of the free state cause, with the heavy immigration, had +already destroyed the possibility of making Kansas a slave state. There +were still, however, certain possibilities for _finesse_ and political +maneuvering. Slaves were already in Kansas and the Dred Scott Decision +on March 6, 1857, legalized them there. Moreover, southeast Kansas, +thanks to one of the most brutal raids in its history, in the fall of +1856, was still strongly pro-slavery. The constitutional convention was +also in that party’s hands. By gracefully yielding the legislature +therefore to the patent free state majority, it seemed possible that +political manipulation might legalize the slaves already in the state. +Once this was conceded, there was still a chance to make Kansas a slave +state. The pro-slavery men, however, trained in the upheaval of 1856, +were poor material to follow and support the astute Governor Walker. +They itched for the law of the club, and made but bungling work of the +Lecompton constitution. Then too the more determined spirits in the +Territory, together with many naturally lawless elements, saw the +pro-slavery danger in southeast Kansas, and proceeded to wage guerrilla +warfare against the squatters on claims whence free state men had been +driven. It was a cruel relentless battle on both sides with murder and +rapine—the last expiring flame of the four years’ war dying down to +sullen peace in the fall of 1858, after the English bill with its bribe +of land for slaves had been killed in the spring. + +So Kansas was free. In vain did the sullen Senate in Washington fume and +threaten and keep the young state knocking for admission; the game had +been played and lost and Kansas was free. Free because the slave barons +played for an imperial stake in defiance of modern humanity and economic +development. Free because strong men had suffered and fought not against +slavery but against slaves in Kansas. Above all, free because one man +hated slavery and on a terrible night rode down with his sons among the +shadows of the Swamp of the Swan—that long, low-winding and sombre +stream “fringed everywhere with woods” and dark with bloody memory. +Forty-eight hours they lingered there, and then of a pale May morning +rode up to the world again. Behind them lay five twisted, red and +mangled corpses. Behind them rose the stifled wailing of widows and +little children. Behind them the fearful driver gazed and shuddered. But +before them rode a man, tall, dark, grim-faced and awful. His hands were +red and his name was John Brown. Such was the cost of freedom. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + THE SWAMP OF THE SWAN + + “And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the + sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his + hands hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.” + + +“Did you go out under the auspices of the Emigrant Aid Society?” asked +the Inquisition of John Brown in after years. He answered grimly: “No, +sir, I went out under the auspices of John Brown.” In broad outline the +story of his coming to Kansas has been told in the last chapter, but the +picture needs now to be filled in with the details of his personal +fortunes, and a more careful study of the development of his personal +character in this critical period of his career. The place of his coming +was storied and romantic. French-fathered Indians wheeling onward in +their swift canoes saw stately birds in the reedy lowlands of eastern +Kansas and called the marsh the Swamp of the Swan. Up from the dark +sluggish rivers rose rolling goodly lands over which John Brown’s +brother Edward had passed to California in 1849, and on which his +brother-in-law had settled as early as 1854. Here, too, naturally had +followed the five pioneering sons in April, 1855. They came hating +slavery and yet peacefully, unarmed, and in all good faith, with cattle +and horses and trees and vines to settle in a free land. In Missouri +they met hatred and inhospitality, and in Kansas sickness and freezing +weather. Nevertheless they were stout-hearted and hopeful, and went +bravely to work until the political storm broke, when they wrote home +hastily for arms to defend themselves. John Brown, as we have seen, +brought the arms himself, taking his son Oliver and his son-in-law Henry +with him. “We reached the place where the boys are located one week ago, +late at night,” he wrote October 13, 1855. “We had between us all, sixty +cents in cash when we arrived. We found our folks in a most +uncomfortable situation, with no houses to shelter one of them, no hay +or corn fodder of any account secured, shivering over their little +fires, all exposed to the dreadful cutting winds, morning, evening and +stormy days.” All went to work to build cabins and secure fodder, +keeping at the same time a careful eye on the political developments. On +free state election day, October 9th, “hearing that there was a prospect +of difficulty, we all turned out most thoroughly armed,” but “no enemy +appeared” and Brown was encouraged to think that the prospect of Kansas +becoming free “is brightening every day.” + +By November the settlers, he wrote, “have made but little progress, but +we have made a little. We have got a shanty three logs high, chinked and +mudded, and roofed with our tent, and a chimney so far advanced that we +can keep a fire in it for Jason. John has his shanty a little better +fixed than it was, but miserable enough now; and we have got their +little crop of beans secured, which together with johnny cake, mush and +milk, pumpkins and squashes, constitute our fare.” And he adds, “After +all God’s tender mercies are not taken from us.... I feel more and more +confident that slavery will soon die out here—and to God be the praise!” + +On November 23d he writes: “We have got both families so sheltered that +they need not suffer hereafter; have got part of the hay (which had been +in cocks) secured; made some progress in preparation to build a house +for John and Owen; and Salmon has caught a prairie wolf in a steel trap. +We continue to have a good deal of stormy weather—rains with severe +winds, and forming into ice as they fall, together with cold nights that +freeze the ground considerably. Still God has not forsaken us!”[93] + +It was thus that John Brown came to Kansas and stood ready to fight for +freedom. No sooner had he stepped on Kansas soil, however, than it was +plain to him and to others that the cause for which he was fighting was +far different from that for which most of the settlers were willing to +risk life and property. The difference came out at the first meeting of +settlers in the little Osawatomie township. Redpath says: “The +politicians of the neighborhood were carefully pruning resolutions so as +to suit every variety of anti-slavery extensionists; and more especially +that class of persons whose opposition to slavery was founded on +expediency—the selfishness of race, and caste, and interest: men who +were desirous that Kansas should be consecrated to free white labor +only, not to freedom for all and above all.” The resolution which +aroused the old man’s anger declared that Kansas should be a free white +state, thereby favoring the exclusion of Negroes and mulattoes, whether +slave or free. He rose to speak, and soon alarmed and disgusted the +politicians by asserting the manhood of the Negro race, and expressing +his earnest, anti-slavery convictions with a force and vehemence little +likely to suit the hybrids.[94] + +Nothing daunted by the cold reception of his radical ideas here, Brown +strove to extend them when a larger opportunity came at the first +beleaguering of Lawrence. It was in December, 1855, when rumors of the +surrounding of Lawrence by the governor and his pro-slavery followers +came to the Browns. The old man wrote home: “These reports appeared to +be well authenticated, but we could get no further accounts of the +matters; and I left this for the place where the boys are settled, at +evening, intending to go to Lawrence to learn the facts the next day. +John was, however, started on horseback; but before he had gone many +rods, word came that our help was immediately wanted. On getting this +last news, it was at once agreed to break up at John’s camp, and take +Wealthy and Johnnie to Jason’s camp (some two miles off), and that all +the men but Henry, Jason, and Oliver should at once set off for Lawrence +under arms; those three being wholly unfit for duty. We then set about +providing a little corn bread and meat, blankets, and cooking utensils, +running bullets and loading all our guns, pistols, etc. The five set off +in the afternoon, and after a short rest in the night (which was quite +dark), continued our march until after daylight; next morning, when we +got our breakfast, started again, and reached Lawrence in the forenoon, +all of us more or less lamed by our tramp.”[95] + +The band approached the town at sunset, looming strangely on the +horizon: an old horse, a homely wagon and seven stalwart men armed with +pikes, swords, pistols and guns. John Brown was immediately put in +command of a company. He found that already “negotiations had commenced +between Governor Shannon (having a force of some fifteen or sixteen +hundred men) and the principal leaders of the free state men, they +having a force of some five hundred men at that time. These were busy, +night and day, fortifying the town with embankments and circular +earthworks, up to the time of the treaty with the governor, as an attack +was constantly looked for, notwithstanding the negotiations then +pending. This state of things continued from Friday until Sunday +evening,”[96] when Governor Shannon was induced to enter the town and +after some parley a treaty was announced. Immediately Brown’s suspicions +were aroused. He surmised that the governor’s party had not thus lightly +given up the fight for slavery, and he feared that the leading free +state politicians had sacrificed the principles for which he was +fighting for the sake of the temporary truce. Already the drunken +governor was making conciliatory remarks to the crowd in front of the +free state hotel, the free state Governor Robinson replying, when John +Brown, mounting a piece of timber at the corner of the house, began a +fiery speech. “He said that the people of Missouri had come to Kansas to +destroy Lawrence; that they had beleaguered the town for two weeks, +threatening its destruction; that they came for blood; that he believed, +‘without the shedding of blood there is no remission’; and asked for +volunteers to go under his command, and attack the pro-slavery camp +stationed near Franklin, some four miles from Lawrence.... He demanded +to know what the terms were. If he understood Governor Shannon’s speech, +something had been conceded, and he conveyed the idea that the +territorial laws were to be observed. Those laws he denounced and spit +upon, and would never obey—no! The crowd was fired by his earnestness +and a great echoing shout arose: ‘No! No! Down with the bogus laws. Lead +us out to fight first!’ For a moment matters looked serious to the free +state leaders who had so ingeniously engineered the compromise, and they +hastened to assure Brown that he was mistaken; that there had been no +surrendering of principles on their side.”[97] The real terms of the +treaty were kept secret, but Brown with his usual loyalty accepted their +word as true and wrote exultingly home: “So ended this last Kansas +invasion,—the Missourians returning with flying colors, after incurring +heavy expenses, suffering great exposure, hardships, and privations, not +having fought any battles, burned or destroyed any infant towns or +Abolition presses; leaving the free state men organized and armed, and +in full possession of the Territory; not having fulfilled any of all +their dreadful threatenings, except to murder one unarmed man, and to +commit some robberies and waste of property upon the defenseless +families, unfortunately within their power. We learn by their papers +that they boast of a great victory over the Abolitionists; and well they +may. Free state men have only hereafter to retain the footing they have +gained, and Kansas is free.”[98] + +The Wakarusa “treaty,” however, was but a winter’s truce as John Brown +soon saw; his distrust of the compromisers and politicians grew, and he +tried to get his own channels of news from the seat of government at +Washington. “We are very anxious to know what Congress is doing. We hear +that Frank Pierce means to crush the men of Kansas. I do not know how +well he may succeed, but I think he may find his hands full before it is +all over.”[99] And Joshua R. Giddings assures him that the President +“never will dare to employ the troops of the United States to shoot the +citizens of Kansas.”[100] Yet the President did dare. Not only were +regular troops put into the hands of the Kansas slave power, but armed +bands from the South appeared, and one in particular from Georgia +encamped on the Swamp of the Swan near the Brown settlement. John +Brown’s procedure was characteristic. With his surveying instruments in +hand one May morning, he sauntered into their camp. He was immediately +taken for a government surveyor and consequently “sound on the goose,” +for “every governor sent here, every secretary, every judge, every +Indian agent, every land surveyor, every clerk in every office, believed +in making Kansas a slave state. All the money sent here by the national +government was disbursed by pro-slavery officials to pro-slavery +menials.”[101] Brown took with him, his son says, “four of my +brothers,—Owen, Frederick, Salmon, and Oliver,—as chain carriers, axman, +and marker, and found a section line which, on following, led through +the camp of these men. The Georgians indulged in the utmost freedom of +expression. One of them, who appeared to be the leader of the company, +said: ‘We’ve come here to stay. We won’t make no war on them as minds +their own business; but all the Abolitionists, such as them damned +Browns over there, we’re going to whip, drive out, or kill,—any way to +get shut of them, by God!’”[102] + +Many of the intended victims were openly mentioned, and every word said +was calmly written down in John Brown’s surveyor’s book. Soon this +information was corroborated by the Southern camp being moved nearer the +Brown settlement. Secret marauding and stealing began. Brown warned the +intended victims, and, at a night meeting, it seems to have been decided +that at the first sign of a move on the part of the “border ruffians” +the ringleaders should be seized and lynched. Not only was this the +opinion at Osawatomie, but secret councils throughout the state were +beginning to lose faith in conciliation and compromise, and to listen to +more radical advice. From Lawrence, too, there came encouragement to +John Brown to take the lead in this darker forward movement. There was +little open talk or explicit declaration, but it was generally +understood that the next aggressive move in the Swamp of the Swan meant +retaliation and that John Brown would strike the blow. + +While, however, the free state leaders were willing to let this radical +hater of slavery thus defend the frontiers of their cause, they +themselves deemed it wise still to stick to the policy of passive +resistance, and their wisdom cost them dear. On the 21st of May the +pro-slavery forces swooped on Lawrence, and burned and sacked it, while +its citizens stood trembling by and raised no hand in its defense. John +Brown knew nothing of this until it was too late to help. +Notwithstanding, he hurried to the scene, and sat down by the smoldering +ashes in grim anger. He was “indignant that there had been no +resistance; that Lawrence was not defended; and denounced the members of +the committee and leading free state men as cowards, or worse.” It +seemed to Brown nothing less than a crime for men thus to lie down and +be kicked by ruffians. “Caution, caution, sir!” he burst out at a +discreet old gentleman, “I am eternally tired of hearing that word +caution—it is nothing but the word of cowardice.”[103] Yet there seemed +nothing to do then, and he was about to break camp when a boy came up +riding swiftly. The ruffians at Dutch Henry’s crossing, he said, had +been warning the defenseless women in the Brown settlement that the free +state families must leave by Saturday or Sunday, else they would be +driven out. The Brown women, hastily gathering up their children and +valuables, had fled by ox-cart to the house of a kinsman farther away. +Two houses and a store in the German settlement had been burned. + +John Brown arose. “I will attend to those fellows,” he said grimly. +“Something must be done to show these barbarians that we too have +rights!”[104] He called four of his sons, Watson, Frederick, Owen and +Oliver, his son-in-law, Henry Thompson, and a German, whose home lay in +ashes. A neighbor with wagon and horses offered to carry the band, and +the cutlasses were carefully sharpened. An uneasy feeling crept through +the onlookers. They knew that John Brown was going to strike a blow for +freedom in Kansas, but they did not understand just what that blow would +be. There were hesitation and whispering, and one at least ventured a +mild remonstrance, but Brown shook him off in disgust. As the wagon +moved off, a cheer arose from the company left behind. + +It was two o’clock on Friday afternoon that the eight men started toward +the Swamp of the Swan. Arriving in the neighborhood they spent Saturday +in quietly and secretly investigating the situation, and in gathering +evidence of the intentions of the “border ruffians.” Although the exact +facts have never all been told, it seems clear that a meeting of the +intended victims was secured at which John Brown himself presided. +Probably it was then decided that the seven ringleaders of the projected +deviltry must be killed, and John Brown was appointed to see that the +deed was done. The men condemned were among the worst of their kind. One +was a liquor dealer in whose disreputable dive the United States court +was held. His brother, a giant of six feet four, was a thief and a bully +whose pastime was insulting free state women. The third was the +postmaster, who managed to avoid direct complicity in the crime, but +shared the spoils. Next came the probate judge, who harried the free +state men with warrants of all sorts; and lastly, three miserable +drunken tools, formerly slave-chasers who had come to Kansas with their +bloodhounds and were ready for any kind of evil. + +These were not the leaders of the pro-slavery party in Kansas, but +rather the dogs which were to worry the free state men to death. The +ringleaders sat securely hedged back of United States bayonets and the +Missouri militia, but their tools depended for their safety on +terrorizing the localities wherein they lived. Here then, said John +Brown, was the spot to strike and, once sentence of death had been +formally passed, the band hurried to its task. The saloon lay on the +creek where the great highway from Leavenworth in the northeastern part +of the state crossed on its way to Fort Scott. Around it within an +hour’s walk were the cabins of the others. In all cases the proceeding +was similar: a silent approach and a quick sharp knocking in the night. +The inmates leapt startled from their beds, for midnight rappings were +ominous there. They hesitated to open the door, but the demand was +peremptory and the door was frail. Then the dark room was filled with +shadowy figures, the man dressed quickly, the woman whimpered and +listened, but the footsteps died away and all was still. Three homes +were visited thus; two of the number could not be found, but five men +went out into the darkness with their captors and never returned. They +were led quickly into the woods and surrounded. John Brown raised his +hand and at the signal the victims were hacked to death with +broadswords. + +The deed inflamed Kansas. The timid rushed to disavow the deed. The free +state people were silent and the pro-slavery party was roused to fury. +Even the silent co-conspirators of Pottawatomie rushed to pledge +themselves “individually and collectively, to prevent a recurrence of a +similar tragedy, and to ferret out and hand over to the criminal +authorities the perpetrators for punishment.” But they took no steps to +lay hands on John Brown and as he said, their cowardice did not protect +them. Four times in four years the wrath of the avengers flamed in the +Swamp of the Swan, and swept the land in fire and blood, and the last +red breath of the expiring war in Kansas glowed in these dark ravines. + +To this day men differ as to the effect of John Brown’s blow. Some say +it freed Kansas, while others say it plunged the land back into civil +war. Truth lies in both statements. The blow freed Kansas by plunging it +into civil war, and compelling men to fight for freedom which they had +vainly hoped to gain by political diplomacy. At first it was hard to see +this, and even those sons of John Brown whom he had not taken with him, +recoiled at the news. One son says: “On the afternoon of Monday, May +26th, a man came to us at Liberty Hill, ... his horse reeking with +sweat, and said, ‘five men have been killed on the Pottawatomie, +horribly cut and mangled; and they say old John Brown did it.’ Hearing +this, I was afraid it was true, and it was the most terrible shock that +ever happened to my feelings in my life; but brother John took a +different view. The next day as we were on the east side of Middle +Creek, I asked father, ‘Did you have any hand in the killing?’ He said, +‘I did not, but I stood by and saw it.’ I did not ask further for fear I +should hear something I did not wish to hear. Frederick said, ‘I could +not feel as if it was right;’ but another of the party said it was +justifiable as a means of self-defense and the defense of others. What I +said against it seemed to hurt father very much; but all he said was, +‘God is my judge,—we were justified under the circumstances.’”[105] + +This was as much as John Brown usually said of the matter, although in +later years a friend relates: “I finally said, ‘Captain Brown, I want to +ask you one question, and you can answer it or not as you please, and I +shall not be offended.’ He stopped his pacing, looked me square in the +face, and said, ‘What is it?’ Said I, ‘Captain Brown, did you kill those +five men on the Pottawatomie, or did you not?’ He replied, ‘I did not; +but I do not pretend to say that they were not killed by my order; and +in doing so I believe I was doing God’s service.’ My wife spoke and +said, ‘Then, captain, you think that God uses you as an instrument in +His hands to kill men?’ Brown replied, ‘I think He has used me as an +instrument to kill men; and if I live, I think He will use me as an +instrument to kill a good many more!’”[106] + +No sooner was the deed known than John Brown became a hunted outlaw. Two +of his sons who had not been with him at the murders were arrested on +Lecompte’s “constructive treason” warrants because they had affiliated +with the free state movement. Horror at his father’s deed and the +cruelty of his captors drove the eldest son temporarily insane, while +the life of the other was saved only by a scrap of paper which said, “I +am aware that you hold my two sons, John and Jason, prisoners—John +Brown.”[107] The old man never wavered. He wrote home: “Jason started to +go and place himself under the protection of the government troops; but +on his way he was taken prisoner by the bogus men, and is yet a +prisoner, I suppose. John tried to hide for several days; but from +feelings of the ungrateful conduct of those who ought to have stood by +him, excessive fatigue, anxiety, and constant loss of sleep, he became +quite insane, and in that situation gave up, or, as we are told, was +betrayed at Osawatomie into the hands of the bogus men. We do not know +all the truth about this affair. He has since, we are told, been kept in +irons, and brought to a trial before bogus court, the result of which we +have not yet learned. We have great anxiety both for him and Jason, and +numerous other prisoners with the enemy (who have all the while had the +government troops to sustain them). We can only commend them to +God.”[108] + +Withdrawing to the forests, John Brown now began to organize his +followers. Thirty-five of them adopted this covenant in the summer of +1856: + +“We whose names are found on these and the next following pages, do +hereby enlist ourselves to serve in the free state cause under John +Brown as commander, during the full period of time affixed to our names +respectively and we severally pledge our word and our sacred honor to +said commander, and to each other, that during the time for which we +have enlisted, we will faithfully and punctually perform our duty (in +such capacity or place as may be assigned to us by a majority of all the +votes of those associated with us, or of the companies to which we may +belong as the case may be) as a regular volunteer force for the +maintenance of the rights and liberties of the free state citizens of +Kansas: and we further agree; that as individuals we will conform to the +by-laws of this organization and that we will insist on their regular +and punctual enforcement as a first and a last duty: and, in short, that +we will observe and maintain a strict and thorough military discipline +at all times until our term of service expires.”[109] + +A score of by-laws were added, providing for electing officers, trial by +jury, disposal of captured property, etc. Then follow these articles: + +“Art. XIV. All uncivil, ungentlemanly, profane, vulgar talk or +conversation shall be discountenanced. + +“Art. XV. All acts of petty theft, needless waste of property of the +members or of citizens are hereby declared disorderly; together with all +uncivil, or unkind treatment of citizens or of prisoners. + +“Art. XX. No person after having first surrendered himself a prisoner +shall be put to death, or subjected to corporeal punishment, without +first having had the benefit of an impartial trial. + +“Art. XXI. The ordinary use or introduction into the camp of any +intoxicating liquor, as a beverage, is hereby declared disorderly.”[110] + +Nor was this ideal of discipline merely on paper. The reporter of the +New York _Tribune_ stumbled on the camp which the authorities did not +dare to find: + +“I shall not soon forget the scene that here opened to my view. Near the +edge of the creek a dozen horses were tied, all ready saddled for a ride +for life, or a hunt after Southern invaders. A dozen rifles and sabres +were stacked against the trees. In an open space, amid the shady and +lofty woods, there was a great blazing fire with a pot on it; a woman, +bareheaded, with an honest sunburnt face, was picking blackberries from +the bushes; three or four armed men were lying on red and blue blankets +on the grass; and two fine-looking youths were standing, leaning on +their arms, on guard near by. One of them was the youngest son of old +Brown, and the other was ‘Charley,’ the brave Hungarian, who was +subsequently murdered at Osawatomie. Old Brown himself stood near the +fire, with his shirt sleeves rolled up, and a large piece of pork in his +hand. He was cooking a pig. He was poorly clad, and his toes protruded +from his boots. The old man received me with great cordiality, and the +little band gathered about me. But it was a moment only; for the captain +ordered them to renew their work. He respectfully but firmly forbade +conversation on the Pottawatomie affair; and said that, if I desired any +information from the company in relation to their conduct or intentions, +he, as their captain, would answer for them whatever it was proper to +communicate. + +“In this camp no manner of profane language was permitted; no man of +immoral character was allowed to stay, excepting as a prisoner of war. +He made prayers in which all the company united, every morning and +evening; and no food was ever tasted by his men until the divine +blessing had been asked on it. After every meal, thanks were returned to +the Bountiful Giver. Often, I was told, the old man would retire to the +densest solitudes, to wrestle with his God in secret prayer. One of his +company subsequently informed me that, after these retirings, he would +say that the Lord had directed him in visions what to do; that for +himself he did not love warfare, but peace,—only acting in obedience to +the will of the Lord, and fighting God’s battles for His children’s +sake. + +“It was at this time that the old man said to me: ‘I would rather have +the smallpox, yellow fever, and cholera all together in my camp, than a +man without principles. It’s a mistake, sir,’ he continued, ‘that our +people make, when they think that bullies are the best fighters, or that +they are the men fit to oppose those Southerners. Give me men of good +principles; God-fearing men; men who respect themselves; and, with a +dozen of them, I will oppose any hundred such men as these Buford +ruffians.’ + +“I remained in the camp about an hour. Never before had I met such a +band of men. They were not earnest but earnestness incarnate.”[111] + +A member of the band says: + +“We stayed here up to the morning of Sunday, the first of June, and +during these few days I fully succeeded in understanding the exalted +character of my old friend. He exhibited at all times the most +affectionate care for each of us. He also attended to cooking. We had +two meals daily, consisting of bread made of flour, baked in skillets; +this was washed down with creek water, mixed with a little ginger and a +spoon of molasses to each pint. Nevertheless we kept in excellent +spirits; we considered ourselves as one family, allied to one another by +the consciousness that it was our duty to undergo all these privations +to further the good cause; had determined to share any danger with one +another, that victory or death might find us together. We were united as +a band of brothers by the love and affection toward the man who with +tender words and wise counsel, in the depth of the wilderness of Ottawa +Creek, prepared a handful of young men for the work of laying the +foundation of a free commonwealth. His words have ever remained firmly +engraved in my mind. Many and various were the instructions he gave +during the days of our compulsory leisure in this camp. He expressed +himself to us that we should never allow ourselves to be tempted by any +consideration to acknowledge laws and institutions to exist as of right, +if our conscience and reason condemned them. He admonished us not to +care whether a majority, no matter how large, opposed our principles and +opinions. The largest majorities were sometimes only organized mobs, +whose howlings never changed black into white, or night into day. A +minority conscious of its rights, based on moral principles, would, +under a republican government, sooner or later become the majority. +Regarding the curse and crimes of the institution of slavery, he +declared that the outrages committed in Kansas to further its extension +had directed the attention of all intelligent citizens of the United +States and of the world to the necessity of its abolishment, as a +stumbling-block in the path of nineteenth century civilization; that +while it was true that the pro-slavery people and their aiders and +abettors had the upper hand at present, and the free state organization +dwindled to a handful hid in the brush, nevertheless, we ought to be of +good cheer, and start the ball to rolling at the first opportunity, no +matter whether its starting motion would even crush us to death. We were +under a protection of a wise Providence, which might use our feeble +efforts. + +“Occasionally Captain Brown also gave us directions for our conduct +during a fight, for attack and retreat. Time and again he entreated us +never to follow the example of the border ruffians, who took a delight +in destruction; never to burn houses or fences, so often done by the +enemy. Free state people could use them to advantage. Repeatedly he +admonished us not to take human life except when absolutely necessary. +Plunder taken from the enemy should be common property, to be used for +continuance of the struggle; horses to go to recruits, cattle and +provision to poor free state people.”[112] + +To this band of men the surrounding country, which was already feeling +the first retaliatory blows of the pro-slavery party, now looked for +aid, and Brown stood ever ready. His men, however, could form but the +nucleus of a spirited defense and for a time the settlers hesitated to +join the band until Brown threatened to withdraw. “Why did you send +Carpenter after us? I am not willing to sacrifice my men without having +some hope of accomplishing something,”[113] he demanded of a hesitating +emissary, and turning to his men he said: “If the cowardice and +indifference of the free state people compel us to leave Kansas, what do +you say, men, if we start south, for instance to Louisiana, and get up a +Negro insurrection, and thereby compel them to let go their grip on +Kansas, and so bring relief to our friends here?” Frederick Brown jumped +up and said: “I am ready.”[114] + +The petty outrages of the Georgia guerrillas now so increased in +boldness and in frequency that a company was hastily formed which called +Brown’s men to the defense of a neighboring village. “We will be with +you,” cried Brown, and thus he told the story of what followed to the +folks at home: + +“The cowardly mean conduct of Osawatomie and vicinity did not save them; +for the ruffians came on them, made numerous prisoners, fired their +buildings, and robbed them. After this a picked party of the bogus men +went to Brown’s Station, burned John’s and Jason’s houses, and their +contents to ashes; in which burning we have all suffered more or less. +Orson and boy have been prisoners, but we soon set them at liberty. They +are well, and have not been seriously injured. Owen and I have just come +here for the first time to look at the ruins. All looks desolate and +forsaken,—the grass and weeds fast covering up the signs that these +places were lately the abodes of quiet families. After burning the +houses, this self-same party of picked men, some forty in number, set +out as they supposed, and as was the fact, on the track of my little +company, boasting with awful profanity, that they would have our scalps. +They, however, passed the place where we hid, and robbed a little town +some four or five miles beyond our camp in the timber. I had omitted to +say that some murders had been committed at the time Lawrence was +sacked. + +“On learning that this party was in pursuit of us, my little company, +now increased to ten in all, started after them in company of a Captain +Shore, with eighteen men, he included (June 1st). We were all mounted as +we traveled. We did not meet them on that day, but took five prisoners, +four of whom were of their scouts, and well armed. We were out all +night, but could find nothing of them until about six o’clock next +morning, when we prepared to attack them at once, on foot, leaving +Frederick and one of Captain Shore’s men to guard the horses. As I was +much older than Captain Shore, the principal direction of the fight +devolved on me. We got to within about a mile of their camp before being +discovered by their scouts, and then moved at a brisk pace, Captain +Shore and men forming our left, and my company the right. When within +about sixty rods of the enemy, Captain Shore’s men halted by mistake in +a very exposed situation, and continued the fire, both his men and the +enemy being armed with Sharps rifles. My company had no long shooters. +We (my company) did not fire a gun until we gained the rear of a bank, +about fifteen or twenty rods to the right of the enemy, where we +commenced, and soon compelled them to hide in a ravine. Captain Shore, +after getting one man wounded, and exhausting his ammunition, came with +part of his men to the right of my position, much discouraged. The +balance of his men, including the one wounded, had left the ground. Five +of Captain Shore’s men came boldly down and joined my company, and all +but one man, wounded, helped to maintain the fight until it was over. I +was obliged to give my consent that he should go after more help, when +all his men left but eight, four of whom I persuaded to remain in a +secure position, and there busied them in the horses and mules of the +enemy, which served for a show of fight. After the firing had continued +for some two to three hours, Captain Pate with twenty-three men, two +badly wounded, laid down their arms to nine men, myself included,—four +of Captain Shore’s men and four of my own. One of my men (Henry +Thompson) was badly wounded, and after continuing his fire for an hour +longer, was obliged to quit the ground. Three others of my company (but +not of my family) had gone off. Salmon was dreadfully wounded by +accident, soon after the fight; but both he and Henry are fast +recovering. + +“A day or two after the fight, Colonel Sumner of the United States army +came suddenly upon us, while fortifying our camp and guarding our +prisoners (which, by the way, it had been agreed mutually should be +exchanged for as many free state men, John and Jason included), and +compelled us to let go our prisoners without being exchanged, and to +give up their horses and arms. They did not go more than two or three +miles before they began to rob and injure free state people. We consider +this in good keeping with the cruel and unjust course of the +administration and its tools throughout this whole Kansas difficulty. +Colonel Sumner also compelled us to disband; and we, being only a +handful, were obliged to submit. + +“Since then we have, like David of old, had our dwellings with the +serpents of the rocks and wild beasts of the wilderness, being obliged +to hide away from our enemies. We are not disheartened, though nearly +destitute of food, clothing, and money. God, who has not given us over +to the will of our enemies, but has moreover delivered them into our +hand, will, we humbly trust, still keep and deliver us. We feel assured +that He who sees not as men see, does not lay the guilt of innocent +blood to our charge.”[115] + +It was John Brown’s hope that the courage engendered by the striking +success of the fight at Black Jack, would spread the spirit of +resistance to the whole free state party. Lawrence, then the capital, +was still surrounded by a chain of forts held by bands of pro-slavery +marauders: one at Franklin just east of the city; another just south and +known as Fort Saunders; and a third between Lawrence and the pro-slavery +capital, Lecompton, known as Fort Titus. When it was rumored that the +United States troops would disperse the free state legislature about to +meet at Topeka, John Brown hurried thither, hoping that resistance would +begin here and sweep the Territory. One of the free state leaders met +him at Lawrence and journeyed with him toward Topeka. Brown and he took +the main road as far as Big Springs, he says, and continues: + +“There we left the road, going in a southwesterly direction for a mile, +when we halted on a hill, and the horses were stripped of their saddles, +and picketed out to graze. The grass was wet with dew. The men ate of +what provision they had with them, and I received a portion from the +captain,—dry beef (which was not so bad), and bread made from corn +bruised between stones, then rolled in balls and cooked in the ashes of +the camp-fire. Captain Brown observed that I nibbled it very gingerly, +and said, ‘I am afraid you will be hardly able to eat a soldier’s harsh +fare.’ + +“We next placed our two saddles together, so that our heads lay only a +few feet apart. Brown spread his blanket on the wet grass, and when we +lay together upon it, mine was spread over us. It was past eleven +o’clock, and we lay there until two in the morning, but we slept none. +He seemed to be as little disposed to sleep as I was, and we talked; or +rather he did, for I said little. I found that he was a thorough +astronomer; he pointed out the different constellations and their +movements. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘it is midnight,’ as he pointed to the +finger-marks of his great clock in the sky. The whispering of the wind +on the prairie was full of voices to him, and the stars as they shone in +the firmament of God seemed to inspire him. ‘How admirable is the +symmetry of the heaven; how grand and beautiful! Everything moves in +sublime harmony in the government of God. Not so with us poor creatures. +If one star is more brilliant than others, it is continually shooting in +some erratic way into space.’ + +“He criticized both parties in Kansas. Of the pro-slavery men he said +that slavery besotted everything, and made men more brutal and +coarse—nor did the free state men escape his sharp censure. He said that +we had many noble and true men, but too many broken-down politicians +from the older states, who would rather pass resolutions than act, and +who criticized all who did real work. A professional politician, he went +on, you never could trust; for even if he had convictions, he was always +ready to sacrifice his principles for his advantage. One of the most +interesting things in his conversation that night, and one that marked +him as a theorist, was his treatment of our forms of social and +political life. He thought that society ought to be organized on a less +selfish basis; for while material interests gained something by the +deification of pure selfishness, men and women lost much by it. He said +that all great reforms, like the Christian religion, were based on +broad, generous, self-sacrificing principles. He condemned the sale of +land as a chattel, and thought that there was an indefinite number of +wrongs to right before society would be what it should be, but that in +our country slavery was the ‘sum of all villanies,’ and its abolition +the first essential work. If the American people did not take courage +and end it speedily, human freedom and republican liberty would soon be +empty names in these United States.” + +Early next morning the party pressed on until they came in sight of the +town. Brown would not enter but sent a messenger ahead, and the narrator +continues: + +“As he wrung my hand at parting, he urged that we should have the +legislature meet, resist all who should interfere with it, and fight, if +necessary, even the United States troops. He had told me the night +before of his visit to many of the fortifications in Europe, and +criticized them sharply, holding that modern warfare did away with them, +and that a well-armed brave soldier was the best fortification. He +criticized all the arms then in use, and showed me a fine +repeating-rifle which he said would carry eight hundred yards; but he +added, ‘The way to fight is to press to close quarters.’”[116] + +The Topeka journey was in vain. The legislature quietly dispersed at the +command of Colonel Sumner, and John Brown saw that his only hope of +stirring up effective resistance lay in Lane’s “army” of immigrants, +then approaching the northern boundaries of Kansas, with whom was his +son-in-law’s brother. Taking, therefore, his wounded son-in-law and +leaving his band, he pressed forward alone on a dangerous and wearisome +way of one hundred and fifty miles through the enemy’s country. Hinton +saw him as he rode into one of the camps and says: + +“‘Have you a man in your camp named William Thompson? You are from +Massachusetts, young man, I believe, and Mr. Thompson joined you at +Buffalo.’ These words were addressed to me by an elderly man, riding a +worn-looking, gaunt gray horse. It was on a late July day, and in its +hottest hours. I had been idly watching a wagon and one horse, toiling +slowly northward across the prairie, along the emigrant trail that had +been marked out by free state men under command of ‘Sam’ Walker and +Aaron D. Stevens, who was then known as ‘Colonel Whipple.’ John Brown, +whose name the young and ardent had begun to conjure with and swear by, +had been described to me. So, as I heard the question, I looked up and +met the full, strong gaze of a pair of luminous, questioning eyes. +Somehow I instinctively knew this was John Brown, and with that name I +replied, saying that Thompson was in our company. It was a long, +rugged-featured face I saw. A tall, sinewy figure, too (he had +dismounted), five feet eleven, I estimated, with square shoulders, +narrow flank, sinewy and deep-chested. A frame full of nervous power, +but not impressing one especially with muscular vigor. The impression +left by the pose and the figure was that of reserve, endurance, and +quiet strength. The questioning voice-tones were mellow, magnetic, and +grave. On the weather-worn face was a stubby, short, gray beard, +evidently of recent growth.... This figure,—unarmed, poorly clad, with +coarse linen trousers tucked into high, heavy cowhide boots, with heavy +spurs on their heels, a cotton shirt opened at the throat, a long torn +linen duster, and a bewrayed chip straw hat he held in his hand as he +waited for Thompson to reach us, made up the outward garb and appearance +of John Brown when I first met him. In ten minutes his mounted figure +disappeared over the north horizon.”[117] + +Pushing on northward, Brown found asylum for his wounded follower at +Tabor, Ia. Returning, he joined the main body of Lane’s men at Nebraska +City. Here again arose divided counsels. Radical leaders like Lane and +Brown were proscribed men, and United States troops stood on the borders +of Iowa to prevent the entrance of armed bodies. It was decided, +therefore, that Lane must not enter with the immigrants, and a letter to +this effect was brought to him by Samuel Walker, a free state leader. +Walker says: + +“After reading it he sat for a long time with his head bowed and the +tears running down his cheeks. Finally he looked up and said: ‘Walker, +if you say the people of Kansas don’t want me, it’s all right, and I’ll +blow my brains out. I can never go back to the states, and look the +people in the face, and tell them that as soon as I got these Kansas +friends of mine fairly into danger I had to abandon them. I can’t do it. +No matter what I say in my own defense, no one will believe it. I’ll +blow my brains out and end the thing right here.’ ‘General,’ said I, +‘the people of Kansas would rather have you than all the party at +Nebraska City. I have got fifteen good boys that are my own. If you will +put yourself under my orders I’ll take you through all right.’”[118] + +Thus Walker, Lane, and John Brown with a party of thirty stole into +Kansas and started anew the flame of civil war. + +Brown’s old company, organized early in 1858, was mounted and brought to +the front, and a systematic effort was made by Lane to free Lawrence +from its beleaguering forts. The first attack was directed against +Franklin on the night of August 12th, and as ex-Senator Atchison of +Missouri indignantly reported: “Three hundred Abolitionists, under this +same Brown, attacked the town of Franklin, robbed, plundered and burned, +took all the arms in town, broke open and destroyed the post-office, +captured the old cannon ‘Sacramento,’ which our gallant Missourians +captured in Mexico, and are now turning its mouth against our +friends.”[119] Two days later the little army turned southward to Fort +Saunders. Lane deployed his forces before it with John Brown’s cavalry +on his right wing. A charge was ordered and the garrison fled to the +woods, leaving an untasted dinner and large stores of goods. On August +16th, Fort Titus on the road to Lecompton was besieged with cannon, and +finally fired by a load of hay; Colonel Titus, a Georgian, was captured +and John Brown and other leaders wanted to hang him, for he was one of +the most brutal of the border-ruffian commanders. Sam Walker, however, +saved his neck. + +So furious had been this short campaign that the pro-slavery party sued +for a truce. Walker tells how “on the following day Governor Shannon and +Major Sedgwick came to Lawrence to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. +They held about thirty of our men and we forty of theirs. It was agreed +to ‘swap even,’ we surrendering all their men, including Titus; they to +hand over all our men and cannon they had captured at the sacking of +Lawrence. I insisted very strongly on this last point of the contract, +for when the gun was taken I swore I would have it back within six +months. I had the pleasure of escorting our prisoners to Sedgwick’s +camp, and receiving the cannon and the prisoners held by the enemy +there, in exchange.”[120] + +The whirlwind of guerrilla warfare now swept back to the dark ravines of +the Swamp of the Swan. After the murders of May came the first counter +attack of early June, culminating in the battle of Black Jack. This +check quelled the pro-slavery party a while and they began manning the +forts around Lawrence. On August 5th the free state men struck a +retaliating blow while John Brown was absent in Nebraska, although he +was credited with being present by the Missouri newspapers. Similar +skirmishes followed, and the advantage was now so completely with the +free state forces, that a final crushing blow was planned by the slave +party of Missouri. Manifestoes swept the state, and “No quarter” was the +motto. The Missourians responded with alacrity and a great mass crossed +the border divided into two wings. The lesser attacked Osawatomie and a +newspaper in Missouri said: + +“The attack on Osawatomie was by part of an army of eleven hundred and +fifty men, of whom Atchison was major-general. General Reid with two +hundred and fifty men and one piece of artillery, moved on to attack +Osawatomie; he arrived near that place and was attacked by two hundred +Abolitionists under the command of the notorious John Brown, who +commenced firing upon Reid from a thick chaparral four hundred yards +off. General Reid made a successful charge, killing thirty-one, and +taking seven prisoners. Among the killed was Frederick Brown. The +notorious John Brown was also killed, by a pro-slavery man named White, +in attempting to cross the Marais des Cygnes. The pro-slavery party have +five wounded. On the same day Captain Hays, with forty men, attacked the +house of the notorious Ottawa Jones, burned it, and killed two +Abolitionists. Jones fled to the cornfield, was shot by Hays, and is +believed to be dead.”[121] + +But John Brown was not dead and was ever after known as “Osawatomie” +Brown. He wrote home September 7th saying: + +“I have one moment to write to you, to say that I am yet alive, that +Jason and family were well yesterday; John and family, I hear, are well +(he being yet a prisoner). On the morning of the 30th of August an +attack was made by the ruffians on Osawatomie, numbering some four +hundred, by whose scouts our dear Frederick was shot dead without +warning,—he supposing them to be free state men, as near as we can +learn. One other man, a cousin of Mr. Adair, was murdered by them about +the same time that Frederick was killed, and one badly wounded at the +same time. At this time I was about three miles off, where I had some +fourteen or fifteen men over night that I had just enlisted to serve +under me as regulars. These I collected as well as I could, with some +twelve or fifteen more; and in about three-quarters of an hour I +attacked them from a wood with thick undergrowth. With this force we +threw them into confusion for about fifteen or twenty minutes, during +which time we killed or wounded from seventy to eighty of the enemy,—as +they say,—and then we escaped as well as we could, with one killed while +escaping, two or three wounded, and as many more missing. Four or five +free state men were butchered during the day in all. Jason fought +bravely by my side during the fight, and escaped with me, he being +unhurt. I was struck by a partly-spent grape, canister, or rifle shot, +which bruised me some, but did not injure me seriously. Hitherto the +Lord has helped me.”[122] + +A cheer went up from all free Kansas over this vigorous defense, and for +once there was unanimity among the leaders of the free state cause. +Robinson, the wariest of them, wrote: “I cheerfully accord to you my +heartfelt thanks for your prompt, efficient, and timely action against +the invaders of our rights and the murderers of our citizens. History +will give your name a proud place on her pages, and posterity will pay +homage to your heroism in the cause of God and humanity.”[123] + +Meantime the Missourians, after their hard-won victory, hastened back to +join the larger wing of the invaders, and so disconcerting was their +report, that when Lane made a feint against them, they started to +retreat. Governor Woodson’s call for the “territorial militia,” however, +heartened them and gave them legal standing. By September 15th they were +threatening Kansas again with nearly 3,000 men. The nation, however, was +now aroused and the new governor, Geary, with orders to make peace at +all costs, was hurrying forward. Among the first whom he summoned to +secret conference was John Brown. Brown came to Lawrence and was +leaving, satisfied with Geary’s promises, when the invading army of +Missourians suddenly appeared before the city. He immediately returned +to the town, where there were only 200 fighting men. He was asked to +take command of the defense but declined, preferring to act with his +usual independence. About five o’clock Monday, the 15th, he mounted a +dry-goods box on Main Street opposite the post-office and spoke to the +people: + +“Gentlemen,—it is said that there are twenty-five hundred Missourians +down at Franklin, and that they will be here in two hours. You can see +for yourselves the smoke they are making by setting fire to the houses +in that town. Now is probably the last opportunity you will have of +seeing a fight, so that you had better do your best. If they should come +up and attack us, don’t yell and make a great noise, but remain +perfectly silent and still. Wait until they get within twenty-five yards +of you; get a good object; be sure you see the hind sight of your +gun,—then fire. A great deal of powder and lead and very precious time +is wasted by shooting too high. You had better aim at their legs than at +their heads. In either case, be sure of the hind sights of your guns. It +is from this reason that I myself have so many times escaped; for if all +the bullets which have ever been aimed at me had hit me, I would have +been as full of holes as a riddle.”[124] + +It was a desperate situation. The free state forces were scattered, +leaving but a handful to face an army. But in that handful was John +Brown, and the invaders knew it, and advanced cautiously. Redpath who +was with Brown says: “About five o’clock in the afternoon, their +advance-guard, consisting of four hundred horsemen, crossed the +Wakarusa, and presented themselves in sight of the town, about two miles +off, when they halted, and arrayed themselves for battle, fearing, +perhaps, to come within too close range of Sharps rifle balls. Brown’s +movement now was a little on the offensive order; for he ordered out all +the Sharps riflemen from every part of the town,—in all not more than +forty or fifty,—marched them a half mile into the prairie, and arranged +them three paces apart, in a line parallel with that of the enemy; and +then they lay down upon their faces in the grass, awaiting the order to +fire.”[125] + +The invaders hesitated, halted and then retired. John Brown says: + +“I know of no possible reason why they did not attack and burn that +place except that about one hundred free state men volunteered to go out +on the open plain before the town and there give them the offer of a +fight, which they declined after getting some few scattering shots from +our men, and then retreated back toward Franklin. I saw that whole +thing. The government troops at this time were with Governor Geary at +Lecompton, a distance of twelve miles only from Lawrence, and, +notwithstanding several runners had been to advise him in good time of +the approach or of the setting out of the enemy, who had to march some +forty miles to reach Lawrence, he did not on that memorable occasion get +a single soldier on the ground until after the enemy had retreated back +to Franklin, and had been gone for about five hours. He did get the +troops there about midnight afterward; and that is the way he saved +Lawrence, as he boasts of doing in his message to the bogus legislature! + +“This was just the kind of protection the administration and its tools +have afforded the free state settlers of Kansas from the first. It has +cost the United States more than a half million, for a year past, to +harass poor free state settlers in Kansas, and to violate all law, and +all right, moral and constitutional, for the sole and only purpose of +forcing slavery upon that territory. I challenge this whole nation to +prove before God or mankind the contrary. Who paid this money to enslave +the settlers of Kansas and worry them out? I say nothing in this +estimate of the money wasted by Congress in the management of this +horrible, tyrannical, and damnable affair.”[126] + +The withdrawal, however, was but temporary and it seems hardly possible +that Lawrence could have escaped a second capture and burning had not +Geary thrown himself into the breach with great earnestness. As he +reported: “Fully appreciating the awful calamities that were impending, +I hastened with all possible dispatch to the encampment, assembled the +officers of the militia, and in the name of the President of the United +States demanded a suspension of hostilities. I had sent, in advance, the +secretary and adjutant-general of the Territory, with orders to carry +out the letter and spirit of my proclamations; but up to the time of my +arrival, these orders had been unheeded, and I discovered but little +disposition to obey them. I addressed the officers in command at +considerable length, setting forth the disastrous consequences of such a +demonstration as was contemplated, and the absolute necessity of more +lawful and conciliatory measures to restore peace, tranquillity, and +prosperity to the country. I read my instructions from the President, +and convinced them that my whole course of procedure was in accordance +therewith, and called upon them to aid me in my efforts, not only to +carry out these instructions, but to support and enforce the laws and +the Constitution of the United States.”[127] + +Without doubt Geary especially emphasized the fact that another sacking +of Lawrence would possibly defeat Buchanan and elect Frémont. What +chance would there be then for the pro-slavery party? + +The Missourians were thus induced to retreat, partly by Geary’s logic, +partly perhaps by John Brown’s resolute handling of his patently +inadequate but nevertheless efficient force. They marched back home, +leaving a trail of flame and ashes—the last and largest Missouri +invasion of Kansas, the culmination and failure of the pro-slavery +policy of force. + +Geary now began successfully to cope with the Kansas situation. His most +puzzling problem was John Brown and his ilk. His experience soon led him +to see the righteousness of the free state cause, but he had to insist +on law and order even under the “bogus” laws, promising equitable +treatment in the future. Immediately the free state party split into its +old divisions: the small body of irreconcilables like John Brown, who +were fighting slavery in Kansas and everywhere; and the far larger mass +of compromisers like Robinson, whose only object was to make a free +state of Kansas, and who were willing to concede all else. Under such +circumstances the best move was to get rid of John Brown. To have sought +to arrest him would have precipitated civil war again. Could he not be +induced quietly to leave on promise of immunity? Accordingly, Geary +issued a warrant against Brown, but gave it into the hands of the +friendly Samuel Walker whom he had previously asked to warn the old man. +Brown was not loath. His work in Kansas, so far as he could then see, +was done. The state was bound to be free and further than that few +Kansans cared. They had no enmity toward slavery as such which called +them to a crusade; far from regarding Negroes as brothers, they disliked +them and were willing to disfranchise them and crowd them from the +state. + +Among such folk there was no place for John Brown. His greater mission +called him. Kansas had been an interlude only, although for a time he +hoped to make it the chief battle-ground. Now he knew better and again +the Alleghanies beckoned. To be sure, he owed Kansas much. Here he had +passed through his baptism of fire, and had offered the sacrifice of +blood to his God. He was sterner stuff now, ready to go whithersoever +the Master called; and he heard Him calling. Not only had he learned a +method of warfare in Kansas—he had learned to know a band of simple +honest young fellows, hot with the wine of youth, hero-worshipers ready +to do and dare in a great cause. Thus the worst difficulties of the past +disappeared and the way lay clear. Only one thing oppressed him—he was +old and sick, a tired, toil-racked man. Could he live and do the Lord’s +will? + +His company of regulators was formally disbanded but left spiritually +intact, and he started north late in September, 1856, taking with him +his four sons, John, Jr., who had at last been released, Jason, Salmon, +and Oliver, and also, true to his cause, a fugitive slave whom he had +chanced upon. As he moved northward the United States troops, unaware of +Geary’s diplomacy, shadowed and all but captured him. Yet he passed +safely through their very midst with his old wagon and cow and the +hidden slave, displaying his surveyor’s instruments. Thus silently John +Brown disappeared from Kansas, and for a year nothing was heard of him +in his former haunts. Only his near friends knew that he had gone +eastward, and a few of them hinted at his great mission. Matters moved +swiftly in Kansas. There was more and more evident a free state +majority. But would the pro-slavery administration let it be counted? +The new governor was trying to save something for his masters, but the +irreconcilables of the Lane and John Brown type doubted it. + +“I bless God,” wrote Brown in April, “that He has not left the free +state men of Kansas to pollute themselves by the foul and loathsome +embrace.... I have been trembling all along lest they might ‘back down’ +from the high and holy ground they had taken. I say in view of the +wisdom, firmness and patience of my friends and fellow sufferers in the +cause of humanity, let the Lord’s name be eternally praised!”[128] +Notwithstanding this attitude of many of the free state party, they were +prevailed upon to vote in the state election of October, 1857. As a +concession, however, Lane was appointed to guard the ballot-boxes and, +hearing that John Brown was back again in Iowa, he sent for him in hot +haste. His messengers found the old man sick and disappointed among his +staunch Quaker friends at Tabor. Brown offered to come if supplied with +“three good teams, with well-covered wagons, and ten really ingenious, +industrious (not gassy) men, with about one hundred and fifty dollars in +cash.”[129] These demands were not met until too late, so that Brown +returned the money and did not appear in Kansas until the election was +over, and the free state forces had triumphed. This had now but passing +interest for him. He had other objects in Kansas and flitted noiselessly +about among the picked men who had promised their aid. Then he +disappeared again. Eight months passed away, when suddenly another +Kansas outrage startled the nation. It was the last vengeful echo of +that first night of murder in the Swamp of the Swan. In 1856 Linn and +Bourbon counties, some miles below the original Brown settlement, had +been cleared of free state settlers. In 1857 these settlers ventured to +return and found the pro-slavery forces centred at Fort Scott, waiting +for Congress to pass the Lecompton constitution. Thus in 1857 and 1858 +the expiring horror of Kansas guerrilla warfare centred in southeast +Kansas. The pro-slavery forces saw the state slipping from them, but +they determined by desperate blows to plant slavery so deeply in the +counties next to Missouri that no free state majority could possibly +uproot it. To accomplish this it was necessary again to drive off the +free state settlers. The settlers objected and led by James Montgomery, +there ensued a series of bloody reprisals culminating in May, 1858, two +years after the first May massacre. A Georgian with a remnant of +Buford’s band again rode down amid the calm silent beauty of the Swamp +of the Swan. They gathered eleven unarmed farmers from their fields and +homes and marched them to a gloomy ravine near Snyder’s blacksmith shop; +there the party killed four and badly wounded six others, leaving them +all for dead. + +The echoes of this last desperate blow had scarcely died before John +Brown appeared on the scene and attempted to buy and fortify the very +blacksmith shop where the murders were done. He writes to Eastern +friends: + +“I am here with about ten of my men, located on the same quarter-section +where the terrible murders of the 19th of May were committed, called the +Hamilton or trading-post murders. Deserted farms and dwellings lie in +all directions for some miles along the line, and the remaining +inhabitants watch every appearance of persons moving about, with anxious +jealousy and vigilance. Four of the persons wounded or attacked on that +occasion are staying with me. The blacksmith Snyder, who fought the +murderers, with his brother and son are of the number. Old Mr. +Hairgrove, who was terribly wounded at the same time, is another. The +blacksmith returned here with me and intends to bring back his family on +to his claim within two or three days. A constant fear of new trouble +seems to prevail on both sides of the line, and on both sides are +companies of armed men. Any little affair may open the quarrel afresh. +Two murders and cases of robbery are reported of late. I have also a man +with me who fled from his family and farm in Missouri but a day or two +since, his life being threatened on account of being accused of +informing Kansas men of the whereabouts of one of the murderers, who was +lately taken and brought to this side. I have concealed the fact of my +presence pretty much, lest it should tend to create excitement; but it +is getting leaked out, and will soon be known to all. As I am not here +to seek or secure revenge, I do not mean to be the first to reopen the +quarrel. How soon it may be raised against me, I cannot say; nor am I +over-anxious.”[130] + +He quickly had fifteen of his former companions in arms organized as +“Shubel Morgan’s Company” under the old regulations, and he eagerly +sought out and coöperated with Captain Montgomery. The vigil was long +and wearisome. “I had lain every night without shelter,” he writes, +“suffering from cold rains and heavy dews, together with the oppressive +heat of the days.”[131] Hinton met Brown at this time and found him not +only unwell but “somewhat more impatient and nervous in his manner than +I had ever before observed. Soon after my arrival, he remarked again in +conversation as to the various public men in the Territory. Captain +Montgomery’s name was introduced, and I inquired how Mr. Brown liked +him. The captain was quite enthusiastic in praise of him, avowing a most +perfect confidence in his integrity and purposes. ‘Captain Montgomery,’ +he said, ‘is the only soldier I have met among the prominent Kansas men. +He understands my system of warfare exactly. He is a natural chieftain, +and knows how to lead.’ + +“Of his own early treatment at the hands of ambitious ‘leaders,’ to +which I alluded in bitter terms, he said: + +“‘They acted up to their instincts, as politicians. They thought every +man wanted to lead, and therefore supposed I might be in the way of +their schemes. While they had this feeling, of course they opposed me. +Many men did not like the manner in which I conducted warfare, and they +too opposed me. Committees and councils could not control my movements; +therefore they did not like me. But politicians and leaders soon found +that I had different purposes and forgot their jealousy. They have all +been kind to me since.’ + +“Further conversation ensued relative to the free state struggle, in +which I, criticizing the management of it from an anti-slavery point of +view, pronounced it, ‘an abortion.’ Captain Brown looked at me with a +peculiar expression in the eyes, as if struck by the word and in a +musing manner remarked, ‘Abortion!—yes, that’s the word!’ + +“‘For twenty years,’ he said, ‘I have never made any business +arrangement which would prevent me at any time answering the call of the +Lord. I have kept my business in such a condition, that in two weeks I +could always wind up my affairs, and be ready to obey the call. I have +permitted nothing to be in the way of my duty, neither my wife, +children, nor worldly goods. Whenever the occasion offered, I was ready. +The hour is very near at hand, and all who are willing to act should be +ready.’”[132] + +During the fall John Brown coöperated with Montgomery in his guerrilla +warfare, and laid out miniature fortifications with his men. While he +himself was not personally present in Montgomery’s fights, he usually +helped plan them and sent his men along. Meantime winter set in and John +Brown knew that hostilities would cease. Once again he turned to his +long and exasperatingly interrupted life-work. Just after the famous +raid on Fort Scott, he had a chance not only to begin his greater work +but to strike a blow at slavery right in Kansas. Hinton says: “On the +Sunday following the expedition of Fort Scott, as I was scouting down +the line, I ran across a colored man, whose ostensible purpose was the +selling of brooms. He soon solved the problem as to the propriety of +making a confidant of me, and I found that his name was Jim Daniels; +that his wife, self, and babies belonged to an estate, and were to be +sold at administrator’s sale in the immediate future. His present +business was not selling of brooms particularly, but to find help to get +himself, family, and a few friends in the vicinity away from these +threatened conditions. Daniels was a fine-looking mulatto. I immediately +hunted up Brown, and it was soon arranged to go the following night and +give what assistance we could. I am sure that Brown, in his mind, was +just waiting for something to turn up; or, in his way of thinking, was +expecting or hoping that God would provide him a basis of action. When +this came, he hailed it as heaven-sent.”[133] + +John Brown himself told the story in the New York _Tribune_: + +“Not one year ago eleven quiet citizens of this neighborhood,—William +Robertson, William Colpetzer, Amos Hall, Austin Hall, John Campbell, Asa +Snyder, Thomas Stillwell, William Hairgrove, Asa Hairgrove, Patrick +Ross, and B. L. Reed,—were gathered up from their work and their homes +by an armed force under one Hamilton, and without trial or opportunity +to speak in their own defense were formed into line, and all but one +shot,—five killed and five wounded. One fell unharmed, pretending to be +dead. All were left for dead. The only crime charged against them was +that of being free state men. Now, I inquire what action has ever, since +the occurrence in May last, been taken by either the President of the +United States, the governor of Missouri, the governor of Kansas, or any +of their tools, or by any pro-slavery or administration man, to ferret +out and punish the perpetrators of this crime. + +“Now for the other parallel. On Sunday, December 19th, a Negro man +called Jim came over to Osage settlement, from Missouri, and stated that +he, together with his wife, two children, and another Negro man, was to +be sold within a day or two, and begged for help to get away. On Monday +(the following) night, two small companies were made up to go to +Missouri and forcibly liberate the five slaves, together with other +slaves. One of these companies I assumed to direct. We proceeded to the +place, surrounding the buildings, liberated the slaves, and also took +certain property supposed to belong to the estate. We, however, learned +before leaving that a portion of the articles we had belonged to a man +living on the plantation as a tenant, and who was supposed to have no +interest in the estate. We promptly returned to him all we had taken. We +then went to another plantation, where we found five more slaves, took +some property and two white men. We all moved slowly away into the +Territory for some distance, and then sent the white men back, telling +them to follow us as soon as they chose to do so. The other company +freed one female slave, took some property, and, as I am informed, +killed one white man (the master), who fought against the liberation. + +“Now for comparison. Eleven persons are forcibly restored to their +natural and inalienable rights, with but one man killed, and all ‘hell +is stirred from beneath.’ It is currently reported that the governor of +Missouri has made a requisition upon the governor of Kansas for the +delivery of all such as were concerned in the last named ‘dreadful +outrage.’ The marshal of Kansas is said to be collecting a posse of +Missouri (not Kansas) men at West Point, in Missouri, a little town +about ten miles distant, to ‘enforce the laws.’ All pro-slavery, +conservative, free state, and dough-face men and administration tools +are filled with holy horror.”[134] + +One of the slaves, Samuel Harper, afterward told of this wonderful +_katabasis_ of a thousand miles in the teeth of the elements and in +defiance of the law: + +“It was mighty slow traveling. You see there were several different +parties amongst our band, and our masters had people looking all over +for us. We would ride all night, and then maybe, we would have to stay +several days in one house to keep from getting caught. In a month we had +only got to a place near Topeka, which was about forty miles from where +we started. There was twelve of us at the one house of a man named +Doyle, besides the captain and his men, when there came along a gang of +slave-hunters. One of Captain Brown’s men, Stevens, he went down to them +and said:—‘Gentlemen, you look as if you were looking for somebody or +something.’ ‘Aye, yes!’ says the leader, ‘we think as how you have some +of our slaves up yonder in that there house.’ ‘Is that so?’ says +Stevens. ‘Well, come on right along with me, and you can look them over +and see.’ + +“We were watching this here conversation all the time, and when we see +Stevens coming up to the house with that there man, we just didn’t know +what to make of it. We began to get scared that Stevens was going to +give us to them slave-hunters. But the looks of things changed when +Stevens got up to the house. He just opened the door long enough for to +grab a double-barreled gun. He pointed it at the slave-hunter, and says: +‘You want to see your slaves, does you? Well, just look up them barrels +and see if you can find them.’ That man just went all to pieces. He +dropped his gun, his legs went trembling, and the tears most started +from his eyes. Stevens took and locked him up in the house. When the +rest of his crowd seen him captured, they ran away as fast as they could +go. + +“Captain Brown went to see the prisoner, and says to him, ‘I’ll show you +what it is to look after slaves, my man.’ That frightened the prisoner +awful. He was a kind of old fellow and when he heard what the captain +said, I suppose he thought he was going to be killed. He began to cry +and beg to be let go. The captain he only smiled a little bit, and +talked some more to him, and the next day he was let go. + +“A few days afterward, the United States marshal came up with another +gang to capture us. There was about seventy-five of them, and they +surrounded the house, and we was all afraid we was going to be took for +sure. But the captain he just said, ‘Get ready, boys, and we’ll whip +them all.’ There was only fourteen of us altogether, but the captain was +a terror to them, and when he stepped out of the house and went for them +the whole seventy-five of them started running. Captain Brown and Kagi +and some others chased them, and captured five prisoners. There was a +doctor and lawyer amongst them. They all had nice horses. The captain +made them get down. Then he told five of us slaves to mount the beasts +and we rode them while the white men had to walk. It was early in the +spring, and the mud on the roads was away over their ankles. I just tell +you it was mighty tough walking, and you can believe those fellows had +enough of slave-hunting. The next day the captain let them all go. + +“Our masters kept spies watching till we crossed the border. When we got +to Springdale, Ia., a man came to see Captain Brown, and told him there +was a lot of friends down in a town in Kansas that wanted to see him. +The captain said he did not care to go down, but as soon as the man +started back, Captain Brown followed him. When he came back, he said +there was a whole crowd coming up to capture us. We all went up to the +schoolhouse and got ourselves ready to fight. + +“The crowd came and hung around the schoolhouse a few days, but they +didn’t try to capture us. The governor of Kansas, he telegraphed to the +United States marshal at Springdale: ‘Capture John Brown, dead or +alive.’ The marshal he answered: ‘If I try to capture John Brown it’ll +be dead, and I’ll be the one that’ll be dead.’ Finally those Kansas +people went home, and then that same marshal put us in a car and sent us +to Chicago. It took us over three months to get to Canada.... What kind +of a man was Captain Brown? He was a great big man, over six feet tall, +with great big shoulders, and long hair, white as snow. He was a very +quiet man, awful quiet. He never even laughed. After we was free we was +wild of course, and we used to cut up all kinds of foolishness. But the +captain would always look as solemn as a graveyard. Sometimes he just +let out the tiniest bit of a smile, and says: ‘You’d better quit your +fooling and take up your book.’”[135] + +On the 12th of March, 1859, nearly three months after the starting, John +Brown landed his fugitives safely in Canada “under the lion’s paw.” The +old man lifted his hands and said: “Lord, permit Thy servant to die in +peace; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation! I could not brook the +thought that any ill should befall you,—least of all, that you should be +taken back to slavery. The arm of Jehovah protected us.”[136] + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + THE GREAT PLAN + + “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of + wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go + free, and that ye break every yoke?” + + +“Sir, the angel of the Lord will camp round about me,” said John Brown +with stern eyes when the timid foretold his doom.[137] With a steadfast +almost superstitious faith in his divine mission, the old man had walked +unscathed out of Kansas in the fall of 1856, two years and a half before +the slave raid into Missouri related in the last chapter. In his mind +lay a definitely matured plan for attacking slavery in the United States +in such a way as would shake its very foundations. The plan had been +long forming, and changing in shape from 1828, when he proposed a Negro +school in Hudson, until 1859 when he finally fixed on Harper’s Ferry. At +first he thought to educate Negroes in the North and let them leaven the +lump of slaves. Then, moving forward a step, he determined to settle in +a border state and educate slaves openly or clandestinely and send them +out as emissaries. As gradually he became acquainted with the great work +and wide ramifications of the Underground Railroad, he conceived the +idea of central depots for running off slaves in the inaccessible +portions of the South, and he began studying Southern geography with +this in view. He noted the rivers, swamps and mountains, and more +especially, the great struggling heights of the Alleghanies, which swept +from his Pennsylvania home down to the swamps of Virginia, Carolina and +Georgia. His Kansas experiences suggested for a time the southwest +pathway to Louisiana by the swamps of the Red and Arkansas Rivers, but +this was but a passing thought; he soon reverted to the great spur of +the Alleghanies. + +“I never shall forget,” writes Thomas Wentworth Higginson, “the quiet +way in which he once told me that ‘God had established the Alleghany +Mountains from the foundation of the world that they might one day be a +refuge for fugitive slaves.’ I did not know then that his own home was +among the Adirondacks.”[138] + +More and more, as he thought and worked, did his great plan present +itself to him clearly and definitely until finally it stood in 1858 as +Kagi told it to Hinton: + +“The mountains of Virginia were named as the place of refuge, and as a +country admirably adapted in which to carry on guerrilla warfare. In the +course of the conversation, Harper’s Ferry was mentioned as a point to +be seized, but not held,—on account of the arsenal. The white members of +the company were to act as officers of different guerrilla bands, which, +under the general command of John Brown, were to be composed of Canadian +refugees, and the Virginia slaves who would join them. A different time +of the year was mentioned for the commencement of the warfare from that +which had lately been chosen. It was not anticipated that the first +movement would have any other appearance to the masters than a slave +stampede, or local insurrection, at most. The planters would pursue +their chattels and be defeated. The militia would then be called out, +and would also be defeated. It was not intended that the movement should +appear to be of large dimension, but that, gradually increasing in +magnitude, it should, as it opened, strike terror into the heart of the +slave states by the amount of the organization it would exhibit, and the +strength it gathered. They anticipated, after the first blow had been +struck, that, by the aid of the free and Canadian Negroes who would join +them, they could inspire confidence in the slaves, and induce them to +rally. No intention was expressed of gathering a large body of slaves, +and removing them to Canada. On the contrary, Kagi clearly stated, in +answer to my inquiries, that the design was to make the fight in the +mountains of Virginia, extending it to North Carolina, and Tennessee, +and also to the swamps of South Carolina if possible. Their purpose was +not the extradition of one or a thousand slaves, but their liberation in +the states wherein they were born, and were now held in bondage. ‘The +mountains and swamps of the South were intended by the Almighty,’ said +John Brown to me afterward, ‘for a refuge for the slave, and a defense +against the oppressor.’ Kagi spoke of having marked out a chain of +counties extending continuously through South Carolina, Georgia, +Alabama, and Mississippi. He had traveled over a large portion of the +region indicated, and from his own personal knowledge, and with the +assistance of Canadian Negroes who had escaped from those states, they +had arranged a general plan of attack. + +“The counties he named were those which contained the largest proportion +of slaves, and would, therefore, be the best in which to strike. The +blow struck at Harper’s Ferry was to be in the spring, when the planters +were busy, and the slaves most needed. The arms in the arsenal were to +be taken to the mountains, with such slaves that joined. The telegraph +wires were to be cut, and the railroad tracks torn up in all directions. +As fast as possible other bands besides the original ones were to be +formed, and a continuous chain of posts established in the mountains. +They were to be supported by provisions taken from the farms of the +oppressors. They expected to be speedily and constantly reënforced; +first, by the arrival of those men, who, in Canada, were anxiously +looking and praying for the time of deliverance, and then by the slaves +themselves. The intention was to hold the egress to the free states as +long as possible, in order to retreat when that was advisable. Kagi, +however, expected to retreat southward, not in the contrary direction. +The slaves were to be armed with pikes, scythes, muskets, shotguns, and +other simple instruments of defense; the officers, white or black, and +such of the men as were skilled and trustworthy, to have the use of the +Sharps rifles and revolvers. They anticipated procuring provisions +enough for subsistence by forage, as also arms, horses, and ammunition. +Kagi said one of the reasons that induced him to go into the enterprise +was a full conviction that at no very distant day forcible efforts for +freedom would break out among the slaves, and that slavery might be more +speedily abolished by such efforts, than by any other means. He knew by +observation in the South, that in no point was the system so vulnerable +as in its fear of slave-rising. Believing that such a blow would soon be +struck, he wanted to organize it so as to make it more effectual, and +also, by directing and controlling the Negroes, to prevent some of the +atrocities that would necessarily arise from the sudden upheaval of such +a mass as the Southern slaves.”[139] + +The knowledge of the country was obtained by personal inspection. Kagi +and others of Brown’s lieutenants went out on trips; the old man himself +had been in western, northern and southern Virginia, and his Negro +friends especially knew these places and routes. One of Brown’s men +writes: + +“My object in wishing to see Mr. Reynolds, who was a colored man (very +little colored, however), was in regard to a military organization +which, I had understood, was in existence among the colored people. He +assured me that such was the fact, and that its ramifications extended +through most, or nearly all, of the slave states. He, himself, I think, +had been through many of the slave states visiting and organizing. He +referred me to many references in the Southern papers, telling of this +and that favorite slave being killed or found dead. These, he asserted, +must be taken care of, being the most dangerous element they had to +contend with. He also asserted that they were only waiting for Brown, or +some one else to make a successful initiative move when their forces +would be put in motion. None but colored persons could be admitted to +membership, and, in part to corroborate his assertions, he took me to +the room in which they held their meetings and used as their arsenal. He +showed me a fine collection of arms. He gave me this under the pledge of +secrecy which we gave to each other at the Chatham Convention. + +“On my return to Cleveland he passed me through the organization, first +to J. J. Pierce, colored, at Milan, who paid my bill over night at the +Eagle Hotel, and gave me some money, and a note to E. Moore, at Norwalk, +who in turn paid my hotel bill and purchased a railroad ticket through +to Cleveland for me.”[140] + +Speaking of this league, Hinton also says: + +“As one may naturally understand, looking at conditions then existing, +there existed something of an organization to assist fugitives and for +resistance to their masters. It was found all along the borders from +Syracuse, New York, to Detroit, Michigan. As none but colored men were +admitted into direct and active membership with this ‘League of +Freedom,’ it is quite difficult to trace its workings or know how far +its ramifications extended. One of the most interesting phases of slave +life, so far as the whites were enabled to see or impinge upon it, was +the extent and rapidity of communication among them. Four geographical +lines seem to have been chiefly followed. One was that of the coast +south of the Potomac, whose almost continuous line of swamps from the +vicinity of Norfolk, Va., to the northern border of Florida afforded a +refuge for many who could not escape and became ‘marooned’ in their +depths, while giving facility to the more enduring to work their way out +to the North Star Land. The great Appalachian range and its abutting +mountains were long a rugged, lonely, but comparatively safe route to +freedom. It was used, too, for many years. Doubtless a knowledge of that +fact, for John Brown was always an active Underground Railroad man, had +very much to do, apart from its immediate use strategically considered, +with the captain’s decision to begin operations therein. Harriet Tubman, +whom John Brown met for the first time at St. Catherines in March or +April, 1858, was a constant user of the Appalachian route.”[141] + +The trained leadership John Brown found in his Kansas experience, and +his wide acquaintance with colored men; the organization of the Negroes +culminated in a convention at Chatham, Canada. The raising of money for +this work, as time went on, was more and more the object of his various +occupations and commercial ventures. These visions of personal wealth to +be expended for great deeds failed because the pressure of work for the +ideal overcame the pressure of work for funds to finance it. When once +he discovered at Syracuse men of means, ready to pay the expenses of men +of deeds, he dropped all further thought of his physical necessities, +gave himself to the cause and called on them for money. In his earlier +calls he regards this not as charity but as wages. He said once: “From +about the 20th of May of last year hundreds of men like ourselves lost +their whole time, and entirely failed of securing any kind of crop +whatever. I believe it safe to say that five hundred free state men lost +each one hundred and twenty-five days, at $1.50 per day, which would be, +to say nothing of attendant losses, $90,000. I saw the ruins of many +free state men’s houses at different places in the Territory, together +with stacks of grain wasted and burning, to the amount of, say $50,000; +making, in lost time and destruction of property, more than +$150,000.”[142] + +And again: “John Brown has devoted the service of himself and two minor +sons to the free state cause for more than a year; suffered by the fire +before named and by robbery; has gone at his own cost for that period, +except that he and his company together have received forty dollars in +cash, two sacks of flour, thirty-five pounds bacon, thirty-five pounds +sugar, and twenty pounds rice. + +“I propose to serve hereafter in the free state cause (provided my +needful expenses can be met), should that be desired; and to raise a +small regular force to serve on the same condition. My own means are so +far exhausted that I can no longer continue in the service at present +without the means of defraying my expenses are furnished me.”[143] + +Finally, however, he had to appeal more directly to philanthropy. He was +especially encouraged by the Kansas committees. These committees had +sprung up in various ways and places in 1854, but had nearly all united +in Thayer’s New England Emigrant Aid Company in 1855. This company +proposed to aid free state emigration as an investment, but it failed in +this respect because of the political troubles, and the panic of 1857. +It did, however, arouse great interest throughout the nation. The +National Kansas Committee, formed after the sacking of Lawrence, was +more belligerent than philanthropic in its projects, while the Boston +Relief Committee was distinctly radical. John Brown had some connection +with Thayer’s company, but his hopes were especially built on the +National Kansas Committee, which Lane had done so much to bring into +being, and to which Gerrit Smith contributed many thousands of dollars. + +Leaving Kansas secretly in October, 1856, John Brown hastened to the +Chicago headquarters of this National Kansas Committee with a proposal +that they equip a company for him. The Chicago committee referred this +proposal to a full meeting of the members to be held in New York in +January. John Brown immediately started East, clad in new clothes which +the committee furnished and armed with letters from the governors of +Kansas and Ohio. Gerrit Smith welcomed him and said: “Captain John +Brown,—you did not need to show me letters from Governor Chase and +Governor Robinson to let me know who and what you are. I have known you +for many years, and have highly esteemed you as long as I have known +you. I know your unshrinking bravery, your self-sacrificing benevolence, +your devotion to the cause of freedom, and have long known them. May +Heaven preserve your life and health, and prosper your noble +purpose!”[144] + +But his half-brother in Ohio wrote: + +“Since the trouble growing out of the settlement of the Kansas +Territory, I have observed a marked change in brother John. Previous to +this, he devoted himself entirely to business; but since these troubles +he has abandoned all business, and has become wholly absorbed by the +subject of slavery. He had property left him by his father, and of which +I had the agency. He has never taken a dollar of it for the benefit of +his family, but has called for a portion of it to be expended in what he +called the Service. After his return to Kansas he called on me, and I +urged him to go home to his family and attend to his private affairs; +that I feared his course would prove his destruction and that of his +boys.... He replied that he was sorry that I did not sympathize with +him; that he knew that he was in the line of his duty, and he must +pursue it, though it should destroy him and his family. He stated to me +that he was satisfied that he was a chosen instrument in the hands of +God to war against slavery. From his manner and from his conversation at +this time, I had no doubt he had become insane upon the subject of +slavery, and gave him to understand that this was my opinion of +him!”[145] + +Mrs. George L. Stearns, the wife of the Massachusetts anti-slavery +leader, writes: + +“At this juncture, Mr. Stearns wrote to John Brown, that if he would +come to Boston and consult with the friends of freedom, he would pay his +expenses. They had never met, but ‘Osawatomie Brown’ had become a +cherished household name during the anxious summer of 1856. Arriving in +Boston they were introduced to each other in the street by a Kansas man, +who chanced to be with Mr. Stearns on his way to the committee rooms in +Nilis’s Block, School Street. Captain Brown made a profound impression +on all who came within the sphere of his moral magnetism. Emerson called +him ‘the most ideal of men, for he wanted to put all his ideas into +action.’ His absolute superiority to all selfish aims and narrowing +pride of opinion touched an answering chord in the self-devotion of Mr. +Stearns. A little anecdote illustrates the modest estimate of the work +he had in hand. After several efforts to bring together certain friends +to meet Captain Brown at his home, in Medford, he found that Sunday was +the only day that would serve their several conveniences, and being a +little uncertain how it might strike his ideas of religious propriety, +he prefaced his invitation with something like an apology. With +characteristic promptness came the reply: ‘Mr. Stearns, I have a little +ewe-lamb that I want to pull out of the ditch, and the Sabbath will be +as good a day as any to do it.’ + +“It may not be out of place to describe the impression he made upon the +writer on this first visit. When I entered the parlor, he was sitting +near the hearth, where glowed a bright, open fire. He rose to greet me, +stepping forward with such an erect, military bearing, such fine +courtesy of demeanor and grave earnestness, that he seemed to my instant +thought some old Cromwellian hero suddenly dropped down before me; a +suggestion which was presently strengthened by his saying (proceeding +with the conversation my entrance had interrupted), ‘Gentlemen, I +consider the Golden Rule and the Declaration of Independence one and +inseparable; and it is better that a whole generation of men, women, +children should be swept away than that this crime of slavery should +exist one day longer.’ These words were uttered like rifle balls; in +such emphatic tones and manner that our little Carl, not three years +old, remembered it in manhood as one of his earliest recollections. The +child stood perfectly still, in the middle of the room, gazing with his +beautiful eyes on this new sort of a man, until his absorption arrested +the attention of Captain Brown, who soon coaxed him to his knee, though +the look and childlike wonder remained. His dress was of some dark brown +stuff, quite coarse, but its exactness and neatness produced a singular +air of refinement. At dinner, he declined all dainties, saying that he +was unaccustomed to luxuries, even to partaking of butter. + +“The ‘friends of freedom,’ with whom Mr. Stearns had invited John Brown +to consult, were profoundly impressed with his sagacity, integrity, and +devotion; notably among these were R. W. Emerson, Theodore Parker, H. D. +Thoreau, A. Bronson Alcott, F. B. Sanborn, Dr. S. G. Howe, Col. T. W. +Higginson, Governor Andrew, and others.”[146] + +Sanborn says: + +“He came to me with a note of introduction from George Walker of +Springfield—both of us being Kansas committee men, working to maintain +the freedom of that Territory, and Brown had been one of the fighting +men there in the summer of 1856, just before. His theory required +fighting in Kansas; it was the only sure way, he thought, to keep that +region free from the curse of slavery. His mission now was to levy war +on it, and for that to raise and equip a company of a hundred well-armed +men who should resist aggression in Kansas, or occasionally carry the +war into Missouri. Behind that purpose, but not yet disclosed, was his +intention to use the men thus put into the field for incursions into +Virginia or other slave states. Our State Kansas Committee, of which I +was secretary, had a stock of arms that Brown wished to use for this +company, and these we voted to him. They had been put in the custody of +the National Committee at Chicago, and it was needful to follow up our +vote by similar action in the National Committee. For this purpose I was +sent to a meeting of that committee at the Astor House, in New York, as +the proxy of Dr. Howe and Dr. Samuel Cabot—both members of the National +Committee. I met Brown there, and aided him in obtaining from the +meeting an appropriation of $5,000 for his work in Kansas, of which, +however, he received only $500. The committee also voted to restore the +custody of two hundred rifles to the Massachusetts committee which +bought them, well knowing that we should turn them over to John Brown, +as we did. He found them at Tabor, Ia., in the following September, and +took possession; it was with part of these rifles that he entered +Virginia two years later. + +“At this Astor House meeting Brown was closely questioned by some of the +National Committee, particularly by Mr. Hurd of Chicago, as to what he +would do with money and arms. He refused to pledge himself to use them +solely in Kansas, and declared that his past record ought to be a +sufficient guarantee that he should employ them judiciously. If we chose +to trust him, well and good, but he would neither make pledges nor +disclose his plans. Mr. Hurd had some inkling that Brown would not +confine his warfare to Kansas, but the rest of us were willing to trust +Brown, and the money was voted.”[147] + +John Brown immediately made a careful estimate of the cost of the +necessary equipment which with “two weeks of provisions for men and +horses” amounted to $1,774. The funds of the committee, however, were +low and the officers suspicious; in April they informed Brown: “The +committee are at present out of money, and compelled to decline sending +you the five hundred dollars you speak of. They are sorry this has +become the case, but it was unavoidable. I need not state to you all the +reasons why. The country has stopped sending us contributions, and we +have no means of replenishing our treasury. We shall need to have aid +from some quarter to enable us to meet our present engagements.”[148] + +Immediately Brown set out to raise his own funds and for three months +worked fervently. Just before the Dred Scott Decision he spoke to the +Massachusetts legislature from which his friends hoped to secure an +appropriation for Kansas. This failed, and Brown started on a tour in +New England. He spoke at his old home and made a contract for securing +one thousand pikes near there. He showed a Kansas bowie-knife and said: +“Such a blade as this, mounted upon a strong shaft, or handle, would +make a cheap and effective weapon. Our friends in Kansas are without +arms or money to get them; and if I could put such weapons into their +hands, they could make them very useful. A resolute woman, with such a +pike, could defend her cabin door against man or beast.”[149] + +In Hartford he spoke and said: + +“I am trying to raise from twenty to twenty-five thousand dollars in the +free states to enable me to continue my efforts in the cause of freedom. +Will the people of Connecticut, my native state, afford me some aid in +this undertaking? Will the gentlemen and ladies of Hartford, where I +make my appeal in this state, set the example of an earnest effort? Will +some gentleman or lady take hold and try what can be done by small +contributions from counties, cities, towns, societies, or churches, or +in some other way? I think the little beggar children in the street are +sufficiently interested to warrant their contributing, if there was any +need of it, to secure the object. + +“I was told that the newspapers in a certain city were dressed in +mourning on hearing that I was killed and scalped in Kansas, but I did +not know of it until I reached the place. Much good it did me. In the +same place I met a more cool reception than in any other place where I +have stopped. If my friends will hold up my hands while I live, I will +freely absolve them from any expense over me when I am dead. I do not +ask for pay, but shall be most grateful for all the assistance I can +get.”[150] + +On the day that Buchanan was inaugurated and two days before the Dred +Scott Decision, he published a similar appeal in the New York _Tribune_ +“with no little sacrifice of personal feeling.” Once he writes: “I am +advised that one of Uncle Sam’s hounds is on my track, and I have kept +myself hid for a few days to let my track get cold. I have no idea of +being taken, and intend (if God will) to go back with irons in, rather +than upon, my hands.”[151] + +Dr. Wayland met him in Worcester where a Frederick Douglass meeting was +being arranged just after Taney’s decision and says: “I called at the +house of Eli Thayer, afterward member of Congress from that district, to +ask him to sit on the platform. Here I found a stranger, a man of tall, +gaunt form, with a face smooth-shaven, destitute of full beard, that +later became a part of history. The children were climbing over his +knees; he said, ‘The children always come to me.’ I was then introduced +to John Brown of Osawatomie. How little one imagined then that in less +than three years the name of this plain homespun man would fill America +and Europe! Mr. Brown consented to occupy a place on the platform, and +at the urgent request of the audience, spoke briefly. It is one of the +curious facts, that many men who _do_ it are utterly unable to _tell_ +about it. John Brown, a flame of fire in action, was dull in +speech.”[152] + +Later in the same month Brown accompanied Sanborn and Conway to +ex-Governor Reeder’s home in Pennsylvania to induce him to return to +Kansas, but he declined. April 1st found Brown back in Massachusetts, +where for a week or more he was again in hiding from United States +officers, probably among his Negro friends in Springfield. It was in +April, too, that he took another step in his plan, namely, toward +securing military training for his band. He stated according to Realf +that, “for twenty or thirty years the idea had possessed him like a +passion of giving liberty to the slaves; that he made a journey to +England, during which he made a tour upon the European continent, +inspecting all fortifications, and especially all earthwork forts which +he could find, with a view of applying the knowledge thus gained, with +modifications and inventions of his own, to a mountain warfare in the +United States. He stated that he had read all the books upon +insurrectionary warfare, that he could lay his hands on: the Roman +warfare, the successful opposition of the Spanish chieftains during the +period when Spain was a Roman province,—how, with ten thousand men, +divided and subdivided into small companies, acting simultaneously, yet +separately, they withstood the whole consolidated power of the Roman +Empire through a number of years. In addition to this he had become very +familiar with the successful warfare waged by Schamyl, the Circassian +chief, against the Russians; he had posted himself in relation to the +wars of Toussaint L’Ouverture; he had become thoroughly acquainted with +the wars in Hayti and the islands round about.”[153] + +Despite his own knowledge, however, he felt the need of expert advice, +and meeting a former lieutenant of Garibaldi, one Hugh Forbes, he was +captivated by him, and forthwith hired him to drill his men. Forbes was +an excitable, ill-balanced Englishman, who had fought in Italy and at +last landed penniless in New York. He thought Brown simply an agent of +wealthy and powerful interests and that the whole North was ready to +attack slavery. He proposed translating and publishing a manual of +guerrilla warfare and John Brown gave him $600 for this work. He was +then to join the leader and they would together go to the West and +gather and drill a company. This large outlay left John Brown but little +in his purse, for, after all, his efforts had been disappointing, and he +departed from New England with a quaint half-sarcastic “Farewell to the +Plymouth Rocks, Bunker Hill monuments, Charter Oaks and Uncle Tom’s +Cabins.” He wrote: + +“He has left for Kansas; has been trying since he came out of the +Territory to secure an outfit, or, in other words, the means of arming +and thoroughly equipping his regular minutemen, who are mixed up with +the people of Kansas. And he leaves the states with the deepest sadness, +that after exhausting his own small means, and with his family and with +his brave men suffering hunger, cold, nakedness, and some of them +sickness, wounds, imprisonment in irons with extreme cruel treatment, +and others death; that, lying on the ground for months in the most +sickly, unwholesome, and uncomfortable places, some of the time with the +sick and wounded, destitute of shelter, hunted like wolves, and +sustained in part by Indians; that after all this, in order to sustain a +cause which every citizen of this ‘glorious Republic’ is under equal +moral obligation to do, and for the neglect of which he will be held +accountable by God,—a cause in which every man, woman, and child of the +entire human family has a deep and awful interest,—that when no wages +are asked or expected, he cannot secure, amid all wealth, luxury, and +extravagance of this ‘heaven-exalted’ people, even the necessary +supplies of the common soldier. ‘How are the mighty fallen!’ + +“I am destitute of horses, baggage wagons, tents, harness, saddles, +bridles, holsters, spurs, and belts; camp equipage, such as cooking and +eating utensils, blankets, knapsacks, intrenching tools, axes, shovels, +spades, mattocks, crowbars; have not a supply of ammunition; have not +money sufficient to pay freight and traveling expenses; and left my +family poorly supplied with common necessaries.”[154] + +Forbes also disappointed him by his delay, lingering in New York and not +appearing in Iowa until August. Brown, who had been sick again, was +nevertheless pushing matters among his Kansas friends. He wrote in June: +“There are some half-dozen men I want a visit from at Tabor, Ia., to +come off in the most quiet way; ... I have some very important matters +to confer with some of you about. Let there be no words about it.”[155] + +Arriving at Tabor early in August, Brown’s first business was to secure +the arms voted him. Because of a previous failure to equip emigrants at +points further east, the Massachusetts Kansas State Committee had sent +200 Sharps rifles to Tabor, Ia. Here they were stored in a minister’s +barn until John Brown called for and removed them. Hugh Forbes finally +arrived August 9th, bringing with him copies of his “Manual for the +Patriotic Volunteer.” Brown wrote home that he and his son Owen were +“beginning to take lessons and have, we think, a capable teacher.” + +Differences, however, soon arose. Forbes wanted $100 per month in +addition to the $600 previously paid, while Brown apparently considered +that he had already advanced a half year’s wage. Then too matters were +on a meaner scale than Forbes had dreamed; there was no money, few +followers and little glory in sight. He felt himself duped; he despised +Brown’s ability and proposed taking full command himself, projecting +slave raids into Missouri and other states. Brown was obdurate, and +early in November, the foreign tactician suddenly left for the East. +This disturbed Brown’s plans. He had intended to establish two or three +military schools, one in Iowa, one in northern Ohio and one in Canada. +Forbes’s desertion made him determine to give up the Iowa school and +hasten to Ohio. He therefore passed quickly to Kansas, arriving in the +vicinity of Lawrence, November 5, 1857. + +Cook says: + +“I met him at the house of E. B. Whitman, about four miles from +Lawrence, K. T., which, I think, was about the first of November +following. I was told that he intended to organize a company for the +purpose of putting a stop to the aggressions of the pro-slavery men. I +agreed to join him and was asked if I knew of any other young men who +were perfectly reliable whom I thought would join also. I recommended +Richard Realf, L. F. Parsons, and R. J. Hinton. I received a note on the +next Sunday morning, while at breakfast in the Whitney House, from +Captain Brown, requesting me to come up that day, and to bring Realf, +Parsons, and Hinton with me. Realf and Hinton were not in town, and +therefore I could not extend to them the invitation. Parsons and myself +went and had a long talk with Captain Brown. A few days afterward I +received another note from Captain Brown, which read, as near as I can +recollect, as follows: + +“‘CAPTAIN COOK:—Dear Sir—You will please get everything ready to join me +at Topeka by Monday night next. Come to Mrs. Sheridan’s, two miles south +of Topeka, and bring your arms, ammunition, clothing and other articles +you may require. Bring Parsons with you if he can get ready in time. +Please keep very quiet about this matter. Yours, etc., + + JOHN BROWN.’ + +“I made all my arrangements for starting at the time appointed. Parsons, +Realf, and Hinton could not get ready. I left them at Lawrence, and +started in a carriage for Topeka. Stopped at a hotel over night, and +left early next morning for Mrs. Sheridan’s to meet Captain Brown. Staid +a day and a half at Mrs. S.’s—then left for Topeka, at which place we +were joined by Whipple, Moffett, and Kagi. Left Topeka for Nebraska +City, and camped at night on the prairie northeast of Topeka. Here, for +the first, I learned that we were to leave Kansas to attend a military +school during the winter. It was the intention of the party to go to +Ashtabula County, Ohio.”[156] + +In this way Brown enlisted John E. Cook, whom he had met about the time +of the turn of the battle of Black Jack; Luke F. Parsons, who was a +member of his old Kansas company; and Richard Realf, a newspaper man. At +Topeka Aaron D. Stevens, a veteran free state fighter, joined, with +Charles W. Moffett, an Iowa man, and John Henry Kagi, who became his +right hand. With these six he returned to Tabor, where he found William +H. Seeman and Charles Plummer Tidd, two of his former followers; Richard +Richardson, an intelligent Negro fugitive; and his son Owen. This party +of eleven started hurriedly for Ashtabula, O., late in November. +“Good-bye,” said John Brown, “you will hear from me. We’ve had enough +talk about ‘bleeding Kansas.’ I will make a bloody spot at another point +to be talked about.”[157] + +So the band started and pressed on their lonely way over two hundred and +fifty miles across the wild wastes of Iowa until they came to the +village of Springdale, about fifty miles from the Missouri. This was a +little settlement intensely anti-slavery in sentiment. Here Brown had +planned to stop long enough to sell his teams and then proceed by +railroad, eastward. The panic of this year, beginning late in August, +was by December in full swing, and he found himself without funds, and +with no remittances from the East. He therefore decided to have his men +spend the winter at Springdale while he went East alone. The Quakers +received them gladly and they were quartered at a farmhouse three miles +from the village, where they paid only a dollar a week for board. The +winter passed pleasantly but busily. + +Stevens was made drill-master; all arose at five, breakfasted, studied +until ten and drilled from ten to twelve. In the afternoon they +practiced gymnastics and shooting at targets. Five nights in the week a +mock legislature was held either at the home or in the schoolhouse near +by. Sometimes Realf and others listened to the townspeople, and there +was much visiting. Before John Brown left for the East, he revealed his +plans in part to his landlord and two other citizens of Springdale. + +“Some time toward spring, John Brown came to my house one Sunday +afternoon,” said this man. “He informed me that he wished to have some +private talk with me; we went into the parlor. He then told me his plans +for the future. He had not then decided to attack the armory at Harper’s +Ferry, but intended to take some fifty to one hundred men into the hills +near the Ferry and remain there until he could get together quite a +number of slaves, and then take what conveyances were needed to +transport the Negroes and their families to Canada. And in a short time +after the excitement had abated, to make a strike in some other Southern +state; and to continue on making raids, as opportunity offered, until +slavery ceased to exist. I did my best to convince him that the +probabilities were that all would be killed. He said that, as for +himself, he was willing to give his life for the slaves. He told me +repeatedly, while talking, that he believed he was an instrument in the +hands of God through which slavery would be abolished. I said to him: +‘You and your handful of men cannot cope with the whole South.’ His +reply was: ‘I tell you, Doctor, it will be the beginning of the end of +slavery.’ He also told me that but two of his men, Kagi and Stevens, +knew what his intentions were.”[158] + +The landlord several times sat late into the night arguing with Brown +about his plans. Some of the neighbors were persuaded to join the band, +among them the two Coppocs, and George B. Gill, a Canadian. Stewart +Taylor also enlisted there. Hinton, however, still supposed the +battle-ground would be Kansas. He says: + +“There was no attempt to make a secret of their drilling, and as Gill +shows and Cook stated in his ‘confession,�� the neighborhood folks all +understood that this band of earnest young men were preparing for +something far out of the ordinary. Of course Kansas was presumed to be +the objective point. But generally the impression prevailed that when +the party moved again, it would be somewhere in the direction of the +slave states. The atmosphere of those days was charged with disturbance. +It is difficult to determine how many of the party actually knew that +John Brown designed to invade Virginia. All the testimony goes to show +that it is most probable that not until after the assembling at the +Maryland farm in 1859 was there a full, definite announcement of +Harper’s Ferry as the objective point. That he fully explained his +purpose to make reprisals on slavery wherever the opportunity offered is +without question, but except to Owen, who was vowed to work in his early +youth, and Kagi, who informed me at Osawatomie in July, 1858, that Brown +gave him his fullest confidence upon their second interview at Topeka in +1857, there is every reason to believe that among the men the details of +the intended movement were matters of after confidence. My own +experience illustrates this. I was absent from Lawrence when John Brown +recruited his little company. He had left already for Iowa before I +returned. I met Realf just as he was leaving, and we talked without +reserve, he assuring me that the purpose was just to prepare a fighting +nucleus for resisting the enforcement of the Lecompton Constitution, +which it was then expected Congress might try to impose upon us. Through +this, advantage was to be taken of the agitation to prepare for a +movement against slavery in Missouri, Arkansas, the Indian Territory and +possibly Louisiana. At Kagi’s request (with whom I maintained for nearly +two years an important, if irregular, correspondence), I began a +systematic investigation of the conditions, roads and topography of the +Southwest, visiting a good deal of the Indian Territory, with portions +of southwest Missouri, western Arkansas, and northern Texas, also, under +the guise of examining railroad routes, etc.”[159] + +Forbes in the meantime hurried East, nursing his wrath. He had all of a +foreigner’s difficulty in following the confused threads of another +nation’s politics at a critical time. He classed Seward, Wilson, Sumner, +Phillips and John Brown together as anti-slavery men who were ready to +attack the institution _vi et armis_. This movement which he proposed to +lead had been started, and then, as he supposed, shamelessly neglected +by its sponsors while he had been thrust upon the tender mercies of John +Brown. He was angry and penniless and he intended to have reparation. He +first sought out Frederick Douglass, but was received coldly. He appears +to have been more successful with McCune Smith and the New York group of +Negro leaders. He immediately, too, began to address letters to +prominent Republicans. + +John Brown was annoyed at Forbes’s behavior but seems at first not to +have taken it seriously. He left his men at Springdale, and started East +in January, arriving at Douglass’s Rochester home in February. Douglass +says: + +“He desired to stop with me several weeks, but added, ‘I will not stay +unless you will allow me to pay board.’ Knowing that he was no trifler, +but meant all he said, and desirous of retaining him under my roof, I +charged him three dollars a week. While here he spent most of his time +in correspondence. He wrote often to George L. Stearns, of Boston, +Gerrit Smith, of Peterboro, and many others, and received many letters +in return. When he was not writing letters, he was writing and revising +a constitution, which he meant to put in operation by means of the men +who should go with him in the mountains. He said that to avoid anarchy +and confusion there should be a regularly constituted government, which +each man who came with him should be sworn to honor and support.... His +whole time and thought were given to this subject. It was the first +thing in the morning and the last thing at night till, I confess, it +began to be something of a bore to me. Once in a while he would say he +could, with a few resolute men, capture Harper’s Ferry and supply +himself with arms belonging to the government at that place; but he +never announced his intention to do so. + +“It was, however, very evidently passing in his mind as a thing that he +might do. I paid but little attention to such remarks, although I never +doubted that he thought just what he said. Soon after his coming to me +he asked me to get for him two smoothly planed boards, upon which he +could illustrate, with a pair of dividers, by a drawing, the plan of +fortification which he meant to adopt in the mountains. These forts were +to be so arranged as to connect one with the other by secret passages, +so that if one was carried, another could easily be fallen back upon, +and be the means of dealing death to the enemy at the very moment when +he might think himself victorious. I was less interested in these +drawings than my children were; but they showed that the old man had an +eye to the means as well as to the end, and was giving his best thought +to the work he was about to take in hand.”[160] + +From Rochester went letters sounding his friends, as he was uncertain of +the real devotion of the many types of Abolitionists. He wrote Theodore +Parker: + +“I am again out of Kansas and at this time concealing my whereabouts; +but for very different reasons, however, from those I had for doing so +at Boston last spring. I have nearly perfected arrangements for carrying +out an important measure in which the world has a deep interest, as well +as Kansas; and only lack from five to eight hundred dollars to do +so,—the same object for which I asked for the secret-service money last +fall. It is my only errand here; and I have written to some of my mutual +friends in regard to it, but they none of them understand my views so +well as you do, and I cannot explain without their first committing +themselves more than I know of their doing. I have heard that Parker +Pillsbury, and some others in your quarters hold out ideas similar to +those on which I act; but I have no personal acquaintance with them, and +know nothing of their influence or means. Cannot you either by direct or +indirect action do something to further me? Do you know of some parties +whom you could induce to give their Abolition theories a thoroughly +practical shape? I hope that this will prove to be the last time I shall +be driven to harass a friend in such a way. Do you think any of my +Garrisonian friends, either at Boston, Worcester, or any other place, +can be induced to supply a little ‘straw,’ if I will absolutely make +‘brick’? I have written George L. Stearns, of Medford, and Mr. F. B. +Sanborn, of Concord; but I am not informed as to how deeply-dyed +Abolitionists those friends are, and must beg you to consider this +communication strictly confidential, unless you know of parties who will +feel and act, and hold their peace. I want to bring the thing about +during the next sixty days.”[161] + +To Higginson he wrote: “Railroad business on a somewhat extended scale +is the identical object for which I am trying to get means. I have been +connected with that business, as commonly conducted, from my childhood, +and never let an opportunity slip. I have been operating to some purpose +the past season; but I know I have a measure on foot that I feel sure +would awaken in you something more than a common interest if you could +understand it. I have just written to my friends G. L. Stearns, and F. +B. Sanborn, asking them to meet me for consultation at Peterboro, N. Y. +I am very anxious to have you come along, as I feel certain that you +will never regret having been one of the council.”[162] + +The Boston folk hesitated and suggested that Brown come there. He +demurred on account of his being too well known. Finally Sanborn alone +went to meet Brown and thus relates his experience: + +“After dinner, and after a few minutes spent with our guests in the +parlor, I went with Mr. Smith, John Brown, and my classmate Morton, to +the room of Mr. Morton in the third story. Here, in the long winter +evening which followed, the whole outline of Brown’s campaign in +Virginia was laid before our little council, to the astonishment and +almost the dismay of those present. The constitution which he had drawn +for the government of his men, and of such territory as they might +occupy, was exhibited by Brown, its provisions recited and explained, +the proposed movements of his men indicated, and the middle of May was +named as the time of the attack. To begin his hazardous adventure he +asked for but eight hundred dollars, and would think himself rich with a +thousand. Being questioned and opposed by his friends, he laid before +them in detail his methods of organization and fortification; of +settlement in the South, if that were possible, and of retreat through +the North, if necessary; and his theory of the way in which such an +invasion would be received in the country at large. He desired from his +friends a patient hearing of his statements, a candid opinion concerning +his plan, and, if that were favorable, then such aid in money and +support as we could give him. We listened until after midnight, +proposing objections and raising difficulties; but nothing could shake +the purpose of the old Puritan. Every difficulty had been foreseen and +provided against in some manner; the grand difficulty of all,—the +manifest hopelessness of undertaking anything so vast with such slender +means,—was met with the text of Scripture: ‘If God be for us, who can be +against us?’ He had made nearly all his arrangements: he had so many men +enlisted, so many hundred weapons; all he now wanted was the small sum +of money. With that he would open his campaign in the spring, and he had +no doubt that the enterprise ‘would pay’ as he said. + +“On the 23d of February the discussion was renewed, and, as usually +happened when he had time enough, Captain Brown began to prevail over +the objections of his friends. At any rate, they saw that they must +either stand by him, or leave him to dash himself alone against the +fortress he was determined to assault. To withhold aid would only delay, +not prevent him; nothing short of betraying him to the enemy would do +that. As the sun was setting over the snowy hills of the region where we +met, I walked for an hour with Gerrit Smith among those woods and fields +(then included in his broad manor) which his father had purchased of the +Indians and bequeathed to him. Brown was left at home by the fire, +discussing the points of theology with Charles Stewart, an old captain +under Wellington, who also happened to be visiting at the house. Mr. +Smith restated in his eloquent way the daring propositions of Brown, +whose import he understood fully; and then said in substance: ‘You see +how it is; our dear old friend has made up his mind to this course, and +cannot be turned from it. We cannot give him up to die alone; we must +support him. I will raise so many hundred dollars for him; you must lay +the case before your friends in Massachusetts and perhaps they will do +the same. I see no other way.’ For myself, I had reached the same +conclusion, and engaged to bring the scheme at once to the attention of +the three Massachusetts men to whom Brown had written, and also of Dr. +S. G. Howe, who had sometimes favored action almost as extreme as this +proposed by Brown. I returned to Boston on the 25th of February, and on +the same day communicated the enterprise to Theodore Parker and +Wentworth Higginson. At the suggestion of Parker, Brown, who had gone to +Brooklyn, N. Y., was invited to visit Boston secretly, and did so on the +4th of March, taking a room at the American House, in Hanover Street, +and remaining for the most part in his room during the four days of his +stay. Mr. Parker was deeply interested in the project, but not very +sanguine of its success. He wished to see it tried, believing that it +must do good even if it failed. Brown remained at the American House +until Monday, March 8th, when he departed for Philadelphia.” + +On the 6th of March he wrote to his son John from Boston: “My call here +has met with a hearty response, so that I feel assured of at least +tolerable success. I ought to be thankful for this. All has been +effected by quiet meeting of a few choice friends, it being scarcely +known that I have been in the city.”[163] + +Leaving the money-raising to Sanborn and Smith, Brown turned to his +Negro friends, saying to his eldest son, meantime: “I have been thinking +that I would like to have you make a trip to Bedford, Chambersburg, +Gettysburg, and Uniontown in Pennsylvania, traveling slowly along, and +inquiring of every man on the way, or every family of the right stripe, +and getting acquainted with them as much as you could. When you look at +the location of those places, you will readily perceive the advantage of +getting some acquaintance in those parts.”[164] + +And then he wrote two touching letters; one to his eldest daughter and +one to his staunch friend, Sanborn. + +To Ruth Brown he wrote: “The anxiety I feel to see my wife and children +once more I am unable to describe. I want exceedingly to see my big baby +Ruth’s baby, and to see how that little company of sheep look about this +time. The cries of my poor sorrow-strieken, despairing children, whose +‘tears on their cheeks’ are ever in my eyes, and whose sighs are ever in +my ears, may however prevent my enjoying the happiness I so much desire. +But, courage, courage, courage!—the great work of my life (the unseen +hand that ‘guided me, and who had indeed holden my right hand, may hold +it still,’ though I have not known Him at all as I ought) I may yet see +accomplished (God helping), and be permitted to return, and ‘rest at +evening.’ + +“Oh, my daughter Ruth! Could any plan be devised whereby you could let +Henry go ‘to school’ (as you expressed it in your letter to him while in +Kansas), I would rather now have him ‘for another term’ than to have a +hundred average scholars. I have a particular and very important, but +not dangerous, place for him to fill in the ‘school,’ and I know of no +man living so well adapted to fill it. I am quite confident some way can +be devised so that you and your children could be with him, and be quite +happy even, and safe; but God forbid me to flatter you in trouble!”[165] + +To his friend Sanborn he said: “I believe when you come to look at the +ample field I labor in, and the rich harvest which not only this entire +country but the whole world during the present and future generations +may reap from its successful cultivation, you will feel that you are in +it, an entire unit. What an inconceivable amount of good you might so +effect by your counsel, your example, your encouragement, your natural +and acquired ability for active service! And then, how very little we +can possibly lose! Certainly the cause is enough to live for, if not +to—for. I have only had this one opportunity, in a life of nearly sixty +years; and could I be continued ten times as long again, I might not +again have another equal opportunity. God has honored but comparatively +a very small part of mankind with any possible chance for such mighty +and soul-satisfying rewards. But, my dear friend, if you should make up +your mind to do so, I trust it will be wholly from the promptings of +your own spirit, after having thoroughly counted the cost. I would +flatter no man into such a measure, if I could do it ever so easily. + +“I expect nothing but to endure hardness; but I expect to effect a +mighty conquest, even though it be like the last victory of Samson. I +felt for a number of years, in earlier life, a steady, strong desire to +die; but since I saw any prospect of becoming a ‘reaper’ in the great +harvest, I have not only felt quite willing to live, but have enjoyed +life much; and am now rather anxious to live for a few years more.”[166] + + + + + CHAPTER IX + THE BLACK PHALANX + + “Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion.” + + +The decade 1830 to 1840 was one of the severest seasons of trial through +which the black American ever passed. The great economic change which +made slavery the corner-stone of the cotton kingdom was definitely +finished and all the subtle moral adjustments which follow were in full +action. New immigrants took advantage of the growing prejudice which +found a profitable place for the Negro in slavery, and was determined to +keep him in it. They began to crowd the free Northern Negro in a fierce +economic battle. With a precarious social foothold, little economic +organization, and no support in public opinion, the Northern free Negro +was forced to yield. In Philadelphia from 1829 to 1849 six mobs of +hoodlums and foreigners cowed and murdered the Negroes. In the Middle +West and, especially in Ohio, severe Black Laws had been enacted in 1804 +to 1807 providing that (_a_) No Negro should be allowed to settle in +Ohio unless he could within twenty days give bond to the amount of $500 +signed by two bondsmen, who should guarantee his good behavior and +support; (_b_) The fine for harboring or concealing a fugitive was at +first $50, then $100, one-half to go to the informer and one-half to the +overseer of the poor in the district; (_c_) No Negro was allowed to give +evidence in any case where a white man was a party.[167] + +These laws, however, were dead letters until 1829, when increased Negro +immigration induced the Cincinnati authorities to enforce them. The +Negroes obtained a respite of thirty days and sent a deputation to +Canada. They were absent for sixty days, and when the whites saw no +effort to enforce the law further, they organized a riot. For three days +Negroes were killed in the streets until they barricaded their homes and +shot back. Meantime the governor of upper Canada sent word that he +“would extend to them a cordial welcome.” He said: “Tell the republicans +on your side of the line that we royalists do not know men of their +color. Should you come to us you will be entitled to all the privileges +of the rest of His Majesty’s subjects.”[168] + +On receipt of this, fully two thousand Negroes went to Canada and +founded Wilberforce; while a national convention of Negroes was called +in Philadelphia in 1830—the first of its kind. This convention at an +adjourned session in 1831 addressed the public as follows: + +“The cause of general emancipation is gaining powerful and able friends +abroad. Britain and Denmark have performed such deeds as will +immortalize them for their humanity, in the breasts of the +philanthropists of the present day; whilst as a just tribute to their +virtues, after-ages will yet erect imperishable monuments to their +memory. (Would to God we could say thus of our own native soil.) + +“And it is only when we look to our own native land, to the birthplace +of our fathers, to the land for whose prosperity their blood and our +sweat have been shed and cruelty extorted, that the convention has had +cause to hang its head and blush. Laws as cruel in themselves as they +were unconstitutional and unjust, have in many places been enacted +against our poor unfriended and unoffending brethren; laws (without a +shadow of provocation on our part) at whose bare recital the very savage +draws him up for fear of the contagion, looks noble, and prides himself +because he bears not the name of a Christian. But the convention would +not wish to dwell long on this subject, as it is one that is too +sensibly felt to need description.... + +“This spirit of persecution was the cause of our convention. It was this +that induced us to seek an asylum in the Canadas; and the convention +feels happy to report to its brethren, that our efforts to establish a +settlement in that province have not been made in vain. Our prospects +are cheering; our friends and funds are daily increasing; wonders have +been performed far exceeding our most sanguine expectations; already +have our brethren purchased eight hundred acres of land—and two thousand +of them have left the soil of their birth, crossed the lines, and laid +the foundation for a structure which promises to prove an asylum for the +colored population of these United States. They have erected two hundred +log-houses, and have five hundred acres under cultivation.” + +A college “on the manual labor system” was planned: “For the present +ignorant and degraded condition of many of our brethren in these United +States (which has been a subject of much concern to the convention) can +excite no astonishment (although used by our enemies to show our +inferiority in the scale of human beings); for, what opportunities have +they possessed for mental cultivation or improvement? Mere ignorance, +however, in a people divested of the means of acquiring information by +books, or an extensive connection with the world, is no just criterion +of their intellectual incapacity; and it has been actually seen, in +various remarkable instances, that the degradation of the mind and +character, which has been too hastily imputed to a people kept, as we +are, at a distance from those sources of knowledge which abound in +civilized and enlightened communities, has resulted from no other causes +than our unhappy situation and circumstances.”[169] + +The convention met again in 1833 and resolved on further plans for +settling in Canada. These conventions continued to assemble annually for +five years, when they were succeeded by the convention of the American +Moral Reform Society which met two years longer. Meantime Nat Turner had +terrorized Virginia and the South and sent a wave of repression over the +North that led to the disfranchisement of Pennsylvania Negroes in 1837. + +Notwithstanding all this the Negroes were struggling on. Beside the +general conventions arose the Phœnix Societies, which “planned an +organization of the colored people in their municipal subdivisions with +the special object of the promotion of their improvement in morals, +literature and the mechanic arts.” Lewis Tappan refers to them in his +biography. The “Mental Feast,” which was a social feature, survived +thirty years later in some of the interior towns of Pennsylvania and the +West.[170] + +The first Negro paper, _Freedom’s Journal_, had been established in 1827 +and organizations like the Massachusetts General Colored Association +were coöperating with the Abolitionists. The news of emancipation in the +British West Indies cheered the Negroes, and indeed without the long +effective and self-sacrificing efforts of the Northern freed Negroes, +the Abolition movement in the United States could not have been +successful. Garrison’s first subscriber to _The Liberator_ was a black +man of Philadelphia, and before and after the Negroes were admitted to +membership in the anti-slavery societies, their aid was invaluable. In +the West, despite proscription, a fight for schools was carried on from +1830 to 1840, which finally resulted in a wide system of Negro schools +partially supported by public funds. Toward 1840 signs of promise began +gradually to appear. A West Indian endowed a Negro school in +Philadelphia in 1837. The Negro population increased from two and +one-third to two and nine-tenths millions in the decade, and evidences +of economic success were seen among the free Negroes. Philadelphia had +in 1838 one hundred small beneficial societies; Ohio Negroes owned ten +thousand acres of land in 1840, while the Canada refugees were beginning +to prosper. The mutiny on the _Creole_, the establishment of the Negro +Odd Fellows, and the doubling, in ten years, of the membership of the +African Methodist Episcopal Church, all pointed to an awakening after +the long period of distress. + +The decade of 1840 to 1850 was a new era—an era of self-assertion and +rapid advance for the free Northern Negro. For the first time conscious +leadership of undoubted ability appeared. In Boston there was De Grasse, +a physician, trained in this country and in France and a member of the +Massachusetts Medical Society. Robert Morris was a member of the bar, as +was E. R. Walker, whose “Appeal” in 1829 startled the country. William +Wells Brown and William Nell were writing, while Charles Lennox Remond +was one of the first of the Abolition orators. In New York were the +gifted preacher, Henry Highland Garnet; the teachers, Reason and +Peterson who made the Negro schools effective; and the physician, McCune +Smith, one of the best trained men of his day. In Philadelphia were +Robert Purvis, the Abolitionist; William Still, of the Underground +Railroad; the three men who made the catering business—Dorsey, Jones and +Minton; and the rich Negro lumber merchant, Stephen Smith, whose +magnificent endowment for aged Negroes stands to-day at the corner of +Girard and Belmont Avenues and is valued at $400,000. In western +Pennsylvania were Vashon and Woodson, and in the West were Day, +librarian of the Cleveland library; the three Langstons of Oberlin, and +the merchants Boyd and Wilcox of Cincinnati. Elsewhere appeared the +unlettered, but brave and shrewd leaders of the fugitive slaves. It is +said that 500 black messengers of this sort were passing backward and +forward between the slave and the free states in this decade, and +noticeable among them were Harriet Tubman and Josiah Henson, who brought +thousands to the North and to Canada. Foremost of all came Frederick +Douglass, born in 1817 and reborn to freedom in 1838. He made his first +speech in 1841 and took a prominent part in the anti-slavery campaign of +the next decade. In 1845–6, he was in England and, returning in 1847, he +established his paper and met John Brown. From that time on he was +Brown’s chief Negro confidant, and in his house Brown’s Eastern campaign +was started and largely carried on. The churches also were training men +in social leadership in the persons of their bishops, like John Brown’s +friend Loguen and the noble Daniel Payne. + +About 1847 new life appeared in the free Negro group. The Odd Fellows, +under Peter Ogden, maintained their independence against aggressions of +the whites, and the first of a new series of national colored +conventions assembled at Troy, N. Y. “The first article in the first +number of Frederick Douglass’s _North Star_, published January, 1848, +was an extended notice of this convention held at the Liberty Street +Church, Troy, N. Y., 1847.” + +The next year, 1848, Cleveland welcomed a similar national convention. +Nearly seventy delegates assembled there on September 6th, “the sessions +alternating between the Court-House and the Tabernacle. Frederick +Douglass was chosen president. As in previous conventions education was +encouraged, the importance of statistical information stated and +temperance societies urged.”[171] + +The representative character of the delegates was shown by the fact that +printers, carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, engineers, dentists, +gunsmiths, farmers, physicians, plasterers, masons, college students, +clergymen, barbers, hair-dressers, laborers, coopers, livery-stable +keepers, bath-house keepers and grocers were among the members who were +present.[172] + +The same year Frederick Douglass attended a Free Soil convention at +Buffalo, N. Y., and writes: “I was not the only colored man well known +to the country who was present at this convention. Samuel Ringgold Ward, +Henry Highland Garnet, Charles L. Remond, and Henry Bibb were there and +made speeches which were received with surprise and gratification by the +thousands there assembled. As a colored man I felt greatly encouraged +and strengthened for my cause while listening to these men, in the +presence of the ablest men of the Caucasian race. Mr. Ward especially +attracted attention at that convention. As an orator and thinker he was +vastly superior, I thought, to any of us, and being perfectly black and +of unmixed African descent, the splendors of his intellect went directly +to the glory of race. In depth of thought, fluency of speech, readiness +of wit, logical exactness, and general intelligence, Samuel R. Ward has +left no successor among the colored men amongst us, and it was a sad day +for our cause when he was laid low in the soil of a foreign +country.”[173] + +The next decade opened with over three and one-half millions of Negroes +in the United States—an enormous increase since 1840—and a remarkable +indication of virility and prosperity despite the new Fugitive Slave +Law. The Canadian Negroes were being organized in the Elgin and other +settlements, the colored Baptists reported 150,000 members, and the +Negroes of New York, replying to the Black Law recommendations of +Governor Ward Hunt, proved unincumbered ownership of $1,160,000 worth of +property. The escape of fugitive slaves was now systematized in the +Underground Railroad and in the secret organization known to outsiders +variously as the “League of Freedom,” “Liberty League,” or “American +Mysteries.” To these were added the fourteen Canadian “True Bands” with +several hundred members each. + +State conventions were called in many instances, and the most +representative and intelligent national convention held up to that time +met in Rochester, N. Y., Douglass’s home, in 1853. This convention +developed definite opposition to any hope of permanent relief for the +colored freeman through schemes of emigration. On the contrary, it +directed its energies to affirmative constructive action and planned +three measures: + +(1) An industrial college “on the manual labor plan.” Harriet Beecher +Stowe, who was to make a visit to England at the instance of friends in +that country, was authorized to receive funds in the name of the colored +people of the country for that purpose. “The successful establishment +and conduct of such an institution of learning would train youth to be +self-reliant and skilled workmen, fitted to hold their own in the +struggle of life on the conditions prevailing here.” + +(2) A registry of colored mechanics, artisans, and business men +throughout the Union, and also, “of all the persons willing to employ +colored men in business, to teach colored boys mechanic trades, liberal +and scientific professions and farming; also a registry of colored men +and youth seeking employment or instruction.” + +(3) A committee on publication “to collect all facts, statistics and +statements; all laws and historical records and biographies of the +colored people and all books by colored authors.” This committee was +further authorized “to publish replies of any assaults worthy of note, +made upon the character or condition of the colored people.”[174] + +The radical stand of this assembly against emigration caused a call for +a distinct emigration Negro convention in 1854. This convention was held +under the presidency of the same man who afterward presided at the +Chatham conclave of John Brown, and with some of the same Negroes +present. The account of it continues: + +“There were three parties in the emigration convention, ranged according +to the foreign fields they preferred to emigrate to. Dr. Delaney headed +the party that desired to go to the Niger Valley in Africa, Whitfield +the party which preferred to go to Central America, and Holly the party +which preferred to go to Haiti. + +“All these parties were recognized and embraced by the convention. Dr. +Delaney was given a commission to go to Africa, in the Niger Valley, +Whitfield to go to Central America, and Holly to Haiti, to enter into +negotiations with the authorities of these various countries for Negro +emigrants and to report to future conventions. Holly was the first to +execute his mission, going down to Haiti in 1855, when he entered into +relations with the Minister of the Interior, the father of the late +President Hyppolite, and by him was presented to Emperor Faustin I. The +next emigration convention was held at Chatham, Canada West, in 1856, +when the report on Haiti was made. Dr. Delaney went off on his mission +to the Niger Valley, Africa, via England, in 1858. There he concluded a +treaty signed by himself and eight kings, offering inducements to Negro +emigrants to their territories. Whitfield went to California, intending +later to go thence to Central America, but died in San Francisco before +he could do so. Meanwhile [James] Redpath went to Haiti as a John +Brownist after the Harper’s Ferry raid, and reaped the first fruits of +Holly’s mission by being appointed Haitian Commissioner of Emigration in +the United States by the Haitian government, but with the express +injunction that Rev. Holly should be called to coöperate with him. On +Redpath’s arrival in the United States, he tendered Rev. Holly a +commission from the Haitian government at $1,000 per annum and traveling +expenses to engage emigrants to go to Haiti. The first load of emigrants +were from Philadelphia in 1861.”[175] + +In 1853 when the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed, Negroes like +Purvis and Barbadoes, trained in the Negro convention movement, were +among its founders. By 1856 the African Methodist Church had 20,000 +members and $425,000 worth of property. + +Of all this development John Brown knew far more than most white men and +it was on this great knowledge that his great faith was based. To most +Americans the inner striving of the Negro was a veiled and an unknown +tale: they had heard of Douglass, they knew of fugitive slaves, but of +the living, organized, struggling group that made both these phenomena +possible they had no conception. + +From his earliest interest in Negroes, John Brown sought to know +individuals among them intimately and personally. He invited them to his +home and he went to theirs. He talked to them, and listened to the +history of their trials, advised them and took advice from them. His +dream was to enlist the boldest and most daring spirits among them in +his great plan. + +When, therefore, John Brown came East in January, 1858, his object was +not simply to further his campaign for funds, but more especially +definitely to organize the Negroes for his work. Already he had +disclosed his intentions to Thomas Thomas of Springfield and to +Frederick Douglass. He now determined to enlist a larger number and he +particularly had in mind the Negroes of New York and Philadelphia, and +those in Canada. At no time, however, did John Brown plan to begin his +foray with many Negroes. He knew that he must gain the confidence of +black men first by a successful stroke, and that after initial success +he could count on large numbers. His object then was to interest a few +leaders like Douglass, organize societies with wide ramifications, and +after the first raid to depend on these societies for aid and recruits. + +During his stay with Douglass in February, 1858, he wrote to many +colored leaders: Henry Highland Garnet and James N. Gloucester in New +York; John Jones in Chicago, and J. W. Loguen of the Zion Church. The +addresses of Downing of Rhode Island, and Martin R. Delaney were also +noted. On February 23d, after he had been in Boston and Peterboro he +notes writing to Loguen, one of the closest of his Negro friends: “Think +I shall be ready to go with him [to Canada] by the first of March or +about that time.”[176] + +On March 10th, John Brown and his eldest son, Henry Highland Garnet, +William Still and others met at the house of Stephen Smith, the rich +Negro lumber merchant, of 921 Lombard Street, Philadelphia. Brown seems +to have stayed nearly a week in that city, and probably had long +conferences with all the chief Philadelphia Negro leaders. On March +18th, he was in New Haven where he wrote Frederick Douglass and J. W. +Loguen, saying: “I expect to be on the way by the 28th or 30th inst.” +After a flying visit home, involving a long walk to save expense, he +appeared again at Douglass’s in April. Gloucester collected a little +money for him in New York and he probably received some in Philadelphia; +at last he turned his face toward Canada. + +He had long wished to see Canada, and had planned a visit as far back as +1846. Hither he had sent one of the earliest of his North Elba refugees, +Walter Hawkins, who became Bishop of the British African Church. On +April 8th, John Brown writes his son: “I came on here direct with J. W. +Loguen the day after you left Rochester. I am succeeding, to all +appearance, beyond my expectations. Harriet Tubman hooked on his whole +team at once. He (Harriet) is the most of a man, naturally, that I ever +met with. There is the most abundant material, and of the right quality, +in this quarter, beyond all doubt. Do not forget to write Mr. Case (near +Rochester) at once about hunting up every person and family of the +reliable kind about, at, or near Bedford, Chambersburg, Gettysburg, and +Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, and also Hagerstown and vicinity, Maryland, +and Harper’s Ferry, Va.”[177] + +He stayed at St. Catherines until the 14th or 15th, chiefly in +consultation with that wonderful woman, Harriet Tubman, and sheltered in +her home. Harriet Tubman was a full-blooded African, born a slave on the +eastern shore of Maryland in 1820. When a girl she was injured by having +an iron weight thrown on her head by an overseer, an injury that gave +her wild, half-mystic ways with dreams, rhapsodies and trances. In her +early womanhood she did the rudest and hardest man’s work, driving, +carting and plowing. Finally the slave family was broken up in 1849, +when she ran away. Then began her wonderful career as a rescuer of +fugitive slaves. Back and forth she traveled like some dark ghost until +she had personally led over three hundred blacks to freedom, no one of +whom was ever lost while in her charge. A reward of $10,000 for her, +alive or dead, was offered, but she was never taken. A dreamer of dreams +as she was, she ever “laid great stress on a dream which she had had +just before she met Captain Brown in Canada. She thought she was in ‘a +wilderness sort of place, all full of rocks, and bushes,’ when she saw a +serpent raise its head among the rocks, and as it did so, it became the +head of an old man with a long white beard, gazing at her, ‘wishful +like, jes as ef he war gwine to speak to me,’ and then two other heads +rose up beside him, younger than he,—and as she stood looking at them, +and wondering what they could want with her, a great crowd of men rushed +in and struck down the younger heads, and then the head of the old man, +still looking at her so ‘wishful!’ This dream she had again and again, +and could not interpret it; but when she met Captain Brown, shortly +after, behold he was the very image of the head she had seen. But still +she could not make out what her dream signified, till the news came to +her of the tragedy of Harper’s Ferry, and then she knew the two other +heads were his two sons.”[178] + +In this woman John Brown placed the utmost confidence. Wendell Phillips +says: “The last time I ever saw John Brown was under my own roof, as he +brought Harriet Tubman to me, saying: ‘Mr. Phillips, I bring you one of +the best and bravest persons on this continent—General Tubman, as we +call her.’ He then went on to recount her labors and sacrifices in +behalf of her race.”[179] + +Only sickness, brought on by her toil and exposure, prevented Harriet +Tubman from being present at Harper’s Ferry. + +From St. Catherines John Brown went to Ingersoll, Hamilton and Chatham. +He also visited Toronto, holding meetings with Negroes in Temperance +Hall, and at the house of the “late Mr. Holland, a colored man, on Queen +Street West. On one occasion Captain Brown remained as a guest with his +friend, Dr. A. M. Ross, who is distinguished as a naturalist, as well as +an intrepid Abolitionist, who risked his life on several occasions in +excursions into the South to enable slaves to flee to Canada!”[180] + +Having finally perfected plans for a convention, Brown hurried back to +Iowa for his men. During his three months’ absence they had been working +and drilling in the Quaker settlement of Springdale, Ia., as most +persons supposed, for future troubles in “bleeding Kansas.” On John +Brown’s arrival they all hurriedly packed up—Owen Brown, Realf, Kagi, +Cook, Stevens, Tidd, Leeman, Moffett, Parsons, and the colored man +Richardson, together with their recruits, Gill and Taylor. The Coppocs +were to come later. “The leave-taking between them and the people of +Springdale was one of tears. Ties which had been knitting through many +weeks were sundered, and not only so, but the natural sorrow at parting +was intensified by the consciousness of all that the future was full of +hazard for Brown and his followers. Before quitting the house and home +of Mr. Maxon, where they had spent so long a time, each of Brown’s band +wrote his name in pencil on the wall of the parlor, where the writing +still can be seen by the interested traveler.” They all immediately +started for Canada by way of Chicago and Detroit. At Chicago they had to +wait twelve hours, and the first hotel refused to accommodate Richardson +at the breakfast table. John Brown immediately sought another place. The +company arrived shortly in Chatham and stopped at a hotel kept by Mr. +Barber, a colored man. While at Chatham, John Brown, as Anderson +relates, “made a profound impression upon those who saw or became +acquainted with him. Some supposed him to be a staid but modernized +‘Quaker’; others a solid business man, from ‘somewhere,’ and without +question a philanthropist. His long white beard, thoughtful and reverent +brow and physiognomy, his sturdy, measured tread, as he circulated about +with hands, portrayed in the best lithograph, under the pendant +coat-skirt of plain brown tweed, with other garments to match, revived +to those honored with his acquaintance and knowing his history the +memory of a Puritan of the most exalted type.”[181] + +John Brown’s choice of Canada as a centre of Negro culture, was wise. +There were nearly 50,000 Negroes there, and the number included many +energetic, intelligent and brave men, with some wealth. Settlements had +grown up, farms had been bought, schools established and an intricate +social organization begun. Negroes like Henson had been loyally assisted +by white men like King, and fugitives were welcomed and succored. Near +Buxton, where King and the Elgin Association were working, was Chatham, +the chief town of the county of Kent, with a large Negro population of +farmers, merchants and mechanics; they had a graded school, Wilberforce +Institute, several churches, a newspaper, a fire-engine company and +several organizations for social intercourse and uplift. One of the +inhabitants said: + +“Mr. Brown did not overestimate the state of education of the colored +people. He knew that they would need leaders, and require training. His +great hope was that the struggle would be supported by volunteers from +Canada, educated and accustomed to self-government. He looked on our +fugitives as picked men of sufficient intelligence, which, combined with +a hatred for the South, would make them willing abettors of any +enterprise destined to free their race.” + +There were many white Abolitionists near by, but they distrusted Brown +and in this way he gained less influence among the Negroes than he +otherwise might have had. Martin R. Delaney, who was a fervid African +emigrationist, was just about to start to Africa, bearing the mandate of +the last Negro convention, when John Brown appeared. “On returning home +from a professional visit in the country, Mrs. Delaney informed him that +an old gentleman had called to see him during his absence. She described +him as having a long, white beard, very gray hair, a sad but placid +countenance. In speech he was peculiarly solemn. She added, ‘He looked +like one of the old prophets. He would neither come in nor leave his +name, but promised to be back in two weeks’ time.’” + +Finally Delaney met John Brown who said: + +“‘I come to Chatham expressly to see you, this being my third visit on +the errand. I must see you at once, sir,’ he continued, with emphasis, +‘and that, too, in private, as I have much to do and but little time +before me. If I am to do nothing here, I want to know it at once.’” + +Delaney continues: + +“Going directly to the private parlor of a hotel near by, he at once +revealed to me that he desired to carry out a great project in his +scheme of Kansas emigration, which, to be successful, must be aided and +countenanced by the influence of a general convention or council. That +he was unable to effect in the United States, but had been advised by +distinguished friends of his and mine, that, if he could but see me, his +object could be attained at once. On my expressing astonishment at the +conclusion to which my friends and himself had arrived, with a nervous +impatience, he exclaimed, ‘Why should you be surprised? Sir, the people +of the Northern states are cowards; slavery has made cowards of them +all. The whites are afraid of each other, and the blacks are afraid of +the whites. You can effect nothing among such people,’ he added, with +decided emphasis. On assuring him if a council was all that was desired, +he could readily obtain it, he replied, ‘That is all; but that is a +great deal to me. It is men I want, and not money; money I can get +plentiful enough, but no men. Money can come without being seen, but men +are afraid of identification with me, though they favor my measures. +They are cowards, sir! Cowards!’ he reiterated. He then fully revealed +his designs. With these I found no fault, but fully favored and aided in +getting up the convention.”[182] + +Meantime John Brown proceeded carefully to sound public opinion, got the +views of others, and, while revealing few of his own plans, set about +getting together a body who were willing to ratify his general aims. He +consulted the leading Negroes in private, and called a series of small +conferences to thresh out preliminary difficulties. In these meetings +and in the personal visits, many points arose and were settled. A member +of the convention says: + +“One evening the question came up as to what flag should be used; our +English colored subjects, who had been naturalized, said they would +never think of fighting under the hated ‘Stars and Stripes.’ Too many of +them thought they carried their emblem on their backs. But Brown said +the old flag was good enough for him; under it freedom had been won from +the tyrants of the Old World, for white men; now he intended to make it +do duty for the black men. He declared emphatically that he would not +give up the Stars and Stripes. That settled the question. + +“Some one proposed admitting women as members, but Brown strenuously +opposed this, and warned the members not to intimate, even to their +wives, what was done. + +“One day in my shop I told him how utterly hopeless his plans would be +if he persisted in making an attack with the few at his command, and +that we could not afford to spare white men of his stamp, ready to +sacrifice their lives for the salvation of black men. While I was +speaking, Mr. Brown walked to and fro, with his hands behind his back, +as was his custom when thinking on his favorite subject. He stopped +suddenly and bringing down his right hand with great force, exclaimed: +‘Did not my Master Jesus Christ come down from Heaven and sacrifice +Himself upon the altar for the salvation of the race, and should I, a +worm, not worthy to crawl under His feet, refuse to sacrifice myself?’ +With a look of determination, he resumed his walk. In all the +conversations I had with him during his stay in Chatham of nearly a +month, I never once saw a smile light upon his countenance. He seemed to +be always in deep and earnest thought.”[183] + +The preliminary meeting was held in a frame cottage on Princess Street, +south of King Street, then known as the “King Street High School.” Some +meetings were also held in the First Baptist Church on King Street. In +order to mislead the inquisitive, it was pretended that the persons +assembling were organizing a Masonic Lodge of colored people. The +important proceedings took place in “No. 3 Engine House,” a wooden +building near McGregor’s Creek, erected by Mr. Holden and other colored +men. + +The regular invitations were issued on the fifth: + + “_Chatham, Canada, May 5, 1858._ + + “MY DEAR FRIEND: + + “I have called a quiet convention in this place of true friends of + freedom. Your attendance is earnestly requested.... + + “Your friend, + “JOHN BROWN.” + +The convention was called together at 10 A. M., Saturday, May 8th, and +opened without ceremony. There were present the following Negroes: +William Charles Monroe, a Baptist clergyman, formerly president of the +emigration convention and elected president of this assembly; Martin R. +Delaney, afterward major in the United States Army in the Civil War; +Alfred Whipper, of Pennsylvania; William Lambert and I. D. Shadd, of +Detroit, Mich.; James H. Harris, of Cleveland, O., after the war a +representative in Congress for two terms from North Carolina; G. J. +Reynolds, an active Underground Railroad leader of Sandusky City; J. C. +Grant, A. J. Smith, James M. Jones, a gunsmith and engraver, graduate of +Oberlin College, 1849; M. F. Bailey, S. Hunton, John J. Jackson, +Jeremiah Anderson, James M. Bell, Alfred Ellisworth, James W. Purnell, +George Aiken, Stephen Dettin, Thomas Hickerson, John Cannel, Robinson +Alexander, Thomas F. Cary, Thomas M. Kinnard, Robert Van Vauken, Thomas +Stringer, John A. Thomas, believed by some to be John Brown’s earlier +confidant and employee at Springfield, Mass., afterward employed by +Abraham Lincoln in his Illinois home and at the White House also; Robert +Newman, Charles Smith, Simon Fislin, Isaac Holden, a merchant and +surveyor and John Brown’s host; James Smith, and Richard Richardson. + +Hinton says: “There is no evidence to show that Douglass, Loguen, +Garnet, Stephen Smith, Gloucester, Langston, or others of the prominent +men of color in the states who knew John Brown, were invited to the +Chatham meeting. It is doubtful if their appearance would have been +wise, as it would assuredly have been commented on and aroused +suspicion.”[184] + +The white men present were: John and Owen Brown, father and son; John +Henri Kagi, Aaron Dwight Stevens, still known as Charles Whipple; John +Edwin Cook, Richard Realf, George B. Gill, Charles Plummer Tidd, William +Henry Leeman, Charles W. Moffett, Luke F. Parsons, all of Kansas; and +Steward Taylor of Canada, twelve in all. It has been usually assumed +that Jeremiah Anderson was white but the evidence makes it possible that +he was a mulatto. John J. Jackson called the meeting to order and Monroe +was chosen president. Delaney then asked for John Brown, and Brown spoke +at length, followed by Delaney and others. + +The constitution was brought forward and, after a solemn parole of +honor, was read. It proved to be a frame of government based on the +national Constitution, but much simplified and adapted to a moving band +of guerrillas. The first forty-five articles were accepted without +debate. The next article was: “The foregoing articles shall not be so as +in any way to encourage the overthrow of any state government, or the +general government of the United States, and look to no dissolution of +the Union, but simply to amendment and repeal, and our flag shall be the +same that our fathers fought for under the Revolution.” + +To this Reynolds, the “coppersmith,” one of the strongest men in the +convention, objected. He felt no allegiance to the nation that had +robbed and humiliated him. Brown, Delaney, Kagi and others, however, +earnestly advocated the article and it passed. Saturday afternoon the +constitution was finally adopted and signed. Brown induced James M. +Jones, who had not attended all the sittings, to come to this one, as +the constitution must be signed, and he wished his name to be on the +roll of honor. As the paper was presented for signature, Brown said, +“Now, friend Jones, give us John Hancock bold and strong.” + +The account continues: + +“During one of the sittings, Mr. Jones had the floor, and discussed the +chances of the success or failure of the slaves rising to support the +plan proposed. Mr. Brown’s scheme was to fortify some place in the +mountains, and call the slaves to rally under his colors. Jones +expressed fear that he would be disappointed, because the slaves did not +know enough to rally to his support. The American slaves, Jones argued, +were different from those of the West India Island of San Domingo, whose +successful uprising is a matter of history, as they had there imbibed +some of the impetuous character of their French masters, and were not so +overawed by white men. ‘Mr. Brown, no doubt thought,’ says Mr. Jones, +‘that I was making an impression on some of the members, if not on him, +for he arose suddenly and remarked, “Friend Jones, you will please say +no more on that side. There will be a plenty to defend that side of the +question.” A general laugh took place.’ + +“A question as to the time for making the attack came up in the +convention. Some advocated that we should wait until the United States +became involved in war with some first-class power; that it would be +next to madness to plunge into a strife for the abolition of slavery +while the government was at peace with other nations. Mr. Brown listened +to the argument for some time, then slowly arose to his full height, and +said: ‘I would be the last one to take the advantage of my country in +the face of a foreign foe.’ He seemed to regard it as a great insult. +That settled the matter in my mind that John Brown was not insane.”[185] + +At 6 P. M. the election of officers under the constitution took place, +and was finished Monday, the tenth. John Brown was elected +commander-in-chief; Kagi, secretary of war; Realf, secretary of state; +Owen Brown, treasurer; and George B. Gill, secretary of the treasury. +Members of congress chosen were Alfred Ellisworth and Osborne P. +Anderson, colored. + +After appointing a committee to fill other offices, the convention +adjourned. Another and a larger body was also organized, as Delaney +says: “This organization was an extensive body, holding the same +relation to his movements as a state or national executive committee +holds to its party principles, directing their adherence to fundamental +principles.”[186] + +This committee still existed at the time of the Harper’s Ferry raid. +With characteristic reticence Brown revealed his whole plan to no one, +and many of those close to him received quite different impressions, or +rather read their own ideas into Brown’s careful speech. One of his +Kansas band says: “I am sure that Brown did not communicate the details +of his plans to the members of the convention, more than in a very +general way. Indeed, I do not now remember that he gave them any more +than the impressions which they could gather from the methods of +organization. From those who were directly connected with his movements +he solicited plans and methods—including localities—of operations in +writing. Of course, we had almost precise knowledge of his methods, but +all of us perhaps did not know just the locality selected by him, or, if +knowing, did not comprehend the resources and surroundings.”[187] + +“John Brown, never, I think,” said Mr. Jones, “communicated his whole +plan, even to his immediate followers. In his conversations with me he +led me to think that he intended to sacrifice himself and a few of his +followers for the purpose of arousing the people of the North from the +stupor they were in on this subject. He seemed to think such sacrifice +necessary to awaken the people from the deep sleep that had settled upon +the minds of the whites of the North. He well knew that the sacrifice of +any number of Negroes would have no effect. What he intended to do, so +far as I could gather from his conversation, from time to time, was to +emulate Arnold Winkelried, the Swiss chieftain, when he threw himself +upon the Austrian spearmen, crying, ‘Make way for Liberty.’”[188] +Delaney in his own bold, original way assumed that Brown intended +another Underground Railway terminating in Kansas. Delaney himself was +on his way to Africa and could take no active part in the movement. + +The constitution adopted by the convention was an instrument designed +for the government of a band of isolated people fighting for liberty. +The preamble said: + +“Whereas slavery, throughout its entire existence in the United States, +is none other than a most barbarous, unprovoked and unjustifiable war of +one portion of its citizens upon another portion—the only conditions of +which are perpetual imprisonment and hopeless servitude or absolute +extermination—in utter disregard and violation of those eternal and +self-evident truths set forth in our Declaration of Independence: + +“Therefore, we, citizens of the United States, and the oppressed people +who, by a recent decision of the Supreme Court, are declared to have no +rights which the white man is bound to respect, together with all other +people degraded by the laws thereof, do, for the time being, ordain and +establish ourselves the following provisional constitution and +ordinances, the better to protect our persons, property, lives, and +liberties, and to govern our actions.”[189] + +The Declaration of Independence referred to was probably designed to be +adopted July 4, 1858, when, as originally planned, the blow was to be +actually struck. It was a paraphrase of the original declaration and +ended by saying: + +“Declaring that we will serve them no longer as slaves, knowing that the +‘Laborer is worthy of his hire,’ We therefore, the Representatives of +the circumscribed citizens of the United States of America, in General +Congress assembled, appealing to the supreme Judge of the World, for the +rectitude of our intentions, Do in the name, & by authority of the +oppressed Citizens of the Slave States, Solemnly publish and Declare: +that the Slaves are, & of right ought to be as free & as independent as +the unchangeable Law of God requires that All Men Shall be. That they +are absolved from all allegiance to those Tyrants, who still persist in +forcibly subjecting them to perpetual ‘Bondage,’ and that all friendly +connection between them and such Tyrants, is & ought to be totally +dissolved, And that as free and independent citizens of these states, +they have a perfect right, a sufficient and just cause, to defend +themselves against the Tyrrany of their oppressors. To solicit aid from +& ask the protection of all true friends of humanity and reform, of +whatever nation, & wherever found; A right to contract all Alliances, & +to do all other acts and things which free independent Citizens may of +right do. And for the support of the Declaration, with a firm reliance +on the protection of divine Providence: We mutually pledge to each +other, Our Lives, and Our sacred Honor.”[190] + +The constitution consisted of forty-eight articles. All persons of +mature age were admitted to membership and there was established a +congress with one house of five to ten members, a president and +vice-president and a court of five members, each one of whom held +circuit courts. All these officials were to unite in selecting a +commander-in-chief, treasurer, secretaries, and other officials. All +property was to be in common and no salaries were to be paid. All +persons were to labor. All indecent behavior was forbidden: “The +marriage relation shall be at all times respected, and families kept +together, as far as possible; and broken families encouraged to reunite, +and intelligence offices established for that purpose. Schools and +churches established, as soon as may be, for the purpose of religious +and other instructions; and the first day of the week regarded as a day +of rest, and appropriated to moral and religions instruction and +improvement, relief of the suffering, instruction of the young and +ignorant, and the encouragement of personal cleanliness; nor shall any +person be required on that day to perform ordinary manual labor, unless +in extremely urgent cases.”[191] All persons were to carry arms but not +concealed. There were special provisions for the capture of prisoners, +and protection of their persons and property. + +John Brown was well pleased with his work and wrote home: “Had a good +Abolition convention here, from different parts, on the 8th and 10th +inst. Constitution slightly amended and adopted, and society +organized.”[192] + +Just now as everything seemed well started, came disquieting news from +the East. Forbes had been there since November, growing more and more +poverty-stricken and angry, and his threats, hints and visits were +becoming frequent and annoying. He complained to Senator Wilson, to +Charles Sumner, to Hale, Seward and Horace Greeley, and to the Boston +coterie. He could not understand why these leaders of the movement +against slavery, as he supposed, should leave the real power in the +hands of John Brown, and neglect an experienced soldier like himself +after raising false expectations. John Brown had dealt with Forbes +gently but firmly, and had sought to conciliate him, but in vain. Brown +was apparently determined to outwit him by haste; he had written his +Massachusetts friends to join him at the Chatham Convention, but Sanborn +and Howe had already received threatening letters from Forbes which +alarmed them. He evidently had careful information of Brown’s movements +and was bent on making trouble. He probably was at this time in the +confidence of McCune Smith and the able Negro group of New York who had +developed a not unnatural distrust of whites, and a desire to foster +race pride. Using information thus obtained, Forbes sought to put +pressure on Republican leaders to organize more effective warfare on +slavery, and to discredit John Brown. Sanborn wrote hastily: “It looks +as if the project must, for the present, be deferred, for I find by +reading Forbes’s epistles to the doctor that he knows the details of the +plan, and even knows (what very few do) that the doctor, Mr. Stearns, +and myself are informed of it. How he got this knowledge is a mystery. +He demands that Hawkins [John Brown] be dismissed as agent, and himself +or some other be put in his place, threatening otherwise to make the +business public.”[193] Gerrit Smith concluded, “Brown must go no +further.” But Higginson wisely demurred. “I regard any postponement,” he +said, “as simply abandoning the project; for if we give it up now, at +the command or threat of H. F., it will be the same next year. The only +way is to circumvent the man somehow (if he cannot be restrained in his +malice). When the thing is well started, who cares what he says?”[194] + +Further efforts were made to conciliate Forbes but he wrote wildly: “I +have been grossly defrauded in the name of humanity and anti-slavery.... +I have for years labored in the anti-slavery cause, without wanting or +thinking of a recompense. Though I have made the least possible parade +of my work, it has nevertheless not been entirely without fruit.... +Patience and mild measures having failed, I reluctantly have recourse to +harshness. Let them not flatter themselves that I shall eventually +become weary and shall drop the subject; it is as yet quite at its +beginning.”[195] + +“To go on in face of this is madness,” wrote Sanborn, and John Brown was +urged to come to New York to meet Stearns and Howe. Brown had already +been delayed nearly a month at Chatham by this trouble, but he obeyed +the summons. Sanborn says: “When, about May 20th, Mr. Stearns met Brown +in New York, it was arranged that hereafter the custody of the Kansas +rifles should be in Brown’s hands as the agent, not of this committee, +but of Mr. Stearns alone. It so happened that Gerrit Smith, who seldom +visited Boston, was coming there late in May.... He arrived and took +rooms at the Revere House, where, on the 24th of May, 1858, the secret +committee (organized in March, and consisting of Smith, Parker, Howe, +Higginson, Stearns, and Sanborn) held a meeting to consider the +situation. It had already been decided to postpone the attack, and the +arms had been placed under a temporary interdict, so that they could +only be used, for the present, in Kansas. The questions remaining were +whether Brown should be required to go to Kansas at once, and what +amount of money should be raised for him in the future. Of the six +members of the committee only one (Higginson) was absent.... It was +unanimously resolved that Brown ought to go to Kansas at once.” + +As soon as possible after this, on May 21st, Brown visited Boston, and +while there held a conversation with Higginson, who made a record of it +at the time. He states that Brown was full of regret at the decision of +the Revere House council to postpone the attack till the winter or +spring of 1859, when the secret committee would raise for Brown two or +three thousand dollars; he meantime was to blind Forbes by going to +Kansas, and to transfer the property so as to relieve the Kansas +committee of responsibility, they in future not to know his plans. + +“On probing Brown,” Higginson goes on, “I found that he ... considered +delay very discouraging to his thirteen men, and to those in Canada. +Impossible to begin in autumn; and he would not lose a day (he finally +said) if he had three hundred dollars; it would not cost twenty-five +dollars apiece to get his men from Ohio, and that was all he needed. The +knowledge that Forbes could give of his plan would be injurious, for he +wished his opponents to underrate him; but still ... the increased +terror produced would perhaps counterbalance this, and it would not make +much difference. If he had the means he would not lose a day. He +complained that some of his Eastern friends were not men of action; that +they were intimidated by Wilson’s letter, and magnified the obstacles. +Still, it was essential that they should not think him reckless, he +said; and as they held the purse, he was powerless without them, having +spent nearly everything received this campaign, on account of delay,—a +month at Chatham, etc.”[196] + +There was nothing now for Brown but to conceal his arms, scatter his men +and hide a year in Kansas. It was a bitter necessity and it undoubtedly +helped ruin the success of the foray. The Negroes in Canada fell away +from the plan when it did not materialize and doubted Brown’s +determination and wisdom. His son hid the arms in northern Ohio in a +haymow. + +Meantime, a part of the company—Stevens, Cook, Tidd, Gill, Taylor and +Owen Brown—immediately after the adjournment of the convention, had gone +to Cleveland, O., and had found work in the surrounding country. Brown +wrote from Canada at the time: + +“It seems that all but three have managed to stop their board bills, and +I do hope the balance will follow the manlike and noble example of +patience and perseverance set them by the others, instead of being +either discouraged or out of humor. The weather is so wet here that no +work can be obtained. I have only received $15 from the East, and such +has been the effect of the course taken by F. [Col. Forbes], on our +Eastern friends, that I have some fears that we shall be compelled to +delay further action for the present. They [his Eastern friends] urge us +to do so, promising us liberal assistance after a while. I am in hourly +expectation of help sufficient to pay off our bills here, and to take us +on to Cleveland, to see and advise with you, which we shall do at once +when we shall get the means. Suppose we do have to defer our direct +efforts; shall great and noble minds either indulge in useless +complaint, or fold their arms in discouragement, or sit in idleness, +when we may at least avoid losing ground? It is in times of difficulty +that men show what they are; it is in such times that men mark +themselves. Are our difficulties such as to make us give up one of the +noblest enterprises in which men ever were engaged?”[197] + +Two weeks later the rest of the party, except Kagi, followed to +Cleveland, John Brown going East to meet Stearns. Kagi, who was an +expert printer, went to Hamilton, Canada, where he set up and printed +the constitution, arriving in Cleveland about the middle of June when +Brown returned from the East. Realf says that Brown did not have much +money, but sent him to New York and Washington to watch Forbes and +possibly regain his confidence. Realf, however, had become timid and +lukewarm in the cause and sailed away to England. The rest of the men +scattered. Owen Brown went to Akron, O. Cook left Cleveland for the +neighborhood of Harper’s Ferry; Gill secured work in a Shaker +settlement, probably Lebanon, O., where Tidd was already employed; +Steward Taylor went to Illinois; Stevens awaited Brown at Cleveland; +while Leeman got some work in Ashtabula County. John Brown left Boston, +on the 3rd of June, proceeding to the North Elba home for a short visit. +Then he, Kagi, Stevens, Leeman, Gill, Parsons, Moffett, and Owen were +gathered together and the party went to Kansas, arriving late in June. + +Thus suddenly ended John Brown’s attempt to organize the Black Phalanx. +His intimate friends understood that the great plan was only postponed, +but the postponement had, as Higginson predicted, a dampening effect, +and Brown’s chances of enlisting a large Canadian contingent were +materially lessened. Nevertheless, seed had been sown. And there were +millions of human beings to whom the last word of the Chatham +Declaration of Independence was more than mere rhetoric: “Nature is +mourning for its murdered and afflicted children. Hung be the Heavens in +scarlet!” + + + + + CHAPTER X + THE GREAT BLACK WAY + + “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because of the Lord hath + anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to + bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and + the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” + + +Half-way between Maine and Florida, in the Heart of the Alleghanies, a +mighty gateway lifts its head and discloses a scene which, a century and +a a quarter ago, Thomas Jefferson said was “worth a voyage across the +Atlantic.” He continues: “You stand on a very high point of land; on +your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of the +mountain a hundred miles to find a vent; on your left approaches the +Potomac, in quest of a passage also. In the moment of their junction +they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off +to the sea.”[198] + +This is Harper’s Ferry and this was the point which John Brown chose for +his attack on American slavery. He chose it for many reasons. He loved +beauty: “When I met Brown at Peterboro in 1858,” writes Sanborn, “Morton +played some fine music to us in the parlor,—among other things +Schubert’s _Serenade_, then a favorite piece,—and the old Puritan, who +loved music and sang a good part himself, sat weeping at the air.”[199] +He chose Harper’s Ferry because a United States arsenal was there and +the capture of this would give that dramatic climax to the inception of +his plan which was so necessary to its success. But both these were +minor reasons. The foremost and decisive reason was that Harper’s Ferry +was the safest natural entrance to the Great Black Way. Look at the map +(page 274). The shaded portion is “the black belt” of slavery where +there were massed in 1859 at least three of the four million slaves. Two +paths led southward toward it in the East:—the way by Washington, +physically broad and easy, but legally and socially barred to bondsmen; +the other way, known to Harriet Tubman and all fugitives, which led to +the left toward the crests of the Alleghanies and the gateway of +Harper’s Ferry. One has but to glance at the mountains and swamps of the +South to see the Great Black Way. Here, amid the mighty protection of +overwhelming numbers, lay a path from slavery to freedom, and along that +path were fastnesses and hiding-places easily capable of becoming +permanent fortified refuges for organized bands of determined armed men. + +The exact details of Brown’s plan will never be fully known. As Realf +said: “John Brown was a man who would never state more than it was +absolutely necessary for him to do. No one of his most intimate +associates and I was one of the most intimate was possessed of more than +barely sufficient information to enable Brown to attach such companion +to him.”[200] + +[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE GREAT BLACK WAY] + +A glance at the map shows clearly that John Brown intended to operate in +the Blue Ridge mountains rising east of the Shenandoah and known at +Harper’s Ferry as Loudoun Heights. The Loudoun Heights rise boldly 500 +to 700 feet above the village of Harper’s Ferry and 1,000 feet above the +sea. They run due south and then southwest, dipping down a little the +first three miles, then rising to 1,500 feet, which level is practically +maintained until twenty-five miles below Harper’s Ferry where the +mountains broaden to a dense and labyrinthical wilderness, and rise to a +height of 2,000 or more feet. Right at this high point and insight of +High Knob (a peak of 2,400 feet) began, in Fauquier County, the Great +Black Way. In this county in 1850 were over 10,000 slaves, and 650 free +Negroes, as compared with 9,875 whites. From this county to the southern +boundary of Virginia was a series of black counties with a majority of +slaves, containing in 1850 at least 260,000 Negroes. From here the Great +Black Way went south as John Brown indicated in his diary and +undoubtedly in the marked maps, which Virginia afterward hastily +destroyed. + +The easiest way to get to these heights was from Harper’s Ferry. An +hour’s climb from the arsenal grounds would easily have hidden a hundred +men in inaccessible fastnesses, provided they were not overburdened; and +even with arms, ammunition and supplies, they could have repelled, +without difficulty, attacks on the retreat. Forts and defenses could be +prepared in these mountains, and before the raid they had been pretty +thoroughly explored and paths marked. In Harper’s Ferry just at the +crossing of the main road from Maryland lay the arsenal. The plan +without a doubt was first, to collect men and arms on the Maryland side +of the Potomac; second, to attack the arsenal suddenly and capture it; +third, to bring up the arms and ammunition and, together with those +captured, to cross the Shenandoah to Loudoun Heights and hide in the +mountain wilderness; fourth, thence to descend at intervals to release +slaves and get food, and retreat southward. Most writers have apparently +supposed that Brown intended to retreat from the arsenal across the +Potomac. A moment’s thought will show the utter absurdity of this plan. +Brown knew guerrilla warfare, and the failure of Harper’s Ferry raid +does not prove it a blunder from the start. The raid was not a foray +_from_ the mountains, which failed because its retreat was cut off, but +it was a foray _to_ the mountains with the village and arsenal on the +way, which was defeated apparently because the arms and ammunition train +failed to join the advance-guard. + +This then was the great plan which John Brown had been slowly +elaborating and formulating for twenty years—since the day when kneeling +beside a Negro minister he had sworn his sons to blood-feud with +slavery. + +The money resources with which John Brown undertook his project are not +exactly known. Sanborn says: “Brown’s first request in 1858 was for a +fund of a thousand dollars only; with this in the hand he promised to +take the field either in April or May. Mr. Stearns acted as treasurer of +this fund, and before the 1st of May nearly the whole the amount had +been paid in or subscribed,—Stearns contributing three hundred dollars, +and the rest of our committee smaller sums. It soon appeared, however, +that the amount named would be too small, and Brown’s movements were +embarrassed from the lack of money before the disclosures of Forbes came +to his knowledge.”[201] From first to last George L. Stearns gave in +cash and arms about $7,500, and Gerrit Smith contributed more than +$1,000. Merriam brought with him $600 in gold in October. Between March +10th and October 16th, Brown expended at least $2,500. In all Sanborn +raised $4,000 for Brown. Hinton says: “As near as can be estimated, the +money received by Brown could not have exceeded $12,000, while the +supplies, arms, etc., furnished may have cost $10,000 more. Of course, +there were smaller contributions and support coming in, but if the total +estimate be placed at $25,000, for the period between the 15th of +September, 1856, when he left Lawrence, Kan., and the 16th of October, +1859, when he moved on Harper’s Ferry, Va., with twenty-one men, it will +certainly cover all of the outlay except that of time, labor, and +lives.”[202] + +This total, however, does not include a fund of $1,000 raised for his +family. + +The civic organization under which Brown intended to work has been +spoken of. The military organization was based on his Kansas experience +and his reading. In his diary is this entry: + + “Circassia has about 550,000 + Switzerland 2,037,030 + + Guerrilla warfare See Life of Lord Wellington + + Page 71 to Page 75 (Mina) + + See also Page 102 some valuable hints in the Same Book. See also + Page 196 some most important instructions to officers. + + See also same Book Page 235 these words deep, and + + narrow defiles where 300 men would suffice to check an army. + + See also Page 236 on top of Page ” + +This life of Wellington, W. P. Garrison states,[203] was Stocqueler’s +and the pages referred to tell of the Spanish guerrillas under Mina in +1810, and of methods of cooking and discipline. In one place the author +says: “Here we have a chaos of mountains, where we meet at every step +huge fallen masses of rock and earth, yawning fissures, deep and narrow +defiles, where 300 men would suffice to check an army.” The Alleghanies +in Virginia and Carolina was similar in topography and, for the +operation here, Brown proposed a skeleton army which could work together +or in small units of any size: + +“A company will consist of fifty-six privates, twelve non-commissioned +officers, eight corporals, four sergeants and three commissioned +officers (two lieutenants, a captain), and a surgeon. + +“The privates shall be divided into bands or messes of seven each, +numbering from one to eight, with a corporal to each, numbered like his +band. + +“Two bands will comprise a section. Sections will be numbered from one +to four. + +“A sergeant will be attached to each section, and numbered like it. + +“Two sections will comprise a platoon. Platoons will be numbered one and +two, and each commanded by a lieutenant designed by like number.”[204] + +Four companies composed a battalion, four battalions a regiment, and +four regiments a brigade. + +So much for his resources and plans. Now for the men whom he chose as +co-workers. The number of those who took part in the Harper’s Ferry raid +is not known. Perhaps, including active slave helpers, there were about +fifty. Seventeen Negroes, reported as probably killed, are wholly +unknown, and those slaves who helped and escaped are also unknown. This +leaves the twenty-two men usually regarded as making the raid. They +fall, of course, into two main groups, the Negroes and the whites. Six +or seven of the twenty-two were Negroes. + +First in importance came Osborne Perry Anderson, a free-born +Pennsylvania mulatto, twenty-four years of age. He was a printer by +trade, “well educated, a man of natural dignity, modest, simple in +character and manners.” He met John Brown in Canada. He wrote the most +interesting and reliable account of the raid, and afterward fought in +the Civil War. + +Next came Shields Green, a full-blooded Negro from South Carolina, +whence he had escaped from slavery, after his wife had died, leaving a +living boy still in bondage. He was about twenty-four years old, small +and active, uneducated but with natural ability and absolutely fearless. +He met Brown at the home of Frederick Douglass, who says: “While at my +house, John Brown made the acquaintance of a colored man who called +himself by different names—sometimes ‘Emperor,’ at other times, ‘Shields +Green’.... He was a fugitive slave, who had made his escape from +Charleston, S. C.; a state from which a slave found it no easy matter to +run away. But Shields Green was not one to shrink from hardships or +dangers. He was a man of few words and his speech was singularly broken; +but his courage and self-respect made him quite a dignified character. +John Brown saw at once what ‘stuff’ Green ‘was made of,’ and confided to +him his plans and purposes. Green easily believed in Brown, and promised +to go with him whenever he should be ready to move.”[205] + +Dangerfield Newby was a free mulatto from the neighborhood of Harper’s +Ferry. He was thirty years of age, tall and well built, with a pleasant +face and manner; he had a wife and seven children in slavery about +thirty miles south of Harper’s Ferry. The wife was about to be sold +south at this time, and was sold immediately after the raid. Newby was +the spy who gave general information to the party, and lived out in the +community until the night of the attack. + +John A. Copeland was born of free Negro parents in North Carolina, +reared in Oberlin and educated at Oberlin College. He was a +straight-haired mulatto, twenty-two years old, of medium size, and a +carpenter by trade. Hunter, the prosecuting attorney of Virginia, says: +“From my intercourse with him I regarded him as one of the most +respectable prisoners that we had.... He was a copper-colored Negro, +behaved himself with as much firmness as any of them, and with far more +dignity. If it had been possible to recommend a pardon for any of them, +it would have been for this man Copeland, as I regretted as much, if not +more, at seeing him executed than any other one of the party!”[206] + +Lewis Sherrard Leary was born in slavery in North Carolina and also +reared in Oberlin, where he worked as a harness-maker. An Oberlin friend +testified: “He called again afterward, and told me he would like to keep +to the amount I had given him, and would like a certain amount more for +a certain purpose, and was very chary in his communications to me as to +how he was to use it, except that he did inform me that he wished to use +it in aiding slaves to escape. Circumstances just then transpired which +had interested me contrary to any thought I ever had in my mind before. +I had had exhibited to me a daguerreotype of a young lady, a beautiful +appearing girl, who I was informed was about eighteen years of +age....”[207] But here Senator Mason of the Inquisition scented danger, +and we can only guess the reasons that sent Leary to his death. He was +said to be Brown’s first recruit outside the Kansas band. + +John Anderson, a free Negro from Boston, was sent by Lewis Hayden and +started for the front. Whether he arrived and was killed, or was too +late has never been settled. + +The seventh man of possible Negro blood was Jeremiah Anderson. He is +listed with the Negroes in all the original reports of the Chatham +Convention and was, as a white Virginian who saw him says, “of middle +stature, very black hair and swarthy complexion. He was supposed by some +to be a Canadian mulatto.”[208] He was descended from Virginia +slaveholders who had moved north and was born in Indiana. He was +twenty-six years old. + +Of the white men there were, first of all, John Brown and his family, +consisting of three sons, and two brothers of his eldest daughter’s +husband, William and Dauphin Thompson. + +Oliver Brown was a boy not yet twenty-one, though tall and muscular, and +had just been married. Watson was a man of twenty-five, tall and +athletic; while Owen was a large, red-haired prematurely aged man of +thirty-five, partially crippled, good-tempered and cynical. The +Thompsons were neighbors of John Brown and part of a brood of twenty +children. The Brown family and their intermarried Anne Brown says that +William, who was twenty-six years of age, was “kind, generous-hearted, +and helpful to others.” Dauphin, a boy of twenty-two, was, she writes, +“very quiet, with a fair, thoughtful face, curly blonde hair, and +baby-blue eyes. He always seemed like a very good girl.”[209] + +The three notable characters of the band were Kagi, Stevens and Cook, +the reformer, the soldier, and the poet. Kagi’s family came from the +Shenandoah Valley. He was twenty-four, had a good English education and +was a newspaper reporter in Kansas, where he earnestly helped the free +state cause. He had strong convictions on the subject of slavery and was +willing to risk all for them. “You will all be killed,” cried a friend +who heard his plan. “Yes, I know it, Hinton, but the result will be +worth the sacrifice.” Hinton adds: “I recall my friend as a man of +personal beauty, with a fine, well-shaped head, a voice of quiet, sweet +tones, that could be penetrating and cutting, too, almost to +sharpness.”[210] Anderson writes that Kagi “left home when a youth, an +enemy to slavery, and brought as his gift offering to freedom three +slaves, whom he piloted to the North. His innate hatred of the +institution made him a willing exile from the state of his birth, and +his great abilities, natural and acquired, entitled him to the position +he held in Captain Brown’s confidence. Kagi was indifferent to personal +appearance; he often went about with slouched hat, one leg of his +pantaloons properly adjusted, and the other partly tucked into his high +boot-top; unbrushed, unshaven, and in utter disregard of ‘the latest +style.’”[211] + +Stevens was a handsome six-foot Connecticut soldier of twenty-eight +years of age, who had thrashed his major for mistreating a fellow +soldier and deserted from the United States army. He was active in +Kansas and soon came under John Brown’s discipline. + +“Why did you come to Harper’s Ferry?” asked a Virginian. + +He replied: “It was to help my fellow men out of bondage. You know +nothing of slavery—I know, a great deal. It is the crime of crimes. I +hate it more and more the longer I live. Even since I have been lying in +this cell, I have heard the crying of 3 slave-children torn from their +parents.”[212] + +Cook was also a Connecticut man of twenty-nine years, tall, blue-eyed, +golden-haired and handsome, but a far different type from Stevens. He +was talkative, impulsive and restless, eager for adventure but hardly +steadfast. He followed John Brown as he would have followed anyone else +whom he liked, dreaming his dreams, rushing ahead in the face of danger +and shrinking back appalled and pitiful before the grim face of death. +He was the most thoroughly human figure in the band. + +One other deserves mention because it was probably his slowness or +obstinacy that ruined the success of John Brown’s raid. This was Charles +P. Tidd. He was from Maine, twenty-seven years old, trained in Kansas +warfare—a nervous, overbearing and quarrelsome man. He bitterly opposed +the plan of capturing Harper’s Ferry when it was finally revealed, and +as Anne Brown said, “got so warm that he left the farm and went down to +Cook’s dwelling near Harper’s Ferry to let his wrath cool off.” A week +passed before he sullenly gave in. + +Besides these, there were six other men of more or less indistinct +personalities. Five were young Kansas settlers from Maine, the Middle +West and Canada, trained in guerrilla warfare under Brown and Montgomery +and thoroughly disliking the slave system which they had seen. They were +personal admirers of Brown and lovers of adventure. The last recruit, +Merriam, was a New England aristocrat turned crusader, fighting the +world’s ills blindly but devotedly. The Negro Lewis Hayden met him in +Boston, “and, after a few words, said, ‘I want five hundred dollars and +must have it.’ Merriam, startled at the manner of the request, replied, +‘If you have a good cause, you shall have it.’ Hayden then told Merriam +briefly what he had learned from John Brown, Jr.: that Captain Brown was +at Chambersburg, or could be heard of there; that he was preparing to +lead a party of liberators into Virginia, and that he needed money; to +which Merriam replied: ‘If you tell me John Brown is there, you can have +my money and me along with it.’”[213] + +These were the men—idealists, dreamers, soldiers and avengers, varying +from the silent and thoughtful to the quick and impulsive; from the cold +and bitter to the ignorant and faithful. They believed in God, in +spirits, in fate, in liberty. To them, the world was a wild, young +unregulated thing, and they were born to set it right. It was a +veritable band of crusaders, and while it had much of weakness and +extravagance, it had nothing nasty or unclean. On the whole, they were +an unusual set of men. Anne Brown who lived with them said: “Taking them +all together, I think they would compare well [she is speaking of +manners, etc.] with the same number of men in any station of life I have +ever met.”[214] + +They were not men of culture or great education, although Kagi had had a +fair schooling. They were intellectually bold and inquiring—several had +been attracted by the then rampant Spiritualism; nearly all were +skeptical of the world’s social conventions. They had been trained +mostly in the rough school of frontier life, had faced death many times, +and were eager, curious, and restless. Some of them were musical, others +dabbled in verse. Their broadest common ground of sympathy lay in the +personality of John Brown—him they revered and loved. Through him, they +had come to hate slavery, and for him and for what he believed, they +were willing to risk their lives. They themselves, had convictions on +slavery and other matters, but John Brown narrowed down their dreaming +to one intense deed. + +Finally, there was John Brown himself. His appearance has been often +described—several times in these pages. In 1859 he was the same striking +figure with whitening hair, burning eyes, and the great white beard +which hardly hid the pendulous side lips of Olympian Jove. One thing, +however, must not be forgotten. John Brown was at this time a sick man. +From 1856 to 1859, scarce a mouth passed without telling of illness. His +health was “some improved” in May 1857, but soon he lost a week “with +ague and fever and left home feeble.” In August he wrote of “ill health” +and “repeated returns of fever and ague.” In September and October, his +health was “poor.” The spring and summer of 1858 found him “not very +stout,” and in July and August, he was “down with ague” and “too sick” +to write. In September he was “still weak,” and, although “some +improved” in December, the following spring found him “not very strong.” +In April, amid the feverish activity of his fatal year, he was “quite +prostrated,” with “the difficulty in my head and ear and with the ague +in consequence.” Late in July, he was “delayed with sickness” and there +can be little doubt that it was an illness and pain-racked body which +his indomitable will forced into the raid of Harper’s Ferry. + +Having collected a part of the funds and organized the band, John Brown +was about to strike his blow in the early summer of 1858, as we have +seen, when the Forbes disclosures compelled him to hide in Kansas, where +the last massacre on the Swamp of the Swan invited him. He left Canada +for Kansas in June, 1858. Cook, somewhat against the wishes of Brown who +feared his garrulity, went to Harper’s Ferry, worked as a booking agent +and canal keeper, made love to a maid and married her and then acted as +advance agent awaiting the main band. Ten months after leaving Canada, +and in mid-March, 1859, John Brown appeared again in Canada (as has been +told in Chapter VII) with twelve rescued slaves as an earnest of the +feasibility of his plan. He stayed long enough to spread the news and +then went to northern Ohio where he spoke in public of Kansas and +slavery. “He said that he had never lifted a finger toward any one whom +he did not know was a violent persecutor of the free state men. He had +never killed anybody; although, on some occasions, he had shown the +young men with him how some things might be done as well as others, and +they had done the business. He had never destroyed the value of an ear +of corn, and had never set fire to any pro-slavery man’s house or +property. He had never by his action driven out pro-slavery men from the +Territory; but if the occasion demanded it, he would drive them into the +ground, like fence stakes, where they would remain permanent settlers. + +“Brown remarked that he was an outlaw, the governor of Missouri has +offered a reward of $3,000, and James Buchanan $250 more, for him. He +quietly remarked, parenthetically, that John Brown would give two +dollars and fifty cents for the safe delivery of the body of James +Buchanan in any jail of the free states. He would never submit to an +arrest, as he had nothing to gain from submission; but he should settle +all questions on the spot if any attempt was made to take him. The +liberation of those slaves was meant as a direct blow to slavery, and he +laid down his platform that he had considered it his duty to break the +fetters from any slave when he had an opportunity. He was a thorough +Abolitionist.”[215] + +Then, he went East to see his family and visit Douglass (where he met +and persuaded Shields Green), and to consult with Gerrit Smith and +Sanborn. Alcott at Concord wrote: + +“This evening I heard Captain Brown speak at the town hall on Kansas +affairs and the part took by them in the late troubles there. He tells +his story with surpassing simplicity and sense, impressing us all deeply +by his courage and religious earnestness. Our best people listen to his +words,—Emerson, Thoreau, Judge Hoar, my wife; and some of them +contribute something in aid of his plans without asking particulars, +such confidence does he inspire in his integrity and abilities. I have a +few words with him after his speech, and find him superior to legal +traditions, and a disciple of the Right in ideality and the affairs of +the state. He is Sanborn’s guest and stays for a day only. A young man +named Anderson accompanies him. They go armed, I am told, and will +defend themselves, if necessary. I believe they are now on their way to +Connecticut and farther south, but the captain leaves us much in the +dark concerning his destination and designs for the coming months. Yet +he does not conceal his hatred of slavery, nor his readiness to strike a +blow for freedom at the proper moment. I infer he intends to run off as +many slaves as he can, and so render that property insecure to the +master. I think him equal to anything he dares,—the man to do the deed, +if it must be done, and with the martyr’s temper and purpose. Nature was +deeply intent in the making of him. He is of imposing appearance, +personally—tall, with square shoulders and standing; eyes of deep gray, +and couchant, as if ready to spring at the least rustling, dauntless yet +kindly; his hair shooting backward from low down on his forehead; nose +trenchant and Romanesque; set lips, his voice suppressed yet metallic, +suggesting deep reserves; decided mouth; the countenance and frame +charged with power throughout. Since here last he has added a flowing +beard, which gives the soldierly air and the port of an apostle. Though +sixty years old he is agile and alert and ready for any audacity, in any +crisis. I think him about the manliest man I have ever seen,—the type +and synonym of the Just.”[216] + +The month of May, John Brown spent in Boston collecting funds, and in +New York consulting his Negro friends, with a trip to Connecticut to +hurry the making of his thousand pikes. Sickness intervened, but at last +on June 20th, the advance-guard of five—Brown and two of his sons, Jerry +Anderson and Kagi—started southward. They stayed several days at +Chambersburg, where Kagi, coöperating with a faithful Negro barber, +Watson, was established as a general agent to forward men, mail, and +freight. Then passing through Hagerstown, they appeared at Harper’s +Ferry on July 4th. Here they met Cook, who had been selling maps, +keeping the canal-lock near the arsenal, and sending regular information +to Brown. Brown and his sons wandered about at first, and a local farmer +greeted them cheerily: “Good-morning, gentlemen, how do you do?” They +returned the greeting pleasantly. The conversation is recounted as +follows: + +“I said, ‘Well, gentlemen,’ after saluting them in that form, ‘I suppose +you are out hunting minerals, gold, and silver?’ His answer was, ‘No, we +are not, we are out looking for land; we want to buy land; we have a +little money, but we want to make it go as far as we can.’ He asked me +about the price of the land. I told him that it ranged from fifteen +dollars to thirty dollars in the neighborhood. He remarked, ‘That is +high; I thought I could buy land here for about a dollar or two dollars +per acre.’ I remarked to him, ‘No, sir; if you expect to get land for +that price, you will have to go further west, to Kansas, or some of +those Territories where there is government land.’ ... I then asked him +where they came from. His answer was, ‘From the northern part of the +state of New York.’ I asked him what he followed there. He said farming +and the frost had been so heavy lately, that it cut off their crops +there; that he could not make anything, and sold out, and thought he +would come further south and try it awhile.”[217] + +Through this easy-going, inquisitive farmer, Brown learned of a farm for +rent, which he hired for nine months for thirty-five dollars. It was on +the main road between Harper’s Ferry, Chambersburg, and the North, about +five miles from the Ferry and in a quiet secluded place. The house stood +about 300 yards back from the Boonesborough pike, in plain sight. About +600 yards away on the other side of the road was another cabin of one +room and a garret, which was largely hidden from view by the shrubbery. +Here Brown settled and gradually collected his men and material. The +arms were especially slow in coming. Most of the guns arrived at +Chambersburg from Connecticut about August, but the pikes did not come +until a month later. Then to the men were gathered slowly. They were at +the four ends of the country, in all sorts of employment and different +financial conditions, and they were not certain just when the raid would +take place. All this delayed Brown from July until October and greatly +increased the cost of maintenance. A daughter, Anne, and Oliver’s girl +wife came and kept the house from July 16th to October 1st. + +At this critical juncture, Harriet Tubman fell sick—a grave loss to the +cause—and there were other delays. By August 1st, there were at Harper’s +Ferry the two Brown daughters and three sons, and the two brothers of a +son-in-law, besides the two Coppocs, Tidd, Jerry Anderson, and Stevens. +Hazlett, Leeman, and Taylor came soon after. Kagi was still at +Chambersburg and John Brown himself “labored and traveled night and day, +sometimes on old Dolly, his brown mule, and sometimes in the wagon. He +would start directly after night, and travel the fifty miles between the +farm and Chambersburg by daylight the next morning; and he otherwise +kept open communication between headquarters and the latter place, in +order that matters might be arranged in due season.”[218] + +In the North John Brown, Jr., was shipping the arms and gathering men +and money. He was in Boston August 10th, at Douglass’s home, soon after, +and later in Canada with Loguen. All the chief branches of the League +were visited and then northern Ohio. The result was meagre; not because +of a lack of men but lack of the kind of men wanted at this time. There +were thousands of Negroes ready to fight for liberty in the ranks. But +most of these John Brown could not use at present. No considerable band +of armed black men could have been introduced into the South without +immediate discovery and civil war. It was therefore picked leaders like +Douglass, Reynolds, Holden and Delaney that Brown wanted at +first—discreet and careful men of influence, who, as he said to +Douglass, could hive the swarming bees both North and South. To get +these picked men interested was, however, difficult. Each had his work +and his theory of racial salvation; they were widely scattered. A number +of them had been convinced in 1858, but the postponement had given time +for reflection and doubt. In many ways, the original enthusiasm had +waned, but it was not dead. The cause was just as great and all that was +needed was to convince men that this was a real chance to strike an +effective blow. They required the magic of Brown’s own presence to +impress this fact upon them. They were not sure of his agents. Men +continued to come, however, others began to prepare and still, others +were almost persuaded. An urgent summons went to Kansas to white fellow +workers, and the response there was similarly small. Brown knew that his +ability to command the services of a large number of Northern Negroes +depended to some degree on Frederick Douglass’s attitude. He was the +first great national Negro leader—a man of ability, _finesse_, and +courage. If he followed John Brown, who could hesitate? If he refused, +was it not for the best of reasons? Thus John Brown continually urged +Douglass and as a last appeal arranged for a final conference on August +19th at Chambersburg in an abandoned stone quarry. Douglass says: + +“As I came near, he regarded me rather suspiciously, but soon recognized +me, and received me cordially. He had in his hand when I met him a +fishing-tackle, with which he had been fishing in a stream hard by, but +I saw no fish and did not suppose he cared much for his ‘fisherman’s +luck.’ The fishing was simply a disguise and was certainly a good one. +He looked every way like a man of the neighborhood, and as much at home +as any of the farmers around there. His hat was old and storm-beaten, +and his clothing was about the color of the stone quarry itself—his then +present dwelling-place. + +“His face wore an anxious expression, and he was much worn by thought +and exposure. I felt that I was on a dangerous mission, and was as +little desirous of discovery as himself, though no reward had been +offered for me. We—Mr. Kagi, Captain Brown, Shields Green, and +myself—sat down among the rocks and talked over the enterprise which was +about to be undertaken. The taking of Harper’s Ferry, of which Captain +Brown had merely hinted before, was now declared as his settled purpose, +and he wanted to know what I thought of it. I at once opposed the +measure with all the arguments at my command. To me, such a measure +would be fatal to running off slaves (as was the original plan), and +fatal to all engaged in doing so. It would be an attack upon The federal +government and would array the whole country against us. Captain Brown +did most of the talking on the other side of the question. He did not at +all object to rousing the nation; it seemed to him that something +startling was just what the nation needed.... Our talk was long and +earnest; we spent the most of Saturday and a part of Sunday in this +debate—Brown for Harper’s Ferry, and I against it; he for striking a +blow which should instantly rouse the country, and I for the policy of +gradually and unaccountably drawing off the slaves to the mountains, as +at first suggested and proposed by him. When I found that he had fully +made up his mind and could not be dissuaded, I turned to Shields Green +and told him he heard what Captain Brown had said; his old plan was +changed, and that I should return home, and if he wished to go with me +he could do so. Captain Brown urged us both to go with him, but I could +not do so, and could but feel that he was about to rivet the fetters +more firmly than ever on the limbs of the enslaved. In parting, he put +his arms around me in a manner more than friendly and said: ‘Come with +me, Douglass; I will defend you with my life. I want you for a special +purpose. When I strike, the bees will begin to swarm, and I shall want +you to help hive them.’ But my discretion or my cowardice made me proof +against the dear old man’s eloquence—perhaps it was something of both +that determined my course. When about to leave, I asked Green what he +had decided to do, and was surprised by his coolly saying, in his broken +way, ‘I b’lieve I’ll go wid de ole man.’ Here we separated; they to go +to Harper’s Ferry, I to Rochester.”[219] + +Douglass’s decision undoubtedly kept many Negroes from joining Brown. +Shields Green, however, started south. The slave-catchers followed him +and made him and Owen Brown swim a river. Only their journeying +southward instead of northward saved them from capture. + +Life at the farm during this time was curious. Anderson says: + +“There was no milk and water sentimentality—no offensive contempt for +the Negro, while working in his cause; the pulsations of every heart +beat in harmony for the suffering and pleading slave. I thank God that I +have been permitted to realize to its furthest, fullest extent, the +moral, mental, physical, social harmony of an anti-slavery family, +carrying out to the letter the principles of its antitype, the +anti-slavery cause. In John Brown’s house, and in John Brown’s presence, +men from widely different parts of the continent met and united into one +company, wherein no hateful prejudice dared intrude its ugly self—no +ghost of distinction found space to enter.... + +“To a passer-by, the house and its surroundings presented but +indifferent attractions. Any log tenement of equal dimensions would be +as likely to arrest a stray glance. Rough, unsightly, and aged, it was +only for those privileged to enter and tarry for a long time, and to +penetrate the mysteries of the two rooms it contained—kitchen, parlor, +dining-room below, and the spacious chamber, attic, storeroom, prison, +drilling-room, comprised in the loft above—who could tell how we lived +at Kennedy Farm. + +“Every morning, when the noble old man was at home, he called the family +around, read from his Bible, and offered to God most fervent and +touching supplications for all flesh; and especially pathetic were his +petitions in behalf of the oppressed. I never heard John Brown pray, +that he did not make strong appeals to God for the deliverance of the +slave. This duty over, the men went to the loft, there to remain all day +long; few only could be seen about, as the neighbors were watchful and +suspicious. It was also important to talk but little among ourselves, as +visitors to the house might be curious. Besides the daughter and +daughter-in-law, who superintended the work, some one or other of the +men was regularly detailed to assist in the cooking, washing, and other +domestic work. After the ladies left, we did all the work, no one being +exempt, because of age or official grade in the organization. + +“The principal employment of the prisoners, as we severally were when +compelled to stay in the loft, was to study Forbes’s Manual, and to go +through a quiet, though rigid drill, under the training of Captain +Stevens, at some times. At other times we applied a preparation for +bronzing our gun-barrels-discussed subjects of reform—related our +personal history; but when our resources became pretty well exhausted, +the _ennui_ from confinement, imposed silence, etc., would make the men +almost desperate. At such times, neither slavery nor slaveholders were +discussed mincingly. We were, while the ladies remained, often relieved +of much of the dullness growing out of restraint by their kindness. As +we could not circulate freely, they would bring in wild fruit and +flowers from the woods and fields.”[220] + +Anne, the young daughter, says: “One day, a short time after I went down +there, father was sitting at the table writing. I was nearby sewing (he +and I being alone in the room), when two little wrens that had a nest +under the porch came flying in at the door, fluttering and twittering; +then they flew back to their nest and again to us several times, +seemingly trying to attract our attention. They appeared to be in great +distress. I asked father what he thought was the matter with the little +birds. He asked if I had ever seen them act so before; I told him no. +‘Then let us go and see,’ he said. We went out and found that a snake +had crawled up the post and was just ready to devour the little ones in +the nest. Father killed the snake; and then the old birds sat on the +railing and sang as if they would burst. It seemed as if they were +trying to express their joy and gratitude to him for saving their little +ones. After we went back into the room, he said he thought it very +strange the way the birds asked him to help them, and asked if I thought +it an omen of his success. He seemed very much impressed with that idea. +I do not think he was superstitious, but you know he always thought and +felt that God called him to that work; and seemed to place himself, or +rather to imagine himself, in the position of the figure in the old seal +of Virginia, with the tyrant under her foot.”[221] + +The men discussed religion and slavery freely, read Paine’s _Age of +Reason_ and the Baltimore _Sun_. John Brown himself was careful to +cultivate the good-will of his neighbors, attending with skill the sick +among animals and men, so much so that he and his sons became prime +favorites. Owen had long conversations with the people, while Cook was +also moving about the country selling maps. A little Dunker chapel was +near with non-resistant, anti-slavery principles; here John Brown often +worshiped and preached. Yet with all this caution and care, suspicion +lurked about them, and discovery was always imminent. + +Brown’s daughter relates that “there was a family of poor people who +lived nearby and who had rented the garden on the Kennedy place, +directly back of the house. The little barefooted woman and four small +children (she carried the youngest in her arms) would all come trooping +over to the garden at all hours of the day, and, at times, several times +during the day. Nearly always they would come up the steps and into the +house and stay a short time. This made it very troublesome for us, +compelling the men, when she came insight at meal-times, to gather up +the victuals and table-cloth and quietly disappear up-stairs. + +“One Saturday father and I went to a religious (Dunker) meeting that was +held in a grove near the schoolhouse and the folks left at home forgot +to keep a sharp lookout for Mrs. Heiffmaster, and she stole into the +house before they saw her, and saw Shields Green (that must have been in +September), Barclay Coppoc, and Will Lemnian. And another time after +that she saw C. P. Tidd standing on the porch. She thought these +strangers were running off negroes to the North. I used to give her +everything she wanted or asked for to keep her on good terms, but we +were in constant fear that she was either a spy or would betray us. It +was like standing on a powder magazine after a slow match had been +lighted.”[222] + +Despite all precautions, a rumor began to get in the air. A Prussian +Pole was among the Kansas cooperators invited. He had been in Kansas in +1856 and was known to Brown and Kagi. After hearing from Brown in August +1859, the Pole disclosed their plans to Edmund Babb, a correspondent of +the Cincinnati _Gazette_. It was probably Babb who thereupon wrote to +the United States Secretary of War: “I have discovered the existence of +a secret association, having for its object the liberation of the slaves +at the South and by a general insurrection. The leader of the movement +is one ‘old John Brown,’ late of Kansas.” Approximately correct details +of the plot followed, but Secretary Floyd was lolling at a summer resort +and had some little conspiracies of his own in hand not unconnected with +United States arsenals. Being, therefore, as he said magniloquently, +“satisfied in my mind that a scheme of such wickedness and outrage could +not be entertained by any citizens of the United States, I put the +letter away, and thought no more of it until the raid broke out.”[223] + +Gerrit Smith, too, with little discretion, addressed to Negro audience +words which plainly showed he shortly expected a slave insurrection. +Even among Harper’s Ferry party forced inaction led to disputes and +disaffection. John Brown sharply rebuked the letter-writing and +gossiping about his men. “Any person is a stupid fool,” he told Kagi, +“who expects his friends to keep for him that which he cannot keep +himself. All our friends have each got their special friends; and they +again have theirs, and it would not be right to lay the burden of +keeping a secret on any one at the end of a long string. I could tell +you of reasons I have for feeling rather keenly on this point.”[224] + +The men, on the other hand, were dissatisfied with Brown’s plans as they +were finally disclosed. Anne Brown writes that they generally “did not +know that the raid on the government works was a part of the ‘plan’ +until after they arrived at the farm in the beginning of August.”[225] +They wanted simply to repeat the Missouri raid on a larger scale and not +try to capture the arsenal. Tidd was especially stubborn and +irreconcilable. The discussion became so warm that John Brown at one +time resigned, but he was immediately reëlected and this formal letter +was sent to him: + +“DEAR SIR—We have all agreed to sustain your decisions, until you have +proved incompetent, and many of us will adhere to your decisions so long +as you will.”[226] + +In these ways Brown was compelled to hurry and accordingly he urged his +eldest son, who replied: “Through those associations which I formed in +Canada, I am able to reach each individual member at the shortest notice +by letter. I am devoting my whole time to our company business. I shall +immediately go out organizing and raising funds. From what I even had +understood, I had supposed you would not think it best to commence +opening the coal banks before spring unless circumstances should make it +imperative. However, I suppose the reasons are satisfactory to you, and +if so, those who own smaller shares ought not to object. I hope we shall +be able to get on in season some of those old miners of whom I wrote +you. I shall strain every nerve to accomplish this. You may be assured +that what you say to me will reach those who may be benefited thereby, +and those who would take stock, in the shortest possible time; so don’t +fail to keep me posted.”[227] + +As late as October 6th Brown expected to “move about the end of the +month” and made a hurried trip to Philadelphia. There he met a large +group of Negroes, and Dorsey the caterer with whom he stayed, at 1221 +Locust Street, is said to have given him $300. In some way, he was +disappointed with the visit. Anderson says he went “on the business of +great importance. How important, men there and elsewhere now know. How +affected by, and affecting the main features of the enterprise, we at +the farm knew full after their return, as the old captain, in the +fullness of his overflowing, saddened heart, detailed point after point +of interest”[228] Perhaps he was still trying to persuade Douglass and +the leaders of the Philadelphia and New York groups. + +The women left the farm late in September and O. P. Anderson, Copeland, +and Leary arrived. Merriam joined Brown while he was on the Philadelphia +trip and was sent to Baltimore to buy caps for the guns. Others were +coming when suddenly Brown fixed on October 17th as the date of the +raid. This hurried change was probably because officials and neighbors +were getting inquisitive, and arms were being removed from the arsenal +to man Southern stations. Yet it was unfortunate, as Anderson says: +“Could other parties, waiting for the word, have reached the +headquarters in time for the outbreak when it took place, the taking of +the armory, engine-house, and rifle factory, would have been quite +different. But the men at the farm had been so closely confined, that +they went out about the house and farm in the daytime during that week, +and so indiscreetly exposed their numbers to the prying neighbors, who +thereupon took steps to have a search instituted in the early part of +the coming week. Captain Brown was not seconded in another quarter, as +he expected, at the time of the action, but could the fears of the +neighbors have been allayed for a few days, the disappointment in the +former respect would not have been of much weight.”[229] + +Only the nearest of the slaves round about who awaited the word could be +communicated with and several recruits like Hinton were left stranded on +the way, unable to get through in time. So the great day dawned: “On +Sunday morning, October 16th, Captain Brown arose earlier than usual, +and called his men down to worship. He read a chapter from the Bible, +applicable to the condition of the slaves, and our duty as their +brethren, and then offered up a fervent prayer to God to assist in the +liberation of the bondmen in that slaveholding land. The services were +impressive.”[230] + +A council was held, over which O. P. Anderson, the colored man, +presided. In the afternoon the final orders were given and at night just +before setting out, John Brown said: “And now, gentlemen, let me impress +this one thing upon your minds. You all know how dear life is to you, +and how dear life is to your friends. And in remembering that, consider +that the lives of others areas dear to them as yours are to you. Do not, +therefore, take the life of anyone, if you can possibly avoid it, but if +it is necessary to take life to save your own, then make sure work of +it.”[231] + + + + + CHAPTER XI + THE BLOW + + “Woe unto them that call evil, good; and good, evil.” + +“At eight o’clock on Sunday evening, Captain Brown said: ‘Men, get on +your arms; we will proceed to the Ferry.’ His horse and wagon were +brought out before the door, and some pikes, a sledge-hammer and a +crowbar were placed in it. The captain then put on his old Kansas cap, +and said: ‘Come, boys!’ when we marched out of the camp behind him, into +the lane leading down the hill to the main road.”[232] + +The orders given commanded Owen Brown, Merriam and Barclay Coppoc to +watch the house and arms until ordered to bring them toward the Ferry. +Tidd and Cook were to cut the telegraph lines and Kagi and Stephens to +detain the bridge guard. Watson Brown and Taylor were to hold the bridge +over the Potomac, and Oliver Brown and William Thompson the bridge over +the Shenandoah. Jerry Anderson and Dauphin Thompson were to occupy the +engine-house in the arsenal yard, while Hazlett and Edwin Coppoc were to +hold the armory. + +During the night Kagi and Copeland were to seize and guard the rifle +factory, and others were to go out in the country and bring in certain +masters and their slaves. + +It was a cold dark night when the band started. Ahead was John Brown in +his one-horse farm-wagon, with pikes, a sledge-hammer and a crowbar. +Behind him marched the men silently and at intervals, Cook and Tidd +leading. They had five miles to go, over rolling hills and through woods +and then down to a narrow road between the cliffs and the Cincinnati and +Ohio canal. As they approached the railroad, Cook and Tidd cut the +telegraph wires which led to Baltimore and Washington. At the bridge +they halted and made ready their arms. At ten o’clock William Williams, +one of the watchmen there, was surprised to find himself a prisoner in +the hands of Kagi and Stevens, who took him through the covered +structure to the town, leaving Watson Brown and Steward Taylor to guard +the bridge. The rest of the company entered Harper’s Ferry. + +The land between the rivers is itself high, though dwarfed by the +mountains and running down to a low point where the rivers join. At this +place the bridge leads to Maryland. After crossing the bridge to +Virginia, about sixty yards up the street, running parallel to the +Potomac, was the gate of the armory where the arms were made. On the +Shenandoah side about sixty yards from the armory gate is the arsenal, +where the arms were stored. The company proceeded to the armory gate. +The watchman tells how the place was captured: + +“‘Open the gate,’ said they; I said, ‘I could not if I was stuck,’ and +one of them jumped up on the pier of the gate over my head, and another +fellow ran and put his hand on me and caught me by the coat and held me; +I was inside and they were outside, and the fellow standing over my head +upon the pier, and then when I would not open the gate for them, five or +six ran in from the wagon, clapped their guns against my breast, and +told me I should deliver up the key; I told them I could not; and +another fellow made an answer and said they had not time now to be +waiting for the key, but to go to the wagon and bring out the crowbar +and large hammer, and they would soon get in; they went to the little +wagon and brought a large crowbar out of it; there is a large chain +around the two sides of the wagon-gate going in; they twisted the +crowbar in the chain and they opened it, and in they ran and got in the +wagon; one fellow took me; they all gathered about me and looked in my +face; I was nearly scared to death with so many guns about me.”[233] + +[Illustration: MAP OF HARPER’S FERRY, SHOWING POINTS FIGURING IN THE +RAID] + +The two captured watchmen, Anderson says, “were left in the custody of +Jerry Anderson and Dauphin Thompson, and A. D. Stevens arranged the men +to take possession of the armory and rifle factory. About this time, +there was apparently much excitement. People were passing back and forth +in the town, and before we could do much, we had to take several +prisoners. After the prisoners were secured, we passed to the opposite +side of the street and took the armory, and Albert Hazlett and Edwin +Coppoc were ordered to hold it for the time being.”[234] + +The other fourteen men quickly dispersed through the village. Oliver +Brown and William Thompson seized and guarded the bridge across the +Shenandoah. This bridge was sixty rods from the railway bridge up the +river and was the direct route to Loudoun Heights, the slave-filled +lower valley, and the Great Black Way. It was, however, not the only way +across the Shenandoah: a little more than half a mile farther up were +the rifle works, where the stream could be easily forded. Kagi and +Copeland went there, captured the watchman and took possession. + +“These places were all taken, and the prisoners secured, without the +snap of a gun, or any violence whatever,” says Anderson, and he +continues: “The town being taken, Brown, Stevens, and the men who had no +post in charge, returned to the engine-house, where council was held, +after which Captain Stevens, Tidd, Cook, Shields Green, Leary and myself +went to the country. On the road we met some colored men, to whom we +made known our purpose, when they immediately agreed to join us. They +said they had been long waiting for an opportunity of the kind. Stevens +then asked them to go around among the colored people and circulate the +news, when each started off in a different direction. The result was +that many colored men gathered to the scene of action. The first +prisoner taken by us was Colonel Lewis Washington [a relative of George +Washington]. When we neared his house, Captain Stevens placed Leary and +Shields Green to guard the approaches to the house, the one at the side, +and the other in front. We then knocked, but no one answering, although +females were looking from upper windows, we entered the building and +commenced a search for the proprietor. Colonel Washington opened his +room door, and begged us not to kill him. Captain Stevens replied, ‘You +are our prisoner,’ when he stood as if speechless or petrified. Stevens +further told him to get ready to go to the Ferry; that he had come to +abolish slavery, not to take life but in self-defense, but that he must +go along. The colonel replied: ‘You can have my slaves, if you will let +me remain.’ ‘No,’ said the captain, ‘you must go along too; so get +ready.’”[235] + +He and his male slaves were thus taken, together with a large four-horse +wagon and some arms, including the Lafayette sword. Away the party went +and after capturing another planter and his slaves, arrived at the Ferry +before daybreak. + +Meantime the citizens of the Ferry, returning late from protracted +Methodist meeting, were being taken prisoners and about one o’clock in +the morning the east-bound Baltimore and Ohio train arrived. This was +detained and the local colored porter shot dead by Brown’s guards on the +bridge. The passengers were greatly excited, but at first thought it was +a strike of some kind. After sunrise the train was allowed to proceed, +John Brown himself walking ahead across the bridge to reassure the +conductor. So Monday, October 17th, began and Anderson says it “was a +time of stirring and exciting events. In consequence of the movements of +the night before, we were prepared for commotion and tumult, but +certainly not for more than we beheld around us. Gray dawn and yet +brighter daylight revealed great confusion, and as the sun arose, the +panic spread like wild-fire. Men, women and children could be seen +leaving their homes in every direction; some seeking refuge among +residents, and in quarters further away; others climbing up the +hillsides, and hurrying off in various directions, evidently impelled by +a sudden fear, which was plainly visible in their countenances or in +their movements. + +“Captain Brown was all activity, though I could not help thinking that +at times he appeared somewhat puzzled. He ordered Lewis Sherrard Leary +and four slaves, and a free man belonging in the neighborhood, to join +John Henry Kagi and John Copeland at the rifle factory, which they +immediately did.... After the departure of the train, quietness +prevailed for a short time; a number of prisoners were already in the +engine-house, and of the many colored men living in the neighborhood, +who had assembled in the town, a number were armed.”[236] + +Up to this point everything in John Brown’s plan had worked like +clockwork, and there had been but one death. The armory was captured, +from twenty-five to fifty slaves had been armed, several masters were in +custody and the next move was to get the arms and ammunition from the +farm. Cook says that when the party returned from the country at dawn, +“I stayed a short while in the engine-house to get warm, as I was +chilled through. After I got warm, Captain Brown ordered me to go with +C. P. Tidd, who was to take William H. Leeman, and, I think, four slaves +[Anderson says fourteen slaves] with him, in Colonel Washington’s large +wagon, across the river, and to take Terrence Burns and his brother and +their slaves prisoners. My orders were to hold Burns and brother as +prisoners at their own house, while Tidd and the slaves who accompanied +him were to go to Captain Brown’s house and to load in arms and bring +them down to the schoolhouse, stopping for the Burnses and their guard. +William H. Leeman remained with me to guard the prisoners. On return of +the wagon, in compliance with orders, we all started for the +schoolhouse. When we got there, I was to remain, by Captain Brown’s +orders, with one of the slaves to guard the arms, while C. P. Tidd, with +the other Negroes, was to go back for the rest of the arms, and Burns +was to be sent with William H. Leeman to Captain Brown at the armory. It +was at this time that William Thompson came up from the Ferry and +reported that everything was all right, and then hurried on to overtake +William H. Leeman. A short time after the departure of Tidd, I heard a +good deal of firing and became anxious to know the cause, but my orders +were strict to remain in the schoolhouse and guard the arms, and I +obeyed the orders to the letter. About four o’clock in the evening C. P. +Tidd came with the second load.”[237] + +Here, in all probability, was the fatal hitch. The farm was not over +three miles from the schoolhouse, and there was a heavy farm-wagon with +four large strong horses and a dozen men or more to help. The fact that +it took these men eleven hours to move two wagon-loads of material less +than three miles is the secret of the extraordinary failure of Brown’s +foray at a time when victory was in his grasp. That Cook was needlessly +dilatory in the moving is certain. He sat down in Byrnes’s house and +made a speech on human equality. Then Tidd went on to the farm with the +wagon and brought a load of arms, which he deposited at the point where +the Kennedy farm road meets the Potomac almost at right angles, about +three miles or less from the Ferry. The schoolhouse stood here and the +children were frightened half to death. Cook stopped at this place and +unloaded the wagon, and then Leeman went with Byrnes to the guard-house, +lingering and actually sitting beside the road. Even then they arrived +before ten o’clock. With haste it is certain that, despite the muddy +road, the first load of arms could have been at the schoolhouse before +eight o’clock in the morning, and the whole of the stores by ten +o’clock. That Brown expected this is shown by his sending William +Thompson to reassure the men at the farm of his safety and probably to +urge haste; yet when the second load of arms appeared, it was four +o’clock in the afternoon, at least three hours after Brown had been +completely surrounded. Judging from Cook’s narrative, it is likely that +Thompson did not see Tidd at all. It was this inexcusable delay on the +part of Tidd and Cook and, possibly, William Thompson that undoubtedly +made the raid a failure. To be sure, John Brown never said so—never +hinted that any one was to blame but himself. But that was John Brown’s +way. + +Events in the town had moved quickly. After Cook had departed, Brown +ordered O. P. Anderson “to take the pikes out of the wagon in which he +rode to the Ferry, and to place them in the hands of the colored men who +had come with us from the plantations, and others who had come forward +without having had communication with any of our party.”[238] + +The citizens were “wild with fright and excitement.... The prisoners +were also terror-stricken. Some wanted to go home to see their families, +as if for the last time. The privilege was granted them, under escort, +and they were brought back again. Edwin Coppoc, one of the sentinels at +the armory gate, was fired at by one of the citizens, but the ball did +not reach him, when one of the insurgents close by put up his rifle, and +made the enemy bite the dust. Among the arms taken from Colonel +Washington was one double-barreled gun. This weapon was loaded by Leeman +with buckshot, and placed in the hands of an elderly slave man, early in +the morning. After the cowardly charge upon Coppoc, this old man was +ordered by Captain Stevens to arrest a citizen. The old man ordered him +to halt, which he refused to do, when instantly the terrible load was +discharged into him, and he fell, and expired without a struggle.”[239] + +The next step which John Brown had in mind is unknown, but there were +two safe movements at 9 A. M. Monday morning: + +(_a_) The arms could have been brought across the Potomac bridge and +then across the Shenandoah, and so up Londoun Heights. The men from the +Maryland side could have joined, and Brown and his men covered their +retreat by compelling the hostages to march with them. Kagi and his men, +by wading the Shenandoah, could have supported them. + +(_b_) The arms could have been taken down to the Potomac from the +schoolhouse, ferried across and moved over to Kagi. Brown and his men +could have joined the party there and all retreated up Loudoun Heights. +From the fact that Brown had the arms stopped at the schoolhouse, this +seems probably to have been the thought in his mind. + +On the other hand, the plan usually attributed to Brown is unthinkable; +viz., that he intended retreating across the Potomac into the Maryland +mountains. First, he had just come out of the Maryland mountains and had +moved down his arms and ammunition; and second, this manœuvre would have +cut his band off from the Great Black Way to the South unless he +captured the Ferry a second time. Manifestly this, then, was not Brown’s +idea. It has, however, been suggested that the arms had been moved down +to the schoolhouse to be placed in the hands of slaves there. But why +were they left on the Maryland side? In the whole Maryland country west +of the mountains were less than a thousand able-bodied Negroes, of whom +not a tenth could have been cognizant of the uprising, while Brown had +arms for 1,200 men or more. No, Brown intended to move the arms in bulk. +He had perhaps a ton, or a ton and a half of baggage. He wished it moved +first to the schoolhouse, and then if all was well to the Ferry, or +straight across to the mountains. Cook started before five o’clock in +the morning, and Brown no doubt expected to hear that the arms were at +the schoolhouse by ten. At eleven o’clock he dispatched William Thompson +to Kennedy farm. Anderson thinks that Thompson’s message made the farm +party even more leisurely because it told of success so far. This is +surely impossible. The veriest tyro must have known that minutes were +golden despite the tremendous fortune of the expedition. Did Thompson +misapprehend his message? Was the delay Tidd’s and what was Owen Brown +thinking and doing? It is a curious puzzle, but it is the puzzle of the +foray. If the party with the arms had arrived at the bridge any time +before noon, the raid would have been successful. Even as it was, Brown +still had three courses open to him, all of which promised a measure of +success: + +(_a_) He could have gotten his band and crossed back to +Maryland,—although this meant the abandonment of the main features of +his whole plan. As time waned Stevens and Kagi urged this but Brown +refused. + +(_b_) He could have gone to Loudoun Heights, but this would have +involved abandoning his arms and stores and above all, one of his sons, +Cook, Tidd, Merriam, Coppoc and the slaves. This was unthinkable. + +(_c_) He could have used his hostages to force terms. For not doing this +he afterward repeatedly blamed himself, but characteristically blamed no +one else for anything. + +Meantime every minute of delay aroused the country and brought the +citizens to their senses. “The train that left Harper’s Ferry carried a +panic to Virginia, Maryland and Washington with it. The passengers, +taking all the paper they could find, wrote accounts of the +insurrection, which they threw from the windows as the train rushed +onward.”[240] + +A local physician says: “I went back to the hillside then, and tried to +get the citizens together, to see what we could do to get rid of these +fellows. They seemed to be very troublesome. When I got on the hill I +learned that they had shot Boerly. That was probably about seven +o’clock.... I had ordered the Lutheran church bell to be rung to get the +citizens together to see what sort of arms they had. I found one or two +squirrel rifles and a few shotguns. I had sent a messenger to +Charlestown in the meantime for Captain Rowan, commander of a volunteer +company there. I also sent messengers to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad +to stop the trains coming east, and not let them approach the Ferry, and +also a messenger to Shepherdstown.”[241] + +Another eye-witness adds: “There was unavoidable delay in the +preparations for a fight, because of the scarcity of weapons; for only a +few squirrel guns and fowling-pieces could be found. There were then at +Harper’s Ferry thousands and tens of thousands of muskets and rifles of +the most approved patterns, but they were all boxed up in the arsenal, +and the arsenal was in the hands of the enemy. And such, too, was the +scarcity of the ammunition that, after using up the limited supply of +lead found in the village stores, pewter plates and spoons had to be +melted and molded into bullets for the occasion. + +“By nine o’clock a number of indifferently armed citizens assembled on +Camp Hill and decided that the party, consisting of half a dozen men, +should cross the Potomac a short distance above the Ferry, and, going +down the tow-path of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal as far as the railway +bridge, should attack the two sentinels stationed there, who, by the +way, had been reënforced by four more of Brown’s party. Another small +party under Captain Medler was to cross the Shenandoah and take position +opposite the rifle works, while Captain Avis, with a sufficient force, +should take possession of the Shenandoah bridge, and Captain Roderick, +with some of the armorers, should post themselves on the Baltimore and +Ohio Railway west of the Ferry just above the armories.”[242] + +At last the militia commenced to arrive and the movements to cut off +Brown’s men began. The Jefferson Guards crossed the Potomac, came down +to the Maryland side and seized the Potomac bridge. The local company +was sent to take the Shenandoah bridge, leave a guard and march to the +rear of the arsenal, while another local company was to seize the houses +in front of the arsenal. + +“As strangers poured in,” says Anderson, “the enemy took positions round +about, so as to prevent any escape, within shooting distance of the +engine-house and arsenal. Captain Brown, seeing their manœuvres, said, +‘We will hold on to our three positions, if they are unwilling to come +to terms, and die like men.’”[243] + +The attack came at noon from the Jefferson Guards, who started across +the Potomac bridge from Maryland. This is Anderson’s story: + +“It was about twelve o’clock in the day when we were first attacked by +the troops. Prior to that, Captain Brown, in anticipation of further +trouble, had girded to his side the famous sword taken from Colonel +Lewis Washington the night before, and with that memorable weapon, he +commanded his men against General Washington’s own state. When the +captain received the news that the troops had entered the bridge from +the Maryland side, he, with some of his men, went into the street, and +sent a message to the arsenal for us to come forth also. We hastened to +the street as ordered, when he said—‘The troops are on the bridge, +coming into town; we will give them a warm reception.’ He then walked +around amongst us, giving us words of encouragement, in this wise:—‘Men! +be cool! Don’t waste your powder and shot! Take aim, and make every shot +count!’ ‘The troops will look for us to retreat on their first +appearance; be careful to shoot first.’ Our men were well supplied with +firearms, but Captain Brown had no rifle at that time; his only weapon +was the sword before mentioned. + +“The troops soon came out of the bridge, and up the street facing us, we +occupying an irregular position. When they got within sixty or seventy +yards, Captain Brown said, ‘Let go upon them!’ which we did, when +several of them fell. Again and again the dose was repeated. There was +now consternation among the troops. From marching in solid martial +columns, they became scattered. Some hastened to seize upon and bear up +the wounded and dying,—several lay dead upon the ground. They seemed not +to realize, at first, that we would fire upon them, but evidently +expected that we would be driven out by them without firing. Captain +Brown seemed fully to understand the matter, and hence, very properly +and in our defense, undertook to forestall their movements. The +consequence of their unexpected reception was, after leaving several of +their dead on the field, they beat a confused retreat into the bridge, +and there stayed under cover until reinforcements came to the Ferry. On +the retreat of the troops, we were ordered back to our former +posts.”[244] + +At this time the Negro, Newby, was killed and his assailant shot in turn +by Green. Two slaves also died fighting. Now “there was comparative +quiet for a time, except that the citizens seemed to be wild with +terror. Men, women and children forsook the place in great haste, +climbing up hillsides, and scaling the mountains. The latter seemed to +be alive with white fugitives, fleeing from their doomed city. During +this time, William Thompson, who was returning from his errand to the +Kennedy farm, was surrounded on the bridge by railroad men, who next +came up, and taken a prisoner to the Wager house.”[245] + +It was now one o’clock in the day and while things were going against +Brown, his cause was not desperate. His Maryland men might yet attack +the disorganized Jefferson Guards in the rear and the arsenal was full +of hostages. But militia and citizens kept pouring into the town and by +three o’clock “could be seen coming from every direction.” Kagi sent +word to Brown, urging retreat; but Brown faced a difficult dilemma: +Should he go to Loudoun Heights and lose half his men and all his +munitions? or should he retreat to Maryland? This latter path lay open, +he was sure, by means of his hostages. Meantime the Maryland party might +appear at any moment. Indeed, the Jefferson Guards had once been +mistaken for them. On this account the message was sent back to Kagi “to +hold out for a few minutes, when we would all evacuate the place.” Still +the Maryland party lingered with the stubborn Tidd somewhere up the +road, and Cook idly kicking his heels at the schoolhouse. + +The messenger, Jerry Anderson, was fired on and mortally wounded before +he reached Kagi, and the latter’s party was attacked by a large force +and driven into the river. + +“The river at that point runs rippling over a rocky bed,” writes a +Virginian, “and at ordinary stages of the water is easily forded. The +raiders, finding their retreat to the opposite shore intercepted by +Medler’s men, made for a large flat rock near the middle of the stream. +Before reaching it, however, Kagi fell and died in the water, apparently +without a struggle. Four others reached the rock, where, for a while, +they made an ineffectual stand, returning the fire of the citizens. But +it was not long before two of them were killed outright and another +prostrated by a mortal wound, leaving Copeland, a mulatto, standing +alone unharmed upon their rock of refuge. + +“Thereupon, a Harper’s Ferry man, James H. Holt, dashed into the river, +gun in hand, to capture Copeland, who, as he approached him, made a show +of fight by pointing his gun at Holt, who halted and leveled his; but, +to the surprise of the lookers-on, neither of their weapons were +discharged, both having been rendered temporarily useless, as I +afterward learned, from being wet. Holt, however, as he again advanced, +continued to snap his gun, while Copeland did the same.”[246] + +Copeland was taken alive and Leeman, with a second message from Kagi to +Brown, was killed. Matters were now getting desperate, but the armory +was full of prisoners and therein lay John Brown’s final hope. Easily as +a last resort he could use these citizens as a screen and so escape to +the mountains. In attempting this, however, some of the prisoners were +bound to be killed and Brown hesitated at sacrificing innocent blood to +save himself. He thought that the same end might be accomplished by +negotiation. His first move, therefore, was to withdraw all his force +and the important prisoners to a small brick building near the armory +gate called the “engine-house.” Captain Daingerfield, one of the +prisoners, says: “He entered the engine-house, carrying his prisoners +along, or rather part of them, for he made selections. After getting +into the engine-house he made this speech: ‘Gentlemen, perhaps you +wonder why I have selected you from the others. It is because I believe +you to be the most influential; and I have only to say now, that you +will have to share precisely the same fate that your friends extend to +my men.’ He began at once to bar the doors and windows, and to cut +port-holes through the brick wall.”[247] + +This evident weakening of the raiders let pandemonium loose. The +citizens realized how small a force Brown had and were filled with fury +at his presumption. His men began to fight desperately for their lives. + +“About the time when Brown immured himself,” a narrator reports, “a +company of Berkeley County militia arrived from Martinsburg who, with +some citizens of Harper’s Ferry and the surrounding country, made a rush +on the armory and released the great mass of the prisoners outside of +the engine-house, not, however, without suffering some loss from a +galling fire kept up by the enemy from ‘the fort.’”[248] + +This released the arms and one of the Virginia watchmen says: “The +people, who came pouring into town, broke into liquor saloons, filled +up, and then got into the arsenal, arming themselves with United States +guns and ammunition. They kept shooting at random and howling.”[249] + +The prisoners within the engine-house heard “a terrible firing from +without, at every point from which the windows could be seen, and in a +few minutes every window was shattered, and hundreds of balls came +through the doors. These shots were answered from within whenever the +attacking party could be seen. This was kept up most of the day, and, +strange to say, not a prisoner was hurt, though thousands of balls were +imbedded in the walls, and holes shot in the doors almost large enough +for a man to creep through.”[250] + +The doomed raiders saw “volley upon volley” discharged, while “the +echoes from the hills, the shrieks of the townspeople, and the groans of +their wounded and dying, all of which filled the air, were truly +frightful.” Yet “no powder and ball were wasted. We shot from under +cover, and took deadly aim. For an hour before the flag of truce was +sent out, the firing was uninterrupted, and one and another of the enemy +were constantly dropping to the earth.”[251] + +Oliver Brown was shot and died without a word and Taylor was mortally +wounded. The mayor of the city ventured out, unarmed, to reconnoitre and +was killed. Immediately the son of Andrew Hunter, who afterward was +state’s attorney against Brown, rushed into the hotel after the prisoner +William Thompson: + +“We burst into the room where he was, and found several around him, but +they offered only a feeble resistance; we brought our guns down to his +head repeatedly,—myself and another person,—for the purpose of shooting +him in the room. + +“There was a young lady there, the sister of Mr. Fouke, the +hotel-keeper, who sat in this man’s lap, covered his face with her arms, +and shielded him with her person whenever we brought our guns to bear. +She said to us, ‘For God’s sake, wait and let the law take its course.’ +My associate shouted to kill him. ‘Let us shed his blood,’ were his +words. All round were shouting, ‘Mr. Beckham’s life was worth ten +thousand of these vile Abolitionists.’ I was cool about it, and +deliberate. My gun was pushed by some one who seized the barrel, and I +then moved to the back part of the room, still with purpose unchanged, +but with a view to divert attention from me, in order to get an +opportunity, at some moment when the crowd would be less dense, to shoot +him. After a moment’s thought it occurred to me that that was not the +proper place to kill him. We then proposed to take him out and hang him. +Some portion of our band then opened a way to him, and first pushing +Miss Fouke aside, we slung him out-of-doors. I gave him a push, and many +others did the same. We then shoved him along the platform and down to +the trestle work of the bridge; he begged for his life all the time, +very piteously at first.”[252] + +Thus he was shot to death as he crawled in the trestle work. The +prisoners in the engine-house now urged Brown to make terms with the +citizens, representing that this was possible and that he and his men +could escape. Brown sent out his son Watson with a white flag, but the +maddened citizens paid no attention to it and shot him down. A lull in +the fighting came a little later, and Stevens took a second flag of +truce, but was captured and held prisoner. Daingerfield says: + +“At night the firing ceased, for we were in total darkness, and nothing +could be seen in the engine-house. During the day and night I talked +much with Brown. I found him as brave as a man could be, and sensible +upon all subjects except slavery. He believed it was his duty to free +the slaves, even if in doing so he lost his own life. During a sharp +fight one of Brown’s sons was killed. He fell; then trying to raise +himself, he said, ‘It is all over with me,’ and died instantly. Brown +did not leave his post at the port-hole; but when the fighting was over +he walked to his son’s body, straightened out his limbs, took off his +trappings, and then, turning to me, said, ‘This is the third son I have +lost in this cause.’ Another son had been shot in the morning, and was +then dying, having been brought in from the street. Often during the +affair at the engine-house, when his men would want to fire upon some +one who might be seen passing, Brown would stop them, saying, ‘Don’t +shoot; that man is unarmed.’ The firing was kept up by our men all day +and until late at night, and during this time several of his men were +killed, but none of the prisoners were hurt, though in great danger. +During the day and night many propositions, pro and con, were made, +looking to Brown’s surrender and the release of the prisoners, but +without result.”[253] + +Another eye-witness says: + +“A little before night Brown asked if any of his captives would +volunteer to go out among the citizens and induce them to cease firing +on the fort, as they were endangering the lives of their friends—the +prisoners. He promised on his part that, if there was no more firing on +his men, there should be none by them on the besiegers. Mr. Israel +Russel undertook the dangerous duty; the risk arose from the excited +state of the people who would be likely to fire on anything seen +stirring around the prison-house, and the citizens were persuaded to +stop firing in consideration of the danger incurred of injuring the +prisoners.... + +“It was now dark and the wildest excitement existed in the town, +especially among the friends of the killed, wounded and prisoners of the +citizens’ party. It had rained some little all day and the atmosphere +was raw and cold. Now, a cloudy and moonless sky hung like a pall over +the scene of war, and, on the whole, a more dismal night cannot be +imagined. Guards were stationed round the engine-house to prevent +Brown’s escape and, as forces were constantly arriving from Winchester, +Frederick City, Baltimore and other places to help the Harper’s Ferry +people, the town soon assumed quite a military appearance. The United +States authorities in Washington had been notified in the meantime, and, +in the course of the night, Colonel Robert E. Lee, afterward the famous +General Lee of the Southern Confederacy, arrived with a force of United +States marines, to protect the interests of the government, and kill or +capture the invaders.”[254] + +Meantime Cook had awakened to the fact that something was wrong. He left +Tidd at the schoolhouse and started toward the Ferry; finding it +surrounded, he fired one volley from a tree and fled. He found no one at +the schoolhouse, but met Tidd, and the whole farm guard, and one Negro +on the road beyond. They all turned and fled north, Tidd and Cook +quarreling. They wandered fourteen days in rain and snow, and finally +all escaped except Cook who went into a town for food and was arrested. + +Robert E. Lee, with 100 marines, arrived just before midnight on Monday +and one of the prisoners tells the story of the last stand: + +“When Colonel Lee came with the government troops in the night, he at +once sent a flag of truce by his aid, J. E. B. Stuart, to notify Brown +of his arrival, and in the name of the United States to demand his +surrender, advising him to throw himself on the clemency of the +government. Brown declined to accept Colonel Lee’s terms, and determined +to await the attack. When Stuart was admitted and a light brought, he +exclaimed, ‘Why, aren’t you old Osawatomie Brown of Kansas, whom I once +had there as my prisoner?’ ‘Yes,’ was the answer, ‘but you did not keep +me.’ This was the first intimation we had of Brown’s real name. When +Colonel Lee advised Brown to trust to the clemency of the government, +Brown responded that he knew what that meant,—a rope for his men and +himself; adding, ‘I prefer to die just here.’ Stuart told him he would +return at early morning for his final reply, and left him. When he had +gone, Brown at once proceeded to barricade the doors, windows, etc., +endeavoring to make the place as strong as possible. All this time no +one of Brown’s men showed the slightest fear, but calmly awaited the +attack, selecting the best situations to fire from, and arranging their +guns and pistols so that a fresh one could be taken up as soon as one +was discharged.... + +“When Lieutenant Stuart came in the morning for the final reply to the +demand to surrender, I got up and went to Brown’s side to hear his +answer. Stuart asked, ‘Are you ready to surrender, and trust to the +mercy of the government?’ Brown answered, ‘No, I prefer to die here.’ +His manner did not betray the least alarm. Stuart stepped aside and made +a signal for the attack, which was instantly begun with sledge-hammers +to break down the door. Finding it would not yield, the soldiers seized +a long ladder for a battering-ram, and commenced beating the door with +that, the party within firing incessantly. I had assisted in the +barricading, fixing the fastenings so that I could remove them on the +first effort to get in. But I was not at the door when the battering +began, and could not get to the fastenings till the ladder was used. I +then quickly removed the fastenings; and, after two or three strokes of +the ladder, the engine rolled partially back, making a small aperture, +through which Lieutenant Green of the marines forced his way, jumped on +top of the engine, and stood a second, amidst a shower of balls, looking +for John Brown. When he saw Brown, he sprang about twelve feet at him, +giving an under-thrust of his sword, striking Brown about midway the +body, and raising him completely from the ground. Brown fell forward, +with his head between his knees, while Green struck him several times +over the head, and, as I then supposed, split his skull at every stroke. +I was not two feet from Brown at that time. Of course, I got out of the +building as soon as possible, and did not know till some time later that +Brown was not killed. It seems that Green’s sword, in making the thrust, +struck Brown’s belt and did not penetrate the body. The sword was bent +double. The reason that Brown was not killed when struck on the head +was, that Green was holding his sword in the middle, striking with the +hilt, and making only scalp wounds.”[255] + +After the attack on the troops at the bridge, Brown had ordered O. P. +Anderson, Hazlett and Green back to the arsenal. But Green saw the +desperate strait of Brown and chose voluntarily to go into the +engine-house and fight until the last. Anderson and Hazlett, when they +saw the door battered in, went to the back of the arsenal, climbed the +wall and fled along the railway that goes up the Shenandoah. Here in the +cliffs they had a skirmish with the troops but finally escaped in the +night, crossed the town and the Potomac and so got into Maryland and +went to the farm. It was deserted and pillaged. Then they came back to +the schoolhouse and found that empty. In the morning they heard firing +and Anderson’s narrative continues: + +“Hazlett thought it must be Owen Brown and his men trying to force their +way into the town, as they had been informed that a number of us had +been taken prisoners, and we started down along the ridge to join them. +When we got in sight of the Ferry, we saw the troops firing across the +river to the Maryland side with considerable spirit. Looking closely, we +saw, to our surprise, that they were firing upon a few of the colored +men, who had been armed the day before by our men, at the Kennedy farm, +and stationed down at the schoolhouse by C. P. Tidd. They were in the +bushes on the edge of the mountains, dodging about, occasionally +exposing themselves to the enemy. The troops crossed the bridge in +pursuit of them, but they retreated in different directions. Being +further in the mountains, and more secure, we could see without personal +harm befalling us. One of the colored men came toward where we were, +when we hailed him, and inquired the particulars. He said that one of +his comrades had been shot, and was lying on the side of the mountains; +that they thought the men who had armed them the day before must be in +the Ferry. That opinion, we told him, was not correct. We asked him to +join with us in hunting up the rest of the party, but he declined, and +went his way. + +“While we were in this part of the mountains, some of the troops went to +the schoolhouse, and took possession of it. On our return along up the +ridge, from our position, screened by the bushes, we could see them as +they invested it. Our last hope of shelter, or of meeting our +companions, now being destroyed, we concluded to make our escape +north.”[256] + +Anderson managed to get away, but Hazlett was captured in Pennsylvania +and was returned to Virginia. Thus John Brown’s raid ended. Seven of the +men—John Brown himself, Shields Green, Edwin Coppoc, Stevens and +Copeland and eventually Cook and Hazlett—were captured and hanged. +Watson and Oliver Brown, the two Thompsons, Kagi, Jerry Anderson, +Taylor, Newby, Leary, and John Anderson, ten in all, were killed in the +fight, and six others—Owen Brown, Tidd, Leeman, Barclay Coppoc, Merriam +and O. Anderson escaped. + +At high noon on Tuesday, October 18th, the raid was over. John Brown lay +wounded and bloodstained on the floor and the governor of Virginia bent +over him. + +“Who are you?” he asked. + +“My name is John Brown; I have been well known as old John Brown of +Kansas. Two of my sons were killed here to-day, and I’m dying too. I +came here to liberate slaves, and was to receive no reward. I have acted +from a sense of duty, and am content to await my fate; but I think the +crowd have treated me badly. I am an old man. Yesterday I could have +killed whom I chose; but I had no desire to kill any person, and would +not have killed a man had they not tried to kill me and my men. I could +have sacked and burned the town, but did not; I have treated the persons +whom I took as hostages kindly, and I appeal to them for the truth of +what I say. If I had succeeded in running off slaves this time, I could +have raised twenty times as many men as I have now, for a similar +expedition. But I have failed.”[257] + + + + + CHAPTER XII + THE RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX + + “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we + did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. + + “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our + iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His + stripes we are healed.” + + +The deed was done. The next day the world knew and the world sat in +puzzled amazement. It was ever so and ever will be. When a prophet like +John Brown appears, how must we of the world receive him? Must we follow +out the drear, dread logic of surrounding facts, as did the South, even +if they crucify a clean and pure soul, simply because consistent +allegiance to our cherished, chosen ideal demands it? If we do, the +shame will brand our latest history. Shall we hesitate and waver before +his clear white logic, now helping, now fearing to help, now believing, +now doubting? Yes, this we must do so long as the doubt and hesitation +are genuine; but we must not lie. If we are human, we must thus hesitate +until we know the right. How shall we know it? That is the Riddle of the +Sphinx. We are but darkened groping souls, that know not light often +because of its very blinding radiance. Only in time is truth revealed. +To-day at last we know: John Brown was right. + +Yet there are some great principles to guide us. That there are in this +world matters of vast human import which are eternally right or +eternally wrong, all men believe. Whether that great right comes, as the +simpler, clearer minded think, from the spoken word of God, or whether +it is simply another way of saying: this deed makes for the good of +mankind, or that, for the ill—however it may be, all men know that there +are in this world here and there and again and again great partings of +the ways—the one way wrong, the other right, in some vast and eternal +sense. This certainly is true at times—in the mighty crises of lives and +nations. On the other hand, it is also true, as human experience again +and again shows, that the usual matters of human debate and difference +of opinion are not so vitally important, or so easily classified; that +in most cases there is much of right and wrong on both sides and, so +usual is it to find this true, that men tend to argue it always so. +Their life morality becomes always a wavering path of expediency, not +necessarily the best or the worst path, as they freely even smilingly +admit, but a good path, a safe path, a path of little resistance and one +that leads to the good if not to the theoretical (but usually +impracticable) best. Such philosophy of the world’s ways is common, and +probably it is well that thus it is. And yet we all feel its temporary, +tentative character; we instinctively distrust its comfortable tone, and +listen almost fearfully for the greater voice; its better is often so +far below that which we feel is a possible best, that its present +temporizing seems evil to us, and ever and again after the world has +complacently dodged and compromised with, and skilfully evaded a great +evil, there shines, suddenly, a great white light—an unwavering, +unflickering brightness, blinding by its all-seeing brilliance, making +the whole world simply a light and a darkness—a right and a wrong. Then +men tremble and writhe and waver. They whisper, “But—but—of course;” +“the thing is plain, but it is too plain to be true—it is true but truth +is not the only thing in the world.” Thus they hide from the light, they +burrow and grovel, and yet ever in, and through, and on them blazes that +mighty light with its horror of darkness and behind it peals the +voice—the Riddle of the Sphinx, that must be answered. + +Such a light was the soul of John Brown. He was simple, exasperatingly +simple; unlettered, plain, and homely. No casuistry of culture or of +learning, of well-being or tradition moved him in the slightest degree: +“Slavery is wrong,” he said,—“kill it.” Destroy it—uproot it, stem, +blossom, and branch; give it no quarter, exterminate it and do it now. +Was he wrong? No. The forcible staying of human uplift by barriers of +law, and might, and tradition is the most wicked thing on earth. It is +wrong, eternally wrong. It is wrong, by whatever name it is called, or +in whatever guise it lurks, and whenever it appears. But it is +especially heinous, black, and cruel when it masquerades in the robes of +law and justice and patriotism. So was American slavery clothed in 1859, +and it had to die by revolution, not by milder means. And this men knew. +They had known it a hundred years. Yet they shrank and trembled. From +round about the white and blinding path of this soul flew equivocations, +lies, thievings and red murders. And yet all men instinctively felt that +these things were not of the light but of the surrounding darkness. It +is at once surprising, baffling and pitiable to see the way in which +men—honest American citizens—faced this light. Many types met and +answered the argument, John Brown (for he did not use argument, he was +himself an argument). First there was the Western American—the typical +American, like Charles Robinson—one to whose imagination the empire of +the vale of the Mississippi appealed with tremendous force. Then there +was the Abolitionist—shading away from him who held slavery an incubus +to him who saw its sin, of whom Gerrit Smith was a fair type. Then there +was the lover of men, like Dr. Howe, and the merchant-errant like +Stearns. Finally, there were the two great fateful types—the master and +the slave. + +To Robinson, Brown was simply a means to an end—beyond that he was +whatever prevailing public opinion indicated. When the gratitude of +Osawatomie swelled high, Brown was fit to be named with Jesus Christ; +when the wave of Southern reaction subjugated the nation, he was +something less than a fanatic. But whatever he was, he was the sword on +which struggling Kansas and its leaders could depend, the untarnished +doer of its darker deeds, when they that knew them necessary cowered and +held their hands. Brown’s was not the only hand that freed Kansas, but +his hand was indispensable, and not the first time, nor the last, has a +cool and skilful politician, like Robinson, climbed to power on the +heads of those helpers of his, whose half-realized ideals he bartered +for present possibilities—human freedom for statehood. For the +Abolitionist of the Garrison type Brown had a contempt, as undeserved as +it was natural to his genius. To recognize an evil and not strike it was +to John Brown sinful. “Talk, talk, talk,” he said derisively. Nor did he +rightly gauge the value of spiritual as contrasted with physical blows, +until the day when he himself struck the greatest on the Charleston +scaffold. + +But if John Brown failed rightly to gauge the movement of the +Abolitionists, few of them failed to appreciate him when they met him. +Instinctively they knew him as one who grasped the very pith and kernel +of the evil which they fought. They asked no proofs or credentials; they +asked John Brown. So it was with Gerrit Smith. He saw Brown and believed +in him. He entertained him at his house. He heard his detailed plans for +striking slavery a heart blow. He gave him in all over a thousand +dollars, and bade him Godspeed! Yet when the blow was struck, he was +filled with immeasurable consternation. He equivocated and even denied +knowledge of Brown’s plans. To be sure, he, his family, his fortune were +in the shadow of danger—but where was John Brown? So with Dr. Howe, +whose memory was painfully poor on the witness stand and who fluttered +from enthusiastic support of Brown to a weak wavering when once he had +tasted the famous Southern hospitality. He found slavery, to his own +intense surprise, human: not ideally and horribly devilish, but only +humanly bad. Was a bad human institution to be attacked _vi et armis_? +Or was it not rather to be met with persuasive argument in the soft +shade of a Carolina veranda? Dr. Howe inclined to the latter thought, +after his Cuban visit, and he was exceedingly annoyed and scared after +the raid. He fled precipitately to Canada. Of the Boston committee only +Stearns stood up and out in the public glare and said unequivocally, +then and there: “I believe John Brown to be the representative man of +this century, as Washington was of the last—the Harper’s Ferry affair, +and the capacity shown by the Italians for self-government, the great +events of this age. One will free Europe and the other America.”[258] + +The attitude of the black man toward John Brown is typified by Frederick +Douglass and Shields Green. Said Douglass: “On the evening when the news +came that John Brown had taken and was then holding the town of Harper’s +Ferry, it so happened that I was speaking to a large audience in +National Hall, Philadelphia. The announcement came upon us with the +startling effect of an earthquake. It was something to make the boldest +hold his breath.”[259] + +Wise and Buchanan started immediately on Douglass’s track and he fled to +Canada and eventually to England. Why did not Douglass join John Brown? +Because, first, he was of an entirely different cast of temperament and +mind; and because, secondly, he knew, as only a Negro slave can know, +the tremendous might and organization of the slave power. Brown’s plan +never in the slightest degree appealed to Douglass’s reason. That the +Underground Railroad methods could be enlarged and systematized, +Douglass believed, but any further plan he did not think possible. Only +national force could dislodge national slavery. As it was with Douglass, +so it was practically with the Negro race. They believed in John Brown +but not in his plan. He touched their warm loving hearts but not their +hard heads. The Canadian Negroes, for instance, were men who knew what +slavery meant. They had suffered its degradation, its repression and its +still more fatal license. They knew the slave system. They had been +slaves. They had risked life to help loved ones to escape its +far-reaching tentacles. They had reached a land of freedom and had begun +to taste the joy of being human. Their little homes were clustering +about—they had their churches, lodges, social gatherings, and newspaper. +Then came the call. They loved the old man and cherished him, helped and +forwarded his work in a thousand little ways. But the call? Were they +asked to sacrifice themselves to free their fellow-slaves? Were they not +quite ready? No—to do that they stood ever ready. But here they were +asked to sacrifice themselves for the sake of possibly freeing a few +slaves and certainly arousing the nation. They saw what John Brown did +not fully realize until the last: the tremendous meaning of sacrifice +even though his enterprise failed and they were sure it would fail. Yet +in truth it need not have failed. History and military science prove its +essential soundness. But the Negro knew little of history and military +science. He did know slavery and the slave power, and they loomed large +and invincible in his fertile imagination. He could not conceive their +overthrow by anything short of the direct voice of God. That a supreme +sacrifice of human beings on the altar of Moloch might hasten the day of +emancipation was possible, but were they called to give their lives to +this forlorn hope? Most of them said no, as most of their fellows, black +and white, ever answer to the “voice, without reply.” They said it +reluctantly, slowly, even hesitatingly, but they said it even as their +leader Douglass said it. And why not, they argued? Was not their whole +life already a sacrifice? Were they called by any right of God or man to +give more than they already had given? What more did they owe the world? +Did not the world owe them an unpayable amount? + +Then, too, the sacrifice demanded of black men in this raid was far more +than that demanded of whites. In 1859 it was a crime for a free black +man even to set foot on Virginia soil, and it was slavery or death for a +fugitive to return. If worse came to worst, the Negro stood the least +chance of escape and the least consideration on capture. Yet despite all +this and despite the terrible training of slavery in cowardice, +submission and fatality; the systematic elimination, by death and +cruelty, of strength and self-respect and bravery, there were in Canada +and in the United States scores of Negroes ready for the sacrifice. But +the necessary secrecy, vagueness and intangibility of the summons, the +repeated changes of date, the difficulty of communication and the +poverty of black men, all made effective coöperation exceedingly +difficult. + +Even as it was, fifteen or twenty Negroes had enlisted and would +probably have been present had they had the time. Five, probably six, +actually came in time, and thirty or forty slaves actively helped. +Considering the mass of Negroes in the land and the character of the +leader, this was an insignificant number. But what it lacked in number +it made up in characters like Shields Green. He was a poor, unlettered +fugitive, ignorant by the law of the land, stricken in life and homely +in body. He sat and listened as Douglass and Brown argued amid the +boulders of that old Chambersburg quarry. Some things he understood, +some he did not. But one thing he did understand and that was the soul +of John Brown, so he said, “I guess I’ll go with the old man.” Again in +the sickening fury of that fatal Monday, a white man and a black man +found themselves standing with freedom before them. The white man was +John Brown’s truest companion and the black man was Shields Green. “I +told him to come,” said the white man afterward, “that we could do +nothing more,” but he simply said, “I must go down to the old man.” And +he went down to John Brown and to death. + +If this was the attitude of the slave, what was that of the master? It +was when John Brown faced the indignant, self-satisfied and arrogant +slave power of the South, flanked by its Northern Vallandighams, that +the mighty paradox and burning farce of the situation revealed itself. +Picture the situation: An old and blood-bespattered man, half-dead from +the wounds inflicted but a few hours before; a man lying in the cold and +dirt, without sleep for fifty-five nerve-wrecking hours, without food +for nearly as long, with the dead bodies of two sons almost before his +eyes, the piled corpses of his seven slain comrades near and afar, a +wife and a bereaved family listening in vain, and a Lost Cause, the +dream of a lifetime, lying dead in his heart. Around him was a group of +bitter, inquisitive Southern aristocrats and their satellites, headed by +one of the foremost leaders of subsequent secession. + +“Who sent you—who sent you?” these inquisitors insisted. + +“No man sent me—I acknowledge no master in human form!” + +“What was your object in coming?” + +“We came to free the slaves.” + +“How do you justify your acts?” + +“You are guilty of a great wrong against God and humanity and it would +be perfectly right for any one to interfere with you so far as to free +those you wilfully and wickedly hold in bondage. I think I did right; +and that others will do right who interfere with you at any time and at +all times. I hold that the Golden Rule, ‘Do unto others as ye would that +others should do unto you,’ applies to all who would help others to gain +their liberty.” + +“But don’t you believe in the Bible?” + +“Certainly, I do.” + +“Do you consider this a religious movement?” + +“It is in my opinion the greatest service man can render to God.” + +“Do you consider yourself an instrument in the hands of Providence?” + +“I do.” + +“Upon what principles do you justify your acts?” + +“Upon the Golden Rule. I pity the poor in bondage that have none to help +them. That is why I am here; not to gratify any personal animosity, +revenge, or vindictive spirit. It is my sympathy with the oppressed and +the wronged, that are as good as you and as precious in the sight of +God.” + +“Certainly. But why take the slaves against their will?” + +“I never did.”... + +“Who are your advisers in this movement?” + +“I have numerous sympathizers throughout the entire North.... I want you +to understand that I respect the rights of the poorest and the weakest +of colored people, oppressed by the slave system, just as much as I do +those of the most wealthy and powerful. That is the idea that has moved +me, and that alone. We expected no reward except satisfaction of +endeavoring to do for those in distress and greatly oppressed as we +would be done by. The cry of distress of the oppressed is my reason, and +the only thing that prompted me to come here.” + +“Why did you do it secretly?” + +“Because I thought that necessary to success; no other reason.... I +agree with Mr. Smith that moral suasion is hopeless. I don’t think the +people of the slave states will ever consider the subject of slavery in +its true light till some other argument is resorted to than moral +suasion.” + +“Did you expect a general rising of the slaves in case of your success?” + +“No, sir; nor did I wish it. I expected to gather them up from time to +time, and set them free.” + +“Did you expect to hold possession here till then?” + +“You overrate your strength in supposing I could have been taken if I +had not allowed it. I was too tardy after commencing the open attack—in +delaying my movements through Monday night, and up to the time I was +attacked by the government troops.” + +“Where did you get arms?” + +“I bought them.” + +“In what state?” + +“That I will not state. I have nothing to say, only that I claim to be +here in carrying out a measure I believe perfectly justifiable, and not +to act the part of an incendiary or ruffian, but to aid those suffering +great wrong. I wish to say, furthermore, that you had better—all you +people at the South—prepare yourselves for a settlement of this +question, that must come up for settlement sooner than you are prepared +for it. The sooner you are prepared the better. You may dispose of me +very easily,—I am nearly disposed of now, but this question is still to +be settled,—this Negro question, I mean; the end of that is not yet.” + +“Brown, suppose you had every nigger in the United States, what would +you do with them?” + +“Set them free.” + +“Your intention was to carry them off and free them?” + +“Not at all.” + +“To set them free would sacrifice the life of every man in this +community.” + +“I do not think so.” + +“I know it; I think you are fanatical.” + +“And I think you are fanatical. Whom the gods would destroy they first +make mad, and you are mad.” + +“Was it your only object to free the Negroes?” + +“Absolutely our only object.”... + +“You are a robber,” cried some voice in the crowd. + +“You slaveholders are robbers,” retorted Brown. + +But Governor Wise interrupted: “Mr. Brown, the silver of your hair is +reddened by the blood of crime, and you should eschew these hard words +and think upon eternity. You are suffering from wounds, perhaps fatal; +and should you escape death from these causes, you must submit to a +trial which may involve death. Your confessions justify the presumption +that you will be found guilty; and even now you are committing a felony +under the laws of Virginia, by uttering sentiments like these. It is +better you should turn your attention to your eternal future than be +dealing in denunciations which can only injure you.” + +John Brown replied: “Governor, I have from all appearances not more than +fifteen or twenty years the start of you in the journey to that eternity +of which you kindly warn me; and whether my time here shall be fifteen +months, or fifteen days, or fifteen hours, I am equally prepared to go. +There is an eternity behind and an eternity before; and this little +speck in the centre, however long, is but comparatively a minute. The +difference between your tenure and mine is trifling, and I therefore +tell you to be prepared. I am prepared. You have a heavy responsibility, +and it behooves you to prepare more than it does me.”[260] + +Thus from the day John Brown was captured to the day he died, and after, +it was the South and slavery that was on trial—not John Brown. Indeed, +the dilemma into which John Brown’s raid threw the state of Virginia was +perfect. If his foray was the work of a handful of fanatics, led by a +lunatic and repudiated by the slaves to a man, then the proper procedure +would have been to ignore the incident, quietly punish the worst +offenders and either pardon the misguided leader, or send him to an +asylum. If, on the other hand, Virginia faced a conspiracy that +threatened her social existence, aroused dangerous unrest in her slave +population, and was full of portent for the future, then extraordinary +precaution, swift and extreme punishment, and bitter complaint were only +natural. But both these situations could not be true—both horns of the +dilemma could not be logically seized. Yet this was precisely what the +South and Virginia sought. While insisting that the raid was too +hopelessly and ridiculously small to accomplish anything, and saying, +with Andrew Hunter, that “not a single one of the slaves” joined John +Brown “except by coercion,” the state nevertheless spent $250,000 to +punish the invaders, stationed from one to three thousand soldiers in +the vicinity and threw the nation into turmoil. When the inconsistency +of this action struck various minds, the attempt was made to exaggerate +the danger of the invading white men. The presiding judge at the trial +wrote, as late as 1889, that the number in Brown’s party was proven by +witnesses to have been seventy-five to one hundred and he “expected +large reinforcements”; while Andrew Hunter, the state’s attorney, saw +nation-wide conspiracies. + +What, then, was the truth about the matter? It was as Frederick Douglass +said twenty-two years later on the very spot: “If John Brown did not end +the war that ended slavery, he did, at least, begin the war that ended +slavery. If we look over the dates, places, and men for which this honor +is claimed, we shall find that not Carolina, but Virginia, not Fort +Sumter, but Harper’s Ferry and the arsenal, not Major Anderson, but John +Brown began the war that ended American slavery, and made this a free +republic. Until this blow was struck, the prospect for freedom was dim, +shadowy, and uncertain. The irrepressible conflict was one of words, +votes, and compromises. When John Brown stretched forth his arm the sky +was cleared,—the armed hosts of freedom stood face to face over the +chasm of a broken Union, and the clash of arms was at hand.”[261] + +The paths by which John Brown’s raid precipitated civil war were these: +In the first place, he aroused the Negroes of Virginia. How far the +knowledge of his plan had penetrated is of course only to be +conjectured. Evidently few knew that the foray would take place on +October 17th. But when the movement had once made a successful start, +there is no doubt that Osborne Anderson knew whereof he spoke, when he +said that slaves were ready to coöperate. His words were proven by the +200,000 black soldiers in the Civil War. That something was wrong was +shown, too, by five incendiary fires in a single week after the raid. +Hunter sought to attribute these to “Northern emissaries,” but this +charge was unproven and extremely improbable. The only other possible +perpetrators were slaves and free Negroes. That Virginians believed this +is shown by Hinton’s declaration that the loss in 1859 by the sale of +Virginia slaves alone was $10,000,000.[262] A lady who visited John +Brown said, “It was hard for me to forget the presence of the jailer (I +had that morning seen his advertisement of ‘fifty Negroes for +sale’).”[263] It is impossible to prove the extent of this clearing-out +of suspected slaves but the census reports indicate something of it. The +Negro population of Maryland and Virginia increased a little over four +per cent. between 1850 and 1860. But in the three counties bordering on +Harper’s Ferry—Loudoun and Jefferson in Virginia and Washington in +Maryland, the 17,647 slaves of 1850 had shrunk to 15,996 in 1860, a +decrease of nearly ten per cent. This means a disappearance of 2,400 +slaves and is very significant. + +Secondly, long before John Brown appeared at Harper’s Ferry, Southern +leaders like Mason, the author of the Fugitive Slave Bill, and chairman +of the Harper’s Ferry investigating committee; Jefferson Davis, who was +a member of this committee; Wise, Hunter and other Virginians, had set +their faces toward secession as the only method of protecting slavery. +Into the mouths of these men John Brown put a tremendous argument and a +fearful warning. The argument they used, the warning they suppressed and +hushed. The argument was: This is Abolitionism; this is the North. This +is the kind of treatment which the South and its cherished institution +can expect unless it resorts to extreme measures. Proceeding along these +lines, they emphasized and enlarged the raid so far as its white +participants and Northern sympathizers were concerned. Governor Wise, on +November 25th, issued a burning manifesto for the ears of the South and +the eyes of President Buchanan, and the majority report of the Senate +Committee closed with ominous words. On the other hand, the warning of +John Brown’s raid—the danger of Negro insurrection, was but whispered. + +Third, and this was the path that led to Civil War and far beyond: The +raid aroused and directed the conscience of the nation. Strange it was +to watch its work. Some, impulsive, eager to justify themselves, rushed +into print. To Garrison, the non-resistant, the sword of Gideon was +abhorrent; Beecher thundered against John Brown and Seward bitterly +traduced him. Then came an ominous silence in the land while his voice, +in his own defense, was heard over the whole country. A great surging +throb of sympathy arose and swept the world. That John Brown was legally +a lawbreaker and a murderer all men knew. But wider and wider circles +were beginning dimly and more clearly to recognize that his lawlessness +was in obedience to the highest call of self-sacrifice for the welfare +of his fellow men. They began to ask themselves, What is this cause that +can inspire such devotion? The reiteration of the simple statement of +“the brother in bonds” could not help but attract attention. The beauty +of the conception despite its possible unearthliness and +impracticability attracted poet and philosopher and common man. + +To be sure, the nation had long been thinking over the problem of the +black man, but never before had its attention been held by such deep +dramatic and personal interest as in the forty days from mid-October to +December, 1859. This arresting of national attention was due to Virginia +and to John Brown:—to Virginia by reason of its exaggerated plaint; to +John Brown whose strength, simplicity and acumen made his trial, +incarceration and execution the most powerful Abolition argument yet +offered. The very processes by which Virginia used John Brown to “fire +the Southern heart” were used by John Brown to fire the Northern +conscience. Andrew Hunter, the prosecuting state’s attorney, of right +demanded that the trial should be short and the punishment swift and in +this John Brown fully agreed. He had no desire to escape the +consequences of his act or to clog the wheels of Virginia justice. After +a certain moral bewilderment there in the old engine-house at his +failure on the brink of success, the true significance of his mission of +sacrifice slowly rose before him. In the face of proposals to rescue him +he said at first thoughtfully: “I do not know that I ought to encourage +any attempt to save my life. I am not sure that it would not be better +for me to die at this time. I am not incapable of error, and I may be +wrong; but I think that perhaps my object would be nearer fulfilment if +I should die. I must give it some thought.”[264] And more and more this +conviction seized and thrilled him, and he began to say decisively: “I +think I cannot now better serve the cause I love so much than to die for +it; and in my death I may do more than in my life.”[265] + +And again: “I can trust God with both the time and the manner of my +death, believing, as I now do, that for me at this time to seal my +testimony for God and humanity with my blood will do vastly more toward +advancing the cause I have earnestly endeavored to promote, than all I +have done in my life before.” And then finally came that last great hymn +of utter sacrifice: “I feel astonished that one so vile and unworthy as +I am would even be suffered to have a place anyhow or anywhere amongst +the very least of all who when they came to die (as all must) were +permitted to pay the debt of nature in defense of the right and of God’s +eternal and immutable truth.”[266] + +The trial was a difficult experience. Virginia attempted to hold scales +of even justice between mob violence and the world-wide sympathy of all +good men. To defend its domestic institutions, it must try a man for +murder when that very man, sitting as self-appointed judge of those very +institutions, had convicted them before a jury of mankind. To defend the +good name of the state, Virginia had to restrain the violent blood +vengeance of men whose kin had been killed in the raid, and who had +sworn that no prisoner should escape the extreme penalty. The trial was +legally fair but pressed to a conclusion in unseemly haste, and in +obedience to a threatening public opinion and a great hovering dread. +Only against this unfair haste did John Brown protest, for he wanted the +world to understand why he had done the deed. On the other hand, Hunter +not only feared the local mob but the slowly arising sentiment for this +white-haired crusader. He therefore pushed the proceedings legally, but +with almost brutal pertinacity. The prisoner was arraigned while wounded +and in bed; the lawyers, hurriedly chosen, were given scant time for +consultation or preparation. John Brown was formally committed to jail +at Charlestown, the county seat, on October 20th, had a preliminary +examination October 25th, and was indicted by the grand jury October +26th, for “conspiracy with slaves for the purpose of insurrection; with +treason against the commonwealth of Virginia; and with murder in the +first degree.” + +Thursday, October 27th, his trial was begun. A jury was impaneled +without challenge and Brown’s lawyers, ignoring his outline of defense, +brought in the plea of insanity. The old man arose from his couch and +said: “I look upon it as a miserable artifice and pretext of those who +ought to take a different course in regard to me, if they took any at +all, and I view it with contempt more than otherwise.... I am perfectly +unconscious of insanity, and I reject, so far as I am capable, any +attempts to interfere in my behalf on that score.”[267] + +On Friday a Massachusetts lawyer arrived to help in the trial and also +privately to suggest methods of escape. John Brown quietly refused to +contemplate any such attempt, but was glad to accept the aid of this +lawyer and two others, who were sent by John A. Andrew and his friends. +The judge curtly refused these men any time to prepare their case, but +in spite of this it ran over until Monday when the jury retired. Late +Monday afternoon they returned. Redpath says: + +“At this moment the crowd filled all the space from the couch inside the +bar, around the prisoner, beyond the railing in the body of the court, +out through the wide hall, and beyond the doors. There stood the anxious +but perfectly silent and attentive populace, stretching head and neck to +witness the closing scene of old Brown’s trial.” + +The clerk of the court read the indictment and asked: “Gentlemen of the +jury, what say you? Is the prisoner at the bar, John Brown, guilty or +not guilty?” + +“Guilty,” answered the foreman. + +“Guilty of treason, and conspiring and advising with slaves and others +to rebel, and murder in the first degree?” + +“Yes.” + +Redpath continues: “Not the slightest sound was heard in this vast crowd +as this verdict was thus returned and read. Not the slightest expression +of elation or triumph was uttered from the hundreds present, who, a +moment before, outside the court, joined in heaping threats and +imprecations on his head; nor was this strange silence interrupted +during the whole of the time occupied by the forms of the court. Old +Brown himself said not even a word, but, as on any previous day, turned +to adjust his pallet, and then composedly stretched himself upon +it.”[268] + +The following Wednesday John Brown was sentenced. Moving with painful +steps and pale face, he took his seat under the gaslight in the great +square room and remained motionless. The judge read his decision on the +points of exception and the clerk asked: “Have you anything to say why +sentence of death should not be passed upon you?” Then rising and +leaning forward, John Brown made that last great speech, in a voice at +once gentle and firm: + +“I have, may it please the court, a few words to say. + +“In the first place, I deny everything but what I have all along +admitted,—the design on my part to free the slaves. I intended certainly +to have made a clean thing of that matter, as I did last winter, when I +went into Missouri and there took slaves without the snapping of a gun +on either side, moved them through the country and finally left them in +Canada. I designed to have done the same thing again, on a larger scale. +That was all I intended. I never did intend murder, or treason, or the +destruction of property, or to excite or incite slaves to rebellion, or +to make insurrection. + +“I have another objection; and that is, it is unjust that I should +suffer such a penalty. Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and +which I admit has been fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and +candor of the greater portion of the witnesses who have testified in +this case),—had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the +intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their +friends,—either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or +any of that class,—and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this +interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court +would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment. + +“This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. +I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least +the New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would +that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, +further, to ‘remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them.’ I +endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am yet too young to +understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have +interfered as I have done—as I have always freely admitted I have +done—in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if +it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance +of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my +children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose +rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments,—I +submit; so let it be done! Let me say one word further. + +“I feel entirely satisfied with the treatment I have received on my +trial. Considering all the circumstances, it has been more generous than +I expected. But I feel no consciousness of guilt. I have stated from the +first what was my intention, and what was not. I never had any design +against the life of any person, nor any disposition to commit treason, +or excite slaves to rebel, or make any general insurrection. I never +encouraged any man to do so, but always discouraged any idea of that +kind. + +“Let me say, also, a word in regard to the statements made by some of +those connected with me. I hear it has been stated by some of them that +I have induced them to join me. But the contrary is true. I do not say +this to injure them, but as regretting their weakness. There is not one +of them but that joined me of his own accord, and the greater part at +their own expense. A number of them I never saw, and never had a word of +conversation with, till the day they came to me; and that was for the +purpose I have stated. + +“Now I have done.”[269] + +The day of his dying, December 2d, dawned glorious; twenty-four hours +before he had kissed his wife good-bye, and on this morning he visited +his doomed companions—Shields Green and Copeland first; then the +wavering Cook and Coppoc and the unmovable Stevens. At last he turned +toward the place of his hanging. Since early morning three thousand +soldiers had been marching and counter-marching around the scaffold, +which had been erected a half mile from Charlestown, encircling it for +fifteen miles; a hush sat on the hearts of men. John Brown rode out into +the morning. “This is a beautiful land,” he said. It was beautiful. +Wide, glistening, rolling fields flickered in the sunlight. Beyond, the +Shenandoah went rolling northward, and still afar rose the mighty masses +of the Blue Ridge, where Nat Turner had fought and died, where Gabriel +had looked for refuge and where John Brown had builded his awful dream. +Some say he kissed a Negro child as he passed, but Andrew Hunter +vehemently denies it. “No Negro could get access to him,” he says, and +he is probably right; and yet all about him as he hung there knelt the +funeral guard he prayed for when he said: + +“My love to all who love their neighbors. I have asked to be spared from +having any weak or hypocritical prayers made over me when I am publicly +murdered, and that my only religious attendants be poor little dirty, +ragged, bareheaded, and barefooted slave boys and girls, led by some +gray-headed slave mother. Farewell! Farewell!”[270] + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + THE LEGACY OF JOHN BROWN + + “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that + hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk + without money and without price.” + + +“I, John Brown, am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land +will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think vainly, +flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.” + +These were the last written words of John Brown, set down the day he +died—the culminating of that wonderful message of his forty days in +prison, which all in all made the mightiest Abolition document that +America has known. Uttered in chains and solemnity, spoken in the very +shadow of death, its dramatic intensity after that wild and puzzling +raid, its deep earnestness as embodied in the character of the man, did +more to shake the foundations of slavery than any single thing that ever +happened in America. Of himself he speaks simply and with satisfaction: +“I should be sixty years old were I to live to May 9, 1860. I have +enjoyed much of life as it is, and have been remarkably prosperous, +having early learned to regard the welfare and prosperity of others as +my own. I have never, since I can remember, required a great amount of +sleep; so that I conclude that I have already enjoyed full an average +number of working hours with those who reach their threescore years and +ten. I have not yet been driven to the use of glasses, but can see to +read and write quite comfortably. But more than that, I have generally +enjoyed remarkably good health. I might go on to recount unnumbered and +unmerited blessings, among which would be some very severe afflictions +and those the most needed blessings of all. And now, when I think how +easily I might be left to spoil all I have done or suffered in the cause +of freedom, I hardly dare wish another voyage even if I had the +opportunity.”[271] + +After a surging, trouble-tossed voyage he is at last at peace in body +and mind. He asserts that he is and has been in his right mind: “I may +be very insane; and I am so, if insane at all. But if that be so, +insanity is like a very pleasant dream to me. I am not in the least +degree conscious of my ravings, of my fears, or of any terrible visions +whatever; but fancy myself entirely composed, and that my sleep, in +particular, is as sweet as that of a healthy, joyous little infant. I +pray God that He will grant me a continuance of the same calm but +delightful dream, until I come to know of those realities which eyes +have not seen and which ears have not heard. I have scarce realized that +I am in prison or in irons at all. I certainly think I was never more +cheerful in my life.”[272] + +To his family he hands down the legacy of his faith and works: “I +beseech you all to live in habitual contentment with moderate +circumstances and gains of worldly store, and earnestly to teach this to +your children and children’s children after you, by example as well as +precept.” And again: “Be sure to remember and follow my advice, and my +example too, so far as it has been consistent with the holy religion of +Jesus Christ, in which I remain a most firm and humble believer. Never +forget the poor, nor think anything you bestow on them to be lost to +you, even though they may be black as Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian eunuch, +who cared for Jeremiah in the pit of the dungeon; or as black as the one +to whom Philip preached Christ. Be sure to entertain strangers, for +thereby some have.... Remember them that are in bonds as bound with +them.”[273] + +Of his own merit and desert he is modest but firm: “The great bulk of +mankind estimate each other’s actions and motives by the measure of +success or otherwise that attends them through life. By that rule, I +have been one of the worst and one of the best of men. I do not claim to +have been one of the latter, and I leave it to an impartial tribunal to +decide whether the world has been the worse or the better for my living +and dying in it.”[274] + +He has no sense of shame for his action: “I feel no consciousness of +guilt in that matter, nor even mortification on account of my +imprisonment and irons; I feel perfectly sure that very soon no member +of my family will feel any possible disposition to blush on my +account.”[275] + +“I do not feel conscious of guilt in taking up arms; and had it been in +behalf of the rich and powerful, the intelligent, the great (as men +count greatness), or those who form enactments to suit themselves and +corrupt others, or some of their friends, that I interfered, suffered, +sacrificed, and fell, it would have been doing very well. But enough of +this. These light afflictions, which endure for a moment, shall but work +for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”[276] + +With desperate faith he clings to his belief in the providence of an +all-wise God: “Under all these terrible calamities, I feel quite +cheerful in the assurance that God reigns and will overrule all for His +glory and the best possible good.”[277] + +True is it that the night is dark and his faith at first wavers, yet it +rises ever again triumphant: “As I believe most firmly that God reigns, +I cannot believe that anything I have done, suffered, or may yet suffer, +will be lost to the cause of God or of humanity. And before I began my +work at Harper’s Ferry, I felt assured that in the worst event it would +certainly pay. I often expressed that belief; and I can now see no +possible cause to alter my mind. I am not as yet, in the main, at all +disappointed, I have been a good deal disappointed as it regards myself +in not keeping up to my own plans; but I now feel entirely reconciled to +that, even,—for God’s plan was infinitely better, no doubt, or I should +have kept to my own.”[278] + +He is, after all, the servant and instrument of the Almighty: “If you do +not believe I had a murderous intention (while I know I had not), why +grieve so terribly on my account? The scaffold has but few terrors for +me. God has often covered my head in the day of battle, and granted me +many times deliverances that were almost so miraculous that I can scarce +realize their truth; and now, when it seems quite certain that He +intends to use me in a different way, shall I not most cheerfully +go?”[279] + +“I have often passed under the rod of Him whom I call my Father,—and +certainly no son ever needed it oftener; and yet I have enjoyed much of +life, as I was enabled to discover the secret of this somewhat early. It +has been in making the prosperity and happiness of others my own; so +that really I have had a great deal of prosperity. I am very prosperous +still; and looking forward to a time when ‘peace on earth and good-will +to men’ shall everywhere prevail, I have no murmuring thoughts or +envious feelings to fret my mind. I’ll praise my Maker with my +breath.”[280] + +“Success is in general the standard of all merit I have passed my time +quite cheerfully; still trusting that neither my life nor my death will +prove a total loss. As regards both, however, I am liable to mistake. It +affords me some satisfaction to feel conscious of having at least tried +to better the condition of those who are always on the under-hill side, +and am in hopes of being able to meet the consequences without a murmur. +I am endeavoring to get ready for another field of action, where no +defeat befalls the truly brave. That ‘God reigns,’ and most wisely, and +controls all events, might, it would seem, reconcile those who believe +it to much that appears to be very disastrous. I am one who has tried to +believe that, and still keep trying.”[281] + +“I cannot remember a night so dark as to have hindered the coming day, +nor a storm so furious or dreadful as to prevent the return of warm +sunshine and a cloudless sky.”[282] + +More and more his eyes pierce the gloom and see the vast plan for which +God has used him and the glory of his sacrifice: + +“‘He shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines.’ +This was said of a poor erring servant many years ago; and for many +years I have felt a strong impression that God had given me powers and +faculties, unworthy as I was, that He intended to use for a similar +purpose. This most unmerited honor He has seen fit to bestow; and +whether, like the same poor frail man to whom I allude, my death may not +be of vastly more value than my life is, I think quite beyond all human +foresight.”[283] + +“I think I feel as happy as Paul did when he lay in prison. He knew if +they killed him, it would greatly advance the cause of Christ; that was +the reason he rejoiced so. On that same ground ‘I do rejoice, yea, and +will rejoice.’ Let them hang me; I forgive them, and may God forgive +them, for they know not what they do. I have no regret for the +transaction for which I am condemned. I went against the laws of men, it +is true, but ‘whether it be right to obey God or men, judge ye.’”[284] + +“When and in what form death may come is but of small moment. I feel +just as content to die for God’s eternal truth and for suffering +humanity on the scaffold as in any other way; and I do not say this from +disposition to ‘brave it out.’ No; I would readily own my wrong were I +in the least convinced of it. I have now been confined over a month, +with a good opportunity to look the whole thing as ‘fair in the face’ as +I am capable of doing; and I feel it most grateful that I am counted in +the least possible degree worthy to suffer for the truth.”[285] + +“I can trust God with both the time and the manner of my death, +believing, as I now do, that for me at this time to seal my testimony +for God and humanity with my blood will do vastly more toward advancing +the cause I have earnestly endeavored to promote, than all I have done +in my life before.”[286] + +“My whole life before had not afforded me one-half the opportunity to +plead for the right. In this, also, I find much to reconcile me to both +my present condition and my immediate prospect.”[287] + +Against slavery his face is set like flint: “There are no ministers of +Christ here. These ministers who profess to be Christian, and hold +slaves or advocate slavery, I cannot abide them. My knees will not bend +in prayer with them, while their hands are stained with the blood of +souls.”[288] He said to one Southern clergyman: “I will thank you to +leave me alone; your prayers would be an abomination to God.” To another +he said, “I would not insult God by bowing down in prayer with any one +who had the blood of the slave on his skirts.” + +And to a third who argued in favor of slavery as “a Christian +institution,” John Brown replied impatiently: “My dear sir, you know +nothing about Christianity; you will have to learn its A, B, C; I find +you quite ignorant of what the word Christianity means.... I respect you +as a gentleman, of course; but it is as a heathen gentleman.”[289] + +To his children he wrote: “Be determined to know by experience, as soon +as may be, whether Bible instruction is of divine origin or not. Be sure +to owe no man anything, but to love one another. John Rogers wrote his +children, ‘Abhor that arrant whore of Rome.’ John Brown writes to his +children to abhor, with undying hatred also, that sum of all +villanies,—slavery.”[290] + +And finally he rejoiced: “Men cannot imprison, or chain, or hang the +soul. I go joyfully in behalf of millions that ‘have no rights’ that +this great and glorious, this Christian republic ‘is bound to respect.’ +Strange change in morals, political as well as Christian, since +1776.”[291] + +“No formal will can be of use,” he wrote on his doomsday, “when my +expressed wishes are made known to my dutiful and beloved family.”[292] + +This was the man. His family is the world. What legacy did he leave? It +was soon seen that his voice was a call to the great final battle with +slavery. + +In the spring of 1861 the Boston Light Infantry was sent to Fort Warren +in Boston harbor to drill. A quartette was formed among the soldiers to +sing patriotic songs and for them was contrived the verses, + + “John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave, + His soul is marching on,” etc. + +This was set to the music of an old camp-meeting tune—possibly of Negro +origin—called, “Say, Brother, Will You Meet Us?” The regiment learned it +and first sang it publicly when it came up from Fort Warren and marched +past the scene where Crispus Attucks fell. Gilmore’s Band learned and +played it and thus “the song of John Brown was started on its eternal +way!” + +Was John Brown simply an episode, or was he an eternal truth? And if a +truth, how speaks that truth to-day? John Brown loved his neighbor as +himself. He could not endure therefore to see his neighbor, poor, +unfortunate or oppressed. This natural sympathy was strengthened by a +saturation in Hebrew religion which stressed the personal responsibility +of every human soul to a just God. To this religion of equality and +sympathy with misfortune, was added the strong influence of the social +doctrines of the French Revolution with its emphasis on freedom and +power in political life. And on all this was built John Brown’s own +inchoate but growing belief in a more just and a more equal distribution +of property. From this he concluded,—and acted on that conclusion—that +all men are created free and equal, and that the cost of liberty is less +than the price of repression. + +Up to the time of John Brown’s death this doctrine was a growing, +conquering, social thing. Since then there has come a change and many +would rightly find reason for that change in the coincidence that the +year in which John Brown suffered martyrdom was the year that first +published the _Origin of Species_. Since that day tremendous scientific +and economic advance has been accompanied by distinct signs of moral +retrogression in social philosophy. Strong arguments have been made for +the fostering of war, the utility of human degradation and disease, and +the inevitable and known inferiority of certain classes and races of +men. While such arguments have not stopped the efforts of the advocates +of peace, the workers for social uplift and the believers in human +brotherhood, they have, it must be confessed, made their voices falter +and tinged their arguments with apology. + +Why is this? It is because the splendid scientific work of Darwin, +Weissman, Galton and others has been widely interpreted as meaning that +there is essential and inevitable inequality among men and races of men, +which no philanthropy can or ought to eliminate; that civilization is a +struggle for existence whereby the weaker nations and individuals will +gradually succumb, and the strong will inherit the earth. With this +interpretation has gone the silent assumption that the white European +stock represents the strong surviving peoples, and that the swarthy, +yellow and black peoples are the ones rightly doomed to eventual +extinction. + +One can easily see what influence such a doctrine would have on the race +problem in America. It meant moral revolution in the attitude of the +nation. Those that stepped into the pathway marked by men like John +Brown faltered and large numbers turned back. They said: He was a good +man—even great, but he has no message for us to-day—he was a “belated +Covenanter,” an anachronism in the age of Darwin, one who gave his life +to lift not the unlifted but the unliftable. We have consequently the +present reaction—a reaction which says in effect, Keep these black +people in their places, and do not attempt to treat a Negro simply as a +white man with a black face; to do this would mean the moral +deterioration of the race and the nation—a fate against which a divine +racial prejudice is successfully fighting. This is the attitude of the +larger portion of our thinking people. + +It is not, however, an attitude that has brought mental rest or social +peace. On the contrary, it is to-day involving a degree of moral strain +and political and social anomaly that gives the wisest pause. The chief +difficulty has been that the natural place in which by scientific law +the black race in America should stay, cannot easily be determined. To +be sure, the freedmen did not, as the philanthropists of the sixties +apparently expected, step in forty years from slavery to nineteenth +century civilization. Neither, on the other hand, did they, as the +ex-masters confidently predicted, retrograde and die. Contrary to both +these views, they chose a third and apparently quite unawaited way. From +the great, sluggish, almost imperceptibly moving mass, they sent off +larger and larger numbers of faithful workmen and artisans, some +merchants and professional men, and even men of educational ability and +discernment. They developed no world geniuses, no millionaires, no great +captains of industry, no artists of the first rank; but they did in +forty years get rid of the greater part of their total illiteracy, +accumulate a half-billion dollars of property in small homesteads, and +gain now and then respectful attention in the world’s ears and eyes. It +has been argued that this progress of the black man in America is due to +the exceptional men among them and does not measure the ability of the +mass. Such an admission is, however, fatal to the whole argument. If the +doomed races of men are going to develop exceptions to the rule of +inferiority, then no rule, scientific or moral, should or can proscribe +the race as such. + +To meet this difficulty in racial philosophy, a step has been taken in +America fraught with the gravest social consequences to the world, and +threatening not simply the political but the moral integrity of the +nation: that step is denying in the case of black men the validity of +those evidences of culture, ability, and decency which are accepted +unquestionably in the ease of other people; and by vague assertions, +unprovable assumptions, unjust emphasis, and now and then by deliberate +untruth, aiming to secure not only the continued proscription of all +these people, but, by caste distinction, to shut in the faces of their +rising classes many of the paths to further advance. + +When a social policy, based on a supposed scientific sanction, leads to +such a moral anomaly, it is time to examine rather carefully the logical +foundations of the argument. And as soon as we do this many things are +clear: first, assuming the truth of the unproved dictum that there are +stocks of human beings whose elimination the best welfare of the world +demands it is certainly questionable if these stocks include the +majority of mankind; and it is indefensible and monstrous to pretend +that we know to-day with any reasonable assurance which these stocks +are. We can point to degenerate individuals and families here and there +among all races, but there is not the slightest warrant for assuming +that there does not lie among the Chinese and Hindus, the African Bantus +and American Indians as lofty possibilities of human culture as any +European race has ever exhibited. It is, to be sure, puzzling to know +why the Soudan should linger a thousand years in culture behind the +valley of the Seine, but it is no more puzzling than the fact that the +valley of the Thames was miserably backward as compared with the banks +of the Tiber. Climate, human contact, facilities of communication and +what we call accident, have played a great part in the rise of culture +among nations: to ignore these and assert dogmatically that the present +distribution of culture is a fair index of the distribution of human +ability and desert, is to make an assertion for which there is not the +slightest scientific warrant. + +What the age of Darwin has done is to add to the eighteenth century idea +of individual worth the complementary idea of physical immortality. And +this, far from annulling or contracting the idea of human freedom, +rather emphasizes its necessity and eternal possibility—the +boundlessness and endlessness of human achievement. Freedom has come to +mean not individual caprice or aberration, but social self-realization +in an endless chain of selves; and freedom for such development is not +the denial but the central assertion of the evolutionary theory. So, +too, the doctrine of human equality passes through the fire of +scientific inquiry, not obliterated but transfigured: not equality of +present attainment but equality of opportunity, for unbounded future +attainment is the rightful demand of mankind. + +What now does the present hegemony of the white races threaten? It +threatens by means of brute force a survival of some of the worst stocks +of mankind. It attempts to people the best parts of the earth and put in +absolute authority over the rest, not usually (and indeed not mainly) +the culture of Europe but its greed and degradation—not only some +representatives of the best stocks of the West End of London, upper New +York and the Champs Elysées, but also, in as large if not larger +numbers, the worst stocks of Whitechapel, the East Side and Montmartre; +and it essays to make the slums of white society in all cases and under +all circumstances the superior of any colored group, no matter what its +ability or culture. To be sure, this outrageous program of wholesale +human degeneration is not outspoken yet, save in the backward +civilizations of the Southern United States, South Africa and Australia. +But its enunciation is listened to with respect and tolerance in +England, Germany, and the Northern states by those very persons who +accuse philanthropy with seeking to degrade holy white blood by an +infiltration of colored strains. And the average citizen is voting ships +and guns to carry out this program. + +This movement gathered force and strength; during the latter half of the +nineteenth century and reached its culmination when France, Germany, +England and Russia began the partition of China and the East. With the +sudden self-assertion of Japan, its wildest dreams collapsed, but it is +still to-day a living, virile, potent force and motive, the most subtle +and dangerous enemy of world peace and the dream of human brotherhood. +It has a whole vocabulary of its own: the strong races, superior +peoples, race preservation, the struggle for survival and a variety of +terms meaning the right of white men of any kind to beat blacks into +submission, make them surrender their wealth and the use of their women +and submit to dictation without murmur, for the sake of being swept off +the fairest portions of the earth or held there in perpetual serfdom or +guardianship. Ignoring the fact that the era of physical struggle for +survival has passed away among human beings, and that there is plenty of +room accessible on earth for all, this theory makes the possession of +Krupp guns the main criterion of mental stamina and moral fitness. + +Even armed with this morality of the club, and every advantage of modern +culture, the white races have been unable to possess the earth. Many +signs of degeneracy have appeared among them: their birth-rate is +falling, their average ability is not increasing, their physical stamina +is impaired, and their social condition is not reassuring. Lacking the +physical ability to take possession of the world, they are to-day +fencing in America, Australia, and South Africa and declaring that no +dark race shall occupy or develop the land which they themselves are +unable to use. And all this on the plea that their stock is threatened +with deterioration from without, when in reality its most dangerous +threat is deterioration from within. + +We are, in fact, to-day repeating in our intercourse between races all +the former evils of class distinction within the nation: personal hatred +and abuse, mutual injustice, unequal taxation and rigid caste. +Individual nations outgrew these fatal things by breaking down the +horizontal barriers between classes. We are bringing them back by +seeking to erect vertical barriers between races. Men were told that +abolition of compulsory class distinction meant leveling down, +degradation, disappearance of culture and genius and the triumph of the +mob. As a matter of fact, it has been the salvation of European +civilization. Some deterioration and leveling there was but it was more +than balanced by the discovery of new reservoirs of ability and +strength. So to-day we are told that free racial contact—or “social +equality” as Southern _patois_ has it—means contamination of blood and +lowering of ability and culture. It need mean nothing of the sort. +Abolition of class distinction did not mean universal intermarriage of +stocks, but rather the survival of the fittest by peaceful, personal and +social selection—a selection all the more effective because free +democracy and equality of opportunity allow the best to rise to their +rightful place. The same is true in racial contact. Vertical race +distinctions are even more emphatic hindrances to human evolution than +horizontal class distinctions, and their tearing away involves fewer +chances of degradation and greater opportunities of human betterment +than in case of class lines. On the other hand, persistence in racial +distinction spells disaster sooner or later. The earth is growing +smaller and more accessible. Race contact will become in the future +increasingly inevitable not only in America, Asia, and Africa but even +in Europe. The color line will mean not simply a return to the +absurdities of class as exhibited in the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries, but even to the caste of ancient days. This, however, the +Japanese, the Chinese, the East Indians and the Negroes are going to +resent in just such proportion as they gain the power; and they are +gaining the power, and they cannot be kept from gaining more power. The +price of repression will then be hypocrisy and slavery and blood. + +This is the situation to-day. Has John Brown no message—no legacy, then, +to the twentieth century? He has and it is this great word: the cost of +liberty is less than the price of repression. The price of repressing +the world’s darker races is shown in a moral retrogression and an +economic waste unparalleled since the age of the African slave trade. +What would be the cost of liberty? What would be the cost of giving the +great stocks of mankind every reasonable help and incentive to +self-development—opening the avenues of opportunity freely, spreading +knowledge, suppressing war and cheating, and treating men and women as +equals the world over whenever and wherever they attain equality? It +would cost something. It would cost something in pride and prejudice, +for eventually many a white man would be blacking black men’s boots; but +this cost we may ignore—its greatest cost would be the new problems of +racial intercourse and intermarriage which would come to the front. +Freedom and equal opportunity in this respect would inevitably bring +some intermarriage of whites and yellows and browns and blacks. This +might be a good thing and it might not be. We do not know. Our belief on +the matter may be strong and even frantic, but it has no adequate +scientific foundation. If such marriages are proven inadvisable, how +could they be stopped? Easily. We associate with cats and cows, but we +do not fear intermarriage with them, even though they be given all +freedom of development. So, too, intelligent human beings can be trained +to breed intelligently without the degradation of such of their fellows +as they may not wish to breed with. In the Southern United States, on +the contrary, it is assumed that unwise marriages can be stopped only by +the degradation of the blacks—the classing of all darker women with +prostitutes, the loading of a whole race with every badge of public +isolation, degradation and contempt, and by burning offenders at the +stake. Is this civilization? No. The civilized method of preventing +ill-advised marriage lies in the training of mankind in the ethics of +sex and child-bearing. We cannot ensure the survival of the best blood +by the public murder and degradation of unworthy suitors, but we can +substitute a civilized human selection of husbands and wives which shall +ensure the survival of the fittest. Not the methods of the jungle, not +even the careless choices of the drawing-room, but the thoughtful +selection of the schools and laboratory is the ideal of future marriage. +This will cost something in ingenuity, self-control and toleration, but +it will cost less than forcible repression. + +Not only is the cost of repression to-day large—it is a continually +increasing cost: the procuring of coolie labor, the ruling of India, the +exploitation of Africa, the problem of the unemployed, and the curbing +of the corporations, are a tremendous drain on modern society with no +near end in sight. The cost is not merely in wealth but in social +progress and spiritual strength, and it tends ever to explosion, murder, +and war. All these things but increase the difficulty of beginning a +régime of freedom in human growth and development—they raise the cost of +liberty. Not only that but the very explosions, like the Russo-Japanese +War, which bring partial freedom, tend in the complacent current +philosophy to prove the Wisdom of repression. “Blood will tell,” men +say. “The fit will survive; step up the tea-kettle and eventually the +steam will burst the iron,” and therefore only the steam that bursts is +worth the generating; only organized murder proves the fitness of a +people for liberty. This is a fearful and dangerous doctrine. It +encourages wrong leadership and perverted ideals at the very time when +loftiest and most unselfish striving is called for—as witness Japan +after her emancipation, or America after the Civil War. Conversely, it +leads the shallow and unthinking to brand as demagogue and radical every +group leader who in the day of slavery and struggle cries out for +freedom. + +For such reasons it is that the memory of John Brown stands to-day as a +mighty warning to his country. He saw, he felt in his soul the wrong and +danger of that most daring and insolent system of human repression known +as American slavery. He knew that in 1700 it would have cost something +to overthrow slavery and establish liberty; and that by reason of +cowardice and blindness the cost in 1800 was vastly larger but still not +unpayable. He felt that by 1900 no human hand could pluck the vampire +from the body of the land without doing the nation to death. He said, in +1859, “Now is the accepted time.” Now is the day to strike for a free +nation. It will cost something—even blood and suffering, but it will not +cost as much as waiting. And he was right. Repression bred +repression—serfdom bred slavery, until in 1861 the South was farther +from freedom than in 1800. + +The edict of 1863 was the first step in emancipation and its cost in +blood and treasure was staggering. But that was not all—it was only a +first step. There were other bills to pay of material reconstruction, +social regeneration, mental training and moral uplift. These the nation +started to meet in the Fifteenth Amendment, the Freedman’s Bureau, the +crusade of school-teachers and the Civil Rights Bill. But the effort was +great and the determination of the South to pay no single cent or deed +for past error save by force, led in the revolution of 1876 to the +triumph of reaction. Reaction meant and means a policy of state, society +and individual, whereby no American of Negro blood shall ever come into +the full freedom of modern culture. In the carrying out of this program +by certain groups and sections, no pains have been spared—no expenditure +of money, ingenuity, physical or moral strength. The building of +barriers around these black men has been pushed with an energy so +desperate and unflagging that it has seriously checked the great +outpouring of benevolence and sympathy that greeted the freedman in +1863. It has come so swathed and gowned in graciousness as to disarm +philanthropy and chill enthusiasm. It has used double-tongued argument +with deadly effect. Has the Negro advanced? Beware his further strides. +Has the Negro retrograded? It is his fate, why seek to help him? Thus +has the spirit of repression gained attention, complacent acquiescence, +and even coöperation. To be sure, there still stand staunch souls who +cannot yet believe the doctrine of human repression, and who pour out +their wealth for Negro training and freedom in the face of the common +cry. But the majority of Americans seem to have forgotten the foundation +principles of their government and the recklessly destructive effect of +the blows meant to bind and tether their fellows. We have come to see a +day here in America when one citizen can deprive another of his vote at +his discretion; can restrict the education of his neighbors’ children as +he sees fit; can with impunity load his neighbor with public insult on +the king’s highway; can deprive him of his property without due process +of law; can deny him the right of trial by his peers, or of any trial +whatsoever if he can get a large enough group of men to join him; can +refuse to protect or safeguard the integrity of the family of some men +whom he dislikes; finally, can not only close the door of opportunity in +commercial and social lines in a fully competent neighbor’s face, but +can actually count on the national and state governments to help and +make effective this discrimination. + +Such a state of affairs is not simply disgraceful; it is deeply and +increasingly dangerous. Not only does the whole nation feel already the +loosening of joints which these vicious blows on human liberty have +caused—lynching, lawlessness, lying and stealing, bribery and +divorce—but it can look for darker deeds to come. + +And this not merely because of the positive harm of this upbuilding of +barriers, but above all because within these bursting barriers are +men—human forces which no human hand can hold. It is human force and +aspiration and endeavor which are moving there amid the creaking of +timbers and writhing of souls. It is human force that has already done +in a generation the work of many centuries. It has saved over a +half-billion dollars in property, bought and paid for landed estate half +the size of all England, and put homes thereon as good and as pure as +the homes of any corresponding economic class the world around; it has +crowded eager children through a wretched and half-furnished school +system until from an illiteracy of seventy per cent., two-thirds of the +living adults can read and write. These proscribed millions have 50,000 +professional men, 200,000 men in trade and transportation, 275,000 +artisans and mechanics, 1,250,000 servants and 2,000,000 farmers working +with the nation to earn its daily bread. These farmers raise yearly on +their own and hired farms over 4,000,000 bales of cotton, 25,000,000 +pounds of rice, 10,000,000 bushels of potatoes, 90,000,000 pounds of +tobacco and 100,000,000 bushels of corn, besides that for which they +labor on the farms of others. They have given America music, inspired +art and literature, made its bread, dug its ditches, fought its battles, +and suffered in its misfortunes. The great mass of these men is becoming +daily more thoroughly organized, more deeply self-critical, more +conscious of its power. Threatened though it has been naturally, as a +proletariat, with degeneration and disease, it is to-day reducing its +death-rate and beginning organized rescue of its delinquents and +defectives. The mass can still to-day be called ignorant, poor and but +moderately efficient, but it is daily growing better trained, richer and +more intelligent. And as it grows it is sensing more and more the +vantage-ground which it holds as a defender of the right of the freedom +of human development for black men in the midst of a centre of modern +culture. It sees its brothers in yellow, black and brown held physically +at arms’ length from civilization lest they become civilized and less +liable to conquest and exploitation. It sees the world-wide effort to +build an aristocracy of races and nations on a foundation of darker +half-enslaved and tributary peoples. It knows that the last great battle +of the West is to vindicate the right of any man of any nation, race, or +color to share in the world’s goods and thoughts and efforts to the +extent of his effort and ability. + +Thus to-day the Negro American faces his destiny and doggedly strives to +realize it. He has his tempters and temptations. There are ever those +about him whispering: “You are nobody; why strive to be somebody? The +odds are overwhelming against you—wealth, tradition, learning and guns. +Be reasonable. Accept the dole of charity and the cant of missionaries +and sink contentedly to your place as humble servants and helpers of the +white world.” If this has not been effective, threats have been used: +“If you continue to complain, we will withdraw all aid, boycott your +labor, cease to help support your schools and let you die and disappear +from the land in ignorance, crime and disease.” Still the black man has +pushed on, has continued to protest, has refused to die out and +disappear, and to-day stands as physically the most virile element in +America, intellectually among the most promising, and morally the most +tremendous and insistent of the social problems of the New World. Not +even the silence of his friends, or of those who ought to be the friends +of struggling humanity, has silenced him. Not even the wealth of modern +Golconda has induced him to believe that life without liberty is worth +living. + +On the other side heart-searching is in order. It is not well with this +land of ours: poverty is certainly not growing less, wealth is being +wantonly wasted, business honesty is far too rare, family integrity is +threatened, bribery is poisoning our public life, theft is honeycombing +our private business, and voting is largely unintelligent. Not that +these evils are unopposed. There are brave men and women striving for +social betterment, for the curbing of the vicious power of wealth, for +the uplift of women and the downfall of thieves. But their battle is +hard, and how much harder because of the race problem—because of the +calloused conscience of caste, the peonage of black labor hands, the +insulting of black women, and the stealing of black votes? How far are +business dishonesty and civic degradation in America the direct result +of racial prejudice? + +Well do I know that many persons defend their treatment of undeveloped +peoples on the highest grounds. They say, as Jefferson Davis intimated, +that liberty is for the full-grown, not for children. It was during +Senator Mason’s inquisition after the hanging of John Brown, whereby the +Southern leader hoped to entrap the Abolitionists. Joshua R. Giddings, +keen, impetuous and fiery, was on the rack. Senator Davis, pale, sallow +and imperturbable, with all the aristocratic poise and dignity built on +the unpaid toil of two centuries of slaves, said: + +“Did you, in inculcating, by popular lectures, the doctrine of a law +higher than that of the social compact, make your application +exclusively to Negro slaves, or did you also include minors, convicts, +and lunatics, who might be restrained of their liberty by the laws of +the land?” + +Mr. Giddings smiled. “Permit me,” he said, “... with all due deference, +to suggest, so that I may understand you, do you intend to inquire +whether those lectures would indicate whether your slaves of the slave +states had a right at all times to their liberty?” + +“I will put the question in that form if you like it,” answered Davis, +and then Giddings flashed: + +“My lectures, in all instances, would indicate the right of every human +soul in the enjoyment of reason, while he is charged with no crime or +offense, to maintain his life, his liberty, the pursuit of his own +happiness; that this has reference to the enslaved of all the states as +much as it had reference to our own people while enslaved by the +Algerines in Africa.” + +But Mr. Davis suavely pressed his point: “Then the next question is, +whether the same right was asserted for minors and apprentices, being +men in good reason, yet restrained of their liberty by the laws of the +land.” + +Giddings replied: “I will answer at once that the proposition or +comparison is conflicting with the dictates of truth. The minor is, from +the law of nature, under the restraints of parental affection for the +purposes of nurture, of education, of preparing him to secure and +maintain the very rights to which I refer.”[293] + +This debate is not yet closed. It was not closed by the Civil War. Men +still maintain that East Indians and Africans and others ought to be +under the restraint and benevolent tutelage of stronger and wiser +nations for their own benefit. Well and good. Is the tutelage really +benevolent? Then it is training in liberty. Is it training in slavery? +Then it is not benevolent. Liberty trains for liberty. Responsibility is +the first step in responsibility. + +Even the restraints imposed in the training of men and children are +restraints that will in the end make greater freedom possible. Is the +benevolent expansion of to-day of such a character? Is England trying to +see how soon and how effectively the Indians can be trained for +self-government or is she willing to exploit them just so long as they +can be cajoled or quieted into submission? Is Germany trying to train +her Africans to modern citizenship or to modern “work without +complaint”? Is the South trying to make the Negroes responsible, +self-reliant freemen of a republic, or the dumb driven cattle of a great +industrial machine? + +No sooner is the question put this way than the defenders of modern +caste retire behind a more defensible breastwork. They say: “Yes, we +exploit nations for our own advantage purposely—even at times brutally. +But only in that way can the high efficiency of the modern industrial +process be maintained, and in the long run it benefits the oppressed +even more than the oppressor.” This doctrine is as wide-spread as it is +false and mischievous. It is true that the bribe of greed will +artificially hasten economic development, but it does so at fearful +cost, as America itself can testify. We have here a wonderful industrial +machine, but a machine quickly rather than carefully built, formed of +forcing rather than of growth, involving sinful and unnecessary expense. +Better smaller production and more equitable distribution; better fewer +miles of railway and more honor, truth, and liberty; better fewer +millionaires and more contentment. So it is the world over, where force +and fraud and graft have extorted rich reward from writhing millions. +Moreover, it is historically unprovable that the advance of undeveloped +peoples has been helped by wholesale exploitation at the hands of their +richer, stronger, and more unscrupulous neighbors. This idea is a legend +of the long exploded doctrine of inevitable economic harmonies in all +business life. True it is that adversity and difficulties make for +character, but the real and inevitable difficulties of life are numerous +enough for genuine development without the aid of artificial hindrances. +The inherent and natural difficulties of raising a people from ignorant +unmoral slavishness to self-reliant modern manhood are great enough for +purposes of character-building without the aid of murder, theft, caste, +and degradation. Not because of but in spite of these latter hindrances +has the Negro American pressed forward. + +This, then, is the truth: the cost of liberty is less than the price of +repression, even though that cost be blood. Freedom of development and +equality of opportunity is the demand of Darwinism and this calls for +the abolition of hard and fast lines between races, just as it called +for the breaking down of barriers between classes. Only in this way can +the best in humanity be discovered and conserved, and only thus can +mankind live in peace and progress. The present attempt to force all +whites above all darker peoples is a sure method of human degeneration. +The cost of liberty is thus a decreasing cost, while the cost of +repression ever tends to increase to the danger point of war and +revolution. Revolution is not a test of capacity; it is always a loss +and a lowering of ideals. + +John Brown taught us that the cheapest price to pay for liberty is its +cost to-day. The building of barriers against the advance of +Negro-Americans hinders but in the end cannot altogether stop their +progress. The excuse of benevolent tutelage cannot be urged, for that +tutelage is not benevolent that does not prepare for free responsible +manhood. Nor can the efficiency of greed as an economic developer be +proven—it may hasten development but it does so at the expense of +solidity of structure, smoothness of motion, and real efficiency. Nor +does selfish exploitation help the undeveloped; rather it hinders and +weakens them. + +It is now full fifty years since this white-haired old man lay weltering +in the blood which he spilled for broken and despised humanity. Let the +nation which he loved and the South to which he spoke, reverently listen +again to-day to those words, as prophetic now as then: + +“You had better—all you people of the South—prepare yourselves for a +settlement of this question. It must come up for settlement sooner than +you are prepared for it, and the sooner you commence that preparation, +the better for you. You may dispose of me very easily—I am nearly +disposed of now; but this question is still to be settled—this Negro +question, I mean. The end of that is not yet.” + + + + + BIBLIOGRAPHY + + + _For the general reader the following works are indispensable_: + + SANBORN, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN. The Life and Letters of John Brown, + Liberator of Kansas, and Martyr of Virginia. 1885. (The most + complete collection of John Brown letters.) + + HINTON, RICHARD JOSIAH. John Brown and His Men, with some account of + the roads they traveled to reach Harper’s Ferry. 1894. + (Valuable for its treatment of Kansas and its lives of + Brown’s companions.) + + REDPATH, JAMES. Public Life of Captain John Brown, with autobiography + of his childhood and youth. (The best contemporary account.) + + CONNELLEY, WILLIAM ELSEY. John Brown. 1900, (Valuable for Kansas life + of Brown.) + + To the above may be added the shorter estimate by H. E. von Holst, + 1899, and some may like Chamberlain’s pert essay (Beacon + Biographies, 1889). + + +_Students must add to these the following books and articles which +contain many of the original sources of our knowledge_: + + ANDERSON, OSBORNE P. A Voice from Harper’s Ferry. A narrative of + events at Harper’s Ferry; with incidents prior and + subsequent to its capture by John Brown and his men. 1861. + (The best account of the raid by a participant.) + + MANUSCRIPT DIARY of John Brown in the Boston Public Library. (2 + volumes.) 1838–1844, 1855–1859. + + GARRISON, WENDELL PHILLIPS. The Preludes of Harper’s Ferry. In the + _Andover Review_, December, 1890, and January, 1891. + + JOSEPHUS, JR. (Joseph Barry). The Brown Raid. In his annals of + Harper’s Ferry, 1872. (Excellent local account.) + + UNITED STATES CONGRESSIONAL REPORTS. Report of the select committee of + the Senate appointed to inquire into John Brown’s invasion + and the seizure of the public property at Harper’s Ferry. + Thirty-sixth Congress, first session. Senate Reports of + Committees. + + TRANSACTIONS of the Kansas State Historical Society, together with + addresses, etc., Volumes I-IX. (Contains many personal + narratives.) + + CALENDAR of Virginia State papers, Volume XI, pp. 269–349. (A large + amount of the Brown data copied from the papers found in his + carpetbag at Harper’s Ferry.) + + VIRGINIA SENATE Journal and Documents for the session of 1859–60: + Report of the joint committee of the Senate and House of + Delegates, appointed to consider the Harper’s Ferry affair + by Alexander H. Stuart, the chairman of the committee. + + VIRGINIA, Journal of House of Delegates of Virginia, 1859–60, + containing messages of the governor, the trial and + publication of John Brown’s papers. + + FEATHERSTONHAUGH, THOMAS. Bibliography of John Brown, Part I. + Publications of the Southern History Association, Volume I, + pp. 196–202. + + —— John Brown’s Men; the lives of those killed at Harper’s Ferry, with + a supplementary bibliography of John Brown. In Southern + History Association publications. Volume 3, pp. 281–306. + (The best bibliography.) + + DOUGLASS, FREDERICK. John Brown, an address at the fourteenth + anniversary of Storer College, 1881. + + —— Life and Times of. 1892. + + REDPATH, JAMES. Echoes of Harper’s Ferry. 1860. + + HUNTER, ANDREW. John Brown’s Raid. In Southern History Association + publications. Volume I, pp. 165–195. 1897. (The story of the + prosecuting attorney.) + + HIGGINSON, THOMAS WENTWORTH. A Visit to John Brown’s Household in + 1859. (In “Contemporaries,” 1899.) + + WRIGHT, HARRY A. John Brown in Springfield. _New England Magazine_, + pp. 272–281. + + WEBB, RICHARD D., Editor. The Life and Letters of Captain John Brown, + who was executed at Charlestown, Va, December 2, 1859, for + an armed attack upon American slavery; with notices of some + of his confederates. 1861. + + BOTELER, ALEXANDER L. Recollections of the John Brown Raid. _Century._ + July, 1883. Comment by F. B. Sanborn. + + DAINGERFIELD, JOHN E. P. John Brown at Harper’s Ferry. _Century._ + June. 1885, pp. 265–267. (The story of an engine-house + prisoner.) + + VOORHEES, DANIEL W. Argument delivered at Charleston, Va., November 8, + 1859, upon the trial of John E. Cook. Richmond, Va., 1861. + + HAMILTON, JAMES CLELAND. John Brown in Canada. Illustrated. + Republished from _Canadian Magazine_, December, 1894. + + _The purely controversial literature raging around John Brown is + endless. Those interested might read_: + + UTTER, DAVID N. John Brown of Osawatomie. _North American Review_, + November, 1883. + + NICOLAY, JOHN G. and HAY, JOHN. Abraham Lincoln, a history. 1890. + (Volume two contains history of John Brown and Harper’s + Ferry Raid.) + + ROBINSON, CHARLES. The Kansas Conflict. 1892. + + BROWN, GEORGE WASHINGTON, M. D. False claims of Kansas historians + truthfully corrected. Principally a refutation of the claim + that the rescue of Kansas from slavery was due to John + Brown. Rockford, Ill. The author. 1902. + + —— Reminiscences of Old John Brown. Thrilling instances of border life + in Kansas. With appendix by Eli Thayer. Rockford, Ill. 1880. + Printed by Eli Smith. + + WRIGHT, MARCUS JOSEPH. Trial of John Brown. Its impartiality and + decorum vindicated. Southern History Society Papers, Vol. + XVI, pp. 357–363. + + SPRING, L. W. Kansas. 1885. + + WILLIAMS, G. W. History of Negro Race in America. 1883. Two volumes. + (For John Brown, see volume two, pp. 213–227.) + + THAYER, ELI. The Kansas Crusade. 1889. + + HUGO, VICTOR. John Brown. 1861. + + WISE, BARTON H. The Life of Henry S. Wise. 1899. + + + + + INDEX + + + Abolitionists, 86, 91, 93, 96, 125, 341–342. + + Adams, John Quincy, 49. + + Adirondack farm, the, 12, 199. + + Alcott, A. Bronson, 210, 290–291. + + Alleghany Mountains, 48, 106, 127, 275, 279, 299. + + Anderson, Jeremiah, 258, 282–283, 324, 325, 336. + + Anderson, John, 282. + + Anderson, Osborne Perry, 280, 305, 334, 336. + + Atchison, Senator, 134, 175. + + + Black Jack, battle of, 166–169, 221. + + Brown, Anne, 286, 300, 301. + + Brown, Edward, 145. + + Brown, Frederick (the brother), 95. + + Brown, Frederick (the son), 128, 152, 155, 166, 167, 178. + + Brown, Jason, 87, 128, 146, 149, 159, 160, 186. + + Brown, John, Jr., 127, 146, 147, 159, 186. + + Brown, John, ancestry of, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20; + boyhood and youth of, 21–23, 25, 31; + as tanner, 31; + marriage of, 32; + occupations of, 32; + family life of, 33–37; + second marriage of, 38; + in panic of 1837, 41; + as shepherd, 52–60; + as wool merchant, 61–68; + in England, 68–71; + lawsuits of, 71–74; + and fugitive slaves, 84, 85; + first plan against slavery, 87–88; + and Negroes in, 89–91; + and mobs, 91; + and oath vs. slavery, 92, 93; + and Abolitionists, 91–94; + and settlement in Virginia, 95; + and black men, 97–121; + and Frederick Douglass, 102–109; + in the Adirondacks, 111–113; + in Kansas, 126–134, 139–140, 143–144, 145–197; + developing plans of, 198–206; + trip eastward of, 197, 207–218; + meets Forbes, 216; + return westward, 218; + securing arms and men, 218–225; + second trip eastward, 225–251; + at Douglass’ home, 225–227; + revelation of, 229–231; + trip to Canada of, 15, 248–251; + meets Harriet Tubman, 249–251; + return to Iowa of, 251–253; + third trip eastward of, 252; + return to Canada, 252; + Chatham convention, 253–266; + betrayal of, by Forbes, 266–269; + in New England and New York, 268–270; + third return westward, 270–272; + Harper’s Ferry plans of, 274–277; + financial resources of, 277–278; + military organizations of, 106, 116, 149, 160–169, 175–179, 181–182, + 188–189, 191, 226–227, 278–279; + Negro companions of, 280–283; + white companions + of, 283–287; + health of, 288; + seventh trip eastward, 288–291; + starts South, 291; + arrives at Harper’s Ferry, 292; + perfecting arrangements, 293–307; + meets Douglass, 295–297; + life at Kennedy Farm, 298–302; + betrayal of plans of, 302–303; + raid of, at Harper’s Ferry, 308–337; + capture of, 333–334; + fate of companions of, 336; + results, 338; + trial of, 356–364; + execution of, 363–364; + last letters of, 365–373; + and present Negro problem, 373–396; + character of, 15, 16, 22–23, 26–47, 300–301, 338–358; + descriptions of, 21, 28, 73, 74, 92, 104, 173–174, 197, 287; + family of, 31–39, 42, 44, 45, 58, 71, 73, 74, 87, 88, 89, 92, 95, + 102–104, 112, 119, 120, 121; + letters of, 42–46, 53–60, 62–63, 66, 67, 69, 71, 72, 74, 87–88, 113, + 118, 132, 146–149, 151, 152, 159, 166–169, 178, 179, 182, 186, + 187, 188–189, 218, 220, 227, 228, 232–234, 248, 249, 257, 266, + 267, 270, 271, 304, 357, 365–373; + reading of, 40; + religion of, 23, 25, 40–41, 42, 47, 365–373; + speeches of, 132, 150, 180–182, 213–214; + song of, 334. + + Brown, Oliver, 133, 146, 149, 152, 155, 283. + + Brown, Owen, 19, 20, 77, 78, 128, 147, 152, 155, 186, 252, 259, 272, + 283, 319, 329, 335, 336. + + Brown, Peter, 19. + + Brown, Salmon, 128, 137, 152–168, 186. + + Brown, Watson, 155, 283. + + Buchanan, President, 142, 214. + + Burns, Anthony, 72. + + + Canada, the Negroes in, 236–238, 253–254, 270. + + Caste and the Negro, 76–78, 81, 235–247, 377–380, 387, 388, 391–393. + + Catchers, slave, 97. + + Charleston, Va. (W. Va.), 13. + + Committee, National Kansas, New York meeting of, 13, 207. + + Constitution, articles of Brown’s, 265, 266. + + Constitution, pro-slavery, of Kansas, 136. + + Constitution, Lecompton of Kansas, 143, 187, 224. + + Contact of races, 380, 382. + + Convention, address of Philadelphia, 236–238. + + Convention, Big Springs, Kansas, 12. + + Convention, Chatham, 203, 257, 267. + + Convention, Syracuse, of Abolitionists, 12, 132, 133. + + Cook, John E., 219, 220, 252, 259, 315, 316, 318, 319, 324, 331, 336. + + Copeland, John A., 281–305, 325, 336. + + Coppoc, Barclay, 223, 319, 336. + + Coppoc, Edwin, 223, 336. + + Coronado, 16, 123. + + Covenant and by-laws of John Brown’s followers, 160–161. + + Crandall, Prudence, 87. + + + Daingerfield, Captain, 326. + + Daniels, Jim, 192. + + Davis, Jefferson, 124, 391–393. + + Day, Mary Ann, 11, 38, 241. + + Decision, Dred Scott, 142, 213. + + Delaney, Martin R., 245–246, 248, 254, 258. + + Diary, John Brown’s, 278. + + Douglass, Frederick, 7, 12, 13, 15, 47, 101, 102–109, 121, 122, 131, + 132, 214, 225, 241, 247, 258, 342, 344–346, 353. + + Douglas, Stephen A., 126. + + Dutch Henry’s Crossing, 134, 154. + + + Emancipation, 386–387. + + Engine-house at Harper’s Ferry, 326, 334. + + + Fight at Harper’s Ferry, 322–326. + + Floyd, John, Secretary of War, 124. + + Forbes, Hugh, 73; + meets Brown, 216–217; + goes West, 218–219; + returns East, 219; + betrays plans, 225; + complaints of, 266, 268. + + Franklin, Kansas, attack on, 175–176. + + Freedom, League of, 244. + + Free Soilers, 131. + + Fugitive Slave Law, 12, 236. + + Fugitive slaves, 82, 84, 85, 88, 94, 106–108, 203–204, 241. + + + Gabriel, 11, 83, 127. + + Garnet, H. H., 98, 102, 240, 243, 248, 258. + + Garrison, William Lloyd, 15, 93, 342. + + Geary, Governor of Kansas, 13, 141–180, 183–184. + + Giddings, Joshua, 152, 391–392. + + Gill, George B., 223, 259. + + Gloucester, Negro minister, 98, 248, 258. + + Great Black Way, the, 273. + + Greeley, Horace, 130, 266. + + Green, Shields, 280, 323, 334, 336, 343–347. + + + Hall, Pennsylvania, 91. + + Hamilton’s massacre, 188, 192–194. + + Harper’s Ferry raid: + the place 273–274; + plans of, 274–276; + financial resources of, 277–278; + military organizations of, 278–280; + participants of, 280–288; + depot at Chambersburg, 291–292; + preparations, 293–307; + beginning of foray, 308; + capture of armory, 310; + capture of town, 311; + capture of Colonel Washington, 311–312; + halting of train, 313; + bringing up the arms, 314–316; + further plans, 317–319; + gathering of militia, 320–322; + dislodging of Kagi, 324–325; + retreat of engine-house, 326; + killing of Brown’s men, 327–329; + arrival of Lee, 331; + parleying, 330–333; + capture of Brown, 333–334; + capture and escape of others, 334–336. + + Harper, Samuel, 194–195. + + Hayti, 75, 97. + + Hazlett, Albert, 334, 336. + + Henson, Josiah, 241, 253. + + Hinton, R. J., 7, 173, 181, 189, 204, 207, 222, 258, 277, 284. + + Holden, Isaac, 257, 258, 277, 284. + + Howe, Dr. S. G., 210, 231, 267, 341, 343. + + Hunter, Andrew, 352, 353, 356. + + + Independence, Chatham Declaration of, 272. + + Insurrection, Cumberland region, 97. + + Insurrection in Virginia, 81. + + Insurrection of slaves, 79, 80, 83, 85, 97, 105–106. + + Insurrection, proposed Negro, 166. + + Intermarriage of races, 382, 384, 385. + + Isaac, insurrection of, 97. + + + Jackson, President, 50. + + Jamaica, 79, 97. + + Jones, Henry, 241. + + Jones, John, 248. + + Jones, J. M., 256, 258. + + Jones, Ottawa, 178. + + _Journal, Freedom’s_, 239. + + + Kagi, J. H., 13, 196, 199, 200, 201, 202, 252, 259, 317, 318, 324, 325. + + Kansas, 123; + Brown’s sons in, 127–131; + and slavery, 126, 134, 138, 144; + John Brown and, 125, 126–127, 131–134, 139, 143–197. + + Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 13, 135, 136, 219–221. + + Kennedy Farm, 319. + + + Lane, General James, 134, 141, 173–176, 186. + + Lane’s Army, 13, 173–176. + + Lane College, 95. + + Langston brothers, 241, 258. + + Law, Fugitive Slave, 12, 113, 119. + + Lawrence, Kansas, 12, 167, 170; + sacking of, 153–154; + last attack on, 180–184. + + League, Liberty, 244. + + League of Gileadites, 12, 114. + + Leary, Lewis Sherrard, 282–305. + + Lee, Robert E., 13, 331, 332. + + Leeman, William H., 221, 252, 259, 325, 336. + + _Liberator, The_, 94, 239. + + Liberty Hall, 158. + + Loudoun Heights, at Harper’s Ferry, 275, 318. + + L’Ouverture, Toussaint, 75, 216. + + Lovejoy, 91, 115. + + Lusk, Dianthe, 11, 32, 38. + + + Marlborough Chapel, 91. + + Massacre at Dutch Henry’s Crossing, 139–140, 143–144, 154–159. + + Maxon farm, Iowa, 252. + + Merriam, F. J., 286, 305, 336. + + Middle Creek, Kansas, 158. + + Military organization of Brown’s men, 106, 146, 149, 160–169, 175–179, + 181–182, 188–189, 191, 226–227, 278–279. + + Mills, Peter, 19. + + Missouri slave raid, 191–197. + + Mobs, abolition, 91. + + Mobs against Negroes, 235. + + Moffett, Charles W., 221, 252, 259. + + Montgomery, Captain, 188, 189, 190, 191. + + “Morgan, Shubel,” 189. + + Mulattoes, 77. + + Mysteries, American, 244. + + + Negro character, 17. + + Negro conventions, 236, 237, 238, 239, 242, 244, 245–246. + + Negro emigration, 245–246. + + Negro insurgents, 318, 353–354. + + Negro insurrections, 79–80, 83, 85, 97, 105–106. + + Negro leaders, 97, 98, 101, 102, 110, 240, 241–243, 246, 258, 259, 294, + 295. + + Negro, Northern, 235. + + Negro organizations, 203–204, 244. + + Negro progress, 1830–1840, 235; + 1840–1850, 240; + 1850–1860, 243. + + Negro slavery, 76–84. + + Negroes, 12, 16. + + Negroes in America, 16, 17; + in Canada, 236–238. + + Negroes, increase of, in ten years, 243. + + Negroes and John Brown, 343, 344, 347. + + Negroes of Springfield, 98, 99. + + Negroes, present condition of, 389. + + Newby, Dangerfield, 281, 323. + + North Elba, New York, 12. + + _North Star_, 101, 242. + + + Oberlin College, 11, 53, 55, 95, 258, 281, 283. + + Oberlin College lands in Virginia, 53–55, 95. + + Odd Fellows, Negro, 240. + + Osawatomie, Kansas, 12, 128, 142, 147, 152, 159, 162, 166, 177, 224. + + Owen, John, 19. + + + Panic of 1837, 11, 50, 55, 91. + + Parker, Theodore, 210, 227, 231. + + Parsons, L. L., 220–221, 252, 259. + + Perkins, Simon, 58, 68. + + Perkins and Brown, wool-merchants, 62, 67. + + Pierce, President, 151. + + Plans at Harper’s Ferry, 101, 318, 319, 324, 326. + + Plans of John Brown, 106–107, 260, 276. + + Pottawatomie Creek, 12, 157, 158, 162. + + Purvis, Robert, 241, 246. + + + Raid at Harper’s Ferry, see Harper’s Ferry. + + Realf, Richard, 215–220, 252, 259. + + Redpath, James, 7, 72, 99, 132, 147, 181, 246. + + Reeder, Governor of Kansas, 215. + + Reynolds, G. J., 208, 258, 260. + + Richardson, Richard, 221, 252, 258. + + Robinson, Charles, Governor of Kansas, 134, 150, 184, 207, 341, 342. + + Rochester, N. Y., state convention, 244–245. + + Ross, Dr. A. M., 251, 257. + + Routes, Fugitive Slave, 97. + + + “Sambo’s Mistakes,” 99. + + Sanborn, Frank B., 7, 13, 210, 228, 267. + + Schools for Negroes, 87, 94, 95. + + Shannon, Governor of Kansas, 141, 149, 150, 176. + + Shore, Captain, 167–168. + + “Shubel Morgan’s” Company, 189. + + Slave insurrections, 79–80, 83, 85, 97, 105–106. + + Slavery, 75–89, 124–126, 235. + + Smith, Gerrit, 12, 53, 131, 132, 133, 207, 226, 303, 341. + + Smith, J. McCune, 98, 131, 132, 225, 240, 267. + + Smith, Stephen, 241, 248, 258. + + Societies, Phœnix, 239. + + Society, American Anti-slavery, 246. + + Society, American Moral Reform, 238. + + Society, New England Emigrant Aid, 136, 145. + + Song of “John Brown’s Body,” 374. + + Southern bands in Kansas, 152, 166, 188. + + Spell of Africa, 121. + + Springdale, Iowa, John Brown in, 221–224. + + Stephens, Aaron D., 173, 194, 195–222, 252, 259, 336. + + Stearns, George L., 208–210, 226, 228, 277, 341. + + Still, William, 241, 248. + + Stuart, J. E. B., 332, 333. + + “Subterranean Pass Way,” 214. + + Sumner, Colonel, 15, 137, 139, 168–169, 225, 266. + + Survey of Virginia lands, 53–55. + + Swamp, Dismal, 86. + + Swamp of the Swan, 134, 145, 177, 188, 288. + + Sword of Gideon, 96. + + + Tariff and wool, 61. + + Tariff of 1846, the, 65. + + Taylor, Stewart, 223, 259. + + Thayer, Eli, 126, 214. + + Thomas, John A., 258. + + Thomas, Thomas, 101, 247. + + Thompson, Henry, 113, 155–168. + + Thompson, William, 77, 173, 315, 316, 319, 324, 328, 329. + + Tidd, C. P., 221, 252, 259, 315, 316, 319, 324, 331, 335, 336. + + Tubman, Harriet, 204, 241, 249, 251, 293. + + Turner, Nat, 11, 85, 97, 127, 239. + + + Underground Railroad, 94, 101, 107, 110, 198, 243, 263. + + University, Western Reserve, 86. + + + Vesey, Denmark, 83, 97. + + Virginia, 16. + + + Wakarusa war and treaty, 151. + + War, Civil, 48, 142. + + War in Kansas, 140, 142. + + War of 1812, 25, 48–49. + + Ward, Samuel Ringgold, 242, 243. + + Wars, Seminole, 84. + + Washington, Colonel Lewis, 317, 322. + + Wilberforce University, 236, 253. + + Wilson, Senator, 225, 226. + + Wise, Governor of Virginia, 336, 355. + + Woodson, Governor of Missouri, 180, 241. + + Wool-growers’ convention, 62. + +----- + +Footnote 1: + + Redpath, _Public Life of Captain John Brown_, p. 25. + +Footnote 2: + + Autobiography of Owen Brown in Sanborn, _Life and Letters of John + Brown_, p. 7. + +Footnote 3: + + The quotations in this chapter are from John Brown’s Autobiography, + Sanborn, _Life and Letters of John Brown_, pp. 12–17. + +Footnote 4: + + John Brown’s Autobiography, Sanborn, p. 16. + +Footnote 5: + + Heman Hallock, in the New York _Journal of Commerce_, quoted in + Sanborn, p. 32. + +Footnote 6: + + John Brown’s Autobiography, Sanborn, p. 16. + +Footnote 7: + + John Brown’s Autobiography, Sanborn, pp. 16, 17. + +Footnote 8: + + John Brown, Jr., in Sanborn, p. 34. + +Footnote 9: + + Ruth Brown in Sanborn, pp. 37–39. + +Footnote 10: + + John Brown, Jr., in Sanborn, pp. 91–93. + +Footnote 11: + + Ruth Brown in Sanborn, pp. 93–94. + +Footnote 12: + + _Ibid._, p. 104. + +Footnote 13: + + Ruth Brown in Sanborn, p. 44. + +Footnote 14: + + Letter to John Brown, Jr., 1841, in Sanborn, p. 139. + +Footnote 15: + + Letter to his wife, 1844, in Sanborn, p. 61. + +Footnote 16: + + Ruth Brown in Sanborn, pp. 38–39. + +Footnote 17: + + Letter to his wife, 1839, in Sanborn, p. 69. + +Footnote 18: + + Letter to his wife, 1851, in Sanborn, p. 146. + +Footnote 19: + + Letter to his wife, 1846, in Sanborn, p. 142. + +Footnote 20: + + Letter to his daughter, 1847, in Sanborn, p. 142. + +Footnote 21: + + Letter to his wife, 1844, in Sanborn, pp. 60–61. + +Footnote 22: + + Letter to his father, 1846, in Sanborn, pp. 21, 22. + +Footnote 23: + + Letter to his daughter, 1852, in Sanborn, p. 45. + +Footnote 24: + + Letter to John Brown, Jr., 1852, and to his children, 1853, in + Sanborn, pp. 151 and 155. + +Footnote 25: + + Letter to his wife, 1839, in Sanborn, p. 68. + +Footnote 26: + + Sanborn, p. 58. + +Footnote 27: + + Records of Oberlin College, quoted in Sanborn, pp. 134–135. + +Footnote 28: + + Levi Burnell to Owen Brown, 1840, in Sanborn, p. 135. + +Footnote 29: + + Letter to his family, 1840, in Sanborn, p. 134. + +Footnote 30: + + MS. Diary, Boston Public Library. Vol. I. p. 65. + +Footnote 31: + + Records of the Board of Trustees, Oberlin College, Aug. 28, 1840, + quoted in Sanborn, p. 135. + +Footnote 32: + + John Brown, Jr., in Sanborn, p 87. + +Footnote 33: + + Agreement quoted in Sanborn, pp. 55–56. + +Footnote 34: + + Letter to George Kellogg, 1844, in Sanborn, p. 56. + +Footnote 35: + + Letter to John Brown, Jr., 1843, in Sanborn, p. 58. + +Footnote 36: + + Letter to John Brown, Jr., 1843, in Sanborn, pp. 58–59. + +Footnote 37: + + _Ibid._, p. 59. + +Footnote 38: + + _Ibid._, p. 59. + +Footnote 39: + + Letter to John Brown, Jr., 1844, in Sanborn, pp. 59–60. + +Footnote 40: + + _Ibid._, p. 61. + +Footnote 41: + + Ruth Brown in Sanborn, p. 95. + +Footnote 42: + + Letter to John Brown, Jr., 1846, in Sanborn, p. 62. + +Footnote 43: + + Circular issued in 1846, quoted in Sanborn, p. 63. + +Footnote 44: + + Letter to Owen Brown, 1846, in Sanborn, p. 22. + +Footnote 45: + + Letter to John Brown, Jr., 1847, in Sanborn, p. 143. + +Footnote 46: + + E. C. Leonard in Sanborn, p. 65. + +Footnote 47: + + Letter to Owen Brown, 1847, in Sanborn, pp. 23–24. + +Footnote 48: + + Letter to Owen Brown, 1849, in Sanborn, p. 25. + +Footnote 49: + + _Ibid._ + +Footnote 50: + + Memoranda by John Brown, in Sanborn, p. 65; Redpath, p. 56 + +Footnote 51: + + Sanborn, pp. 67–68. + +Footnote 52: + + Letter to John Brown, Jr., 1849, Sanborn, p. 73. + +Footnote 53: + + E. C. Leonard, in Sanborn, pp. 67–68. + +Footnote 54: + + Letter to his wife, 1850, in Sanborn, p. 107. + +Footnote 55: + + Letter to his children, 1850, in Sanborn, pp. 75–76. + +Footnote 56: + + Redpath, p. 58. + +Footnote 57: + + Letter to his son, in Sanborn, p. 145. + +Footnote 58: + + Letter to his children, 1854, in Sanborn, p. 155. + +Footnote 59: + + R. H. Dana, in the _Atlantic Monthly_, 1871. + +Footnote 60: + + Owen Brown, in Sanborn, pp. 10–11. + +Footnote 61: + + John Brown, Jr., in Sanborn, p. 35. + +Footnote 62: + + Sanborn, p. 34. + +Footnote 63: + + Letter to his brother Frederick, 1834, in Sanborn, pp. 40–41. + +Footnote 64: + + Ruth Brown, in Sanborn, p. 37. + +Footnote 65: + + John Brown, Jr., in Sanborn, pp. 52–53. + +Footnote 66: + + Redpath, p. 65. + +Footnote 67: + + Redpath, pp. 53–54. + +Footnote 68: + + Redpath, pp. 59–60. + +Footnote 69: + + From “Sambo’s Mistakes,” published in the _Ram’s Horn_ and printed in + Sanborn, p. 130. + +Footnote 70: + + Douglass, _Life and Times of Frederick Douglass_ (1892), Chap. 8, Part + II, pp. 337–342. + +Footnote 71: + + Sanborn, p. 97. + +Footnote 72: + + Redpath, p. 61. + +Footnote 73: + + Ruth Brown, in Sanborn. p. 100. + +Footnote 74: + + Redpath, p. 62. + +Footnote 75: + + Letter to his wife, 1850, in Sanborn, pp. 106–107. + +Footnote 76: + + Letter of instructions, agreement and resolutions, as given in + Sanborn, pp. 124–127. + +Footnote 77: + + Letter of instructions, agreement and resolutions, as given in + Sanborn, pp. 124–127. + +Footnote 78: + + Letter of instructions, agreement and resolutions, as given in + Sanborn, pp. 124–127. + +Footnote 79: + + Sanborn, p. 132. + +Footnote 80: + + Ruth Brown, in Sanborn, pp. 131–132. + +Footnote 81: + + Letter to his wife, 1852, in Sanborn, pp. 108–109. + +Footnote 82: + + Ruth Brown, in Sunburn, p. 104. + +Footnote 83: + + Letters to his children, 1852–1853, in Sanborn, pp. 110 and 148. + +Footnote 84: + + Compare the _American Anthropologist_, Vol. 4, No. 2, April-June, + 1902. + +Footnote 85: + + Letter to John Brown, Jr., 1854, in Sanborn, p. 191. + +Footnote 86: + + John Brown, Jr., in Sanborn, pp. 188–190. + +Footnote 87: + + Letter to his children, 1854, in Sanborn, pp. 110–111. + +Footnote 88: + + Redpath, p. 81. + +Footnote 89: + + Letter to his wife, 1855, in Sanborn, pp. 193–194. + +Footnote 90: + + John Brown, Jr., in Sanborn, pp. 190–191. + +Footnote 91: + + Ruth Thompson, in Sanborn, p. 105. + +Footnote 92: + + Farewell address of Governor Geary, _Transactions_ of the Kansas State + Historical Society, Vol. IV, p. 739. + +Footnote 93: + + Letters to his family, 1855, in Sanborn, pp. 201 and 205. + +Footnote 94: + + Redpath, pp. 103–104. + +Footnote 95: + + Letter to his family, 1855, in Sanborn, pp. 217–221. + +Footnote 96: + + Letter to his wife, 1855, in Sanborn, pp. 217–221. + +Footnote 97: + + G. W. Brown, _Reminiscences of Old John Brown_, p. 8; Phillips, + _History of Kansas_, quoted in Redpath, p. 90. + +Footnote 98: + + Letter to his family, 1855, in Sanborn, pp. 217–221. + +Footnote 99: + + Letter to his family, 1856, in Sanborn, p. 223. + +Footnote 100: + + Letter of Giddings to John Brown, 1856, in Sanborn, p. 224. + +Footnote 101: + + D. W. Wilder, in the _Transactions_ of the Kansas State Historical + Society, Vol. 6, p. 337. + +Footnote 102: + + E. A. Coleman, in Sanborn, p. 260. + +Footnote 103: + + James Hanway, in Hinton, _John Brown and His Men_, p. 695. + +Footnote 104: + + Bondi in _Transactions_ of the Kansas State Historical Society, Vol. + 8, p. 279; Spring, _Kansas_, p. 143. + +Footnote 105: + + Jason Brown, in Sanborn, p. 273. + +Footnote 106: + + E. A. Coleman, in Sanborn, p. 259. + +Footnote 107: + + John Brown, Jr., in Sanborn, p. 278. + +Footnote 108: + + Letter to his family, 1856, in Sanborn, pp. 236–241. + +Footnote 109: + + Sanborn, pp. 287–288. + +Footnote 110: + + Sanborn, pp. 288–290. + +Footnote 111: + + Redpath, pp. 112–114. + +Footnote 112: + + Bondi in the _Transactions_ of the Kansas State Historical Society, + Vol. 8, pp. 282–284. + +Footnote 113: + + Bondi in the _Transactions_ of the Kansas State Historical Society, + Vol. 8, p. 285. + +Footnote 114: + + _Ibid._, p. 284. + +Footnote 115: + + Bondi in the _Transactions_ of the Kansas State Historical Society, + Vol. 8, p. 286; John Brown to his family, 1856, in Sanborn, pp. + 236–241. + +Footnote 116: + + W. A. Phillips, in Sanborn, pp. 306–308. + +Footnote 117: + + Hinton, pp. 201–204. + +Footnote 118: + + Samuel Walker in _Transactions_ of the Kansas State Historical + Society, Vol. 6, p. 267. + +Footnote 119: + + Appeal to the citizens of Lafayette County, Mo., Sanborn, p. 309. + +Footnote 120: + + Samuel Walker in _Transactions_ of the Kansas State Historical + Society, Vol. 6, pp. 272–273. + +Footnote 121: + + Quoted in Sanborn, p. 321. + +Footnote 122: + + John Brown to his family, 1856, Sanborn, pp. 317–318. + +Footnote 123: + + Charles Robinson to John Brown, 1856, in Sanborn, pp. 330–331. + +Footnote 124: + + Speech of John Brown, Redpath, pp. 163–164. + +Footnote 125: + + Redpath, pp. 164–165. + +Footnote 126: + + Paper by John Brown, Sanborn, pp. 332–333. + +Footnote 127: + + Executive minutes of Governor Geary in _Transactions_ of the Kansas + State Historical Society, Vol. 4, p. 537. + +Footnote 128: + + Letter to Augustus Wattles, 1857, in Sanborn, p. 391. + +Footnote 129: + + Correspondence of Lane and Brown, in Sanborn, pp. 401–402. + +Footnote 130: + + Letter to F. B. Sanborn and others, 1858, in Sanborn, pp. 474–477. + +Footnote 131: + + _Ibid._ + +Footnote 132: + + Hinton in Redpath, pp. 199–206. + +Footnote 133: + + George B. Gill in Hinton, p. 218. + +Footnote 134: + + Sanborn, pp. 481–483. + +Footnote 135: + + Hamilton, _John Brown in Canada_, pp. 4–5. + +Footnote 136: + + Sanborn, p. 491. + +Footnote 137: + + Redpath, p. 48. + +Footnote 138: + + Redpath, p. 71. + +Footnote 139: + + Hinton in Redpath, pp. 203–205. + +Footnote 140: + + Reminiscences of George B. Gill, Hinton, pp. 732–733. + +Footnote 141: + + Hinton, pp. 171–172. + +Footnote 142: + + Notes by John Brown, in Sanborn, p. 244. + +Footnote 143: + + Paper by John Brown, in Sanborn, pp. 241–242. + +Footnote 144: + + Letter from Gerrit Smith to John Brown, in Sanborn, p. 364. + +Footnote 145: + + Jeremiah Brown in Redpath, pp. 174–175. + +Footnote 146: + + Reminiscences of Mrs. Mary E. Stearns, in Hinton, pp. 719–727. + +Footnote 147: + + Sanborn, _John Brown and his Friends_, p. 8. + +Footnote 148: + + Letter of H. B. Hurd to John Brown, 1857, in Sanborn, p. 367. + +Footnote 149: + + Sanborn, pp. 375–376. + +Footnote 150: + + Speech of John Brown, Sanborn. p. 379. + +Footnote 151: + + Letter to Eli Thayer, 1857, in Sanborn, p. 382. + +Footnote 152: + + Reminiscences of Dr. Wayland, Sanborn, p. 381. + +Footnote 153: + + Reports of Senate Committees, 36th Congress, 1st Session, No. 278, + Testimony of Richard Realf, p. 96. + +Footnote 154: + + Hinton, pp. 614–615. + +Footnote 155: + + Letter to Augustus Wattles, 1857, in Sanborn, p. 393. + +Footnote 156: + + Confession of John E. Cook in Hinton, pp. 700–701. + +Footnote 157: + + Richman, _John Brown Among the Quakers_, pp. 20–21. + +Footnote 158: + + Richman, pp. 28–29. + +Footnote 159: + + Hinton, pp. 156–157. + +Footnote 160: + + Douglass, _Life and Times of Frederick Douglass_, pp. 385–386. + +Footnote 161: + + Letter to Theodore Parker, 1858, in Sanborn, pp. 434–435. + +Footnote 162: + + Letter to Higginson, 1858, in Sanborn, p. 436. + +Footnote 163: + + Sanborn, pp. 438—440. + +Footnote 164: + + Letter to John Brown, Jr., 1858, in Sanborn, pp. 450–451. + +Footnote 165: + + Letter to his family, 1858, in Sanborn, pp. 440–441. + +Footnote 166: + + Letter to F. B. Sanborn, 1858, in Sanborn, pp. 444–445. + +Footnote 167: + + Hickok, _The Negro in Ohio_, p. 42. + +Footnote 168: + + _Ibid._, p. 44. + +Footnote 169: + + Williams, _Negro Race in America_, Vol. 2, pp. 65–67. + +Footnote 170: + + Occasional Papers of the American Negro Academy, No. 9, p. 10. + +Footnote 171: + + Occasional Papers of the American Negro Academy, No. 9, p. 15. + +Footnote 172: + + _Ibid._, No. 9, p. 16. + +Footnote 173: + + Douglass, _Life and Times of Frederick Douglass_ (1892), p. 345. + +Footnote 174: + + Occasional Papers of the American Negro Academy, No. 9, pp. 16–19. + +Footnote 175: + + Occasional Papers of the American Negro Academy, No. 9, pp. 20–21. + +Footnote 176: + + Manuscript Diary of John Brown, Boston Public Library, Vol. 2, p. 35. + +Footnote 177: + + Letter to John Brown, Jr., 1858, in Sanborn, p. 452. + +Footnote 178: + + Bradford, _Harriet, the Moses of Her People_, pp. 118–119. + +Footnote 179: + + Letter of Wendell Phillips, printed in Bradford, _Harriet, the Moses + of Her People_, pp. 155–156. + +Footnote 180: + + Hamilton, _John Brown in Canada_, p. 10. + +Footnote 181: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, p. 9. + +Footnote 182: + + Rollins, _Life and Public Services of Martin R. Delaney_, pp. 85–90. + +Footnote 183: + + Reminiscences of J. M. Jones, in Hamilton, _John Brown in Canada_, pp. + 14–15. + +Footnote 184: + + Hinton, p. 178. + +Footnote 185: + + Reminiscences of J. M. Jones, in Hamilton, _John Brown in Canada_, pp. + 14 and 16. + +Footnote 186: + + Rollins, _Life and Public Services of Martin R. Delaney_, pp. 85–90. + +Footnote 187: + + Reminiscences of George B. Gill, in Hinton, p. 185. + +Footnote 188: + + Reminiscences of J. M. Jones, in Hamilton, _John Brown in Canada_, p. + 16. + +Footnote 189: + + Hinton, pp. 619–633. + +Footnote 190: + + Hinton, pp. 642–643. + +Footnote 191: + + Provisional Constitution, Art. 42. + +Footnote 192: + + Letter to his family, 1858, in Sanborn, pp. 455–456. + +Footnote 193: + + Letter from Sanborn to Higginson, 1858, in Sanborn, p. 458. + +Footnote 194: + + Letter from Higginson to Theodore Parker, in Sanborn, p. 459. + +Footnote 195: + + Letter from Forbes to Higginson, 1858, in Sanborn, pp. 460–461. + +Footnote 196: + + Sanborn, pp. 463–464. + +Footnote 197: + + Letter to Owen Brown, 1858, in Richman, _John Brown Among the + Quakers_, pp. 40–41. + +Footnote 198: + + Jefferson, _Notes on Virginia_. + +Footnote 199: + + Sanborn, p. 467. + +Footnote 200: + + Reports of Senate Committees, 36th Congress, 1st Session, No. 278; + Testimony of Richard Realf, p. 100. + +Footnote 201: + + Sanborn, p. 457. + +Footnote 202: + + Hinton, pp. 130–131. + +Footnote 203: + + W. P. Garrison in the _Andover Review_, Dec., 1890, and Jan., 1891. + +Footnote 204: + + General Orders, Oct. 10, 1859, Hinton, pp. 646–647. + +Footnote 205: + + Douglass, _Life and Times of Frederick Douglass_, p. 387. + +Footnote 206: + + Hunter, _John Brown’s Raid_, republished in the Publications of the + Southern History Association, Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 188. + +Footnote 207: + + Report: Reports of Senate Committees, 36th Congress, 1st Session, No. + 278; Testimony of Ralph Plumb, p. 181. + +Footnote 208: + + Barry, _The Strange Story of Harper’s Ferry_, p. 93. + +Footnote 209: + + Anne Brown in Hinton, pp. 529–530. + +Footnote 210: + + Hinton, p. 453. + +Footnote 211: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, p. 15. + +Footnote 212: + + Hinton, pp. 496–497. + +Footnote 213: + + Sanborn in the _Atlantic Monthly_, Hinton, p. 570. + +Footnote 214: + + Anne Brown in Hinton, p. 450. + +Footnote 215: + + From the newspaper report of the speech at Cleveland, March 22d, + Redpath, pp. 239–240. + +Footnote 216: + + Diary of A. Bronson Alcott, Sanborn, pp. 504–505. + +Footnote 217: + + Report: Reports of Senate Committees, 36th Congress, 1st Session, No. + 278; Testimony of John C. Unseld, pp. 1–2. + +Footnote 218: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, p. 19. + +Footnote 219: + + Douglass, _Life and Times of Frederick Douglass_, pp. 388–391. + +Footnote 220: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, pp. 23–25. + +Footnote 221: + + Anne Brown in Sanborn, p. 531. + +Footnote 222: + + Anne Brown in Hinton, p. 265. + +Footnote 223: + + Report: Reports of Senate Committees, 36th Congress, 1st Session, No. + 278; Testimony of John B. Floyd, pp. 250–252. + +Footnote 224: + + Letter to Kagi, 1859, in Hinton, pp. 257–258. + +Footnote 225: + + Anne Brown in Hinton, p. 260. + +Footnote 226: + + Letter of Owen to John Brown, 1850, in Hinton, p. 259. + +Footnote 227: + + John Brown, Jr., to Kagi, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 547–548. + +Footnote 228: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, p. 26. + +Footnote 229: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, p. 27. + +Footnote 230: + + _Ibid._, p. 23. + +Footnote 231: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, p. 29. + +Footnote 232: + + Anderson. _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, pp. 31–32. + +Footnote 233: + + Report: Reports of Senate Committees, 36th Congress, 1st Session, No. + 278; Testimony of Daniel Wheeler, pp. 21–22. + +Footnote 234: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, p. 33. + +Footnote 235: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, pp. 33–34. + +Footnote 236: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, pp. 36–37. + +Footnote 237: + + Statement by John Edwin Cook in Hinton, pp. 700–718. + +Footnote 238: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, p. 37. + +Footnote 239: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, pp. 37–38. + +Footnote 240: + + Redpath, p. 249. + +Footnote 241: + + Report: Reports of Senate Committees, 36th Congress, 1st Session, No. + 278; Testimony of John D. Starry, p. 25. + +Footnote 242: + + Boteler, “Recollections of the John Brown Raid” in the _Century + Magazine_, July, 1883, p. 405. + +Footnote 243: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, p. 42. + +Footnote 244: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, pp. 39–40. + +Footnote 245: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, p. 40. + +Footnote 246: + + Boteler, “Recollections of the John Brown Raid” in the _Century + Magazine_, July, 1883, p. 407. + +Footnote 247: + + Daingerfield in the _Century Magazine_, June, 1885. + +Footnote 248: + + Barry, _Strange Story of Harper’s Ferry_, p. 67. + +Footnote 249: + + Patrick Higgins in Hinton, p. 290. + +Footnote 250: + + Daingerfield in the _Century Magazine_, June, 1885. + +Footnote 251: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, p. 42. + +Footnote 252: + + Testimony of Henry Hunter in Redpath, pp. 320–321. + +Footnote 253: + + Daingerfield in the _Century Magazine_, June, 1885. + +Footnote 254: + + Berry, _Strange Story of Harper’s Ferry_, pp. 70–71. + +Footnote 255: + + Daingerfield in the _Century Magazine_, June, 1885. + +Footnote 256: + + Anderson, _A Voice from Harper’s Ferry_, p. 52. + +Footnote 257: + + John Brown in Sanborn, pp. 560–661. + +Footnote 258: + + Report: Reports of Senate Committees, 36th Congress, 1st Session, No. + 278; Testimony of George L. Stearns, pp. 241–242. + +Footnote 259: + + Douglass, _Life and Times of Frederick Douglass_ (1892), p. 376. + +Footnote 260: + + Correspondence of the New York _Herald_, Sanborn, pp. 562–571. + +Footnote 261: + + Frederick Douglass in a speech at Storer College at Harper’s Ferry, + May, 1882. + +Footnote 262: + + Hinton, pp. 325–326. + +Footnote 263: + + Mrs. Spring in Redpath, p. 377. + +Footnote 264: + + Newspaper report in Redpath, p. 376. + +Footnote 265: + + Mrs. Spring in Redpath, p. 377. + +Footnote 266: + + Letter to his sister, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 607–609. + +Footnote 267: + + Remarks by John Brown in Redpath, p. 309. + +Footnote 268: + + Newspaper report quoted by Redpath, p. 337. + +Footnote 269: + + Redpath, pp. 340–342. + +Footnote 270: + + Letter to Mrs. George L. Stearns, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 610–611. + +Footnote 271: + + Letter to his cousin, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 594–595. + +Footnote 272: + + Letter to D. R. Tilden in Sanborn, pp. 609–610. + +Footnote 273: + + Letters to his family, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 579–580, 613–615. + +Footnote 274: + + Letter to D. R. Tilden in Sanborn, pp. 609–610. + +Footnote 275: + + Letter to his family, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 579–580. + +Footnote 276: + + Letter to a friend, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 582–583. + +Footnote 277: + + Letter to his family, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 579–580. + +Footnote 278: + + Letter to H. L. Vaill, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 589–591. + +Footnote 279: + + Letter to Rev. Dr. Humphrey, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 603–605. + +Footnote 280: + + Letter to H. L. Vaill, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 590–591. + +Footnote 281: + + Letter to Miss Stearns, Sanborn, p. 607. + +Footnote 282: + + Postscript of letter to his family, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 585–587. + +Footnote 283: + + Letter to Rev. Dr. Humphrey, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 603–605. + +Footnote 284: + + Letter to Mr. McFarland, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 598–599. + +Footnote 285: + + Letter to his younger children, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 596–597. + +Footnote 286: + + Letter to his wife and children in Sanborn, pp. 585–587. + +Footnote 287: + + Letter to D. R. Tilden in Sanborn, pp. 609–610. + +Footnote 288: + + Letter to Mr. McFarland, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 598–599. + +Footnote 289: + + Redpath, pp. 382–383. c + +Footnote 290: + + Last letter to his family, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 614–615. + +Footnote 291: + + Letter to F. B. Musgrave, 1859, in Sanborn, p. 593. + +Footnote 292: + + Report: Reports of Senate Committees, 36th Congress, 1st Session, No. + 278; Testimony of Joshua R. Giddings, pp. 147–156. + + + + + +MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM + +By Frederick Douglass + + +By a principle essential to Christianity, a PERSON is eternally +differenced from a THING; so that the idea of a HUMAN BEING, +necessarily excludes the idea of PROPERTY IN THAT BEING. —COLERIDGE + +Entered according to Act of Congress in 1855 by Frederick Douglass in +the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Northern District of +New York + +TO +HONORABLE GERRIT SMITH, +AS A SLIGHT TOKEN OF +ESTEEM FOR HIS CHARACTER, +ADMIRATION FOR HIS GENIUS AND BENEVOLENCE, +AFFECTION FOR HIS PERSON, AND +GRATITUDE FOR HIS FRIENDSHIP, +AND AS +A Small but most Sincere Acknowledgement of +HIS PRE-EMINENT SERVICES IN BEHALF OF THE RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES +OF AN +AFFLICTED, DESPISED AND DEEPLY OUTRAGED PEOPLE, +BY RANKING SLAVERY WITH PIRACY AND MURDER, +AND BY +DENYING IT EITHER A LEGAL OR CONSTITUTIONAL EXISTENCE, +This Volume is Respectfully Dedicated, +BY HIS FAITHFUL AND FIRMLY ATTACHED FRIEND, + +FREDERICK DOUGLAS. +ROCHESTER, N.Y. + + + + +CONTENTS + + MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM + EDITOR’S PREFACE + INTRODUCTION + + CHAPTER I. _Childhood_ + CHAPTER II. _Removed from My First Home_ + CHAPTER III. _Parentage_ + CHAPTER IV. _A General Survey of the Slave Plantation_ + CHAPTER V. _Gradual Initiation to the Mysteries of Slavery_ + CHAPTER VI. _Treatment of Slaves on Lloyd’s Plantation_ + CHAPTER VII. _Life in the Great House_ + CHAPTER VIII. _A Chapter of Horrors_ + CHAPTER IX. _Personal Treatment_ + CHAPTER X. _Life in Baltimore_ + CHAPTER XI. _“A Change Came O’er the Spirit of My Dream”_ + CHAPTER XII. _Religious Nature Awakened_ + CHAPTER XIII. _The Vicissitudes of Slave Life_ + CHAPTER XIV. _Experience in St. Michael’s_ + CHAPTER XV. _Covey, the Negro Breaker_ + CHAPTER XVI. _Another Pressure of the Tyrant’s Vice_ + CHAPTER XVII. _The Last Flogging_ + CHAPTER XVIII. _New Relations and Duties_ + CHAPTER XIX. _The Run-Away Plot_ + CHAPTER XX. _Apprenticeship Life_ + CHAPTER XXI. _My Escape from Slavery_ + + LIFE as a FREEMAN + CHAPTER XXII. _Liberty Attained_ + CHAPTER XXIII. _Introduced to the Abolitionists_ + CHAPTER XXIV. _Twenty-One Months in Great Britain_ + CHAPTER XXV. _Various Incidents_ + + RECEPTION SPEECH [10]. At Finsbury Chapel, Moorfields, England, May 12, + Dr. Campbell’s Reply + LETTER TO HIS OLD MASTER. [11]. To My Old Master, Thomas Auld + THE NATURE OF SLAVERY. Extract from a Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester, + INHUMANITY OF SLAVERY. Extract from A Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester, + WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?. Extract from an Oration, at + THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE. Extract from an Oration, at Rochester, July + THE SLAVERY PARTY. Extract from a Speech Delivered before the A. A. S. + THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. Extracts from a Lecture before Various + + FOOTNOTES + + + + +MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM + + + + +EDITOR’S PREFACE + + +If the volume now presented to the public were a mere work of ART, the +history of its misfortune might be written in two very simple words—TOO +LATE. The nature and character of slavery have been subjects of an +almost endless variety of artistic representation; and after the +brilliant achievements in that field, and while those achievements are +yet fresh in the memory of the million, he who would add another to the +legion, must possess the charm of transcendent excellence, or apologize +for something worse than rashness. The reader is, therefore, assured, +with all due promptitude, that his attention is not invited to a work +of ART, but to a work of FACTS—Facts, terrible and almost incredible, +it may be yet FACTS, nevertheless. + +I am authorized to say that there is not a fictitious name nor place in +the whole volume; but that names and places are literally given, and +that every transaction therein described actually transpired. + +Perhaps the best Preface to this volume is furnished in the following +letter of Mr. Douglass, written in answer to my urgent solicitation for +such a work: + +ROCHESTER, N. Y. _July_ 2, 1855. + + +DEAR FRIEND: I have long entertained, as you very well know, a somewhat +positive repugnance to writing or speaking anything for the public, +which could, with any degree of plausibilty, make me liable to the +imputation of seeking personal notoriety, for its own sake. +Entertaining that feeling very sincerely, and permitting its control, +perhaps, quite unreasonably, I have often refused to narrate my +personal experience in public anti-slavery meetings, and in +sympathizing circles, when urged to do so by friends, with whose views +and wishes, ordinarily, it were a pleasure to comply. In my letters and +speeches, I have generally aimed to discuss the question of Slavery in +the light of fundamental principles, and upon facts, notorious and open +to all; making, I trust, no more of the fact of my own former +enslavement, than circumstances seemed absolutely to require. I have +never placed my opposition to slavery on a basis so narrow as my own +enslavement, but rather upon the indestructible and unchangeable laws +of human nature, every one of which is perpetually and flagrantly +violated by the slave system. I have also felt that it was best for +those having histories worth the writing—or supposed to be so—to commit +such work to hands other than their own. To write of one’s self, in +such a manner as not to incur the imputation of weakness, vanity, and +egotism, is a work within the ability of but few; and I have little +reason to believe that I belong to that fortunate few. + +These considerations caused me to hesitate, when first you kindly urged +me to prepare for publication a full account of my life as a slave, and +my life as a freeman. + +Nevertheless, I see, with you, many reasons for regarding my +autobiography as exceptional in its character, and as being, in some +sense, naturally beyond the reach of those reproaches which honorable +and sensitive minds dislike to incur. It is not to illustrate any +heroic achievements of a man, but to vindicate a just and beneficent +principle, in its application to the whole human family, by letting in +the light of truth upon a system, esteemed by some as a blessing, and +by others as a curse and a crime. I agree with you, that this system is +now at the bar of public opinion—not only of this country, but of the +whole civilized world—for judgment. Its friends have made for it the +usual plea—“not guilty;” the case must, therefore, proceed. Any facts, +either from slaves, slaveholders, or by-standers, calculated to +enlighten the public mind, by revealing the true nature, character, and +tendency of the slave system, are in order, and can scarcely be +innocently withheld. + +I see, too, that there are special reasons why I should write my own +biography, in preference to employing another to do it. Not only is +slavery on trial, but unfortunately, the enslaved people are also on +trial. It is alleged, that they are, naturally, inferior; that they are +_so low_ in the scale of humanity, and so utterly stupid, that they are +unconscious of their wrongs, and do not apprehend their rights. +Looking, then, at your request, from this stand-point, and wishing +everything of which you think me capable to go to the benefit of my +afflicted people, I part with my doubts and hesitation, and proceed to +furnish you the desired manuscript; hoping that you may be able to make +such arrangements for its publication as shall be best adapted to +accomplish that good which you so enthusiastically anticipate. + +FREDERICK DOUGLASS + +There was little necessity for doubt and hesitation on the part of Mr. +Douglass, as to the propriety of his giving to the world a full account +of himself. A man who was born and brought up in slavery, a living +witness of its horrors; who often himself experienced its cruelties; +and who, despite the depressing influences surrounding his birth, youth +and manhood, has risen, from a dark and almost absolute obscurity, to +the distinguished position which he now occupies, might very well +assume the existence of a commendable curiosity, on the part of the +public, to know the facts of his remarkable history. + +EDITOR + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +When a man raises himself from the lowest condition in society to the +highest, mankind pay him the tribute of their admiration; when he +accomplishes this elevation by native energy, guided by prudence and +wisdom, their admiration is increased; but when his course, onward and +upward, excellent in itself, furthermore proves a possible, what had +hitherto been regarded as an impossible, reform, then he becomes a +burning and a shining light, on which the aged may look with gladness, +the young with hope, and the down-trodden, as a representative of what +they may themselves become. To such a man, dear reader, it is my +privilege to introduce you. + +The life of Frederick Douglass, recorded in the pages which follow, is +not merely an example of self-elevation under the most adverse +circumstances; it is, moreover, a noble vindication of the highest aims +of the American anti-slavery movement. The real object of that movement +is not only to disenthrall, it is, also, to bestow upon the Negro the +exercise of all those rights, from the possession of which he has been +so long debarred. + +But this full recognition of the colored man to the right, and the +entire admission of the same to the full privileges, political, +religious and social, of manhood, requires powerful effort on the part +of the enthralled, as well as on the part of those who would +disenthrall them. The people at large must feel the conviction, as well +as admit the abstract logic, of human equality; the Negro, for the +first time in the world’s history, brought in full contact with high +civilization, must prove his title first to all that is demanded for +him; in the teeth of unequal chances, he must prove himself equal to +the mass of those who oppress him—therefore, absolutely superior to his +apparent fate, and to their relative ability. And it is most cheering +to the friends of freedom, today, that evidence of this equality is +rapidly accumulating, not from the ranks of the half-freed colored +people of the free states, but from the very depths of slavery itself; +the indestructible equality of man to man is demonstrated by the ease +with which black men, scarce one remove from barbarism—if slavery can +be honored with such a distinction—vault into the high places of the +most advanced and painfully acquired civilization. Ward and Garnett, +Wells Brown and Pennington, Loguen and Douglass, are banners on the +outer wall, under which abolition is fighting its most successful +battles, because they are living exemplars of the practicability of the +most radical abolitionism; for, they were all of them born to the doom +of slavery, some of them remained slaves until adult age, yet they all +have not only won equality to their white fellow citizens, in civil, +religious, political and social rank, but they have also illustrated +and adorned our common country by their genius, learning and eloquence. + +The characteristics whereby Mr. Douglass has won first rank among these +remarkable men, and is still rising toward highest rank among living +Americans, are abundantly laid bare in the book before us. Like the +autobiography of Hugh Miller, it carries us so far back into early +childhood, as to throw light upon the question, “when positive and +persistent memory begins in the human being.” And, like Hugh Miller, he +must have been a shy old-fashioned child, occasionally oppressed by +what he could not well account for, peering and poking about among the +layers of right and wrong, of tyrant and thrall, and the wonderfulness +of that hopeless tide of things which brought power to one race, and +unrequited toil to another, until, finally, he stumbled upon his +“first-found Ammonite,” hidden away down in the depths of his own +nature, and which revealed to him the fact that liberty and right, for +all men, were anterior to slavery and wrong. When his knowledge of the +world was bounded by the visible horizon on Col. Lloyd’s plantation, +and while every thing around him bore a fixed, iron stamp, as if it had +always been so, this was, for one so young, a notable discovery. + +To his uncommon memory, then, we must add a keen and accurate insight +into men and things; an original breadth of common sense which enabled +him to see, and weigh, and compare whatever passed before him, and +which kindled a desire to search out and define their relations to +other things not so patent, but which never succumbed to the marvelous +nor the supernatural; a sacred thirst for liberty and for learning, +first as a means of attaining liberty, then as an end in itself most +desirable; a will; an unfaltering energy and determination to obtain +what his soul pronounced desirable; a majestic self-hood; determined +courage; a deep and agonizing sympathy with his embruted, crushed and +bleeding fellow slaves, and an extraordinary depth of passion, together +with that rare alliance between passion and intellect, which enables +the former, when deeply roused, to excite, develop and sustain the +latter. + +With these original gifts in view, let us look at his schooling; the +fearful discipline through which it pleased God to prepare him for the +high calling on which he has since entered—the advocacy of emancipation +by the people who are not slaves. And for this special mission, his +plantation education was better than any he could have acquired in any +lettered school. What he needed, was facts and experiences, welded to +acutely wrought up sympathies, and these he could not elsewhere have +obtained, in a manner so peculiarly adapted to his nature. His physical +being was well trained, also, running wild until advanced into boyhood; +hard work and light diet, thereafter, and a skill in handicraft in +youth. + +For his special mission, then, this was, considered in connection with +his natural gifts, a good schooling; and, for his special mission, he +doubtless “left school” just at the proper moment. Had he remained +longer in slavery—had he fretted under bonds until the ripening of +manhood and its passions, until the drear agony of slave-wife and +slave-children had been piled upon his already bitter experiences—then, +not only would his own history have had another termination, but the +drama of American slavery would have been essentially varied; for I +cannot resist the belief, that the boy who learned to read and write as +he did, who taught his fellow slaves these precious acquirements as he +did, who plotted for their mutual escape as he did, would, when a man +at bay, strike a blow which would make slavery reel and stagger. +Furthermore, blows and insults he bore, at the moment, without +resentment; deep but suppressed emotion rendered him insensible to +their sting; but it was afterward, when the memory of them went +seething through his brain, breeding a fiery indignation at his injured +self-hood, that the resolve came to resist, and the time fixed when to +resist, and the plot laid, how to resist; and he always kept his +self-pledged word. In what he undertook, in this line, he looked fate +in the face, and had a cool, keen look at the relation of means to +ends. Henry Bibb, to avoid chastisement, strewed his master’s bed with +charmed leaves and _was whipped_. Frederick Douglass quietly pocketed a +like _fetiche_, compared his muscles with those of Covey—and _whipped +him_. + +In the history of his life in bondage, we find, well developed, that +inherent and continuous energy of character which will ever render him +distinguished. What his hand found to do, he did with his might; even +while conscious that he was wronged out of his daily earnings, he +worked, and worked hard. At his daily labor he went with a will; with +keen, well set eye, brawny chest, lithe figure, and fair sweep of arm, +he would have been king among calkers, had that been his mission. + +It must not be overlooked, in this glance at his education, that Mr. +Douglass lacked one aid to which so many men of mark have been deeply +indebted—he had neither a mother’s care, nor a mother’s culture, save +that which slavery grudgingly meted out to him. Bitter nurse! may not +even her features relax with human feeling, when she gazes at such +offspring! How susceptible he was to the kindly influences of +mother-culture, may be gathered from his own words, on page 57: “It has +been a life-long standing grief to me, that I know so little of my +mother, and that I was so early separated from her. The counsels of her +love must have been beneficial to me. The side view of her face is +imaged on my memory, and I take few steps in life, without feeling her +presence; but the image is mute, and I have no striking words of hers +treasured up.” + +From the depths of chattel slavery in Maryland, our author escaped into +the caste-slavery of the north, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Here he +found oppression assuming another, and hardly less bitter, form; of +that very handicraft which the greed of slavery had taught him, his +half-freedom denied him the exercise for an honest living; he found +himself one of a class—free colored men—whose position he has described +in the following words: + +“Aliens are we in our native land. The fundamental principles of the +republic, to which the humblest white man, whether born here or +elsewhere, may appeal with confidence, in the hope of awakening a +favorable response, are held to be inapplicable to us. The glorious +doctrines of your revolutionary fathers, and the more glorious +teachings of the Son of God, are construed and applied against us. We +are literally scourged beyond the beneficent range of both authorities, +human and divine. * * * * American humanity hates us, scorns us, +disowns and denies, in a thousand ways, our very personality. The +outspread wing of American christianity, apparently broad enough to +give shelter to a perishing world, refuses to cover us. To us, its +bones are brass, and its features iron. In running thither for shelter +and succor, we have only fled from the hungry blood-hound to the +devouring wolf—from a corrupt and selfish world, to a hollow and +hypocritical church.”—_Speech before American and Foreign Anti-Slavery +Society, May_, 1854. + +Four years or more, from 1837 to 1841, he struggled on, in New Bedford, +sawing wood, rolling casks, or doing what labor he might, to support +himself and young family; four years he brooded over the scars which +slavery and semi-slavery had inflicted upon his body and soul; and +then, with his wounds yet unhealed, he fell among the Garrisonians—a +glorious waif to those most ardent reformers. It happened one day, at +Nantucket, that he, diffidently and reluctantly, was led to address an +anti-slavery meeting. He was about the age when the younger Pitt +entered the House of Commons; like Pitt, too, he stood up a born +orator. + +William Lloyd Garrison, who was happily present, writes thus of Mr. +Douglass’ maiden effort; “I shall never forget his first speech at the +convention—the extraordinary emotion it excited in my own mind—the +powerful impression it created upon a crowded auditory, completely +taken by surprise. * * * I think I never hated slavery so intensely as +at that moment; certainly, my perception of the enormous outrage which +is inflicted by it on the godlike nature of its victims, was rendered +far more clear than ever. There stood one in physical proportions and +stature commanding and exact—in intellect richly endowed—in natural +eloquence a prodigy.” 1 + +It is of interest to compare Mr. Douglass’s account of this meeting +with Mr. Garrison’s. Of the two, I think the latter the most correct. +It must have been a grand burst of eloquence! The pent up agony, +indignation and pathos of an abused and harrowed boyhood and youth, +bursting out in all their freshness and overwhelming earnestness! + +This unique introduction to its great leader, led immediately to the +employment of Mr. Douglass as an agent by the American Anti-Slavery +Society. So far as his self-relying and independent character would +permit, he became, after the strictest sect, a Garrisonian. It is not +too much to say, that he formed a complement which they needed, and +they were a complement equally necessary to his “make-up.” With his +deep and keen sensitiveness to wrong, and his wonderful memory, he came +from the land of bondage full of its woes and its evils, and painting +them in characters of living light; and, on his part, he found, told +out in sound Saxon phrase, all those principles of justice and right +and liberty, which had dimly brooded over the dreams of his youth, +seeking definite forms and verbal expression. It must have been an +electric flashing of thought, and a knitting of soul, granted to but +few in this life, and will be a life-long memory to those who +participated in it. In the society, moreover, of Wendell Phillips, +Edmund Quincy, William Lloyd Garrison, and other men of earnest faith +and refined culture, Mr. Douglass enjoyed the high advantage of their +assistance and counsel in the labor of self-culture, to which he now +addressed himself with wonted energy. Yet, these gentlemen, although +proud of Frederick Douglass, failed to fathom, and bring out to the +light of day, the highest qualities of his mind; the force of their own +education stood in their own way: they did not delve into the mind of a +colored man for capacities which the pride of race led them to believe +to be restricted to their own Saxon blood. Bitter and vindictive +sarcasm, irresistible mimicry, and a pathetic narrative of his own +experiences of slavery, were the intellectual manifestations which they +encouraged him to exhibit on the platform or in the lecture desk. + +A visit to England, in 1845, threw Mr. Douglass among men and women of +earnest souls and high culture, and who, moreover, had never drank of +the bitter waters of American caste. For the first time in his life, he +breathed an atmosphere congenial to the longings of his spirit, and +felt his manhood free and unrestricted. The cordial and manly greetings +of the British and Irish audiences in public, and the refinement and +elegance of the social circles in which he mingled, not only as an +equal, but as a recognized man of genius, were, doubtless, genial and +pleasant resting places in his hitherto thorny and troubled journey +through life. There are joys on the earth, and, to the wayfaring +fugitive from American slavery or American caste, this is one of them. + +But his sojourn in England was more than a joy to Mr. Douglass. Like +the platform at Nantucket, it awakened him to the consciousness of new +powers that lay in him. From the pupilage of Garrisonism he rose to the +dignity of a teacher and a thinker; his opinions on the broader aspects +of the great American question were earnestly and incessantly sought, +from various points of view, and he must, perforce, bestir himself to +give suitable answer. With that prompt and truthful perception which +has led their sisters in all ages of the world to gather at the feet +and support the hands of reformers, the gentlewomen of England 2 were +foremost to encourage and strengthen him to carve out for himself a +path fitted to his powers and energies, in the life-battle against +slavery and caste to which he was pledged. And one stirring thought, +inseparable from the British idea of the evangel of freedom, must have +smote his ear from every side— + +Hereditary bondmen! know ye not +Who would be free, themselves mast strike the blow? + + +The result of this visit was, that on his return to the United States, +he established a newspaper. This proceeding was sorely against the +wishes and the advice of the leaders of the American Anti-Slavery +Society, but our author had fully grown up to the conviction of a truth +which they had once promulged, but now forgotten, to wit: that in their +own elevation—self-elevation—colored men have a blow to strike “on +their own hook,” against slavery and caste. Differing from his Boston +friends in this matter, diffident in his own abilities, reluctant at +their dissuadings, how beautiful is the loyalty with which he still +clung to their principles in all things else, and even in this. + +Now came the trial hour. Without cordial support from any large body of +men or party on this side the Atlantic, and too far distant in space +and immediate interest to expect much more, after the much already +done, on the other side, he stood up, almost alone, to the arduous +labor and heavy expenditure of editor and lecturer. The Garrison party, +to which he still adhered, did not want a _colored_ newspaper—there was +an odor of _caste_ about it; the Liberty party could hardly be expected +to give warm support to a man who smote their principles as with a +hammer; and the wide gulf which separated the free colored people from +the Garrisonians, also separated them from their brother, Frederick +Douglass. + +The arduous nature of his labors, from the date of the establishment of +his paper, may be estimated by the fact, that anti-slavery papers in +the United States, even while organs of, and when supported by, +anti-slavery parties, have, with a single exception, failed to pay +expenses. Mr. Douglass has maintained, and does maintain, his paper +without the support of any party, and even in the teeth of the +opposition of those from whom he had reason to expect counsel and +encouragement. He has been compelled, at one and the same time, and +almost constantly, during the past seven years, to contribute matter to +its columns as editor, and to raise funds for its support as lecturer. +It is within bounds to say, that he has expended twelve thousand +dollars of his own hard earned money, in publishing this paper, a +larger sum than has been contributed by any one individual for the +general advancement of the colored people. There had been many other +papers published and edited by colored men, beginning as far back as +1827, when the Rev. Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russworm (a graduate +of Bowdoin college, and afterward Governor of Cape Palmas) published +the _Freedom’s Journal_, in New York City; probably not less than one +hundred newspaper enterprises have been started in the United States, +by free colored men, born free, and some of them of liberal education +and fair talents for this work; but, one after another, they have +fallen through, although, in several instances, anti-slavery friends +contributed to their support. 3 It had almost been given up, as an +impracticable thing, to maintain a colored newspaper, when Mr. +Douglass, with fewest early advantages of all his competitors, essayed, +and has proved the thing perfectly practicable, and, moreover, of great +public benefit. This paper, in addition to its power in holding up the +hands of those to whom it is especially devoted, also affords +irrefutable evidence of the justice, safety and practicability of +Immediate Emancipation; it further proves the immense loss which +slavery inflicts on the land while it dooms such energies as his to the +hereditary degradation of slavery. + +It has been said in this Introduction, that Mr. Douglass had raised +himself by his own efforts to the highest position in society. As a +successful editor, in our land, he occupies this position. Our editors +rule the land, and he is one of them. As an orator and thinker, his +position is equally high, in the opinion of his countrymen. If a +stranger in the United States would seek its most distinguished men—the +movers of public opinion—he will find their names mentioned, and their +movements chronicled, under the head of “BY MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH,” in the +daily papers. The keen caterers for the public attention, set down, in +this column, such men only as have won high mark in the public esteem. +During the past winter—1854-5—very frequent mention of Frederick +Douglass was made under this head in the daily papers; his name glided +as often—this week from Chicago, next week from Boston—over the +lightning wires, as the name of any other man, of whatever note. To no +man did the people more widely nor more earnestly say, _“Tell me thy +thought!”_ And, somehow or other, revolution seemed to follow in his +wake. His were not the mere words of eloquence which Kossuth speaks of, +that delight the ear and then pass away. No! They were _work_-able, +_do_-able words, that brought forth fruits in the revolution in +Illinois, and in the passage of the franchise resolutions by the +Assembly of New York. + +And the secret of his power, what is it? He is a Representative +American man—a type of his countrymen. Naturalists tell us that a full +grown man is a resultant or representative of all animated nature on +this globe; beginning with the early embryo state, then representing +the lowest forms of organic life, 4 and passing through every +subordinate grade or type, until he reaches the last and +highest—manhood. In like manner, and to the fullest extent, has +Frederick Douglass passed through every gradation of rank comprised in +our national make-up, and bears upon his person and upon his soul every +thing that is American. And he has not only full sympathy with every +thing American; his proclivity or bent, to active toil and visible +progress, are in the strictly national direction, delighting to +outstrip “all creation.” + +Nor have the natural gifts, already named as his, lost anything by his +severe training. When unexcited, his mental processes are probably +slow, but singularly clear in perception, and wide in vision, the +unfailing memory bringing up all the facts in their every aspect; +incongruities he lays hold of incontinently, and holds up on the edge +of his keen and telling wit. But this wit never descends to frivolity; +it is rigidly in the keeping of his truthful common sense, and always +used in illustration or proof of some point which could not so readily +be reached any other way. “Beware of a Yankee when he is feeding,” is a +shaft that strikes home in a matter never so laid bare by satire +before. “The Garrisonian views of disunion, if carried to a successful +issue, would only place the people of the north in the same relation to +American slavery which they now bear to the slavery of Cuba or the +Brazils,” is a statement, in a few words, which contains the result and +the evidence of an argument which might cover pages, but could not +carry stronger conviction, nor be stated in less pregnable form. In +proof of this, I may say, that having been submitted to the attention +of the Garrisonians in print, in March, it was repeated before them at +their business meeting in May—the platform, _par excellence_, on which +they invite free fight, _a l’outrance_, to all comers. It was given out +in the clear, ringing tones, wherewith the hall of shields was wont to +resound of old, yet neither Garrison, nor Phillips, nor May, nor +Remond, nor Foster, nor Burleigh, with his subtle steel of “the ice +brook’s temper,” ventured to break a lance upon it! The doctrine of the +dissolution of the Union, as a means for the abolition of American +slavery, was silenced upon the lips that gave it birth, and in the +presence of an array of defenders who compose the keenest intellects in +the land. + +_“The man who is right is a majority”_ is an aphorism struck out by Mr. +Douglass in that great gathering of the friends of freedom, at +Pittsburgh, in 1852, where he towered among the highest, because, with +abilities inferior to none, and moved more deeply than any, there was +neither policy nor party to trammel the outpourings of his soul. Thus +we find, opposed to all disadvantages which a black man in the United +States labors and struggles under, is this one vantage ground—when the +chance comes, and the audience where he may have a say, he stands forth +the freest, most deeply moved and most earnest of all men. + +It has been said of Mr. Douglass, that his descriptive and declamatory +powers, admitted to be of the very highest order, take precedence of +his logical force. Whilst the schools might have trained him to the +exhibition of the formulas of deductive logic, nature and circumstances +forced him into the exercise of the higher faculties required by +induction. The first ninety pages of this “Life in Bondage,” afford +specimens of observing, comparing, and careful classifying, of such +superior character, that it is difficult to believe them the results of +a child’s thinking; he questions the earth, and the children and the +slaves around him again and again, and finally looks to _“God in the +sky”_ for the why and the wherefore of the unnatural thing, slavery. +_“Yes, if indeed thou art, wherefore dost thou suffer us to be slain?”_ +is the only prayer and worship of the God-forsaken Dodos in the heart +of Africa. Almost the same was his prayer. One of his earliest +observations was that white children should know their ages, while the +colored children were ignorant of theirs; and the songs of the slaves +grated on his inmost soul, because a something told him that harmony in +sound, and music of the spirit, could not consociate with miserable +degradation. + +To such a mind, the ordinary processes of logical deduction are like +proving that two and two make four. Mastering the intermediate steps by +an intuitive glance, or recurring to them as Ferguson resorted to +geometry, it goes down to the deeper relation of things, and brings out +what may seem, to some, mere statements, but which are new and +brilliant generalizations, each resting on a broad and stable basis. +Thus, Chief Justice Marshall gave his decisions, and then told Brother +Story to look up the authorities—and they never differed from him. +Thus, also, in his “Lecture on the Anti-Slavery Movement,” delivered +before the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society, Mr. Douglass +presents a mass of thought, which, without any showy display of logic +on his part, requires an exercise of the reasoning faculties of the +reader to keep pace with him. And his “Claims of the Negro +Ethnologically Considered,” is full of new and fresh thoughts on the +dawning science of race-history. + +If, as has been stated, his intellection is slow, when unexcited, it is +most prompt and rapid when he is thoroughly aroused. Memory, logic, +wit, sarcasm, invective pathos and bold imagery of rare structural +beauty, well up as from a copious fountain, yet each in its proper +place, and contributing to form a whole, grand in itself, yet complete +in the minutest proportions. It is most difficult to hedge him in a +corner, for his positions are taken so deliberately, that it is rare to +find a point in them undefended aforethought. Professor Reason tells me +the following: “On a recent visit of a public nature, to Philadelphia, +and in a meeting composed mostly of his colored brethren, Mr. Douglass +proposed a comparison of views in the matters of the relations and +duties of ‘our people;’ he holding that prejudice was the result of +condition, and could be conquered by the efforts of the degraded +themselves. A gentleman present, distinguished for logical acumen and +subtlety, and who had devoted no small portion of the last twenty-five +years to the study and elucidation of this very question, held the +opposite view, that prejudice is innate and unconquerable. He +terminated a series of well dove-tailed, Socratic questions to Mr. +Douglass, with the following: ‘If the legislature at Harrisburgh should +awaken, to-morrow morning, and find each man’s skin turned black and +his hair woolly, what could they do to remove prejudice?’ ‘Immediately +pass laws entitling black men to all civil, political and social +privileges,’ was the instant reply—and the questioning ceased.” + +The most remarkable mental phenomenon in Mr. Douglass, is his style in +writing and speaking. In March, 1855, he delivered an address in the +assembly chamber before the members of the legislature of the state of +New York. An eye witness 5 describes the crowded and most intelligent +audience, and their rapt attention to the speaker, as the grandest +scene he ever witnessed in the capitol. Among those whose eyes were +riveted on the speaker full two hours and a half, were Thurlow Weed and +Lieutenant Governor Raymond; the latter, at the conclusion of the +address, exclaimed to a friend, “I would give twenty thousand dollars, +if I could deliver that address in that manner.” Mr. Raymond is a first +class graduate of Dartmouth, a rising politician, ranking foremost in +the legislature; of course, his ideal of oratory must be of the most +polished and finished description. + +The style of Mr. Douglass in writing, is to me an intellectual puzzle. +The strength, affluence and terseness may easily be accounted for, +because the style of a man is the man; but how are we to account for +that rare polish in his style of writing, which, most critically +examined, seems the result of careful early culture among the best +classics of our language; it equals if it does not surpass the style of +Hugh Miller, which was the wonder of the British literary public, until +he unraveled the mystery in the most interesting of autobiographies. +But Frederick Douglass was still calking the seams of Baltimore +clippers, and had only written a “pass,” at the age when Miller’s style +was already formed. + +I asked William Whipper, of Pennsylvania, the gentleman alluded to +above, whether he thought Mr. Douglass’s power inherited from the +Negroid, or from what is called the Caucasian side of his make up? +After some reflection, he frankly answered, “I must admit, although +sorry to do so, that the Caucasian predominates.” At that time, I +almost agreed with him; but, facts narrated in the first part of this +work, throw a different light on this interesting question. + +We are left in the dark as to who was the paternal ancestor of our +author; a fact which generally holds good of the Romuluses and Remuses +who are to inaugurate the new birth of our republic. In the absence of +testimony from the Caucasian side, we must see what evidence is given +on the other side of the house. + +“My grandmother, though advanced in years, * * * was yet a woman of +power and spirit. She was marvelously straight in figure, elastic and +muscular.” (p. 46.) + +After describing her skill in constructing nets, her perseverance in +using them, and her wide-spread fame in the agricultural way he adds, +“It happened to her—as it will happen to any careful and thrifty person +residing in an ignorant and improvident neighborhood—to enjoy the +reputation of being born to good luck.” And his grandmother was a black +woman. + +“My mother was tall, and finely proportioned; of deep black, glossy +complexion; had regular features; and among other slaves was remarkably +sedate in her manners.” “Being a field hand, she was obliged to walk +twelve miles and return, between nightfall and daybreak, to see her +children” (p. 54.) “I shall never forget the indescribable expression +of her countenance when I told her that I had had no food since +morning. * * * There was pity in her glance at me, and a fiery +indignation at Aunt Katy at the same time; * * * * she read Aunt Katy a +lecture which she never forgot.” (p. 56.) “I learned after my mother’s +death, that she could read, and that she was the _only_ one of all the +slaves and colored people in Tuckahoe who enjoyed that advantage. How +she acquired this knowledge, I know not, for Tuckahoe is the last place +in the world where she would be apt to find facilities for learning.” +(p. 57.) “There is, in _Prichard’s Natural History of Man_, the head of +a figure—on page 157—the features of which so resemble those of my +mother, that I often recur to it with something of the feeling which I +suppose others experience when looking upon the pictures of dear +departed ones.” (p. 52.) + +The head alluded to is copied from the statue of Ramses the Great, an +Egyptian king of the nineteenth dynasty. The authors of the _Types of +Mankind_ give a side view of the same on page 148, remarking that the +profile, “like Napoleon’s, is superbly European!” The nearness of its +resemblance to Mr. Douglass’ mother rests upon the evidence of his +memory, and judging from his almost marvelous feats of recollection of +forms and outlines recorded in this book, this testimony may be +admitted. + +These facts show that for his energy, perseverance, eloquence, +invective, sagacity, and wide sympathy, he is indebted to his Negro +blood. The very marvel of his style would seem to be a development of +that other marvel—how his mother learned to read. The versatility of +talent which he wields, in common with Dumas, Ira Aldridge, and Miss +Greenfield, would seem to be the result of the grafting of the +Anglo-Saxon on good, original, Negro stock. If the friends of +“Caucasus” choose to claim, for that region, what remains after this +analysis—to wit: combination—they are welcome to it. They will forgive +me for reminding them that the term “Caucasian” is dropped by recent +writers on Ethnology; for the people about Mount Caucasus, are, and +have ever been, Mongols. The great “white race” now seek paternity, +according to Dr. Pickering, in Arabia—“Arida Nutrix” of the best breed +of horses &c. Keep on, gentlemen; you will find yourselves in Africa, +by-and-by. The Egyptians, like the Americans, were a _mixed race_, with +some Negro blood circling around the throne, as well as in the mud +hovels. + +This is the proper place to remark of our author, that the same strong +self-hood, which led him to measure strength with Mr. Covey, and to +wrench himself from the embrace of the Garrisonians, and which has +borne him through many resistances to the personal indignities offered +him as a colored man, sometimes becomes a hyper-sensitiveness to such +assaults as men of his mark will meet with, on paper. Keen and +unscrupulous opponents have sought, and not unsuccessfully, to pierce +him in this direction; for well they know, that if assailed, he will +smite back. + +It is not without a feeling of pride, dear reader, that I present you +with this book. The son of a self-emancipated bond-woman, I feel joy in +introducing to you my brother, who has rent his own bonds, and who, in +his every relation—as a public man, as a husband and as a father—is +such as does honor to the land which gave him birth. I shall place this +book in the hands of the only child spared me, bidding him to strive +and emulate its noble example. You may do likewise. It is an American +book, for Americans, in the fullest sense of the idea. It shows that +the worst of our institutions, in its worst aspect, cannot keep down +energy, truthfulness, and earnest struggle for the right. It proves the +justice and practicability of Immediate Emancipation. It shows that any +man in our land, “no matter in what battle his liberty may have been +cloven down, * * * * no matter what complexion an Indian or an African +sun may have burned upon him,” not only may “stand forth redeemed and +disenthralled,” but may also stand up a candidate for the highest +suffrage of a great people—the tribute of their honest, hearty +admiration. Reader, _Vale! New York_ + +JAMES M’CUNE SMITH + + + + +CHAPTER I. _Childhood_ + + +PLACE OF BIRTH—CHARACTER OF THE DISTRICT—TUCKAHOE—ORIGIN OF THE +NAME—CHOPTANK RIVER—TIME OF BIRTH—GENEALOGICAL TREES—MODE OF COUNTING +TIME—NAMES OF GRANDPARENTS—THEIR POSITION—GRANDMOTHER ESPECIALLY +ESTEEMED—“BORN TO GOOD LUCK”—SWEET POTATOES—SUPERSTITION—THE LOG +CABIN—ITS CHARMS—SEPARATING CHILDREN—MY AUNTS—THEIR NAMES—FIRST +KNOWLEDGE OF BEING A SLAVE—OLD MASTER—GRIEFS AND JOYS OF +CHILDHOOD—COMPARATIVE HAPPINESS OF THE SLAVE-BOY AND THE SON OF A +SLAVEHOLDER. + + +In Talbot county, Eastern Shore, Maryland, near Easton, the county town +of that county, there is a small district of country, thinly populated, +and remarkable for nothing that I know of more than for the worn-out, +sandy, desert-like appearance of its soil, the general dilapidation of +its farms and fences, the indigent and spiritless character of its +inhabitants, and the prevalence of ague and fever. + +The name of this singularly unpromising and truly famine stricken +district is Tuckahoe, a name well known to all Marylanders, black and +white. It was given to this section of country probably, at the first, +merely in derision; or it may possibly have been applied to it, as I +have heard, because some one of its earlier inhabitants had been guilty +of the petty meanness of stealing a hoe—or taking a hoe that did not +belong to him. Eastern Shore men usually pronounce the word _took_, as +_tuck; Took-a-hoe_, therefore, is, in Maryland parlance, _Tuckahoe_. +But, whatever may have been its origin—and about this I will not be +positive—that name has stuck to the district in question; and it is +seldom mentioned but with contempt and derision, on account of the +barrenness of its soil, and the ignorance, indolence, and poverty of +its people. Decay and ruin are everywhere visible, and the thin +population of the place would have quitted it long ago, but for the +Choptank river, which runs through it, from which they take abundance +of shad and herring, and plenty of ague and fever. + +It was in this dull, flat, and unthrifty district, or neighborhood, +surrounded by a white population of the lowest order, indolent and +drunken to a proverb, and among slaves, who seemed to ask, _“Oh! what’s +the use?”_ every time they lifted a hoe, that I—without any fault of +mine was born, and spent the first years of my childhood. + +The reader will pardon so much about the place of my birth, on the +score that it is always a fact of some importance to know where a man +is born, if, indeed, it be important to know anything about him. In +regard to the _time_ of my birth, I cannot be as definite as I have +been respecting the _place_. Nor, indeed, can I impart much knowledge +concerning my parents. Genealogical trees do not flourish among slaves. +A person of some consequence here in the north, sometimes designated +_father_, is literally abolished in slave law and slave practice. It is +only once in a while that an exception is found to this statement. I +never met with a slave who could tell me how old he was. Few +slave-mothers know anything of the months of the year, nor of the days +of the month. They keep no family records, with marriages, births, and +deaths. They measure the ages of their children by spring time, winter +time, harvest time, planting time, and the like; but these soon become +undistinguishable and forgotten. Like other slaves, I cannot tell how +old I am. This destitution was among my earliest troubles. I learned +when I grew up, that my master—and this is the case with masters +generally—allowed no questions to be put to him, by which a slave might +learn his age. Such questions deemed evidence of impatience, and even +of impudent curiosity. From certain events, however, the dates of which +I have since learned, I suppose myself to have been born about the year +1817. + +The first experience of life with me that I now remember—and I remember +it but hazily—began in the family of my grandmother and grandfather. +Betsey and Isaac Baily. They were quite advanced in life, and had long +lived on the spot where they then resided. They were considered old +settlers in the neighborhood, and, from certain circumstances, I infer +that my grandmother, especially, was held in high esteem, far higher +than is the lot of most colored persons in the slave states. She was a +good nurse, and a capital hand at making nets for catching shad and +herring; and these nets were in great demand, not only in Tuckahoe, but +at Denton and Hillsboro, neighboring villages. She was not only good at +making the nets, but was also somewhat famous for her good fortune in +taking the fishes referred to. I have known her to be in the water half +the day. Grandmother was likewise more provident than most of her +neighbors in the preservation of seedling sweet potatoes, and it +happened to her—as it will happen to any careful and thrifty person +residing in an ignorant and improvident community—to enjoy the +reputation of having been born to “good luck.” Her “good luck” was +owing to the exceeding care which she took in preventing the succulent +root from getting bruised in the digging, and in placing it beyond the +reach of frost, by actually burying it under the hearth of her cabin +during the winter months. In the time of planting sweet potatoes, +“Grandmother Betty,” as she was familiarly called, was sent for in all +directions, simply to place the seedling potatoes in the hills; for +superstition had it, that if “Grandmamma Betty but touches them at +planting, they will be sure to grow and flourish.” This high reputation +was full of advantage to her, and to the children around her. Though +Tuckahoe had but few of the good things of life, yet of such as it did +possess grandmother got a full share, in the way of presents. If good +potato crops came after her planting, she was not forgotten by those +for whom she planted; and as she was remembered by others, so she +remembered the hungry little ones around her. + +The dwelling of my grandmother and grandfather had few pretensions. It +was a log hut, or cabin, built of clay, wood, and straw. At a distance +it resembled—though it was smaller, less commodious and less +substantial—the cabins erected in the western states by the first +settlers. To my child’s eye, however, it was a noble structure, +admirably adapted to promote the comforts and conveniences of its +inmates. A few rough, Virginia fence-rails, flung loosely over the +rafters above, answered the triple purpose of floors, ceilings, and +bedsteads. To be sure, this upper apartment was reached only by a +ladder—but what in the world for climbing could be better than a +ladder? To me, this ladder was really a high invention, and possessed a +sort of charm as I played with delight upon the rounds of it. In this +little hut there was a large family of children: I dare not say how +many. My grandmother—whether because too old for field service, or +because she had so faithfully discharged the duties of her station in +early life, I know not—enjoyed the high privilege of living in a cabin, +separate from the quarter, with no other burden than her own support, +and the necessary care of the little children, imposed. She evidently +esteemed it a great fortune to live so. The children were not her own, +but her grandchildren—the children of her daughters. She took delight +in having them around her, and in attending to their few wants. The +practice of separating children from their mother, and hiring the +latter out at distances too great to admit of their meeting, except at +long intervals, is a marked feature of the cruelty and barbarity of the +slave system. But it is in harmony with the grand aim of slavery, +which, always and everywhere, is to reduce man to a level with the +brute. It is a successful method of obliterating from the mind and +heart of the slave, all just ideas of the sacredness of _the family_, +as an institution. + +Most of the children, however, in this instance, being the children of +my grandmother’s daughters, the notions of family, and the reciprocal +duties and benefits of the relation, had a better chance of being +understood than where children are placed—as they often are in the +hands of strangers, who have no care for them, apart from the wishes of +their masters. The daughters of my grandmother were five in number. +Their names were JENNY, ESTHER, MILLY, PRISCILLA, and HARRIET. The +daughter last named was my mother, of whom the reader shall learn more +by-and-by. + +Living here, with my dear old grandmother and grandfather, it was a +long time before I knew myself to be _a slave_. I knew many other +things before I knew that. Grandmother and grandfather were the +greatest people in the world to me; and being with them so snugly in +their own little cabin—I supposed it be their own—knowing no higher +authority over me or the other children than the authority of +grandmamma, for a time there was nothing to disturb me; but, as I grew +larger and older, I learned by degrees the sad fact, that the “little +hut,” and the lot on which it stood, belonged not to my dear old +grandparents, but to some person who lived a great distance off, and +who was called, by grandmother, “OLD MASTER.” I further learned the +sadder fact, that not only the house and lot, but that grandmother +herself, (grandfather was free,) and all the little children around +her, belonged to this mysterious personage, called by grandmother, with +every mark of reverence, “Old Master.” Thus early did clouds and +shadows begin to fall upon my path. Once on the track—troubles never +come singly—I was not long in finding out another fact, still more +grievous to my childish heart. I was told that this “old master,” whose +name seemed ever to be mentioned with fear and shuddering, only allowed +the children to live with grandmother for a limited time, and that in +fact as soon as they were big enough, they were promptly taken away, to +live with the said “old master.” These were distressing revelations +indeed; and though I was quite too young to comprehend the full import +of the intelligence, and mostly spent my childhood days in gleesome +sports with the other children, a shade of disquiet rested upon me. + +The absolute power of this distant “old master” had touched my young +spirit with but the point of its cold, cruel iron, and left me +something to brood over after the play and in moments of repose. +Grandmammy was, indeed, at that time, all the world to me; and the +thought of being separated from her, in any considerable time, was more +than an unwelcome intruder. It was intolerable. + +Children have their sorrows as well as men and women; and it would be +well to remember this in our dealings with them. SLAVE-children _are_ +children, and prove no exceptions to the general rule. The liability to +be separated from my grandmother, seldom or never to see her again, +haunted me. I dreaded the thought of going to live with that mysterious +“old master,” whose name I never heard mentioned with affection, but +always with fear. I look back to this as among the heaviest of my +childhood’s sorrows. My grandmother! my grandmother! and the little +hut, and the joyous circle under her care, but especially _she_, who +made us sorry when she left us but for an hour, and glad on her +return,—how could I leave her and the good old home? + +But the sorrows of childhood, like the pleasures of after life, are +transient. It is not even within the power of slavery to write +_indelible_ sorrow, at a single dash, over the heart of a child. + +The tear down childhood’s cheek that flows, +Is like the dew-drop on the rose— +When next the summer breeze comes by, +And waves the bush—the flower is dry. + + +There is, after all, but little difference in the measure of +contentment felt by the slave-child neglected and the slaveholder’s +child cared for and petted. The spirit of the All Just mercifully holds +the balance for the young. + +The slaveholder, having nothing to fear from impotent childhood, easily +affords to refrain from cruel inflictions; and if cold and hunger do +not pierce the tender frame, the first seven or eight years of the +slave-boy’s life are about as full of sweet content as those of the +most favored and petted _white_ children of the slaveholder. The +slave-boy escapes many troubles which befall and vex his white brother. +He seldom has to listen to lectures on propriety of behavior, or on +anything else. He is never chided for handling his little knife and +fork improperly or awkwardly, for he uses none. He is never reprimanded +for soiling the table-cloth, for he takes his meals on the clay floor. +He never has the misfortune, in his games or sports, of soiling or +tearing his clothes, for he has almost none to soil or tear. He is +never expected to act like a nice little gentleman, for he is only a +rude little slave. Thus, freed from all restraint, the slave-boy can +be, in his life and conduct, a genuine boy, doing whatever his boyish +nature suggests; enacting, by turns, all the strange antics and freaks +of horses, dogs, pigs, and barn-door fowls, without in any manner +compromising his dignity, or incurring reproach of any sort. He +literally runs wild; has no pretty little verses to learn in the +nursery; no nice little speeches to make for aunts, uncles, or cousins, +to show how smart he is; and, if he can only manage to keep out of the +way of the heavy feet and fists of the older slave boys, he may trot +on, in his joyous and roguish tricks, as happy as any little heathen +under the palm trees of Africa. To be sure, he is occasionally +reminded, when he stumbles in the path of his master—and this he early +learns to avoid—that he is eating his _“white bread,”_ and that he will +be made to _“see sights”_ by-and-by. The threat is soon forgotten; the +shadow soon passes, and our sable boy continues to roll in the dust, or +play in the mud, as bests suits him, and in the veriest freedom. If he +feels uncomfortable, from mud or from dust, the coast is clear; he can +plunge into the river or the pond, without the ceremony of undressing, +or the fear of wetting his clothes; his little tow-linen shirt—for that +is all he has on—is easily dried; and it needed ablution as much as did +his skin. His food is of the coarsest kind, consisting for the most +part of cornmeal mush, which often finds it way from the wooden tray to +his mouth in an oyster shell. His days, when the weather is warm, are +spent in the pure, open air, and in the bright sunshine. He always +sleeps in airy apartments; he seldom has to take powders, or to be paid +to swallow pretty little sugar-coated pills, to cleanse his blood, or +to quicken his appetite. He eats no candies; gets no lumps of loaf +sugar; always relishes his food; cries but little, for nobody cares for +his crying; learns to esteem his bruises but slight, because others so +esteem them. In a word, he is, for the most part of the first eight +years of his life, a spirited, joyous, uproarious, and happy boy, upon +whom troubles fall only like water on a duck’s back. And such a boy, so +far as I can now remember, was the boy whose life in slavery I am now +narrating. + + + + +CHAPTER II. _Removed from My First Home_ + + +THE NAME “OLD MASTER” A TERROR—COLONEL LLOYD’S PLANTATION—WYE +RIVER—WHENCE ITS NAME—POSITION OF THE LLOYDS—HOME ATTRACTION—MEET +OFFERING—JOURNEY FROM TUCKAHOE TO WYE RIVER—SCENE ON REACHING OLD +MASTER’S—DEPARTURE OF GRANDMOTHER—STRANGE MEETING OF SISTERS AND +BROTHERS—REFUSAL TO BE COMFORTED—SWEET SLEEP. + + +That mysterious individual referred to in the first chapter as an +object of terror among the inhabitants of our little cabin, under the +ominous title of “old master,” was really a man of some consequence. He +owned several farms in Tuckahoe; was the chief clerk and butler on the +home plantation of Col. Edward Lloyd; had overseers on his own farms; +and gave directions to overseers on the farms belonging to Col. Lloyd. +This plantation is situated on Wye river—the river receiving its name, +doubtless, from Wales, where the Lloyds originated. They (the Lloyds) +are an old and honored family in Maryland, exceedingly wealthy. The +home plantation, where they have resided, perhaps for a century or +more, is one of the largest, most fertile, and best appointed, in the +state. + +About this plantation, and about that queer old master—who must be +something more than a man, and something worse than an angel—the reader +will easily imagine that I was not only curious, but eager, to know all +that could be known. Unhappily for me, however, all the information I +could get concerning him increased my great dread of being carried +thither—of being separated from and deprived of the protection of my +grandmother and grandfather. It was, evidently, a great thing to go to +Col. Lloyd’s; and I was not without a little curiosity to see the +place; but no amount of coaxing could induce in me the wish to remain +there. The fact is, such was my dread of leaving the little cabin, that +I wished to remain little forever, for I knew the taller I grew the +shorter my stay. The old cabin, with its rail floor and rail bedsteads +upstairs, and its clay floor downstairs, and its dirt chimney, and +windowless sides, and that most curious piece of workmanship dug in +front of the fireplace, beneath which grandmammy placed the sweet +potatoes to keep them from the frost, was MY HOME—the only home I ever +had; and I loved it, and all connected with it. The old fences around +it, and the stumps in the edge of the woods near it, and the squirrels +that ran, skipped, and played upon them, were objects of interest and +affection. There, too, right at the side of the hut, stood the old +well, with its stately and skyward-pointing beam, so aptly placed +between the limbs of what had once been a tree, and so nicely balanced +that I could move it up and down with only one hand, and could get a +drink myself without calling for help. Where else in the world could +such a well be found, and where could such another home be met with? +Nor were these all the attractions of the place. Down in a little +valley, not far from grandmammy’s cabin, stood Mr. Lee’s mill, where +the people came often in large numbers to get their corn ground. It was +a watermill; and I never shall be able to tell the many things thought +and felt, while I sat on the bank and watched that mill, and the +turning of that ponderous wheel. The mill-pond, too, had its charms; +and with my pinhook, and thread line, I could get _nibbles_, if I could +catch no fish. But, in all my sports and plays, and in spite of them, +there would, occasionally, come the painful foreboding that I was not +long to remain there, and that I must soon be called away to the home +of old master. + +I was A SLAVE—born a slave and though the fact was incomprehensible to +me, it conveyed to my mind a sense of my entire dependence on the will +of _somebody_ I had never seen; and, from some cause or other, I had +been made to fear this somebody above all else on earth. Born for +another’s benefit, as the _firstling_ of the cabin flock I was soon to +be selected as a meet offering to the fearful and inexorable _demigod_, +whose huge image on so many occasions haunted my childhood’s +imagination. When the time of my departure was decided upon, my +grandmother, knowing my fears, and in pity for them, kindly kept me +ignorant of the dreaded event about to transpire. Up to the morning (a +beautiful summer morning) when we were to start, and, indeed, during +the whole journey—a journey which, child as I was, I remember as well +as if it were yesterday—she kept the sad fact hidden from me. This +reserve was necessary; for, could I have known all, I should have given +grandmother some trouble in getting me started. As it was, I was +helpless, and she—dear woman!—led me along by the hand, resisting, with +the reserve and solemnity of a priestess, all my inquiring looks to the +last. + +The distance from Tuckahoe to Wye river—where my old master lived—was +full twelve miles, and the walk was quite a severe test of the +endurance of my young legs. The journey would have proved too severe +for me, but that my dear old grandmother—blessings on her +memory!—afforded occasional relief by “toting” me (as Marylanders have +it) on her shoulder. My grandmother, though advanced in years—as was +evident from more than one gray hair, which peeped from between the +ample and graceful folds of her newly-ironed bandana turban—was yet a +woman of power and spirit. She was marvelously straight in figure, +elastic, and muscular. I seemed hardly to be a burden to her. She would +have “toted” me farther, but that I felt myself too much of a man to +allow it, and insisted on walking. Releasing dear grandmamma from +carrying me, did not make me altogether independent of her, when we +happened to pass through portions of the somber woods which lay between +Tuckahoe and Wye river. She often found me increasing the energy of my +grip, and holding her clothing, lest something should come out of the +woods and eat me up. Several old logs and stumps imposed upon me, and +got themselves taken for wild beasts. I could see their legs, eyes, and +ears, or I could see something like eyes, legs, and ears, till I got +close enough to them to see that the eyes were knots, washed white with +rain, and the legs were broken limbs, and the ears, only ears owing to +the point from which they were seen. Thus early I learned that the +point from which a thing is viewed is of some importance. + +As the day advanced the heat increased; and it was not until the +afternoon that we reached the much dreaded end of the journey. I found +myself in the midst of a group of children of many colors; black, +brown, copper colored, and nearly white. I had not seen so many +children before. Great houses loomed up in different directions, and a +great many men and women were at work in the fields. All this hurry, +noise, and singing was very different from the stillness of Tuckahoe. +As a new comer, I was an object of special interest; and, after +laughing and yelling around me, and playing all sorts of wild tricks, +they (the children) asked me to go out and play with them. This I +refused to do, preferring to stay with grandmamma. I could not help +feeling that our being there boded no good to me. Grandmamma looked +sad. She was soon to lose another object of affection, as she had lost +many before. I knew she was unhappy, and the shadow fell from her brow +on me, though I knew not the cause. + +All suspense, however, must have an end; and the end of mine, in this +instance, was at hand. Affectionately patting me on the head, and +exhorting me to be a good boy, grandmamma told me to go and play with +the little children. “They are kin to you,” said she; “go and play with +them.” Among a number of cousins were Phil, Tom, Steve, and Jerry, +Nance and Betty. + +Grandmother pointed out my brother PERRY, my sister SARAH, and my +sister ELIZA, who stood in the group. I had never seen my brother nor +my sisters before; and, though I had sometimes heard of them, and felt +a curious interest in them, I really did not understand what they were +to me, or I to them. We were brothers and sisters, but what of that? +Why should they be attached to me, or I to them? Brothers and sisters +we were by blood; but _slavery_ had made us strangers. I heard the +words brother and sisters, and knew they must mean something; but +slavery had robbed these terms of their true meaning. The experience +through which I was passing, they had passed through before. They had +already been initiated into the mysteries of old master’s domicile, and +they seemed to look upon me with a certain degree of compassion; but my +heart clave to my grandmother. Think it not strange, dear reader, that +so little sympathy of feeling existed between us. The conditions of +brotherly and sisterly feeling were wanting—we had never nestled and +played together. My poor mother, like many other slave-women, had many +_children_, but NO FAMILY! The domestic hearth, with its holy lessons +and precious endearments, is abolished in the case of a slave-mother +and her children. “Little children, love one another,” are words seldom +heard in a slave cabin. + +I really wanted to play with my brother and sisters, but they were +strangers to me, and I was full of fear that grandmother might leave +without taking me with her. Entreated to do so, however, and that, too, +by my dear grandmother, I went to the back part of the house, to play +with them and the other children. _Play_, however, I did not, but stood +with my back against the wall, witnessing the playing of the others. At +last, while standing there, one of the children, who had been in the +kitchen, ran up to me, in a sort of roguish glee, exclaiming, “Fed, +Fed! grandmammy gone! grandmammy gone!” I could not believe it; yet, +fearing the worst, I ran into the kitchen, to see for myself, and found +it even so. Grandmammy had indeed gone, and was now far away, “clean” +out of sight. I need not tell all that happened now. Almost +heart-broken at the discovery, I fell upon the ground, and wept a boy’s +bitter tears, refusing to be comforted. My brother and sisters came +around me, and said, “Don’t cry,” and gave me peaches and pears, but I +flung them away, and refused all their kindly advances. I had never +been deceived before; and I felt not only grieved at parting—as I +supposed forever—with my grandmother, but indignant that a trick had +been played upon me in a matter so serious. + +It was now late in the afternoon. The day had been an exciting and +wearisome one, and I knew not how or where, but I suppose I sobbed +myself to sleep. There is a healing in the angel wing of sleep, even +for the slave-boy; and its balm was never more welcome to any wounded +soul than it was to mine, the first night I spent at the domicile of +old master. The reader may be surprised that I narrate so minutely an +incident apparently so trivial, and which must have occurred when I was +not more than seven years old; but as I wish to give a faithful history +of my experience in slavery, I cannot withhold a circumstance which, at +the time, affected me so deeply. Besides, this was, in fact, my first +introduction to the realities of slavery. + + + + +CHAPTER III. _Parentage_ + + +MY FATHER SHROUDED IN MYSTERY—MY MOTHER—HER PERSONAL +APPEARANCE—INTERFERENCE OF SLAVERY WITH THE NATURAL AFFECTIONS OF +MOTHER AND CHILDREN—SITUATION OF MY MOTHER—HER NIGHTLY VISITS TO HER +BOY—STRIKING INCIDENT—HER DEATH—HER PLACE OF BURIAL. + + +If the reader will now be kind enough to allow me time to grow bigger, +and afford me an opportunity for my experience to become greater, I +will tell him something, by-and-by, of slave life, as I saw, felt, and +heard it, on Col. Edward Lloyd’s plantation, and at the house of old +master, where I had now, despite of myself, most suddenly, but not +unexpectedly, been dropped. Meanwhile, I will redeem my promise to say +something more of my dear mother. + +I say nothing of _father_, for he is shrouded in a mystery I have never +been able to penetrate. Slavery does away with fathers, as it does away +with families. Slavery has no use for either fathers or families, and +its laws do not recognize their existence in the social arrangements of +the plantation. When they _do_ exist, they are not the outgrowths of +slavery, but are antagonistic to that system. The order of civilization +is reversed here. The name of the child is not expected to be that of +its father, and his condition does not necessarily affect that of the +child. He may be the slave of Mr. Tilgman; and his child, when born, +may be the slave of Mr. Gross. He may be a _freeman;_ and yet his child +may be a _chattel_. He may be white, glorying in the purity of his +Anglo-Saxon blood; and his child may be ranked with the blackest +slaves. Indeed, he _may_ be, and often _is_, master and father to the +same child. He can be father without being a husband, and may sell his +child without incurring reproach, if the child be by a woman in whose +veins courses one thirty-second part of African blood. My father was a +white man, or nearly white. It was sometimes whispered that my master +was my father. + +But to return, or rather, to begin. My knowledge of my mother is very +scanty, but very distinct. Her personal appearance and bearing are +ineffaceably stamped upon my memory. She was tall, and finely +proportioned; of deep black, glossy complexion; had regular features, +and, among the other slaves, was remarkably sedate in her manners. +There is in _Prichard’s Natural History of Man_, the head of a +figure—on page 157—the features of which so resemble those of my +mother, that I often recur to it with something of the feeling which I +suppose others experience when looking upon the pictures of dear +departed ones. + +Yet I cannot say that I was very deeply attached to my mother; +certainly not so deeply as I should have been had our relations in +childhood been different. We were separated, according to the common +custom, when I was but an infant, and, of course, before I knew my +mother from any one else. + +The germs of affection with which the Almighty, in his wisdom and +mercy, arms the hopeless infant against the ills and vicissitudes of +his lot, had been directed in their growth toward that loving old +grandmother, whose gentle hand and kind deportment it was in the first +effort of my infantile understanding to comprehend and appreciate. +Accordingly, the tenderest affection which a beneficent Father allows, +as a partial compensation to the mother for the pains and lacerations +of her heart, incident to the maternal relation, was, in my case, +diverted from its true and natural object, by the envious, greedy, and +treacherous hand of slavery. The slave-mother can be spared long enough +from the field to endure all the bitterness of a mother’s anguish, when +it adds another name to a master’s ledger, but _not_ long enough to +receive the joyous reward afforded by the intelligent smiles of her +child. I never think of this terrible interference of slavery with my +infantile affections, and its diverting them from their natural course, +without feelings to which I can give no adequate expression. + +I do not remember to have seen my mother at my grandmother’s at any +time. I remember her only in her visits to me at Col. Lloyd’s +plantation, and in the kitchen of my old master. Her visits to me there +were few in number, brief in duration, and mostly made in the night. +The pains she took, and the toil she endured, to see me, tells me that +a true mother’s heart was hers, and that slavery had difficulty in +paralyzing it with unmotherly indifference. + +My mother was hired out to a Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve miles +from old master’s, and, being a field hand, she seldom had leisure, by +day, for the performance of the journey. The nights and the distance +were both obstacles to her visits. She was obliged to walk, unless +chance flung into her way an opportunity to ride; and the latter was +sometimes her good luck. But she always had to walk one way or the +other. It was a greater luxury than slavery could afford, to allow a +black slave-mother a horse or a mule, upon which to travel twenty-four +miles, when she could walk the distance. Besides, it is deemed a +foolish whim for a slave-mother to manifest concern to see her +children, and, in one point of view, the case is made out—she can do +nothing for them. She has no control over them; the master is even more +than the mother, in all matters touching the fate of her child. Why, +then, should she give herself any concern? She has no responsibility. +Such is the reasoning, and such the practice. The iron rule of the +plantation, always passionately and violently enforced in that +neighborhood, makes flogging the penalty of failing to be in the field +before sunrise in the morning, unless special permission be given to +the absenting slave. “I went to see my child,” is no excuse to the ear +or heart of the overseer. + +One of the visits of my mother to me, while at Col. Lloyd’s, I remember +very vividly, as affording a bright gleam of a mother’s love, and the +earnestness of a mother’s care. + +“I had on that day offended “Aunt Katy,” (called “Aunt” by way of +respect,) the cook of old master’s establishment. I do not now remember +the nature of my offense in this instance, for my offenses were +numerous in that quarter, greatly depending, however, upon the mood of +Aunt Katy, as to their heinousness; but she had adopted, that day, her +favorite mode of punishing me, namely, making me go without food all +day—that is, from after breakfast. The first hour or two after dinner, +I succeeded pretty well in keeping up my spirits; but though I made an +excellent stand against the foe, and fought bravely during the +afternoon, I knew I must be conquered at last, unless I got the +accustomed reenforcement of a slice of corn bread, at sundown. Sundown +came, but _no bread_, and, in its stead, their came the threat, with a +scowl well suited to its terrible import, that she “meant to _starve +the life out of me!”_ Brandishing her knife, she chopped off the heavy +slices for the other children, and put the loaf away, muttering, all +the while, her savage designs upon myself. Against this disappointment, +for I was expecting that her heart would relent at last, I made an +extra effort to maintain my dignity; but when I saw all the other +children around me with merry and satisfied faces, I could stand it no +longer. I went out behind the house, and cried like a fine fellow! When +tired of this, I returned to the kitchen, sat by the fire, and brooded +over my hard lot. I was too hungry to sleep. While I sat in the corner, +I caught sight of an ear of Indian corn on an upper shelf of the +kitchen. I watched my chance, and got it, and, shelling off a few +grains, I put it back again. The grains in my hand, I quickly put in +some ashes, and covered them with embers, to roast them. All this I did +at the risk of getting a brutual thumping, for Aunt Katy could beat, as +well as starve me. My corn was not long in roasting, and, with my keen +appetite, it did not matter even if the grains were not exactly done. I +eagerly pulled them out, and placed them on my stool, in a clever +little pile. Just as I began to help myself to my very dry meal, in +came my dear mother. And now, dear reader, a scene occurred which was +altogether worth beholding, and to me it was instructive as well as +interesting. The friendless and hungry boy, in his extremest need—and +when he did not dare to look for succor—found himself in the strong, +protecting arms of a mother; a mother who was, at the moment (being +endowed with high powers of manner as well as matter) more than a match +for all his enemies. I shall never forget the indescribable expression +of her countenance, when I told her that I had had no food since +morning; and that Aunt Katy said she “meant to starve the life out of +me.” There was pity in her glance at me, and a fiery indignation at +Aunt Katy at the same time; and, while she took the corn from me, and +gave me a large ginger cake, in its stead, she read Aunt Katy a lecture +which she never forgot. My mother threatened her with complaining to +old master in my behalf; for the latter, though harsh and cruel +himself, at times, did not sanction the meanness, injustice, partiality +and oppressions enacted by Aunt Katy in the kitchen. That night I +learned the fact, that I was, not only a child, but _somebody’s_ child. +The “sweet cake” my mother gave me was in the shape of a heart, with a +rich, dark ring glazed upon the edge of it. I was victorious, and well +off for the moment; prouder, on my mother’s knee, than a king upon his +throne. But my triumph was short. I dropped off to sleep, and waked in +the morning only to find my mother gone, and myself left at the mercy +of the sable virago, dominant in my old master’s kitchen, whose fiery +wrath was my constant dread. + +I do not remember to have seen my mother after this occurrence. Death +soon ended the little communication that had existed between us; and +with it, I believe, a life judging from her weary, sad, down-cast +countenance and mute demeanor—full of heartfelt sorrow. I was not +allowed to visit her during any part of her long illness; nor did I see +her for a long time before she was taken ill and died. The heartless +and ghastly form of _slavery_ rises between mother and child, even at +the bed of death. The mother, at the verge of the grave, may not gather +her children, to impart to them her holy admonitions, and invoke for +them her dying benediction. The bond-woman lives as a slave, and is +left to die as a beast; often with fewer attentions than are paid to a +favorite horse. Scenes of sacred tenderness, around the death-bed, +never forgotten, and which often arrest the vicious and confirm the +virtuous during life, must be looked for among the free, though they +sometimes occur among the slaves. It has been a life-long, standing +grief to me, that I knew so little of my mother; and that I was so +early separated from her. The counsels of her love must have been +beneficial to me. The side view of her face is imaged on my memory, and +I take few steps in life, without feeling her presence; but the image +is mute, and I have no striking words of her’s treasured up. + +I learned, after my mother’s death, that she could read, and that she +was the _only_ one of all the slaves and colored people in Tuckahoe who +enjoyed that advantage. How she acquired this knowledge, I know not, +for Tuckahoe is the last place in the world where she would be apt to +find facilities for learning. I can, therefore, fondly and proudly +ascribe to her an earnest love of knowledge. That a “field hand” should +learn to read, in any slave state, is remarkable; but the achievement +of my mother, considering the place, was very extraordinary; and, in +view of that fact, I am quite willing, and even happy, to attribute any +love of letters I possess, and for which I have got—despite of +prejudices only too much credit, _not_ to my admitted Anglo-Saxon +paternity, but to the native genius of my sable, unprotected, and +uncultivated _mother_—a woman, who belonged to a race whose mental +endowments it is, at present, fashionable to hold in disparagement and +contempt. + +Summoned away to her account, with the impassable gulf of slavery +between us during her entire illness, my mother died without leaving me +a single intimation of _who_ my father was. There was a whisper, that +my master was my father; yet it was only a whisper, and I cannot say +that I ever gave it credence. Indeed, I now have reason to think he was +not; nevertheless, the fact remains, in all its glaring odiousness, +that, by the laws of slavery, children, in all cases, are reduced to +the condition of their mothers. This arrangement admits of the greatest +license to brutal slaveholders, and their profligate sons, brothers, +relations and friends, and gives to the pleasure of sin, the additional +attraction of profit. A whole volume might be written on this single +feature of slavery, as I have observed it. + +One might imagine, that the children of such connections, would fare +better, in the hands of their masters, than other slaves. The rule is +quite the other way; and a very little reflection will satisfy the +reader that such is the case. A man who will enslave his own blood, may +not be safely relied on for magnanimity. Men do not love those who +remind them of their sins unless they have a mind to repent—and the +mulatto child’s face is a standing accusation against him who is master +and father to the child. What is still worse, perhaps, such a child is +a constant offense to the wife. She hates its very presence, and when a +slaveholding woman hates, she wants not means to give that hate telling +effect. Women—white women, I mean—are IDOLS at the south, not WIVES, +for the slave women are preferred in many instances; and if these +_idols_ but nod, or lift a finger, woe to the poor victim: kicks, cuffs +and stripes are sure to follow. Masters are frequently compelled to +sell this class of their slaves, out of deference to the feelings of +their white wives; and shocking and scandalous as it may seem for a man +to sell his own blood to the traffickers in human flesh, it is often an +act of humanity toward the slave-child to be thus removed from his +merciless tormentors. + +It is not within the scope of the design of my simple story, to comment +upon every phase of slavery not within my experience as a slave. + +But, I may remark, that, if the lineal descendants of Ham are only to +be enslaved, according to the scriptures, slavery in this country will +soon become an unscriptural institution; for thousands are ushered into +the world, annually, who—like myself—owe their existence to white +fathers, and, most frequently, to their masters, and master’s sons. The +slave-woman is at the mercy of the fathers, sons or brothers of her +master. The thoughtful know the rest. + +After what I have now said of the circumstances of my mother, and my +relations to her, the reader will not be surprised, nor be disposed to +censure me, when I tell but the simple truth, viz: that I received the +tidings of her death with no strong emotions of sorrow for her, and +with very little regret for myself on account of her loss. I had to +learn the value of my mother long after her death, and by witnessing +the devotion of other mothers to their children. + +There is not, beneath the sky, an enemy to filial affection so +destructive as slavery. It had made my brothers and sisters strangers +to me; it converted the mother that bore me, into a myth; it shrouded +my father in mystery, and left me without an intelligible beginning in +the world. + +My mother died when I could not have been more than eight or nine years +old, on one of old master’s farms in Tuckahoe, in the neighborhood of +Hillsborough. Her grave is, as the grave of the dead at sea, unmarked, +and without stone or stake. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. _A General Survey of the Slave Plantation_ + + +ISOLATION OF LLOYD S PLANTATION—PUBLIC OPINION THERE NO PROTECTION TO +THE SLAVE—ABSOLUTE POWER OF THE OVERSEER—NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL CHARMS +OF THE PLACE—ITS BUSINESS-LIKE APPEARANCE—SUPERSTITION ABOUT THE BURIAL +GROUND—GREAT IDEAS OF COL. LLOYD—ETIQUETTE AMONG SLAVES—THE COMIC SLAVE +DOCTOR—PRAYING AND FLOGGING—OLD MASTER LOSING ITS TERRORS—HIS +BUSINESS—CHARACTER OF AUNT KATY—SUFFERINGS FROM HUNGER—OLD MASTER’S +HOME—JARGON OF THE PLANTATION—GUINEA SLAVES—MASTER DANIEL—FAMILY OF +COL. LLOYD—FAMILY OF CAPT. ANTHONY—HIS SOCIAL POSITION—NOTIONS OF RANK +AND STATION. + + +It is generally supposed that slavery, in the state of Maryland, exists +in its mildest form, and that it is totally divested of those harsh and +terrible peculiarities, which mark and characterize the slave system, +in the southern and south-western states of the American union. The +argument in favor of this opinion, is the contiguity of the free +states, and the exposed condition of slavery in Maryland to the moral, +religious and humane sentiment of the free states. + +I am not about to refute this argument, so far as it relates to slavery +in that state, generally; on the contrary, I am willing to admit that, +to this general point, the arguments is well grounded. Public opinion +is, indeed, an unfailing restraint upon the cruelty and barbarity of +masters, overseers, and slave-drivers, whenever and wherever it can +reach them; but there are certain secluded and out-of-the-way places, +even in the state of Maryland, seldom visited by a single ray of +healthy public sentiment—where slavery, wrapt in its own congenial, +midnight darkness, _can_, and _does_, develop all its malign and +shocking characteristics; where it can be indecent without shame, cruel +without shuddering, and murderous without apprehension or fear of +exposure. + +Just such a secluded, dark, and out-of-the-way place, is the “home +plantation” of Col. Edward Lloyd, on the Eastern Shore, Maryland. It is +far away from all the great thoroughfares, and is proximate to no town +or village. There is neither school-house, nor town-house in its +neighborhood. The school-house is unnecessary, for there are no +children to go to school. The children and grand-children of Col. Lloyd +were taught in the house, by a private tutor—a Mr. Page a tall, gaunt +sapling of a man, who did not speak a dozen words to a slave in a whole +year. The overseers’ children go off somewhere to school; and they, +therefore, bring no foreign or dangerous influence from abroad, to +embarrass the natural operation of the slave system of the place. Not +even the mechanics—through whom there is an occasional out-burst of +honest and telling indignation, at cruelty and wrong on other +plantations—are white men, on this plantation. Its whole public is made +up of, and divided into, three classes—SLAVEHOLDERS, SLAVES and +OVERSEERS. Its blacksmiths, wheelwrights, shoemakers, weavers, and +coopers, are slaves. Not even commerce, selfish and iron-hearted at it +is, and ready, as it ever is, to side with the strong against the +weak—the rich against the poor—is trusted or permitted within its +secluded precincts. Whether with a view of guarding against the escape +of its secrets, I know not, but it is a fact, the every leaf and grain +of the produce of this plantation, and those of the neighboring farms +belonging to Col. Lloyd, are transported to Baltimore in Col. Lloyd’s +own vessels; every man and boy on board of which—except the captain—are +owned by him. In return, everything brought to the plantation, comes +through the same channel. Thus, even the glimmering and unsteady light +of trade, which sometimes exerts a civilizing influence, is excluded +from this “tabooed” spot. + +Nearly all the plantations or farms in the vicinity of the “home +plantation” of Col. Lloyd, belong to him; and those which do not, are +owned by personal friends of his, as deeply interested in maintaining +the slave system, in all its rigor, as Col. Lloyd himself. Some of his +neighbors are said to be even more stringent than he. The Skinners, the +Peakers, the Tilgmans, the Lockermans, and the Gipsons, are in the same +boat; being slaveholding neighbors, they may have strengthened each +other in their iron rule. They are on intimate terms, and their +interests and tastes are identical. + +Public opinion in such a quarter, the reader will see, is not likely to +very efficient in protecting the slave from cruelty. On the contrary, +it must increase and intensify his wrongs. Public opinion seldom +differs very widely from public practice. To be a restraint upon +cruelty and vice, public opinion must emanate from a humane and +virtuous community. To no such humane and virtuous community, is Col. +Lloyd’s plantation exposed. That plantation is a little nation of its +own, having its own language, its own rules, regulations and customs. +The laws and institutions of the state, apparently touch it nowhere. +The troubles arising here, are not settled by the civil power of the +state. The overseer is generally accuser, judge, jury, advocate and +executioner. The criminal is always dumb. The overseer attends to all +sides of a case. + +There are no conflicting rights of property, for all the people are +owned by one man; and they can themselves own no property. Religion and +politics are alike excluded. One class of the population is too high to +be reached by the preacher; and the other class is too low to be cared +for by the preacher. The poor have the gospel preached to them, in this +neighborhood, only when they are able to pay for it. The slaves, having +no money, get no gospel. The politician keeps away, because the people +have no votes, and the preacher keeps away, because the people have no +money. The rich planter can afford to learn politics in the parlor, and +to dispense with religion altogether. + +In its isolation, seclusion, and self-reliant independence, Col. +Lloyd’s plantation resembles what the baronial domains were during the +middle ages in Europe. Grim, cold, and unapproachable by all genial +influences from communities without, _there it stands;_ full three +hundred years behind the age, in all that relates to humanity and +morals. + +This, however, is not the only view that the place presents. +Civilization is shut out, but nature cannot be. Though separated from +the rest of the world; though public opinion, as I have said, seldom +gets a chance to penetrate its dark domain; though the whole place is +stamped with its own peculiar, ironlike individuality; and though +crimes, high-handed and atrocious, may there be committed, with almost +as much impunity as upon the deck of a pirate ship—it is, nevertheless, +altogether, to outward seeming, a most strikingly interesting place, +full of life, activity, and spirit; and presents a very favorable +contrast to the indolent monotony and languor of Tuckahoe. Keen as was +my regret and great as was my sorrow at leaving the latter, I was not +long in adapting myself to this, my new home. A man’s troubles are +always half disposed of, when he finds endurance his only remedy. I +found myself here; there was no getting away; and what remained for me, +but to make the best of it? Here were plenty of children to play with, +and plenty of places of pleasant resort for boys of my age, and boys +older. The little tendrils of affection, so rudely and treacherously +broken from around the darling objects of my grandmother’s hut, +gradually began to extend, and to entwine about the new objects by +which I now found myself surrounded. + +There was a windmill (always a commanding object to a child’s eye) on +Long Point—a tract of land dividing Miles river from the Wye a mile or +more from my old master’s house. There was a creek to swim in, at the +bottom of an open flat space, of twenty acres or more, called “the Long +Green”—a very beautiful play-ground for the children. + +In the river, a short distance from the shore, lying quietly at anchor, +with her small boat dancing at her stern, was a large sloop—the Sally +Lloyd; called by that name in honor of a favorite daughter of the +colonel. The sloop and the mill were wondrous things, full of thoughts +and ideas. A child cannot well look at such objects without _thinking_. + +Then here were a great many houses; human habitations, full of the +mysteries of life at every stage of it. There was the little red house, +up the road, occupied by Mr. Sevier, the overseer. A little nearer to +my old master’s, stood a very long, rough, low building, literally +alive with slaves, of all ages, conditions and sizes. This was called +“the Longe Quarter.” Perched upon a hill, across the Long Green, was a +very tall, dilapidated, old brick building—the architectural dimensions +of which proclaimed its erection for a different purpose—now occupied +by slaves, in a similar manner to the Long Quarter. Besides these, +there were numerous other slave houses and huts, scattered around in +the neighborhood, every nook and corner of which was completely +occupied. Old master’s house, a long, brick building, plain, but +substantial, stood in the center of the plantation life, and +constituted one independent establishment on the premises of Col. +Lloyd. + +Besides these dwellings, there were barns, stables, store-houses, and +tobacco-houses; blacksmiths’ shops, wheelwrights’ shops, coopers’ +shops—all objects of interest; but, above all, there stood the grandest +building my eyes had then ever beheld, called, by every one on the +plantation, the “Great House.” This was occupied by Col. Lloyd and his +family. They occupied it; _I_ enjoyed it. The great house was +surrounded by numerous and variously shaped out-buildings. There were +kitchens, wash-houses, dairies, summer-house, green-houses, hen-houses, +turkey-houses, pigeon-houses, and arbors, of many sizes and devices, +all neatly painted, and altogether interspersed with grand old trees, +ornamental and primitive, which afforded delightful shade in summer, +and imparted to the scene a high degree of stately beauty. The great +house itself was a large, white, wooden building, with wings on three +sides of it. In front, a large portico, extending the entire length of +the building, and supported by a long range of columns, gave to the +whole establishment an air of solemn grandeur. It was a treat to my +young and gradually opening mind, to behold this elaborate exhibition +of wealth, power, and vanity. The carriage entrance to the house was a +large gate, more than a quarter of a mile distant from it; the +intermediate space was a beautiful lawn, very neatly trimmed, and +watched with the greatest care. It was dotted thickly over with +delightful trees, shrubbery, and flowers. The road, or lane, from the +gate to the great house, was richly paved with white pebbles from the +beach, and, in its course, formed a complete circle around the +beautiful lawn. Carriages going in and retiring from the great house, +made the circuit of the lawn, and their passengers were permitted to +behold a scene of almost Eden-like beauty. Outside this select +inclosure, were parks, where as about the residences of the English +nobility—rabbits, deer, and other wild game, might be seen, peering and +playing about, with none to molest them or make them afraid. The tops +of the stately poplars were often covered with the red-winged +black-birds, making all nature vocal with the joyous life and beauty of +their wild, warbling notes. These all belonged to me, as well as to +Col. Edward Lloyd, and for a time I greatly enjoyed them. + +A short distance from the great house, were the stately mansions of the +dead, a place of somber aspect. Vast tombs, embowered beneath the +weeping willow and the fir tree, told of the antiquities of the Lloyd +family, as well as of their wealth. Superstition was rife among the +slaves about this family burying ground. Strange sights had been seen +there by some of the older slaves. Shrouded ghosts, riding on great +black horses, had been seen to enter; balls of fire had been seen to +fly there at midnight, and horrid sounds had been repeatedly heard. +Slaves know enough of the rudiments of theology to believe that those +go to hell who die slaveholders; and they often fancy such persons +wishing themselves back again, to wield the lash. Tales of sights and +sounds, strange and terrible, connected with the huge black tombs, were +a very great security to the grounds about them, for few of the slaves +felt like approaching them even in the day time. It was a dark, gloomy +and forbidding place, and it was difficult to feel that the spirits of +the sleeping dust there deposited, reigned with the blest in the realms +of eternal peace. + +The business of twenty or thirty farms was transacted at this, called, +by way of eminence, “great house farm.” These farms all belonged to +Col. Lloyd, as did, also, the slaves upon them. Each farm was under the +management of an overseer. As I have said of the overseer of the home +plantation, so I may say of the overseers on the smaller ones; they +stand between the slave and all civil constitutions—their word is law, +and is implicitly obeyed. + +The colonel, at this time, was reputed to be, and he apparently was, +very rich. His slaves, alone, were an immense fortune. These, small and +great, could not have been fewer than one thousand in number, and +though scarcely a month passed without the sale of one or more lots to +the Georgia traders, there was no apparent diminution in the number of +his human stock: the home plantation merely groaned at a removal of the +young increase, or human crop, then proceeded as lively as ever. +Horse-shoeing, cart-mending, plow-repairing, coopering, grinding, and +weaving, for all the neighboring farms, were performed here, and slaves +were employed in all these branches. “Uncle Tony” was the blacksmith; +“Uncle Harry” was the cartwright; “Uncle Abel” was the shoemaker; and +all these had hands to assist them in their several departments. + +These mechanics were called “uncles” by all the younger slaves, not +because they really sustained that relationship to any, but according +to plantation _etiquette_, as a mark of respect, due from the younger +to the older slaves. Strange, and even ridiculous as it may seem, among +a people so uncultivated, and with so many stern trials to look in the +face, there is not to be found, among any people, a more rigid +enforcement of the law of respect to elders, than they maintain. I set +this down as partly constitutional with my race, and partly +conventional. There is no better material in the world for making a +gentleman, than is furnished in the African. He shows to others, and +exacts for himself, all the tokens of respect which he is compelled to +manifest toward his master. A young slave must approach the company of +the older with hat in hand, and woe betide him, if he fails to +acknowledge a favor, of any sort, with the accustomed _“tank’ee,”_ &c. +So uniformly are good manners enforced among slaves, I can easily +detect a “bogus” fugitive by his manners. + +Among other slave notabilities of the plantation, was one called by +everybody Uncle Isaac Copper. It is seldom that a slave gets a surname +from anybody in Maryland; and so completely has the south shaped the +manners of the north, in this respect, that even abolitionists make +very little of the surname of a Negro. The only improvement on the +“Bills,” “Jacks,” “Jims,” and “Neds” of the south, observable here is, +that “William,” “John,” “James,” “Edward,” are substituted. It goes +against the grain to treat and address a Negro precisely as they would +treat and address a white man. But, once in a while, in slavery as in +the free states, by some extraordinary circumstance, the Negro has a +surname fastened to him, and holds it against all conventionalities. +This was the case with Uncle Isaac Copper. When the “uncle” was +dropped, he generally had the prefix “doctor,” in its stead. He was our +doctor of medicine, and doctor of divinity as well. Where he took his +degree I am unable to say, for he was not very communicative to +inferiors, and I was emphatically such, being but a boy seven or eight +years old. He was too well established in his profession to permit +questions as to his native skill, or his attainments. One qualification +he undoubtedly had—he was a confirmed _cripple;_ and he could neither +work, nor would he bring anything if offered for sale in the market. +The old man, though lame, was no sluggard. He was a man that made his +crutches do him good service. He was always on the alert, looking up +the sick, and all such as were supposed to need his counsel. His +remedial prescriptions embraced four articles. For diseases of the +body, _Epsom salts and castor oil;_ for those of the soul, _the Lord’s +Prayer_, and _hickory switches_! + +I was not long at Col. Lloyd’s before I was placed under the care of +Doctor Issac Copper. I was sent to him with twenty or thirty other +children, to learn the “Lord’s Prayer.” I found the old gentleman +seated on a huge three-legged oaken stool, armed with several large +hickory switches; and, from his position, he could reach—lame as he +was—any boy in the room. After standing awhile to learn what was +expected of us, the old gentleman, in any other than a devotional tone, +commanded us to kneel down. This done, he commenced telling us to say +everything he said. “Our Father”—this was repeated after him with +promptness and uniformity; “Who art in heaven”—was less promptly and +uniformly repeated; and the old gentleman paused in the prayer, to give +us a short lecture upon the consequences of inattention, both immediate +and future, and especially those more immediate. About these he was +absolutely certain, for he held in his right hand the means of bringing +all his predictions and warnings to pass. On he proceeded with the +prayer; and we with our thick tongues and unskilled ears, followed him +to the best of our ability. This, however, was not sufficient to please +the old gentleman. Everybody, in the south, wants the privilege of +whipping somebody else. Uncle Isaac shared the common passion of his +country, and, therefore, seldom found any means of keeping his +disciples in order short of flogging. “Say everything I say;” and bang +would come the switch on some poor boy’s undevotional head. _“What you +looking at there”—“Stop that pushing”_—and down again would come the +lash. + +The whip is all in all. It is supposed to secure obedience to the +slaveholder, and is held as a sovereign remedy among the slaves +themselves, for every form of disobedience, temporal or spiritual. +Slaves, as well as slaveholders, use it with an unsparing hand. Our +devotions at Uncle Isaac’s combined too much of the tragic and comic, +to make them very salutary in a spiritual point of view; and it is due +to truth to say, I was often a truant when the time for attending the +praying and flogging of Doctor Isaac Copper came on. + +The windmill under the care of Mr. Kinney, a kind hearted old +Englishman, was to me a source of infinite interest and pleasure. The +old man always seemed pleased when he saw a troop of darkey little +urchins, with their tow-linen shirts fluttering in the breeze, +approaching to view and admire the whirling wings of his wondrous +machine. From the mill we could see other objects of deep interest. +These were, the vessels from St. Michael’s, on their way to Baltimore. +It was a source of much amusement to view the flowing sails and +complicated rigging, as the little crafts dashed by, and to speculate +upon Baltimore, as to the kind and quality of the place. With so many +sources of interest around me, the reader may be prepared to learn that +I began to think very highly of Col. L.‘s plantation. It was just a +place to my boyish taste. There were fish to be caught in the creek, if +one only had a hook and line; and crabs, clams and oysters were to be +caught by wading, digging and raking for them. Here was a field for +industry and enterprise, strongly inviting; and the reader may be +assured that I entered upon it with spirit. + +Even the much dreaded old master, whose merciless fiat had brought me +from Tuckahoe, gradually, to my mind, parted with his terrors. Strange +enough, his reverence seemed to take no particular notice of me, nor of +my coming. Instead of leaping out and devouring me, he scarcely seemed +conscious of my presence. The fact is, he was occupied with matters +more weighty and important than either looking after or vexing me. He +probably thought as little of my advent, as he would have thought of +the addition of a single pig to his stock! + +As the chief butler on Col. Lloyd’s plantation, his duties were +numerous and perplexing. In almost all important matters he answered in +Col. Lloyd’s stead. The overseers of all the farms were in some sort +under him, and received the law from his mouth. The colonel himself +seldom addressed an overseer, or allowed an overseer to address him. +Old master carried the keys of all store houses; measured out the +allowance for each slave at the end of every month; superintended the +storing of all goods brought to the plantation; dealt out the raw +material to all the handicraftsmen; shipped the grain, tobacco, and all +saleable produce of the plantation to market, and had the general +oversight of the coopers’ shop, wheelwrights’ shop, blacksmiths’ shop, +and shoemakers’ shop. Besides the care of these, he often had business +for the plantation which required him to be absent two and three days. + +Thus largely employed, he had little time, and perhaps as little +disposition, to interfere with the children individually. What he was +to Col. Lloyd, he made Aunt Katy to him. When he had anything to say or +do about us, it was said or done in a wholesale manner; disposing of us +in classes or sizes, leaving all minor details to Aunt Katy, a person +of whom the reader has already received no very favorable impression. +Aunt Katy was a woman who never allowed herself to act greatly within +the margin of power granted to her, no matter how broad that authority +might be. Ambitious, ill-tempered and cruel, she found in her present +position an ample field for the exercise of her ill-omened qualities. +She had a strong hold on old master she was considered a first rate +cook, and she really was very industrious. She was, therefore, greatly +favored by old master, and as one mark of his favor, she was the only +mother who was permitted to retain her children around her. Even to +these children she was often fiendish in her brutality. She pursued her +son Phil, one day, in my presence, with a huge butcher knife, and dealt +a blow with its edge which left a shocking gash on his arm, near the +wrist. For this, old master did sharply rebuke her, and threatened that +if she ever should do the like again, he would take the skin off her +back. Cruel, however, as Aunt Katy was to her own children, at times +she was not destitute of maternal feeling, as I often had occasion to +know, in the bitter pinches of hunger I had to endure. Differing from +the practice of Col. Lloyd, old master, instead of allowing so much for +each slave, committed the allowance for all to the care of Aunt Katy, +to be divided after cooking it, amongst us. The allowance, consisting +of coarse corn-meal, was not very abundant—indeed, it was very slender; +and in passing through Aunt Katy’s hands, it was made more slender +still, for some of us. William, Phil and Jerry were her children, and +it is not to accuse her too severely, to allege that she was often +guilty of starving myself and the other children, while she was +literally cramming her own. Want of food was my chief trouble the first +summer at my old master’s. Oysters and clams would do very well, with +an occasional supply of bread, but they soon failed in the absence of +bread. I speak but the simple truth, when I say, I have often been so +pinched with hunger, that I have fought with the dog—“Old Nep”—for the +smallest crumbs that fell from the kitchen table, and have been glad +when I won a single crumb in the combat. Many times have I followed, +with eager step, the waiting-girl when she went out to shake the table +cloth, to get the crumbs and small bones flung out for the cats. The +water, in which meat had been boiled, was as eagerly sought for by me. +It was a great thing to get the privilege of dipping a piece of bread +in such water; and the skin taken from rusty bacon, was a positive +luxury. Nevertheless, I sometimes got full meals and kind words from +sympathizing old slaves, who knew my sufferings, and received the +comforting assurance that I should be a man some day. “Never mind, +honey—better day comin’,” was even then a solace, a cheering +consolation to me in my troubles. Nor were all the kind words I +received from slaves. I had a friend in the parlor, as well, and one to +whom I shall be glad to do justice, before I have finished this part of +my story. + +I was not long at old master’s, before I learned that his surname was +Anthony, and that he was generally called “Captain Anthony”—a title +which he probably acquired by sailing a craft in the Chesapeake Bay. +Col. Lloyd’s slaves never called Capt. Anthony “old master,” but always +Capt. Anthony; and _me_ they called “Captain Anthony Fred.” There is +not, probably, in the whole south, a plantation where the English +language is more imperfectly spoken than on Col. Lloyd’s. It is a +mixture of Guinea and everything else you please. At the time of which +I am now writing, there were slaves there who had been brought from the +coast of Africa. They never used the “s” in indication of the +possessive case. “Cap’n Ant’ney Tom,” “Lloyd Bill,” “Aunt Rose Harry,” +means “Captain Anthony’s Tom,” “Lloyd’s Bill,” &c. _“Oo you dem long +to?”_ means, “Whom do you belong to?” _“Oo dem got any peachy?”_ means, +“Have you got any peaches?” I could scarcely understand them when I +first went among them, so broken was their speech; and I am persuaded +that I could not have been dropped anywhere on the globe, where I could +reap less, in the way of knowledge, from my immediate associates, than +on this plantation. Even “MAS’ DANIEL,” by his association with his +father’s slaves, had measurably adopted their dialect and their ideas, +so far as they had ideas to be adopted. The equality of nature is +strongly asserted in childhood, and childhood requires children for +associates. _Color_ makes no difference with a child. Are you a child +with wants, tastes and pursuits common to children, not put on, but +natural? then, were you black as ebony you would be welcome to the +child of alabaster whiteness. The law of compensation holds here, as +well as elsewhere. Mas’ Daniel could not associate with ignorance +without sharing its shade; and he could not give his black playmates +his company, without giving them his intelligence, as well. Without +knowing this, or caring about it, at the time, I, for some cause or +other, spent much of my time with Mas’ Daniel, in preference to +spending it with most of the other boys. + +Mas’ Daniel was the youngest son of Col. Lloyd; his older brothers were +Edward and Murray—both grown up, and fine looking men. Edward was +especially esteemed by the children, and by me among the rest; not that +he ever said anything to us or for us, which could be called especially +kind; it was enough for us, that he never looked nor acted scornfully +toward us. There were also three sisters, all married; one to Edward +Winder; a second to Edward Nicholson; a third to Mr. Lownes. + +The family of old master consisted of two sons, Andrew and Richard; his +daughter, Lucretia, and her newly married husband, Capt. Auld. This was +the house family. The kitchen family consisted of Aunt Katy, Aunt +Esther, and ten or a dozen children, most of them older than myself. +Capt. Anthony was not considered a rich slaveholder, but was pretty +well off in the world. He owned about thirty _“head”_ of slaves, and +three farms in Tuckahoe. The most valuable part of his property was his +slaves, of whom he could afford to sell one every year. This crop, +therefore, brought him seven or eight hundred dollars a year, besides +his yearly salary, and other revenue from his farms. + +The idea of rank and station was rigidly maintained on Col. Lloyd’s +plantation. Our family never visited the great house, and the Lloyds +never came to our home. Equal non-intercourse was observed between +Capt. Anthony’s family and that of Mr. Sevier, the overseer. + +Such, kind reader, was the community, and such the place, in which my +earliest and most lasting impressions of slavery, and of slave-life, +were received; of which impressions you will learn more in the coming +chapters of this book. + + + + +CHAPTER V. _Gradual Initiation to the Mysteries of Slavery_ + + +GROWING ACQUAINTANCE WITH OLD MASTER—HIS CHARACTER—EVILS OF +UNRESTRAINED PASSION—APPARENT TENDERNESS—OLD MASTER A MAN OF +TROUBLE—CUSTOM OF MUTTERING TO HIMSELF—NECESSITY OF BEING AWARE OF HIS +WORDS—THE SUPPOSED OBTUSENESS OF SLAVE-CHILDREN—BRUTAL OUTRAGE—DRUNKEN +OVERSEER—SLAVEHOLDER’S IMPATIENCE—WISDOM OF APPEALING TO SUPERIORS—THE +SLAVEHOLDER S WRATH BAD AS THAT OF THE OVERSEER—A BASE AND SELFISH +ATTEMPT TO BREAK UP A COURTSHIP—A HARROWING SCENE. + + +Although my old master—Capt. Anthony—gave me at first, (as the reader +will have already seen) very little attention, and although that little +was of a remarkably mild and gentle description, a few months only were +sufficient to convince me that mildness and gentleness were not the +prevailing or governing traits of his character. These excellent +qualities were displayed only occasionally. He could, when it suited +him, appear to be literally insensible to the claims of humanity, when +appealed to by the helpless against an aggressor, and he could himself +commit outrages, deep, dark and nameless. Yet he was not by nature +worse than other men. Had he been brought up in a free state, +surrounded by the just restraints of free society—restraints which are +necessary to the freedom of all its members, alike and equally—Capt. +Anthony might have been as humane a man, and every way as respectable, +as many who now oppose the slave system; certainly as humane and +respectable as are members of society generally. The slaveholder, as +well as the slave, is the victim of the slave system. A man’s character +greatly takes its hue and shape from the form and color of things about +him. Under the whole heavens there is no relation more unfavorable to +the development of honorable character, than that sustained by the +slaveholder to the slave. Reason is imprisoned here, and passions run +wild. Like the fires of the prairie, once lighted, they are at the +mercy of every wind, and must burn, till they have consumed all that is +combustible within their remorseless grasp. Capt. Anthony could be +kind, and, at times, he even showed an affectionate disposition. Could +the reader have seen him gently leading me by the hand—as he sometimes +did—patting me on the head, speaking to me in soft, caressing tones and +calling me his “little Indian boy,” he would have deemed him a kind old +man, and really, almost fatherly. But the pleasant moods of a +slaveholder are remarkably brittle; they are easily snapped; they +neither come often, nor remain long. His temper is subjected to +perpetual trials; but, since these trials are never borne patiently, +they add nothing to his natural stock of patience. + +Old master very early impressed me with the idea that he was an unhappy +man. Even to my child’s eye, he wore a troubled, and at times, a +haggard aspect. His strange movements excited my curiosity, and +awakened my compassion. He seldom walked alone without muttering to +himself; and he occasionally stormed about, as if defying an army of +invisible foes. “He would do this, that, and the other; he’d be d—d if +he did not,”—was the usual form of his threats. Most of his leisure was +spent in walking, cursing and gesticulating, like one possessed by a +demon. Most evidently, he was a wretched man, at war with his own soul, +and with all the world around him. To be overheard by the children, +disturbed him very little. He made no more of our presence, than of +that of the ducks and geese which he met on the green. He little +thought that the little black urchins around him, could see, through +those vocal crevices, the very secrets of his heart. Slaveholders ever +underrate the intelligence with which they have to grapple. I really +understood the old man’s mutterings, attitudes and gestures, about as +well as he did himself. But slaveholders never encourage that kind of +communication, with the slaves, by which they might learn to measure +the depths of his knowledge. Ignorance is a high virtue in a human +chattel; and as the master studies to keep the slave ignorant, the +slave is cunning enough to make the master think he succeeds. The slave +fully appreciates the saying, “where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to +be wise.” When old master’s gestures were violent, ending with a +threatening shake of the head, and a sharp snap of his middle finger +and thumb, I deemed it wise to keep at a respectable distance from him; +for, at such times, trifling faults stood, in his eyes, as momentous +offenses; and, having both the power and the disposition, the victim +had only to be near him to catch the punishment, deserved or +undeserved. + +One of the first circumstances that opened my eyes to the cruelty and +wickedness of slavery, and the heartlessness of my old master, was the +refusal of the latter to interpose his authority, to protect and shield +a young woman, who had been most cruelly abused and beaten by his +overseer in Tuckahoe. This overseer—a Mr. Plummer—was a man like most +of his class, little better than a human brute; and, in addition to his +general profligacy and repulsive coarseness, the creature was a +miserable drunkard. He was, probably, employed by my old master, less +on account of the excellence of his services, than for the cheap rate +at which they could be obtained. He was not fit to have the management +of a drove of mules. In a fit of drunken madness, he committed the +outrage which brought the young woman in question down to my old +master’s for protection. This young woman was the daughter of Milly, an +own aunt of mine. The poor girl, on arriving at our house, presented a +pitiable appearance. She had left in haste, and without preparation; +and, probably, without the knowledge of Mr. Plummer. She had traveled +twelve miles, bare-footed, bare-necked and bare-headed. Her neck and +shoulders were covered with scars, newly made; and not content with +marring her neck and shoulders, with the cowhide, the cowardly brute +had dealt her a blow on the head with a hickory club, which cut a +horrible gash, and left her face literally covered with blood. In this +condition, the poor young woman came down, to implore protection at the +hands of my old master. I expected to see him boil over with rage at +the revolting deed, and to hear him fill the air with curses upon the +brutual Plummer; but I was disappointed. He sternly told her, in an +angry tone, he “believed she deserved every bit of it,” and, if she did +not go home instantly, he would himself take the remaining skin from +her neck and back. Thus was the poor girl compelled to return, without +redress, and perhaps to receive an additional flogging for daring to +appeal to old master against the overseer. + +Old master seemed furious at the thought of being troubled by such +complaints. I did not, at that time, understand the philosophy of his +treatment of my cousin. It was stern, unnatural, violent. Had the man +no bowels of compassion? Was he dead to all sense of humanity? No. I +think I now understand it. This treatment is a part of the system, +rather than a part of the man. Were slaveholders to listen to +complaints of this sort against the overseers, the luxury of owning +large numbers of slaves, would be impossible. It would do away with the +office of overseer, entirely; or, in other words, it would convert the +master himself into an overseer. It would occasion great loss of time +and labor, leaving the overseer in fetters, and without the necessary +power to secure obedience to his orders. A privilege so dangerous as +that of appeal, is, therefore, strictly prohibited; and any one +exercising it, runs a fearful hazard. Nevertheless, when a slave has +nerve enough to exercise it, and boldly approaches his master, with a +well-founded complaint against an overseer, though he may be repulsed, +and may even have that of which he complains repeated at the time, and, +though he may be beaten by his master, as well as by the overseer, for +his temerity, in the end the policy of complaining is, generally, +vindicated by the relaxed rigor of the overseer’s treatment. The latter +becomes more careful, and less disposed to use the lash upon such +slaves thereafter. It is with this final result in view, rather than +with any expectation of immediate good, that the outraged slave is +induced to meet his master with a complaint. The overseer very +naturally dislikes to have the ear of the master disturbed by +complaints; and, either upon this consideration, or upon advice and +warning privately given him by his employers, he generally modifies the +rigor of his rule, after an outbreak of the kind to which I have been +referring. + +Howsoever the slaveholder may allow himself to act toward his slave, +and, whatever cruelty he may deem it wise, for example’s sake, or for +the gratification of his humor, to inflict, he cannot, in the absence +of all provocation, look with pleasure upon the bleeding wounds of a +defenseless slave-woman. When he drives her from his presence without +redress, or the hope of redress, he acts, generally, from motives of +policy, rather than from a hardened nature, or from innate brutality. +Yet, let but his own temper be stirred, his own passions get loose, and +the slave-owner will go _far beyond_ the overseer in cruelty. He will +convince the slave that his wrath is far more terrible and boundless, +and vastly more to be dreaded, than that of the underling overseer. +What may have been mechanically and heartlessly done by the overseer, +is now done with a will. The man who now wields the lash is +irresponsible. He may, if he pleases, cripple or kill, without fear of +consequences; except in so far as it may concern profit or loss. To a +man of violent temper—as my old master was—this was but a very slender +and inefficient restraint. I have seen him in a tempest of passion, +such as I have just described—a passion into which entered all the +bitter ingredients of pride, hatred, envy, jealousy, and the +thrist(sic) for revenge. + +The circumstances which I am about to narrate, and which gave rise to +this fearful tempest of passion, are not singular nor isolated in slave +life, but are common in every slaveholding community in which I have +lived. They are incidental to the relation of master and slave, and +exist in all sections of slave-holding countries. + +The reader will have noticed that, in enumerating the names of the +slaves who lived with my old master, _Esther_ is mentioned. This was a +young woman who possessed that which is ever a curse to the slave-girl; +namely—personal beauty. She was tall, well formed, and made a fine +appearance. The daughters of Col. Lloyd could scarcely surpass her in +personal charms. Esther was courted by Ned Roberts, and he was as fine +looking a young man, as she was a woman. He was the son of a favorite +slave of Col. Lloyd. Some slaveholders would have been glad to promote +the marriage of two such persons; but, for some reason or other, my old +master took it upon him to break up the growing intimacy between Esther +and Edward. He strictly ordered her to quit the company of said +Roberts, telling her that he would punish her severely if he ever found +her again in Edward’s company. This unnatural and heartless order was, +of course, broken. A woman’s love is not to be annihilated by the +peremptory command of any one, whose breath is in his nostrils. It was +impossible to keep Edward and Esther apart. Meet they would, and meet +they did. Had old master been a man of honor and purity, his motives, +in this matter, might have been viewed more favorably. As it was, his +motives were as abhorrent, as his methods were foolish and +contemptible. It was too evident that he was not concerned for the +girl’s welfare. It is one of the damning characteristics of the slave +system, that it robs its victims of every earthly incentive to a holy +life. The fear of God, and the hope of heaven, are found sufficient to +sustain many slave-women, amidst the snares and dangers of their +strange lot; but, this side of God and heaven, a slave-woman is at the +mercy of the power, caprice and passion of her owner. Slavery provides +no means for the honorable continuance of the race. Marriage as +imposing obligations on the parties to it—has no existence here, except +in such hearts as are purer and higher than the standard morality +around them. It is one of the consolations of my life, that I know of +many honorable instances of persons who maintained their honor, where +all around was corrupt. + +Esther was evidently much attached to Edward, and abhorred—as she had +reason to do—the tyrannical and base behavior of old master. Edward was +young, and fine looking, and he loved and courted her. He might have +been her husband, in the high sense just alluded to; but WHO and _what_ +was this old master? His attentions were plainly brutal and selfish, +and it was as natural that Esther should loathe him, as that she should +love Edward. Abhorred and circumvented as he was, old master, having +the power, very easily took revenge. I happened to see this exhibition +of his rage and cruelty toward Esther. The time selected was singular. +It was early in the morning, when all besides was still, and before any +of the family, in the house or kitchen, had left their beds. I saw but +few of the shocking preliminaries, for the cruel work had begun before +I awoke. I was probably awakened by the shrieks and piteous cries of +poor Esther. My sleeping place was on the floor of a little, rough +closet, which opened into the kitchen; and through the cracks of its +unplaned boards, I could distinctly see and hear what was going on, +without being seen by old master. Esther’s wrists were firmly tied, and +the twisted rope was fastened to a strong staple in a heavy wooden +joist above, near the fireplace. Here she stood, on a bench, her arms +tightly drawn over her breast. Her back and shoulders were bare to the +waist. Behind her stood old master, with cowskin in hand, preparing his +barbarous work with all manner of harsh, coarse, and tantalizing +epithets. The screams of his victim were most piercing. He was cruelly +deliberate, and protracted the torture, as one who was delighted with +the scene. Again and again he drew the hateful whip through his hand, +adjusting it with a view of dealing the most pain-giving blow. Poor +Esther had never yet been severely whipped, and her shoulders were +plump and tender. Each blow, vigorously laid on, brought screams as +well as blood. _“Have mercy; Oh! have mercy”_ she cried; “_I won’t do +so no more;”_ but her piercing cries seemed only to increase his fury. +His answers to them are too coarse and blasphemous to be produced here. +The whole scene, with all its attendants, was revolting and shocking, +to the last degree; and when the motives of this brutal castigation are +considered,—language has no power to convey a just sense of its awful +criminality. After laying on some thirty or forty stripes, old master +untied his suffering victim, and let her get down. She could scarcely +stand, when untied. From my heart I pitied her, and—child though I +was—the outrage kindled in me a feeling far from peaceful; but I was +hushed, terrified, stunned, and could do nothing, and the fate of +Esther might be mine next. The scene here described was often repeated +in the case of poor Esther, and her life, as I knew it, was one of +wretchedness. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. _Treatment of Slaves on Lloyd’s Plantation_ + + +EARLY REFLECTIONS ON SLAVERY—PRESENTIMENT OF ONE DAY BEING A +FREEMAN—COMBAT BETWEEN AN OVERSEER AND A SLAVEWOMAN—THE ADVANTAGES OF +RESISTANCE—ALLOWANCE DAY ON THE HOME PLANTATION—THE SINGING OF +SLAVES—AN EXPLANATION—THE SLAVES FOOD AND CLOTHING—NAKED CHILDREN—LIFE +IN THE QUARTER—DEPRIVATION OF SLEEP—NURSING CHILDREN CARRIED TO THE +FIELD—DESCRIPTION OF THE COWSKIN—THE ASH-CAKE—MANNER OF MAKING IT—THE +DINNER HOUR—THE CONTRAST. + + +The heart-rending incidents, related in the foregoing chapter, led me, +thus early, to inquire into the nature and history of slavery. _Why am +I a slave? Why are some people slaves, and others masters? Was there +ever a time this was not so? How did the relation commence?_ These were +the perplexing questions which began now to claim my thoughts, and to +exercise the weak powers of my mind, for I was still but a child, and +knew less than children of the same age in the free states. As my +questions concerning these things were only put to children a little +older, and little better informed than myself, I was not rapid in +reaching a solid footing. By some means I learned from these inquiries +that _“God, up in the sky,”_ made every body; and that he made _white_ +people to be masters and mistresses, and _black_ people to be slaves. +This did not satisfy me, nor lessen my interest in the subject. I was +told, too, that God was good, and that He knew what was best for me, +and best for everybody. This was less satisfactory than the first +statement; because it came, point blank, against all my notions of +goodness. It was not good to let old master cut the flesh off Esther, +and make her cry so. Besides, how did people know that God made black +people to be slaves? Did they go up in the sky and learn it? or, did He +come down and tell them so? All was dark here. It was some relief to my +hard notions of the goodness of God, that, although he made white men +to be slaveholders, he did not make them to be _bad_ slaveholders, and +that, in due time, he would punish the bad slaveholders; that he would, +when they died, send them to the bad place, where they would be “burnt +up.” Nevertheless, I could not reconcile the relation of slavery with +my crude notions of goodness. + +Then, too, I found that there were puzzling exceptions to this theory +of slavery on both sides, and in the middle. I knew of blacks who were +_not_ slaves; I knew of whites who were _not_ slaveholders; and I knew +of persons who were _nearly_ white, who were slaves. _Color_, +therefore, was a very unsatisfactory basis for slavery. + +Once, however, engaged in the inquiry, I was not very long in finding +out the true solution of the matter. It was not _color_, but _crime_, +not _God_, but _man_, that afforded the true explanation of the +existence of slavery; nor was I long in finding out another important +truth, viz: what man can make, man can unmake. The appalling darkness +faded away, and I was master of the subject. There were slaves here, +direct from Guinea; and there were many who could say that their +fathers and mothers were stolen from Africa—forced from their homes, +and compelled to serve as slaves. This, to me, was knowledge; but it +was a kind of knowledge which filled me with a burning hatred of +slavery, increased my suffering, and left me without the means of +breaking away from my bondage. Yet it was knowledge quite worth +possessing. I could not have been more than seven or eight years old, +when I began to make this subject my study. It was with me in the woods +and fields; along the shore of the river, and wherever my boyish +wanderings led me; and though I was, at that time, quite ignorant of +the existence of the free states, I distinctly remember being, _even +then_, most strongly impressed with the idea of being a freeman some +day. This cheering assurance was an inborn dream of my human nature a +constant menace to slavery—and one which all the powers of slavery were +unable to silence or extinguish. + +Up to the time of the brutal flogging of my Aunt Esther—for she was my +own aunt—and the horrid plight in which I had seen my cousin from +Tuckahoe, who had been so badly beaten by the cruel Mr. Plummer, my +attention had not been called, especially, to the gross features of +slavery. I had, of course, heard of whippings and of savage +_rencontres_ between overseers and slaves, but I had always been out of +the way at the times and places of their occurrence. My plays and +sports, most of the time, took me from the corn and tobacco fields, +where the great body of the hands were at work, and where scenes of +cruelty were enacted and witnessed. But, after the whipping of Aunt +Esther, I saw many cases of the same shocking nature, not only in my +master’s house, but on Col. Lloyd’s plantation. One of the first which +I saw, and which greatly agitated me, was the whipping of a woman +belonging to Col. Lloyd, named Nelly. The offense alleged against +Nelly, was one of the commonest and most indefinite in the whole +catalogue of offenses usually laid to the charge of slaves, viz: +“impudence.” This may mean almost anything, or nothing at all, just +according to the caprice of the master or overseer, at the moment. But, +whatever it is, or is not, if it gets the name of “impudence,” the +party charged with it is sure of a flogging. This offense may be +committed in various ways; in the tone of an answer; in answering at +all; in not answering; in the expression of countenance; in the motion +of the head; in the gait, manner and bearing of the slave. In the case +under consideration, I can easily believe that, according to all +slaveholding standards, here was a genuine instance of impudence. In +Nelly there were all the necessary conditions for committing the +offense. She was a bright mulatto, the recognized wife of a favorite +“hand” on board Col. Lloyd’s sloop, and the mother of five sprightly +children. She was a vigorous and spirited woman, and one of the most +likely, on the plantation, to be guilty of impudence. My attention was +called to the scene, by the noise, curses and screams that proceeded +from it; and, on going a little in that direction, I came upon the +parties engaged in the skirmish. Mr. Siever, the overseer, had hold of +Nelly, when I caught sight of them; he was endeavoring to drag her +toward a tree, which endeavor Nelly was sternly resisting; but to no +purpose, except to retard the progress of the overseer’s plans. +Nelly—as I have said—was the mother of five children; three of them +were present, and though quite small (from seven to ten years old, I +should think) they gallantly came to their mother’s defense, and gave +the overseer an excellent pelting with stones. One of the little +fellows ran up, seized the overseer by the leg and bit him; but the +monster was too busily engaged with Nelly, to pay any attention to the +assaults of the children. There were numerous bloody marks on Mr. +Sevier’s face, when I first saw him, and they increased as the struggle +went on. The imprints of Nelly’s fingers were visible, and I was glad +to see them. Amidst the wild screams of the children—“_Let my mammy +go”—“let my mammy go_”—there escaped, from between the teeth of the +bullet-headed overseer, a few bitter curses, mingled with threats, that +“he would teach the d—d b—h how to give a white man impudence.” There +is no doubt that Nelly felt herself superior, in some respects, to the +slaves around her. She was a wife and a mother; her husband was a +valued and favorite slave. Besides, he was one of the first hands on +board of the sloop, and the sloop hands—since they had to represent the +plantation abroad—were generally treated tenderly. The overseer never +was allowed to whip Harry; why then should he be allowed to whip +Harry’s wife? Thoughts of this kind, no doubt, influenced her; but, for +whatever reason, she nobly resisted, and, unlike most of the slaves, +seemed determined to make her whipping cost Mr. Sevier as much as +possible. The blood on his (and her) face, attested her skill, as well +as her courage and dexterity in using her nails. Maddened by her +resistance, I expected to see Mr. Sevier level her to the ground by a +stunning blow; but no; like a savage bull-dog—which he resembled both +in temper and appearance—he maintained his grip, and steadily dragged +his victim toward the tree, disregarding alike her blows, and the cries +of the children for their mother’s release. He would, doubtless, have +knocked her down with his hickory stick, but that such act might have +cost him his place. It is often deemed advisable to knock a _man_ slave +down, in order to tie him, but it is considered cowardly and +inexcusable, in an overseer, thus to deal with a _woman_. He is +expected to tie her up, and to give her what is called, in southern +parlance, a “genteel flogging,” without any very great outlay of +strength or skill. I watched, with palpitating interest, the course of +the preliminary struggle, and was saddened by every new advantage +gained over her by the ruffian. There were times when she seemed likely +to get the better of the brute, but he finally overpowered her, and +succeeded in getting his rope around her arms, and in firmly tying her +to the tree, at which he had been aiming. This done, and Nelly was at +the mercy of his merciless lash; and now, what followed, I have no +heart to describe. The cowardly creature made good his every threat; +and wielded the lash with all the hot zest of furious revenge. The +cries of the woman, while undergoing the terrible infliction, were +mingled with those of the children, sounds which I hope the reader may +never be called upon to hear. When Nelly was untied, her back was +covered with blood. The red stripes were all over her shoulders. She +was whipped—severely whipped; but she was not subdued, for she +continued to denounce the overseer, and to call him every vile name. He +had bruised her flesh, but had left her invincible spirit undaunted. +Such floggings are seldom repeated by the same overseer. They prefer to +whip those who are most easily whipped. The old doctrine that +submission is the very best cure for outrage and wrong, does not hold +good on the slave plantation. He is whipped oftenest, who is whipped +easiest; and that slave who has the courage to stand up for himself +against the overseer, although he may have many hard stripes at the +first, becomes, in the end, a freeman, even though he sustain the +formal relation of a slave. “You can shoot me but you can’t whip me,” +said a slave to Rigby Hopkins; and the result was that he was neither +whipped nor shot. If the latter had been his fate, it would have been +less deplorable than the living and lingering death to which cowardly +and slavish souls are subjected. I do not know that Mr. Sevier ever +undertook to whip Nelly again. He probably never did, for it was not +long after his attempt to subdue her, that he was taken sick, and died. +The wretched man died as he had lived, unrepentant; and it was +said—with how much truth I know not—that in the very last hours of his +life, his ruling passion showed itself, and that when wrestling with +death, he was uttering horrid oaths, and flourishing the cowskin, as +though he was tearing the flesh off some helpless slave. One thing is +certain, that when he was in health, it was enough to chill the blood, +and to stiffen the hair of an ordinary man, to hear Mr. Sevier talk. +Nature, or his cruel habits, had given to his face an expression of +unusual savageness, even for a slave-driver. Tobacco and rage had worn +his teeth short, and nearly every sentence that escaped their +compressed grating, was commenced or concluded with some outburst of +profanity. His presence made the field alike the field of blood, and of +blasphemy. Hated for his cruelty, despised for his cowardice, his death +was deplored by no one outside his own house—if indeed it was deplored +there; it was regarded by the slaves as a merciful interposition of +Providence. Never went there a man to the grave loaded with heavier +curses. Mr. Sevier’s place was promptly taken by a Mr. Hopkins, and the +change was quite a relief, he being a very different man. He was, in +all respects, a better man than his predecessor; as good as any man can +be, and yet be an overseer. His course was characterized by no +extraordinary cruelty; and when he whipped a slave, as he sometimes +did, he seemed to take no especial pleasure in it, but, on the +contrary, acted as though he felt it to be a mean business. Mr. Hopkins +stayed but a short time; his place much to the regret of the slaves +generally—was taken by a Mr. Gore, of whom more will be said hereafter. +It is enough, for the present, to say, that he was no improvement on +Mr. Sevier, except that he was less noisy and less profane. + +I have already referred to the business-like aspect of Col. Lloyd’s +plantation. This business-like appearance was much increased on the two +days at the end of each month, when the slaves from the different farms +came to get their monthly allowance of meal and meat. These were gala +days for the slaves, and there was much rivalry among them as to _who_ +should be elected to go up to the great house farm for the allowance, +and, indeed, to attend to any business at this (for them) the capital. +The beauty and grandeur of the place, its numerous slave population, +and the fact that Harry, Peter and Jake the sailors of the sloop—almost +always kept, privately, little trinkets which they bought at Baltimore, +to sell, made it a privilege to come to the great house farm. Being +selected, too, for this office, was deemed a high honor. It was taken +as a proof of confidence and favor; but, probably, the chief motive of +the competitors for the place, was, a desire to break the dull monotony +of the field, and to get beyond the overseer’s eye and lash. Once on +the road with an ox team, and seated on the tongue of his cart, with no +overseer to look after him, the slave was comparatively free; and, if +thoughtful, he had time to think. Slaves are generally expected to sing +as well as to work. A silent slave is not liked by masters or +overseers. _“Make a noise,” “make a noise,”_ and _“bear a hand,”_ are +the words usually addressed to the slaves when there is silence amongst +them. This may account for the almost constant singing heard in the +southern states. There was, generally, more or less singing among the +teamsters, as it was one means of letting the overseer know where they +were, and that they were moving on with the work. But, on allowance +day, those who visited the great house farm were peculiarly excited and +noisy. While on their way, they would make the dense old woods, for +miles around, reverberate with their wild notes. These were not always +merry because they were wild. On the contrary, they were mostly of a +plaintive cast, and told a tale of grief and sorrow. In the most +boisterous outbursts of rapturous sentiment, there was ever a tinge of +deep melancholy. I have never heard any songs like those anywhere since +I left slavery, except when in Ireland. There I heard the same _wailing +notes_, and was much affected by them. It was during the famine of +1845-6. In all the songs of the slaves, there was ever some expression +in praise of the great house farm; something which would flatter the +pride of the owner, and, possibly, draw a favorable glance from him. + +I am going away to the great house farm, +O yea! O yea! O yea! +My old master is a good old master, +O yea! O yea! O yea! + + +This they would sing, with other words of their own improvising—jargon +to others, but full of meaning to themselves. I have sometimes thought, +that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress truly +spiritual-minded men and women with the soul-crushing and death-dealing +character of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of its mere +physical cruelties. They speak to the heart and to the soul of the +thoughtful. I cannot better express my sense of them now, than ten +years ago, when, in sketching my life, I thus spoke of this feature of +my plantation experience: + +I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meanings of those rude, +and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle, so +that I neither saw or heard as those without might see and hear. They +told a tale which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; +they were tones, loud, long and deep, breathing the prayer and +complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone +was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance +from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my +spirits, and filled my heart with ineffable sadness. The mere +recurrence, even now, afflicts my spirit, and while I am writing these +lines, my tears are falling. To those songs I trace my first glimmering +conceptions of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get +rid of that conception. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my +hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. +If any one wishes to be impressed with a sense of the soul-killing +power of slavery, let him go to Col. Lloyd’s plantation, and, on +allowance day, place himself in the deep, pine woods, and there let +him, in silence, thoughtfully analyze the sounds that shall pass +through the chambers of his soul, and if he is not thus impressed, it +will only be because “there is no flesh in his obdurate heart.” + +The remark is not unfrequently made, that slaves are the most contended +and happy laborers in the world. They dance and sing, and make all +manner of joyful noises—so they do; but it is a great mistake to +suppose them happy because they sing. The songs of the slave represent +the sorrows, rather than the joys, of his heart; and he is relieved by +them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. Such is the +constitution of the human mind, that, when pressed to extremes, it +often avails itself of the most opposite methods. Extremes meet in mind +as in matter. When the slaves on board of the “Pearl” were overtaken, +arrested, and carried to prison—their hopes for freedom blasted—as they +marched in chains they sang, and found (as Emily Edmunson tells us) a +melancholy relief in singing. The singing of a man cast away on a +desolate island, might be as appropriately considered an evidence of +his contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave. Sorrow and +desolation have their songs, as well as joy and peace. Slaves sing more +to _make_ themselves happy, than to express their happiness. + +It is the boast of slaveholders, that their slaves enjoy more of the +physical comforts of life than the peasantry of any country in the +world. My experience contradicts this. The men and the women slaves on +Col. Lloyd’s farm, received, as their monthly allowance of food, eight +pounds of pickled pork, or their equivalent in fish. The pork was often +tainted, and the fish was of the poorest quality—herrings, which would +bring very little if offered for sale in any northern market. With +their pork or fish, they had one bushel of Indian meal—unbolted—of +which quite fifteen per cent was fit only to feed pigs. With this, one +pint of salt was given; and this was the entire monthly allowance of a +full grown slave, working constantly in the open field, from morning +until night, every day in the month except Sunday, and living on a +fraction more than a quarter of a pound of meat per day, and less than +a peck of corn-meal per week. There is no kind of work that a man can +do which requires a better supply of food to prevent physical +exhaustion, than the field-work of a slave. So much for the slave’s +allowance of food; now for his raiment. The yearly allowance of +clothing for the slaves on this plantation, consisted of two tow-linen +shirts—such linen as the coarsest crash towels are made of; one pair of +trowsers of the same material, for summer, and a pair of trowsers and a +jacket of woolen, most slazily put together, for winter; one pair of +yarn stockings, and one pair of shoes of the coarsest description. The +slave’s entire apparel could not have cost more than eight dollars per +year. The allowance of food and clothing for the little children, was +committed to their mothers, or to the older slavewomen having the care +of them. Children who were unable to work in the field, had neither +shoes, stockings, jackets nor trowsers given them. Their clothing +consisted of two coarse tow-linen shirts—already described—per year; +and when these failed them, as they often did, they went naked until +the next allowance day. Flocks of little children from five to ten +years old, might be seen on Col. Lloyd’s plantation, as destitute of +clothing as any little heathen on the west coast of Africa; and this, +not merely during the summer months, but during the frosty weather of +March. The little girls were no better off than the boys; all were +nearly in a state of nudity. + +As to beds to sleep on, they were known to none of the field hands; +nothing but a coarse blanket—not so good as those used in the north to +cover horses—was given them, and this only to the men and women. The +children stuck themselves in holes and corners, about the quarters; +often in the corner of the huge chimneys, with their feet in the ashes +to keep them warm. The want of beds, however, was not considered a very +great privation. Time to sleep was of far greater importance, for, when +the day’s work is done, most of the slaves have their washing, mending +and cooking to do; and, having few or none of the ordinary facilities +for doing such things, very many of their sleeping hours are consumed +in necessary preparations for the duties of the coming day. + +The sleeping apartments—if they may be called such—have little regard +to comfort or decency. Old and young, male and female, married and +single, drop down upon the common clay floor, each covering up with his +or her blanket,—the only protection they have from cold or exposure. +The night, however, is shortened at both ends. The slaves work often as +long as they can see, and are late in cooking and mending for the +coming day; and, at the first gray streak of morning, they are summoned +to the field by the driver’s horn. + +More slaves are whipped for oversleeping than for any other fault. +Neither age nor sex finds any favor. The overseer stands at the quarter +door, armed with stick and cowskin, ready to whip any who may be a few +minutes behind time. When the horn is blown, there is a rush for the +door, and the hindermost one is sure to get a blow from the overseer. +Young mothers who worked in the field, were allowed an hour, about ten +o’clock in the morning, to go home to nurse their children. Sometimes +they were compelled to take their children with them, and to leave them +in the corner of the fences, to prevent loss of time in nursing them. +The overseer generally rides about the field on horseback. A cowskin +and a hickory stick are his constant companions. The cowskin is a kind +of whip seldom seen in the northern states. It is made entirely of +untanned, but dried, ox hide, and is about as hard as a piece of +well-seasoned live oak. It is made of various sizes, but the usual +length is about three feet. The part held in the hand is nearly an inch +in thickness; and, from the extreme end of the butt or handle, the +cowskin tapers its whole length to a point. This makes it quite elastic +and springy. A blow with it, on the hardest back, will gash the flesh, +and make the blood start. Cowskins are painted red, blue and green, and +are the favorite slave whip. I think this whip worse than the +“cat-o’nine-tails.” It condenses the whole strength of the arm to a +single point, and comes with a spring that makes the air whistle. It is +a terrible instrument, and is so handy, that the overseer can always +have it on his person, and ready for use. The temptation to use it is +ever strong; and an overseer can, if disposed, always have cause for +using it. With him, it is literally a word and a blow, and, in most +cases, the blow comes first. + +As a general rule, slaves do not come to the quarters for either +breakfast or dinner, but take their “ash cake” with them, and eat it in +the field. This was so on the home plantation; probably, because the +distance from the quarter to the field, was sometimes two, and even +three miles. + +The dinner of the slaves consisted of a huge piece of ash cake, and a +small piece of pork, or two salt herrings. Not having ovens, nor any +suitable cooking utensils, the slaves mixed their meal with a little +water, to such thickness that a spoon would stand erect in it; and, +after the wood had burned away to coals and ashes, they would place the +dough between oak leaves and lay it carefully in the ashes, completely +covering it; hence, the bread is called ash cake. The surface of this +peculiar bread is covered with ashes, to the depth of a sixteenth part +of an inch, and the ashes, certainly, do not make it very grateful to +the teeth, nor render it very palatable. The bran, or coarse part of +the meal, is baked with the fine, and bright scales run through the +bread. This bread, with its ashes and bran, would disgust and choke a +northern man, but it is quite liked by the slaves. They eat it with +avidity, and are more concerned about the quantity than about the +quality. They are far too scantily provided for, and are worked too +steadily, to be much concerned for the quality of their food. The few +minutes allowed them at dinner time, after partaking of their coarse +repast, are variously spent. Some lie down on the “turning row,” and go +to sleep; others draw together, and talk; and others are at work with +needle and thread, mending their tattered garments. Sometimes you may +hear a wild, hoarse laugh arise from a circle, and often a song. Soon, +however, the overseer comes dashing through the field. _“Tumble up! +Tumble up_, and to _work, work,”_ is the cry; and, now, from twelve +o’clock (mid-day) till dark, the human cattle are in motion, wielding +their clumsy hoes; hurried on by no hope of reward, no sense of +gratitude, no love of children, no prospect of bettering their +condition; nothing, save the dread and terror of the slave-driver’s +lash. So goes one day, and so comes and goes another. + +But, let us now leave the rough usage of the field, where vulgar +coarseness and brutal cruelty spread themselves and flourish, rank as +weeds in the tropics; where a vile wretch, in the shape of a man, +rides, walks, or struts about, dealing blows, and leaving gashes on +broken-spirited men and helpless women, for thirty dollars per month—a +business so horrible, hardening and disgraceful, that, rather, than +engage in it, a decent man would blow his own brains out—and let the +reader view with me the equally wicked, but less repulsive aspects of +slave life; where pride and pomp roll luxuriously at ease; where the +toil of a thousand men supports a single family in easy idleness and +sin. This is the great house; it is the home of the LLOYDS! Some idea +of its splendor has already been given—and, it is here that we shall +find that height of luxury which is the opposite of that depth of +poverty and physical wretchedness that we have just now been +contemplating. But, there is this difference in the two extremes; viz: +that in the case of the slave, the miseries and hardships of his lot +are imposed by others, and, in the master’s case, they are imposed by +himself. The slave is a subject, subjected by others; the slaveholder +is a subject, but he is the author of his own subjection. There is more +truth in the saying, that slavery is a greater evil to the master than +to the slave, than many, who utter it, suppose. The self-executing laws +of eternal justice follow close on the heels of the evil-doer here, as +well as elsewhere; making escape from all its penalties impossible. +But, let others philosophize; it is my province here to relate and +describe; only allowing myself a word or two, occasionally, to assist +the reader in the proper understanding of the facts narrated. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. _Life in the Great House_ + + +COMFORTS AND LUXURIES—ELABORATE EXPENDITURE—HOUSE SERVANTS—MEN SERVANTS +AND MAID SERVANTS—APPEARANCES—SLAVE ARISTOCRACY—STABLE AND CARRIAGE +HOUSE—BOUNDLESS HOSPITALITY—FRAGRANCE OF RICH DISHES—THE DECEPTIVE +CHARACTER OF SLAVERY—SLAVES SEEM HAPPY—SLAVES AND SLAVEHOLDERS ALIKE +WRETCHED—FRETFUL DISCONTENT OF SLAVEHOLDERS—FAULT-FINDING—OLD +BARNEY—HIS PROFESSION—WHIPPING—HUMILIATING SPECTACLE—CASE +EXCEPTIONAL—WILLIAM WILKS—SUPPOSED SON OF COL. LLOYD—CURIOUS +INCIDENT—SLAVES PREFER RICH MASTERS TO POOR ONES. + + +The close-fisted stinginess that fed the poor slave on coarse corn-meal +and tainted meat; that clothed him in crashy tow-linen, and hurried him +to toil through the field, in all weathers, with wind and rain beating +through his tattered garments; that scarcely gave even the young +slave-mother time to nurse her hungry infant in the fence corner; +wholly vanishes on approaching the sacred precincts of the great house, +the home of the Lloyds. There the scriptural phrase finds an exact +illustration; the highly favored inmates of this mansion are literally +arrayed “in purple and fine linen,” and fare sumptuously every day! The +table groans under the heavy and blood-bought luxuries gathered with +painstaking care, at home and abroad. Fields, forests, rivers and seas, +are made tributary here. Immense wealth, and its lavish expenditure, +fill the great house with all that can please the eye, or tempt the +taste. Here, appetite, not food, is the great _desideratum_. Fish, +flesh and fowl, are here in profusion. Chickens, of all breeds; ducks, +of all kinds, wild and tame, the common, and the huge Muscovite; Guinea +fowls, turkeys, geese, and pea fowls, are in their several pens, fat +and fatting for the destined vortex. The graceful swan, the mongrels, +the black-necked wild goose; partridges, quails, pheasants and pigeons; +choice water fowl, with all their strange varieties, are caught in this +huge family net. Beef, veal, mutton and venison, of the most select +kinds and quality, roll bounteously to this grand consumer. The teeming +riches of the Chesapeake bay, its rock, perch, drums, crocus, trout, +oysters, crabs, and terrapin, are drawn hither to adorn the glittering +table of the great house. The dairy, too, probably the finest on the +Eastern Shore of Maryland—supplied by cattle of the best English stock, +imported for the purpose, pours its rich donations of fragant cheese, +golden butter, and delicious cream, to heighten the attraction of the +gorgeous, unending round of feasting. Nor are the fruits of the earth +forgotten or neglected. The fertile garden, many acres in size, +constituting a separate establishment, distinct from the common +farm—with its scientific gardener, imported from Scotland (a Mr. +McDermott) with four men under his direction, was not behind, either in +the abundance or in the delicacy of its contributions to the same full +board. The tender asparagus, the succulent celery, and the delicate +cauliflower; egg plants, beets, lettuce, parsnips, peas, and French +beans, early and late; radishes, cantelopes, melons of all kinds; the +fruits and flowers of all climes and of all descriptions, from the +hardy apple of the north, to the lemon and orange of the south, +culminated at this point. Baltimore gathered figs, raisins, almonds and +juicy grapes from Spain. Wines and brandies from France; teas of +various flavor, from China; and rich, aromatic coffee from Java, all +conspired to swell the tide of high life, where pride and indolence +rolled and lounged in magnificence and satiety. + +Behind the tall-backed and elaborately wrought chairs, stand the +servants, men and maidens—fifteen in number—discriminately selected, +not only with a view to their industry and faithfulness, but with +special regard to their personal appearance, their graceful agility and +captivating address. Some of these are armed with fans, and are fanning +reviving breezes toward the over-heated brows of the alabaster ladies; +others watch with eager eye, and with fawn-like step anticipate and +supply wants before they are sufficiently formed to be announced by +word or sign. + +These servants constituted a sort of black aristocracy on Col. Lloyd’s +plantation. They resembled the field hands in nothing, except in color, +and in this they held the advantage of a velvet-like glossiness, rich +and beautiful. The hair, too, showed the same advantage. The delicate +colored maid rustled in the scarcely worn silk of her young mistress, +while the servant men were equally well attired from the over-flowing +wardrobe of their young masters; so that, in dress, as well as in form +and feature, in manner and speech, in tastes and habits, the distance +between these favored few, and the sorrow and hunger-smitten multitudes +of the quarter and the field, was immense; and this is seldom passed +over. + +Let us now glance at the stables and the carriage house, and we shall +find the same evidences of pride and luxurious extravagance. Here are +three splendid coaches, soft within and lustrous without. Here, too, +are gigs, phaetons, barouches, sulkeys and sleighs. Here are saddles +and harnesses—beautifully wrought and silver mounted—kept with every +care. In the stable you will find, kept only for pleasure, full +thirty-five horses, of the most approved blood for speed and beauty. +There are two men here constantly employed in taking care of these +horses. One of these men must be always in the stable, to answer every +call from the great house. Over the way from the stable, is a house +built expressly for the hounds—a pack of twenty-five or thirty—whose +fare would have made glad the heart of a dozen slaves. Horses and +hounds are not the only consumers of the slave’s toil. There was +practiced, at the Lloyd’s, a hospitality which would have astonished +and charmed any health-seeking northern divine or merchant, who might +have chanced to share it. Viewed from his own table, and _not_ from the +field, the colonel was a model of generous hospitality. His house was, +literally, a hotel, for weeks during the summer months. At these times, +especially, the air was freighted with the rich fumes of baking, +boiling, roasting and broiling. The odors I shared with the winds; but +the meats were under a more stringent monopoly except that, +occasionally, I got a cake from Mas’ Daniel. In Mas’ Daniel I had a +friend at court, from whom I learned many things which my eager +curiosity was excited to know. I always knew when company was expected, +and who they were, although I was an outsider, being the property, not +of Col. Lloyd, but of a servant of the wealthy colonel. On these +occasions, all that pride, taste and money could do, to dazzle and +charm, was done. + +Who could say that the servants of Col. Lloyd were not well clad and +cared for, after witnessing one of his magnificent entertainments? Who +could say that they did not seem to glory in being the slaves of such a +master? Who, but a fanatic, could get up any sympathy for persons whose +every movement was agile, easy and graceful, and who evinced a +consciousness of high superiority? And who would ever venture to +suspect that Col. Lloyd was subject to the troubles of ordinary +mortals? Master and slave seem alike in their glory here? Can it all be +seeming? Alas! it may only be a sham at last! This immense wealth; this +gilded splendor; this profusion of luxury; this exemption from toil; +this life of ease; this sea of plenty; aye, what of it all? Are the +pearly gates of happiness and sweet content flung open to such suitors? +_far from it!_ The poor slave, on his hard, pine plank, but scantily +covered with his thin blanket, sleeps more soundly than the feverish +voluptuary who reclines upon his feather bed and downy pillow. Food, to +the indolent lounger, is poison, not sustenance. Lurking beneath all +their dishes, are invisible spirits of evil, ready to feed the +self-deluded gormandizers which aches, pains, fierce temper, +uncontrolled passions, dyspepsia, rheumatism, lumbago and gout; and of +these the Lloyds got their full share. To the pampered love of ease, +there is no resting place. What is pleasant today, is repulsive +tomorrow; what is soft now, is hard at another time; what is sweet in +the morning, is bitter in the evening. Neither to the wicked, nor to +the idler, is there any solid peace: _“Troubled, like the restless +sea.”_ + +I had excellent opportunities of witnessing the restless discontent and +the capricious irritation of the Lloyds. My fondness for horses—not +peculiar to me more than to other boys attracted me, much of the time, +to the stables. This establishment was especially under the care of +“old” and “young” Barney—father and son. Old Barney was a fine looking +old man, of a brownish complexion, who was quite portly, and wore a +dignified aspect for a slave. He was, evidently, much devoted to his +profession, and held his office an honorable one. He was a farrier as +well as an ostler; he could bleed, remove lampers from the mouths of +the horses, and was well instructed in horse medicines. No one on the +farm knew, so well as Old Barney, what to do with a sick horse. But his +gifts and acquirements were of little advantage to him. His office was +by no means an enviable one. He often got presents, but he got stripes +as well; for in nothing was Col. Lloyd more unreasonable and exacting, +than in respect to the management of his pleasure horses. Any supposed +inattention to these animals were sure to be visited with degrading +punishment. His horses and dogs fared better than his men. Their beds +must be softer and cleaner than those of his human cattle. No excuse +could shield Old Barney, if the colonel only suspected something wrong +about his horses; and, consequently, he was often punished when +faultless. It was absolutely painful to listen to the many unreasonable +and fretful scoldings, poured out at the stable, by Col. Lloyd, his +sons and sons-in-law. Of the latter, he had three—Messrs. Nicholson, +Winder and Lownes. These all lived at the great house a portion of the +year, and enjoyed the luxury of whipping the servants when they +pleased, which was by no means unfrequently. A horse was seldom brought +out of the stable to which no objection could be raised. “There was +dust in his hair;” “there was a twist in his reins;” “his mane did not +lie straight;” “he had not been properly grained;” “his head did not +look well;” “his fore-top was not combed out;” “his fetlocks had not +been properly trimmed;” something was always wrong. Listening to +complaints, however groundless, Barney must stand, hat in hand, lips +sealed, never answering a word. He must make no reply, no explanation; +the judgment of the master must be deemed infallible, for his power is +absolute and irresponsible. In a free state, a master, thus complaining +without cause, of his ostler, might be told—“Sir, I am sorry I cannot +please you, but, since I have done the best I can, your remedy is to +dismiss me.” Here, however, the ostler must stand, listen and tremble. +One of the most heart-saddening and humiliating scenes I ever +witnessed, was the whipping of Old Barney, by Col. Lloyd himself. Here +were two men, both advanced in years; there were the silvery locks of +Col. L., and there was the bald and toil-worn brow of Old Barney; +master and slave; superior and inferior here, but _equals_ at the bar +of God; and, in the common course of events, they must both soon meet +in another world, in a world where all distinctions, except those based +on obedience and disobedience, are blotted out forever. “Uncover your +head!” said the imperious master; he was obeyed. “Take off your jacket, +you old rascal!” and off came Barney’s jacket. “Down on your knees!” +down knelt the old man, his shoulders bare, his bald head glistening in +the sun, and his aged knees on the cold, damp ground. In his humble and +debasing attitude, the master—that master to whom he had given the best +years and the best strength of his life—came forward, and laid on +thirty lashes, with his horse whip. The old man bore it patiently, to +the last, answering each blow with a slight shrug of the shoulders, and +a groan. I cannot think that Col. Lloyd succeeded in marring the flesh +of Old Barney very seriously, for the whip was a light, riding whip; +but the spectacle of an aged man—a husband and a father—humbly kneeling +before a worm of the dust, surprised and shocked me at the time; and +since I have grown old enough to think on the wickedness of slavery, +few facts have been of more value to me than this, to which I was a +witness. It reveals slavery in its true color, and in its maturity of +repulsive hatefulness. I owe it to truth, however, to say, that this +was the first and the last time I ever saw Old Barney, or any other +slave, compelled to kneel to receive a whipping. + +I saw, at the stable, another incident, which I will relate, as it is +illustrative of a phase of slavery to which I have already referred in +another connection. Besides two other coachmen, Col. Lloyd owned one +named William, who, strangely enough, was often called by his surname, +Wilks, by white and colored people on the home plantation. Wilks was a +very fine looking man. He was about as white as anybody on the +plantation; and in manliness of form, and comeliness of features, he +bore a very striking resemblance to Mr. Murray Lloyd. It was whispered, +and pretty generally admitted as a fact, that William Wilks was a son +of Col. Lloyd, by a highly favored slave-woman, who was still on the +plantation. There were many reasons for believing this whisper, not +only in William’s appearance, but in the undeniable freedom which he +enjoyed over all others, and his apparent consciousness of being +something more than a slave to his master. It was notorious, too, that +William had a deadly enemy in Murray Lloyd, whom he so much resembled, +and that the latter greatly worried his father with importunities to +sell William. Indeed, he gave his father no rest until he did sell him, +to Austin Woldfolk, the great slave-trader at that time. Before selling +him, however, Mr. L. tried what giving William a whipping would do, +toward making things smooth; but this was a failure. It was a +compromise, and defeated itself; for, immediately after the infliction, +the heart-sickened colonel atoned to William for the abuse, by giving +him a gold watch and chain. Another fact, somewhat curious, is, that +though sold to the remorseless _Woldfolk_, taken in irons to Baltimore +and cast into prison, with a view to being driven to the south, +William, by _some_ means—always a mystery to me—outbid all his +purchasers, paid for himself, _and now resides in Baltimore, a_ +FREEMAN. Is there not room to suspect, that, as the gold watch was +presented to atone for the whipping, a purse of gold was given him by +the same hand, with which to effect his purchase, as an atonement for +the indignity involved in selling his own flesh and blood. All the +circumstances of William, on the great house farm, show him to have +occupied a different position from the other slaves, and, certainly, +there is nothing in the supposed hostility of slaveholders to +amalgamation, to forbid the supposition that William Wilks was the son +of Edward Lloyd. _Practical_ amalgamation is common in every +neighborhood where I have been in slavery. + +Col. Lloyd was not in the way of knowing much of the real opinions and +feelings of his slaves respecting him. The distance between him and +them was far too great to admit of such knowledge. His slaves were so +numerous, that he did not know them when he saw them. Nor, indeed, did +all his slaves know him. In this respect, he was inconveniently rich. +It is reported of him, that, while riding along the road one day, he +met a colored man, and addressed him in the usual way of speaking to +colored people on the public highways of the south: “Well, boy, who do +you belong to?” “To Col. Lloyd,” replied the slave. “Well, does the +colonel treat you well?” “No, sir,” was the ready reply. “What? does he +work you too hard?” “Yes, sir.” “Well, don’t he give enough to eat?” +“Yes, sir, he gives me enough, such as it is.” The colonel, after +ascertaining where the slave belonged, rode on; the slave also went on +about his business, not dreaming that he had been conversing with his +master. He thought, said and heard nothing more of the matter, until +two or three weeks afterwards. The poor man was then informed by his +overseer, that, for having found fault with his master, he was now to +be sold to a Georgia trader. He was immediately chained and handcuffed; +and thus, without a moment’s warning he was snatched away, and forever +sundered from his family and friends, by a hand more unrelenting than +that of death. _This_ is the penalty of telling the simple truth, in +answer to a series of plain questions. It is partly in consequence of +such facts, that slaves, when inquired of as to their condition and the +character of their masters, almost invariably say they are contented, +and that their masters are kind. Slaveholders have been known to send +spies among their slaves, to ascertain, if possible, their views and +feelings in regard to their condition. The frequency of this had the +effect to establish among the slaves the maxim, that a still tongue +makes a wise head. They suppress the truth rather than take the +consequence of telling it, and, in so doing, they prove themselves a +part of the human family. If they have anything to say of their master, +it is, generally, something in his favor, especially when speaking to +strangers. I was frequently asked, while a slave, if I had a kind +master, and I do not remember ever to have given a negative reply. Nor +did I, when pursuing this course, consider myself as uttering what was +utterly false; for I always measured the kindness of my master by the +standard of kindness set up by slaveholders around us. However, slaves +are like other people, and imbibe similar prejudices. They are apt to +think _their condition_ better than that of others. Many, under the +influence of this prejudice, think their own masters are better than +the masters of other slaves; and this, too, in some cases, when the +very reverse is true. Indeed, it is not uncommon for slaves even to +fall out and quarrel among themselves about the relative kindness of +their masters, contending for the superior goodness of his own over +that of others. At the very same time, they mutually execrate their +masters, when viewed separately. It was so on our plantation. When Col. +Lloyd’s slaves met those of Jacob Jepson, they seldom parted without a +quarrel about their masters; Col. Lloyd’s slaves contending that he was +the richest, and Mr. Jepson’s slaves that he was the smartest, man of +the two. Col. Lloyd’s slaves would boost his ability to buy and sell +Jacob Jepson; Mr. Jepson’s slaves would boast his ability to whip Col. +Lloyd. These quarrels would almost always end in a fight between the +parties; those that beat were supposed to have gained the point at +issue. They seemed to think that the greatness of their masters was +transferable to themselves. To be a SLAVE, was thought to be bad +enough; but to be a _poor man’s_ slave, was deemed a disgrace, indeed. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. _A Chapter of Horrors_ + + +AUSTIN GORE—A SKETCH OF HIS CHARACTER—OVERSEERS AS A CLASS—THEIR +PECULIAR CHARACTERISTICS—THE MARKED INDIVIDUALITY OF AUSTIN GORE—HIS +SENSE OF DUTY—HOW HE WHIPPED—MURDER OF POOR DENBY—HOW IT +OCCURRED—SENSATION—HOW GORE MADE PEACE WITH COL. LLOYD—THE MURDER +UNPUNISHED—ANOTHER DREADFUL MURDER NARRATED—NO LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION +OF SLAVES CAN BE ENFORCED IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. + + +As I have already intimated elsewhere, the slaves on Col. Lloyd’s +plantation, whose hard lot, under Mr. Sevier, the reader has already +noticed and deplored, were not permitted to enjoy the comparatively +moderate rule of Mr. Hopkins. The latter was succeeded by a very +different man. The name of the new overseer was Austin Gore. Upon this +individual I would fix particular attention; for under his rule there +was more suffering from violence and bloodshed than had—according to +the older slaves ever been experienced before on this plantation. I +confess, I hardly know how to bring this man fitly before the reader. +He was, it is true, an overseer, and possessed, to a large extent, the +peculiar characteristics of his class; yet, to call him merely an +overseer, would not give the reader a fair notion of the man. I speak +of overseers as a class. They are such. They are as distinct from the +slaveholding gentry of the south, as are the fishwomen of Paris, and +the coal-heavers of London, distinct from other members of society. +They constitute a separate fraternity at the south, not less marked +than is the fraternity of Park Lane bullies in New York. They have been +arranged and classified by that great law of attraction, which +determines the spheres and affinities of men; which ordains, that men, +whose malign and brutal propensities predominate over their moral and +intellectual endowments, shall, naturally, fall into those employments +which promise the largest gratification to those predominating +instincts or propensities. The office of overseer takes this raw +material of vulgarity and brutality, and stamps it as a distinct class +of southern society. But, in this class, as in all other classes, there +are characters of marked individuality, even while they bear a general +resemblance to the mass. Mr. Gore was one of those, to whom a general +characterization would do no manner of justice. He was an overseer; but +he was something more. With the malign and tyrannical qualities of an +overseer, he combined something of the lawful master. He had the +artfulness and the mean ambition of his class; but he was wholly free +from the disgusting swagger and noisy bravado of his fraternity. There +was an easy air of independence about him; a calm self-possession, and +a sternness of glance, which might well daunt hearts less timid than +those of poor slaves, accustomed from childhood and through life to +cower before a driver’s lash. The home plantation of Col. Lloyd +afforded an ample field for the exercise of the qualifications for +overseership, which he possessed in such an eminent degree. + +Mr. Gore was one of those overseers, who could torture the slightest +word or look into impudence; he had the nerve, not only to resent, but +to punish, promptly and severely. He never allowed himself to be +answered back, by a slave. In this, he was as lordly and as imperious +as Col. Edward Lloyd, himself; acting always up to the maxim, +practically maintained by slaveholders, that it is better that a dozen +slaves suffer under the lash, without fault, than that the master or +the overseer should _seem_ to have been wrong in the presence of the +slave. _Everything must be absolute here_. Guilty or not guilty, it is +enough to be accused, to be sure of a flogging. The very presence of +this man Gore was painful, and I shunned him as I would have shunned a +rattlesnake. His piercing, black eyes, and sharp, shrill voice, ever +awakened sensations of terror among the slaves. For so young a man (I +describe him as he was, twenty-five or thirty years ago) Mr. Gore was +singularly reserved and grave in the presence of slaves. He indulged in +no jokes, said no funny things, and kept his own counsels. Other +overseers, how brutal soever they might be, were, at times, inclined to +gain favor with the slaves, by indulging a little pleasantry; but Gore +was never known to be guilty of any such weakness. He was always the +cold, distant, unapproachable _overseer_ of Col. Edward Lloyd’s +plantation, and needed no higher pleasure than was involved in a +faithful discharge of the duties of his office. When he whipped, he +seemed to do so from a sense of duty, and feared no consequences. What +Hopkins did reluctantly, Gore did with alacrity. There was a stern +will, an iron-like reality, about this Gore, which would have easily +made him the chief of a band of pirates, had his environments been +favorable to such a course of life. All the coolness, savage barbarity +and freedom from moral restraint, which are necessary in the character +of a pirate-chief, centered, I think, in this man Gore. Among many +other deeds of shocking cruelty which he perpetrated, while I was at +Mr. Lloyd’s, was the murder of a young colored man, named Denby. He was +sometimes called Bill Denby, or Demby; (I write from sound, and the +sounds on Lloyd’s plantation are not very certain.) I knew him well. He +was a powerful young man, full of animal spirits, and, so far as I +know, he was among the most valuable of Col. Lloyd’s slaves. In +something—I know not what—he offended this Mr. Austin Gore, and, in +accordance with the custom of the latter, he under took to flog him. He +gave Denby but few stripes; the latter broke away from him and plunged +into the creek, and, standing there to the depth of his neck in water, +he refused to come out at the order of the overseer; whereupon, for +this refusal, _Gore shot him dead!_ It is said that Gore gave Denby +three calls, telling him that if he did not obey the last call, he +would shoot him. When the third call was given, Denby stood his ground +firmly; and this raised the question, in the minds of the by-standing +slaves—“Will he dare to shoot?” Mr. Gore, without further parley, and +without making any further effort to induce Denby to come out of the +water, raised his gun deliberately to his face, took deadly aim at his +standing victim, and, in an instant, poor Denby was numbered with the +dead. His mangled body sank out of sight, and only his warm, red blood +marked the place where he had stood. + +This devilish outrage, this fiendish murder, produced, as it was well +calculated to do, a tremendous sensation. A thrill of horror flashed +through every soul on the plantation, if I may except the guilty wretch +who had committed the hell-black deed. While the slaves generally were +panic-struck, and howling with alarm, the murderer himself was calm and +collected, and appeared as though nothing unusual had happened. The +atrocity roused my old master, and he spoke out, in reprobation of it; +but the whole thing proved to be less than a nine days’ wonder. Both +Col. Lloyd and my old master arraigned Gore for his cruelty in the +matter, but this amounted to nothing. His reply, or explanation—as I +remember to have heard it at the time was, that the extraordinary +expedient was demanded by necessity; that Denby had become +unmanageable; that he had set a dangerous example to the other slaves; +and that, without some such prompt measure as that to which he had +resorted, were adopted, there would be an end to all rule and order on +the plantation. That very convenient covert for all manner of cruelty +and outrage that cowardly alarm-cry, that the slaves would _“take the +place,”_ was pleaded, in extenuation of this revolting crime, just as +it had been cited in defense of a thousand similar ones. He argued, +that if one slave refused to be corrected, and was allowed to escape +with his life, when he had been told that he should lose it if he +persisted in his course, the other slaves would soon copy his example; +the result of which would be, the freedom of the slaves, and the +enslavement of the whites. I have every reason to believe that Mr. +Gore’s defense, or explanation, was deemed satisfactory—at least to +Col. Lloyd. He was continued in his office on the plantation. His fame +as an overseer went abroad, and his horrid crime was not even submitted +to judicial investigation. The murder was committed in the presence of +slaves, and they, of course, could neither institute a suit, nor +testify against the murderer. His bare word would go further in a court +of law, than the united testimony of ten thousand black witnesses. + +All that Mr. Gore had to do, was to make his peace with Col. Lloyd. +This done, and the guilty perpetrator of one of the most foul murders +goes unwhipped of justice, and uncensured by the community in which he +lives. Mr. Gore lived in St. Michael’s, Talbot county, when I left +Maryland; if he is still alive he probably yet resides there; and I +have no reason to doubt that he is now as highly esteemed, and as +greatly respected, as though his guilty soul had never been stained +with innocent blood. I am well aware that what I have now written will +by some be branded as false and malicious. It will be denied, not only +that such a thing ever did transpire, as I have now narrated, but that +such a thing could happen in _Maryland_. I can only say—believe it or +not—that I have said nothing but the literal truth, gainsay it who may. + +I speak advisedly when I say this,—that killing a slave, or any colored +person, in Talbot county, Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either +by the courts or the community. Mr. Thomas Lanman, ship carpenter, of +St. Michael’s, killed two slaves, one of whom he butchered with a +hatchet, by knocking his brains out. He used to boast of the commission +of the awful and bloody deed. I have heard him do so, laughingly, +saying, among other things, that he was the only benefactor of his +country in the company, and that when “others would do as much as he +had done, we should be relieved of the d—d niggers.” + +As an evidence of the reckless disregard of human life where the life +is that of a slave I may state the notorious fact, that the wife of Mr. +Giles Hicks, who lived but a short distance from Col. Lloyd’s, with her +own hands murdered my wife’s cousin, a young girl between fifteen and +sixteen years of age—mutilating her person in a most shocking manner. +The atrocious woman, in the paroxysm of her wrath, not content with +murdering her victim, literally mangled her face, and broke her breast +bone. Wild, however, and infuriated as she was, she took the precaution +to cause the slave-girl to be buried; but the facts of the case coming +abroad, very speedily led to the disinterment of the remains of the +murdered slave-girl. A coroner’s jury was assembled, who decided that +the girl had come to her death by severe beating. It was ascertained +that the offense for which this girl was thus hurried out of the world, +was this: she had been set that night, and several preceding nights, to +mind Mrs. Hicks’s baby, and having fallen into a sound sleep, the baby +cried, waking Mrs. Hicks, but not the slave-girl. Mrs. Hicks, becoming +infuriated at the girl’s tardiness, after calling several times, jumped +from her bed and seized a piece of fire-wood from the fireplace; and +then, as she lay fast asleep, she deliberately pounded in her skull and +breast-bone, and thus ended her life. I will not say that this most +horrid murder produced no sensation in the community. It _did_ produce +a sensation; but, incredible to tell, the moral sense of the community +was blunted too entirely by the ordinary nature of slavery horrors, to +bring the murderess to punishment. A warrant was issued for her arrest, +but, for some reason or other, that warrant was never served. Thus did +Mrs. Hicks not only escape condign punishment, but even the pain and +mortification of being arraigned before a court of justice. + +Whilst I am detailing the bloody deeds that took place during my stay +on Col. Lloyd’s plantation, I will briefly narrate another dark +transaction, which occurred about the same time as the murder of Denby +by Mr. Gore. + +On the side of the river Wye, opposite from Col. Lloyd’s, there lived a +Mr. Beal Bondley, a wealthy slaveholder. In the direction of his land, +and near the shore, there was an excellent oyster fishing ground, and +to this, some of the slaves of Col. Lloyd occasionally resorted in +their little canoes, at night, with a view to make up the deficiency of +their scanty allowance of food, by the oysters that they could easily +get there. This, Mr. Bondley took it into his head to regard as a +trespass, and while an old man belonging to Col. Lloyd was engaged in +catching a few of the many millions of oysters that lined the bottom of +that creek, to satisfy his hunger, the villainous Mr. Bondley, lying in +ambush, without the slightest ceremony, discharged the contents of his +musket into the back and shoulders of the poor old man. As good fortune +would have it, the shot did not prove mortal, and Mr. Bondley came +over, the next day, to see Col. Lloyd—whether to pay him for his +property, or to justify himself for what he had done, I know not; but +this I _can_ say, the cruel and dastardly transaction was speedily +hushed up; there was very little said about it at all, and nothing was +publicly done which looked like the application of the principle of +justice to the man whom _chance_, only, saved from being an actual +murderer. One of the commonest sayings to which my ears early became +accustomed, on Col. Lloyd’s plantation and elsewhere in Maryland, was, +that it was _“worth but half a cent to kill a nigger, and a half a cent +to bury him;”_ and the facts of my experience go far to justify the +practical truth of this strange proverb. Laws for the protection of the +lives of the slaves, are, as they must needs be, utterly incapable of +being enforced, where the very parties who are nominally protected, are +not permitted to give evidence, in courts of law, against the only +class of persons from whom abuse, outrage and murder might be +reasonably apprehended. While I heard of numerous murders committed by +slaveholders on the Eastern Shores of Maryland, I never knew a solitary +instance in which a slaveholder was either hung or imprisoned for +having murdered a slave. The usual pretext for killing a slave is, that +the slave has offered resistance. Should a slave, when assaulted, but +raise his hand in self defense, the white assaulting party is fully +justified by southern, or Maryland, public opinion, in shooting the +slave down. Sometimes this is done, simply because it is alleged that +the slave has been saucy. But here I leave this phase of the society of +my early childhood, and will relieve the kind reader of these +heart-sickening details. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. _Personal Treatment_ + + +MISS LUCRETIA—HER KINDNESS—HOW IT WAS MANIFESTED—“IKE”—A BATTLE WITH +HIM—THE CONSEQUENCES THEREOF—MISS LUCRETIA’S BALSAM—BREAD—HOW I +OBTAINED IT—BEAMS OF SUNLIGHT AMIDST THE GENERAL DARKNESS—SUFFERING +FROM COLD—HOW WE TOOK OUR MEALS—ORDERS TO PREPARE FOR +BALTIMORE—OVERJOYED AT THE THOUGHT OF QUITTING THE +PLANTATION—EXTRAORDINARY CLEANSING—COUSIN TOM’S VERSION OF +BALTIMORE—ARRIVAL THERE—KIND RECEPTION GIVEN ME BY MRS. SOPHIA +AULD—LITTLE TOMMY—MY NEW POSITION—MY NEW DUTIES—A TURNING POINT IN MY +HISTORY. + + +I have nothing cruel or shocking to relate of my own personal +experience, while I remained on Col. Lloyd’s plantation, at the home of +my old master. An occasional cuff from Aunt Katy, and a regular +whipping from old master, such as any heedless and mischievous boy +might get from his father, is all that I can mention of this sort. I +was not old enough to work in the field, and, there being little else +than field work to perform, I had much leisure. The most I had to do, +was, to drive up the cows in the evening, to keep the front yard clean, +and to perform small errands for my young mistress, Lucretia Auld. I +have reasons for thinking this lady was very kindly disposed toward me, +and, although I was not often the object of her attention, I constantly +regarded her as my friend, and was always glad when it was my privilege +to do her a service. In a family where there was so much that was +harsh, cold and indifferent, the slightest word or look of kindness +passed, with me, for its full value. Miss Lucretia—as we all continued +to call her long after her marriage—had bestowed upon me such words and +looks as taught me that she pitied me, if she did not love me. In +addition to words and looks, she sometimes gave me a piece of bread and +butter; a thing not set down in the bill of fare, and which must have +been an extra ration, planned aside from either Aunt Katy or old +master, solely out of the tender regard and friendship she had for me. +Then, too, I one day got into the wars with Uncle Able’s son, “Ike,” +and had got sadly worsted; in fact, the little rascal had struck me +directly in the forehead with a sharp piece of cinder, fused with iron, +from the old blacksmith’s forge, which made a cross in my forehead very +plainly to be seen now. The gash bled very freely, and I roared very +loudly and betook myself home. The coldhearted Aunt Katy paid no +attention either to my wound or my roaring, except to tell me it served +me right; I had no business with Ike; it was good for me; I would now +keep away _“from dem Lloyd niggers.”_ Miss Lucretia, in this state of +the case, came forward; and, in quite a different spirit from that +manifested by Aunt Katy, she called me into the parlor (an extra +privilege of itself) and, without using toward me any of the +hard-hearted and reproachful epithets of my kitchen tormentor, she +quietly acted the good Samaritan. With her own soft hand she washed the +blood from my head and face, fetched her own balsam bottle, and with +the balsam wetted a nice piece of white linen, and bound up my head. +The balsam was not more healing to the wound in my head, than her +kindness was healing to the wounds in my spirit, made by the unfeeling +words of Aunt Katy. After this, Miss Lucretia was my friend. I felt her +to be such; and I have no doubt that the simple act of binding up my +head, did much to awaken in her mind an interest in my welfare. It is +quite true, that this interest was never very marked, and it seldom +showed itself in anything more than in giving me a piece of bread when +I was hungry; but this was a great favor on a slave plantation, and I +was the only one of the children to whom such attention was paid. When +very hungry, I would go into the back yard and play under Miss +Lucretia’s window. When pretty severely pinched by hunger, I had a +habit of singing, which the good lady very soon came to understand as a +petition for a piece of bread. When I sung under Miss Lucretia’s +window, I was very apt to get well paid for my music. The reader will +see that I now had two friends, both at important points—Mas’ Daniel at +the great house, and Miss Lucretia at home. From Mas’ Daniel I got +protection from the bigger boys; and from Miss Lucretia I got bread, by +singing when I was hungry, and sympathy when I was abused by that +termagant, who had the reins of government in the kitchen. For such +friendship I felt deeply grateful, and bitter as are my recollections +of slavery, I love to recall any instances of kindness, any sunbeams of +humane treatment, which found way to my soul through the iron grating +of my house of bondage. Such beams seem all the brighter from the +general darkness into which they penetrate, and the impression they +make is vividly distinct and beautiful. + +As I have before intimated, I was seldom whipped—and never severely—by +my old master. I suffered little from the treatment I received, except +from hunger and cold. These were my two great physical troubles. I +could neither get a sufficiency of food nor of clothing; but I suffered +less from hunger than from cold. In hottest summer and coldest winter, +I was kept almost in a state of nudity; no shoes, no stockings, no +jacket, no trowsers; nothing but coarse sackcloth or tow-linen, made +into a sort of shirt, reaching down to my knees. This I wore night and +day, changing it once a week. In the day time I could protect myself +pretty well, by keeping on the sunny side of the house; and in bad +weather, in the corner of the kitchen chimney. The great difficulty +was, to keep warm during the night. I had no bed. The pigs in the pen +had leaves, and the horses in the stable had straw, but the children +had no beds. They lodged anywhere in the ample kitchen. I slept, +generally, in a little closet, without even a blanket to cover me. In +very cold weather. I sometimes got down the bag in which corn-meal was +usually carried to the mill, and crawled into that. Sleeping there, +with my head in and feet out, I was partly protected, though not +comfortable. My feet have been so cracked with the frost, that the pen +with which I am writing might be laid in the gashes. The manner of +taking our meals at old master’s, indicated but little refinement. Our +corn-meal mush, when sufficiently cooled, was placed in a large wooden +tray, or trough, like those used in making maple sugar here in the +north. This tray was set down, either on the floor of the kitchen, or +out of doors on the ground; and the children were called, like so many +pigs; and like so many pigs they would come, and literally devour the +mush—some with oyster shells, some with pieces of shingles, and none +with spoons. He that eat fastest got most, and he that was strongest +got the best place; and few left the trough really satisfied. I was the +most unlucky of any, for Aunt Katy had no good feeling for me; and if I +pushed any of the other children, or if they told her anything +unfavorable of me, she always believed the worst, and was sure to whip +me. + +As I grew older and more thoughtful, I was more and more filled with a +sense of my wretchedness. The cruelty of Aunt Katy, the hunger and cold +I suffered, and the terrible reports of wrong and outrage which came to +my ear, together with what I almost daily witnessed, led me, when yet +but eight or nine years old, to wish I had never been born. I used to +contrast my condition with the black-birds, in whose wild and sweet +songs I fancied them so happy! Their apparent joy only deepened the +shades of my sorrow. There are thoughtful days in the lives of +children—at least there were in mine when they grapple with all the +great, primary subjects of knowledge, and reach, in a moment, +conclusions which no subsequent experience can shake. I was just as +well aware of the unjust, unnatural and murderous character of slavery, +when nine years old, as I am now. Without any appeal to books, to laws, +or to authorities of any kind, it was enough to accept God as a father, +to regard slavery as a crime. + +I was not ten years old when I left Col. Lloyd’s plantation for +Balitmore(sic). I left that plantation with inexpressible joy. I never +shall forget the ecstacy with which I received the intelligence from my +friend, Miss Lucretia, that my old master had determined to let me go +to Baltimore to live with Mr. Hugh Auld, a brother to Mr. Thomas Auld, +my old master’s son-in-law. I received this information about three +days before my departure. They were three of the happiest days of my +childhood. I spent the largest part of these three days in the creek, +washing off the plantation scurf, and preparing for my new home. Mrs. +Lucretia took a lively interest in getting me ready. She told me I must +get all the dead skin off my feet and knees, before I could go to +Baltimore, for the people there were very cleanly, and would laugh at +me if I looked dirty; and, besides, she was intending to give me a pair +of trowsers, which I should not put on unless I got all the dirt off. +This was a warning to which I was bound to take heed; for the thought +of owning a pair of trowsers, was great, indeed. It was almost a +sufficient motive, not only to induce me to scrub off the _mange_ (as +pig drovers would call it) but the skin as well. So I went at it in +good earnest, working for the first time in the hope of reward. I was +greatly excited, and could hardly consent to sleep, lest I should be +left. The ties that, ordinarily, bind children to their homes, were all +severed, or they never had any existence in my case, at least so far as +the home plantation of Col. L. was concerned. I therefore found no +severe trail at the moment of my departure, such as I had experienced +when separated from my home in Tuckahoe. My home at my old master’s was +charmless to me; it was not home, but a prison to me; on parting from +it, I could not feel that I was leaving anything which I could have +enjoyed by staying. My mother was now long dead; my grandmother was far +away, so that I seldom saw her; Aunt Katy was my unrelenting tormentor; +and my two sisters and brothers, owing to our early separation in life, +and the family-destroying power of slavery, were, comparatively, +strangers to me. The fact of our relationship was almost blotted out. I +looked for _home_ elsewhere, and was confident of finding none which I +should relish less than the one I was leaving. If, however, I found in +my new home to which I was going with such blissful +anticipations—hardship, whipping and nakedness, I had the questionable +consolation that I should not have escaped any one of these evils by +remaining under the management of Aunt Katy. Then, too, I thought, +since I had endured much in this line on Lloyd’s plantation, I could +endure as much elsewhere, and especially at Baltimore; for I had +something of the feeling about that city which is expressed in the +saying, that being “hanged in England, is better than dying a natural +death in Ireland.” I had the strongest desire to see Baltimore. My +cousin Tom—a boy two or three years older than I—had been there, and +though not fluent (he stuttered immoderately) in speech, he had +inspired me with that desire, by his eloquent description of the place. +Tom was, sometimes, Capt. Auld’s cabin boy; and when he came from +Baltimore, he was always a sort of hero amongst us, at least till his +Baltimore trip was forgotten. I could never tell him of anything, or +point out anything that struck me as beautiful or powerful, but that he +had seen something in Baltimore far surpassing it. Even the great house +itself, with all its pictures within, and pillars without, he had the +hardihood to say “was nothing to Baltimore.” He bought a trumpet (worth +six pence) and brought it home; told what he had seen in the windows of +stores; that he had heard shooting crackers, and seen soldiers; that he +had seen a steamboat; that there were ships in Baltimore that could +carry four such sloops as the “Sally Lloyd.” He said a great deal about +the market-house; he spoke of the bells ringing; and of many other +things which roused my curiosity very much; and, indeed, which +heightened my hopes of happiness in my new home. + +We sailed out of Miles river for Baltimore early on a Saturday morning. +I remember only the day of the week; for, at that time, I had no +knowledge of the days of the month, nor, indeed, of the months of the +year. On setting sail, I walked aft, and gave to Col. Lloyd’s +plantation what I hoped would be the last look I should ever give to +it, or to any place like it. My strong aversion to the great farm, was +not owing to my own personal suffering, but the daily suffering of +others, and to the certainty that I must, sooner or later, be placed +under the barbarous rule of an overseer, such as the accomplished Gore, +or the brutal and drunken Plummer. After taking this last view, I +quitted the quarter deck, made my way to the bow of the sloop, and +spent the remainder of the day in looking ahead; interesting myself in +what was in the distance, rather than what was near by or behind. The +vessels, sweeping along the bay, were very interesting objects. The +broad bay opened like a shoreless ocean on my boyish vision, filling me +with wonder and admiration. + +Late in the afternoon, we reached Annapolis, the capital of the state, +stopping there not long enough to admit of my going ashore. It was the +first large town I had ever seen; and though it was inferior to many a +factory village in New England, my feelings, on seeing it, were excited +to a pitch very little below that reached by travelers at the first +view of Rome. The dome of the state house was especially imposing, and +surpassed in grandeur the appearance of the great house. The great +world was opening upon me very rapidly, and I was eagerly acquainting +myself with its multifarious lessons. + +We arrived in Baltimore on Sunday morning, and landed at Smith’s wharf, +not far from Bowly’s wharf. We had on board the sloop a large flock of +sheep, for the Baltimore market; and, after assisting in driving them +to the slaughter house of Mr. Curtis, on Loudon Slater’s Hill, I was +speedily conducted by Rich—one of the hands belonging to the sloop—to +my new home in Alliciana street, near Gardiner’s ship-yard, on Fell’s +Point. Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Auld, my new mistress and master, were both at +home, and met me at the door with their rosy cheeked little son, +Thomas, to take care of whom was to constitute my future occupation. In +fact, it was to “little Tommy,” rather than to his parents, that old +master made a present of me; and though there was no _legal_ form or +arrangement entered into, I have no doubt that Mr. and Mrs. Auld felt +that, in due time, I should be the legal property of their bright-eyed +and beloved boy, Tommy. I was struck with the appearance, especially, +of my new mistress. Her face was lighted with the kindliest emotions; +and the reflex influence of her countenance, as well as the tenderness +with which she seemed to regard me, while asking me sundry little +questions, greatly delighted me, and lit up, to my fancy, the pathway +of my future. Miss Lucretia was kind; but my new mistress, “Miss +Sophy,” surpassed her in kindness of manner. Little Thomas was +affectionately told by his mother, that _“there was his Freddy,”_ and +that “Freddy would take care of him;” and I was told to “be kind to +little Tommy”—an injunction I scarcely needed, for I had already fallen +in love with the dear boy; and with these little ceremonies I was +initiated into my new home, and entered upon my peculiar duties, with +not a cloud above the horizon. + +I may say here, that I regard my removal from Col. Lloyd’s plantation +as one of the most interesting and fortunate events of my life. Viewing +it in the light of human likelihoods, it is quite probable that, but +for the mere circumstance of being thus removed before the rigors of +slavery had fastened upon me; before my young spirit had been crushed +under the iron control of the slave-driver, instead of being, today, a +FREEMAN, I might have been wearing the galling chains of slavery. I +have sometimes felt, however, that there was something more intelligent +than _chance_, and something more certain than _luck_, to be seen in +the circumstance. If I have made any progress in knowledge; if I have +cherished any honorable aspirations, or have, in any manner, worthily +discharged the duties of a member of an oppressed people; this little +circumstance must be allowed its due weight in giving my life that +direction. I have ever regarded it as the first plain manifestation of +that + +Divinity that shapes our ends, +Rough hew them as we will. + + +I was not the only boy on the plantation that might have been sent to +live in Baltimore. There was a wide margin from which to select. There +were boys younger, boys older, and boys of the same age, belonging to +my old master some at his own house, and some at his farm—but the high +privilege fell to my lot. + +I may be deemed superstitious and egotistical, in regarding this event +as a special interposition of Divine Providence in my favor; but the +thought is a part of my history, and I should be false to the earliest +and most cherished sentiments of my soul, if I suppressed, or hesitated +to avow that opinion, although it may be characterized as irrational by +the wise, and ridiculous by the scoffer. From my earliest recollections +of serious matters, I date the entertainment of something like an +ineffaceable conviction, that slavery would not always be able to hold +me within its foul embrace; and this conviction, like a word of living +faith, strengthened me through the darkest trials of my lot. This good +spirit was from God; and to him I offer thanksgiving and praise. + + + + +CHAPTER X. _Life in Baltimore_ + + +CITY ANNOYANCES—PLANTATION REGRETS—MY MISTRESS, MISS SOPHA—HER +HISTORY—HER KINDNESS TO ME—MY MASTER, HUGH AULD—HIS SOURNESS—MY +INCREASED SENSITIVENESS—MY COMFORTS—MY OCCUPATION—THE BANEFUL EFFECTS +OF SLAVEHOLDING ON MY DEAR AND GOOD MISTRESS—HOW SHE COMMENCED TEACHING +ME TO READ—WHY SHE CEASED TEACHING ME—CLOUDS GATHERING OVER MY BRIGHT +PROSPECTS—MASTER AULD’S EXPOSITION OF THE TRUE PHILOSOPHY OF +SLAVERY—CITY SLAVES—PLANTATION SLAVES—THE CONTRAST—EXCEPTIONS—MR. +HAMILTON’S TWO SLAVES, HENRIETTA AND MARY—MRS. HAMILTON’S CRUEL +TREATMENT OF THEM—THE PITEOUS ASPECT THEY PRESENTED—NO POWER MUST COME +BETWEEN THE SLAVE AND THE SLAVEHOLDER. + + +Once in Baltimore, with hard brick pavements under my feet, which +almost raised blisters, by their very heat, for it was in the height of +summer; walled in on all sides by towering brick buildings; with troops +of hostile boys ready to pounce upon me at every street corner; with +new and strange objects glaring upon me at every step, and with +startling sounds reaching my ears from all directions, I for a time +thought that, after all, the home plantation was a more desirable place +of residence than my home on Alliciana street, in Baltimore. My country +eyes and ears were confused and bewildered here; but the boys were my +chief trouble. They chased me, and called me _“Eastern Shore man,”_ +till really I almost wished myself back on the Eastern Shore. I had to +undergo a sort of moral acclimation, and when that was over, I did much +better. My new mistress happily proved to be all she _seemed_ to be, +when, with her husband, she met me at the door, with a most beaming, +benignant countenance. She was, naturally, of an excellent disposition, +kind, gentle and cheerful. The supercilious contempt for the rights and +feelings of the slave, and the petulance and bad humor which generally +characterize slaveholding ladies, were all quite absent from kind +“Miss” Sophia’s manner and bearing toward me. She had, in truth, never +been a slaveholder, but had—a thing quite unusual in the south—depended +almost entirely upon her own industry for a living. To this fact the +dear lady, no doubt, owed the excellent preservation of her natural +goodness of heart, for slavery can change a saint into a sinner, and an +angel into a demon. I hardly knew how to behave toward “Miss Sopha,” as +I used to call Mrs. Hugh Auld. I had been treated as a _pig_ on the +plantation; I was treated as a _child_ now. I could not even approach +her as I had formerly approached Mrs. Thomas Auld. How could I hang +down my head, and speak with bated breath, when there was no pride to +scorn me, no coldness to repel me, and no hatred to inspire me with +fear? I therefore soon learned to regard her as something more akin to +a mother, than a slaveholding mistress. The crouching servility of a +slave, usually so acceptable a quality to the haughty slaveholder, was +not understood nor desired by this gentle woman. So far from deeming it +impudent in a slave to look her straight in the face, as some +slaveholding ladies do, she seemed ever to say, “look up, child; don’t +be afraid; see, I am full of kindness and good will toward you.” The +hands belonging to Col. Lloyd’s sloop, esteemed it a great privilege to +be the bearers of parcels or messages to my new mistress; for whenever +they came, they were sure of a most kind and pleasant reception. If +little Thomas was her son, and her most dearly beloved child, she, for +a time, at least, made me something like his half-brother in her +affections. If dear Tommy was exalted to a place on his mother’s knee, +“Feddy” was honored by a place at his mother’s side. Nor did he lack +the caressing strokes of her gentle hand, to convince him that, though +_motherless_, he was not _friendless_. Mrs. Auld was not only a +kind-hearted woman, but she was remarkably pious; frequent in her +attendance of public worship, much given to reading the bible, and to +chanting hymns of praise, when alone. Mr. Hugh Auld was altogether a +different character. He cared very little about religion, knew more of +the world, and was more of the world, than his wife. He set out, +doubtless to be—as the world goes—a respectable man, and to get on by +becoming a successful ship builder, in that city of ship building. This +was his ambition, and it fully occupied him. I was, of course, of very +little consequence to him, compared with what I was to good Mrs. Auld; +and, when he smiled upon me, as he sometimes did, the smile was +borrowed from his lovely wife, and, like all borrowed light, was +transient, and vanished with the source whence it was derived. While I +must characterize Master Hugh as being a very sour man, and of +forbidding appearance, it is due to him to acknowledge, that he was +never very cruel to me, according to the notion of cruelty in Maryland. +The first year or two which I spent in his house, he left me almost +exclusively to the management of his wife. She was my law-giver. In +hands so tender as hers, and in the absence of the cruelties of the +plantation, I became, both physically and mentally, much more sensitive +to good and ill treatment; and, perhaps, suffered more from a frown +from my mistress, than I formerly did from a cuff at the hands of Aunt +Katy. Instead of the cold, damp floor of my old master’s kitchen, I +found myself on carpets; for the corn bag in winter, I now had a good +straw bed, well furnished with covers; for the coarse corn-meal in the +morning, I now had good bread, and mush occasionally; for my poor +tow-lien shirt, reaching to my knees, I had good, clean clothes. I was +really well off. My employment was to run errands, and to take care of +Tommy; to prevent his getting in the way of carriages, and to keep him +out of harm’s way generally. Tommy, and I, and his mother, got on +swimmingly together, for a time. I say _for a time_, because the fatal +poison of irresponsible power, and the natural influence of slavery +customs, were not long in making a suitable impression on the gentle +and loving disposition of my excellent mistress. At first, Mrs. Auld +evidently regarded me simply as a child, like any other child; she had +not come to regard me as _property_. This latter thought was a thing of +conventional growth. The first was natural and spontaneous. A noble +nature, like hers, could not, instantly, be wholly perverted; and it +took several years to change the natural sweetness of her temper into +fretful bitterness. In her worst estate, however, there were, during +the first seven years I lived with her, occasional returns of her +former kindly disposition. + +The frequent hearing of my mistress reading the bible for she often +read aloud when her husband was absent soon awakened my curiosity in +respect to this _mystery_ of reading, and roused in me the desire to +learn. Having no fear of my kind mistress before my eyes, (she had then +given me no reason to fear,) I frankly asked her to teach me to read; +and, without hesitation, the dear woman began the task, and very soon, +by her assistance, I was master of the alphabet, and could spell words +of three or four letters. My mistress seemed almost as proud of my +progress, as if I had been her own child; and, supposing that her +husband would be as well pleased, she made no secret of what she was +doing for me. Indeed, she exultingly told him of the aptness of her +pupil, of her intention to persevere in teaching me, and of the duty +which she felt it to teach me, at least to read _the bible_. Here arose +the first cloud over my Baltimore prospects, the precursor of drenching +rains and chilling blasts. + +Master Hugh was amazed at the simplicity of his spouse, and, probably +for the first time, he unfolded to her the true philosophy of slavery, +and the peculiar rules necessary to be observed by masters and +mistresses, in the management of their human chattels. Mr. Auld +promptly forbade continuance of her instruction; telling her, in the +first place, that the thing itself was unlawful; that it was also +unsafe, and could only lead to mischief. To use his own words, further, +he said, “if you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell;” “he +should know nothing but the will of his master, and learn to obey it.” +“if you teach that nigger—speaking of myself—how to read the bible, +there will be no keeping him;” “it would forever unfit him for the +duties of a slave;” and “as to himself, learning would do him no good, +but probably, a great deal of harm—making him disconsolate and +unhappy.” “If you learn him now to read, he’ll want to know how to +write; and, this accomplished, he’ll be running away with himself.” +Such was the tenor of Master Hugh’s oracular exposition of the true +philosophy of training a human chattel; and it must be confessed that +he very clearly comprehended the nature and the requirements of the +relation of master and slave. His discourse was the first decidedly +anti-slavery lecture to which it had been my lot to listen. Mrs. Auld +evidently felt the force of his remarks; and, like an obedient wife, +began to shape her course in the direction indicated by her husband. +The effect of his words, _on me_, was neither slight nor transitory. +His iron sentences—cold and harsh—sunk deep into my heart, and stirred +up not only my feelings into a sort of rebellion, but awakened within +me a slumbering train of vital thought. It was a new and special +revelation, dispelling a painful mystery, against which my youthful +understanding had struggled, and struggled in vain, to wit: the _white_ +man’s power to perpetuate the enslavement of the _black_ man. “Very +well,” thought I; “knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” I +instinctively assented to the proposition; and from that moment I +understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom. This was just +what I needed; and I got it at a time, and from a source, whence I +least expected it. I was saddened at the thought of losing the +assistance of my kind mistress; but the information, so instantly +derived, to some extent compensated me for the loss I had sustained in +this direction. Wise as Mr. Auld was, he evidently underrated my +comprehension, and had little idea of the use to which I was capable of +putting the impressive lesson he was giving to his wife. _He_ wanted me +to be _a slave;_ I had already voted against that on the home +plantation of Col. Lloyd. That which he most loved I most hated; and +the very determination which he expressed to keep me in ignorance, only +rendered me the more resolute in seeking intelligence. In learning to +read, therefore, I am not sure that I do not owe quite as much to the +opposition of my master, as to the kindly assistance of my amiable +mistress. I acknowledge the benefit rendered me by the one, and by the +other; believing, that but for my mistress, I might have grown up in +ignorance. + +I had resided but a short time in Baltimore, before I observed a marked +difference in the manner of treating slaves, generally, from which I +had witnessed in that isolated and out-of-the-way part of the country +where I began life. A city slave is almost a free citizen, in +Baltimore, compared with a slave on Col. Lloyd’s plantation. He is much +better fed and clothed, is less dejected in his appearance, and enjoys +privileges altogether unknown to the whip-driven slave on the +plantation. Slavery dislikes a dense population, in which there is a +majority of non-slaveholders. The general sense of decency that must +pervade such a population, does much to check and prevent those +outbreaks of atrocious cruelty, and those dark crimes without a name, +almost openly perpetrated on the plantation. He is a desperate +slaveholder who will shock the humanity of his non-slaveholding +neighbors, by the cries of the lacerated slaves; and very few in the +city are willing to incur the odium of being cruel masters. I found, in +Baltimore, that no man was more odious to the white, as well as to the +colored people, than he, who had the reputation of starving his slaves. +Work them, flog them, if need be, but don’t starve them. These are, +however, some painful exceptions to this rule. While it is quite true +that most of the slaveholders in Baltimore feed and clothe their slaves +well, there are others who keep up their country cruelties in the city. + +An instance of this sort is furnished in the case of a family who lived +directly opposite to our house, and were named Hamilton. Mrs. Hamilton +owned two slaves. Their names were Henrietta and Mary. They had always +been house slaves. One was aged about twenty-two, and the other about +fourteen. They were a fragile couple by nature, and the treatment they +received was enough to break down the constitution of a horse. Of all +the dejected, emaciated, mangled and excoriated creatures I ever saw, +those two girls—in the refined, church going and Christian city of +Baltimore were the most deplorable. Of stone must that heart be made, +that could look upon Henrietta and Mary, without being sickened to the +core with sadness. Especially was Mary a heart-sickening object. Her +head, neck and shoulders, were literally cut to pieces. I have +frequently felt her head, and found it nearly covered over with +festering sores, caused by the lash of her cruel mistress. I do not +know that her master ever whipped her, but I have often been an eye +witness of the revolting and brutal inflictions by Mrs. Hamilton; and +what lends a deeper shade to this woman’s conduct, is the fact, that, +almost in the very moments of her shocking outrages of humanity and +decency, she would charm you by the sweetness of her voice and her +seeming piety. She used to sit in a large rocking chair, near the +middle of the room, with a heavy cowskin, such as I have elsewhere +described; and I speak within the truth when I say, that these girls +seldom passed that chair, during the day, without a blow from that +cowskin, either upon their bare arms, or upon their shoulders. As they +passed her, she would draw her cowskin and give them a blow, saying, +_“move faster, you black jip!”_ and, again, _“take that, you black +jip!”_ continuing, _“if you don’t move faster, I will give you more.”_ +Then the lady would go on, singing her sweet hymns, as though her +_righteous_ soul were sighing for the holy realms of paradise. + +Added to the cruel lashings to which these poor slave-girls were +subjected—enough in themselves to crush the spirit of men—they were, +really, kept nearly half starved; they seldom knew what it was to eat a +full meal, except when they got it in the kitchens of neighbors, less +mean and stingy than the psalm-singing Mrs. Hamilton. I have seen poor +Mary contending for the offal, with the pigs in the street. So much was +the poor girl pinched, kicked, cut and pecked to pieces, that the boys +in the street knew her only by the name of _“pecked,”_ a name derived +from the scars and blotches on her neck, head and shoulders. + +It is some relief to this picture of slavery in Baltimore, to say—what +is but the simple truth—that Mrs. Hamilton’s treatment of her slaves +was generally condemned, as disgraceful and shocking; but while I say +this, it must also be remembered, that the very parties who censured +the cruelty of Mrs. Hamilton, would have condemned and promptly +punished any attempt to interfere with Mrs. Hamilton’s _right_ to cut +and slash her slaves to pieces. There must be no force between the +slave and the slaveholder, to restrain the power of the one, and +protect the weakness of the other; and the cruelty of Mrs. Hamilton is +as justly chargeable to the upholders of the slave system, as +drunkenness is chargeable on those who, by precept and example, or by +indifference, uphold the drinking system. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. _“A Change Came O’er the Spirit of My Dream”_ + + +HOW I LEARNED TO READ—MY MISTRESS—HER SLAVEHOLDING DUTIES—THEIR +DEPLORABLE EFFECTS UPON HER ORIGINALLY NOBLE NATURE—THE CONFLICT IN HER +MIND—HER FINAL OPPOSITION TO MY LEARNING TO READ—TOO LATE—SHE HAD GIVEN +ME THE INCH, I WAS RESOLVED TO TAKE THE ELL—HOW I PURSUED MY +EDUCATION—MY TUTORS—HOW I COMPENSATED THEM—WHAT PROGRESS I +MADE—SLAVERY—WHAT I HEARD SAID ABOUT IT—THIRTEEN YEARS OLD—THE +_Columbian Orator_—A RICH SCENE—A DIALOGUE—SPEECHES OF CHATHAM, +SHERIDAN, PITT AND FOX—KNOWLEDGE EVER INCREASING—MY EYES +OPENED—LIBERTY—HOW I PINED FOR IT—MY SADNESS—THE DISSATISFACTION OF MY +POOR MISTRESS—MY HATRED OF SLAVERY—ONE UPAS TREE OVERSHADOWED US BOTH. + + +I lived in the family of Master Hugh, at Baltimore, seven years, during +which time—as the almanac makers say of the weather—my condition was +variable. The most interesting feature of my history here, was my +learning to read and write, under somewhat marked disadvantages. In +attaining this knowledge, I was compelled to resort to indirections by +no means congenial to my nature, and which were really humiliating to +me. My mistress—who, as the reader has already seen, had begun to teach +me was suddenly checked in her benevolent design, by the strong advice +of her husband. In faithful compliance with this advice, the good lady +had not only ceased to instruct me, herself, but had set her face as a +flint against my learning to read by any means. It is due, however, to +my mistress to say, that she did not adopt this course in all its +stringency at the first. She either thought it unnecessary, or she +lacked the depravity indispensable to shutting me up in mental +darkness. It was, at least, necessary for her to have some training, +and some hardening, in the exercise of the slaveholder’s prerogative, +to make her equal to forgetting my human nature and character, and to +treating me as a thing destitute of a moral or an intellectual nature. +Mrs. Auld—my mistress—was, as I have said, a most kind and +tender-hearted woman; and, in the humanity of her heart, and the +simplicity of her mind, she set out, when I first went to live with +her, to treat me as she supposed one human being ought to treat +another. + +It is easy to see, that, in entering upon the duties of a slaveholder, +some little experience is needed. Nature has done almost nothing to +prepare men and women to be either slaves or slaveholders. Nothing but +rigid training, long persisted in, can perfect the character of the one +or the other. One cannot easily forget to love freedom; and it is as +hard to cease to respect that natural love in our fellow creatures. On +entering upon the career of a slaveholding mistress, Mrs. Auld was +singularly deficient; nature, which fits nobody for such an office, had +done less for her than any lady I had known. It was no easy matter to +induce her to think and to feel that the curly-headed boy, who stood by +her side, and even leaned on her lap; who was loved by little Tommy, +and who loved little Tommy in turn; sustained to her only the relation +of a chattel. I was _more_ than that, and she felt me to be more than +that. I could talk and sing; I could laugh and weep; I could reason and +remember; I could love and hate. I was human, and she, dear lady, knew +and felt me to be so. How could she, then, treat me as a brute, without +a mighty struggle with all the noble powers of her own soul. That +struggle came, and the will and power of the husband was victorious. +Her noble soul was overthrown; but, he that overthrew it did not, +himself, escape the consequences. He, not less than the other parties, +was injured in his domestic peace by the fall. + +When I went into their family, it was the abode of happiness and +contentment. The mistress of the house was a model of affection and +tenderness. Her fervent piety and watchful uprightness made it +impossible to see her without thinking and feeling—“_that woman is a +Christian_.” There was no sorrow nor suffering for which she had not a +tear, and there was no innocent joy for which she did not a smile. She +had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every +mourner that came within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to +divest her of these excellent qualities, and her home of its early +happiness. Conscience cannot stand much violence. Once thoroughly +broken down, _who_ is he that can repair the damage? It may be broken +toward the slave, on Sunday, and toward the master on Monday. It cannot +endure such shocks. It must stand entire, or it does not stand at all. +If my condition waxed bad, that of the family waxed not better. The +first step, in the wrong direction, was the violence done to nature and +to conscience, in arresting the benevolence that would have enlightened +my young mind. In ceasing to instruct me, she must begin to justify +herself _to_ herself; and, once consenting to take sides in such a +debate, she was riveted to her position. One needs very little +knowledge of moral philosophy, to see _where_ my mistress now landed. +She finally became even more violent in her opposition to my learning +to read, than was her husband himself. She was not satisfied with +simply doing as _well_ as her husband had commanded her, but seemed +resolved to better his instruction. Nothing appeared to make my poor +mistress—after her turning toward the downward path—more angry, than +seeing me, seated in some nook or corner, quietly reading a book or a +newspaper. I have had her rush at me, with the utmost fury, and snatch +from my hand such newspaper or book, with something of the wrath and +consternation which a traitor might be supposed to feel on being +discovered in a plot by some dangerous spy. + +Mrs. Auld was an apt woman, and the advice of her husband, and her own +experience, soon demonstrated, to her entire satisfaction, that +education and slavery are incompatible with each other. When this +conviction was thoroughly established, I was most narrowly watched in +all my movements. If I remained in a separate room from the family for +any considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of having a +book, and was at once called upon to give an account of myself. All +this, however, was entirely _too late_. The first, and never to be +retraced, step had been taken. In teaching me the alphabet, in the days +of her simplicity and kindness, my mistress had given me the _“inch,”_ +and now, no ordinary precaution could prevent me from taking the +_“ell.”_ + +Seized with a determination to learn to read, at any cost, I hit upon +many expedients to accomplish the desired end. The plea which I mainly +adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of using +my young white playmates, with whom I met in the streets as teachers. I +used to carry, almost constantly, a copy of Webster’s spelling book in +my pocket; and, when sent of errands, or when play time was allowed me, +I would step, with my young friends, aside, and take a lesson in +spelling. I generally paid my _tuition fee_ to the boys, with bread, +which I also carried in my pocket. For a single biscuit, any of my +hungry little comrades would give me a lesson more valuable to me than +bread. Not every one, however, demanded this consideration, for there +were those who took pleasure in teaching me, whenever I had a chance to +be taught by them. I am strongly tempted to give the names of two or +three of those little boys, as a slight testimonial of the gratitude +and affection I bear them, but prudence forbids; not that it would +injure me, but it might, possibly, embarrass them; for it is almost an +unpardonable offense to do any thing, directly or indirectly, to +promote a slave’s freedom, in a slave state. It is enough to say, of my +warm-hearted little play fellows, that they lived on Philpot street, +very near Durgin & Bailey’s shipyard. + +Although slavery was a delicate subject, and very cautiously talked +about among grown up people in Maryland, I frequently talked about +it—and that very freely—with the white boys. I would, sometimes, say to +them, while seated on a curb stone or a cellar door, “I wish I could be +free, as you will be when you get to be men.” ���You will be free, you +know, as soon as you are twenty-one, and can go where you like, but I +am a slave for life. Have I not as good a right to be free as you +have?” Words like these, I observed, always troubled them; and I had no +small satisfaction in wringing from the boys, occasionally, that fresh +and bitter condemnation of slavery, that springs from nature, unseared +and unperverted. Of all consciences let me have those to deal with +which have not been bewildered by the cares of life. I do not remember +ever to have met with a _boy_, while I was in slavery, who defended the +slave system; but I have often had boys to console me, with the hope +that something would yet occur, by which I might be made free. Over and +over again, they have told me, that “they believed I had as good a +right to be free as _they_ had;” and that “they did not believe God +ever made any one to be a slave.” The reader will easily see, that such +little conversations with my play fellows, had no tendency to weaken my +love of liberty, nor to render me contented with my condition as a +slave. + +When I was about thirteen years old, and had succeeded in learning to +read, every increase of knowledge, especially respecting the FREE +STATES, added something to the almost intolerable burden of the +thought—I AM A SLAVE FOR LIFE. To my bondage I saw no end. It was a +terrible reality, and I shall never be able to tell how sadly that +thought chafed my young spirit. Fortunately, or unfortunately, about +this time in my life, I had made enough money to buy what was then a +very popular school book, viz: the _Columbian Orator_. I bought this +addition to my library, of Mr. Knight, on Thames street, Fell’s Point, +Baltimore, and paid him fifty cents for it. I was first led to buy this +book, by hearing some little boys say they were going to learn some +little pieces out of it for the Exhibition. This volume was, indeed, a +rich treasure, and every opportunity afforded me, for a time, was spent +in diligently perusing it. Among much other interesting matter, that +which I had perused and reperused with unflagging satisfaction, was a +short dialogue between a master and his slave. The slave is represented +as having been recaptured, in a second attempt to run away; and the +master opens the dialogue with an upbraiding speech, charging the slave +with ingratitude, and demanding to know what he has to say in his own +defense. Thus upbraided, and thus called upon to reply, the slave +rejoins, that he knows how little anything that he can say will avail, +seeing that he is completely in the hands of his owner; and with noble +resolution, calmly says, “I submit to my fate.” Touched by the slave’s +answer, the master insists upon his further speaking, and recapitulates +the many acts of kindness which he has performed toward the slave, and +tells him he is permitted to speak for himself. Thus invited to the +debate, the quondam slave made a spirited defense of himself, and +thereafter the whole argument, for and against slavery, was brought +out. The master was vanquished at every turn in the argument; and +seeing himself to be thus vanquished, he generously and meekly +emancipates the slave, with his best wishes for his prosperity. It is +scarcely neccessary(sic) to say, that a dialogue, with such an origin, +and such an ending—read when the fact of my being a slave was a +constant burden of grief—powerfully affected me; and I could not help +feeling that the day might come, when the well-directed answers made by +the slave to the master, in this instance, would find their counterpart +in myself. + +This, however, was not all the fanaticism which I found in this +_Columbian Orator_. I met there one of Sheridan’s mighty speeches, on +the subject of Catholic Emancipation, Lord Chatham’s speech on the +American war, and speeches by the great William Pitt and by Fox. These +were all choice documents to me, and I read them, over and over again, +with an interest that was ever increasing, because it was ever gaining +in intelligence; for the more I read them, the better I understood +them. The reading of these speeches added much to my limited stock of +language, and enabled me to give tongue to many interesting thoughts, +which had frequently flashed through my soul, and died away for want of +utterance. The mighty power and heart-searching directness of truth, +penetrating even the heart of a slaveholder, compelling him to yield up +his earthly interests to the claims of eternal justice, were finely +illustrated in the dialogue, just referred to; and from the speeches of +Sheridan, I got a bold and powerful denunciation of oppression, and a +most brilliant vindication of the rights of man. Here was, indeed, a +noble acquisition. If I ever wavered under the consideration, that the +Almighty, in some way, ordained slavery, and willed my enslavement for +his own glory, I wavered no longer. I had now penetrated the secret of +all slavery and oppression, and had ascertained their true foundation +to be in the pride, the power and the avarice of man. The dialogue and +the speeches were all redolent of the principles of liberty, and poured +floods of light on the nature and character of slavery. With a book of +this kind in my hand, my own human nature, and the facts of my +experience, to help me, I was equal to a contest with the religious +advocates of slavery, whether among the whites or among the colored +people, for blindness, in this matter, is not confined to the former. I +have met many religious colored people, at the south, who are under the +delusion that God requires them to submit to slavery, and to wear their +chains with meekness and humility. I could entertain no such nonsense +as this; and I almost lost my patience when I found any colored man +weak enough to believe such stuff. Nevertheless, the increase of +knowledge was attended with bitter, as well as sweet results. The more +I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest slavery, and my +enslavers. “Slaveholders,” thought I, “are only a band of successful +robbers, who left their homes and went into Africa for the purpose of +stealing and reducing my people to slavery.” I loathed them as the +meanest and the most wicked of men. As I read, behold! the very +discontent so graphically predicted by Master Hugh, had already come +upon me. I was no longer the light-hearted, gleesome boy, full of mirth +and play, as when I landed first at Baltimore. Knowledge had come; +light had penetrated the moral dungeon where I dwelt; and, behold! +there lay the bloody whip, for my back, and here was the iron chain; +and my good, _kind master_, he was the author of my situation. The +revelation haunted me, stung me, and made me gloomy and miserable. As I +writhed under the sting and torment of this knowledge, I almost envied +my fellow slaves their stupid contentment. This knowledge opened my +eyes to the horrible pit, and revealed the teeth of the frightful +dragon that was ready to pounce upon me, but it opened no way for my +escape. I have often wished myself a beast, or a bird—anything, rather +than a slave. I was wretched and gloomy, beyond my ability to describe. +I was too thoughtful to be happy. It was this everlasting thinking +which distressed and tormented me; and yet there was no getting rid of +the subject of my thoughts. All nature was redolent of it. Once +awakened by the silver trump of knowledge, my spirit was roused to +eternal wakefulness. Liberty! the inestimable birthright of every man, +had, for me, converted every object into an asserter of this great +right. It was heard in every sound, and beheld in every object. It was +ever present, to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. The +more beautiful and charming were the smiles of nature, the more +horrible and desolate was my condition. I saw nothing without seeing +it, and I heard nothing without hearing it. I do not exaggerate, when I +say, that it looked from every star, smiled in every calm, breathed in +every wind, and moved in every storm. + +I have no doubt that my state of mind had something to do with the +change in the treatment adopted, by my once kind mistress toward me. I +can easily believe, that my leaden, downcast, and discontented look, +was very offensive to her. Poor lady! She did not know my trouble, and +I dared not tell her. Could I have freely made her acquainted with the +real state of my mind, and given her the reasons therefor, it might +have been well for both of us. Her abuse of me fell upon me like the +blows of the false prophet upon his ass; she did not know that an +_angel_ stood in the way; and—such is the relation of master and slave +I could not tell her. Nature had made us _friends;_ slavery made us +_enemies_. My interests were in a direction opposite to hers, and we +both had our private thoughts and plans. She aimed to keep me ignorant; +and I resolved to know, although knowledge only increased my +discontent. My feelings were not the result of any marked cruelty in +the treatment I received; they sprung from the consideration of my +being a slave at all. It was _slavery_—not its mere _incidents_—that I +hated. I had been cheated. I saw through the attempt to keep me in +ignorance; I saw that slaveholders would have gladly made me believe +that they were merely acting under the authority of God, in making a +slave of me, and in making slaves of others; and I treated them as +robbers and deceivers. The feeding and clothing me well, could not +atone for taking my liberty from me. The smiles of my mistress could +not remove the deep sorrow that dwelt in my young bosom. Indeed, these, +in time, came only to deepen my sorrow. She had changed; and the reader +will see that I had changed, too. We were both victims to the same +overshadowing evil—_she_, as mistress, I, as slave. I will not censure +her harshly; she cannot censure me, for she knows I speak but the +truth, and have acted in my opposition to slavery, just as she herself +would have acted, in a reverse of circumstances. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. _Religious Nature Awakened_ + + +ABOLITIONISTS SPOKEN OF—MY EAGERNESS TO KNOW WHAT THIS WORD MEANT—MY +CONSULTATION OF THE DICTIONARY—INCENDIARY INFORMATION—HOW AND WHERE +DERIVED—THE ENIGMA SOLVED—NATHANIEL TURNER’S INSURRECTION—THE +CHOLERA—RELIGION—FIRST AWAKENED BY A METHODIST MINISTER NAMED HANSON—MY +DEAR AND GOOD OLD COLORED FRIEND, LAWSON—HIS CHARACTER AND +OCCUPATION—HIS INFLUENCE OVER ME—OUR MUTUAL ATTACHMENT—THE COMFORT I +DERIVED FROM HIS TEACHING—NEW HOPES AND ASPIRATIONS—HEAVENLY LIGHT +AMIDST EARTHLY DARKNESS—THE TWO IRISHMEN ON THE WHARF—THEIR +CONVERSATION—HOW I LEARNED TO WRITE—WHAT WERE MY AIMS. + + +Whilst in the painful state of mind described in the foregoing chapter, +almost regretting my very existence, because doomed to a life of +bondage, so goaded and so wretched, at times, that I was even tempted +to destroy my own life, I was keenly sensitive and eager to know any, +and every thing that transpired, having any relation to the subject of +slavery. I was all ears, all eyes, whenever the words _slave, slavery_, +dropped from the lips of any white person, and the occasions were not +unfrequent when these words became leading ones, in high, social +debate, at our house. Every little while, I could hear Master Hugh, or +some of his company, speaking with much warmth and excitement about +_“abolitionists.”_ Of _who_ or _what_ these were, I was totally +ignorant. I found, however, that whatever they might be, they were most +cordially hated and soundly abused by slaveholders, of every grade. I +very soon discovered, too, that slavery was, in some sort, under +consideration, whenever the abolitionists were alluded to. This made +the term a very interesting one to me. If a slave, for instance, had +made good his escape from slavery, it was generally alleged, that he +had been persuaded and assisted by the abolitionists. If, also, a slave +killed his master—as was sometimes the case—or struck down his +overseer, or set fire to his master’s dwelling, or committed any +violence or crime, out of the common way, it was certain to be said, +that such a crime was the legitimate fruits of the abolition movement. +Hearing such charges often repeated, I, naturally enough, received the +impression that abolition—whatever else it might be—could not be +unfriendly to the slave, nor very friendly to the slaveholder. I +therefore set about finding out, if possible, _who_ and _what_ the +abolitionists were, and _why_ they were so obnoxious to the +slaveholders. The dictionary afforded me very little help. It taught me +that abolition was the “act of abolishing;” but it left me in ignorance +at the very point where I most wanted information—and that was, as to +the _thing_ to be abolished. A city newspaper, the _Baltimore +American_, gave me the incendiary information denied me by the +dictionary. In its columns I found, that, on a certain day, a vast +number of petitions and memorials had been presented to congress, +praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and +for the abolition of the slave trade between the states of the Union. +This was enough. The vindictive bitterness, the marked caution, the +studied reverse, and the cumbrous ambiguity, practiced by our white +folks, when alluding to this subject, was now fully explained. Ever, +after that, when I heard the words “abolition,” or “abolition +movement,” mentioned, I felt the matter one of a personal concern; and +I drew near to listen, when I could do so, without seeming too +solicitous and prying. There was HOPE in those words. Ever and anon, +too, I could see some terrible denunciation of slavery, in our +papers—copied from abolition papers at the north—and the injustice of +such denunciation commented on. These I read with avidity. I had a deep +satisfaction in the thought, that the rascality of slaveholders was not +concealed from the eyes of the world, and that I was not alone in +abhorring the cruelty and brutality of slavery. A still deeper train of +thought was stirred. I saw that there was _fear_, as well as _rage_, in +the manner of speaking of the abolitionists. The latter, therefore, I +was compelled to regard as having some power in the country; and I felt +that they might, possibly, succeed in their designs. When I met with a +slave to whom I deemed it safe to talk on the subject, I would impart +to him so much of the mystery as I had been able to penetrate. Thus, +the light of this grand movement broke in upon my mind, by degrees; and +I must say, that, ignorant as I then was of the philosophy of that +movement, I believe in it from the first—and I believed in it, partly, +because I saw that it alarmed the consciences of slaveholders. The +insurrection of Nathaniel Turner had been quelled, but the alarm and +terror had not subsided. The cholera was on its way, and the thought +was present, that God was angry with the white people because of their +slaveholding wickedness, and, therefore, his judgments were abroad in +the land. It was impossible for me not to hope much from the abolition +movement, when I saw it supported by the Almighty, and armed with +DEATH! + +Previous to my contemplation of the anti-slavery movement, and its +probable results, my mind had been seriously awakened to the subject of +religion. I was not more than thirteen years old, when I felt the need +of God, as a father and protector. My religious nature was awakened by +the preaching of a white Methodist minister, named Hanson. He thought +that all men, great and small, bond and free, were sinners in the sight +of God; that they were, by nature, rebels against His government; and +that they must repent of their sins, and be reconciled to God, through +Christ. I cannot say that I had a very distinct notion of what was +required of me; but one thing I knew very well—I was wretched, and had +no means of making myself otherwise. Moreover, I knew that I could pray +for light. I consulted a good colored man, named Charles Johnson; and, +in tones of holy affection, he told me to pray, and what to pray for. I +was, for weeks, a poor, brokenhearted mourner, traveling through the +darkness and misery of doubts and fears. I finally found that change of +heart which comes by “casting all one’s care” upon God, and by having +faith in Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer, Friend, and Savior of those who +diligently seek Him. + +After this, I saw the world in a new light. I seemed to live in a new +world, surrounded by new objects, and to be animated by new hopes and +desires. I loved all mankind—slaveholders not excepted; though I +abhorred slavery more than ever. My great concern was, now, to have the +world converted. The desire for knowledge increased, and especially did +I want a thorough acquaintance with the contents of the bible. I have +gathered scattered pages from this holy book, from the filthy street +gutters of Baltimore, and washed and dried them, that in the moments of +my leisure, I might get a word or two of wisdom from them. While thus +religiously seeking knowledge, I became acquainted with a good old +colored man, named Lawson. A more devout man than he, I never saw. He +drove a dray for Mr. James Ramsey, the owner of a rope-walk on Fell’s +Point, Baltimore. This man not only prayed three time a day, but he +prayed as he walked through the streets, at his work—on his dray +everywhere. His life was a life of prayer, and his words (when he spoke +to his friends,) were about a better world. Uncle Lawson lived near +Master Hugh’s house; and, becoming deeply attached to the old man, I +went often with him to prayer-meeting, and spent much of my leisure +time with him on Sunday. The old man could read a little, and I was a +great help to him, in making out the hard words, for I was a better +reader than he. I could teach him _“the letter,”_ but he could teach me +_“the spirit;”_ and high, refreshing times we had together, in singing, +praying and glorifying God. These meetings with Uncle Lawson went on +for a long time, without the knowledge of Master Hugh or my mistress. +Both knew, however, that I had become religious, and they seemed to +respect my conscientious piety. My mistress was still a professor of +religion, and belonged to class. Her leader was no less a person than +the Rev. Beverly Waugh, the presiding elder, and now one of the bishops +of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Waugh was then stationed over +Wilk street church. I am careful to state these facts, that the reader +may be able to form an idea of the precise influences which had to do +with shaping and directing my mind. + +In view of the cares and anxieties incident to the life she was then +leading, and, especially, in view of the separation from religious +associations to which she was subjected, my mistress had, as I have +before stated, become lukewarm, and needed to be looked up by her +leader. This brought Mr. Waugh to our house, and gave me an opportunity +to hear him exhort and pray. But my chief instructor, in matters of +religion, was Uncle Lawson. He was my spiritual father; and I loved him +intensely, and was at his house every chance I got. + +This pleasure was not long allowed me. Master Hugh became averse to my +going to Father Lawson’s, and threatened to whip me if I ever went +there again. I now felt myself persecuted by a wicked man; and I +_would_ go to Father Lawson’s, notwithstanding the threat. The good old +man had told me, that the “Lord had a great work for me to do;” and I +must prepare to do it; and that he had been shown that I must preach +the gospel. His words made a deep impression on my mind, and I verily +felt that some such work was before me, though I could not see _how_ I +should ever engage in its performance. “The good Lord,” he said, “would +bring it to pass in his own good time,” and that I must go on reading +and studying the scriptures. The advice and the suggestions of Uncle +Lawson, were not without their influence upon my character and destiny. +He threw my thoughts into a channel from which they have never entirely +diverged. He fanned my already intense love of knowledge into a flame, +by assuring me that I was to be a useful man in the world. When I would +say to him, “How can these things be and what can _I_ do?” his simple +reply was, _“Trust in the Lord.”_ When I told him that “I was a slave, +and a slave FOR LIFE,” he said, “the Lord can make you free, my dear. +All things are possible with him, only _have faith in God.”_ “Ask, and +it shall be given.” “If you want liberty,” said the good old man, “ask +the Lord for it, _in faith_, AND HE WILL GIVE IT TO YOU.” + +Thus assured, and cheered on, under the inspiration of hope, I worked +and prayed with a light heart, believing that my life was under the +guidance of a wisdom higher than my own. With all other blessings +sought at the mercy seat, I always prayed that God would, of His great +mercy, and in His own good time, deliver me from my bondage. + +I went, one day, on the wharf of Mr. Waters; and seeing two Irishmen +unloading a large scow of stone, or ballast I went on board, unasked, +and helped them. When we had finished the work, one of the men came to +me, aside, and asked me a number of questions, and among them, if I +were a slave. I told him “I was a slave, and a slave for life.” The +good Irishman gave his shoulders a shrug, and seemed deeply affected by +the statement. He said, “it was a pity so fine a little fellow as +myself should be a slave for life.” They both had much to say about the +matter, and expressed the deepest sympathy with me, and the most +decided hatred of slavery. They went so far as to tell me that I ought +to run away, and go to the north; that I should find friends there, and +that I would be as free as anybody. I, however, pretended not to be +interested in what they said, for I feared they might be treacherous. +White men have been known to encourage slaves to escape, and then—to +get the reward—they have kidnapped them, and returned them to their +masters. And while I mainly inclined to the notion that these men were +honest and meant me no ill, I feared it might be otherwise. I +nevertheless remembered their words and their advice, and looked +forward to an escape to the north, as a possible means of gaining the +liberty for which my heart panted. It was not my enslavement, at the +then present time, that most affected me; the being a slave _for life_, +was the saddest thought. I was too young to think of running away +immediately; besides, I wished to learn how to write, before going, as +I might have occasion to write my own pass. I now not only had the hope +of freedom, but a foreshadowing of the means by which I might, some +day, gain that inestimable boon. Meanwhile, I resolved to add to my +educational attainments the art of writing. + +After this manner I began to learn to write: I was much in the ship +yard—Master Hugh’s, and that of Durgan & Bailey—and I observed that the +carpenters, after hewing and getting a piece of timber ready for use, +wrote on it the initials of the name of that part of the ship for which +it was intended. When, for instance, a piece of timber was ready for +the starboard side, it was marked with a capital “S.” A piece for the +larboard side was marked “L;” larboard forward, “L. F.;” larboard aft, +was marked “L. A.;” starboard aft, “S. A.;” and starboard forward “S. +F.” I soon learned these letters, and for what they were placed on the +timbers. + +My work was now, to keep fire under the steam box, and to watch the +ship yard while the carpenters had gone to dinner. This interval gave +me a fine opportunity for copying the letters named. I soon astonished +myself with the ease with which I made the letters; and the thought was +soon present, “if I can make four, I can make more.” But having made +these easily, when I met boys about Bethel church, or any of our +play-grounds, I entered the lists with them in the art of writing, and +would make the letters which I had been so fortunate as to learn, and +ask them to “beat that if they could.” With playmates for my teachers, +fences and pavements for my copy books, and chalk for my pen and ink, I +learned the art of writing. I, however, afterward adopted various +methods of improving my hand. The most successful, was copying the +_italics_ in Webster’s spelling book, until I could make them all +without looking on the book. By this time, my little “Master Tommy” had +grown to be a big boy, and had written over a number of copy books, and +brought them home. They had been shown to the neighbors, had elicited +due praise, and were now laid carefully away. Spending my time between +the ship yard and house, I was as often the lone keeper of the latter +as of the former. When my mistress left me in charge of the house, I +had a grand time; I got Master Tommy’s copy books and a pen and ink, +and, in the ample spaces between the lines, I wrote other lines, as +nearly like his as possible. The process was a tedious one, and I ran +the risk of getting a flogging for marring the highly prized copy books +of the oldest son. In addition to those opportunities, sleeping, as I +did, in the kitchen loft—a room seldom visited by any of the family—I +got a flour barrel up there, and a chair; and upon the head of that +barrel I have written (or endeavored to write) copying from the bible +and the Methodist hymn book, and other books which had accumulated on +my hands, till late at night, and when all the family were in bed and +asleep. I was supported in my endeavors by renewed advice, and by holy +promises from the good Father Lawson, with whom I continued to meet, +and pray, and read the scriptures. Although Master Hugh was aware of my +going there, I must say, for his credit, that he never executed his +threat to whip me, for having thus, innocently, employed-my leisure +time. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. _The Vicissitudes of Slave Life_ + + +DEATH OF OLD MASTER’S SON RICHARD, SPEEDILY FOLLOWED BY THAT OF OLD +MASTER—VALUATION AND DIVISION OF ALL THE PROPERTY, INCLUDING THE +SLAVES—MY PRESENCE REQUIRED AT HILLSBOROUGH TO BE APPRAISED AND +ALLOTTED TO A NEW OWNER—MY SAD PROSPECTS AND GRIEF—PARTING—THE UTTER +POWERLESSNESS OF THE SLAVES TO DECIDE THEIR OWN DESTINY—A GENERAL DREAD +OF MASTER ANDREW—HIS WICKEDNESS AND CRUELTY—MISS LUCRETIA MY NEW +OWNER—MY RETURN TO BALTIMORE—JOY UNDER THE ROOF OF MASTER HUGH—DEATH OF +MRS. LUCRETIA—MY POOR OLD GRANDMOTHER—HER SAD FATE—THE LONE COT IN THE +WOODS—MASTER THOMAS AULD’S SECOND MARRIAGE—AGAIN REMOVED FROM MASTER +HUGH’S—REASONS FOR REGRETTING THE CHANGE—A PLAN OF ESCAPE ENTERTAINED. + + +I must now ask the reader to go with me a little back in point of time, +in my humble story, and to notice another circumstance that entered +into my slavery experience, and which, doubtless, has had a share in +deepening my horror of slavery, and increasing my hostility toward +those men and measures that practically uphold the slave system. + +It has already been observed, that though I was, after my removal from +Col. Lloyd’s plantation, in _form_ the slave of Master Hugh, I was, in +_fact_, and in _law_, the slave of my old master, Capt. Anthony. Very +well. + +In a very short time after I went to Baltimore, my old master’s +youngest son, Richard, died; and, in three years and six months after +his death, my old master himself died, leaving only his son, Andrew, +and his daughter, Lucretia, to share his estate. The old man died while +on a visit to his daughter, in Hillsborough, where Capt. Auld and Mrs. +Lucretia now lived. The former, having given up the command of Col. +Lloyd’s sloop, was now keeping a store in that town. + +Cut off, thus unexpectedly, Capt. Anthony died intestate; and his +property must now be equally divided between his two children, Andrew +and Lucretia. + +The valuation and the division of slaves, among contending heirs, is an +important incident in slave life. The character and tendencies of the +heirs, are generally well understood among the slaves who are to be +divided, and all have their aversions and preferences. But, neither +their aversions nor their preferences avail them anything. + +On the death of old master, I was immediately sent for, to be valued +and divided with the other property. Personally, my concern was, +mainly, about my possible removal from the home of Master Hugh, which, +after that of my grandmother, was the most endeared to me. But, the +whole thing, as a feature of slavery, shocked me. It furnished me anew +insight into the unnatural power to which I was subjected. My +detestation of slavery, already great, rose with this new conception of +its enormity. + +That was a sad day for me, a sad day for little Tommy, and a sad day +for my dear Baltimore mistress and teacher, when I left for the Eastern +Shore, to be valued and divided. We, all three, wept bitterly that day; +for we might be parting, and we feared we were parting, forever. No one +could tell among which pile of chattels I should be flung. Thus early, +I got a foretaste of that painful uncertainty which slavery brings to +the ordinary lot of mortals. Sickness, adversity and death may +interfere with the plans and purposes of all; but the slave has the +added danger of changing homes, changing hands, and of having +separations unknown to other men. Then, too, there was the intensified +degradation of the spectacle. What an assemblage! Men and women, young +and old, married and single; moral and intellectual beings, in open +contempt of their humanity, level at a blow with horses, sheep, horned +cattle and swine! Horses and men—cattle and women—pigs and children—all +holding the same rank in the scale of social existence; and all +subjected to the same narrow inspection, to ascertain their value in +gold and silver—the only standard of worth applied by slaveholders to +slaves! How vividly, at that moment, did the brutalizing power of +slavery flash before me! Personality swallowed up in the sordid idea of +property! Manhood lost in chattelhood! + +After the valuation, then came the division. This was an hour of high +excitement and distressing anxiety. Our destiny was now to be _fixed +for life_, and we had no more voice in the decision of the question, +than the oxen and cows that stood chewing at the haymow. One word from +the appraisers, against all preferences or prayers, was enough to +sunder all the ties of friendship and affection, and even to separate +husbands and wives, parents and children. We were all appalled before +that power, which, to human seeming, could bless or blast us in a +moment. Added to the dread of separation, most painful to the majority +of the slaves, we all had a decided horror of the thought of falling +into the hands of Master Andrew. He was distinguished for cruelty and +intemperance. + +Slaves generally dread to fall into the hands of drunken owners. Master +Andrew was almost a confirmed sot, and had already, by his reckless +mismanagement and profligate dissipation, wasted a large portion of old +master’s property. To fall into his hands, was, therefore, considered +merely as the first step toward being sold away to the far south. He +would spend his fortune in a few years, and his farms and slaves would +be sold, we thought, at public outcry; and we should be hurried away to +the cotton fields, and rice swamps, of the sunny south. This was the +cause of deep consternation. + +The people of the north, and free people generally, I think, have less +attachment to the places where they are born and brought up, than have +the slaves. Their freedom to go and come, to be here and there, as they +list, prevents any extravagant attachment to any one particular place, +in their case. On the other hand, the slave is a fixture; he has no +choice, no goal, no destination; but is pegged down to a single spot, +and must take root here, or nowhere. The idea of removal elsewhere, +comes, generally, in the shape of a threat, and in punishment of crime. +It is, therefore, attended with fear and dread. A slave seldom thinks +of bettering his condition by being sold, and hence he looks upon +separation from his native place, with none of the enthusiasm which +animates the bosoms of young freemen, when they contemplate a life in +the far west, or in some distant country where they intend to rise to +wealth and distinction. Nor can those from whom they separate, give +them up with that cheerfulness with which friends and relations yield +each other up, when they feel that it is for the good of the departing +one that he is removed from his native place. Then, too, there is +correspondence, and there is, at least, the hope of reunion, because +reunion is _possible_. But, with the slave, all these mitigating +circumstances are wanting. There is no improvement in his condition +_probable_,—no correspondence _possible_,—no reunion attainable. His +going out into the world, is like a living man going into the tomb, +who, with open eyes, sees himself buried out of sight and hearing of +wife, children and friends of kindred tie. + +In contemplating the likelihoods and possibilities of our +circumstances, I probably suffered more than most of my fellow +servants. I had known what it was to experience kind, and even tender +treatment; they had known nothing of the sort. Life, to them, had been +rough and thorny, as well as dark. They had—most of them—lived on my +old master’s farm in Tuckahoe, and had felt the reign of Mr. Plummer’s +rule. The overseer had written his character on the living parchment of +most of their backs, and left them callous; my back (thanks to my early +removal from the plantation to Baltimore) was yet tender. I had left a +kind mistress at Baltimore, who was almost a mother to me. She was in +tears when we parted, and the probabilities of ever seeing her again, +trembling in the balance as they did, could not be viewed without alarm +and agony. The thought of leaving that kind mistress forever, and, +worse still, of being the slave of Andrew Anthony—a man who, but a few +days before the division of the property, had, in my presence, seized +my brother Perry by the throat, dashed him on the ground, and with the +heel of his boot stamped him on the head, until the blood gushed from +his nose and ears—was terrible! This fiendish proceeding had no better +apology than the fact, that Perry had gone to play, when Master Andrew +wanted him for some trifling service. This cruelty, too, was of a piece +with his general character. After inflicting his heavy blows on my +brother, on observing me looking at him with intense astonishment, he +said, “_That_ is the way I will serve you, one of these days;” meaning, +no doubt, when I should come into his possession. This threat, the +reader may well suppose, was not very tranquilizing to my feelings. I +could see that he really thirsted to get hold of me. But I was there +only for a few days. I had not received any orders, and had violated +none, and there was, therefore, no excuse for flogging me. + +At last, the anxiety and suspense were ended; and they ended, thanks to +a kind Providence, in accordance with my wishes. I fell to the portion +of Mrs. Lucretia—the dear lady who bound up my head, when the savage +Aunt Katy was adding to my sufferings her bitterest maledictions. + +Capt. Thomas Auld and Mrs. Lucretia at once decided on my return to +Baltimore. They knew how sincerely and warmly Mrs. Hugh Auld was +attached to me, and how delighted Mr. Hugh’s son would be to have me +back; and, withal, having no immediate use for one so young, they +willingly let me off to Baltimore. + +I need not stop here to narrate my joy on returning to Baltimore, nor +that of little Tommy; nor the tearful joy of his mother; nor the +evident saticfaction(sic) of Master Hugh. I was just one month absent +from Baltimore, before the matter was decided; and the time really +seemed full six months. + +One trouble over, and on comes another. The slave’s life is full of +uncertainty. I had returned to Baltimore but a short time, when the +tidings reached me, that my friend, Mrs. Lucretia, who was only second +in my regard to Mrs. Hugh Auld, was dead, leaving her husband and only +one child—a daughter, named Amanda. + +Shortly after the death of Mrs. Lucretia, strange to say, Master Andrew +died, leaving his wife and one child. Thus, the whole family of +Anthonys was swept away; only two children remained. All this happened +within five years of my leaving Col. Lloyd’s. + +No alteration took place in the condition of the slaves, in consequence +of these deaths, yet I could not help feeling less secure, after the +death of my friend, Mrs. Lucretia, than I had done during her life. +While she lived, I felt that I had a strong friend to plead for me in +any emergency. Ten years ago, while speaking of the state of things in +our family, after the events just named, I used this language: + +Now all the property of my old master, slaves included, was in the +hands of strangers—strangers who had nothing to do in accumulating it. +Not a slave was left free. All remained slaves, from youngest to +oldest. If any one thing in my experience, more than another, served to +deepen my conviction of the infernal character of slavery, and to fill +me with unutterable loathing of slaveholders, it was their base +ingratitude to my poor old grandmother. She had served my old master +faithfully from youth to old age. She had been the source of all his +wealth; she had peopled his plantation with slaves; she had become a +great-grandmother in his service. She had rocked him in infancy, +attended him in childhood, served him through life, and at his death +wiped from his icy brow the cold death-sweat, and closed his eyes +forever. She was nevertheless left a slave—a slave for life—a slave in +the hands of strangers; and in their hands she saw her children, her +grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren, divided, like so many +sheep, without being gratified with the small privilege of a single +word, as to their or her own destiny. And, to cap the climax of their +base ingratitude and fiendish barbarity, my grandmother, who was now +very old, having outlived my old master and all his children, having +seen the beginning and end of all of them, and her present owners +finding she was of but little value, her frame already racked with the +pains of old age, and complete helplessness fast stealing over her once +active limbs, they took her to the woods, built her a little hut, put +up a little mud-chimney, and then made her welcome to the privilege of +supporting herself there in perfect loneliness; thus virtually turning +her out to die! If my poor old grandmother now lives, she lives to +suffer in utter loneliness; she lives to remember and mourn over the +loss of children, the loss of grandchildren, and the loss of +great-grandchildren. They are, in the language of the slave’s poet, +Whittier— + +Gone, gone, sold and gone, +To the rice swamp dank and lone, +Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings, +Where the noisome insect stings, +Where the fever-demon strews +Poison with the falling dews, +Where the sickly sunbeams glare +Through the hot and misty air:— + Gone, gone, sold and gone + To the rice swamp dank and lone, + From Virginia hills and waters— + Woe is me, my stolen daughters! + + +The hearth is desolate. The children, the unconscious children, who +once sang and danced in her presence, are gone. She gropes her way, in +the darkness of age, for a drink of water. Instead of the voices of her +children, she hears by day the moans of the dove, and by night the +screams of the hideous owl. All is gloom. The grave is at the door. And +now, when weighed down by the pains and aches of old age, when the head +inclines to the feet, when the beginning and ending of human existence +meet, and helpless infancy and painful old age combine together—at this +time, this most needful time, the time for the exercise of that +tenderness and affection which children only can exercise toward a +declining parent—my poor old grandmother, the devoted mother of twelve +children, is left all alone, in yonder little hut, before a few dim +embers. + +Two years after the death of Mrs. Lucretia, Master Thomas married his +second wife. Her name was Rowena Hamilton, the eldest daughter of Mr. +William Hamilton, a rich slaveholder on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, +who lived about five miles from St. Michael’s, the then place of my +master’s residence. + +Not long after his marriage, Master Thomas had a misunderstanding with +Master Hugh, and, as a means of punishing his brother, he ordered him +to send me home. + +As the ground of misunderstanding will serve to illustrate the +character of southern chivalry, and humanity, I will relate it. + +Among the children of my Aunt Milly, was a daughter, named Henny. When +quite a child, Henny had fallen into the fire, and burnt her hands so +bad that they were of very little use to her. Her fingers were drawn +almost into the palms of her hands. She could make out to do something, +but she was considered hardly worth the having—of little more value +than a horse with a broken leg. This unprofitable piece of human +property, ill shapen, and disfigured, Capt. Auld sent off to Baltimore, +making his brother Hugh welcome to her services. + +After giving poor Henny a fair trial, Master Hugh and his wife came to +the conclusion, that they had no use for the crippled servant, and they +sent her back to Master Thomas. Thus, the latter took as an act of +ingratitude, on the part of his brother; and, as a mark of his +displeasure, he required him to send me immediately to St. Michael’s, +saying, if he cannot keep _“Hen,”_ he shall not have _“Fred.”_ + +Here was another shock to my nerves, another breaking up of my plans, +and another severance of my religious and social alliances. I was now a +big boy. I had become quite useful to several young colored men, who +had made me their teacher. I had taught some of them to read, and was +accustomed to spend many of my leisure hours with them. Our attachment +was strong, and I greatly dreaded the separation. But regrets, +especially in a slave, are unavailing. I was only a slave; my wishes +were nothing, and my happiness was the sport of my masters. + +My regrets at now leaving Baltimore, were not for the same reasons as +when I before left that city, to be valued and handed over to my proper +owner. My home was not now the pleasant place it had formerly been. A +change had taken place, both in Master Hugh, and in his once pious and +affectionate wife. The influence of brandy and bad company on him, and +the influence of slavery and social isolation upon her, had wrought +disastrously upon the characters of both. Thomas was no longer “little +Tommy,” but was a big boy, and had learned to assume the airs of his +class toward me. My condition, therefore, in the house of Master Hugh, +was not, by any means, so comfortable as in former years. My +attachments were now outside of our family. They were felt to those to +whom I _imparted_ instruction, and to those little white boys from whom +I _received_ instruction. There, too, was my dear old father, the pious +Lawson, who was, in christian graces, the very counterpart of “Uncle” +Tom. The resemblance is so perfect, that he might have been the +original of Mrs. Stowe’s christian hero. The thought of leaving these +dear friends, greatly troubled me, for I was going without the hope of +ever returning to Baltimore again; the feud between Master Hugh and his +brother being bitter and irreconcilable, or, at least, supposed to be +so. + +In addition to thoughts of friends from whom I was parting, as I +supposed, _forever_, I had the grief of neglected chances of escape to +brood over. I had put off running away, until now I was to be placed +where the opportunities for escaping were much fewer than in a large +city like Baltimore. + +On my way from Baltimore to St. Michael’s, down the Chesapeake bay, our +sloop—the “Amanda”—was passed by the steamers plying between that city +and Philadelphia, and I watched the course of those steamers, and, +while going to St. Michael’s, I formed a plan to escape from slavery; +of which plan, and matters connected therewith the kind reader shall +learn more hereafter. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. _Experience in St. Michael’s_ + + +THE VILLAGE—ITS INHABITANTS—THEIR OCCUPATION AND LOW PROPENSITIES +CAPTAN(sic) THOMAS AULD—HIS CHARACTER—HIS SECOND WIFE, ROWENA—WELL +MATCHED—SUFFERINGS FROM HUNGER—OBLIGED TO TAKE FOOD—MODE OF ARGUMENT IN +VINDICATION THEREOF—NO MORAL CODE OF FREE SOCIETY CAN APPLY TO SLAVE +SOCIETY—SOUTHERN CAMP MEETING—WHAT MASTER THOMAS DID +THERE—HOPES—SUSPICIONS ABOUT HIS CONVERSION—THE RESULT—FAITH AND WORKS +ENTIRELY AT VARIANCE—HIS RISE AND PROGRESS IN THE CHURCH—POOR COUSIN +“HENNY”—HIS TREATMENT OF HER—THE METHODIST PREACHERS—THEIR UTTER +DISREGARD OF US—ONE EXCELLENT EXCEPTION—REV. GEORGE COOKMAN—SABBATH +SCHOOL—HOW BROKEN UP AND BY WHOM—A FUNERAL PALL CAST OVER ALL MY +PROSPECTS—COVEY THE NEGRO-BREAKER. + + +St. Michael’s, the village in which was now my new home, compared +favorably with villages in slave states, generally. There were a few +comfortable dwellings in it, but the place, as a whole, wore a dull, +slovenly, enterprise-forsaken aspect. The mass of the buildings were +wood; they had never enjoyed the artificial adornment of paint, and +time and storms had worn off the bright color of the wood, leaving them +almost as black as buildings charred by a conflagration. + +St. Michael’s had, in former years, (previous to 1833, for that was the +year I went to reside there,) enjoyed some reputation as a ship +building community, but that business had almost entirely given place +to oyster fishing, for the Baltimore and Philadelphia markets—a course +of life highly unfavorable to morals, industry, and manners. Miles +river was broad, and its oyster fishing grounds were extensive; and the +fishermen were out, often, all day, and a part of the night, during +autumn, winter and spring. This exposure was an excuse for carrying +with them, in considerable quanties(sic), spirituous liquors, the then +supposed best antidote for cold. Each canoe was supplied with its jug +of rum; and tippling, among this class of the citizens of St. +Michael’s, became general. This drinking habit, in an ignorant +population, fostered coarseness, vulgarity and an indolent disregard +for the social improvement of the place, so that it was admitted, by +the few sober, thinking people who remained there, that St. Michael’s +had become a very _unsaintly_, as well as unsightly place, before I +went there to reside. + +I left Baltimore for St. Michael’s in the month of March, 1833. I know +the year, because it was the one succeeding the first cholera in +Baltimore, and was the year, also, of that strange phenomenon, when the +heavens seemed about to part with its starry train. I witnessed this +gorgeous spectacle, and was awe-struck. The air seemed filled with +bright, descending messengers from the sky. It was about daybreak when +I saw this sublime scene. I was not without the suggestion, at the +moment, that it might be the harbinger of the coming of the Son of Man; +and, in my then state of mind, I was prepared to hail Him as my friend +and deliverer. I had read, that the “stars shall fall from heaven”; and +they were now falling. I was suffering much in my mind. It did seem +that every time the young tendrils of my affection became attached, +they were rudely broken by some unnatural outside power; and I was +beginning to look away to heaven for the rest denied me on earth. + +But, to my story. It was now more than seven years since I had lived +with Master Thomas Auld, in the family of my old master, on Col. +Lloyd’s plantation. We were almost entire strangers to each other; for, +when I knew him at the house of my old master, it was not as a +_master_, but simply as “Captain Auld,” who had married old master’s +daughter. All my lessons concerning his temper and disposition, and the +best methods of pleasing him, were yet to be learnt. Slaveholders, +however, are not very ceremonious in approaching a slave; and my +ignorance of the new material in shape of a master was but transient. +Nor was my mistress long in making known her animus. She was not a +“Miss Lucretia,” traces of whom I yet remembered, and the more +especially, as I saw them shining in the face of little Amanda, her +daughter, now living under a step-mother’s government. I had not +forgotten the soft hand, guided by a tender heart, that bound up with +healing balsam the gash made in my head by Ike, the son of Abel. Thomas +and Rowena, I found to be a well-matched pair. _He_ was stingy, and +_she_ was cruel; and—what was quite natural in such cases—she possessed +the ability to make him as cruel as herself, while she could easily +descend to the level of his meanness. In the house of Master Thomas, I +was made—for the first time in seven years to feel the pinchings of +hunger, and this was not very easy to bear. + +For, in all the changes of Master Hugh’s family, there was no change in +the bountifulness with which they supplied me with food. Not to give a +slave enough to eat, is meanness intensified, and it is so recognized +among slaveholders generally, in Maryland. The rule is, no matter how +coarse the food, only let there be enough of it. This is the theory, +and—in the part of Maryland I came from—the general practice accords +with this theory. Lloyd’s plantation was an exception, as was, also, +the house of Master Thomas Auld. + +All know the lightness of Indian corn-meal, as an article of food, and +can easily judge from the following facts whether the statements I have +made of the stinginess of Master Thomas, are borne out. There were four +slaves of us in the kitchen, and four whites in the great house Thomas +Auld, Mrs. Auld, Hadaway Auld (brother of Thomas Auld) and little +Amanda. The names of the slaves in the kitchen, were Eliza, my sister; +Priscilla, my aunt; Henny, my cousin; and myself. There were eight +persons in the family. There was, each week, one half bushel of +corn-meal brought from the mill; and in the kitchen, corn-meal was +almost our exclusive food, for very little else was allowed us. Out of +this bushel of corn-meal, the family in the great house had a small +loaf every morning; thus leaving us, in the kitchen, with not quite a +half a peck per week, apiece. This allowance was less than half the +allowance of food on Lloyd’s plantation. It was not enough to subsist +upon; and we were, therefore, reduced to the wretched necessity of +living at the expense of our neighbors. We were compelled either to +beg, or to steal, and we did both. I frankly confess, that while I +hated everything like stealing, _as such_, I nevertheless did not +hesitate to take food, when I was hungry, wherever I could find it. Nor +was this practice the mere result of an unreasoning instinct; it was, +in my case, the result of a clear apprehension of the claims of +morality. I weighed and considered the matter closely, before I +ventured to satisfy my hunger by such means. Considering that my labor +and person were the property of Master Thomas, and that I was by him +deprived of the necessaries of life necessaries obtained by my own +labor—it was easy to deduce the right to supply myself with what was my +own. It was simply appropriating what was my own to the use of my +master, since the health and strength derived from such food were +exerted in _his_ service. To be sure, this was stealing, according to +the law and gospel I heard from St. Michael’s pulpit; but I had already +begun to attach less importance to what dropped from that quarter, on +that point, while, as yet, I retained my reverence for religion. It was +not always convenient to steal from master, and the same reason why I +might, innocently, steal from him, did not seem to justify me in +stealing from others. In the case of my master, it was only a question +of _removal_—the taking his meat out of one tub, and putting it into +another; the ownership of the meat was not affected by the transaction. +At first, he owned it in the _tub_, and last, he owned it in _me_. His +meat house was not always open. There was a strict watch kept on that +point, and the key was on a large bunch in Rowena’s pocket. A great +many times have we, poor creatures, been severely pinched with hunger, +when meat and bread have been moulding under the lock, while the key +was in the pocket of our mistress. This had been so when she _knew_ we +were nearly half starved; and yet, that mistress, with saintly air, +would kneel with her husband, and pray each morning that a merciful God +would bless them in basket and in store, and save them, at last, in his +kingdom. But I proceed with the argument. + +It was necessary that right to steal from _others_ should be +established; and this could only rest upon a wider range of +generalization than that which supposed the right to steal from my +master. + +It was sometime before I arrived at this clear right. The reader will +get some idea of my train of reasoning, by a brief statement of the +case. “I am,” thought I, “not only the slave of Thomas, but I am the +slave of society at large. Society at large has bound itself, in form +and in fact, to assist Master Thomas in robbing me of my rightful +liberty, and of the just reward of my labor; therefore, whatever rights +I have against Master Thomas, I have, equally, against those +confederated with him in robbing me of liberty. As society has marked +me out as privileged plunder, on the principle of self-preservation I +am justified in plundering in turn. Since each slave belongs to all; +all must, therefore, belong to each.” + +I shall here make a profession of faith which may shock some, offend +others, and be dissented from by all. It is this: Within the bounds of +his just earnings, I hold that the slave is fully justified in helping +himself to the _gold and silver, and the best apparel of his master, or +that of any other slaveholder; and that such taking is not stealing in +any just sense of that word_. + +The morality of _free_ society can have no application to _slave_ +society. Slaveholders have made it almost impossible for the slave to +commit any crime, known either to the laws of God or to the laws of +man. If he steals, he takes his own; if he kills his master, he +imitates only the heroes of the revolution. Slaveholders I hold to be +individually and collectively responsible for all the evils which grow +out of the horrid relation, and I believe they will be so held at the +judgment, in the sight of a just God. Make a man a slave, and you rob +him of moral responsibility. Freedom of choice is the essence of all +accountability. But my kind readers are, probably, less concerned about +my opinions, than about that which more nearly touches my personal +experience; albeit, my opinions have, in some sort, been formed by that +experience. + +Bad as slaveholders are, I have seldom met with one so entirely +destitute of every element of character capable of inspiring respect, +as was my present master, Capt. Thomas Auld. + +When I lived with him, I thought him incapable of a noble action. The +leading trait in his character was intense selfishness. I think he was +fully aware of this fact himself, and often tried to conceal it. Capt. +Auld was not a _born_ slaveholder—not a birthright member of the +slaveholding oligarchy. He was only a slaveholder by _marriage-right;_ +and, of all slaveholders, these latter are, _by far_, the most +exacting. There was in him all the love of domination, the pride of +mastery, and the swagger of authority, but his rule lacked the vital +element of consistency. He could be cruel; but his methods of showing +it were cowardly, and evinced his meanness rather than his spirit. His +commands were strong, his enforcement weak. + +Slaves are not insensible to the whole-souled characteristics of a +generous, dashing slaveholder, who is fearless of consequences; and +they prefer a master of this bold and daring kind—even with the risk of +being shot down for impudence to the fretful, little soul, who never +uses the lash but at the suggestion of a love of gain. + +Slaves, too, readily distinguish between the birthright bearing of the +original slaveholder and the assumed attitudes of the accidental +slaveholder; and while they cannot respect either, they certainly +despise the latter more than the former. + +The luxury of having slaves wait upon him was something new to Master +Thomas; and for it he was wholly unprepared. He was a slaveholder, +without the ability to hold or manage his slaves. We seldom called him +“master,” but generally addressed him by his “bay craft” title—“_Capt. +Auld_.” It is easy to see that such conduct might do much to make him +appear awkward, and, consequently, fretful. His wife was especially +solicitous to have us call her husband “master.” Is your _master_ at +the store?”—“Where is your _master_?”—“Go and tell your _master”_—“I +will make your _master_ acquainted with your conduct”—she would say; +but we were inapt scholars. Especially were I and my sister Eliza inapt +in this particular. Aunt Priscilla was less stubborn and defiant in her +spirit than Eliza and myself; and, I think, her road was less rough +than ours. + +In the month of August, 1833, when I had almost become desperate under +the treatment of Master Thomas, and when I entertained more strongly +than ever the oft-repeated determination to run away, a circumstance +occurred which seemed to promise brighter and better days for us all. +At a Methodist camp-meeting, held in the Bay Side (a famous place for +campmeetings) about eight miles from St. Michael’s, Master Thomas came +out with a profession of religion. He had long been an object of +interest to the church, and to the ministers, as I had seen by the +repeated visits and lengthy exhortations of the latter. He was a fish +quite worth catching, for he had money and standing. In the community +of St. Michael’s he was equal to the best citizen. He was strictly +temperate; _perhaps_, from principle, but most likely, from interest. +There was very little to do for him, to give him the appearance of +piety, and to make him a pillar in the church. Well, the camp-meeting +continued a week; people gathered from all parts of the county, and two +steamboat loads came from Baltimore. The ground was happily chosen; +seats were arranged; a stand erected; a rude altar fenced in, fronting +the preachers’ stand, with straw in it for the accommodation of +mourners. This latter would hold at least one hundred persons. In +front, and on the sides of the preachers’ stand, and outside the long +rows of seats, rose the first class of stately tents, each vieing with +the other in strength, neatness, and capacity for accommodating its +inmates. Behind this first circle of tents was another, less imposing, +which reached round the camp-ground to the speakers’ stand. Outside +this second class of tents were covered wagons, ox carts, and vehicles +of every shape and size. These served as tents to their owners. Outside +of these, huge fires were burning, in all directions, where roasting, +and boiling, and frying, were going on, for the benefit of those who +were attending to their own spiritual welfare within the circle. +_Behind_ the preachers’ stand, a narrow space was marked out for the +use of the colored people. There were no seats provided for this class +of persons; the preachers addressed them, _“over the left,”_ if they +addressed them at all. After the preaching was over, at every service, +an invitation was given to mourners to come into the pen; and, in some +cases, ministers went out to persuade men and women to come in. By one +of these ministers, Master Thomas Auld was persuaded to go inside the +pen. I was deeply interested in that matter, and followed; and, though +colored people were not allowed either in the pen or in front of the +preachers’ stand, I ventured to take my stand at a sort of half-way +place between the blacks and whites, where I could distinctly see the +movements of mourners, and especially the progress of Master Thomas. + +“If he has got religion,” thought I, “he will emancipate his slaves; +and if he should not do so much as this, he will, at any rate, behave +toward us more kindly, and feed us more generously than he has +heretofore done.” Appealing to my own religious experience, and judging +my master by what was true in my own case, I could not regard him as +soundly converted, unless some such good results followed his +profession of religion. + +But in my expectations I was doubly disappointed; Master Thomas was +_Master Thomas_ still. The fruits of his righteousness were to show +themselves in no such way as I had anticipated. His conversion was not +to change his relation toward men—at any rate not toward BLACK men—but +toward God. My faith, I confess, was not great. There was something in +his appearance that, in my mind, cast a doubt over his conversion. +Standing where I did, I could see his every movement. I watched +narrowly while he remained in the little pen; and although I saw that +his face was extremely red, and his hair disheveled, and though I heard +him groan, and saw a stray tear halting on his cheek, as if inquiring +“which way shall I go?”—I could not wholly confide in the genuineness +of his conversion. The hesitating behavior of that tear-drop and its +loneliness, distressed me, and cast a doubt upon the whole transaction, +of which it was a part. But people said, _“Capt. Auld had come +through,”_ and it was for me to hope for the best. I was bound to do +this, in charity, for I, too, was religious, and had been in the church +full three years, although now I was not more than sixteen years old. +Slaveholders may, sometimes, have confidence in the piety of some of +their slaves; but the slaves seldom have confidence in the piety of +their masters. _“He cant go to heaven with our blood in his skirts_,” +is a settled point in the creed of every slave; rising superior to all +teaching to the contrary, and standing forever as a fixed fact. The +highest evidence the slaveholder can give the slave of his acceptance +with God, is the emancipation of his slaves. This is proof that he is +willing to give up all to God, and for the sake of God. Not to do this, +was, in my estimation, and in the opinion of all the slaves, an +evidence of half-heartedness, and wholly inconsistent with the idea of +genuine conversion. I had read, also, somewhere in the Methodist +Discipline, the following question and answer: + +“_Question_. What shall be done for the extirpation of slavery? + +“_Answer_. We declare that we are much as ever convinced of the great +evil of slavery; therefore, no slaveholder shall be eligible to any +official station in our church.” + +These words sounded in my ears for a long time, and encouraged me to +hope. But, as I have before said, I was doomed to disappointment. +Master Thomas seemed to be aware of my hopes and expectations +concerning him. I have thought, before now, that he looked at me in +answer to my glances, as much as to say, “I will teach you, young man, +that, though I have parted with my sins, I have not parted with my +sense. I shall hold my slaves, and go to heaven too.” + +Possibly, to convince us that we must not presume _too much_ upon his +recent conversion, he became rather more rigid and stringent in his +exactions. There always was a scarcity of good nature about the man; +but now his whole countenance was _soured_ over with the seemings of +piety. His religion, therefore, neither made him emancipate his slaves, +nor caused him to treat them with greater humanity. If religion had any +effect on his character at all, it made him more cruel and hateful in +all his ways. The natural wickedness of his heart had not been removed, +but only reinforced, by the profession of religion. Do I judge him +harshly? God forbid. Facts _are_ facts. Capt. Auld made the greatest +profession of piety. His house was, literally, a house of prayer. In +the morning, and in the evening, loud prayers and hymns were heard +there, in which both himself and his wife joined; yet, _no more meal_ +was brought from the mill, _no more attention_ was paid to the moral +welfare of the kitchen; and nothing was done to make us feel that the +heart of Master Thomas was one whit better than it was before he went +into the little pen, opposite to the preachers’ stand, on the camp +ground. + +Our hopes (founded on the discipline) soon vanished; for the +authorities let him into the church _at once_, and before he was out of +his term of _probation_, I heard of his leading class! He distinguished +himself greatly among the brethren, and was soon an exhorter. His +progress was almost as rapid as the growth of the fabled vine of Jack’s +bean. No man was more active than he, in revivals. He would go many +miles to assist in carrying them on, and in getting outsiders +interested in religion. His house being one of the holiest, if not the +happiest in St. Michael’s, became the “preachers’ home.” These +preachers evidently liked to share Master Thomas’s hospitality; for +while he _starved us_, he _stuffed_ them. Three or four of these +ambassadors of the gospel—according to slavery—have been there at a +time; all living on the fat of the land, while we, in the kitchen, were +nearly starving. Not often did we get a smile of recognition from these +holy men. They seemed almost as unconcerned about our getting to +heaven, as they were about our getting out of slavery. To this general +charge there was one exception—the Rev. GEORGE COOKMAN. Unlike Rev. +Messrs. Storks, Ewry, Hickey, Humphrey and Cooper (all whom were on the +St. Michael’s circuit) he kindly took an interest in our temporal and +spiritual welfare. Our souls and our bodies were all alike sacred in +his sight; and he really had a good deal of genuine anti-slavery +feeling mingled with his colonization ideas. There was not a slave in +our neighborhood that did not love, and almost venerate, Mr. Cookman. +It was pretty generally believed that he had been chiefly instrumental +in bringing one of the largest slaveholders—Mr. Samuel Harrison—in that +neighborhood, to emancipate all his slaves, and, indeed, the general +impression was, that Mr. Cookman had labored faithfully with +slaveholders, whenever he met them, to induce them to emancipate their +bondmen, and that he did this as a religious duty. When this good man +was at our house, we were all sure to be called in to prayers in the +morning; and he was not slow in making inquiries as to the state of our +minds, nor in giving us a word of exhortation and of encouragement. +Great was the sorrow of all the slaves, when this faithful preacher of +the gospel was removed from the Talbot county circuit. He was an +eloquent preacher, and possessed what few ministers, south of Mason +Dixon’s line, possess, or _dare_ to show, viz: a warm and philanthropic +heart. The Mr. Cookman, of whom I speak, was an Englishman by birth, +and perished while on his way to England, on board the ill-fated +“President”. Could the thousands of slaves in Maryland know the fate of +the good man, to whose words of comfort they were so largely indebted, +they would thank me for dropping a tear on this page, in memory of +their favorite preacher, friend and benefactor. + +But, let me return to Master Thomas, and to my experience, after his +conversion. In Baltimore, I could, occasionally, get into a Sabbath +school, among the free children, and receive lessons, with the rest; +but, having already learned both to read and to write, I was more of a +teacher than a pupil, even there. When, however, I went back to the +Eastern Shore, and was at the house of Master Thomas, I was neither +allowed to teach, nor to be taught. The whole community—with but a +single exception, among the whites—frowned upon everything like +imparting instruction either to slaves or to free colored persons. That +single exception, a pious young man, named Wilson, asked me, one day, +if I would like to assist him in teaching a little Sabbath school, at +the house of a free colored man in St. Michael’s, named James Mitchell. +The idea was to me a delightful one, and I told him I would gladly +devote as much of my Sabbath as I could command, to that most laudable +work. Mr. Wilson soon mustered up a dozen old spelling books, and a few +testaments; and we commenced operations, with some twenty scholars, in +our Sunday school. Here, thought I, is something worth living for; here +is an excellent chance for usefulness; and I shall soon have a company +of young friends, lovers of knowledge, like some of my Baltimore +friends, from whom I now felt parted forever. + +Our first Sabbath passed delightfully, and I spent the week after very +joyously. I could not go to Baltimore, but I could make a little +Baltimore here. At our second meeting, I learned that there was some +objection to the existence of the Sabbath school; and, sure enough, we +had scarcely got at work—_good work_, simply teaching a few colored +children how to read the gospel of the Son of God—when in rushed a mob, +headed by Mr. Wright Fairbanks and Mr. Garrison West—two +class-leaders—and Master Thomas; who, armed with sticks and other +missiles, drove us off, and commanded us never to meet for such a +purpose again. One of this pious crew told me, that as for my part, I +wanted to be another Nat Turner; and if I did not look out, I should +get as many balls into me, as Nat did into him. Thus ended the infant +Sabbath school, in the town of St. Michael’s. The reader will not be +surprised when I say, that the breaking up of my Sabbath school, by +these class-leaders, and professedly holy men, did not serve to +strengthen my religious convictions. The cloud over my St. Michael’s +home grew heavier and blacker than ever. + +It was not merely the agency of Master Thomas, in breaking up and +destroying my Sabbath school, that shook my confidence in the power of +southern religion to make men wiser or better; but I saw in him all the +cruelty and meanness, _after_ his conversion, which he had exhibited +before he made a profession of religion. His cruelty and meanness were +especially displayed in his treatment of my unfortunate cousin, Henny, +whose lameness made her a burden to him. I have no extraordinary +personal hard usage toward myself to complain of, against him, but I +have seen him tie up the lame and maimed woman, and whip her in a +manner most brutal, and shocking; and then, with blood-chilling +blasphemy, he would quote the passage of scripture, “That servant which +knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according +to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” Master would keep this +lacerated woman tied up by her wrists, to a bolt in the joist, three, +four and five hours at a time. He would tie her up early in the +morning, whip her with a cowskin before breakfast; leave her tied up; +go to his store, and, returning to his dinner, repeat the castigation; +laying on the rugged lash, on flesh already made raw by repeated blows. +He seemed desirous to get the poor girl out of existence, or, at any +rate, off his hands. In proof of this, he afterwards gave her away to +his sister Sarah (Mrs. Cline) but, as in the case of Master Hugh, Henny +was soon returned on his hands. Finally, upon a pretense that he could +do nothing with her (I use his own words) he “set her adrift, to take +care of herself.” Here was a recently converted man, holding, with +tight grasp, the well-framed, and able bodied slaves left him by old +master—the persons, who, in freedom, could have taken care of +themselves; yet, turning loose the only cripple among them, virtually +to starve and die. + +No doubt, had Master Thomas been asked, by some pious northern brother, +_why_ he continued to sustain the relation of a slaveholder, to those +whom he retained, his answer would have been precisely the same as many +other religious slaveholders have returned to that inquiry, viz: “I +hold my slaves for their own good.” + +Bad as my condition was when I lived with Master Thomas, I was soon to +experience a life far more goading and bitter. The many differences +springing up between myself and Master Thomas, owing to the clear +perception I had of his character, and the boldness with which I +defended myself against his capricious complaints, led him to declare +that I was unsuited to his wants; that my city life had affected me +perniciously; that, in fact, it had almost ruined me for every good +purpose, and had fitted me for everything that was bad. One of my +greatest faults, or offenses, was that of letting his horse get away, +and go down to the farm belonging to his father-in-law. The animal had +a liking for that farm, with which I fully sympathized. Whenever I let +it out, it would go dashing down the road to Mr. Hamilton’s, as if +going on a grand frolic. My horse gone, of course I must go after it. +The explanation of our mutual attachment to the place is the same; the +horse found there good pasturage, and I found there plenty of bread. +Mr. Hamilton had his faults, but starving his slaves was not among +them. He gave food, in abundance, and that, too, of an excellent +quality. In Mr. Hamilton’s cook—Aunt Mary—I found a most generous and +considerate friend. She never allowed me to go there without giving me +bread enough to make good the deficiencies of a day or two. Master +Thomas at last resolved to endure my behavior no longer; he could +neither keep me, nor his horse, we liked so well to be at his +father-in-law’s farm. I had now lived with him nearly nine months, and +he had given me a number of severe whippings, without any visible +improvement in my character, or my conduct; and now he was resolved to +put me out—as he said—“_to be broken._” + +There was, in the Bay Side, very near the camp ground, where my master +got his religious impressions, a man named Edward Covey, who enjoyed +the execrated reputation, of being a first rate hand at breaking young +Negroes. This Covey was a poor man, a farm renter; and this reputation +(hateful as it was to the slaves and to all good men) was, at the same +time, of immense advantage to him. It enabled him to get his farm +tilled with very little expense, compared with what it would have cost +him without this most extraordinary reputation. Some slaveholders +thought it an advantage to let Mr. Covey have the government of their +slaves a year or two, almost free of charge, for the sake of the +excellent training such slaves got under his happy management! Like +some horse breakers, noted for their skill, who ride the best horses in +the country without expense, Mr. Covey could have under him, the most +fiery bloods of the neighborhood, for the simple reward of returning +them to their owners, _well broken_. Added to the natural fitness of +Mr. Covey for the duties of his profession, he was said to “enjoy +religion,” and was as strict in the cultivation of piety, as he was in +the cultivation of his farm. I was made aware of his character by some +who had been under his hand; and while I could not look forward to +going to him with any pleasure, I was glad to get away from St. +Michael’s. I was sure of getting enough to eat at Covey’s, even if I +suffered in other respects. _This_, to a hungry man, is not a prospect +to be regarded with indifference. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. _Covey, the Negro Breaker_ + + +JOURNEY TO MY NEW MASTER’S—MEDITATIONS BY THE WAY—VIEW OF COVEY’S +RESIDENCE—THE FAMILY—MY AWKWARDNESS AS A FIELD HAND—A CRUEL BEATING—WHY +IT WAS GIVEN—DESCRIPTION OF COVEY—FIRST ADVENTURE AT OX DRIVING—HAIR +BREADTH ESCAPES—OX AND MAN ALIKE PROPERTY—COVEY’S MANNER OF PROCEEDING +TO WHIP—HARD LABOR BETTER THAN THE WHIP FOR BREAKING DOWN THE +SPIRIT—CUNNING AND TRICKERY OF COVEY—FAMILY WORSHIP—SHOCKING CONTEMPT +FOR CHASTITY—I AM BROKEN DOWN—GREAT MENTAL AGITATION IN CONTRASTING THE +FREEDOM OF THE SHIPS WITH HIS OWN SLAVERY—ANGUISH BEYOND DESCRIPTION. + + +The morning of the first of January, 1834, with its chilling wind and +pinching frost, quite in harmony with the winter in my own mind, found +me, with my little bundle of clothing on the end of a stick, swung +across my shoulder, on the main road, bending my way toward Covey’s, +whither I had been imperiously ordered by Master Thomas. The latter had +been as good as his word, and had committed me, without reserve, to the +mastery of Mr. Edward Covey. Eight or ten years had now passed since I +had been taken from my grandmother’s cabin, in Tuckahoe; and these +years, for the most part, I had spent in Baltimore, where—as the reader +has already seen—I was treated with comparative tenderness. I was now +about to sound profounder depths in slave life. The rigors of a field, +less tolerable than the field of battle, awaited me. My new master was +notorious for his fierce and savage disposition, and my only +consolation in going to live with him was, the certainty of finding him +precisely as represented by common fame. There was neither joy in my +heart, nor elasticity in my step, as I started in search of the +tyrant’s home. Starvation made me glad to leave Thomas Auld’s, and the +cruel lash made me dread to go to Covey’s. Escape was impossible; so, +heavy and sad, I paced the seven miles, which separated Covey’s house +from St. Michael’s—thinking much by the solitary way—averse to my +condition; but _thinking_ was all I could do. Like a fish in a net, +allowed to play for a time, I was now drawn rapidly to the shore, +secured at all points. “I am,” thought I, “but the sport of a power +which makes no account, either of my welfare or of my happiness. By a +law which I can clearly comprehend, but cannot evade nor resist, I am +ruthlessly snatched from the hearth of a fond grandmother, and hurried +away to the home of a mysterious ‘old master;’ again I am removed from +there, to a master in Baltimore; thence am I snatched away to the +Eastern Shore, to be valued with the beasts of the field, and, with +them, divided and set apart for a possessor; then I am sent back to +Baltimore; and by the time I have formed new attachments, and have +begun to hope that no more rude shocks shall touch me, a difference +arises between brothers, and I am again broken up, and sent to St. +Michael’s; and now, from the latter place, I am footing my way to the +home of a new master, where, I am given to understand, that, like a +wild young working animal, I am to be broken to the yoke of a bitter +and life-long bondage.” + +With thoughts and reflections like these, I came in sight of a small +wood-colored building, about a mile from the main road, which, from the +description I had received, at starting, I easily recognized as my new +home. The Chesapeake bay—upon the jutting banks of which the little +wood-colored house was standing—white with foam, raised by the heavy +north-west wind; Poplar Island, covered with a thick, black pine +forest, standing out amid this half ocean; and Kent Point, stretching +its sandy, desert-like shores out into the foam-cested bay—were all in +sight, and deepened the wild and desolate aspect of my new home. + +The good clothes I had brought with me from Baltimore were now worn +thin, and had not been replaced; for Master Thomas was as little +careful to provide us against cold, as against hunger. Met here by a +north wind, sweeping through an open space of forty miles, I was glad +to make any port; and, therefore, I speedily pressed on to the little +wood-colored house. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Covey; Miss +Kemp (a broken-backed woman) a sister of Mrs. Covey; William Hughes, +cousin to Edward Covey; Caroline, the cook; Bill Smith, a hired man; +and myself. Bill Smith, Bill Hughes, and myself, were the working force +of the farm, which consisted of three or four hundred acres. I was now, +for the first time in my life, to be a field hand; and in my new +employment I found myself even more awkward than a green country boy +may be supposed to be, upon his first entrance into the bewildering +scenes of city life; and my awkwardness gave me much trouble. Strange +and unnatural as it may seem, I had been at my new home but three days, +before Mr. Covey (my brother in the Methodist church) gave me a bitter +foretaste of what was in reserve for me. I presume he thought, that +since he had but a single year in which to complete his work, the +sooner he began, the better. Perhaps he thought that by coming to blows +at once, we should mutually better understand our relations. But to +whatever motive, direct or indirect, the cause may be referred, I had +not been in his possession three whole days, before he subjected me to +a most brutal chastisement. Under his heavy blows, blood flowed freely, +and wales were left on my back as large as my little finger. The sores +on my back, from this flogging, continued for weeks, for they were kept +open by the rough and coarse cloth which I wore for shirting. The +occasion and details of this first chapter of my experience as a field +hand, must be told, that the reader may see how unreasonable, as well +as how cruel, my new master, Covey, was. The whole thing I found to be +characteristic of the man; and I was probably treated no worse by him +than scores of lads who had previously been committed to him, for +reasons similar to those which induced my master to place me with him. +But, here are the facts connected with the affair, precisely as they +occurred. + +On one of the coldest days of the whole month of January, 1834, I was +ordered, at day break, to get a load of wood, from a forest about two +miles from the house. In order to perform this work, Mr. Covey gave me +a pair of unbroken oxen, for, it seems, his breaking abilities had not +been turned in this direction; and I may remark, in passing, that +working animals in the south, are seldom so well trained as in the +north. In due form, and with all proper ceremony, I was introduced to +this huge yoke of unbroken oxen, and was carefully told which was +“Buck,” and which was “Darby”—which was the “in hand,” and which was +the “off hand” ox. The master of this important ceremony was no less a +person than Mr. Covey, himself; and the introduction was the first of +the kind I had ever had. My life, hitherto, had led me away from horned +cattle, and I had no knowledge of the art of managing them. What was +meant by the “in ox,” as against the “off ox,” when both were equally +fastened to one cart, and under one yoke, I could not very easily +divine; and the difference, implied by the names, and the peculiar +duties of each, were alike _Greek_ to me. Why was not the “off ox” +called the “in ox?” Where and what is the reason for this distinction +in names, when there is none in the things themselves? After initiating +me into the _“woa,” “back” “gee,” “hither”_—the entire spoken language +between oxen and driver—Mr. Covey took a rope, about ten feet long and +one inch thick, and placed one end of it around the horns of the “in +hand ox,” and gave the other end to me, telling me that if the oxen +started to run away, as the scamp knew they would, I must hold on to +the rope and stop them. I need not tell any one who is acquainted with +either the strength of the disposition of an untamed ox, that this +order was about as unreasonable as a command to shoulder a mad bull! I +had never driven oxen before, and I was as awkward, as a driver, as it +is possible to conceive. It did not answer for me to plead ignorance, +to Mr. Covey; there was something in his manner that quite forbade +that. He was a man to whom a slave seldom felt any disposition to +speak. Cold, distant, morose, with a face wearing all the marks of +captious pride and malicious sternness, he repelled all advances. Covey +was not a large man; he was only about five feet ten inches in height, +I should think; short necked, round shoulders; of quick and wiry +motion, of thin and wolfish visage; with a pair of small, greenish-gray +eyes, set well back under a forehead without dignity, and constantly in +motion, and floating his passions, rather than his thoughts, in sight, +but denying them utterance in words. The creature presented an +appearance altogether ferocious and sinister, disagreeable and +forbidding, in the extreme. When he spoke, it was from the corner of +his mouth, and in a sort of light growl, like a dog, when an attempt is +made to take a bone from him. The fellow had already made me believe +him even _worse_ than he had been presented. With his directions, and +without stopping to question, I started for the woods, quite anxious to +perform my first exploit in driving, in a creditable manner. The +distance from the house to the woods gate a full mile, I should +think—was passed over with very little difficulty; for although the +animals ran, I was fleet enough, in the open field, to keep pace with +them; especially as they pulled me along at the end of the rope; but, +on reaching the woods, I was speedily thrown into a distressing plight. +The animals took fright, and started off ferociously into the woods, +carrying the cart, full tilt, against trees, over stumps, and dashing +from side to side, in a manner altogether frightful. As I held the +rope, I expected every moment to be crushed between the cart and the +huge trees, among which they were so furiously dashing. After running +thus for several minutes, my oxen were, finally, brought to a stand, by +a tree, against which they dashed themselves with great violence, +upsetting the cart, and entangling themselves among sundry young +saplings. By the shock, the body of the cart was flung in one +direction, and the wheels and tongue in another, and all in the +greatest confusion. There I was, all alone, in a thick wood, to which I +was a stranger; my cart upset and shattered; my oxen entangled, wild, +and enraged; and I, poor soul! but a green hand, to set all this +disorder right. I knew no more of oxen than the ox driver is supposed +to know of wisdom. After standing a few moments surveying the damage +and disorder, and not without a presentiment that this trouble would +draw after it others, even more distressing, I took one end of the cart +body, and, by an extra outlay of strength, I lifted it toward the +axle-tree, from which it had been violently flung; and after much +pulling and straining, I succeeded in getting the body of the cart in +its place. This was an important step out of the difficulty, and its +performance increased my courage for the work which remained to be +done. The cart was provided with an ax, a tool with which I had become +pretty well acquainted in the ship yard at Baltimore. With this, I cut +down the saplings by which my oxen were entangled, and again pursued my +journey, with my heart in my mouth, lest the oxen should again take it +into their senseless heads to cut up a caper. My fears were groundless. +Their spree was over for the present, and the rascals now moved off as +soberly as though their behavior had been natural and exemplary. On +reaching the part of the forest where I had been, the day before, +chopping wood, I filled the cart with a heavy load, as a security +against another running away. But, the neck of an ox is equal in +strength to iron. It defies all ordinary burdens, when excited. Tame +and docile to a proverb, when _well_ trained, the ox is the most sullen +and intractable of animals when but half broken to the yoke. + +I now saw, in my situation, several points of similarity with that of +the oxen. They were property, so was I; they were to be broken, so was +I. Covey was to break me, I was to break them; break and be broken—such +is life. + +Half the day already gone, and my face not yet homeward! It required +only two day’s experience and observation to teach me, that such +apparent waste of time would not be lightly overlooked by Covey. I +therefore hurried toward home; but, on reaching the lane gate, I met +with the crowning disaster for the day. This gate was a fair specimen +of southern handicraft. There were two huge posts, eighteen inches in +diameter, rough hewed and square, and the heavy gate was so hung on one +of these, that it opened only about half the proper distance. On +arriving here, it was necessary for me to let go the end of the rope on +the horns of the “in hand ox;” and now as soon as the gate was open, +and I let go of it to get the rope, again, off went my oxen—making +nothing of their load—full tilt; and in doing so they caught the huge +gate between the wheel and the cart body, literally crushing it to +splinters, and coming only within a few inches of subjecting me to a +similar crushing, for I was just in advance of the wheel when it struck +the left gate post. With these two hair-breadth escape, I thought I +could sucessfully(sic) explain to Mr. Covey the delay, and avert +apprehended punishment. I was not without a faint hope of being +commended for the stern resolution which I had displayed in +accomplishing the difficult task—a task which, I afterwards learned, +even Covey himself would not have undertaken, without first driving the +oxen for some time in the open field, preparatory to their going into +the woods. But, in this I was disappointed. On coming to him, his +countenance assumed an aspect of rigid displeasure, and, as I gave him +a history of the casualties of my trip, his wolfish face, with his +greenish eyes, became intensely ferocious. “Go back to the woods +again,” he said, muttering something else about wasting time. I hastily +obeyed; but I had not gone far on my way, when I saw him coming after +me. My oxen now behaved themselves with singular propriety, opposing +their present conduct to my representation of their former antics. I +almost wished, now that Covey was coming, they would do something in +keeping with the character I had given them; but no, they had already +had their spree, and they could afford now to be extra good, readily +obeying my orders, and seeming to understand them quite as well as I +did myself. On reaching the woods, my tormentor—who seemed all the way +to be remarking upon the good behavior of his oxen—came up to me, and +ordered me to stop the cart, accompanying the same with the threat that +he would now teach me how to break gates, and idle away my time, when +he sent me to the woods. Suiting the action to the word, Covey paced +off, in his own wiry fashion, to a large, black gum tree, the young +shoots of which are generally used for ox _goads_, they being +exceedingly tough. Three of these _goads_, from four to six feet long, +he cut off, and trimmed up, with his large jack-knife. This done, he +ordered me to take off my clothes. To this unreasonable order I made no +reply, but sternly refused to take off my clothing. “If you will beat +me,” thought I, “you shall do so over my clothes.” After many threats, +which made no impression on me, he rushed at me with something of the +savage fierceness of a wolf, tore off the few and thinly worn clothes I +had on, and proceeded to wear out, on my back, the heavy goads which he +had cut from the gum tree. This flogging was the first of a series of +floggings; and though very severe, it was less so than many which came +after it, and these, for offenses far lighter than the gate breaking. + +I remained with Mr. Covey one year (I cannot say I _lived_ with him) +and during the first six months that I was there, I was whipped, either +with sticks or cowskins, every week. Aching bones and a sore back were +my constant companions. Frequent as the lash was used, Mr. Covey +thought less of it, as a means of breaking down my spirit, than that of +hard and long continued labor. He worked me steadily, up to the point +of my powers of endurance. From the dawn of day in the morning, till +the darkness was complete in the evening, I was kept at hard work, in +the field or the woods. At certain seasons of the year, we were all +kept in the field till eleven and twelve o’clock at night. At these +times, Covey would attend us in the field, and urge us on with words or +blows, as it seemed best to him. He had, in his life, been an overseer, +and he well understood the business of slave driving. There was no +deceiving him. He knew just what a man or boy could do, and he held +both to strict account. When he pleased, he would work himself, like a +very Turk, making everything fly before him. It was, however, scarcely +necessary for Mr. Covey to be really present in the field, to have his +work go on industriously. He had the faculty of making us feel that he +was always present. By a series of adroitly managed surprises, which he +practiced, I was prepared to expect him at any moment. His plan was, +never to approach the spot where his hands were at work, in an open, +manly and direct manner. No thief was ever more artful in his devices +than this man Covey. He would creep and crawl, in ditches and gullies; +hide behind stumps and bushes, and practice so much of the cunning of +the serpent, that Bill Smith and I—between ourselves—never called him +by any other name than _“the snake.”_ We fancied that in his eyes and +his gait we could see a snakish resemblance. One half of his +proficiency in the art of Negro breaking, consisted, I should think, in +this species of cunning. We were never secure. He could see or hear us +nearly all the time. He was, to us, behind every stump, tree, bush and +fence on the plantation. He carried this kind of trickery so far, that +he would sometimes mount his horse, and make believe he was going to +St. Michael’s; and, in thirty minutes afterward, you might find his +horse tied in the woods, and the snake-like Covey lying flat in the +ditch, with his head lifted above its edge, or in a fence corner, +watching every movement of the slaves! I have known him walk up to us +and give us special orders, as to our work, in advance, as if he were +leaving home with a view to being absent several days; and before he +got half way to the house, he would avail himself of our inattention to +his movements, to turn short on his heels, conceal himself behind a +fence corner or a tree, and watch us until the going down of the sun. +Mean and contemptible as is all this, it is in keeping with the +character which the life of a slaveholder is calculated to produce. +There is no earthly inducement, in the slave’s condition, to incite him +to labor faithfully. The fear of punishment is the sole motive for any +sort of industry, with him. Knowing this fact, as the slaveholder does, +and judging the slave by himself, he naturally concludes the slave will +be idle whenever the cause for this fear is absent. Hence, all sorts of +petty deceptions are practiced, to inspire this fear. + +But, with Mr. Covey, trickery was natural. Everything in the shape of +learning or religion, which he possessed, was made to conform to this +semi-lying propensity. He did not seem conscious that the practice had +anything unmanly, base or contemptible about it. It was a part of an +important system, with him, essential to the relation of master and +slave. I thought I saw, in his very religious devotions, this +controlling element of his character. A long prayer at night made up +for the short prayer in the morning; and few men could seem more +devotional than he, when he had nothing else to do. + +Mr. Covey was not content with the cold style of family worship, +adopted in these cold latitudes, which begin and end with a simple +prayer. No! the voice of praise, as well as of prayer, must be heard in +his house, night and morning. At first, I was called upon to bear some +part in these exercises; but the repeated flogging given me by Covey, +turned the whole thing into mockery. He was a poor singer, and mainly +relied on me for raising the hymn for the family, and when I failed to +do so, he was thrown into much confusion. I do not think that he ever +abused me on account of these vexations. His religion was a thing +altogether apart from his worldly concerns. He knew nothing of it as a +holy principle, directing and controlling his daily life, making the +latter conform to the requirements of the gospel. One or two facts will +illustrate his character better than a volume of generalties(sic). + +I have already said, or implied, that Mr. Edward Covey was a poor man. +He was, in fact, just commencing to lay the foundation of his fortune, +as fortune is regarded in a slave state. The first condition of wealth +and respectability there, being the ownership of human property, every +nerve is strained, by the poor man, to obtain it, and very little +regard is had to the manner of obtaining it. In pursuit of this object, +pious as Mr. Covey was, he proved himself to be as unscrupulous and +base as the worst of his neighbors. In the beginning, he was only +able—as he said—“to buy one slave;” and, scandalous and shocking as is +the fact, he boasted that he bought her simply “_as a breeder_.” But +the worst is not told in this naked statement. This young woman +(Caroline was her name) was virtually compelled by Mr. Covey to abandon +herself to the object for which he had purchased her; and the result +was, the birth of twins at the end of the year. At this addition to his +human stock, both Edward Covey and his wife, Susan, were ecstatic with +joy. No one dreamed of reproaching the woman, or of finding fault with +the hired man—Bill Smith—the father of the children, for Mr. Covey +himself had locked the two up together every night, thus inviting the +result. + +But I will pursue this revolting subject no further. No better +illustration of the unchaste and demoralizing character of slavery can +be found, than is furnished in the fact that this professedly Christian +slaveholder, amidst all his prayers and hymns, was shamelessly and +boastfully encouraging, and actually compelling, in his own house, +undisguised and unmitigated fornication, as a means of increasing his +human stock. I may remark here, that, while this fact will be read with +disgust and shame at the north, it will be _laughed at_, as smart and +praiseworthy in Mr. Covey, at the south; for a man is no more condemned +there for buying a woman and devoting her to this life of dishonor, +than for buying a cow, and raising stock from her. The same rules are +observed, with a view to increasing the number and quality of the +former, as of the latter. + +I will here reproduce what I said of my own experience in this wretched +place, more than ten years ago: + +If at any one time of my life, more than another, I was made to drink +the bitterest dregs of slavery, that time was during the first six +months of my stay with Mr. Covey. We were worked all weathers. It was +never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, blow, snow, or hail too +hard for us to work in the field. Work, work, work, was scarcely more +the order of the day than the night. The longest days were too short +for him, and the shortest nights were too long for him. I was somewhat +unmanageable when I first went there; but a few months of his +discipline tamed me. Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken +in body, soul and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed; my +intellect languished; the disposition to read departed; the cheerful +spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed +in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute! + +Sunday was my only leisure time. I spent this in a sort of beast-like +stupor, between sleep and wake, under some large tree. At times, I +would rise up, a flash of energetic freedom would dart through my soul, +accompanied with a faint beam of hope, flickered for a moment, and then +vanished. I sank down again, mourning over my wretched condition. I was +sometimes prompted to take my life, and that of Covey, but was +prevented by a combination of hope and fear. My sufferings on this +plantation seem now like a dream rather than a stern reality. + +Our house stood within a few rods of the Chesapeake bay, whose broad +bosom was ever white with sails from every quarter of the habitable +globe. Those beautiful vessels, robed in purest white, so delightful to +the eye of freemen, were to me so many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and +torment me with thoughts of my wretched condition. I have often, in the +deep stillness of a summer’s Sabbath, stood all alone upon the banks of +that noble bay, and traced, with saddened heart and tearful eye, the +countless number of sails moving off to the mighty ocean. The sight of +these always affected me powerfully. My thoughts would compel +utterance; and there, with no audience but the Almighty, I would pour +out my soul’s complaint in my rude way, with an apostrophe to the +moving multitude of ships: + +“You are loosed from your moorings, and free; I am fast in my chains, +and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly +before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swift-winged angels, that fly +around the world; I am confined in bands of iron! O, that I were free! +O, that I were on one of your gallant decks, and under your protecting +wing! Alas! betwixt me and you the turbid waters roll. Go on, go on. O +that I could also go! Could I but swim! If I could fly! O, why was I +born a man, of whom to make a brute! The glad ship is gone; she hides +in the dim distance. I am left in the hottest hell of unending slavery. +O God, save me! God, deliver me! Let me be free! Is there any God? Why +am I a slave? I will run away. I will not stand it. Get caught, or get +clear, I’ll try it. I had as well die with ague as with fever. I have +only one life to lose. I had as well be killed running as die standing. +Only think of it; one hundred miles straight north, and I am free! Try +it? Yes! God helping me, I will. It cannot be that I shall live and die +a slave. I will take to the water. This very bay shall yet bear me into +freedom. The steamboats steered in a north-east coast from North Point. +I will do the same; and when I get to the head of the bay, I will turn +my canoe adrift, and walk straight through Delaware into Pennsylvania. +When I get there, I shall not be required to have a pass; I will travel +without being disturbed. Let but the first opportunity offer, and come +what will, I am off. Meanwhile, I will try to bear up under the yoke. I +am not the only slave in the world. Why should I fret? I can bear as +much as any of them. Besides, I am but a boy, and all boys are bound to +some one. It may be that my misery in slavery will only increase my +happiness when I get free. There is a better day coming.” + +I shall never be able to narrate the mental experience through which it +was my lot to pass during my stay at Covey’s. I was completely wrecked, +changed and bewildered; goaded almost to madness at one time, and at +another reconciling myself to my wretched condition. Everything in the +way of kindness, which I had experienced at Baltimore; all my former +hopes and aspirations for usefulness in the world, and the happy +moments spent in the exercises of religion, contrasted with my then +present lot, but increased my anguish. + +I suffered bodily as well as mentally. I had neither sufficient time in +which to eat or to sleep, except on Sundays. The overwork, and the +brutal chastisements of which I was the victim, combined with that +ever-gnawing and soul-devouring thought—“_I am a slave—a slave for +life—a slave with no rational ground to hope for freedom_”—rendered me +a living embodiment of mental and physical wretchedness. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. _Another Pressure of the Tyrant’s Vice_ + + +EXPERIENCE AT COVEY’S SUMMED UP—FIRST SIX MONTHS SEVERER THAN THE +SECOND—PRELIMINARIES TO THE CHANCE—REASONS FOR NARRATING THE +CIRCUMSTANCES—SCENE IN TREADING YARD—TAKEN ILL—UNUSUAL BRUTALITY OF +COVEY—ESCAPE TO ST. MICHAEL’S—THE PURSUIT—SUFFERING IN THE WOODS—DRIVEN +BACK AGAIN TO COVEY’S—BEARING OF MASTER THOMAS—THE SLAVE IS NEVER +SICK—NATURAL TO EXPECT SLAVES TO FEIGN SICKNESS—LAZINESS OF +SLAVEHOLDERS. + + +The foregoing chapter, with all its horrid incidents and shocking +features, may be taken as a fair representation of the first six months +of my life at Covey’s. The reader has but to repeat, in his own mind, +once a week, the scene in the woods, where Covey subjected me to his +merciless lash, to have a true idea of my bitter experience there, +during the first period of the breaking process through which Mr. Covey +carried me. I have no heart to repeat each separate transaction, in +which I was victim of his violence and brutality. Such a narration +would fill a volume much larger than the present one. I aim only to +give the reader a truthful impression of my slave life, without +unnecessarily affecting him with harrowing details. + +As I have elsewhere intimated that my hardships were much greater +during the first six months of my stay at Covey’s, than during the +remainder of the year, and as the change in my condition was owing to +causes which may help the reader to a better understanding of human +nature, when subjected to the terrible extremities of slavery, I will +narrate the circumstances of this change, although I may seem thereby +to applaud my own courage. You have, dear reader, seen me humbled, +degraded, broken down, enslaved, and brutalized, and you understand how +it was done; now let us see the converse of all this, and how it was +brought about; and this will take us through the year 1834. + +On one of the hottest days of the month of August, of the year just +mentioned, had the reader been passing through Covey’s farm, he might +have seen me at work, in what is there called the “treading yard”—a +yard upon which wheat is trodden out from the straw, by the horses’ +feet. I was there, at work, feeding the “fan,” or rather bringing wheat +to the fan, while Bill Smith was feeding. Our force consisted of Bill +Hughes, Bill Smith, and a slave by the name of Eli; the latter having +been hired for this occasion. The work was simple, and required +strength and activity, rather than any skill or intelligence, and yet, +to one entirely unused to such work, it came very hard. The heat was +intense and overpowering, and there was much hurry to get the wheat, +trodden out that day, through the fan; since, if that work was done an +hour before sundown, the hands would have, according to a promise of +Covey, that hour added to their night’s rest. I was not behind any of +them in the wish to complete the day’s work before sundown, and, hence, +I struggled with all my might to get the work forward. The promise of +one hour’s repose on a week day, was sufficient to quicken my pace, and +to spur me on to extra endeavor. Besides, we had all planned to go +fishing, and I certainly wished to have a hand in that. But I was +disappointed, and the day turned out to be one of the bitterest I ever +experienced. About three o’clock, while the sun was pouring down his +burning rays, and not a breeze was stirring, I broke down; my strength +failed me; I was seized with a violent aching of the head, attended +with extreme dizziness, and trembling in every limb. Finding what was +coming, and feeling it would never do to stop work, I nerved myself up, +and staggered on until I fell by the side of the wheat fan, feeling +that the earth had fallen upon me. This brought the entire work to a +dead stand. There was work for four; each one had his part to perform, +and each part depended on the other, so that when one stopped, all were +compelled to stop. Covey, who had now become my dread, as well as my +tormentor, was at the house, about a hundred yards from where I was +fanning, and instantly, upon hearing the fan stop, he came down to the +treading yard, to inquire into the cause of our stopping. Bill Smith +told him I was sick, and that I was unable longer to bring wheat to the +fan. + +I had, by this time, crawled away, under the side of a post-and-rail +fence, in the shade, and was exceeding ill. The intense heat of the +sun, the heavy dust rising from the fan, the stooping, to take up the +wheat from the yard, together with the hurrying, to get through, had +caused a rush of blood to my head. In this condition, Covey finding out +where I was, came to me; and, after standing over me a while, he asked +me what the matter was. I told him as well as I could, for it was with +difficulty that I could speak. He then gave me a savage kick in the +side, which jarred my whole frame, and commanded me to get up. The man +had obtained complete control over me; and if he had commanded me to do +any possible thing, I should, in my then state of mind, have endeavored +to comply. I made an effort to rise, but fell back in the attempt, +before gaining my feet. The brute now gave me another heavy kick, and +again told me to rise. I again tried to rise, and succeeded in gaining +my feet; but upon stooping to get the tub with which I was feeding the +fan, I again staggered and fell to the ground; and I must have so +fallen, had I been sure that a hundred bullets would have pierced me, +as the consequence. While down, in this sad condition, and perfectly +helpless, the merciless Negro breaker took up the hickory slab, with +which Hughes had been striking off the wheat to a level with the sides +of the half bushel measure (a very hard weapon) and with the sharp edge +of it, he dealt me a heavy blow on my head which made a large gash, and +caused the blood to run freely, saying, at the same time, “If _you have +got the headache, I’ll cure you_.” This done, he ordered me again to +rise, but I made no effort to do so; for I had made up my mind that it +was useless, and that the heartless monster might now do his worst; he +could but kill me, and that might put me out of my misery. Finding me +unable to rise, or rather despairing of my doing so, Covey left me, +with a view to getting on with the work without me. I was bleeding very +freely, and my face was soon covered with my warm blood. Cruel and +merciless as was the motive that dealt that blow, dear reader, the +wound was fortunate for me. Bleeding was never more efficacious. The +pain in my head speedily abated, and I was soon able to rise. Covey +had, as I have said, now left me to my fate; and the question was, +shall I return to my work, or shall I find my way to St. Michael’s, and +make Capt. Auld acquainted with the atrocious cruelty of his brother +Covey, and beseech him to get me another master? Remembering the object +he had in view, in placing me under the management of Covey, and +further, his cruel treatment of my poor crippled cousin, Henny, and his +meanness in the matter of feeding and clothing his slaves, there was +little ground to hope for a favorable reception at the hands of Capt. +Thomas Auld. Nevertheless, I resolved to go straight to Capt. Auld, +thinking that, if not animated by motives of humanity, he might be +induced to interfere on my behalf from selfish considerations. “He +cannot,” thought I, “allow his property to be thus bruised and +battered, marred and defaced; and I will go to him, and tell him the +simple truth about the matter.” In order to get to St. Michael’s, by +the most favorable and direct road, I must walk seven miles; and this, +in my sad condition, was no easy performance. I had already lost much +blood; I was exhausted by over exertion; my sides were sore from the +heavy blows planted there by the stout boots of Mr. Covey; and I was, +in every way, in an unfavorable plight for the journey. I however +watched my chance, while the cruel and cunning Covey was looking in an +opposite direction, and started off, across the field, for St. +Michael’s. This was a daring step; if it failed, it would only +exasperate Covey, and increase the rigors of my bondage, during the +remainder of my term of service under him; but the step was taken, and +I must go forward. I succeeded in getting nearly half way across the +broad field, toward the woods, before Mr. Covey observed me. I was +still bleeding, and the exertion of running had started the blood +afresh. _“Come back! Come back!”_ vociferated Covey, with threats of +what he would do if I did not return instantly. But, disregarding his +calls and his threats, I pressed on toward the woods as fast as my +feeble state would allow. Seeing no signs of my stopping, Covey caused +his horse to be brought out and saddled, as if he intended to pursue +me. The race was now to be an unequal one; and, thinking I might be +overhauled by him, if I kept the main road, I walked nearly the whole +distance in the woods, keeping far enough from the road to avoid +detection and pursuit. But, I had not gone far, before my little +strength again failed me, and I laid down. The blood was still oozing +from the wound in my head; and, for a time, I suffered more than I can +describe. There I was, in the deep woods, sick and emaciated, pursued +by a wretch whose character for revolting cruelty beggars all +opprobrious speech—bleeding, and almost bloodless. I was not without +the fear of bleeding to death. The thought of dying in the woods, all +alone, and of being torn to pieces by the buzzards, had not yet been +rendered tolerable by my many troubles and hardships, and I was glad +when the shade of the trees, and the cool evening breeze, combined with +my matted hair to stop the flow of blood. After lying there about three +quarters of an hour, brooding over the singular and mournful lot to +which I was doomed, my mind passing over the whole scale or circle of +belief and unbelief, from faith in the overruling providence of God, to +the blackest atheism, I again took up my journey toward St. Michael’s, +more weary and sad than in the morning when I left Thomas Auld’s for +the home of Mr. Covey. I was bare-footed and bare-headed, and in my +shirt sleeves. The way was through bogs and briers, and I tore my feet +often during the journey. I was full five hours in going the seven or +eight miles; partly, because of the difficulties of the way, and +partly, because of the feebleness induced by my illness, bruises and +loss of blood. On gaining my master’s store, I presented an appearance +of wretchedness and woe, fitted to move any but a heart of stone. From +the crown of my head to the sole of my feet, there were marks of blood. +My hair was all clotted with dust and blood, and the back of my shirt +was literally stiff with the same. Briers and thorns had scarred and +torn my feet and legs, leaving blood marks there. Had I escaped from a +den of tigers, I could not have looked worse than I did on reaching St. +Michael’s. In this unhappy plight, I appeared before my professedly +_Christian_ master, humbly to invoke the interposition of his power and +authority, to protect me from further abuse and violence. I had begun +to hope, during the latter part of my tedious journey toward St. +Michael’s, that Capt. Auld would now show himself in a nobler light +than I had ever before seen him. I was disappointed. I had jumped from +a sinking ship into the sea; I had fled from the tiger to something +worse. I told him all the circumstances, as well as I could; how I was +endeavoring to please Covey; how hard I was at work in the present +instance; how unwilling I sunk down under the heat, toil and pain; the +brutal manner in which Covey had kicked me in the side; the gash cut in +my head; my hesitation about troubling him (Capt. Auld) with +complaints; but, that now I felt it would not be best longer to conceal +from him the outrages committed on me from time to time by Covey. At +first, master Thomas seemed somewhat affected by the story of my +wrongs, but he soon repressed his feelings and became cold as iron. It +was impossible—as I stood before him at the first—for him to seem +indifferent. I distinctly saw his human nature asserting its conviction +against the slave system, which made cases like mine _possible;_ but, +as I have said, humanity fell before the systematic tyranny of slavery. +He first walked the floor, apparently much agitated by my story, and +the sad spectacle I presented; but, presently, it was _his_ turn to +talk. He began moderately, by finding excuses for Covey, and ending +with a full justification of him, and a passionate condemnation of me. +“He had no doubt I deserved the flogging. He did not believe I was +sick; I was only endeavoring to get rid of work. My dizziness was +laziness, and Covey did right to flog me, as he had done.” After thus +fairly annihilating me, and rousing himself by his own eloquence, he +fiercely demanded what I wished _him_ to do in the case! + +With such a complete knock-down to all my hopes, as he had given me, +and feeling, as I did, my entire subjection to his power, I had very +little heart to reply. I must not affirm my innocence of the +allegations which he had piled up against me; for that would be +impudence, and would probably call down fresh violence as well as wrath +upon me. The guilt of a slave is always, and everywhere, presumed; and +the innocence of the slaveholder or the slave employer, is always +asserted. The word of the slave, against this presumption, is generally +treated as impudence, worthy of punishment. “Do you contradict me, you +rascal?” is a final silencer of counter statements from the lips of a +slave. + +Calming down a little in view of my silence and hesitation, and, +perhaps, from a rapid glance at the picture of misery I presented, he +inquired again, “what I would have him do?” Thus invited a second time, +I told Master Thomas I wished him to allow me to get a new home and to +find a new master; that, as sure as I went back to live with Mr. Covey +again, I should be killed by him; that he would never forgive my coming +to him (Capt. Auld) with a complaint against him (Covey); that, since I +had lived with him, he almost crushed my spirit, and I believed that he +would ruin me for future service; that my life was not safe in his +hands. This, Master Thomas _(my brother in the church)_ regarded as +“nonsence(sic).” “There was no danger of Mr. Covey’s killing me; he was +a good man, industrious and religious, and he would not think of +removing me from that home; besides,” said he and this I found was the +most distressing thought of all to him—“if you should leave Covey now, +that your year has but half expired, I should lose your wages for the +entire year. You belong to Mr. Covey for one year, and you _must go +back_ to him, come what will. You must not trouble me with any more +stories about Mr. Covey; and if you do not go immediately home, I will +get hold of you myself.” This was just what I expected, when I found he +had _prejudged_ the case against me. “But, Sir,” I said, “I am sick and +tired, and I cannot get home to-night.” At this, he again relented, and +finally he allowed me to remain all night at St. Michael’s; but said I +must be off early in the morning, and concluded his directions by +making me swallow a huge dose of _epsom salts_—about the only medicine +ever administered to slaves. + +It was quite natural for Master Thomas to presume I was feigning +sickness to escape work, for he probably thought that were _he_ in the +place of a slave with no wages for his work, no praise for well doing, +no motive for toil but the lash—he would try every possible scheme by +which to escape labor. I say I have no doubt of this; the reason is, +that there are not, under the whole heavens, a set of men who cultivate +such an intense dread of labor as do the slaveholders. The charge of +laziness against the slave is ever on their lips, and is the standing +apology for every species of cruelty and brutality. These men literally +“bind heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s +shoulders; but they, themselves, will not move them with one of their +fingers.” + +My kind readers shall have, in the next chapter—what they were led, +perhaps, to expect to find in this—namely: an account of my partial +disenthrallment from the tyranny of Covey, and the marked change which +it brought about. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. _The Last Flogging_ + + +A SLEEPLESS NIGHT—RETURN TO COVEY’S—PURSUED BY COVEY—THE CHASE +DEFEATED—VENGEANCE POSTPONED—MUSINGS IN THE WOODS—THE +ALTERNATIVE—DEPLORABLE SPECTACLE—NIGHT IN THE WOODS—EXPECTED +ATTACK—ACCOSTED BY SANDY, A FRIEND, NOT A HUNTER—SANDY’S +HOSPITALITY—THE “ASH CAKE” SUPPER—THE INTERVIEW WITH SANDY—HIS +ADVICE—SANDY A CONJURER AS WELL AS A CHRISTIAN—THE MAGIC ROOT—STRANGE +MEETING WITH COVEY—HIS MANNER—COVEY’S SUNDAY FACE—MY DEFENSIVE +RESOLVE—THE FIGHT—THE VICTORY, AND ITS RESULTS. + + +Sleep itself does not always come to the relief of the weary in body, +and the broken in spirit; especially when past troubles only foreshadow +coming disasters. The last hope had been extinguished. My master, who I +did not venture to hope would protect me as _a man_, had even now +refused to protect me as _his property;_ and had cast me back, covered +with reproaches and bruises, into the hands of a stranger to that mercy +which was the soul of the religion he professed. May the reader never +spend such a night as that allotted to me, previous to the morning +which was to herald my return to the den of horrors from which I had +made a temporary escape. + +I remained all night—sleep I did not—at St. Michael’s; and in the +morning (Saturday) I started off, according to the order of Master +Thomas, feeling that I had no friend on earth, and doubting if I had +one in heaven. I reached Covey’s about nine o’clock; and just as I +stepped into the field, before I had reached the house, Covey, true to +his snakish habits, darted out at me from a fence corner, in which he +had secreted himself, for the purpose of securing me. He was amply +provided with a cowskin and a rope; and he evidently intended to _tie +me up_, and to wreak his vengeance on me to the fullest extent. I +should have been an easy prey, had he succeeded in getting his hands +upon me, for I had taken no refreshment since noon on Friday; and this, +together with the pelting, excitement, and the loss of blood, had +reduced my strength. I, however, darted back into the woods, before the +ferocious hound could get hold of me, and buried myself in a thicket, +where he lost sight of me. The corn-field afforded me cover, in getting +to the woods. But for the tall corn, Covey would have overtaken me, and +made me his captive. He seemed very much chagrined that he did not +catch me, and gave up the chase, very reluctantly; for I could see his +angry movements, toward the house from which he had sallied, on his +foray. + +Well, now I am clear of Covey, and of his wrathful lash, for present. I +am in the wood, buried in its somber gloom, and hushed in its solemn +silence; hid from all human eyes; shut in with nature and nature’s God, +and absent from all human contrivances. Here was a good place to pray; +to pray for help for deliverance—a prayer I had often made before. But +how could I pray? Covey could pray—Capt. Auld could pray—I would fain +pray; but doubts (arising partly from my own neglect of the means of +grace, and partly from the sham religion which everywhere prevailed, +cast in my mind a doubt upon all religion, and led me to the conviction +that prayers were unavailing and delusive) prevented my embracing the +opportunity, as a religious one. Life, in itself, had almost become +burdensome to me. All my outward relations were against me; I must stay +here and starve (I was already hungry) or go home to Covey’s, and have +my flesh torn to pieces, and my spirit humbled under the cruel lash of +Covey. This was the painful alternative presented to me. The day was +long and irksome. My physical condition was deplorable. I was weak, +from the toils of the previous day, and from the want of food and rest; +and had been so little concerned about my appearance, that I had not +yet washed the blood from my garments. I was an object of horror, even +to myself. Life, in Baltimore, when most oppressive, was a paradise to +this. What had I done, what had my parents done, that such a life as +this should be mine? That day, in the woods, I would have exchanged my +manhood for the brutehood of an ox. + +Night came. I was still in the woods, unresolved what to do. Hunger had +not yet pinched me to the point of going home, and I laid myself down +in the leaves to rest; for I had been watching for hunters all day, but +not being molested during the day, I expected no disturbance during the +night. I had come to the conclusion that Covey relied upon hunger to +drive me home; and in this I was quite correct—the facts showed that he +had made no effort to catch me, since morning. + +During the night, I heard the step of a man in the woods. He was coming +toward the place where I lay. A person lying still has the advantage +over one walking in the woods, in the day time, and this advantage is +much greater at night. I was not able to engage in a physical struggle, +and I had recourse to the common resort of the weak. I hid myself in +the leaves to prevent discovery. But, as the night rambler in the woods +drew nearer, I found him to be a _friend_, not an enemy; it was a slave +of Mr. William Groomes, of Easton, a kind hearted fellow, named +“Sandy.” Sandy lived with Mr. Kemp that year, about four miles from St. +Michael’s. He, like myself had been hired out by the year; but, unlike +myself, had not been hired out to be broken. Sandy was the husband of a +free woman, who lived in the lower part of _“Potpie Neck,”_ and he was +now on his way through the woods, to see her, and to spend the Sabbath +with her. + +As soon as I had ascertained that the disturber of my solitude was not +an enemy, but the good-hearted Sandy—a man as famous among the slaves +of the neighborhood for his good nature, as for his good sense I came +out from my hiding place, and made myself known to him. I explained the +circumstances of the past two days, which had driven me to the woods, +and he deeply compassionated my distress. It was a bold thing for him +to shelter me, and I could not ask him to do so; for, had I been found +in his hut, he would have suffered the penalty of thirty-nine lashes on +his bare back, if not something worse. But Sandy was too generous to +permit the fear of punishment to prevent his relieving a brother +bondman from hunger and exposure; and, therefore, on his own motion, I +accompanied him to his home, or rather to the home of his wife—for the +house and lot were hers. His wife was called up—for it was now about +midnight—a fire was made, some Indian meal was soon mixed with salt and +water, and an ash cake was baked in a hurry to relieve my hunger. +Sandy’s wife was not behind him in kindness—both seemed to esteem it a +privilege to succor me; for, although I was hated by Covey and by my +master, I was loved by the colored people, because _they_ thought I was +hated for my knowledge, and persecuted because I was feared. I was the +_only_ slave _now_ in that region who could read and write. There had +been one other man, belonging to Mr. Hugh Hamilton, who could read (his +name was “Jim”), but he, poor fellow, had, shortly after my coming into +the neighborhood, been sold off to the far south. I saw Jim ironed, in +the cart, to be carried to Easton for sale—pinioned like a yearling for +the slaughter. My knowledge was now the pride of my brother slaves; +and, no doubt, Sandy felt something of the general interest in me on +that account. The supper was soon ready, and though I have feasted +since, with honorables, lord mayors and aldermen, over the sea, my +supper on ash cake and cold water, with Sandy, was the meal, of all my +life, most sweet to my taste, and now most vivid in my memory. + +Supper over, Sandy and I went into a discussion of what was _possible_ +for me, under the perils and hardships which now overshadowed my path. +The question was, must I go back to Covey, or must I now tempt to run +away? Upon a careful survey, the latter was found to be impossible; for +I was on a narrow neck of land, every avenue from which would bring me +in sight of pursuers. There was the Chesapeake bay to the right, and +“Pot-pie” river to the left, and St. Michael’s and its neighborhood +occupying the only space through which there was any retreat. + +I found Sandy an old advisor. He was not only a religious man, but he +professed to believe in a system for which I have no name. He was a +genuine African, and had inherited some of the so-called magical +powers, said to be possessed by African and eastern nations. He told me +that he could help me; that, in those very woods, there was an herb, +which in the morning might be found, possessing all the powers required +for my protection (I put his thoughts in my own language); and that, if +I would take his advice, he would procure me the root of the herb of +which he spoke. He told me further, that if I would take that root and +wear it on my right side, it would be impossible for Covey to strike me +a blow; that with this root about my person, no white man could whip +me. He said he had carried it for years, and that he had fully tested +its virtues. He had never received a blow from a slaveholder since he +carried it; and he never expected to receive one, for he always meant +to carry that root as a protection. He knew Covey well, for Mrs. Covey +was the daughter of Mr. Kemp; and he (Sandy) had heard of the barbarous +treatment to which I was subjected, and he wanted to do something for +me. + +Now all this talk about the root, was to me, very absurd and +ridiculous, if not positively sinful. I at first rejected the idea that +the simple carrying a root on my right side (a root, by the way, over +which I walked every time I went into the woods) could possess any such +magic power as he ascribed to it, and I was, therefore, not disposed to +cumber my pocket with it. I had a positive aversion to all pretenders +to _“divination.”_ It was beneath one of my intelligence to countenance +such dealings with the devil, as this power implied. But, with all my +learning—it was really precious little—Sandy was more than a match for +me. “My book learning,” he said, “had not kept Covey off me” (a +powerful argument just then) and he entreated me, with flashing eyes, +to try this. If it did me no good, it could do me no harm, and it would +cost me nothing, any way. Sandy was so earnest, and so confident of the +good qualities of this weed, that, to please him, rather than from any +conviction of its excellence, I was induced to take it. He had been to +me the good Samaritan, and had, almost providentially, found me, and +helped me when I could not help myself; how did I know but that the +hand of the Lord was in it? With thoughts of this sort, I took the +roots from Sandy, and put them in my right hand pocket. + +This was, of course, Sunday morning. Sandy now urged me to go home, +with all speed, and to walk up bravely to the house, as though nothing +had happened. I saw in Sandy too deep an insight into human nature, +with all his superstition, not to have some respect for his advice; and +perhaps, too, a slight gleam or shadow of his superstition had fallen +upon me. At any rate, I started off toward Covey’s, as directed by +Sandy. Having, the previous night, poured my griefs into Sandy’s ears, +and got him enlisted in my behalf, having made his wife a sharer in my +sorrows, and having, also, become well refreshed by sleep and food, I +moved off, quite courageously, toward the much dreaded Covey’s. +Singularly enough, just as I entered his yard gate, I met him and his +wife, dressed in their Sunday best—looking as smiling as angels—on +their way to church. The manner of Covey astonished me. There was +something really benignant in his countenance. He spoke to me as never +before; told me that the pigs had got into the lot, and he wished me to +drive them out; inquired how I was, and seemed an altered man. This +extraordinary conduct of Covey, really made me begin to think that +Sandy’s herb had more virtue in it than I, in my pride, had been +willing to allow; and, had the day been other than Sunday, I should +have attributed Covey’s altered manner solely to the magic power of the +root. I suspected, however, that the _Sabbath_, and not the _root_, was +the real explanation of Covey’s manner. His religion hindered him from +breaking the Sabbath, but not from breaking my skin. He had more +respect for the _day_ than for the _man_, for whom the day was +mercifully given; for while he would cut and slash my body during the +week, he would not hesitate, on Sunday, to teach me the value of my +soul, or the way of life and salvation by Jesus Christ. + +All went well with me till Monday morning; and then, whether the root +had lost its virtue, or whether my tormentor had gone deeper into the +black art than myself (as was sometimes said of him), or whether he had +obtained a special indulgence, for his faithful Sabbath day’s worship, +it is not necessary for me to know, or to inform the reader; but, this +I _may_ say—the pious and benignant smile which graced Covey’s face on +_Sunday_, wholly disappeared on _Monday_. Long before daylight, I was +called up to go and feed, rub, and curry the horses. I obeyed the call, +and would have so obeyed it, had it been made at an earilier(sic) hour, +for I had brought my mind to a firm resolve, during that Sunday’s +reflection, viz: to obey every order, however unreasonable, if it were +possible, and, if Mr. Covey should then undertake to beat me, to defend +and protect myself to the best of my ability. My religious views on the +subject of resisting my master, had suffered a serious shock, by the +savage persecution to which I had been subjected, and my hands were no +longer tied by my religion. Master Thomas’s indifference had served the +last link. I had now to this extent “backslidden” from this point in +the slave’s religious creed; and I soon had occasion to make my fallen +state known to my Sunday-pious brother, Covey. + +Whilst I was obeying his order to feed and get the horses ready for the +field, and when in the act of going up the stable loft for the purpose +of throwing down some blades, Covey sneaked into the stable, in his +peculiar snake-like way, and seizing me suddenly by the leg, he brought +me to the stable floor, giving my newly mended body a fearful jar. I +now forgot my roots, and remembered my pledge to _stand up in my own +defense_. The brute was endeavoring skillfully to get a slip-knot on my +legs, before I could draw up my feet. As soon as I found what he was up +to, I gave a sudden spring (my two day’s rest had been of much service +to me,) and by that means, no doubt, he was able to bring me to the +floor so heavily. He was defeated in his plan of tying me. While down, +he seemed to think he had me very securely in his power. He little +thought he was—as the rowdies say—“in” for a “rough and tumble” fight; +but such was the fact. Whence came the daring spirit necessary to +grapple with a man who, eight-and-forty hours before, could, with his +slightest word have made me tremble like a leaf in a storm, I do not +know; at any rate, _I was resolved to fight_, and, what was better +still, I was actually hard at it. The fighting madness had come upon +me, and I found my strong fingers firmly attached to the throat of my +cowardly tormentor; as heedless of consequences, at the moment, as +though we stood as equals before the law. The very color of the man was +forgotten. I felt as supple as a cat, and was ready for the snakish +creature at every turn. Every blow of his was parried, though I dealt +no blows in turn. I was strictly on the _defensive_, preventing him +from injuring me, rather than trying to injure him. I flung him on the +ground several times, when he meant to have hurled me there. I held him +so firmly by the throat, that his blood followed my nails. He held me, +and I held him. + +All was fair, thus far, and the contest was about equal. My resistance +was entirely unexpected, and Covey was taken all aback by it, for he +trembled in every limb. _“Are you going to resist_, you scoundrel?” +said he. To which, I returned a polite _“Yes sir;”_ steadily gazing my +interrogator in the eye, to meet the first approach or dawning of the +blow, which I expected my answer would call forth. But, the conflict +did not long remain thus equal. Covey soon cried out lustily for help; +not that I was obtaining any marked advantage over him, or was injuring +him, but because he was gaining none over me, and was not able, single +handed, to conquer me. He called for his cousin Hughs, to come to his +assistance, and now the scene was changed. I was compelled to give +blows, as well as to parry them; and, since I was, in any case, to +suffer for resistance, I felt (as the musty proverb goes) that “I might +as well be hanged for an old sheep as a lamb.” I was still _defensive_ +toward Covey, but _aggressive_ toward Hughs; and, at the first approach +of the latter, I dealt a blow, in my desperation, which fairly sickened +my youthful assailant. He went off, bending over with pain, and +manifesting no disposition to come within my reach again. The poor +fellow was in the act of trying to catch and tie my right hand, and +while flattering himself with success, I gave him the kick which sent +him staggering away in pain, at the same time that I held Covey with a +firm hand. + +Taken completely by surprise, Covey seemed to have lost his usual +strength and coolness. He was frightened, and stood puffing and +blowing, seemingly unable to command words or blows. When he saw that +poor Hughes was standing half bent with pain—his courage quite gone the +cowardly tyrant asked if I “meant to persist in my resistance.” I told +him “_I did mean to resist, come what might_;” that I had been by him +treated like a _brute_, during the last six months; and that I should +stand it _no longer_. With that, he gave me a shake, and attempted to +drag me toward a stick of wood, that was lying just outside the stable +door. He meant to knock me down with it; but, just as he leaned over to +get the stick, I seized him with both hands by the collar, and, with a +vigorous and sudden snatch, I brought my assailant harmlessly, his full +length, on the _not_ overclean ground—for we were now in the cow yard. +He had selected the place for the fight, and it was but right that he +should have all the advantges(sic) of his own selection. + +By this time, Bill, the hiredman, came home. He had been to Mr. +Hemsley’s, to spend the Sunday with his nominal wife, and was coming +home on Monday morning, to go to work. Covey and I had been skirmishing +from before daybreak, till now, that the sun was almost shooting his +beams over the eastern woods, and we were still at it. I could not see +where the matter was to terminate. He evidently was afraid to let me +go, lest I should again make off to the woods; otherwise, he would +probably have obtained arms from the house, to frighten me. Holding me, +Covey called upon Bill for assistance. The scene here, had something +comic about it. “Bill,” who knew _precisely_ what Covey wished him to +do, affected ignorance, and pretended he did not know what to do. “What +shall I do, Mr. Covey,” said Bill. “Take hold of him—take hold of him!” +said Covey. With a toss of his head, peculiar to Bill, he said, +“indeed, Mr. Covey I want to go to work.” _“This is_ your work,” said +Covey; “take hold of him.” Bill replied, with spirit, “My master hired +me here, to work, and _not_ to help you whip Frederick.” It was now my +turn to speak. “Bill,” said I, “don’t put your hands on me.” To which +he replied, “My GOD! Frederick, I ain’t goin’ to tech ye,” and Bill +walked off, leaving Covey and myself to settle our matters as best we +might. + +But, my present advantage was threatened when I saw Caroline (the +slave-woman of Covey) coming to the cow yard to milk, for she was a +powerful woman, and could have mastered me very easily, exhausted as I +now was. As soon as she came into the yard, Covey attempted to rally +her to his aid. Strangely—and, I may add, fortunately—Caroline was in +no humor to take a hand in any such sport. We were all in open +rebellion, that morning. Caroline answered the command of her master to +_“take hold of me,”_ precisely as Bill had answered, but in _her_, it +was at greater peril so to answer; she was the slave of Covey, and he +could do what he pleased with her. It was _not_ so with Bill, and Bill +knew it. Samuel Harris, to whom Bill belonged, did not allow his slaves +to be beaten, unless they were guilty of some crime which the law would +punish. But, poor Caroline, like myself, was at the mercy of the +merciless Covey; nor did she escape the dire effects of her refusal. He +gave her several sharp blows. + +Covey at length (two hours had elapsed) gave up the contest. Letting me +go, he said—puffing and blowing at a great rate—“Now, you scoundrel, go +to your work; I would not have whipped you half so much as I have had +you not resisted.” The fact was, _he had not whipped me at all_. He had +not, in all the scuffle, drawn a single drop of blood from me. I had +drawn blood from him; and, even without this satisfaction, I should +have been victorious, because my aim had not been to injure him, but to +prevent his injuring me. + +During the whole six months that I lived with Covey, after this +transaction, he never laid on me the weight of his finger in anger. He +would, occasionally, say he did not want to have to get hold of me +again—a declaration which I had no difficulty in believing; and I had a +secret feeling, which answered, “You need not wish to get hold of me +again, for you will be likely to come off worse in a second fight than +you did in the first.” + +Well, my dear reader, this battle with Mr. Covey—undignified as it was, +and as I fear my narration of it is—was the turning point in my _“life +as a slave_.” It rekindled in my breast the smouldering embers of +liberty; it brought up my Baltimore dreams, and revived a sense of my +own manhood. I was a changed being after that fight. I was _nothing_ +before; I WAS A MAN NOW. It recalled to life my crushed self-respect +and my self-confidence, and inspired me with a renewed determination to +be A FREEMAN. A man, without force, is without the essential dignity of +humanity. Human nature is so constituted, that it cannot _honor_ a +helpless man, although it can _pity_ him; and even this it cannot do +long, if the signs of power do not arise. + +He can only understand the effect of this combat on my spirit, who has +himself incurred something, hazarded something, in repelling the unjust +and cruel aggressions of a tyrant. Covey was a tyrant, and a cowardly +one, withal. After resisting him, I felt as I had never felt before. It +was a resurrection from the dark and pestiferous tomb of slavery, to +the heaven of comparative freedom. I was no longer a servile coward, +trembling under the frown of a brother worm of the dust, but, my +long-cowed spirit was roused to an attitude of manly independence. I +had reached the point, at which I was _not afraid to die_. This spirit +made me a freeman in _fact_, while I remained a slave in _form_. When a +slave cannot be flogged he is more than half free. He has a domain as +broad as his own manly heart to defend, and he is really _“a power on +earth_.” While slaves prefer their lives, with flogging, to instant +death, they will always find Christians enough, like unto Covey, to +accommodate that preference. From this time, until that of my escape +from slavery, I was never fairly whipped. Several attempts were made to +whip me, but they were always unsuccessful. Bruises I did get, as I +shall hereafter inform the reader; but the case I have been describing, +was the end of the brutification to which slavery had subjected me. + +The reader will be glad to know why, after I had so grievously offended +Mr. Covey, he did not have me taken in hand by the authorities; indeed, +why the law of Maryland, which assigns hanging to the slave who resists +his master, was not put in force against me; at any rate, why I was not +taken up, as is usual in such cases, and publicly whipped, for an +example to other slaves, and as a means of deterring me from committing +the same offense again. I confess, that the easy manner in which I got +off, for a long time, a surprise to me, and I cannot, even now, fully +explain the cause. + +The only explanation I can venture to suggest, is the fact, that Covey +was, probably, ashamed to have it known and confessed that he had been +mastered by a boy of sixteen. Mr. Covey enjoyed the unbounded and very +valuable reputation, of being a first rate overseer and _Negro +breaker_. By means of this reputation, he was able to procure his hands +for _very trifling_ compensation, and with very great ease. His +interest and his pride mutually suggested the wisdom of passing the +matter by, in silence. The story that he had undertaken to whip a lad, +and had been resisted, was, of itself, sufficient to damage him; for +his bearing should, in the estimation of slaveholders, be of that +imperial order that should make such an occurrence _impossible_. I +judge from these circumstances, that Covey deemed it best to give me +the go-by. It is, perhaps, not altogether creditable to my natural +temper, that, after this conflict with Mr. Covey, I did, at times, +purposely aim to provoke him to an attack, by refusing to keep with the +other hands in the field, but I could never bully him to another +battle. I had made up my mind to do him serious damage, if he ever +again attempted to lay violent hands on me. + +Hereditary bondmen, know ye not +Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow? + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. _New Relations and Duties_ + + +CHANGE OF MASTERS—BENEFITS DERIVED BY THE CHANGE—FAME OF THE FIGHT WITH +COVEY—RECKLESS UNCONCERN—MY ABHORRENCE OF SLAVERY—ABILITY TO READ A +CAUSE OF PREJUDICE—THE HOLIDAYS—HOW SPENT—SHARP HIT AT SLAVERY—EFFECTS +OF HOLIDAYS—A DEVICE OF SLAVERY—DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COVEY AND +FREELAND—AN IRRELIGIOUS MASTER PREFERRED TO A RELIGIOUS ONE—CATALOGUE +OF FLOGGABLE OFFENSES—HARD LIFE AT COVEY’S USEFUL—IMPROVED CONDITION +NOT FOLLOWED BY CONTENTMENT—CONGENIAL SOCIETY AT FREELAND’S—SABBATH +SCHOOL INSTITUTED—SECRECY NECESSARY—AFFECTIONATE RELATIONS OF TUTOR AND +PUPILS—CONFIDENCE AND FRIENDSHIP AMONG SLAVES—I DECLINE PUBLISHING +PARTICULARS OF CONVERSATIONS WITH MY FRIENDS—SLAVERY THE INVITER OF +VENGEANCE. + + +My term of actual service to Mr. Edward Covey ended on Christmas day, +1834. I gladly left the snakish Covey, although he was now as gentle as +a lamb. My home for the year 1835 was already secured—my next master +was already selected. There is always more or less excitement about the +matter of changing hands, but I had become somewhat reckless. I cared +very little into whose hands I fell—I meant to fight my way. Despite of +Covey, too, the report got abroad, that I was hard to whip; that I was +guilty of kicking back; that though generally a good tempered Negro, I +sometimes “_got the devil in me_.” These sayings were rife in Talbot +county, and they distinguished me among my servile brethren. Slaves, +generally, will fight each other, and die at each other’s hands; but +there are few who are not held in awe by a white man. Trained from the +cradle up, to think and feel that their masters are superior, and +invested with a sort of sacredness, there are few who can outgrow or +rise above the control which that sentiment exercises. I had now got +free from it, and the thing was known. One bad sheep will spoil a whole +flock. Among the slaves, I was a bad sheep. I hated slavery, +slaveholders, and all pertaining to them; and I did not fail to inspire +others with the same feeling, wherever and whenever opportunity was +presented. This made me a marked lad among the slaves, and a suspected +one among the slaveholders. A knowledge of my ability to read and +write, got pretty widely spread, which was very much against me. + +The days between Christmas day and New Year’s, are allowed the slaves +as holidays. During these days, all regular work was suspended, and +there was nothing to do but to keep fires, and look after the stock. +This time was regarded as our own, by the grace of our masters, and we, +therefore used it, or abused it, as we pleased. Those who had families +at a distance, were now expected to visit them, and to spend with them +the entire week. The younger slaves, or the unmarried ones, were +expected to see to the cattle, and attend to incidental duties at home. +The holidays were variously spent. The sober, thinking and industrious +ones of our number, would employ themselves in manufacturing corn +brooms, mats, horse collars and baskets, and some of these were very +well made. Another class spent their time in hunting opossums, coons, +rabbits, and other game. But the majority spent the holidays in sports, +ball playing, wrestling, boxing, running foot races, dancing, and +drinking whisky; and this latter mode of spending the time was +generally most agreeable to their masters. A slave who would work +during the holidays, was thought, by his master, undeserving of +holidays. Such an one had rejected the favor of his master. There was, +in this simple act of continued work, an accusation against slaves; and +a slave could not help thinking, that if he made three dollars during +the holidays, he might make three hundred during the year. Not to be +drunk during the holidays, was disgraceful; and he was esteemed a lazy +and improvident man, who could not afford to drink whisky during +Christmas. + +The fiddling, dancing and _“jubilee beating_,” was going on in all +directions. This latter performance is strictly southern. It supplies +the place of a violin, or of other musical instruments, and is played +so easily, that almost every farm has its “Juba” beater. The performer +improvises as he beats, and sings his merry songs, so ordering the +words as to have them fall pat with the movement of his hands. Among a +mass of nonsense and wild frolic, once in a while a sharp hit is given +to the meanness of slaveholders. Take the following, for an example: + +_We raise de wheat, +Dey gib us de corn; +We bake de bread, +Dey gib us de cruss; +We sif de meal, +Dey gib us de huss; +We peal de meat, +Dey gib us de skin, +And dat’s de way +Dey takes us in. +We skim de pot, +Dey gib us the liquor, +And say dat’s good enough for nigger. + Walk over! walk over! +Tom butter and de fat; + Poor nigger you can’t get over dat; + Walk over_! + + +This is not a bad summary of the palpable injustice and fraud of +slavery, giving—as it does—to the lazy and idle, the comforts which God +designed should be given solely to the honest laborer. But to the +holiday’s. + +Judging from my own observation and experience, I believe these +holidays to be among the most effective means, in the hands of +slaveholders, of keeping down the spirit of insurrection among the +slaves. + +To enslave men, successfully and safely, it is necessary to have their +minds occupied with thoughts and aspirations short of the liberty of +which they are deprived. A certain degree of attainable good must be +kept before them. These holidays serve the purpose of keeping the minds +of the slaves occupied with prospective pleasure, within the limits of +slavery. The young man can go wooing; the married man can visit his +wife; the father and mother can see their children; the industrious and +money loving can make a few dollars; the great wrestler can win +laurels; the young people can meet, and enjoy each other’s society; the +drunken man can get plenty of whisky; and the religious man can hold +prayer meetings, preach, pray and exhort during the holidays. Before +the holidays, these are pleasures in prospect; after the holidays, they +become pleasures of memory, and they serve to keep out thoughts and +wishes of a more dangerous character. Were slaveholders at once to +abandon the practice of allowing their slaves these liberties, +periodically, and to keep them, the year round, closely confined to the +narrow circle of their homes, I doubt not that the south would blaze +with insurrections. These holidays are conductors or safety valves to +carry off the explosive elements inseparable from the human mind, when +reduced to the condition of slavery. But for these, the rigors of +bondage would become too severe for endurance, and the slave would be +forced up to dangerous desperation. Woe to the slaveholder when he +undertakes to hinder or to prevent the operation of these electric +conductors. A succession of earthquakes would be less destructive, than +the insurrectionary fires which would be sure to burst forth in +different parts of the south, from such interference. + +Thus, the holidays, became part and parcel of the gross fraud, wrongs +and inhumanity of slavery. Ostensibly, they are institutions of +benevolence, designed to mitigate the rigors of slave life, but, +practically, they are a fraud, instituted by human selfishness, the +better to secure the ends of injustice and oppression. The slave’s +happiness is not the end sought, but, rather, the master’s safety. It +is not from a generous unconcern for the slave’s labor that this +cessation from labor is allowed, but from a prudent regard to the +safety of the slave system. I am strengthened in this opinion, by the +fact, that most slaveholders like to have their slaves spend the +holidays in such a manner as to be of no real benefit to the slaves. It +is plain, that everything like rational enjoyment among the slaves, is +frowned upon; and only those wild and low sports, peculiar to +semi-civilized people, are encouraged. All the license allowed, appears +to have no other object than to disgust the slaves with their temporary +freedom, and to make them as glad to return to their work, as they were +to leave it. By plunging them into exhausting depths of drunkenness and +dissipation, this effect is almost certain to follow. I have known +slaveholders resort to cunning tricks, with a view of getting their +slaves deplorably drunk. A usual plan is, to make bets on a slave, that +he can drink more whisky than any other; and so to induce a rivalry +among them, for the mastery in this degradation. The scenes, brought +about in this way, were often scandalous and loathsome in the extreme. +Whole multitudes might be found stretched out in brutal drunkenness, at +once helpless and disgusting. Thus, when the slave asks for a few hours +of virtuous freedom, his cunning master takes advantage of his +ignorance, and cheers him with a dose of vicious and revolting +dissipation, artfully labeled with the name of LIBERTY. We were induced +to drink, I among the rest, and when the holidays were over, we all +staggered up from our filth and wallowing, took a long breath, and went +away to our various fields of work; feeling, upon the whole, rather +glad to go from that which our masters artfully deceived us into the +belief was freedom, back again to the arms of slavery. It was not what +we had taken it to be, nor what it might have been, had it not been +abused by us. It was about as well to be a slave to _master_, as to be +a slave to _rum_ and _whisky._ + +I am the more induced to take this view of the holiday system, adopted +by slaveholders, from what I know of their treatment of slaves, in +regard to other things. It is the commonest thing for them to try to +disgust their slaves with what they do not want them to have, or to +enjoy. A slave, for instance, likes molasses; he steals some; to cure +him of the taste for it, his master, in many cases, will go away to +town, and buy a large quantity of the _poorest_ quality, and set it +before his slave, and, with whip in hand, compel him to eat it, until +the poor fellow is made to sicken at the very thought of molasses. The +same course is often adopted to cure slaves of the disagreeable and +inconvenient practice of asking for more food, when their allowance has +failed them. The same disgusting process works well, too, in other +things, but I need not cite them. When a slave is drunk, the +slaveholder has no fear that he will plan an insurrection; no fear that +he will escape to the north. It is the sober, thinking slave who is +dangerous, and needs the vigilance of his master, to keep him a slave. +But, to proceed with my narrative. + +On the first of January, 1835, I proceeded from St. Michael’s to Mr. +William Freeland’s, my new home. Mr. Freeland lived only three miles +from St. Michael’s, on an old worn out farm, which required much labor +to restore it to anything like a self-supporting establishment. + +I was not long in finding Mr. Freeland to be a very different man from +Mr. Covey. Though not rich, Mr. Freeland was what may be called a +well-bred southern gentleman, as different from Covey, as a +well-trained and hardened Negro breaker is from the best specimen of +the first families of the south. Though Freeland was a slaveholder, and +shared many of the vices of his class, he seemed alive to the sentiment +of honor. He had some sense of justice, and some feelings of humanity. +He was fretful, impulsive and passionate, but I must do him the justice +to say, he was free from the mean and selfish characteristics which +distinguished the creature from which I had now, happily, escaped. He +was open, frank, imperative, and practiced no concealments, disdaining +to play the spy. In all this, he was the opposite of the crafty Covey. + +Among the many advantages gained in my change from Covey’s to +Freeland’s—startling as the statement may be—was the fact that the +latter gentleman made no profession of religion. I assert _most +unhesitatingly_, that the religion of the south—as I have observed it +and proved it—is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes; the +justifier of the most appalling barbarity; a sanctifier of the most +hateful frauds; and a secure shelter, under which the darkest, foulest, +grossest, and most infernal abominations fester and flourish. Were I +again to be reduced to the condition of a slave, _next_ to that +calamity, I should regard the fact of being the slave of a religious +slaveholder, the greatest that could befall me. For all slaveholders +with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have +found them, almost invariably, the vilest, meanest and basest of their +class. Exceptions there may be, but this is true of religious +slaveholders, _as a class_. It is not for me to explain the fact. +Others may do that; I simply state it as a fact, and leave the +theological, and psychological inquiry, which it raises, to be decided +by others more competent than myself. Religious slaveholders, like +religious persecutors, are ever extreme in their malice and violence. +Very near my new home, on an adjoining farm, there lived the Rev. +Daniel Weeden, who was both pious and cruel after the real Covey +pattern. Mr. Weeden was a local preacher of the Protestant Methodist +persuasion, and a most zealous supporter of the ordinances of religion, +generally. This Weeden owned a woman called “Ceal,” who was a standing +proof of his mercilessness. Poor Ceal’s back, always scantily clothed, +was kept literally raw, by the lash of this religious man and gospel +minister. The most notoriously wicked man—so called in distinction from +church members—could hire hands more easily than this brute. When sent +out to find a home, a slave would never enter the gates of the preacher +Weeden, while a sinful sinner needed a hand. Be have ill, or behave +well, it was the known maxim of Weeden, that it is the duty of a master +to use the lash. If, for no other reason, he contended that this was +essential to remind a slave of his condition, and of his master’s +authority. The good slave must be whipped, to be _kept_ good, and the +bad slave must be whipped, to be _made_ good. Such was Weeden’s theory, +and such was his practice. The back of his slave-woman will, in the +judgment, be the swiftest witness against him. + +While I am stating particular cases, I might as well immortalize +another of my neighbors, by calling him by name, and putting him in +print. He did not think that a “chiel” was near, “taking notes,” and +will, doubtless, feel quite angry at having his character touched off +in the ragged style of a slave’s pen. I beg to introduce the reader to +REV. RIGBY HOPKINS. Mr. Hopkins resides between Easton and St. +Michael’s, in Talbot county, Maryland. The severity of this man made +him a perfect terror to the slaves of his neighborhood. The peculiar +feature of his government, was, his system of whipping slaves, as he +said, _in advance_ of deserving it. He always managed to have one or +two slaves to whip on Monday morning, so as to start his hands to their +work, under the inspiration of a new assurance on Monday, that his +preaching about kindness, mercy, brotherly love, and the like, on +Sunday, did not interfere with, or prevent him from establishing his +authority, by the cowskin. He seemed to wish to assure them, that his +tears over poor, lost and ruined sinners, and his pity for them, did +not reach to the blacks who tilled his fields. This saintly Hopkins +used to boast, that he was the best hand to manage a Negro in the +county. He whipped for the smallest offenses, by way of preventing the +commission of large ones. + +The reader might imagine a difficulty in finding faults enough for such +frequent whipping. But this is because you have no idea how easy a +matter it is to offend a man who is on the look-out for offenses. The +man, unaccustomed to slaveholding, would be astonished to observe how +many _foggable_ offenses there are in the slaveholder’s catalogue of +crimes; and how easy it is to commit any one of them, even when the +slave least intends it. A slaveholder, bent on finding fault, will +hatch up a dozen a day, if he chooses to do so, and each one of these +shall be of a punishable description. A mere look, word, or motion, a +mistake, accident, or want of power, are all matters for which a slave +may be whipped at any time. Does a slave look dissatisfied with his +condition? It is said, that he has the devil in him, and it must be +whipped out. Does he answer _loudly_, when spoken to by his master, +with an air of self-consciousness? Then, must he be taken down a +button-hole lower, by the lash, well laid on. Does he forget, and omit +to pull off his hat, when approaching a white person? Then, he must, or +may be, whipped for his bad manners. Does he ever venture to vindicate +his conduct, when harshly and unjustly accused? Then, he is guilty of +impudence, one of the greatest crimes in the social catalogue of +southern society. To allow a slave to escape punishment, who has +impudently attempted to exculpate himself from unjust charges, +preferred against him by some white person, is to be guilty of great +dereliction of duty. Does a slave ever venture to suggest a better way +of doing a thing, no matter what? He is, altogether, too officious—wise +above what is written—and he deserves, even if he does not get, a +flogging for his presumption. Does he, while plowing, break a plow, or +while hoeing, break a hoe, or while chopping, break an ax? No matter +what were the imperfections of the implement broken, or the natural +liabilities for breaking, the slave can be whipped for carelessness. +The _reverend_ slaveholder could always find something of this sort, to +justify him in using the lash several times during the week. +Hopkins—like Covey and Weeden—were shunned by slaves who had the +privilege (as many had) of finding their own masters at the end of each +year; and yet, there was not a man in all that section of country, who +made a louder profession of religion, than did MR. RIGBY HOPKINS. + +But, to continue the thread of my story, through my experience when at +Mr. William Freeland’s. + +My poor, weather-beaten bark now reached smoother water, and gentler +breezes. My stormy life at Covey’s had been of service to me. The +things that would have seemed very hard, had I gone direct to Mr. +Freeland’s, from the home of Master Thomas, were now (after the +hardships at Covey’s) “trifles light as air.” I was still a field hand, +and had come to prefer the severe labor of the field, to the enervating +duties of a house servant. I had become large and strong; and had begun +to take pride in the fact, that I could do as much hard work as some of +the older men. There is much rivalry among slaves, at times, as to +which can do the most work, and masters generally seek to promote such +rivalry. But some of us were too wise to race with each other very +long. Such racing, we had the sagacity to see, was not likely to pay. +We had our times for measuring each other’s strength, but we knew too +much to keep up the competition so long as to produce an extraordinary +day’s work. We knew that if, by extraordinary exertion, a large +quantity of work was done in one day, the fact, becoming known to the +master, might lead him to require the same amount every day. This +thought was enough to bring us to a dead halt when over so much excited +for the race. + +At Mr. Freeland’s, my condition was every way improved. I was no longer +the poor scape-goat that I was when at Covey’s, where every wrong thing +done was saddled upon me, and where other slaves were whipped over my +shoulders. Mr. Freeland was too just a man thus to impose upon me, or +upon any one else. + +It is quite usual to make one slave the object of especial abuse, and +to beat him often, with a view to its effect upon others, rather than +with any expectation that the slave whipped will be improved by it, but +the man with whom I now was, could descend to no such meanness and +wickedness. Every man here was held individually responsible for his +own conduct. + +This was a vast improvement on the rule at Covey’s. There, I was the +general pack horse. Bill Smith was protected, by a positive prohibition +made by his rich master, and the command of the rich slaveholder is LAW +to the poor one; Hughes was favored, because of his relationship to +Covey; and the hands hired temporarily, escaped flogging, except as +they got it over my poor shoulders. Of course, this comparison refers +to the time when Covey _could_ whip me. + +Mr. Freeland, like Mr. Covey, gave his hands enough to eat, but, unlike +Mr. Covey, he gave them time to take their meals; he worked us hard +during the day, but gave us the night for rest—another advantage to be +set to the credit of the sinner, as against that of the saint. We were +seldom in the field after dark in the evening, or before sunrise in the +morning. Our implements of husbandry were of the most improved pattern, +and much superior to those used at Covey’s. + +Nothwithstanding the improved condition which was now mine, and the +many advantages I had gained by my new home, and my new master, I was +still restless and discontented. I was about as hard to please by a +master, as a master is by slave. The freedom from bodily torture and +unceasing labor, had given my mind an increased sensibility, and +imparted to it greater activity. I was not yet exactly in right +relations. “How be it, that was not first which is spiritual, but that +which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual.” When entombed +at Covey’s, shrouded in darkness and physical wretchedness, temporal +wellbeing was the grand _desideratum;_ but, temporal wants supplied, +the spirit puts in its claims. Beat and cuff your slave, keep him +hungry and spiritless, and he will follow the chain of his master like +a dog; but, feed and clothe him well—work him moderately—surround him +with physical comfort—and dreams of freedom intrude. Give him a _bad_ +master, and he aspires to a _good_ master; give him a good master, and +he wishes to become his _own_ master. Such is human nature. You may +hurl a man so low, beneath the level of his kind, that he loses all +just ideas of his natural position; but elevate him a little, and the +clear conception of rights arises to life and power, and leads him +onward. Thus elevated, a little, at Freeland’s, the dreams called into +being by that good man, Father Lawson, when in Baltimore, began to +visit me; and shoots from the tree of liberty began to put forth tender +buds, and dim hopes of the future began to dawn. + +I found myself in congenial society, at Mr. Freeland’s. There were +Henry Harris, John Harris, Handy Caldwell, and Sandy Jenkins. 6 + +Henry and John were brothers, and belonged to Mr. Freeland. They were +both remarkably bright and intelligent, though neither of them could +read. Now for mischief! I had not been long at Freeland’s before I was +up to my old tricks. I early began to address my companions on the +subject of education, and the advantages of intelligence over +ignorance, and, as far as I dared, I tried to show the agency of +ignorance in keeping men in slavery. Webster’s spelling book and the +_Columbian Orator_ were looked into again. As summer came on, and the +long Sabbath days stretched themselves over our idleness, I became +uneasy, and wanted a Sabbath school, in which to exercise my gifts, and +to impart the little knowledge of letters which I possessed, to my +brother slaves. A house was hardly necessary in the summer time; I +could hold my school under the shade of an old oak tree, as well as any +where else. The thing was, to get the scholars, and to have them +thoroughly imbued with the desire to learn. Two such boys were quickly +secured, in Henry and John, and from them the contagion spread. I was +not long bringing around me twenty or thirty young men, who enrolled +themselves, gladly, in my Sabbath school, and were willing to meet me +regularly, under the trees or elsewhere, for the purpose of learning to +read. It was surprising with what ease they provided themselves with +spelling books. These were mostly the cast off books of their young +masters or mistresses. I taught, at first, on our own farm. All were +impressed with the necessity of keeping the matter as private as +possible, for the fate of the St. Michael’s attempt was notorious, and +fresh in the minds of all. Our pious masters, at St. Michael’s, must +not know that a few of their dusky brothers were learning to read the +word of God, lest they should come down upon us with the lash and +chain. We might have met to drink whisky, to wrestle, fight, and to do +other unseemly things, with no fear of interruption from the saints or +sinners of St. Michael’s. + +But, to meet for the purpose of improving the mind and heart, by +learning to read the sacred scriptures, was esteemed a most dangerous +nuisance, to be instantly stopped. The slaveholders of St. Michael’s, +like slaveholders elsewhere, would always prefer to see the slaves +engaged in degrading sports, rather than to see them acting like moral +and accountable beings. + +Had any one asked a religious white man, in St. Michael’s, twenty years +ago, the names of three men in that town, whose lives were most after +the pattern of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, the first three would +have been as follows: + +GARRISON WEST, _Class Leader_. +WRIGHT FAIRBANKS, _Class Leader_. +THOMAS AULD, _Class Leader_. + + +And yet, these were men who ferociously rushed in upon my Sabbath +school, at St. Michael’s, armed with mob-like missiles, and I must say, +I thought him a Christian, until he took part in bloody by the lash. +This same Garrison West was my class leader, and I must say, I thought +him a Christian, until he took part in breaking up my school. He led me +no more after that. The plea for this outrage was then, as it is now +and at all times—the danger to good order. If the slaves learnt to +read, they would learn something else, and something worse. The peace +of slavery would be disturbed; slave rule would be endangered. I leave +the reader to characterize a system which is endangered by such causes. +I do not dispute the soundness of the reasoning. It is perfectly sound; +and, if slavery be _right_, Sabbath schools for teaching slaves to read +the bible are _wrong_, and ought to be put down. These Christian class +leaders were, to this extent, consistent. They had settled the +question, that slavery is _right_, and, by that standard, they +determined that Sabbath schools are wrong. To be sure, they were +Protestant, and held to the great Protestant right of every man to +_“search the scriptures”_ for himself; but, then, to all general rules, +there are _exceptions_. How convenient! What crimes may not be +committed under the doctrine of the last remark. But, my dear, class +leading Methodist brethren, did not condescend to give me a reason for +breaking up the Sabbath school at St. Michael’s; it was enough that +they had determined upon its destruction. I am, however, digressing. + +After getting the school cleverly into operation, the second time +holding it in the woods, behind the barn, and in the shade of trees—I +succeeded in inducing a free colored man, who lived several miles from +our house, to permit me to hold my school in a room at his house. He, +very kindly, gave me this liberty; but he incurred much peril in doing +so, for the assemblage was an unlawful one. I shall not mention, here, +the name of this man; for it might, even now, subject him to +persecution, although the offenses were committed more than twenty +years ago. I had, at one time, more than forty scholars, all of the +right sort; and many of them succeeded in learning to read. I have met +several slaves from Maryland, who were once my scholars; and who +obtained their freedom, I doubt not, partly in consequence of the ideas +imparted to them in that school. I have had various employments during +my short life; but I look back to _none_ with more satisfaction, than +to that afforded by my Sunday school. An attachment, deep and lasting, +sprung up between me and my persecuted pupils, which made parting from +them intensely grievous; and, when I think that most of these dear +souls are yet shut up in this abject thralldom, I am overwhelmed with +grief. + +Besides my Sunday school, I devoted three evenings a week to my fellow +slaves, during the winter. Let the reader reflect upon the fact, that, +in this christian country, men and women are hiding from professors of +religion, in barns, in the woods and fields, in order to learn to read +the _holy bible_. Those dear souls, who came to my Sabbath school, came +_not_ because it was popular or reputable to attend such a place, for +they came under the liability of having forty stripes laid on their +naked backs. Every moment they spend in my school, they were under this +terrible liability; and, in this respect, I was sharer with them. Their +minds had been cramped and starved by their cruel masters; the light of +education had been completely excluded; and their hard earnings had +been taken to educate their master’s children. I felt a delight in +circumventing the tyrants, and in blessing the victims of their curses. + +The year at Mr. Freeland’s passed off very smoothly, to outward +seeming. Not a blow was given me during the whole year. To the credit +of Mr. Freeland—irreligious though he was—it must be stated, that he +was the best master I ever had, until I became my own master, and +assumed for myself, as I had a right to do, the responsibility of my +own existence and the exercise of my own powers. For much of the +happiness—or absence of misery—with which I passed this year with Mr. +Freeland, I am indebted to the genial temper and ardent friendship of +my brother slaves. They were, every one of them, manly, generous and +brave, yes; I say they were brave, and I will add, fine looking. It is +seldom the lot of mortals to have truer and better friends than were +the slaves on this farm. It is not uncommon to charge slaves with great +treachery toward each other, and to believe them incapable of confiding +in each other; but I must say, that I never loved, esteemed, or +confided in men, more than I did in these. They were as true as steel, +and no band of brothers could have been more loving. There were no mean +advantages taken of each other, as is sometimes the case where slaves +are situated as we were; no tattling; no giving each other bad names to +Mr. Freeland; and no elevating one at the expense of the other. We +never undertook to do any thing, of any importance, which was likely to +affect each other, without mutual consultation. We were generally a +unit, and moved together. Thoughts and sentiments were exchanged +between us, which might well be called very incendiary, by oppressors +and tyrants; and perhaps the time has not even now come, when it is +safe to unfold all the flying suggestions which arise in the minds of +intelligent slaves. Several of my friends and brothers, if yet alive, +are still in some part of the house of bondage; and though twenty years +have passed away, the suspicious malice of slavery might punish them +for even listening to my thoughts. + +The slaveholder, kind or cruel, is a slaveholder still—the every hour +violator of the just and inalienable rights of man; and he is, +therefore, every hour silently whetting the knife of vengeance for his +own throat. He never lisps a syllable in commendation of the fathers of +this republic, nor denounces any attempted oppression of himself, +without inviting the knife to his own throat, and asserting the rights +of rebellion for his own slaves. + +The year is ended, and we are now in the midst of the Christmas +holidays, which are kept this year as last, according to the general +description previously given. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. _The Run-Away Plot_ + + +NEW YEAR’S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATIONS—AGAIN BOUGHT BY FREELAND—NO +AMBITION TO BE A SLAVE—KINDNESS NO COMPENSATION FOR SLAVERY—INCIPIENT +STEPS TOWARD ESCAPE—CONSIDERATIONS LEADING THERETO—IRRECONCILABLE +HOSTILITY TO SLAVERY—SOLEMN VOW TAKEN—PLAN DIVULGED TO THE +SLAVES—_Columbian Orator—_SCHEME GAINS FAVOR, DESPITE PRO-SLAVERY +PREACHING—DANGER OF DISCOVERY—SKILL OF SLAVEHOLDERS IN READING THE +MINDS OF THEIR SLAVES—SUSPICION AND COERCION—HYMNS WITH DOUBLE +MEANING—VALUE, IN DOLLARS, OF OUR COMPANY—PRELIMINARY +CONSULTATION—PASS-WORD—CONFLICTS OF HOPE AND FEAR—DIFFICULTIES TO BE +OVERCOME—IGNORANCE OF GEOGRAPHY—SURVEY OF IMAGINARY DIFFICULTIES—EFFECT +ON OUR MINDS—PATRICK HENRY—SANDY BECOMES A DREAMER—ROUTE TO THE NORTH +LAID OUT—OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED—FRAUDS PRACTICED ON FREEMEN—PASSES +WRITTEN—ANXIETIES AS THE TIME DREW NEAR—DREAD OF FAILURE—APPEALS TO +COMRADES—STRANGE PRESENTIMENT—COINCIDENCE—THE BETRAYAL DISCOVERED—THE +MANNER OF ARRESTING US—RESISTANCE MADE BY HENRY HARRIS—ITS EFFECT—THE +UNIQUE SPEECH OF MRS. FREELAND—OUR SAD PROCESSION TO PRISON—BRUTAL +JEERS BY THE MULTITUDE ALONG THE ROAD—PASSES EATEN—THE DENIAL—SANDY TOO +WELL LOVED TO BE SUSPECTED—DRAGGED BEHIND HORSES—THE JAIL A RELIEF—A +NEW SET OF TORMENTORS—SLAVE-TRADERS—JOHN, CHARLES AND HENRY +RELEASED—ALONE IN PRISON—I AM TAKEN OUT, AND SENT TO BALTIMORE. + + +I am now at the beginning of the year 1836, a time favorable for +serious thoughts. The mind naturally occupies itself with the mysteries +of life in all its phases—the ideal, the real and the actual. Sober +people look both ways at the beginning of the year, surveying the +errors of the past, and providing against possible errors of the +future. I, too, was thus exercised. I had little pleasure in +retrospect, and the prospect was not very brilliant. “Notwithstanding,” +thought I, “the many resolutions and prayers I have made, in behalf of +freedom, I am, this first day of the year 1836, still a slave, still +wandering in the depths of spirit-devouring thralldom. My faculties and +powers of body and soul are not my own, but are the property of a +fellow mortal, in no sense superior to me, except that he has the +physical power to compel me to be owned and controlled by him. By the +combined physical force of the community, I am his slave—a slave for +life.” With thoughts like these, I was perplexed and chafed; they +rendered me gloomy and disconsolate. The anguish of my mind may not be +written. + +At the close of the year 1835, Mr. Freeland, my temporary master, had +bought me of Capt. Thomas Auld, for the year 1836. His promptness in +securing my services, would have been flattering to my vanity, had I +been ambitious to win the reputation of being a valuable slave. Even as +it was, I felt a slight degree of complacency at the circumstance. It +showed he was as well pleased with me as a slave, as I was with him as +a master. I have already intimated my regard for Mr. Freeland, and I +may say here, in addressing northern readers—where is no selfish motive +for speaking in praise of a slaveholder—that Mr. Freeland was a man of +many excellent qualities, and to me quite preferable to any master I +ever had. + +But the kindness of the slavemaster only gilds the chain of slavery, +and detracts nothing from its weight or power. The thought that men are +made for other and better uses than slavery, thrives best under the +gentle treatment of a kind master. But the grim visage of slavery can +assume no smiles which can fascinate the partially enlightened slave, +into a forgetfulness of his bondage, nor of the desirableness of +liberty. + +I was not through the first month of this, my second year with the kind +and gentlemanly Mr. Freeland, before I was earnestly considering and +advising plans for gaining that freedom, which, when I was but a mere +child, I had ascertained to be the natural and inborn right of every +member of the human family. The desire for this freedom had been +benumbed, while I was under the brutalizing dominion of Covey; and it +had been postponed, and rendered inoperative, by my truly pleasant +Sunday school engagements with my friends, during the year 1835, at Mr. +Freeland’s. It had, however, never entirely subsided. I hated slavery, +always, and the desire for freedom only needed a favorable breeze, to +fan it into a blaze, at any moment. The thought of only being a +creature of the _present_ and the _past_, troubled me, and I longed to +have a _future_—a future with hope in it. To be shut up entirely to the +past and present, is abhorrent to the human mind; it is to the +soul—whose life and happiness is unceasing progress—what the prison is +to the body; a blight and mildew, a hell of horrors. The dawning of +this, another year, awakened me from my temporary slumber, and roused +into life my latent, but long cherished aspirations for freedom. I was +now not only ashamed to be contented in slavery, but ashamed to _seem_ +to be contented, and in my present favorable condition, under the mild +rule of Mr. F., I am not sure that some kind reader will not condemn me +for being over ambitious, and greatly wanting in proper humility, when +I say the truth, that I now drove from me all thoughts of making the +best of my lot, and welcomed only such thoughts as led me away from the +house of bondage. The intense desires, now felt, _to be free_, +quickened by my present favorable circumstances, brought me to the +determination to act, as well as to think and speak. Accordingly, at +the beginning of this year 1836, I took upon me a solemn vow, that the +year which had now dawned upon me should not close, without witnessing +an earnest attempt, on my part, to gain my liberty. This vow only bound +me to make my escape individually; but the year spent with Mr. Freeland +had attached me, as with “hooks of steel,” to my brother slaves. The +most affectionate and confiding friendship existed between us; and I +felt it my duty to give them an opportunity to share in my virtuous +determination by frankly disclosing to them my plans and purposes. +Toward Henry and John Harris, I felt a friendship as strong as one man +can feel for another; for I could have died with and for them. To them, +therefore, with a suitable degree of caution, I began to disclose my +sentiments and plans; sounding them, the while on the subject of +running away, provided a good chance should offer. I scarcely need tell +the reader, that I did my _very best_ to imbue the minds of my dear +friends with my own views and feelings. Thoroughly awakened, now, and +with a definite vow upon me, all my little reading, which had any +bearing on the subject of human rights, was rendered available in my +communications with my friends. That (to me) gem of a book, the +_Columbian Orator_, with its eloquent orations and spicy dialogues, +denouncing oppression and slavery—telling of what had been dared, done +and suffered by men, to obtain the inestimable boon of liberty—was +still fresh in my memory, and whirled into the ranks of my speech with +the aptitude of well trained soldiers, going through the drill. The +fact is, I here began my public speaking. I canvassed, with Henry and +John, the subject of slavery, and dashed against it the condemning +brand of God’s eternal justice, which it every hour violates. My fellow +servants were neither indifferent, dull, nor inapt. Our feelings were +more alike than our opinions. All, however, were ready to act, when a +feasible plan should be proposed. “Show us _how_ the thing is to be +done,” said they, “and all is clear.” + +We were all, except Sandy, quite free from slaveholding priestcraft. It +was in vain that we had been taught from the pulpit at St. Michael’s, +the duty of obedience to our masters; to recognize God as the author of +our enslavement; to regard running away an offense, alike against God +and man; to deem our enslavement a merciful and beneficial arrangement; +to esteem our condition, in this country, a paradise to that from which +we had been snatched in Africa; to consider our hard hands and dark +color as God’s mark of displeasure, and as pointing us out as the +proper subjects of slavery; that the relation of master and slave was +one of reciprocal benefits; that our work was not more serviceable to +our masters, than our master’s thinking was serviceable to us. I say, +it was in vain that the pulpit of St. Michael’s had constantly +inculcated these plausible doctrine. Nature laughed them to scorn. For +my own part, I had now become altogether too big for my chains. Father +Lawson’s solemn words, of what I ought to be, and might be, in the +providence of God, had not fallen dead on my soul. I was fast verging +toward manhood, and the prophecies of my childhood were still +unfulfilled. The thought, that year after year had passed away, and my +resolutions to run away had failed and faded—that I was _still a +slave_, and a slave, too, with chances for gaining my freedom +diminished and still diminishing—was not a matter to be slept over +easily; nor did I easily sleep over it. + +But here came a new trouble. Thoughts and purposes so incendiary as +those I now cherished, could not agitate the mind long, without danger +of making themselves manifest to scrutinizing and unfriendly beholders. +I had reason to fear that my sable face might prove altogether too +transparent for the safe concealment of my hazardous enterprise. Plans +of greater moment have leaked through stone walls, and revealed their +projectors. But, here was no stone wall to hide my purpose. I would +have given my poor, tell tale face for the immoveable countenance of an +Indian, for it was far from being proof against the daily, searching +glances of those with whom I met. + +It is the interest and business of slaveholders to study human nature, +with a view to practical results, and many of them attain astonishing +proficiency in discerning the thoughts and emotions of slaves. They +have to deal not with earth, wood, or stone, but with _men;_ and, by +every regard they have for their safety and prosperity, they must study +to know the material on which they are at work. So much intellect as +the slaveholder has around him, requires watching. Their safety depends +upon their vigilance. Conscious of the injustice and wrong they are +every hour perpetrating, and knowing what they themselves would do if +made the victims of such wrongs, they are looking out for the first +signs of the dread retribution of justice. They watch, therefore, with +skilled and practiced eyes, and have learned to read, with great +accuracy, the state of mind and heart of the slaves, through his sable +face. These uneasy sinners are quick to inquire into the matter, where +the slave is concerned. Unusual sobriety, apparent abstraction, +sullenness and indifference—indeed, any mood out of the common +way—afford ground for suspicion and inquiry. Often relying on their +superior position and wisdom, they hector and torture the slave into a +confession, by affecting to know the truth of their accusations. “You +have got the devil in you,” say they, “and we will whip him out of +you.” I have often been put thus to the torture, on bare suspicion. +This system has its disadvantages as well as their opposite. The slave +is sometimes whipped into the confession of offenses which he never +committed. The reader will see that the good old rule—“a man is to be +held innocent until proved to be guilty”—does not hold good on the +slave plantation. Suspicion and torture are the approved methods of +getting at the truth, here. It was necessary for me, therefore, to keep +a watch over my deportment, lest the enemy should get the better of me. + +But with all our caution and studied reserve, I am not sure that Mr. +Freeland did not suspect that all was not right with us. It _did_ seem +that he watched us more narrowly, after the plan of escape had been +conceived and discussed amongst us. Men seldom see themselves as others +see them; and while, to ourselves, everything connected with our +contemplated escape appeared concealed, Mr. Freeland may have, with the +peculiar prescience of a slaveholder, mastered the huge thought which +was disturbing our peace in slavery. + +I am the more inclined to think that he suspected us, because, prudent +as we were, as I now look back, I can see that we did many silly +things, very well calculated to awaken suspicion. We were, at times, +remarkably buoyant, singing hymns and making joyous exclamations, +almost as triumphant in their tone as if we reached a land of freedom +and safety. A keen observer might have detected in our repeated singing +of + +_O Canaan, sweet Canaan, +I am bound for the land of Canaan,_ + + +something more than a hope of reaching heaven. We meant to reach the +_north_—and the north was our Canaan. + +_I thought I heard them say, +There were lions in the way, +I don’t expect to Star + Much longer here._ + +_Run to Jesus—shun the danger— +I don’t expect to stay + Much longer here_. + + +was a favorite air, and had a double meaning. In the lips of some, it +meant the expectation of a speedy summons to a world of spirits; but, +in the lips of _our_ company, it simply meant, a speedy pilgrimage +toward a free state, and deliverance from all the evils and dangers of +slavery. + +I had succeeded in winning to my (what slaveholders would call wicked) +scheme, a company of five young men, the very flower of the +neighborhood, each one of whom would have commanded one thousand +dollars in the home market. At New Orleans, they would have brought +fifteen hundred dollars a piece, and, perhaps, more. The names of our +party were as follows: Henry Harris; John Harris, brother to Henry; +Sandy Jenkins, of root memory; Charles Roberts, and Henry Bailey. I was +the youngest, but one, of the party. I had, however, the advantage of +them all, in experience, and in a knowledge of letters. This gave me +great influence over them. Perhaps not one of them, left to himself, +would have dreamed of escape as a possible thing. Not one of them was +self-moved in the matter. They all wanted to be free; but the serious +thought of running away, had not entered into their minds, until I won +them to the undertaking. They all were tolerably well off—for +slaves—and had dim hopes of being set free, some day, by their masters. +If any one is to blame for disturbing the quiet of the slaves and +slave-masters of the neighborhood of St. Michael’s, _I am the man_. I +claim to be the instigator of the high crime (as the slaveholders +regard it) and I kept life in it, until life could be kept in it no +longer. + +Pending the time of our contemplated departure out of our Egypt, we met +often by night, and on every Sunday. At these meetings we talked the +matter over; told our hopes and fears, and the difficulties discovered +or imagined; and, like men of sense, we counted the cost of the +enterprise to which we were committing ourselves. + +These meetings must have resembled, on a small scale, the meetings of +revolutionary conspirators, in their primary condition. We were +plotting against our (so called) lawful rulers; with this difference +that we sought our own good, and not the harm of our enemies. We did +not seek to overthrow them, but to escape from them. As for Mr. +Freeland, we all liked him, and would have gladly remained with him, +_as freeman_. LIBERTY was our aim; and we had now come to think that we +had a right to liberty, against every obstacle even against the lives +of our enslavers. + +We had several words, expressive of things, important to us, which we +understood, but which, even if distinctly heard by an outsider, would +convey no certain meaning. I have reasons for suppressing these +_pass-words_, which the reader will easily divine. I hated the secrecy; +but where slavery is powerful, and liberty is weak, the latter is +driven to concealment or to destruction. + +The prospect was not always a bright one. At times, we were almost +tempted to abandon the enterprise, and to get back to that comparative +peace of mind, which even a man under the gallows might feel, when all +hope of escape had vanished. Quiet bondage was felt to be better than +the doubts, fears and uncertainties, which now so sadly perplexed and +disturbed us. + +The infirmities of humanity, generally, were represented in our little +band. We were confident, bold and determined, at times; and, again, +doubting, timid and wavering; whistling, like the boy in the graveyard, +to keep away the spirits. + +To look at the map, and observe the proximity of Eastern Shore, +Maryland, to Delaware and Pennsylvania, it may seem to the reader quite +absurd, to regard the proposed escape as a formidable undertaking. But +to _understand_, some one has said a man must _stand under_. The real +distance was great enough, but the imagined distance was, to our +ignorance, even greater. Every slaveholder seeks to impress his slave +with a belief in the boundlessness of slave territory, and of his own +almost illimitable power. We all had vague and indistinct notions of +the geography of the country. + +The distance, however, is not the chief trouble. The nearer are the +lines of a slave state and the borders of a free one, the greater the +peril. Hired kidnappers infest these borders. Then, too, we knew that +merely reaching a free state did not free us; that, wherever caught, we +could be returned to slavery. We could see no spot on this side the +ocean, where we could be free. We had heard of Canada, the real Canaan +of the American bondmen, simply as a country to which the wild goose +and the swan repaired at the end of winter, to escape the heat of +summer, but not as the home of man. I knew something of theology, but +nothing of geography. I really did not, at that time, know that there +was a state of New York, or a state of Massachusetts. I had heard of +Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, and all the southern states, but +was ignorant of the free states, generally. New York city was our +northern limit, and to go there, and be forever harassed with the +liability of being hunted down and returned to slavery—with the +certainty of being treated ten times worse than we had ever been +treated before was a prospect far from delightful, and it might well +cause some hesitation about engaging in the enterprise. The case, +sometimes, to our excited visions, stood thus: At every gate through +which we had to pass, we saw a watchman; at every ferry, a guard; on +every bridge, a sentinel; and in every wood, a patrol or slave-hunter. +We were hemmed in on every side. The good to be sought, and the evil to +be shunned, were flung in the balance, and weighed against each other. +On the one hand, there stood slavery; a stern reality, glaring +frightfully upon us, with the blood of millions in his polluted +skirts—terrible to behold—greedily devouring our hard earnings and +feeding himself upon our flesh. Here was the evil from which to escape. +On the other hand, far away, back in the hazy distance, where all forms +seemed but shadows, under the flickering light of the north star—behind +some craggy hill or snow-covered mountain—stood a doubtful freedom, +half frozen, beckoning us to her icy domain. This was the good to be +sought. The inequality was as great as that between certainty and +uncertainty. This, in itself, was enough to stagger us; but when we +came to survey the untrodden road, and conjecture the many possible +difficulties, we were appalled, and at times, as I have said, were upon +the point of giving over the struggle altogether. + +The reader can have little idea of the phantoms of trouble which flit, +in such circumstances, before the uneducated mind of the slave. Upon +either side, we saw grim death assuming a variety of horrid shapes. +Now, it was starvation, causing us, in a strange and friendless land, +to eat our own flesh. Now, we were contending with the waves (for our +journey was in part by water) and were drowned. Now, we were hunted by +dogs, and overtaken and torn to pieces by their merciless fangs. We +were stung by scorpions—chased by wild beasts—bitten by snakes; and, +worst of all, after having succeeded in swimming rivers—encountering +wild beasts—sleeping in the woods—suffering hunger, cold, heat and +nakedness—we supposed ourselves to be overtaken by hired kidnappers, +who, in the name of the law, and for their thrice accursed reward, +would, perchance, fire upon us—kill some, wound others, and capture +all. This dark picture, drawn by ignorance and fear, at times greatly +shook our determination, and not unfrequently caused us to + +Rather bear those ills we had +Than fly to others which we knew not of. + + +I am not disposed to magnify this circumstance in my experience, and +yet I think I shall seem to be so disposed, to the reader. No man can +tell the intense agony which is felt by the slave, when wavering on the +point of making his escape. All that he has is at stake; and even that +which he has not, is at stake, also. The life which he has, may be +lost, and the liberty which he seeks, may not be gained. + +Patrick Henry, to a listening senate, thrilled by his magic eloquence, +and ready to stand by him in his boldest flights, could say, GIVE ME +LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH, and this saying was a sublime one, even for a +freeman; but, incomparably more sublime, is the same sentiment, when +_practically_ asserted by men accustomed to the lash and chain—men +whose sensibilities must have become more or less deadened by their +bondage. With us it was a _doubtful_ liberty, at best, that we sought; +and a certain, lingering death in the rice swamps and sugar fields, if +we failed. Life is not lightly regarded by men of sane minds. It is +precious, alike to the pauper and to the prince—to the slave, and to +his master; and yet, I believe there was not one among us, who would +not rather have been shot down, than pass away life in hopeless +bondage. + +In the progress of our preparations, Sandy, the root man, became +troubled. He began to have dreams, and some of them were very +distressing. One of these, which happened on a Friday night, was, to +him, of great significance; and I am quite ready to confess, that I +felt somewhat damped by it myself. He said, “I dreamed, last night, +that I was roused from sleep, by strange noises, like the voices of a +swarm of angry birds, that caused a roar as they passed, which fell +upon my ear like a coming gale over the tops of the trees. Looking up +to see what it could mean,” said Sandy, “I saw you, Frederick, in the +claws of a huge bird, surrounded by a large number of birds, of all +colors and sizes. These were all picking at you, while you, with your +arms, seemed to be trying to protect your eyes. Passing over me, the +birds flew in a south-westerly direction, and I watched them until they +were clean out of sight. Now, I saw this as plainly as I now see you; +and furder, honey, watch de Friday night dream; dare is sumpon in it, +shose you born; dare is, indeed, honey.” + +I confess I did not like this dream; but I threw off concern about it, +by attributing it to the general excitement and perturbation consequent +upon our contemplated plan of escape. I could not, however, shake off +its effect at once. I felt that it boded me no good. Sandy was +unusually emphatic and oracular, and his manner had much to do with the +impression made upon me. + +The plan of escape which I recommended, and to which my comrades +assented, was to take a large canoe, owned by Mr. Hamilton, and, on the +Saturday night previous to the Easter holidays, launch out into the +Chesapeake bay, and paddle for its head—a distance of seventy miles +with all our might. Our course, on reaching this point, was, to turn +the canoe adrift, and bend our steps toward the north star, till we +reached a free state. + +There were several objections to this plan. One was, the danger from +gales on the bay. In rough weather, the waters of the Chesapeake are +much agitated, and there is danger, in a canoe, of being swamped by the +waves. Another objection was, that the canoe would soon be missed; the +absent persons would, at once, be suspected of having taken it; and we +should be pursued by some of the fast sailing bay craft out of St. +Michael’s. Then, again, if we reached the head of the bay, and turned +the canoe adrift, she might prove a guide to our track, and bring the +land hunters after us. + +These and other objections were set aside, by the stronger ones which +could be urged against every other plan that could then be suggested. +On the water, we had a chance of being regarded as fishermen, in the +service of a master. On the other hand, by taking the land route, +through the counties adjoining Delaware, we should be subjected to all +manner of interruptions, and many very disagreeable questions, which +might give us serious trouble. Any white man is authorized to stop a +man of color, on any road, and examine him, and arrest him, if he so +desires. + +By this arrangement, many abuses (considered such even by slaveholders) +occur. Cases have been known, where freemen have been called upon to +show their free papers, by a pack of ruffians—and, on the presentation +of the papers, the ruffians have torn them up, and seized their victim, +and sold him to a life of endless bondage. + +The week before our intended start, I wrote a pass for each of our +party, giving them permission to visit Baltimore, during the Easter +holidays. The pass ran after this manner: + +This is to certify, that I, the undersigned, have given the bearer, my +servant, John, full liberty to go to Baltimore, to spend the Easter +holidays. + + +W.H. +Near St. Michael’s, Talbot county, Maryland + + +Although we were not going to Baltimore, and were intending to land +east of North Point, in the direction where I had seen the Philadelphia +steamers go, these passes might be made useful to us in the lower part +of the bay, while steering toward Baltimore. These were not, however, +to be shown by us, until all other answers failed to satisfy the +inquirer. We were all fully alive to the importance of being calm and +self-possessed, when accosted, if accosted we should be; and we more +times than one rehearsed to each other how we should behave in the hour +of trial. + +These were long, tedious days and nights. The suspense was painful, in +the extreme. To balance probabilities, where life and liberty hang on +the result, requires steady nerves. I panted for action, and was glad +when the day, at the close of which we were to start, dawned upon us. +Sleeping, the night before, was out of the question. I probably felt +more deeply than any of my companions, because I was the instigator of +the movement. The responsibility of the whole enterprise rested on my +shoulders. The glory of success, and the shame and confusion of +failure, could not be matters of indifference to me. Our food was +prepared; our clothes were packed up; we were all ready to go, and +impatient for Saturday morning—considering that the last morning of our +bondage. + +I cannot describe the tempest and tumult of my brain, that morning. The +reader will please to bear in mind, that, in a slave state, an +unsuccessful runaway is not only subjected to cruel torture, and sold +away to the far south, but he is frequently execrated by the other +slaves. He is charged with making the condition of the other slaves +intolerable, by laying them all under the suspicion of their +masters—subjecting them to greater vigilance, and imposing greater +limitations on their privileges. I dreaded murmurs from this quarter. +It is difficult, too, for a slavemaster to believe that slaves escaping +have not been aided in their flight by some one of their fellow slaves. +When, therefore, a slave is missing, every slave on the place is +closely examined as to his knowledge of the undertaking; and they are +sometimes even tortured, to make them disclose what they are suspected +of knowing of such escape. + +Our anxiety grew more and more intense, as the time of our intended +departure for the north drew nigh. It was truly felt to be a matter of +life and death with us; and we fully intended to _fight_ as well as +_run_, if necessity should occur for that extremity. But the trial hour +was not yet to come. It was easy to resolve, but not so easy to act. I +expected there might be some drawing back, at the last. It was natural +that there should be; therefore, during the intervening time, I lost no +opportunity to explain away difficulties, to remove doubts, to dispel +fears, and to inspire all with firmness. It was too late to look back; +and _now_ was the time to go forward. Like most other men, we had done +the talking part of our work, long and well; and the time had come to +_act_ as if we were in earnest, and meant to be as true in action as in +words. I did not forget to appeal to the pride of my comrades, by +telling them that, if after having solemnly promised to go, as they had +done, they now failed to make the attempt, they would, in effect, brand +themselves with cowardice, and might as well sit down, fold their arms, +and acknowledge themselves as fit only to be _slaves_. This detestable +character, all were unwilling to assume. Every man except Sandy (he, +much to our regret, withdrew) stood firm; and at our last meeting we +pledged ourselves afresh, and in the most solemn manner, that, at the +time appointed, we _would_ certainly start on our long journey for a +free country. This meeting was in the middle of the week, at the end of +which we were to start. + +Early that morning we went, as usual, to the field, but with hearts +that beat quickly and anxiously. Any one intimately acquainted with us, +might have seen that all was not well with us, and that some monster +lingered in our thoughts. Our work that morning was the same as it had +been for several days past—drawing out and spreading manure. While thus +engaged, I had a sudden presentiment, which flashed upon me like +lightning in a dark night, revealing to the lonely traveler the gulf +before, and the enemy behind. I instantly turned to Sandy Jenkins, who +was near me, and said to him, _“Sandy, we are betrayed;_ something has +just told me so.” I felt as sure of it, as if the officers were there +in sight. Sandy said, “Man, dat is strange; but I feel just as you do.” +If my mother—then long in her grave—had appeared before me, and told me +that we were betrayed, I could not, at that moment, have felt more +certain of the fact. + +In a few minutes after this, the long, low and distant notes of the +horn summoned us from the field to breakfast. I felt as one may be +supposed to feel before being led forth to be executed for some great +offense. I wanted no breakfast; but I went with the other slaves toward +the house, for form’s sake. My feelings were not disturbed as to the +right of running away; on that point I had no trouble, whatever. My +anxiety arose from a sense of the consequences of failure. + +In thirty minutes after that vivid presentiment came the apprehended +crash. On reaching the house, for breakfast, and glancing my eye toward +the lane gate, the worst was at once made known. The lane gate off Mr. +Freeland’s house, is nearly a half mile from the door, and shaded by +the heavy wood which bordered the main road. I was, however, able to +descry four white men, and two colored men, approaching. The white men +were on horseback, and the colored men were walking behind, and seemed +to be tied. _“It is all over with us,”_ thought I, _“we are surely +betrayed_.” I now became composed, or at least comparatively so, and +calmly awaited the result. I watched the ill-omened company, till I saw +them enter the gate. Successful flight was impossible, and I made up my +mind to stand, and meet the evil, whatever it might be; for I was not +without a slight hope that things might turn differently from what I at +first expected. In a few moments, in came Mr. William Hamilton, riding +very rapidly, and evidently much excited. He was in the habit of riding +very slowly, and was seldom known to gallop his horse. This time, his +horse was nearly at full speed, causing the dust to roll thick behind +him. Mr. Hamilton, though one of the most resolute men in the whole +neighborhood, was, nevertheless, a remarkably mild spoken man; and, +even when greatly excited, his language was cool and circumspect. He +came to the door, and inquired if Mr. Freeland was in. I told him that +Mr. Freeland was at the barn. Off the old gentleman rode, toward the +barn, with unwonted speed. Mary, the cook, was at a loss to know what +was the matter, and I did not profess any skill in making her +understand. I knew she would have united, as readily as any one, in +cursing me for bringing trouble into the family; so I held my peace, +leaving matters to develop themselves, without my assistance. In a few +moments, Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Freeland came down from the barn to the +house; and, just as they made their appearance in the front yard, three +men (who proved to be constables) came dashing into the lane, on +horseback, as if summoned by a sign requiring quick work. A few seconds +brought them into the front yard, where they hastily dismounted, and +tied their horses. This done, they joined Mr. Freeland and Mr. +Hamilton, who were standing a short distance from the kitchen. A few +moments were spent, as if in consulting how to proceed, and then the +whole party walked up to the kitchen door. There was now no one in the +kitchen but myself and John Harris. Henry and Sandy were yet at the +barn. Mr. Freeland came inside the kitchen door, and with an agitated +voice, called me by name, and told me to come forward; that there was +some gentlemen who wished to see me. I stepped toward them, at the +door, and asked what they wanted, when the constables grabbed me, and +told me that I had better not resist; that I had been in a scrape, or +was said to have been in one; that they were merely going to take me +where I could be examined; that they were going to carry me to St. +Michael’s, to have me brought before my master. They further said, +that, in case the evidence against me was not true, I should be +acquitted. I was now firmly tied, and completely at the mercy of my +captors. Resistance was idle. They were five in number, armed to the +very teeth. When they had secured me, they next turned to John Harris, +and, in a few moments, succeeded in tying him as firmly as they had +already tied me. They next turned toward Henry Harris, who had now +returned from the barn. “Cross your hands,” said the constables, to +Henry. “I won’t” said Henry, in a voice so firm and clear, and in a +manner so determined, as for a moment to arrest all proceedings. “Won’t +you cross your hands?” said Tom Graham, the constable. “_No I won’t_,” +said Henry, with increasing emphasis. Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Freeland, and +the officers, now came near to Henry. Two of the constables drew out +their shining pistols, and swore by the name of God, that he should +cross his hands, or they would shoot him down. Each of these hired +ruffians now cocked their pistols, and, with fingers apparently on the +triggers, presented their deadly weapons to the breast of the unarmed +slave, saying, at the same time, if he did not cross his hands, they +would “blow his d—d heart out of him.” + +_“Shoot! shoot me!”_ said Henry. “_You can’t kill me but once_. +Shoot!—shoot! and be d—d. _I won’t be tied_.” This, the brave fellow +said in a voice as defiant and heroic in its tone, as was the language +itself; and, at the moment of saying this, with the pistols at his very +breast, he quickly raised his arms, and dashed them from the puny hands +of his assassins, the weapons flying in opposite directions. Now came +the struggle. All hands was now rushed upon the brave fellow, and, +after beating him for some time, they succeeded in overpowering and +tying him. Henry put me to shame; he fought, and fought bravely. John +and I had made no resistance. The fact is, I never see much use in +fighting, unless there is a reasonable probability of whipping +somebody. Yet there was something almost providential in the resistance +made by the gallant Henry. But for that resistance, every soul of us +would have been hurried off to the far south. Just a moment previous to +the trouble with Henry, Mr. Hamilton _mildly_ said—and this gave me the +unmistakable clue to the cause of our arrest—“Perhaps we had now better +make a search for those protections, which we understand Frederick has +written for himself and the rest.” Had these passes been found, they +would have been point blank proof against us, and would have confirmed +all the statements of our betrayer. Thanks to the resistance of Henry, +the excitement produced by the scuffle drew all attention in that +direction, and I succeeded in flinging my pass, unobserved, into the +fire. The confusion attendant upon the scuffle, and the apprehension of +further trouble, perhaps, led our captors to forego, for the present, +any search for _“those protections” which Frederick was said to have +written for his companions_; so we were not yet convicted of the +purpose to run away; and it was evident that there was some doubt, on +the part of all, whether we had been guilty of such a purpose. + +Just as we were all completely tied, and about ready to start toward +St. Michael’s, and thence to jail, Mrs. Betsey Freeland (mother to +William, who was very much attached—after the southern fashion—to Henry +and John, they having been reared from childhood in her house) came to +the kitchen door, with her hands full of biscuits—for we had not had +time to take our breakfast that morning—and divided them between Henry +and John. This done, the lady made the following parting address to me, +looking and pointing her bony finger at me. “You devil! you yellow +devil! It was you that put it into the heads of Henry and John to run +away. But for _you_, you _long legged yellow devil_, Henry and John +would never have thought of running away.” I gave the lady a look, +which called forth a scream of mingled wrath and terror, as she slammed +the kitchen door, and went in, leaving me, with the rest, in hands as +harsh as her own broken voice. + +Could the kind reader have been quietly riding along the main road to +or from Easton, that morning, his eye would have met a painful sight. +He would have seen five young men, guilty of no crime, save that of +preferring _liberty_ to a life of _bondage_, drawn along the public +highway—firmly bound together—tramping through dust and heat, +bare-footed and bare-headed—fastened to three strong horses, whose +riders were armed to the teeth, with pistols and daggers—on their way +to prison, like felons, and suffering every possible insult from the +crowds of idle, vulgar people, who clustered around, and heartlessly +made their failure the occasion for all manner of ribaldry and sport. +As I looked upon this crowd of vile persons, and saw myself and friends +thus assailed and persecuted, I could not help seeing the fulfillment +of Sandy’s dream. I was in the hands of moral vultures, and firmly held +in their sharp talons, and was hurried away toward Easton, in a +south-easterly direction, amid the jeers of new birds of the same +feather, through every neighborhood we passed. It seemed to me (and +this shows the good understanding between the slaveholders and their +allies) that every body we met knew the cause of our arrest, and were +out, awaiting our passing by, to feast their vindictive eyes on our +misery and to gloat over our ruin. Some said, _I ought to be hanged_, +and others, _I ought to be burnt_, others, I ought to have the _“hide”_ +taken from my back; while no one gave us a kind word or sympathizing +look, except the poor slaves, who were lifting their heavy hoes, and +who cautiously glanced at us through the post-and-rail fences, behind +which they were at work. Our sufferings, that morning, can be more +easily imagined than described. Our hopes were all blasted, at a blow. +The cruel injustice, the victorious crime, and the helplessness of +innocence, led me to ask, in my ignorance and weakness “Where now is +the God of justice and mercy? And why have these wicked men the power +thus to trample upon our rights, and to insult our feelings?” And yet, +in the next moment, came the consoling thought, _“The day of oppressor +will come at last.”_ Of one thing I could be glad—not one of my dear +friends, upon whom I had brought this great calamity, either by word or +look, reproached me for having led them into it. We were a band of +brothers, and never dearer to each other than now. The thought which +gave us the most pain, was the probable separation which would now take +place, in case we were sold off to the far south, as we were likely to +be. While the constables were looking forward, Henry and I, being +fastened together, could occasionally exchange a word, without being +observed by the kidnappers who had us in charge. “What shall I do with +my pass?” said Henry. “Eat it with your biscuit,” said I; “it won’t do +to tear it up.” We were now near St. Michael’s. The direction +concerning the passes was passed around, and executed. _“Own nothing!”_ +said I. _“Own nothing!”_ was passed around and enjoined, and assented +to. Our confidence in each other was unshaken; and we were quite +resolved to succeed or fail together—as much after the calamity which +had befallen us, as before. + +On reaching St. Michael’s, we underwent a sort of examination at my +master’s store, and it was evident to my mind, that Master Thomas +suspected the truthfulness of the evidence upon which they had acted in +arresting us; and that he only affected, to some extent, the +positiveness with which he asserted our guilt. There was nothing said +by any of our company, which could, in any manner, prejudice our cause; +and there was hope, yet, that we should be able to return to our +homes—if for nothing else, at least to find out the guilty man or woman +who had betrayed us. + +To this end, we all denied that we had been guilty of intended flight. +Master Thomas said that the evidence he had of our intention to run +away, was strong enough to hang us, in a case of murder. “But,” said I, +“the cases are not equal. If murder were committed, some one must have +committed it—the thing is done! In our case, nothing has been done! We +have not run away. Where is the evidence against us? We were quietly at +our work.” I talked thus, with unusual freedom, to bring out the +evidence against us, for we all wanted, above all things, to know the +guilty wretch who had betrayed us, that we might have something +tangible upon which to pour the execrations. From something which +dropped, in the course of the talk, it appeared that there was but one +witness against us—and that that witness could not be produced. Master +Thomas would not tell us _who_ his informant was; but we suspected, and +suspected _one_ person _only_. Several circumstances seemed to point +SANDY out, as our betrayer. His entire knowledge of our plans his +participation in them—his withdrawal from us—his dream, and his +simultaneous presentiment that we were betrayed—the taking us, and the +leaving him—were calculated to turn suspicion toward him; and yet, we +could not suspect him. We all loved him too well to think it _possible_ +that he could have betrayed us. So we rolled the guilt on other +shoulders. + +We were literally dragged, that morning, behind horses, a distance of +fifteen miles, and placed in the Easton jail. We were glad to reach the +end of our journey, for our pathway had been the scene of insult and +mortification. Such is the power of public opinion, that it is hard, +even for the innocent, to feel the happy consolations of innocence, +when they fall under the maledictions of this power. How could we +regard ourselves as in the right, when all about us denounced us as +criminals, and had the power and the disposition to treat us as such. + +In jail, we were placed under the care of Mr. Joseph Graham, the +sheriff of the county. Henry, and John, and myself, were placed in one +room, and Henry Baily and Charles Roberts, in another, by themselves. +This separation was intended to deprive us of the advantage of concert, +and to prevent trouble in jail. + +Once shut up, a new set of tormentors came upon us. A swarm of imps, in +human shape the slave-traders, deputy slave-traders, and agents of +slave-traders—that gather in every country town of the state, watching +for chances to buy human flesh (as buzzards to eat carrion) flocked in +upon us, to ascertain if our masters had placed us in jail to be sold. +Such a set of debased and villainous creatures, I never saw before, and +hope never to see again. I felt myself surrounded as by a pack of +_fiends_, fresh from _perdition_. They laughed, leered, and grinned at +us; saying, “Ah! boys, we’ve got you, havn’t we? So you were about to +make your escape? Where were you going to?” After taunting us, and +peering at us, as long as they liked, they one by one subjected us to +an examination, with a view to ascertain our value; feeling our arms +and legs, and shaking us by the shoulders to see if we were sound and +healthy; impudently asking us, “how we would like to have them for +masters?” To such questions, we were, very much to their annoyance, +quite dumb, disdaining to answer them. For one, I detested the +whisky-bloated gamblers in human flesh; and I believe I was as much +detested by them in turn. One fellow told me, “if he had me, he would +cut the devil out of me pretty quick.” + +These Negro buyers are very offensive to the genteel southern Christian +public. They are looked upon, in respectable Maryland society, as +necessary, but detestable characters. As a class, they are hardened +ruffians, made such by nature and by occupation. Their ears are made +quite familiar with the agonizing cry of outraged and woe-smitted +humanity. Their eyes are forever open to human misery. They walk amid +desecrated affections, insulted virtue, and blasted hopes. They have +grown intimate with vice and blood; they gloat over the wildest +illustrations of their soul-damning and earth-polluting business, and +are moral pests. Yes; they are a legitimate fruit of slavery; and it is +a puzzle to make out a case of greater villainy for them, than for the +slaveholders, who make such a class _possible_. They are mere hucksters +of the surplus slave produce of Maryland and Virginia coarse, cruel, +and swaggering bullies, whose very breathing is of blasphemy and blood. + +Aside from these slave-buyers, who infested the prison, from time to +time, our quarters were much more comfortable than we had any right to +expect they would be. Our allowance of food was small and coarse, but +our room was the best in the jail—neat and spacious, and with nothing +about it necessarily reminding us of being in prison, but its heavy +locks and bolts and the black, iron lattice-work at the windows. We +were prisoners of state, compared with most slaves who are put into +that Easton jail. But the place was not one of contentment. Bolts, bars +and grated windows are not acceptable to freedom-loving people of any +color. The suspense, too, was painful. Every step on the stairway was +listened to, in the hope that the comer would cast a ray of light on +our fate. We would have given the hair off our heads for half a dozen +words with one of the waiters in Sol. Lowe’s hotel. Such waiters were +in the way of hearing, at the table, the probable course of things. We +could see them flitting about in their white jackets in front of this +hotel, but could speak to none of them. + +Soon after the holidays were over, contrary to all our expectations, +Messrs. Hamilton and Freeland came up to Easton; not to make a bargain +with the “Georgia traders,” nor to send us up to Austin Woldfolk, as is +usual in the case of run-away slaves, but to release Charles, Henry +Harris, Henry Baily and John Harris, from prison, and this, too, +without the infliction of a single blow. I was now left entirely alone +in prison. The innocent had been taken, and the guilty left. My friends +were separated from me, and apparently forever. This circumstance +caused me more pain than any other incident connected with our capture +and imprisonment. Thirty-nine lashes on my naked and bleeding back, +would have been joyfully borne, in preference to this separation from +these, the friends of my youth. And yet, I could not but feel that I +was the victim of something like justice. Why should these young men, +who were led into this scheme by me, suffer as much as the instigator? +I felt glad that they were leased from prison, and from the dread +prospect of a life (or death I should rather say) in the rice swamps. +It is due to the noble Henry, to say, that he seemed almost as +reluctant to leave the prison with me in it, as he was to be tied and +dragged to prison. But he and the rest knew that we should, in all the +likelihoods of the case, be separated, in the event of being sold; and +since we were now completely in the hands of our owners, we all +concluded it would be best to go peaceably home. + +Not until this last separation, dear reader, had I touched those +profounder depths of desolation, which it is the lot of slaves often to +reach. I was solitary in the world, and alone within the walls of a +stone prison, left to a fate of life-long misery. I had hoped and +expected much, for months before, but my hopes and expectations were +now withered and blasted. The ever dreaded slave life in Georgia, +Louisiana and Alabama—from which escape is next to impossible now, in +my loneliness, stared me in the face. The possibility of ever becoming +anything but an abject slave, a mere machine in the hands of an owner, +had now fled, and it seemed to me it had fled forever. A life of living +death, beset with the innumerable horrors of the cotton field, and the +sugar plantation, seemed to be my doom. The fiends, who rushed into the +prison when we were first put there, continued to visit me, and to ply +me with questions and with their tantalizing remarks. I was insulted, +but helpless; keenly alive to the demands of justice and liberty, but +with no means of asserting them. To talk to those imps about justice +and mercy, would have been as absurd as to reason with bears and +tigers. Lead and steel are the only arguments that they understand. + +After remaining in this life of misery and despair about a week, which, +by the way, seemed a month, Master Thomas, very much to my surprise, +and greatly to my relief, came to the prison, and took me out, for the +purpose, as he said, of sending me to Alabama, with a friend of his, +who would emancipate me at the end of eight years. I was glad enough to +get out of prison; but I had no faith in the story that this friend of +Capt. Auld would emancipate me, at the end of the time indicated. +Besides, I never had heard of his having a friend in Alabama, and I +took the announcement, simply as an easy and comfortable method of +shipping me off to the far south. There was a little scandal, too, +connected with the idea of one Christian selling another to the Georgia +traders, while it was deemed every way proper for them to sell to +others. I thought this friend in Alabama was an invention, to meet this +difficulty, for Master Thomas was quite jealous of his Christian +reputation, however unconcerned he might be about his real Christian +character. In these remarks, however, it is possible that I do Master +Thomas Auld injustice. He certainly did not exhaust his power upon me, +in the case, but acted, upon the whole, very generously, considering +the nature of my offense. He had the power and the provocation to send +me, without reserve, into the very everglades of Florida, beyond the +remotest hope of emancipation; and his refusal to exercise that power, +must be set down to his credit. + +After lingering about St. Michael’s a few days, and no friend from +Alabama making his appearance, to take me there, Master Thomas decided +to send me back again to Baltimore, to live with his brother Hugh, with +whom he was now at peace; possibly he became so by his profession of +religion, at the camp-meeting in the Bay Side. Master Thomas told me +that he wished me to go to Baltimore, and learn a trade; and that, if I +behaved myself properly, he would _emancipate me at twenty-five!_ +Thanks for this one beam of hope in the future. The promise had but one +fault; it seemed too good to be true. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. _Apprenticeship Life_ + + +NOTHING LOST BY THE ATTEMPT TO RUN AWAY—COMRADES IN THEIR OLD +HOMES—REASONS FOR SENDING ME AWAY—RETURN TO BALTIMORE—CONTRAST BETWEEN +TOMMY AND THAT OF HIS COLORED COMPANION—TRIALS IN GARDINER’S SHIP +YARD—DESPERATE FIGHT—ITS CAUSES—CONFLICT BETWEEN WHITE AND BLACK +LABOR—DESCRIPTION OF THE OUTRAGE—COLORED TESTIMONY NOTHING—CONDUCT OF +MASTER HUGH—SPIRIT OF SLAVERY IN BALTIMORE—MY CONDITION IMPROVES—NEW +ASSOCIATIONS—SLAVEHOLDER’S RIGHT TO TAKE HIS WAGES—HOW TO MAKE A +CONTENTED SLAVE. + + +Well! dear reader, I am not, as you may have already inferred, a loser +by the general upstir, described in the foregoing chapter. The little +domestic revolution, notwithstanding the sudden snub it got by the +treachery of somebody—I dare not say or think who—did not, after all, +end so disastrously, as when in the iron cage at Easton, I conceived it +would. The prospect, from that point, did look about as dark as any +that ever cast its gloom over the vision of the anxious, out-looking, +human spirit. “All is well that ends well.” My affectionate comrades, +Henry and John Harris, are still with Mr. William Freeland. Charles +Roberts and Henry Baily are safe at their homes. I have not, therefore, +any thing to regret on their account. Their masters have mercifully +forgiven them, probably on the ground suggested in the spirited little +speech of Mrs. Freeland, made to me just before leaving for the +jail—namely: that they had been allured into the wicked scheme of +making their escape, by me; and that, but for me, they would never have +dreamed of a thing so shocking! My friends had nothing to regret, +either; for while they were watched more closely on account of what had +happened, they were, doubtless, treated more kindly than before, and +got new assurances that they would be legally emancipated, some day, +provided their behavior should make them deserving, from that time +forward. Not a blow, as I learned, was struck any one of them. As for +Master William Freeland, good, unsuspecting soul, he did not believe +that we were intending to run away at all. Having given—as he +thought—no occasion to his boys to leave him, he could not think it +probable that they had entertained a design so grievous. This, however, +was not the view taken of the matter by “Mas’ Billy,” as we used to +call the soft spoken, but crafty and resolute Mr. William Hamilton. He +had no doubt that the crime had been meditated; and regarding me as the +instigator of it, he frankly told Master Thomas that he must remove me +from that neighborhood, or he would shoot me down. He would not have +one so dangerous as “Frederick” tampering with his slaves. William +Hamilton was not a man whose threat might be safely disregarded. I have +no doubt that he would have proved as good as his word, had the warning +given not been promptly taken. He was furious at the thought of such a +piece of high-handed _theft_, as we were about to perpetrate the +stealing of our own bodies and souls! The feasibility of the plan, too, +could the first steps have been taken, was marvelously plain. Besides, +this was a _new_ idea, this use of the bay. Slaves escaping, until now, +had taken to the woods; they had never dreamed of profaning and abusing +the waters of the noble Chesapeake, by making them the highway from +slavery to freedom. Here was a broad road of destruction to slavery, +which, before, had been looked upon as a wall of security by +slaveholders. But Master Billy could not get Mr. Freeland to see +matters precisely as he did; nor could he get Master Thomas so excited +as he was himself. The latter—I must say it to his credit—showed much +humane feeling in his part of the transaction, and atoned for much that +had been harsh, cruel and unreasonable in his former treatment of me +and others. His clemency was quite unusual and unlooked for. “Cousin +Tom” told me that while I was in jail, Master Thomas was very unhappy; +and that the night before his going up to release me, he had walked the +floor nearly all night, evincing great distress; that very tempting +offers had been made to him, by the Negro-traders, but he had rejected +them all, saying that _money could not tempt him to sell me to the far +south_. All this I can easily believe, for he seemed quite reluctant to +send me away, at all. He told me that he only consented to do so, +because of the very strong prejudice against me in the neighborhood, +and that he feared for my safety if I remained there. + +Thus, after three years spent in the country, roughing it in the field, +and experiencing all sorts of hardships, I was again permitted to +return to Baltimore, the very place, of all others, short of a free +state, where I most desired to live. The three years spent in the +country, had made some difference in me, and in the household of Master +Hugh. “Little Tommy” was no longer _little_ Tommy; and I was not the +slender lad who had left for the Eastern Shore just three years before. +The loving relations between me and Mas’ Tommy were broken up. He was +no longer dependent on me for protection, but felt himself a _man_, +with other and more suitable associates. In childhood, he scarcely +considered me inferior to himself certainly, as good as any other boy +with whom he played; but the time had come when his _friend_ must +become his _slave_. So we were cold, and we parted. It was a sad thing +to me, that, loving each other as we had done, we must now take +different roads. To him, a thousand avenues were open. Education had +made him acquainted with all the treasures of the world, and liberty +had flung open the gates thereunto; but I, who had attended him seven +years, and had watched over him with the care of a big brother, +fighting his battles in the street, and shielding him from harm, to an +extent which had induced his mother to say, “Oh! Tommy is always safe, +when he is with Freddy,” must be confined to a single condition. He +could grow, and become a MAN; I could grow, though I could _not_ become +a man, but must remain, all my life, a minor—a mere boy. Thomas Auld, +Junior, obtained a situation on board the brig “Tweed,” and went to +sea. I know not what has become of him; he certainly has my good wishes +for his welfare and prosperity. There were few persons to whom I was +more sincerely attached than to him, and there are few in the world I +would be more pleased to meet. + +Very soon after I went to Baltimore to live, Master Hugh succeeded in +getting me hired to Mr. William Gardiner, an extensive ship builder on +Fell’s Point. I was placed here to learn to calk, a trade of which I +already had some knowledge, gained while in Mr. Hugh Auld’s ship-yard, +when he was a master builder. Gardiner’s, however, proved a very +unfavorable place for the accomplishment of that object. Mr. Gardiner +was, that season, engaged in building two large man-of-war vessels, +professedly for the Mexican government. These vessels were to be +launched in the month of July, of that year, and, in failure thereof, +Mr. G. would forfeit a very considerable sum of money. So, when I +entered the ship-yard, all was hurry and driving. There were in the +yard about one hundred men; of these about seventy or eighty were +regular carpenters—privileged men. Speaking of my condition here I +wrote, years ago—and I have now no reason to vary the picture as +follows: + +There was no time to learn any thing. Every man had to do that which he +knew how to do. In entering the ship-yard, my orders from Mr. Gardiner +were, to do whatever the carpenters commanded me to do. This was +placing me at the beck and call of about seventy-five men. I was to +regard all these as masters. Their word was to be my law. My situation +was a most trying one. At times I needed a dozen pair of hands. I was +called a dozen ways in the space of a single minute. Three or four +voices would strike my ear at the same moment. It was—“Fred., come help +me to cant this timber here.” “Fred., come carry this timber +yonder.”—“Fred., bring that roller here.”—“Fred., go get a fresh can of +water.”—“Fred., come help saw off the end of this timber.”—“Fred., go +quick and get the crow bar.”—“Fred., hold on the end of this +fall.”—“Fred., go to the blacksmith’s shop, and get a new punch.”— + +“Hurra, Fred.! run and bring me a cold chisel.”—“I say, Fred., bear a +hand, and get up a fire as quick as lightning under that +steam-box.”—“Halloo, nigger! come, turn this grindstone.”—“Come, come! +move, move! and _bowse_ this timber forward.”—“I say, darkey, blast +your eyes, why don’t you heat up some pitch?”—“Halloo! halloo! halloo!” +(Three voices at the same time.) “Come here!—Go there!—Hold on where +you are! D—n you, if you move, I’ll knock your brains out!” + +Such, dear reader, is a glance at the school which was mine, during, +the first eight months of my stay at Baltimore. At the end of the eight +months, Master Hugh refused longer to allow me to remain with Mr. +Gardiner. The circumstance which led to his taking me away, was a +brutal outrage, committed upon me by the white apprentices of the +ship-yard. The fight was a desperate one, and I came out of it most +shockingly mangled. I was cut and bruised in sundry places, and my left +eye was nearly knocked out of its socket. The facts, leading to this +barbarous outrage upon me, illustrate a phase of slavery destined to +become an important element in the overthrow of the slave system, and I +may, therefore state them with some minuteness. That phase is this: +_the conflict of slavery with the interests of the white mechanics and +laborers of the south_. In the country, this conflict is not so +apparent; but, in cities, such as Baltimore, Richmond, New Orleans, +Mobile, &c., it is seen pretty clearly. The slaveholders, with a +craftiness peculiar to themselves, by encouraging the enmity of the +poor, laboring white man against the blacks, succeeds in making the +said white man almost as much a slave as the black slave himself. The +difference between the white slave, and the black slave, is this: the +latter belongs to _one_ slaveholder, and the former belongs to _all_ +the slaveholders, collectively. The white slave has taken from him, by +indirection, what the black slave has taken from him, directly, and +without ceremony. Both are plundered, and by the same plunderers. The +slave is robbed, by his master, of all his earnings, above what is +required for his bare physical necessities; and the white man is robbed +by the slave system, of the just results of his labor, because he is +flung into competition with a class of laborers who work without wages. +The competition, and its injurious consequences, will, one day, array +the nonslaveholding white people of the slave states, against the slave +system, and make them the most effective workers against the great +evil. At present, the slaveholders blind them to this competition, by +keeping alive their prejudice against the slaves, _as men_—not against +them _as slaves_. They appeal to their pride, often denouncing +emancipation, as tending to place the white man, on an equality with +Negroes, and, by this means, they succeed in drawing off the minds of +the poor whites from the real fact, that, by the rich slave-master, +they are already regarded as but a single remove from equality with the +slave. The impression is cunningly made, that slavery is the only power +that can prevent the laboring white man from falling to the level of +the slave’s poverty and degradation. To make this enmity deep and +broad, between the slave and the poor white man, the latter is allowed +to abuse and whip the former, without hinderance. But—as I have +suggested—this state of facts prevails _mostly_ in the country. In the +city of Baltimore, there are not unfrequent murmurs, that educating the +slaves to be mechanics may, in the end, give slavemasters power to +dispense with the services of the poor white man altogether. But, with +characteristic dread of offending the slaveholders, these poor, white +mechanics in Mr. Gardiner’s ship-yard—instead of applying the natural, +honest remedy for the apprehended evil, and objecting at once to work +there by the side of slaves—made a cowardly attack upon the free +colored mechanics, saying _they_ were eating the bread which should be +eaten by American freemen, and swearing that they would not work with +them. The feeling was, _really_, against having their labor brought +into competition with that of the colored people at all; but it was too +much to strike directly at the interest of the slaveholders; and, +therefore proving their servility and cowardice they dealt their blows +on the poor, colored freeman, and aimed to prevent _him_ from serving +himself, in the evening of life, with the trade with which he had +served his master, during the more vigorous portion of his days. Had +they succeeded in driving the black freemen out of the ship-yard, they +would have determined also upon the removal of the black slaves. The +feeling was very bitter toward all colored people in Baltimore, about +this time (1836), and they—free and slave suffered all manner of insult +and wrong. + +Until a very little before I went there, white and black ship +carpenters worked side by side, in the ship yards of Mr. Gardiner, Mr. +Duncan, Mr. Walter Price, and Mr. Robb. Nobody seemed to see any +impropriety in it. To outward seeming, all hands were well satisfied. +Some of the blacks were first rate workmen, and were given jobs +requiring highest skill. All at once, however, the white carpenters +knocked off, and swore that they would no longer work on the same stage +with free Negroes. Taking advantage of the heavy contract resting upon +Mr. Gardiner, to have the war vessels for Mexico ready to launch in +July, and of the difficulty of getting other hands at that season of +the year, they swore they would not strike another blow for him, unless +he would discharge his free colored workmen. + +Now, although this movement did not extend to me, _in form_, it did +reach me, _in fact_. The spirit which it awakened was one of malice and +bitterness, toward colored people _generally_, and I suffered with the +rest, and suffered severely. My fellow apprentices very soon began to +feel it to be degrading to work with me. They began to put on high +looks, and to talk contemptuously and maliciously of _“the Niggers;”_ +saying, that “they would take the country,” that “they ought to be +killed.” Encouraged by the cowardly workmen, who, knowing me to be a +slave, made no issue with Mr. Gardiner about my being there, these +young men did their utmost to make it impossible for me to stay. They +seldom called me to do any thing, without coupling the call with a +curse, and Edward North, the biggest in every thing, rascality +included, ventured to strike me, whereupon I picked him up, and threw +him into the dock. Whenever any of them struck me, I struck back again, +regardless of consequences. I could manage any of them _singly_, and, +while I could keep them from combining, I succeeded very well. In the +conflict which ended my stay at Mr. Gardiner’s, I was beset by four of +them at once—Ned North, Ned Hays, Bill Stewart, and Tom Humphreys. Two +of them were as large as myself, and they came near killing me, in +broad day light. The attack was made suddenly, and simultaneously. One +came in front, armed with a brick; there was one at each side, and one +behind, and they closed up around me. I was struck on all sides; and, +while I was attending to those in front, I received a blow on my head, +from behind, dealt with a heavy hand-spike. I was completely stunned by +the blow, and fell, heavily, on the ground, among the timbers. Taking +advantage of my fall, they rushed upon me, and began to pound me with +their fists. I let them lay on, for a while, after I came to myself, +with a view of gaining strength. They did me little damage, so far; +but, finally, getting tired of that sport, I gave a sudden surge, and, +despite their weight, I rose to my hands and knees. Just as I did this, +one of their number (I know not which) planted a blow with his boot in +my left eye, which, for a time, seemed to have burst my eyeball. When +they saw my eye completely closed, my face covered with blood, and I +staggering under the stunning blows they had given me, they left me. As +soon as I gathered sufficient strength, I picked up the hand-spike, +and, madly enough, attempted to pursue them; but here the carpenters +interfered, and compelled me to give up my frenzied pursuit. It was +impossible to stand against so many. + +Dear reader, you can hardly believe the statement, but it is true, and, +therefore, I write it down: not fewer than fifty white men stood by, +and saw this brutal and shameless outrage committed, and not a man of +them all interposed a single word of mercy. There were four against +one, and that one’s face was beaten and battered most horribly, and no +one said, “that is enough;” but some cried out, “Kill him—kill him—kill +the d—d nigger! knock his brains out—he struck a white person.” I +mention this inhuman outcry, to show the character of the men, and the +spirit of the times, at Gardiner’s ship yard, and, indeed, in Baltimore +generally, in 1836. As I look back to this period, I am almost amazed +that I was not murdered outright, in that ship yard, so murderous was +the spirit which prevailed there. On two occasions, while there, I came +near losing my life. I was driving bolts in the hold, through the +keelson, with Hays. In its course, the bolt bent. Hays cursed me, and +said that it was my blow which bent the bolt. I denied this, and +charged it upon him. In a fit of rage he seized an adze, and darted +toward me. I met him with a maul, and parried his blow, or I should +have then lost my life. A son of old Tom Lanman (the latter’s double +murder I have elsewhere charged upon him), in the spirit of his +miserable father, made an assault upon me, but the blow with his maul +missed me. After the united assault of North, Stewart, Hays and +Humphreys, finding that the carpenters were as bitter toward me as the +apprentices, and that the latter were probably set on by the former, I +found my only chances for life was in flight. I succeeded in getting +away, without an additional blow. To strike a white man, was death, by +Lynch law, in Gardiner’s ship yard; nor was there much of any other law +toward colored people, at that time, in any other part of Maryland. The +whole sentiment of Baltimore was murderous. + +After making my escape from the ship yard, I went straight home, and +related the story of the outrage to Master Hugh Auld; and it is due to +him to say, that his conduct—though he was not a religious man—was +every way more humane than that of his brother, Thomas, when I went to +the latter in a somewhat similar plight, from the hands of _“Brother +Edward Covey.”_ He listened attentively to my narration of the +circumstances leading to the ruffianly outrage, and gave many proofs of +his strong indignation at what was done. Hugh was a rough, but +manly-hearted fellow, and, at this time, his best nature showed itself. + +The heart of my once almost over-kind mistress, Sophia, was again +melted in pity toward me. My puffed-out eye, and my scarred and +blood-covered face, moved the dear lady to tears. She kindly drew a +chair by me, and with friendly, consoling words, she took water, and +washed the blood from my face. No mother’s hand could have been more +tender than hers. She bound up my head, and covered my wounded eye with +a lean piece of fresh beef. It was almost compensation for the +murderous assault, and my suffering, that it furnished and occasion for +the manifestation, once more, of the orignally(sic) characteristic +kindness of my mistress. Her affectionate heart was not yet dead, +though much hardened by time and by circumstances. + +As for Master Hugh’s part, as I have said, he was furious about it; and +he gave expression to his fury in the usual forms of speech in that +locality. He poured curses on the heads of the whole ship yard company, +and swore that he would have satisfaction for the outrage. His +indignation was really strong and healthy; but, unfortunately, it +resulted from the thought that his rights of property, in my person, +had not been respected, more than from any sense of the outrage +committed on me _as a man_. I inferred as much as this, from the fact +that he could, himself, beat and mangle when it suited him to do so. +Bent on having satisfaction, as he said, just as soon as I got a little +the better of my bruises, Master Hugh took me to Esquire Watson’s +office, on Bond street, Fell’s Point, with a view to procuring the +arrest of those who had assaulted me. He related the outrage to the +magistrate, as I had related it to him, and seemed to expect that a +warrant would, at once, be issued for the arrest of the lawless +ruffians. + +Mr. Watson heard it all, and instead of drawing up his warrant, he +inquired.— + +“Mr. Auld, who saw this assault of which you speak?” + +“It was done, sir, in the presence of a ship yard full of hands.” + +“Sir,” said Watson, “I am sorry, but I cannot move in this matter +except upon the oath of white witnesses.” + +“But here’s the boy; look at his head and face,” said the excited +Master Hugh; _“they_ show _what_ has been done.” + +But Watson insisted that he was not authorized to do anything, unless +_white_ witnesses of the transaction would come forward, and testify to +what had taken place. He could issue no warrant on my word, against +white persons; and, if I had been killed in the presence of a _thousand +blacks_, their testimony, combined would have been insufficient to +arrest a single murderer. Master Hugh, for once, was compelled to say, +that this state of things was _too bad;_ and he left the office of the +magistrate, disgusted. + +Of course, it was impossible to get any white man to testify against my +assailants. The carpenters saw what was done; but the actors were but +the agents of their malice, and only what the carpenters sanctioned. +They had cried, with one accord, _“Kill the nigger!” “Kill the +nigger!”_ Even those who may have pitied me, if any such were among +them, lacked the moral courage to come and volunteer their evidence. +The slightest manifestation of sympathy or justice toward a person of +color, was denounced as abolitionism; and the name of abolitionist, +subjected its bearer to frightful liabilities. “D—n _abolitionists,”_ +and _“Kill the niggers,”_ were the watch-words of the foul-mouthed +ruffians of those days. Nothing was done, and probably there would not +have been any thing done, had I been killed in the affray. The laws and +the morals of the Christian city of Baltimore, afforded no protection +to the sable denizens of that city. + +Master Hugh, on finding he could get no redress for the cruel wrong, +withdrew me from the employment of Mr. Gardiner, and took me into his +own family, Mrs. Auld kindly taking care of me, and dressing my wounds, +until they were healed, and I was ready to go again to work. + +While I was on the Eastern Shore, Master Hugh had met with reverses, +which overthrew his business; and he had given up ship building in his +own yard, on the City Block, and was now acting as foreman of Mr. +Walter Price. The best he could now do for me, was to take me into Mr. +Price’s yard, and afford me the facilities there, for completing the +trade which I had began to learn at Gardiner’s. Here I rapidly became +expert in the use of my calking tools; and, in the course of a single +year, I was able to command the highest wages paid to journeymen +calkers in Baltimore. + +The reader will observe that I was now of some pecuniary value to my +master. During the busy season, I was bringing six and seven dollars +per week. I have, sometimes, brought him as much as nine dollars a +week, for the wages were a dollar and a half per day. + +After learning to calk, I sought my own employment, made my own +contracts, and collected my own earnings; giving Master Hugh no trouble +in any part of the transactions to which I was a party. + +Here, then, were better days for the Eastern Shore _slave_. I was now +free from the vexatious assalts(sic) of the apprentices at Mr. +Gardiner’s; and free from the perils of plantation life, and once more +in a favorable condition to increase my little stock of education, +which had been at a dead stand since my removal from Baltimore. I had, +on the Eastern Shore, been only a teacher, when in company with other +slaves, but now there were colored persons who could instruct me. Many +of the young calkers could read, write and cipher. Some of them had +high notions about mental improvement; and the free ones, on Fell’s +Point, organized what they called the _“East Baltimore Mental +Improvement Society.”_ To this society, notwithstanding it was intended +that only free persons should attach themselves, I was admitted, and +was, several times, assigned a prominent part in its debates. I owe +much to the society of these young men. + +The reader already knows enough of the _ill_ effects of good treatment +on a slave, to anticipate what was now the case in my improved +condition. It was not long before I began to show signs of disquiet +with slavery, and to look around for means to get out of that condition +by the shortest route. I was living among _free men;_ and was, in all +respects, equal to them by nature and by attainments. _Why should I be +a slave?_ There was _no_ reason why I should be the thrall of any man. + +Besides, I was now getting—as I have said—a dollar and fifty cents per +day. I contracted for it, worked for it, earned it, collected it; it +was paid to me, and it was _rightfully_ my own; and yet, upon every +returning Saturday night, this money—my own hard earnings, every cent +of it—was demanded of me, and taken from me by Master Hugh. He did not +earn it; he had no hand in earning it; why, then, should he have it? I +owed him nothing. He had given me no schooling, and I had received from +him only my food and raiment; and for these, my services were supposed +to pay, from the first. The right to take my earnings, was the right of +the robber. He had the power to compel me to give him the fruits of my +labor, and this power was his only right in the case. I became more and +more dissatisfied with this state of things; and, in so becoming, I +only gave proof of the same human nature which every reader of this +chapter in my life—slaveholder, or nonslaveholder—is conscious of +possessing. + +To make a contented slave, you must make a thoughtless one. It is +necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as +possible, to annihilate his power of reason. He must be able to detect +no inconsistencies in slavery. The man that takes his earnings, must be +able to convince him that he has a perfect right to do so. It must not +depend upon mere force; the slave must know no Higher Law than his +master’s will. The whole relationship must not only demonstrate, to his +mind, its necessity, but its absolute rightfulness. If there be one +crevice through which a single drop can fall, it will certainly rust +off the slave’s chain. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. _My Escape from Slavery_ + + +CLOSING INCIDENTS OF “MY LIFE AS A SLAVE”—REASONS WHY FULL PARTICULARS +OF THE MANNER OF MY ESCAPE WILL NOT BE GIVEN—CRAFTINESS AND MALICE OF +SLAVEHOLDERS—SUSPICION OF AIDING A SLAVE’S ESCAPE ABOUT AS DANGEROUS AS +POSITIVE EVIDENCE—WANT OF WISDOM SHOWN IN PUBLISHING DETAILS OF THE +ESCAPE OF THE FUGITIVES—PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS REACH THE MASTERS, NOT THE +SLAVES—SLAVEHOLDERS STIMULATED TO GREATER WATCHFULNESS—MY +CONDITION—DISCONTENT—SUSPICIONS IMPLIED BY MASTER HUGH’S MANNER, WHEN +RECEIVING MY WAGES—HIS OCCASIONAL GENEROSITY!—DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY +OF ESCAPE—EVERY AVENUE GUARDED—PLAN TO OBTAIN MONEY—I AM ALLOWED TO +HIRE MY TIME—A GLEAM OF HOPE—ATTENDS CAMP-MEETING, WITHOUT +PERMISSION—ANGER OF MASTER HUGH THEREAT—THE RESULT—MY PLANS OF ESCAPE +ACCELERATED THERBY—THE DAY FOR MY DEPARTURE FIXED—HARASSED BY DOUBTS +AND FEARS—PAINFUL THOUGHTS OF SEPARATION FROM FRIENDS—THE ATTEMPT +MADE—ITS SUCCESS. + + +I will now make the kind reader acquainted with the closing incidents +of my “Life as a Slave,” having already trenched upon the limit +allotted to my “Life as a Freeman.” Before, however, proceeding with +this narration, it is, perhaps, proper that I should frankly state, in +advance, my intention to withhold a part of the(sic) connected with my +escape from slavery. There are reasons for this suppression, which I +trust the reader will deem altogether valid. It may be easily +conceived, that a full and complete statement of all facts pertaining +to the flight of a bondman, might implicate and embarrass some who may +have, wittingly or unwittingly, assisted him; and no one can wish me to +involve any man or woman who has befriended me, even in the liability +of embarrassment or trouble. + +Keen is the scent of the slaveholder; like the fangs of the +rattlesnake, his malice retains its poison long; and, although it is +now nearly seventeen years since I made my escape, it is well to be +careful, in dealing with the circumstances relating to it. Were I to +give but a shadowy outline of the process adopted, with characteristic +aptitude, the crafty and malicious among the slaveholders might, +possibly, hit upon the track I pursued, and involve some one in +suspicion which, in a slave state, is about as bad as positive +evidence. The colored man, there, must not only shun evil, but shun the +very _appearance_ of evil, or be condemned as a criminal. A +slaveholding community has a peculiar taste for ferreting out offenses +against the slave system, justice there being more sensitive in its +regard for the peculiar rights of this system, than for any other +interest or institution. By stringing together a train of events and +circumstances, even if I were not very explicit, the means of escape +might be ascertained, and, possibly, those means be rendered, +thereafter, no longer available to the liberty-seeking children of +bondage I have left behind me. No antislavery man can wish me to do +anything favoring such results, and no slaveholding reader has any +right to expect the impartment of such information. + +While, therefore, it would afford me pleasure, and perhaps would +materially add to the interest of my story, were I at liberty to +gratify a curiosity which I know to exist in the minds of many, as to +the manner of my escape, I must deprive myself of this pleasure, and +the curious of the gratification, which such a statement of facts would +afford. I would allow myself to suffer under the greatest imputations +that evil minded men might suggest, rather than exculpate myself by +explanation, and thereby run the hazards of closing the slightest +avenue by which a brother in suffering might clear himself of the +chains and fetters of slavery. + +The practice of publishing every new invention by which a slave is +known to have escaped from slavery, has neither wisdom nor necessity to +sustain it. Had not Henry Box Brown and his friends attracted +slaveholding attention to the manner of his escape, we might have had a +thousand _Box Browns_ per annum. The singularly original plan adopted +by William and Ellen Crafts, perished with the first using, because +every slaveholder in the land was apprised of it. The _salt water +slave_ who hung in the guards of a steamer, being washed three days and +three nights—like another Jonah—by the waves of the sea, has, by the +publicity given to the circumstance, set a spy on the guards of every +steamer departing from southern ports. + +I have never approved of the very public manner, in which some of our +western friends have conducted what _they_ call the _“Under-ground +Railroad,”_ but which, I think, by their open declarations, has been +made, most emphatically, the _“Upper_-ground Railroad.” Its stations +are far better known to the slaveholders than to the slaves. I honor +those good men and women for their noble daring, in willingly +subjecting themselves to persecution, by openly avowing their +participation in the escape of slaves; nevertheless, the good resulting +from such avowals, is of a very questionable character. It may kindle +an enthusiasm, very pleasant to inhale; but that is of no practical +benefit to themselves, nor to the slaves escaping. Nothing is more +evident, than that such disclosures are a positive evil to the slaves +remaining, and seeking to escape. In publishing such accounts, the +anti-slavery man addresses the slaveholder, _not the slave;_ he +stimulates the former to greater watchfulness, and adds to his +facilities for capturing his slave. We owe something to the slaves, +south of Mason and Dixon’s line, as well as to those north of it; and, +in discharging the duty of aiding the latter, on their way to freedom, +we should be careful to do nothing which would be likely to hinder the +former, in making their escape from slavery. Such is my detestation of +slavery, that I would keep the merciless slaveholder profoundly +ignorant of the means of flight adopted by the slave. He should be left +to imagine himself surrounded by myriads of invisible tormentors, ever +ready to snatch, from his infernal grasp, his trembling prey. In +pursuing his victim, let him be left to feel his way in the dark; let +shades of darkness, commensurate with his crime, shut every ray of +light from his pathway; and let him be made to feel, that, at every +step he takes, with the hellish purpose of reducing a brother man to +slavery, he is running the frightful risk of having his hot brains +dashed out by an invisible hand. + +But, enough of this. I will now proceed to the statement of those +facts, connected with my escape, for which I am alone responsible, and +for which no one can be made to suffer but myself. + +My condition in the year (1838) of my escape, was, comparatively, a +free and easy one, so far, at least, as the wants of the physical man +were concerned; but the reader will bear in mind, that my troubles from +the beginning, have been less physical than mental, and he will thus be +prepared to find, after what is narrated in the previous chapters, that +slave life was adding nothing to its charms for me, as I grew older, +and became better acquainted with it. The practice, from week to week, +of openly robbing me of all my earnings, kept the nature and character +of slavery constantly before me. I could be robbed by _indirection_, +but this was _too_ open and barefaced to be endured. I could see no +reason why I should, at the end of each week, pour the reward of my +honest toil into the purse of any man. The thought itself vexed me, and +the manner in which Master Hugh received my wages, vexed me more than +the original wrong. Carefully counting the money and rolling it out, +dollar by dollar, he would look me in the face, as if he would search +my heart as well as my pocket, and reproachfully ask me, “_Is that +all_?”—implying that I had, perhaps, kept back part of my wages; or, if +not so, the demand was made, possibly, to make me feel, that, after +all, I was an “unprofitable servant.” Draining me of the last cent of +my hard earnings, he would, however, occasionally—when I brought home +an extra large sum—dole out to me a sixpence or a shilling, with a +view, perhaps, of kindling up my gratitude; but this practice had the +opposite effect—it was an admission of _my right to the whole sum_. The +fact, that he gave me any part of my wages, was proof that he suspected +that I had a right _to the whole of them_. I always felt uncomfortable, +after having received anything in this way, for I feared that the +giving me a few cents, might, possibly, ease his conscience, and make +him feel himself a pretty honorable robber, after all! + +Held to a strict account, and kept under a close watch—the old +suspicion of my running away not having been entirely removed—escape +from slavery, even in Baltimore, was very difficult. The railroad from +Baltimore to Philadelphia was under regulations so stringent, that even +_free_ colored travelers were almost excluded. They must have _free_ +papers; they must be measured and carefully examined, before they were +allowed to enter the cars; they only went in the day time, even when so +examined. The steamboats were under regulations equally stringent. All +the great turnpikes, leading northward, were beset with kidnappers, a +class of men who watched the newspapers for advertisements for runaway +slaves, making their living by the accursed reward of slave hunting. + +My discontent grew upon me, and I was on the look-out for means of +escape. With money, I could easily have managed the matter, and, +therefore, I hit upon the plan of soliciting the privilege of hiring my +time. It is quite common, in Baltimore, to allow slaves this privilege, +and it is the practice, also, in New Orleans. A slave who is considered +trustworthy, can, by paying his master a definite sum regularly, at the +end of each week, dispose of his time as he likes. It so happened that +I was not in very good odor, and I was far from being a trustworthy +slave. Nevertheless, I watched my opportunity when Master Thomas came +to Baltimore (for I was still his property, Hugh only acted as his +agent) in the spring of 1838, to purchase his spring supply of goods, +and applied to him, directly, for the much-coveted privilege of hiring +my time. This request Master Thomas unhesitatingly refused to grant; +and he charged me, with some sternness, with inventing this stratagem +to make my escape. He told me, “I could go _nowhere_ but he could catch +me; and, in the event of my running away, I might be assured he should +spare no pains in his efforts to recapture me.” He recounted, with a +good deal of eloquence, the many kind offices he had done me, and +exhorted me to be contented and obedient. “Lay out no plans for the +future,” said he. “If you behave yourself properly, I will take care of +you.” Now, kind and considerate as this offer was, it failed to soothe +me into repose. In spite of Master Thomas, and, I may say, in spite of +myself, also, I continued to think, and worse still, to think almost +exclusively about the injustice and wickedness of slavery. No effort of +mine or of his could silence this trouble-giving thought, or change my +purpose to run away. + +About two months after applying to Master Thomas for the privilege of +hiring my time, I applied to Master Hugh for the same liberty, +supposing him to be unacquainted with the fact that I had made a +similar application to Master Thomas, and had been refused. My boldness +in making this request, fairly astounded him at the first. He gazed at +me in amazement. But I had many good reasons for pressing the matter; +and, after listening to them awhile, he did not absolutely refuse, but +told me he would think of it. Here, then, was a gleam of hope. Once +master of my own time, I felt sure that I could make, over and above my +obligation to him, a dollar or two every week. Some slaves have made +enough, in this way, to purchase their freedom. It is a sharp spur to +industry; and some of the most enterprising colored men in Baltimore +hire themselves in this way. After mature reflection—as I must suppose +it was Master Hugh granted me the privilege in question, on the +following terms: I was to be allowed all my time; to make all bargains +for work; to find my own employment, and to collect my own wages; and, +in return for this liberty, I was required, or obliged, to pay him +three dollars at the end of each week, and to board and clothe myself, +and buy my own calking tools. A failure in any of these particulars +would put an end to my privilege. This was a hard bargain. The wear and +tear of clothing, the losing and breaking of tools, and the expense of +board, made it necessary for me to earn at least six dollars per week, +to keep even with the world. All who are acquainted with calking, know +how uncertain and irregular that employment is. It can be done to +advantage only in dry weather, for it is useless to put wet oakum into +a seam. Rain or shine, however, work or no work, at the end of each +week the money must be forthcoming. + +Master Hugh seemed to be very much pleased, for a time, with this +arrangement; and well he might be, for it was decidedly in his favor. +It relieved him of all anxiety concerning me. His money was sure. He +had armed my love of liberty with a lash and a driver, far more +efficient than any I had before known; and, while he derived all the +benefits of slaveholding by the arrangement, without its evils, I +endured all the evils of being a slave, and yet suffered all the care +and anxiety of a responsible freeman. “Nevertheless,” thought I, “it is +a valuable privilege another step in my career toward freedom.” It was +something even to be permitted to stagger under the disadvantages of +liberty, and I was determined to hold on to the newly gained footing, +by all proper industry. I was ready to work by night as well as by day; +and being in the enjoyment of excellent health, I was able not only to +meet my current expenses, but also to lay by a small sum at the end of +each week. All went on thus, from the month of May till August; +then—for reasons which will become apparent as I proceed—my much valued +liberty was wrested from me. + +During the week previous to this (to me) calamitous event, I had made +arrangements with a few young friends, to accompany them, on Saturday +night, to a camp-meeting, held about twelve miles from Baltimore. On +the evening of our intended start for the camp-ground, something +occurred in the ship yard where I was at work, which detained me +unusually late, and compelled me either to disappoint my young friends, +or to neglect carrying my weekly dues to Master Hugh. Knowing that I +had the money, and could hand it to him on another day, I decided to go +to camp-meeting, and to pay him the three dollars, for the past week, +on my return. Once on the camp-ground, I was induced to remain one day +longer than I had intended, when I left home. But, as soon as I +returned, I went straight to his house on Fell street, to hand him his +(my) money. Unhappily, the fatal mistake had been committed. I found +him exceedingly angry. He exhibited all the signs of apprehension and +wrath, which a slaveholder may be surmised to exhibit on the supposed +escape of a favorite slave. “You rascal! I have a great mind to give +you a severe whipping. How dare you go out of the city without first +asking and obtaining my permission?” “Sir,” said I, “I hired my time +and paid you the price you asked for it. I did not know that it was any +part of the bargain that I should ask you when or where I should go.” + +“You did not know, you rascal! You are bound to show yourself here +every Saturday night.” After reflecting, a few moments, he became +somewhat cooled down; but, evidently greatly troubled, he said, “Now, +you scoundrel! you have done for yourself; you shall hire your time no +longer. The next thing I shall hear of, will be your running away. +Bring home your tools and your clothes, at once. I’ll teach you how to +go off in this way.” + +Thus ended my partial freedom. I could hire my time no longer; and I +obeyed my master’s orders at once. The little taste of liberty which I +had had—although as the reader will have seen, it was far from being +unalloyed—by no means enhanced my contentment with slavery. Punished +thus by Master Hugh, it was now my turn to punish him. “Since,” thought +I, “you _will_ make a slave of me, I will await your orders in all +things;” and, instead of going to look for work on Monday morning, as I +had formerly done, I remained at home during the entire week, without +the performance of a single stroke of work. Saturday night came, and he +called upon me, as usual, for my wages. I, of course, told him I had +done no work, and had no wages. Here we were at the point of coming to +blows. His wrath had been accumulating during the whole week; for he +evidently saw that I was making no effort to get work, but was most +aggravatingly awaiting his orders, in all things. As I look back to +this behavior of mine, I scarcely know what possessed me, thus to +trifle with those who had such unlimited power to bless or to blast me. +Master Hugh raved and swore his determination to _“get hold of me;”_ +but, wisely for _him_, and happily for _me_, his wrath only employed +those very harmless, impalpable missiles, which roll from a limber +tongue. In my desperation, I had fully made up my mind to measure +strength with Master Hugh, in case he should undertake to execute his +threats. I am glad there was no necessity for this; for resistance to +him could not have ended so happily for me, as it did in the case of +Covey. He was not a man to be safely resisted by a slave; and I freely +own, that in my conduct toward him, in this instance, there was more +folly than wisdom. Master Hugh closed his reproofs, by telling me that, +hereafter, I need give myself no uneasiness about getting work; that he +“would, himself, see to getting work for me, and enough of it, at +that.” This threat I confess had some terror in it; and, on thinking +the matter over, during the Sunday, I resolved, not only to save him +the trouble of getting me work, but that, upon the third day of +September, I would attempt to make my escape from slavery. The refusal +to allow me to hire my time, therefore, hastened the period of flight. +I had three weeks, now, in which to prepare for my journey. + +Once resolved, I felt a certain degree of repose, and on Monday, +instead of waiting for Master Hugh to seek employment for me, I was up +by break of day, and off to the ship yard of Mr. Butler, on the City +Block, near the draw-bridge. I was a favorite with Mr. B., and, young +as I was, I had served as his foreman on the float stage, at calking. +Of course, I easily obtained work, and, at the end of the week—which by +the way was exceedingly fine I brought Master Hugh nearly nine dollars. +The effect of this mark of returning good sense, on my part, was +excellent. He was very much pleased; he took the money, commended me, +and told me I might have done the same thing the week before. It is a +blessed thing that the tyrant may not always know the thoughts and +purposes of his victim. Master Hugh little knew what my plans were. The +going to camp-meeting without asking his permission—the insolent +answers made to his reproaches—the sulky deportment the week after +being deprived of the privilege of hiring my time—had awakened in him +the suspicion that I might be cherishing disloyal purposes. My object, +therefore, in working steadily, was to remove suspicion, and in this I +succeeded admirably. He probably thought I was never better satisfied +with my condition, than at the very time I was planning my escape. The +second week passed, and again I carried him my full week’s wages—_nine +dollars;_ and so well pleased was he, that he gave me TWENTY-FIVE +CENTS! and “bade me make good use of it!” I told him I would, for one +of the uses to which I meant to put it, was to pay my fare on the +underground railroad. + +Things without went on as usual; but I was passing through the same +internal excitement and anxiety which I had experienced two years and a +half before. The failure, in that instance, was not calculated to +increase my confidence in the success of this, my second attempt; and I +knew that a second failure could not leave me where my first did—I must +either get to the _far north_, or be sent to the _far south_. Besides +the exercise of mind from this state of facts, I had the painful +sensation of being about to separate from a circle of honest and warm +hearted friends, in Baltimore. The thought of such a separation, where +the hope of ever meeting again is excluded, and where there can be no +correspondence, is very painful. It is my opinion, that thousands would +escape from slavery who now remain there, but for the strong cords of +affection that bind them to their families, relatives and friends. The +daughter is hindered from escaping, by the love she bears her mother, +and the father, by the love he bears his children; and so, to the end +of the chapter. I had no relations in Baltimore, and I saw no +probability of ever living in the neighborhood of sisters and brothers; +but the thought of leaving my friends, was among the strongest +obstacles to my running away. The last two days of the week—Friday and +Saturday—were spent mostly in collecting my things together, for my +journey. Having worked four days that week, for my master, I handed him +six dollars, on Saturday night. I seldom spent my Sundays at home; and, +for fear that something might be discovered in my conduct, I kept up my +custom, and absented myself all day. On Monday, the third day of +September, 1838, in accordance with my resolution, I bade farewell to +the city of Baltimore, and to that slavery which had been my abhorrence +from childhood. + +How I got away—in what direction I traveled—whether by land or by +water; whether with or without assistance—must, for reasons already +mentioned, remain unexplained. + + + + +LIFE as a FREEMAN + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. _Liberty Attained_ + + +TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM—A WANDERER IN NEW YORK—FEELINGS ON +REACHING THAT CITY—AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE MET—UNFAVORABLE +IMPRESSIONS—LONELINESS AND INSECURITY—APOLOGY FOR SLAVES WHO RETURN TO +THEIR MASTERS—COMPELLED TO TELL MY CONDITION—SUCCORED BY A SAILOR—DAVID +RUGGLES—THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD—MARRIAGE—BAGGAGE TAKEN FROM +ME—KINDNESS OF NATHAN JOHNSON—MY CHANGE OF NAME—DARK NOTIONS OF +NORTHERN CIVILIZATION—THE CONTRAST—COLORED PEOPLE IN NEW BEDFORD—AN +INCIDENT ILLUSTRATING THEIR SPIRIT—A COMMON LABORER—DENIED WORK AT MY +TRADE—THE FIRST WINTER AT THE NORTH—REPULSE AT THE DOORS OF THE +CHURCH—SANCTIFIED HATE—THE _Liberator_ AND ITS EDITOR. + + +There is no necessity for any extended notice of the incidents of this +part of my life. There is nothing very striking or peculiar about my +career as a freeman, when viewed apart from my life as a slave. The +relation subsisting between my early experience and that which I am now +about to narrate, is, perhaps, my best apology for adding another +chapter to this book. + +Disappearing from the kind reader, in a flying cloud or balloon (pardon +the figure), driven by the wind, and knowing not where I should +land—whether in slavery or in freedom—it is proper that I should +remove, at once, all anxiety, by frankly making known where I alighted. +The flight was a bold and perilous one; but here I am, in the great +city of New York, safe and sound, without loss of blood or bone. In +less than a week after leaving Baltimore, I was walking amid the +hurrying throng, and gazing upon the dazzling wonders of Broadway. The +dreams of my childhood and the purposes of my manhood were now +fulfilled. A free state around me, and a free earth under my feet! What +a moment was this to me! A whole year was pressed into a single day. A +new world burst upon my agitated vision. I have often been asked, by +kind friends to whom I have told my story, how I felt when first I +found myself beyond the limits of slavery; and I must say here, as I +have often said to them, there is scarcely anything about which I could +not give a more satisfactory answer. It was a moment of joyous +excitement, which no words can describe. In a letter to a friend, +written soon after reaching New York. I said I felt as one might be +supposed to feel, on escaping from a den of hungry lions. But, in a +moment like that, sensations are too intense and too rapid for words. +Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be described, but joy +and gladness, like the rainbow of promise, defy alike the pen and +pencil. + +For ten or fifteen years I had been dragging a heavy chain, with a huge +block attached to it, cumbering my every motion. I had felt myself +doomed to drag this chain and this block through life. All efforts, +before, to separate myself from the hateful encumbrance, had only +seemed to rivet me the more firmly to it. Baffled and discouraged at +times, I had asked myself the question, May not this, after all, be +God’s work? May He not, for wise ends, have doomed me to this lot? A +contest had been going on in my mind for years, between the clear +consciousness of right and the plausible errors of superstition; +between the wisdom of manly courage, and the foolish weakness of +timidity. The contest was now ended; the chain was severed; God and +right stood vindicated. I was A FREEMAN, and the voice of peace and joy +thrilled my heart. + +Free and joyous, however, as I was, joy was not the only sensation I +experienced. It was like the quick blaze, beautiful at the first, but +which subsiding, leaves the building charred and desolate. I was soon +taught that I was still in an enemy’s land. A sense of loneliness and +insecurity oppressed me sadly. I had been but a few hours in New York, +before I was met in the streets by a fugitive slave, well known to me, +and the information I got from him respecting New York, did nothing to +lessen my apprehension of danger. The fugitive in question was +“Allender’s Jake,” in Baltimore; but, said he, I am “WILLIAM DIXON,” in +New York! I knew Jake well, and knew when Tolly Allender and Mr. Price +(for the latter employed Master Hugh as his foreman, in his shipyard on +Fell’s Point) made an attempt to recapture Jake, and failed. Jake told +me all about his circumstances, and how narrowly he escaped being taken +back to slavery; that the city was now full of southerners, returning +from the springs; that the black people in New York were not to be +trusted; that there were hired men on the lookout for fugitives from +slavery, and who, for a few dollars, would betray me into the hands of +the slave-catchers; that I must trust no man with my secret; that I +must not think of going either on the wharves to work, or to a +boarding-house to board; and, worse still, this same Jake told me it +was not in his power to help me. He seemed, even while cautioning me, +to be fearing lest, after all, I might be a party to a second attempt +to recapture him. Under the inspiration of this thought, I must suppose +it was, he gave signs of a wish to get rid of me, and soon left me his +whitewash brush in hand—as he said, for his work. He was soon lost to +sight among the throng, and I was alone again, an easy prey to the +kidnappers, if any should happen to be on my track. + +New York, seventeen years ago, was less a place of safety for a runaway +slave than now, and all know how unsafe it now is, under the new +fugitive slave bill. I was much troubled. I had very little money +enough to buy me a few loaves of bread, but not enough to pay board, +outside a lumber yard. I saw the wisdom of keeping away from the ship +yards, for if Master Hugh pursued me, he would naturally expect to find +me looking for work among the calkers. For a time, every door seemed +closed against me. A sense of my loneliness and helplessness crept over +me, and covered me with something bordering on despair. In the midst of +thousands of my fellowmen, and yet a perfect stranger! In the midst of +human brothers, and yet more fearful of them than of hungry wolves! I +was without home, without friends, without work, without money, and +without any definite knowledge of which way to go, or where to look for +succor. + +Some apology can easily be made for the few slaves who have, after +making good their escape, turned back to slavery, preferring the actual +rule of their masters, to the life of loneliness, apprehension, hunger, +and anxiety, which meets them on their first arrival in a free state. +It is difficult for a freeman to enter into the feelings of such +fugitives. He cannot see things in the same light with the slave, +because he does not, and cannot, look from the same point from which +the slave does. “Why do you tremble,” he says to the slave “you are in +a free state;” but the difficulty is, in realizing that he is in a free +state, the slave might reply. A freeman cannot understand why the +slave-master’s shadow is bigger, to the slave, than the might and +majesty of a free state; but when he reflects that the slave knows more +about the slavery of his master than he does of the might and majesty +of the free state, he has the explanation. The slave has been all his +life learning the power of his master—being trained to dread his +approach—and only a few hours learning the power of the state. The +master is to him a stern and flinty reality, but the state is little +more than a dream. He has been accustomed to regard every white man as +the friend of his master, and every colored man as more or less under +the control of his master’s friends—the white people. It takes stout +nerves to stand up, in such circumstances. A man, homeless, +shelterless, breadless, friendless, and moneyless, is not in a +condition to assume a very proud or joyous tone; and in just this +condition was I, while wandering about the streets of New York city and +lodging, at least one night, among the barrels on one of its wharves. I +was not only free from slavery, but I was free from home, as well. The +reader will easily see that I had something more than the simple fact +of being free to think of, in this extremity. + +I kept my secret as long as I could, and at last was forced to go in +search of an honest man—a man sufficiently _human_ not to betray me +into the hands of slave-catchers. I was not a bad reader of the human +face, nor long in selecting the right man, when once compelled to +disclose the facts of my condition to some one. + +I found my man in the person of one who said his name was Stewart. He +was a sailor, warm-hearted and generous, and he listened to my story +with a brother’s interest. I told him I was running for my freedom—knew +not where to go—money almost gone—was hungry—thought it unsafe to go +the shipyards for work, and needed a friend. Stewart promptly put me in +the way of getting out of my trouble. He took me to his house, and went +in search of the late David Ruggles, who was then the secretary of the +New York Vigilance Committee, and a very active man in all anti-slavery +works. Once in the hands of Mr. Ruggles, I was comparatively safe. I +was hidden with Mr. Ruggles several days. In the meantime, my intended +wife, Anna, came on from Baltimore—to whom I had written, informing her +of my safe arrival at New York—and, in the presence of Mrs. Mitchell +and Mr. Ruggles, we were married, by Rev. James W. C. Pennington. + +Mr. Ruggles 7 was the first officer on the under-ground railroad with +whom I met after reaching the north, and, indeed, the first of whom I +ever heard anything. Learning that I was a calker by trade, he promptly +decided that New Bedford was the proper place to send me. “Many ships,” +said he, “are there fitted out for the whaling business, and you may +there find work at your trade, and make a good living.” Thus, in one +fortnight after my flight from Maryland, I was safe in New Bedford, +regularly entered upon the exercise of the rights, responsibilities, +and duties of a freeman. + +I may mention a little circumstance which annoyed me on reaching New +Bedford. I had not a cent of money, and lacked two dollars toward +paying our fare from Newport, and our baggage not very costly—was taken +by the stage driver, and held until I could raise the money to redeem +it. This difficulty was soon surmounted. Mr. Nathan Johnson, to whom we +had a line from Mr. Ruggles, not only received us kindly and +hospitably, but, on being informed about our baggage, promptly loaned +me two dollars with which to redeem my little property. I shall ever be +deeply grateful, both to Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Johnson, for the lively +interest they were pleased to take in me, in this hour of my extremest +need. They not only gave myself and wife bread and shelter, but taught +us how to begin to secure those benefits for ourselves. Long may they +live, and may blessings attend them in this life and in that which is +to come! + +Once initiated into the new life of freedom, and assured by Mr. Johnson +that New Bedford was a safe place, the comparatively unimportant +matter, as to what should be my name, came up for considertion(sic). It +was necessary to have a name in my new relations. The name given me by +my beloved mother was no less pretentious than “Frederick Augustus +Washington Bailey.” I had, however, before leaving Maryland, dispensed +with the _Augustus Washington_, and retained the name _Frederick +Bailey_. Between Baltimore and New Bedford, however, I had several +different names, the better to avoid being overhauled by the hunters, +which I had good reason to believe would be put on my track. Among +honest men an honest man may well be content with one name, and to +acknowledge it at all times and in all places; but toward fugitives, +Americans are not honest. When I arrived at New Bedford, my name was +Johnson; and finding that the Johnson family in New Bedford were +already quite numerous—sufficiently so to produce some confusion in +attempts to distinguish one from another—there was the more reason for +making another change in my name. In fact, “Johnson” had been assumed +by nearly every slave who had arrived in New Bedford from Maryland, and +this, much to the annoyance of the original “Johnsons” (of whom there +were many) in that place. Mine host, unwilling to have another of his +own name added to the community in this unauthorized way, after I spent +a night and a day at his house, gave me my present name. He had been +reading the “Lady of the Lake,” and was pleased to regard me as a +suitable person to wear this, one of Scotland’s many famous names. +Considering the noble hospitality and manly character of Nathan +Johnson, I have felt that he, better than I, illustrated the virtues of +the great Scottish chief. Sure I am, that had any slave-catcher entered +his domicile, with a view to molest any one of his household, he would +have shown himself like him of the “stalwart hand.” + +The reader will be amused at my ignorance, when I tell the notions I +had of the state of northern wealth, enterprise, and civilization. Of +wealth and refinement, I supposed the north had none. My _Columbian +Orator_, which was almost my only book, had not done much to enlighten +me concerning northern society. The impressions I had received were all +wide of the truth. New Bedford, especially, took me by surprise, in the +solid wealth and grandeur there exhibited. I had formed my notions +respecting the social condition of the free states, by what I had seen +and known of free, white, non-slaveholding people in the slave states. +Regarding slavery as the basis of wealth, I fancied that no people +could become very wealthy without slavery. A free white man, holding no +slaves, in the country, I had known to be the most ignorant and +poverty-stricken of men, and the laughing stock even of slaves +themselves—called generally by them, in derision, _“poor white trash_.” +Like the non-slaveholders at the south, in holding no slaves, I suppose +the northern people like them, also, in poverty and degradation. Judge, +then, of my amazement and joy, when I found—as I did find—the very +laboring population of New Bedford living in better houses, more +elegantly furnished—surrounded by more comfort and refinement—than a +majority of the slaveholders on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. There +was my friend, Mr. Johnson, himself a colored man (who at the south +would have been regarded as a proper marketable commodity), who lived +in a better house—dined at a richer board—was the owner of more +books—the reader of more newspapers—was more conversant with the +political and social condition of this nation and the world—than +nine-tenths of all the slaveholders of Talbot county, Maryland. Yet Mr. +Johnson was a working man, and his hands were hardened by honest toil. +Here, then, was something for observation and study. Whence the +difference? The explanation was soon furnished, in the superiority of +mind over simple brute force. Many pages might be given to the +contrast, and in explanation of its causes. But an incident or two will +suffice to show the reader as to how the mystery gradually vanished +before me. + +My first afternoon, on reaching New Bedford, was spent in visiting the +wharves and viewing the shipping. The sight of the broad brim and the +plain, Quaker dress, which met me at every turn, greatly increased my +sense of freedom and security. “I am among the Quakers,” thought I, +“and am safe.” Lying at the wharves and riding in the stream, were +full-rigged ships of finest model, ready to start on whaling voyages. +Upon the right and the left, I was walled in by large granite-fronted +warehouses, crowded with the good things of this world. On the wharves, +I saw industry without bustle, labor without noise, and heavy toil +without the whip. There was no loud singing, as in southern ports, +where ships are loading or unloading—no loud cursing or swearing—but +everything went on as smoothly as the works of a well adjusted machine. +How different was all this from the nosily fierce and clumsily absurd +manner of labor-life in Baltimore and St. Michael’s! One of the first +incidents which illustrated the superior mental character of northern +labor over that of the south, was the manner of unloading a ship’s +cargo of oil. In a southern port, twenty or thirty hands would have +been employed to do what five or six did here, with the aid of a single +ox attached to the end of a fall. Main strength, unassisted by skill, +is slavery’s method of labor. An old ox, worth eighty dollars, was +doing, in New Bedford, what would have required fifteen thousand +dollars worth of human bones and muscles to have performed in a +southern port. I found that everything was done here with a scrupulous +regard to economy, both in regard to men and things, time and strength. +The maid servant, instead of spending at least a tenth part of her time +in bringing and carrying water, as in Baltimore, had the pump at her +elbow. The wood was dry, and snugly piled away for winter. Woodhouses, +in-door pumps, sinks, drains, self-shutting gates, washing machines, +pounding barrels, were all new things, and told me that I was among a +thoughtful and sensible people. To the ship-repairing dock I went, and +saw the same wise prudence. The carpenters struck where they aimed, and +the calkers wasted no blows in idle flourishes of the mallet. I learned +that men went from New Bedford to Baltimore, and bought old ships, and +brought them here to repair, and made them better and more valuable +than they ever were before. Men talked here of going whaling on a four +_years’_ voyage with more coolness than sailors where I came from +talked of going a four _months’_ voyage. + +I now find that I could have landed in no part of the United States, +where I should have found a more striking and gratifying contrast to +the condition of the free people of color in Baltimore, than I found +here in New Bedford. No colored man is really free in a slaveholding +state. He wears the badge of bondage while nominally free, and is often +subjected to hardships to which the slave is a stranger; but here in +New Bedford, it was my good fortune to see a pretty near approach to +freedom on the part of the colored people. I was taken all aback when +Mr. Johnson—who lost no time in making me acquainted with the fact—told +me that there was nothing in the constitution of Massachusetts to +prevent a colored man from holding any office in the state. There, in +New Bedford, the black man’s children—although anti-slavery was then +far from popular—went to school side by side with the white children, +and apparently without objection from any quarter. To make me at home, +Mr. Johnson assured me that no slaveholder could take a slave from New +Bedford; that there were men there who would lay down their lives, +before such an outrage could be perpetrated. The colored people +themselves were of the best metal, and would fight for liberty to the +death. + +Soon after my arrival in New Bedford, I was told the following story, +which was said to illustrate the spirit of the colored people in that +goodly town: A colored man and a fugitive slave happened to have a +little quarrel, and the former was heard to threaten the latter with +informing his master of his whereabouts. As soon as this threat became +known, a notice was read from the desk of what was then the only +colored church in the place, stating that business of importance was to +be then and there transacted. Special measures had been taken to secure +the attendance of the would-be Judas, and had proved successful. +Accordingly, at the hour appointed, the people came, and the betrayer +also. All the usual formalities of public meetings were scrupulously +gone through, even to the offering prayer for Divine direction in the +duties of the occasion. The president himself performed this part of +the ceremony, and I was told that he was unusually fervent. Yet, at the +close of his prayer, the old man (one of the numerous family of +Johnsons) rose from his knees, deliberately surveyed his audience, and +then said, in a tone of solemn resolution, _“Well, friends, we have got +him here, and I would now recommend that you young men should just take +him outside the door and kill him.”_ With this, a large body of the +congregation, who well understood the business they had come there to +transact, made a rush at the villain, and doubtless would have killed +him, had he not availed himself of an open sash, and made good his +escape. He has never shown his head in New Bedford since that time. +This little incident is perfectly characteristic of the spirit of the +colored people in New Bedford. A slave could not be taken from that +town seventeen years ago, any more than he could be so taken away now. +The reason is, that the colored people in that city are educated up to +the point of fighting for their freedom, as well as speaking for it. + +Once assured of my safety in New Bedford, I put on the habiliments of a +common laborer, and went on the wharf in search of work. I had no +notion of living on the honest and generous sympathy of my colored +brother, Johnson, or that of the abolitionists. My cry was like that of +Hood’s laborer, “Oh! only give me work.” Happily for me, I was not long +in searching. I found employment, the third day after my arrival in New +Bedford, in stowing a sloop with a load of oil for the New York market. +It was new, hard, and dirty work, even for a calker, but I went at it +with a glad heart and a willing hand. I was now my own master—a +tremendous fact—and the rapturous excitement with which I seized the +job, may not easily be understood, except by some one with an +experience like mine. The thoughts—“I can work! I can work for a +living; I am not afraid of work; I have no Master Hugh to rob me of my +earnings”—placed me in a state of independence, beyond seeking +friendship or support of any man. That day’s work I considered the real +starting point of something like a new existence. Having finished this +job and got my pay for the same, I went next in pursuit of a job at +calking. It so happened that Mr. Rodney French, late mayor of the city +of New Bedford, had a ship fitting out for sea, and to which there was +a large job of calking and coppering to be done. I applied to that +noblehearted man for employment, and he promptly told me to go to work; +but going on the float-stage for the purpose, I was informed that every +white man would leave the ship if I struck a blow upon her. “Well, +well,” thought I, “this is a hardship, but yet not a very serious one +for me.” The difference between the wages of a calker and that of a +common day laborer, was an hundred per cent in favor of the former; but +then I was free, and free to work, though not at my trade. I now +prepared myself to do anything which came to hand in the way of turning +an honest penny; sawed wood—dug cellars—shoveled coal—swept chimneys +with Uncle Lucas Debuty—rolled oil casks on the wharves—helped to load +and unload vessels—worked in Ricketson’s candle works—in Richmond’s +brass foundery, and elsewhere; and thus supported myself and family for +three years. + +The first winter was unusually severe, in consequence of the high +prices of food; but even during that winter we probably suffered less +than many who had been free all their lives. During the hardest of the +winter, I hired out for nine dolars(sic) a month; and out of this +rented two rooms for nine dollars per quarter, and supplied my wife—who +was unable to work—with food and some necessary articles of furniture. +We were closely pinched to bring our wants within our means; but the +jail stood over the way, and I had a wholesome dread of the +consequences of running in debt. This winter past, and I was up with +the times—got plenty of work—got well paid for it—and felt that I had +not done a foolish thing to leave Master Hugh and Master Thomas. I was +now living in a new world, and was wide awake to its advantages. I +early began to attend the meetings of the colored people of New +Bedford, and to take part in them. I was somewhat amazed to see colored +men drawing up resolutions and offering them for consideration. Several +colored young men of New Bedford, at that period, gave promise of great +usefulness. They were educated, and possessed what seemed to me, at the +time, very superior talents. Some of them have been cut down by death, +and others have removed to different parts of the world, and some +remain there now, and justify, in their present activities, my early +impressions of them. + +Among my first concerns on reaching New Bedford, was to become united +with the church, for I had never given up, in reality, my religious +faith. I had become lukewarm and in a backslidden state, but I was +still convinced that it was my duty to join the Methodist church. I was +not then aware of the powerful influence of that religious body in +favor of the enslavement of my race, nor did I see how the northern +churches could be responsible for the conduct of southern churches; +neither did I fully understand how it could be my duty to remain +separate from the church, because bad men were connected with it. The +slaveholding church, with its Coveys, Weedens, Aulds, and Hopkins, I +could see through at once, but I could not see how Elm Street church, +in New Bedford, could be regarded as sanctioning the Christianity of +these characters in the church at St. Michael’s. I therefore resolved +to join the Methodist church in New Bedford, and to enjoy the spiritual +advantage of public worship. The minister of the Elm Street Methodist +church, was the Rev. Mr. Bonney; and although I was not allowed a seat +in the body of the house, and was proscribed on account of my color, +regarding this proscription simply as an accommodation of the +uncoverted congregation who had not yet been won to Christ and his +brotherhood, I was willing thus to be proscribed, lest sinners should +be driven away form the saving power of the gospel. Once converted, I +thought they would be sure to treat me as a man and a brother. +“Surely,” thought I, “these Christian people have none of this feeling +against color. They, at least, have renounced this unholy feeling.” +Judge, then, dear reader, of my astonishment and mortification, when I +found, as soon I did find, all my charitable assumptions at fault. + +An opportunity was soon afforded me for ascertaining the exact position +of Elm Street church on that subject. I had a chance of seeing the +religious part of the congregation by themselves; and although they +disowned, in effect, their black brothers and sisters, before the +world, I did think that where none but the saints were assembled, and +no offense could be given to the wicked, and the gospel could not be +“blamed,” they would certainly recognize us as children of the same +Father, and heirs of the same salvation, on equal terms with +themselves. + +The occasion to which I refer, was the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, +that most sacred and most solemn of all the ordinances of the Christian +church. Mr. Bonney had preached a very solemn and searching discourse, +which really proved him to be acquainted with the inmost secerts(sic) +of the human heart. At the close of his discourse, the congregation was +dismissed, and the church remained to partake of the sacrament. I +remained to see, as I thought, this holy sacrament celebrated in the +spirit of its great Founder. + +There were only about a half dozen colored members attached to the Elm +Street church, at this time. After the congregation was dismissed, +these descended from the gallery, and took a seat against the wall most +distant from the altar. Brother Bonney was very animated, and sung very +sweetly, “Salvation ‘tis a joyful sound,” and soon began to administer +the sacrament. I was anxious to observe the bearing of the colored +members, and the result was most humiliating. During the whole +ceremony, they looked like sheep without a shepherd. The white members +went forward to the altar by the bench full; and when it was evident +that all the whites had been served with the bread and wine, Brother +Bonney—pious Brother Bonney—after a long pause, as if inquiring whether +all the whites members had been served, and fully assuring himself on +that important point, then raised his voice to an unnatural pitch, and +looking to the corner where his black sheep seemed penned, beckoned +with his hand, exclaiming, “Come forward, colored friends! come +forward! You, too, have an interest in the blood of Christ. God is no +respecter of persons. Come forward, and take this holy sacrament to +your comfort.” The colored members poor, slavish souls went forward, as +invited. I went out, and have never been in that church since, although +I honestly went there with a view to joining that body. I found it +impossible to respect the religious profession of any who were under +the dominion of this wicked prejudice, and I could not, therefore, feel +that in joining them, I was joining a Christian church, at all. I tried +other churches in New Bedford, with the same result, and finally, I +attached myself to a small body of colored Methodists, known as the +Zion Methodists. Favored with the affection and confidence of the +members of this humble communion, I was soon made a classleader and a +local preacher among them. Many seasons of peace and joy I experienced +among them, the remembrance of which is still precious, although I +could not see it to be my duty to remain with that body, when I found +that it consented to the same spirit which held my brethren in chains. + +In four or five months after reaching New Bedford, there came a young +man to me, with a copy of the _Liberator_, the paper edited by WILLIAM +LLOYD GARRISON, and published by ISAAC KNAPP, and asked me to subscribe +for it. I told him I had but just escaped from slavery, and was of +course very poor, and remarked further, that I was unable to pay for it +then; the agent, however, very willingly took me as a subscriber, and +appeared to be much pleased with securing my name to his list. From +this time I was brought in contact with the mind of William Lloyd +Garrison. His paper took its place with me next to the bible. + +The _Liberator_ was a paper after my own heart. It detested slavery +exposed hypocrisy and wickedness in high places—made no truce with the +traffickers in the bodies and souls of men; it preached human +brotherhood, denounced oppression, and, with all the solemnity of God’s +word, demanded the complete emancipation of my race. I not only liked—I +_loved_ this paper, and its editor. He seemed a match for all the +oponents(sic) of emancipation, whether they spoke in the name of the +law, or the gospel. His words were few, full of holy fire, and straight +to the point. Learning to love him, through his paper, I was prepared +to be pleased with his presence. Something of a hero worshiper, by +nature, here was one, on first sight, to excite my love and reverence. + +Seventeen years ago, few men possessed a more heavenly countenance than +William Lloyd Garrison, and few men evinced a more genuine or a more +exalted piety. The bible was his text book—held sacred, as the word of +the Eternal Father—sinless perfection—complete submission to insults +and injuries—literal obedience to the injunction, if smitten on one +side to turn the other also. Not only was Sunday a Sabbath, but all +days were Sabbaths, and to be kept holy. All sectarism false and +mischievous—the regenerated, throughout the world, members of one body, +and the HEAD Christ Jesus. Prejudice against color was rebellion +against God. Of all men beneath the sky, the slaves, because most +neglected and despised, were nearest and dearest to his great heart. +Those ministers who defended slavery from the bible, were of their +“father the devil”; and those churches which fellowshiped slaveholders +as Christians, were synagogues of Satan, and our nation was a nation of +liars. Never loud or noisy—calm and serene as a summer sky, and as +pure. “You are the man, the Moses, raised up by God, to deliver his +modern Israel from bondage,” was the spontaneous feeling of my heart, +as I sat away back in the hall and listened to his mighty words; mighty +in truth—mighty in their simple earnestness. + +I had not long been a reader of the _Liberator_, and listener to its +editor, before I got a clear apprehension of the principles of the +anti-slavery movement. I had already the spirit of the movement, and +only needed to understand its principles and measures. These I got from +the _Liberator_, and from those who believed in that paper. My +acquaintance with the movement increased my hope for the ultimate +freedom of my race, and I united with it from a sense of delight, as +well as duty. + +Every week the _Liberator_ came, and every week I made myself master of +its contents. All the anti-slavery meetings held in New Bedford I +promptly attended, my heart burning at every true utterance against the +slave system, and every rebuke of its friends and supporters. Thus +passed the first three years of my residence in New Bedford. I had not +then dreamed of the posibility(sic) of my becoming a public advocate of +the cause so deeply imbedded in my heart. It was enough for me to +listen—to receive and applaud the great words of others, and only +whisper in private, among the white laborers on the wharves, and +elsewhere, the truths which burned in my breast. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. _Introduced to the Abolitionists_ + + +FIRST SPEECH AT NANTUCKET—MUCH SENSATION—EXTRAORDINARY SPEECH OF MR. +GARRISON—AUTHOR BECOMES A PUBLIC LECTURER—FOURTEEN YEARS +EXPERIENCE—YOUTHFUL ENTHUSIASM—A BRAND NEW FACT—MATTER OF MY AUTHOR’S +SPEECH—COULD NOT FOLLOW THE PROGRAMME—FUGITIVE SLAVESHIP DOUBTED—TO +SETTLE ALL DOUBT I WRITE MY EXPERIENCE OF SLAVERY—DANGER OF RECAPTURE +INCREASED. + + +In the summer of 1841, a grand anti-slavery convention was held in +Nantucket, under the auspices of Mr. Garrison and his friends. Until +now, I had taken no holiday since my escape from slavery. Having worked +very hard that spring and summer, in Richmond’s brass +foundery—sometimes working all night as well as all day—and needing a +day or two of rest, I attended this convention, never supposing that I +should take part in the proceedings. Indeed, I was not aware that any +one connected with the convention even so much as knew my name. I was, +however, quite mistaken. Mr. William C. Coffin, a prominent +abolitionst(sic) in those days of trial, had heard me speaking to my +colored friends, in the little school house on Second street, New +Bedford, where we worshiped. He sought me out in the crowd, and invited +me to say a few words to the convention. Thus sought out, and thus +invited, I was induced to speak out the feelings inspired by the +occasion, and the fresh recollection of the scenes through which I had +passed as a slave. My speech on this occasion is about the only one I +ever made, of which I do not remember a single connected sentence. It +was with the utmost difficulty that I could stand erect, or that I +could command and articulate two words without hesitation and +stammering. I trembled in every limb. I am not sure that my +embarrassment was not the most effective part of my speech, if speech +it could be called. At any rate, this is about the only part of my +performance that I now distinctly remember. But excited and convulsed +as I was, the audience, though remarkably quiet before, became as much +excited as myself. Mr. Garrison followed me, taking me as his text; and +now, whether I had made an eloquent speech in behalf of freedom or not, +his was one never to be forgotten by those who heard it. Those who had +heard Mr. Garrison oftenest, and had known him longest, were +astonished. It was an effort of unequaled power, sweeping down, like a +very tornado, every opposing barrier, whether of sentiment or opinion. +For a moment, he possessed that almost fabulous inspiration, often +referred to but seldom attained, in which a public meeting is +transformed, as it were, into a single individuality—the orator +wielding a thousand heads and hearts at once, and by the simple majesty +of his all controlling thought, converting his hearers into the express +image of his own soul. That night there were at least one thousand +Garrisonians in Nantucket! A(sic) the close of this great meeting, I +was duly waited on by Mr. John A. Collins—then the general agent of the +Massachusetts anti-slavery society—and urgently solicited by him to +become an agent of that society, and to publicly advocate its +anti-slavery principles. I was reluctant to take the proffered +position. I had not been quite three years from slavery—was honestly +distrustful of my ability—wished to be excused; publicity exposed me to +discovery and arrest by my master; and other objections came up, but +Mr. Collins was not to be put off, and I finally consented to go out +for three months, for I supposed that I should have got to the end of +my story and my usefulness, in that length of time. + +Here opened upon me a new life a life for which I had had no +preparation. I was a “graduate from the peculiar institution,” Mr. +Collins used to say, when introducing me, _“with my diploma written on +my back!”_ The three years of my freedom had been spent in the hard +school of adversity. My hands had been furnished by nature with +something like a solid leather coating, and I had bravely marked out +for myself a life of rough labor, suited to the hardness of my hands, +as a means of supporting myself and rearing my children. + +Now what shall I say of this fourteen years’ experience as a public +advocate of the cause of my enslaved brothers and sisters? The time is +but as a speck, yet large enough to justify a pause for +retrospection—and a pause it must only be. + +Young, ardent, and hopeful, I entered upon this new life in the full +gush of unsuspecting enthusiasm. The cause was good; the men engaged in +it were good; the means to attain its triumph, good; Heaven’s blessing +must attend all, and freedom must soon be given to the pining millions +under a ruthless bondage. My whole heart went with the holy cause, and +my most fervent prayer to the Almighty Disposer of the hearts of men, +were continually offered for its early triumph. “Who or what,” thought +I, “can withstand a cause so good, so holy, so indescribably glorious. +The God of Israel is with us. The might of the Eternal is on our side. +Now let but the truth be spoken, and a nation will start forth at the +sound!” In this enthusiastic spirit, I dropped into the ranks of +freedom’s friends, and went forth to the battle. For a time I was made +to forget that my skin was dark and my hair crisped. For a time I +regretted that I could not have shared the hardships and dangers +endured by the earlier workers for the slave’s release. I soon, +however, found that my enthusiasm had been extravagant; that hardships +and dangers were not yet passed; and that the life now before me, had +shadows as well as sunbeams. + +Among the first duties assigned me, on entering the ranks, was to +travel, in company with Mr. George Foster, to secure subscribers to the +_Anti-slavery Standard_ and the _Liberator_. With him I traveled and +lectured through the eastern counties of Massachusetts. Much interest +was awakened—large meetings assembled. Many came, no doubt, from +curiosity to hear what a Negro could say in his own cause. I was +generally introduced as a _“chattel”—_a_“thing”_—a piece of southern +_“property”_—the chairman assuring the audience that _it_ could speak. +Fugitive slaves, at that time, were not so plentiful as now; and as a +fugitive slave lecturer, I had the advantage of being a _“brand new +fact”_—the first one out. Up to that time, a colored man was deemed a +fool who confessed himself a runaway slave, not only because of the +danger to which he exposed himself of being retaken, but because it was +a confession of a very _low_ origin! Some of my colored friends in New +Bedford thought very badly of my wisdom for thus exposing and degrading +myself. The only precaution I took, at the beginning, to prevent Master +Thomas from knowing where I was, and what I was about, was the +withholding my former name, my master’s name, and the name of the state +and county from which I came. During the first three or four months, my +speeches were almost exclusively made up of narrations of my own +personal experience as a slave. “Let us have the facts,” said the +people. So also said Friend George Foster, who always wished to pin me +down to my simple narrative. “Give us the facts,” said Collins, “we +will take care of the philosophy.” Just here arose some embarrassment. +It was impossible for me to repeat the same old story month after +month, and to keep up my interest in it. It was new to the people, it +is true, but it was an old story to me; and to go through with it night +after night, was a task altogether too mechanical for my nature. “Tell +your story, Frederick,” would whisper my then revered friend, William +Lloyd Garrison, as I stepped upon the platform. I could not always +obey, for I was now reading and thinking. New views of the subject were +presented to my mind. It did not entirely satisfy me to _narrate_ +wrongs; I felt like _denouncing_ them. I could not always curb my moral +indignation for the perpetrators of slaveholding villainy, long enough +for a circumstantial statement of the facts which I felt almost +everybody must know. Besides, I was growing, and needed room. “People +won’t believe you ever was a slave, Frederick, if you keep on this +way,” said Friend Foster. “Be yourself,” said Collins, “and tell your +story.” It was said to me, “Better have a _little_ of the plantation +manner of speech than not; ‘tis not best that you seem too learned.” +These excellent friends were actuated by the best of motives, and were +not altogether wrong in their advice; and still I must speak just the +word that seemed to _me_ the word to be spoken _by_ me. + +At last the apprehended trouble came. People doubted if I had ever been +a slave. They said I did not talk like a slave, look like a slave, nor +act like a slave, and that they believed I had never been south of +Mason and Dixon’s line. “He don’t tell us where he came from—what his +master’s name was—how he got away—nor the story of his experience. +Besides, he is educated, and is, in this, a contradiction of all the +facts we have concerning the ignorance of the slaves.” Thus, I was in a +pretty fair way to be denounced as an impostor. The committee of the +Massachusetts anti-slavery society knew all the facts in my case, and +agreed with me in the prudence of keeping them private. They, +therefore, never doubted my being a genuine fugitive; but going down +the aisles of the churches in which I spoke, and hearing the free +spoken Yankees saying, repeatedly, _“He’s never been a slave, I’ll +warrant ye_,” I resolved to dispel all doubt, at no distant day, by +such a revelation of facts as could not be made by any other than a +genuine fugitive. + +In a little less than four years, therefore, after becoming a public +lecturer, I was induced to write out the leading facts connected with +my experience in slavery, giving names of persons, places, and +dates—thus putting it in the power of any who doubted, to ascertain the +truth or falsehood of my story of being a fugitive slave. This +statement soon became known in Maryland, and I had reason to believe +that an effort would be made to recapture me. + +It is not probable that any open attempt to secure me as a slave could +have succeeded, further than the obtainment, by my master, of the money +value of my bones and sinews. Fortunately for me, in the four years of +my labors in the abolition cause, I had gained many friends, who would +have suffered themselves to be taxed to almost any extent to save me +from slavery. It was felt that I had committed the double offense of +running away, and exposing the secrets and crimes of slavery and +slaveholders. There was a double motive for seeking my +reenslavement—avarice and vengeance; and while, as I have said, there +was little probability of successful recapture, if attempted openly, I +was constantly in danger of being spirited away, at a moment when my +friends could render me no assistance. In traveling about from place to +place—often alone I was much exposed to this sort of attack. Any one +cherishing the design to betray me, could easily do so, by simply +tracing my whereabouts through the anti-slavery journals, for my +meetings and movements were promptly made known in advance. My true +friends, Mr. Garrison and Mr. Phillips, had no faith in the power of +Massachusetts to protect me in my right to liberty. Public sentiment +and the law, in their opinion, would hand me over to the tormentors. +Mr. Phillips, especially, considered me in danger, and said, when I +showed him the manuscript of my story, if in my place, he would throw +it into the fire. Thus, the reader will observe, the settling of one +difficulty only opened the way for another; and that though I had +reached a free state, and had attained position for public usefulness, +I ws(sic) still tormented with the liability of losing my liberty. How +this liability was dispelled, will be related, with other incidents, in +the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. _Twenty-One Months in Great Britain_ + + +GOOD ARISING OUT OF UNPROPITIOUS EVENTS—DENIED CABIN +PASSAGE—PROSCRIPTION TURNED TO GOOD ACCOUNT—THE HUTCHINSON FAMILY—THE +MOB ON BOARD THE “CAMBRIA”—HAPPY INTRODUCTION TO THE BRITISH +PUBLIC—LETTER ADDRESSED TO WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON—TIME AND LABORS WHILE +ABROAD—FREEDOM PURCHASED—MRS. HENRY RICHARDSON—FREE +PAPERS—ABOLITIONISTS DISPLEASED WITH THE RANSOM—HOW MY ENERGIES WERE +DIRECTED—RECEPTION SPEECH IN LONDON—CHARACTER OF THE SPEECH +DEFENDED—CIRCUMSTANCES EXPLAINED—CAUSES CONTRIBUTING TO THE SUCCESS OF +MY MISSION—FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND—TESTIMONIAL. + + +The allotments of Providence, when coupled with trouble and anxiety, +often conceal from finite vision the wisdom and goodness in which they +are sent; and, frequently, what seemed a harsh and invidious +dispensation, is converted by after experience into a happy and +beneficial arrangement. Thus, the painful liability to be returned +again to slavery, which haunted me by day, and troubled my dreams by +night, proved to be a necessary step in the path of knowledge and +usefulness. The writing of my pamphlet, in the spring of 1845, +endangered my liberty, and led me to seek a refuge from republican +slavery in monarchical England. A rude, uncultivated fugitive slave was +driven, by stern necessity, to that country to which young American +gentlemen go to increase their stock of knowledge, to seek pleasure, to +have their rough, democratic manners softened by contact with English +aristocratic refinement. On applying for a passage to England, on board +the “Cambria”, of the Cunard line, my friend, James N. Buffum, of Lynn, +Massachusetts, was informed that I could not be received on board as a +cabin passenger. American prejudice against color triumphed over +British liberality and civilization, and erected a color test and +condition for crossing the sea in the cabin of a British vessel. The +insult was keenly felt by my white friends, but to me, it was common, +expected, and therefore, a thing of no great consequence, whether I +went in the cabin or in the steerage. Moreover, I felt that if I could +not go into the first cabin, first-cabin passengers could come into the +second cabin, and the result justified my anticipations to the fullest +extent. Indeed, I soon found myself an object of more general interest +than I wished to be; and so far from being degraded by being placed in +the second cabin, that part of the ship became the scene of as much +pleasure and refinement, during the voyage, as the cabin itself. The +Hutchinson Family, celebrated vocalists—fellow-passengers—often came to +my rude forecastle deck, and sung their sweetest songs, enlivening the +place with eloquent music, as well as spirited conversation, during the +voyage. In two days after leaving Boston, one part of the ship was +about as free to me as another. My fellow-passengers not only visited +me, but invited me to visit them, on the saloon deck. My visits there, +however, were but seldom. I preferred to live within my privileges, and +keep upon my own premises. I found this quite as much in accordance +with good policy, as with my own feelings. The effect was, that with +the majority of the passengers, all color distinctions were flung to +the winds, and I found myself treated with every mark of respect, from +the beginning to the end of the voyage, except in a single instance; +and in that, I came near being mobbed, for complying with an invitation +given me by the passengers, and the captain of the “Cambria,” to +deliver a lecture on slavery. Our New Orleans and Georgia passengers +were pleased to regard my lecture as an insult offered to them, and +swore I should not speak. They went so far as to threaten to throw me +overboard, and but for the firmness of Captain Judkins, probably would +have (under the inspiration of _slavery_ and _brandy_) attempted to put +their threats into execution. I have no space to describe this scene, +although its tragic and comic peculiarities are well worth describing. +An end was put to the _melee_, by the captain’s calling the ship’s +company to put the salt water mobocrats in irons. At this determined +order, the gentlemen of the lash scampered, and for the rest of the +voyage conducted themselves very decorously. + +This incident of the voyage, in two days after landing at Liverpool, +brought me at once before the British public, and that by no act of my +own. The gentlemen so promptly snubbed in their meditated violence, +flew to the press to justify their conduct, and to denounce me as a +worthless and insolent Negro. This course was even less wise than the +conduct it was intended to sustain; for, besides awakening something +like a national interest in me, and securing me an audience, it brought +out counter statements, and threw the blame upon themselves, which they +had sought to fasten upon me and the gallant captain of the ship. + +Some notion may be formed of the difference in my feelings and +circumstances, while abroad, from the following extract from one of a +series of letters addressed by me to Mr. Garrison, and published in the +_Liberator_. It was written on the first day of January, 1846: + +MY DEAR FRIEND GARRISON: Up to this time, I have given no direct +expression of the views, feelings, and opinions which I have formed, +respecting the character and condition of the people of this land. I +have refrained thus, purposely. I wish to speak advisedly, and in order +to do this, I have waited till, I trust, experience has brought my +opinions to an intelligent maturity. I have been thus careful, not +because I think what I say will have much effect in shaping the +opinions of the world, but because whatever of influence I may possess, +whether little or much, I wish it to go in the right direction, and +according to truth. I hardly need say that, in speaking of Ireland, I +shall be influenced by no prejudices in favor of America. I think my +circumstances all forbid that. I have no end to serve, no creed to +uphold, no government to defend; and as to nation, I belong to none. I +have no protection at home, or resting-place abroad. The land of my +birth welcomes me to her shores only as a slave, and spurns with +contempt the idea of treating me differently; so that I am an outcast +from the society of my childhood, and an outlaw in the land of my +birth. “I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers +were.” That men should be patriotic, is to me perfectly natural; and as +a philosophical fact, I am able to give it an _intellectual_ +recognition. But no further can I go. If ever I had any patriotism, or +any capacity for the feeling, it was whipped out of me long since, by +the lash of the American soul-drivers. + +In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright +blue sky, her grand old woods, her fertile fields, her beautiful +rivers, her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is +soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. When I remember that +all is cursed with the infernal spirit of slaveholding, robbery, and +wrong; when I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the +tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, +and that her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my +outraged sisters; I am filled with unutterable loathing, and led to +reproach myself that anything could fall from my lips in praise of such +a land. America will not allow her children to love her. She seems bent +on compelling those who would be her warmest friends, to be her worst +enemies. May God give her repentance, before it is too late, is the +ardent prayer of my heart. I will continue to pray, labor, and wait, +believing that she cannot always be insensible to the dictates of +justice, or deaf to the voice of humanity. + +My opportunities for learning the character and condition of the people +of this land have been very great. I have traveled almost from the Hill +of Howth to the Giant’s Causeway, and from the Giant’s Causway, to Cape +Clear. During these travels, I have met with much in the chara@@ and +condition of the people to approve, and much to condemn; much that +@@thrilled me with pleasure, and very much that has filled me with +pain. I @@ @@t, in this letter, attempt to give any description of +those scenes which have given me pain. This I will do hereafter. I have +enough, and more than your subscribers will be disposed to read at one +time, of the bright side of the picture. I can truly say, I have spent +some of the happiest moments of my life since landing in this country. +I seem to have undergone a transformation. I live a new life. The warm +and generous cooperation extended to me by the friends of my despised +race; the prompt and liberal manner with which the press has rendered +me its aid; the glorious enthusiasm with which thousands have flocked +to hear the cruel wrongs of my down-trodden and long-enslaved +fellow-countrymen portrayed; the deep sympathy for the slave, and the +strong abhorrence of the slaveholder, everywhere evinced; the +cordiality with which members and ministers of various religious +bodies, and of various shades of religious opinion, have embraced me, +and lent me their aid; the kind of hospitality constantly proffered to +me by persons of the highest rank in society; the spirit of freedom +that seems to animate all with whom I come in contact, and the entire +absence of everything that looked like prejudice against me, on account +of the color of my skin—contrasted so strongly with my long and bitter +experience in the United States, that I look with wonder and amazement +on the transition. In the southern part of the United States, I was a +slave, thought of and spoken of as property; in the language of the +LAW, “_held, taken, reputed, and adjudged to be a chattel in the hands +of my owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators, and +assigns, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever_.” +(Brev. Digest, 224). In the northern states, a fugitive slave, liable +to be hunted at any moment, like a felon, and to be hurled into the +terrible jaws of slavery—doomed by an inveterate prejudice against +color to insult and outrage on every hand (Massachusetts out of the +question)—denied the privileges and courtesies common to others in the +use of the most humble means of conveyance—shut out from the cabins on +steamboats—refused admission to respectable hotels—caricatured, +scorned, scoffed, mocked, and maltreated with impunity by any one (no +matter how black his heart), so he has a white skin. But now behold the +change! Eleven days and a half gone, and I have crossed three thousand +miles of the perilous deep. Instead of a democratic government, I am +under a monarchical government. Instead of the bright, blue sky of +America, I am covered with the soft, grey fog of the Emerald Isle. I +breathe, and lo! the chattel becomes a man. I gaze around in vain for +one who will question my equal humanity, claim me as his slave, or +offer me an insult. I employ a cab—I am seated beside white people—I +reach the hotel—I enter the same door—I am shown into the same parlor—I +dine at the same table and no one is offended. No delicate nose grows +deformed in my presence. I find no difficulty here in obtaining +admission into any place of worship, instruction, or amusement, on +equal terms with people as white as any I ever saw in the United +States. I meet nothing to remind me of my complexion. I find myself +regarded and treated at every turn with the kindness and deference paid +to white people. When I go to church, I am met by no upturned nose and +scornful lip to tell me, “_We don’t allow niggers in here_!” + +I remember, about two years ago, there was in Boston, near the +south-west corner of Boston Common, a menagerie. I had long desired to +see such a collection as I understood was being exhibited there. Never +having had an opportunity while a slave, I resolved to seize this, my +first, since my escape. I went, and as I approached the entrance to +gain admission, I was met and told by the door-keeper, in a harsh and +contemptuous tone, “_We don’t allow niggers in here_.” I also remember +attending a revival meeting in the Rev. Henry Jackson’s meeting-house, +at New Bedford, and going up the broad aisle to find a seat, I was met +by a good deacon, who told me, in a pious tone, “_We don’t allow +niggers in here_!” Soon after my arrival in New Bedford, from the +south, I had a strong desire to attend the Lyceum, but was told, “_They +don’t allow niggers in here_!” While passing from New York to Boston, +on the steamer Massachusetts, on the night of the 9th of December, +1843, when chilled almost through with the cold, I went into the cabin +to get a little warm. I was soon touched upon the shoulder, and told, +“_We don’t allow niggers in here_!” On arriving in Boston, from an +anti-slavery tour, hungry and tired, I went into an eating-house, near +my friend, Mr. Campbell’s to get some refreshments. I was met by a lad +in a white apron, “_We don’t allow niggers in here_!” A week or two +before leaving the United States, I had a meeting appointed at +Weymouth, the home of that glorious band of true abolitionists, the +Weston family, and others. On attempting to take a seat in the omnibus +to that place, I was told by the driver (and I never shall forget his +fiendish hate). “_I don’t allow niggers in here_!” Thank heaven for the +respite I now enjoy! I had been in Dublin but a few days, when a +gentleman of great respectability kindly offered to conduct me through +all the public buildings of that beautiful city; and a little +afterward, I found myself dining with the lord mayor of Dublin. What a +pity there was not some American democratic Christian at the door of +his splendid mansion, to bark out at my approach, “_They don’t allow +niggers in here_!” The truth is, the people here know nothing of the +republican Negro hate prevalent in our glorious land. They measure and +esteem men according to their moral and intellectual worth, and not +according to the color of their skin. Whatever may be said of the +aristocracies here, there is none based on the color of a man’s skin. +This species of aristocracy belongs preeminently to “the land of the +free, and the home of the brave.” I have never found it abroad, in any +but Americans. It sticks to them wherever they go. They find it almost +as hard to get rid of, as to get rid of their skins. + +The second day after my arrival at Liverpool, in company with my +friend, Buffum, and several other friends, I went to Eaton Hall, the +residence of the Marquis of Westminster, one of the most splendid +buildings in England. On approaching the door, I found several of our +American passengers, who came out with us in the “Cambria,” waiting for +admission, as but one party was allowed in the house at a time. We all +had to wait till the company within came out. And of all the faces, +expressive of chagrin, those of the Americans were preeminent. They +looked as sour as vinegar, and as bitter as gall, when they found I was +to be admitted on equal terms with themselves. When the door was +opened, I walked in, on an equal footing with my white fellow-citizens, +and from all I could see, I had as much attention paid me by the +servants that showed us through the house, as any with a paler skin. As +I walked through the building, the statuary did not fall down, the +pictures did not leap from their places, the doors did not refuse to +open, and the servants did not say, “_We don’t allow niggers in here_!” + +A happy new-year to you, and all the friends of freedom. + +My time and labors, while abroad were divided between England, Ireland, +Scotland, and Wales. Upon this experience alone, I might write a book +twice the size of this, _My Bondage and My Freedom_. I visited and +lectured in nearly all the large towns and cities in the United +Kingdom, and enjoyed many favorable opportunities for observation and +information. But books on England are abundant, and the public may, +therefore, dismiss any fear that I am meditating another infliction in +that line; though, in truth, I should like much to write a book on +those countries, if for nothing else, to make grateful mention of the +many dear friends, whose benevolent actions toward me are ineffaceably +stamped upon my memory, and warmly treasured in my heart. To these +friends I owe my freedom in the United States. On their own motion, +without any solicitation from me (Mrs. Henry Richardson, a clever lady, +remarkable for her devotion to every good work, taking the lead), they +raised a fund sufficient to purchase my freedom, and actually paid it +over, and placed the papers 8 of my manumission in my hands, before +they would tolerate the idea of my returning to this, my native +country. To this commercial transaction I owe my exemption from the +democratic operation of the Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850. But for this, +I might at any time become a victim of this most cruel and scandalous +enactment, and be doomed to end my life, as I began it, a slave. The +sum paid for my freedom was one hundred and fifty pounds sterling. + +Some of my uncompromising anti-slavery friends in this country failed +to see the wisdom of this arrangement, and were not pleased that I +consented to it, even by my silence. They thought it a violation of +anti-slavery principles—conceding a right of property in man—and a +wasteful expenditure of money. On the other hand, viewing it simply in +the light of a ransom, or as money extorted by a robber, and my liberty +of more value than one hundred and fifty pounds sterling, I could not +see either a violation of the laws of morality, or those of economy, in +the transaction. + +It is true, I was not in the possession of my claimants, and could have +easily remained in England, for the same friends who had so generously +purchased my freedom, would have assisted me in establishing myself in +that country. To this, however, I could not consent. I felt that I had +a duty to perform—and that was, to labor and suffer with the oppressed +in my native land. Considering, therefore, all the circumstances—the +fugitive slave bill included—I think the very best thing was done in +letting Master Hugh have the hundred and fifty pounds sterling, and +leaving me free to return to my appropriate field of labor. Had I been +a private person, having no other relations or duties than those of a +personal and family nature, I should never have consented to the +payment of so large a sum for the privilege of living securely under +our glorious republican form of government. I could have remained in +England, or have gone to some other country; and perhaps I could even +have lived unobserved in this. But to this I could not consent. I had +already become somewhat notorious, and withal quite as unpopular as +notorious; and I was, therefore, much exposed to arrest and recapture. + +The main object to which my labors in Great Britain were directed, was +the concentration of the moral and religious sentiment of its people +against American slavery. England is often charged with having +established slavery in the United States, and if there were no other +justification than this, for appealing to her people to lend their +moral aid for the abolition of slavery, I should be justified. My +speeches in Great Britain were wholly extemporaneous, and I may not +always have been so guarded in my expressions, as I otherwise should +have been. I was ten years younger then than now, and only seven years +from slavery. I cannot give the reader a better idea of the nature of +my discourses, than by republishing one of them, delivered in Finsbury +chapel, London, to an audience of about two thousand persons, and which +was published in the _London Universe_, at the time. 9 + +Those in the United States who may regard this speech as being harsh in +its spirit and unjust in its statements, because delivered before an +audience supposed to be anti-republican in their principles and +feelings, may view the matter differently, when they learn that the +case supposed did not exist. It so happened that the great mass of the +people in England who attended and patronized my anti-slavery meetings, +were, in truth, about as good republicans as the mass of Americans, and +with this decided advantage over the latter—they are lovers of +republicanism for all men, for black men as well as for white men. They +are the people who sympathize with Louis Kossuth and Mazzini, and with +the oppressed and enslaved, of every color and nation, the world over. +They constitute the democratic element in British politics, and are as +much opposed to the union of church and state as we, in America, are to +such an union. At the meeting where this speech was delivered, Joseph +Sturge—a world-wide philanthropist, and a member of the society of +Friends—presided, and addressed the meeting. George William Alexander, +another Friend, who has spent more than an Ameriacn(sic) fortune in +promoting the anti-slavery cause in different sections of the world, +was on the platform; and also Dr. Campbell (now of the _British +Banner_) who combines all the humane tenderness of Melanchthon, with +the directness and boldness of Luther. He is in the very front ranks of +non-conformists, and looks with no unfriendly eye upon America. George +Thompson, too, was there; and America will yet own that he did a true +man’s work in relighting the rapidly dying-out fire of true +republicanism in the American heart, and be ashamed of the treatment he +met at her hands. Coming generations in this country will applaud the +spirit of this much abused republican friend of freedom. There were +others of note seated on the platform, who would gladly ingraft upon +English institutions all that is purely republican in the institutions +of America. Nothing, therefore, must be set down against this speech on +the score that it was delivered in the presence of those who cannot +appreciate the many excellent things belonging to our system of +government, and with a view to stir up prejudice against republican +institutions. + +Again, let it also be remembered—for it is the simple truth—that +neither in this speech, nor in any other which I delivered in England, +did I ever allow myself to address Englishmen as against Americans. I +took my stand on the high ground of human brotherhood, and spoke to +Englishmen as men, in behalf of men. Slavery is a crime, not against +Englishmen, but against God, and all the members of the human family; +and it belongs to the whole human family to seek its suppression. In a +letter to Mr. Greeley, of the New York Tribune, written while abroad, I +said: + +I am, nevertheless aware that the wisdom of exposing the sins of one +nation in the ear of another, has been seriously questioned by good and +clear-sighted people, both on this and on your side of the Atlantic. +And the thought is not without weight on my own mind. I am satisfied +that there are many evils which can be best removed by confining our +efforts to the immediate locality where such evils exist. This, +however, is by no means the case with the system of slavery. It is such +a giant sin—such a monstrous aggregation of iniquity—so hardening to +the human heart—so destructive to the moral sense, and so well +calculated to beget a character, in every one around it, favorable to +its own continuance,—that I feel not only at liberty, but abundantly +justified, in appealing to the whole world to aid in its removal. + +But, even if I had—as has been often charged—labored to bring American +institutions generally into disrepute, and had not confined my labors +strictly within the limits of humanity and morality, I should not have +been without illustrious examples to support me. Driven into semi-exile +by civil and barbarous laws, and by a system which cannot be thought of +without a shudder, I was fully justified in turning, if possible, the +tide of the moral universe against the heaven-daring outrage. + +Four circumstances greatly assisted me in getting the question of +American slavery before the British public. First, the mob on board the +“Cambria,” already referred to, which was a sort of national +announcement of my arrival in England. Secondly, the highly +reprehensible course pursued by the Free Church of Scotland, in +soliciting, receiving, and retaining money in its sustentation fund for +supporting the gospel in Scotland, which was evidently the ill-gotten +gain of slaveholders and slave-traders. Third, the great Evangelical +Alliance—or rather the attempt to form such an alliance, which should +include slaveholders of a certain description—added immensely to the +interest felt in the slavery question. About the same time, there was +the World’s Temperance Convention, where I had the misfortune to come +in collision with sundry American doctors of divinity—Dr. Cox among the +number—with whom I had a small controversy. + +It has happened to me—as it has happened to most other men engaged in a +good cause—often to be more indebted to my enemies than to my own skill +or to the assistance of my friends, for whatever success has attended +my labors. Great surprise was expressed by American newspapers, north +and south, during my stay in Great Britain, that a person so illiterate +and insignificant as myself could awaken an interest so marked in +England. These papers were not the only parties surprised. I was myself +not far behind them in surprise. But the very contempt and scorn, the +systematic and extravagant disparagement of which I was the object, +served, perhaps, to magnify my few merits, and to render me of some +account, whether deserving or not. A man is sometimes made great, by +the greatness of the abuse a portion of mankind may think proper to +heap upon him. Whether I was of as much consequence as the English +papers made me out to be, or not, it was easily seen, in England, that +I could not be the ignorant and worthless creature, some of the +American papers would have them believe I was. Men, in their senses, do +not take bowie-knives to kill mosquitoes, nor pistols to shoot flies; +and the American passengers who thought proper to get up a mob to +silence me, on board the “Cambria,” took the most effective method of +telling the British public that I had something to say. + +But to the second circumstance, namely, the position of the Free Church +of Scotland, with the great Doctors Chalmers, Cunningham, and Candlish +at its head. That church, with its leaders, put it out of the power of +the Scotch people to ask the old question, which we in the north have +often most wickedly asked—“_What have we to do with slavery_?” That +church had taken the price of blood into its treasury, with which to +build _free_ churches, and to pay _free_ church ministers for preaching +the gospel; and, worse still, when honest John Murray, of Bowlien +Bay—now gone to his reward in heaven—with William Smeal, Andrew Paton, +Frederick Card, and other sterling anti-slavery men in Glasgow, +denounced the transaction as disgraceful and shocking to the religious +sentiment of Scotland, this church, through its leading divines, +instead of repenting and seeking to mend the mistake into which it had +fallen, made it a flagrant sin, by undertaking to defend, in the name +of God and the bible, the principle not only of taking the money of +slave-dealers to build churches, but of holding fellowship with the +holders and traffickers in human flesh. This, the reader will see, +brought up the whole question of slavery, and opened the way to its +full discussion, without any agency of mine. I have never seen a people +more deeply moved than were the people of Scotland, on this very +question. Public meeting succeeded public meeting. Speech after speech, +pamphlet after pamphlet, editorial after editorial, sermon after +sermon, soon lashed the conscientious Scotch people into a perfect +_furore_. “SEND BACK THE MONEY!” was indignantly cried out, from +Greenock to Edinburgh, and from Edinburgh to Aberdeen. George Thompson, +of London, Henry C. Wright, of the United States, James N. Buffum, of +Lynn, Massachusetts, and myself were on the anti-slavery side; and +Doctors Chalmers, Cunningham, and Candlish on the other. In a conflict +where the latter could have had even the show of right, the truth, in +our hands as against them, must have been driven to the wall; and while +I believe we were able to carry the conscience of the country against +the action of the Free Church, the battle, it must be confessed, was a +hard-fought one. Abler defenders of the doctrine of fellowshiping +slaveholders as christians, have not been met with. In defending this +doctrine, it was necessary to deny that slavery is a sin. If driven +from this position, they were compelled to deny that slaveholders were +responsible for the sin; and if driven from both these positions, they +must deny that it is a sin in such a sense, and that slaveholders are +sinners in such a sense, as to make it wrong, in the circumstances in +which they were placed, to recognize them as Christians. Dr. Cunningham +was the most powerful debater on the slavery side of the question; Mr. +Thompson was the ablest on the anti-slavery side. A scene occurred +between these two men, a parallel to which I think I never witnessed +before, and I know I never have since. The scene was caused by a single +exclamation on the part of Mr. Thompson. + +The general assembly of the Free Church was in progress at Cannon +Mills, Edinburgh. The building would hold about twenty-five hundred +persons; and on this occasion it was densely packed, notice having been +given that Doctors Cunningham and Candlish would speak, that day, in +defense of the relations of the Free Church of Scotland to slavery in +America. Messrs. Thompson, Buffum, myself, and a few anti-slavery +friends, attended, but sat at such a distance, and in such a position, +that, perhaps we were not observed from the platform. The excitement +was intense, having been greatly increased by a series of meetings held +by Messrs. Thompson, Wright, Buffum, and myself, in the most splendid +hall in that most beautiful city, just previous to the meetings of the +general assembly. “SEND BACK THE MONEY!” stared at us from every street +corner; “SEND BACK THE MONEY!” in large capitals, adorned the broad +flags of the pavement; “SEND BACK THE MONEY!” was the chorus of the +popular street songs; “SEND BACK THE MONEY!” was the heading of leading +editorials in the daily newspapers. This day, at Cannon Mills, the +great doctors of the church were to give an answer to this loud and +stern demand. Men of all parties and all sects were most eager to hear. +Something great was expected. The occasion was great, the men great, +and great speeches were expected from them. + +In addition to the outside pressure upon Doctors Cunningham and +Candlish, there was wavering in their own ranks. The conscience of the +church itself was not at ease. A dissatisfaction with the position of +the church touching slavery, was sensibly manifest among the members, +and something must be done to counteract this untoward influence. The +great Dr. Chalmers was in feeble health, at the time. His most potent +eloquence could not now be summoned to Cannon Mills, as formerly. He +whose voice was able to rend asunder and dash down the granite walls of +the established church of Scotland, and to lead a host in solemn +procession from it, as from a doomed city, was now old and enfeebled. +Besides, he had said his word on this very question; and his word had +not silenced the clamor without, nor stilled the anxious heavings +within. The occasion was momentous, and felt to be so. The church was +in a perilous condition. A change of some sort must take place in her +condition, or she must go to pieces. To stand where she did, was +impossible. The whole weight of the matter fell on Cunningham and +Candlish. No shoulders in the church were broader than theirs; and I +must say, badly as I detest the principles laid down and defended by +them, I was compelled to acknowledge the vast mental endowments of the +men. Cunningham rose; and his rising was the signal for almost +tumultous applause. You will say this was scarcely in keeping with the +solemnity of the occasion, but to me it served to increase its grandeur +and gravity. The applause, though tumultuous, was not joyous. It seemed +to me, as it thundered up from the vast audience, like the fall of an +immense shaft, flung from shoulders already galled by its crushing +weight. It was like saying, “Doctor, we have borne this burden long +enough, and willingly fling it upon you. Since it was you who brought +it upon us, take it now, and do what you will with it, for we are too +weary to bear it. [“no close”]. + +Doctor Cunningham proceeded with his speech, abounding in logic, +learning, and eloquence, and apparently bearing down all opposition; +but at the moment—the fatal moment—when he was just bringing all his +arguments to a point, and that point being, that neither Jesus Christ +nor his holy apostles regarded slaveholding as a sin, George Thompson, +in a clear, sonorous, but rebuking voice, broke the deep stillness of +the audience, exclaiming, HEAR! HEAR! HEAR! The effect of this simple +and common exclamation is almost incredible. It was as if a granite +wall had been suddenly flung up against the advancing current of a +mighty river. For a moment, speaker and audience were brought to a dead +silence. Both the doctor and his hearers seemed appalled by the +audacity, as well as the fitness of the rebuke. At length a shout went +up to the cry of “_Put him out_!” Happily, no one attempted to execute +this cowardly order, and the doctor proceeded with his discourse. Not, +however, as before, did the learned doctor proceed. The exclamation of +Thompson must have reechoed itself a thousand times in his memory, +during the remainder of his speech, for the doctor never recovered from +the blow. + +The deed was done, however; the pillars of the church—_the proud, Free +Church of Scotland_—were committed and the humility of repentance was +absent. The Free Church held on to the blood-stained money, and +continued to justify itself in its position—and of course to apologize +for slavery—and does so till this day. She lost a glorious opportunity +for giving her voice, her vote, and her example to the cause of +humanity; and to-day she is staggering under the curse of the enslaved, +whose blood is in her skirts. The people of Scotland are, to this day, +deeply grieved at the course pursued by the Free Church, and would +hail, as a relief from a deep and blighting shame, the “sending back +the money” to the slaveholders from whom it was gathered. + +One good result followed the conduct of the Free Church; it furnished +an occasion for making the people of Scotland thoroughly acquainted +with the character of slavery, and for arraying against the system the +moral and religious sentiment of that country. Therefore, while we did +not succeed in accomplishing the specific object of our mission, +namely—procure the sending back of the money—we were amply justified by +the good which really did result from our labors. + +Next comes the Evangelical Alliance. This was an attempt to form a +union of all evangelical Christians throughout the world. Sixty or +seventy American divines attended, and some of them went there merely +to weave a world-wide garment with which to clothe evangelical +slaveholders. Foremost among these divines, was the Rev. Samuel Hanson +Cox, moderator of the New School Presbyterian General Assembly. He and +his friends spared no pains to secure a platform broad enough to hold +American slaveholders, and in this partly succeeded. But the question +of slavery is too large a question to be finally disposed of, even by +the Evangelical Alliance. We appealed from the judgment of the +Alliance, to the judgment of the people of Great Britain, and with the +happiest effect. This controversy with the Alliance might be made the +subject of extended remark, but I must forbear, except to say, that +this effort to shield the Christian character of slaveholders greatly +served to open a way to the British ear for anti-slavery discussion, +and that it was well improved. + +The fourth and last circumstance that assisted me in getting before the +British public, was an attempt on the part of certain doctors of +divinity to silence me on the platform of the World’s Temperance +Convention. Here I was brought into point blank collison with Rev. Dr. +Cox, who made me the subject not only of bitter remark in the +convention, but also of a long denunciatory letter published in the New +York Evangelist and other American papers. I replied to the doctor as +well as I could, and was successful in getting a respectful hearing +before the British public, who are by nature and practice ardent lovers +of fair play, especially in a conflict between the weak and the strong. + +Thus did circumstances favor me, and favor the cause of which I strove +to be the advocate. After such distinguished notice, the public in both +countries was compelled to attach some importance to my labors. By the +very ill usage I received at the hands of Dr. Cox and his party, by the +mob on board the “Cambria,” by the attacks made upon me in the American +newspapers, and by the aspersions cast upon me through the organs of +the Free Church of Scotland, I became one of that class of men, who, +for the moment, at least, “have greatness forced upon them.” People +became the more anxious to hear for themselves, and to judge for +themselves, of the truth which I had to unfold. While, therefore, it is +by no means easy for a stranger to get fairly before the British +public, it was my lot to accomplish it in the easiest manner possible. + +Having continued in Great Britain and Ireland nearly two years, and +being about to return to America—not as I left it, a slave, but a +freeman—leading friends of the cause of emancipation in that country +intimated their intention to make me a testimonial, not only on grounds +of personal regard to myself, but also to the cause to which they were +so ardently devoted. How far any such thing could have succeeded, I do +not know; but many reasons led me to prefer that my friends should +simply give me the means of obtaining a printing press and printing +materials, to enable me to start a paper, devoted to the interests of +my enslaved and oppressed people. I told them that perhaps the greatest +hinderance to the adoption of abolition principles by the people of the +United States, was the low estimate, everywhere in that country, placed +upon the Negro, as a man; that because of his assumed natural +inferiority, people reconciled themselves to his enslavement and +oppression, as things inevitable, if not desirable. The grand thing to +be done, therefore, was to change the estimation in which the colored +people of the United States were held; to remove the prejudice which +depreciated and depressed them; to prove them worthy of a higher +consideration; to disprove their alleged inferiority, and demonstrate +their capacity for a more exalted civilization than slavery and +prejudice had assigned to them. I further stated, that, in my judgment, +a tolerably well conducted press, in the hands of persons of the +despised race, by calling out the mental energies of the race itself; +by making them acquainted with their own latent powers; by enkindling +among them the hope that for them there is a future; by developing +their moral power; by combining and reflecting their talents—would +prove a most powerful means of removing prejudice, and of awakening an +interest in them. I further informed them—and at that time the +statement was true—that there was not, in the United States, a single +newspaper regularly published by the colored people; that many attempts +had been made to establish such papers; but that, up to that time, they +had all failed. These views I laid before my friends. The result was, +nearly two thousand five hundred dollars were speedily raised toward +starting my paper. For this prompt and generous assistance, rendered +upon my bare suggestion, without any personal efforts on my part, I +shall never cease to feel deeply grateful; and the thought of +fulfilling the noble expectations of the dear friends who gave me this +evidence of their confidence, will never cease to be a motive for +persevering exertion. + +Proposing to leave England, and turning my face toward America, in the +spring of 1847, I was met, on the threshold, with something which +painfully reminded me of the kind of life which awaited me in my native +land. For the first time in the many months spent abroad, I was met +with proscription on account of my color. A few weeks before departing +from England, while in London, I was careful to purchase a ticket, and +secure a berth for returning home, in the “Cambria”—the steamer in +which I left the United States—paying therefor the round sum of forty +pounds and nineteen shillings sterling. This was first cabin fare. But +on going aboard the Cambria, I found that the Liverpool agent had +ordered my berth to be given to another, and had forbidden my entering +the saloon! This contemptible conduct met with stern rebuke from the +British press. For, upon the point of leaving England, I took occasion +to expose the disgusting tyranny, in the columns of the London _Times_. +That journal, and other leading journals throughout the United Kingdom, +held up the outrage to unmitigated condemnation. So good an opportunity +for calling out a full expression of British sentiment on the subject, +had not before occurred, and it was most fully embraced. The result +was, that Mr. Cunard came out in a letter to the public journals, +assuring them of his regret at the outrage, and promising that the like +should never occur again on board his steamers; and the like, we +believe, has never since occurred on board the steamships of the Cunard +line. + +It is not very pleasant to be made the subject of such insults; but if +all such necessarily resulted as this one did, I should be very happy +to bear, patiently, many more than I have borne, of the same sort. +Albeit, the lash of proscription, to a man accustomed to equal social +position, even for a time, as I was, has a sting for the soul hardly +less severe than that which bites the flesh and draws the blood from +the back of the plantation slave. It was rather hard, after having +enjoyed nearly two years of equal social privileges in England, often +dining with gentlemen of great literary, social, political, and +religious eminence never, during the whole time, having met with a +single word, look, or gesture, which gave me the slightest reason to +think my color was an offense to anybody—now to be cooped up in the +stern of the “Cambria,” and denied the right to enter the saloon, lest +my dark presence should be deemed an offense to some of my democratic +fellow-passengers. The reader will easily imagine what must have been +my feelings. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. _Various Incidents_ + + +NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE—UNEXPECTED OPPOSITION—THE OBJECTIONS TO IT—THEIR +PLAUSIBILITY ADMITTED—MOTIVES FOR COMING TO ROCHESTER—DISCIPLE OF MR. +GARRISON—CHANGE OF OPINION—CAUSES LEADING TO IT—THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE +CHANGE—PREJUDICE AGAINST COLOR—AMUSING CONDESCENSION—“JIM CROW +CARS”—COLLISIONS WITH CONDUCTORS AND BRAKEMEN—TRAINS ORDERED NOT TO +STOP AT LYNN—AMUSING DOMESTIC SCENE—SEPARATE TABLES FOR MASTER AND +MAN—PREJUDICE UNNATURAL—ILLUSTRATIONS—IN HIGH COMPANY—ELEVATION OF THE +FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR—PLEDGE FOR THE FUTURE. + + +I have now given the reader an imperfect sketch of nine years’ +experience in freedom—three years as a common laborer on the wharves of +New Bedford, four years as a lecturer in New England, and two years of +semi-exile in Great Britain and Ireland. A single ray of light remains +to be flung upon my life during the last eight years, and my story will +be done. + +A trial awaited me on my return from England to the United States, for +which I was but very imperfectly prepared. My plans for my then future +usefulness as an anti-slavery advocate were all settled. My friends in +England had resolved to raise a given sum to purchase for me a press +and printing materials; and I already saw myself wielding my pen, as +well as my voice, in the great work of renovating the public mind, and +building up a public sentiment which should, at least, send slavery and +oppression to the grave, and restore to “liberty and the pursuit of +happiness” the people with whom I had suffered, both as a slave and as +a freeman. Intimation had reached my friends in Boston of what I +intended to do, before my arrival, and I was prepared to find them +favorably disposed toward my much cherished enterprise. In this I was +mistaken. I found them very earnestly opposed to the idea of my +starting a paper, and for several reasons. First, the paper was not +needed; secondly, it would interfere with my usefulness as a lecturer; +thirdly, I was better fitted to speak than to write; fourthly, the +paper could not succeed. This opposition, from a quarter so highly +esteemed, and to which I had been accustomed to look for advice and +direction, caused me not only to hesitate, but inclined me to abandon +the enterprise. All previous attempts to establish such a journal +having failed, I felt that probably I should but add another to the +list of failures, and thus contribute another proof of the mental and +moral deficiencies of my race. Very much that was said to me in respect +to my imperfect literary acquirements, I felt to be most painfully +true. The unsuccessful projectors of all the previous colored +newspapers were my superiors in point of education, and if they failed, +how could I hope for success? Yet I did hope for success, and persisted +in the undertaking. Some of my English friends greatly encouraged me to +go forward, and I shall never cease to be grateful for their words of +cheer and generous deeds. + +I can easily pardon those who have denounced me as ambitious and +presumptuous, in view of my persistence in this enterprise. I was but +nine years from slavery. In point of mental experience, I was but nine +years old. That one, in such circumstances, should aspire to establish +a printing press, among an educated people, might well be considered, +if not ambitious, quite silly. My American friends looked at me with +astonishment! “A wood-sawyer” offering himself to the public as an +editor! A slave, brought up in the very depths of ignorance, assuming +to instruct the highly civilized people of the north in the principles +of liberty, justice, and humanity! The thing looked absurd. +Nevertheless, I persevered. I felt that the want of education, great as +it was, could be overcome by study, and that knowledge would come by +experience; and further (which was perhaps the most controlling +consideration). I thought that an intelligent public, knowing my early +history, would easily pardon a large share of the deficiencies which I +was sure that my paper would exhibit. The most distressing thing, +however, was the offense which I was about to give my Boston friends, +by what seemed to them a reckless disregard of their sage advice. I am +not sure that I was not under the influence of something like a slavish +adoration of my Boston friends, and I labored hard to convince them of +the wisdom of my undertaking, but without success. Indeed, I never +expect to succeed, although time has answered all their original +objections. The paper has been successful. It is a large sheet, costing +eighty dollars per week—has three thousand subscribers—has been +published regularly nearly eight years—and bids fair to stand eight +years longer. At any rate, the eight years to come are as full of +promise as were the eight that are past. + +It is not to be concealed, however, that the maintenance of such a +journal, under the circumstances, has been a work of much difficulty; +and could all the perplexity, anxiety, and trouble attending it, have +been clearly foreseen, I might have shrunk from the undertaking. As it +is, I rejoice in having engaged in the enterprise, and count it joy to +have been able to suffer, in many ways, for its success, and for the +success of the cause to which it has been faithfully devoted. I look +upon the time, money, and labor bestowed upon it, as being amply +rewarded, in the development of my own mental and moral energies, and +in the corresponding development of my deeply injured and oppressed +people. + +From motives of peace, instead of issuing my paper in Boston, among my +New England friends, I came to Rochester, western New York, among +strangers, where the circulation of my paper could not interfere with +the local circulation of the _Liberator_ and the _Standard;_ for at +that time I was, on the anti-slavery question, a faithful disciple of +William Lloyd Garrison, and fully committed to his doctrine touching +the pro-slavery character of the constitution of the United States, and +the _non-voting principle_, of which he is the known and distinguished +advocate. With Mr. Garrison, I held it to be the first duty of the +non-slaveholding states to dissolve the union with the slaveholding +states; and hence my cry, like his, was, “No union with slaveholders.” +With these views, I came into western New York; and during the first +four years of my labor here, I advocated them with pen and tongue, +according to the best of my ability. + +About four years ago, upon a reconsideration of the whole subject, I +became convinced that there was no necessity for dissolving the “union +between the northern and southern states;” that to seek this +dissolution was no part of my duty as an abolitionist; that to abstain +from voting, was to refuse to exercise a legitimate and powerful means +for abolishing slavery; and that the constitution of the United States +not only contained no guarantees in favor of slavery, but, on the +contrary, it is, in its letter and spirit, an anti-slavery instrument, +demanding the abolition of slavery as a condition of its own existence, +as the supreme law of the land. + +Here was a radical change in my opinions, and in the action logically +resulting from that change. To those with whom I had been in agreement +and in sympathy, I was now in opposition. What they held to be a great +and important truth, I now looked upon as a dangerous error. A very +painful, and yet a very natural, thing now happened. Those who could +not see any honest reasons for changing their views, as I had done, +could not easily see any such reasons for my change, and the common +punishment of apostates was mine. + +The opinions first entertained were naturally derived and honestly +entertained, and I trust that my present opinions have the same claims +to respect. Brought directly, when I escaped from slavery, into contact +with a class of abolitionists regarding the constitution as a +slaveholding instrument, and finding their views supported by the +united and entire history of every department of the government, it is +not strange that I assumed the constitution to be just what their +interpretation made it. I was bound, not only by their superior +knowledge, to take their opinions as the true ones, in respect to the +subject, but also because I had no means of showing their unsoundness. +But for the responsibility of conducting a public journal, and the +necessity imposed upon me of meeting opposite views from abolitionists +in this state, I should in all probability have remained as firm in my +disunion views as any other disciple of William Lloyd Garrison. + +My new circumstances compelled me to re-think the whole subject, and to +study, with some care, not only the just and proper rules of legal +interpretation, but the origin, design, nature, rights, powers, and +duties of civil government, and also the relations which human beings +sustain to it. By such a course of thought and reading, I was conducted +to the conclusion that the constitution of the United +States—inaugurated “to form a more perfect union, establish justice, +insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote +the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty”—could not well +have been designed at the same time to maintain and perpetuate a system +of rapine and murder, like slavery; especially, as not one word can be +found in the constitution to authorize such a belief. Then, again, if +the declared purposes of an instrument are to govern the meaning of all +its parts and details, as they clearly should, the constitution of our +country is our warrant for the abolition of slavery in every state in +the American Union. I mean, however, not to argue, but simply to state +my views. It would require very many pages of a volume like this, to +set forth the arguments demonstrating the unconstitutionality and the +complete illegality of slavery in our land; and as my experience, and +not my arguments, is within the scope and contemplation of this volume, +I omit the latter and proceed with the former. + +I will now ask the kind reader to go back a little in my story, while I +bring up a thread left behind for convenience sake, but which, small as +it is, cannot be properly omitted altogether; and that thread is +American prejudice against color, and its varied illustrations in my +own experience. + +When I first went among the abolitionists of New England, and began to +travel, I found this prejudice very strong and very annoying. The +abolitionists themselves were not entirely free from it, and I could +see that they were nobly struggling against it. In their eagerness, +sometimes, to show their contempt for the feeling, they proved that +they had not entirely recovered from it; often illustrating the saying, +in their conduct, that a man may “stand up so straight as to lean +backward.” When it was said to me, “Mr. Douglass, I will walk to +meeting with you; I am not afraid of a black man,” I could not help +thinking—seeing nothing very frightful in my appearance—“And why should +you be?” The children at the north had all been educated to believe +that if they were bad, the old _black_ man—not the old _devil_—would +get them; and it was evidence of some courage, for any so educated to +get the better of their fears. + +The custom of providing separate cars for the accommodation of colored +travelers, was established on nearly all the railroads of New England, +a dozen years ago. Regarding this custom as fostering the spirit of +caste, I made it a rule to seat myself in the cars for the +accommodation of passengers generally. Thus seated, I was sure to be +called upon to betake myself to the “_Jim Crow car_.” Refusing to obey, +I was often dragged out of my seat, beaten, and severely bruised, by +conductors and brakemen. Attempting to start from Lynn, one day, for +Newburyport, on the Eastern railroad, I went, as my custom was, into +one of the best railroad carriages on the road. The seats were very +luxuriant and beautiful. I was soon waited upon by the conductor, and +ordered out; whereupon I demanded the reason for my invidious removal. +After a good deal of parleying, I was told that it was because I was +black. This I denied, and appealed to the company to sustain my denial; +but they were evidently unwilling to commit themselves, on a point so +delicate, and requiring such nice powers of discrimination, for they +remained as dumb as death. I was soon waited on by half a dozen fellows +of the baser sort (just such as would volunteer to take a bull-dog out +of a meeting-house in time of public worship), and told that I must +move out of that seat, and if I did not, they would drag me out. I +refused to move, and they clutched me, head, neck, and shoulders. But, +in anticipation of the stretching to which I was about to be subjected, +I had interwoven myself among the seats. In dragging me out, on this +occasion, it must have cost the company twenty-five or thirty dollars, +for I tore up seats and all. So great was the excitement in Lynn, on +the subject, that the superintendent, Mr. Stephen A. Chase, ordered the +trains to run through Lynn without stopping, while I remained in that +town; and this ridiculous farce was enacted. For several days the +trains went dashing through Lynn without stopping. At the same time +that they excluded a free colored man from their cars, this same +company allowed slaves, in company with their masters and mistresses, +to ride unmolested. + +After many battles with the railroad conductors, and being roughly +handled in not a few instances, proscription was at last abandoned; and +the “Jim Crow car”—set up for the degradation of colored people—is +nowhere found in New England. This result was not brought about without +the intervention of the people, and the threatened enactment of a law +compelling railroad companies to respect the rights of travelers. Hon. +Charles Francis Adams performed signal service in the Massachusetts +legislature, in bringing this reformation; and to him the colored +citizens of that state are deeply indebted. + +Although often annoyed, and sometimes outraged, by this prejudice +against color, I am indebted to it for many passages of quiet +amusement. A half-cured subject of it is sometimes driven into awkward +straits, especially if he happens to get a genuine specimen of the race +into his house. + +In the summer of 1843, I was traveling and lecturing, in company with +William A. White, Esq., through the state of Indiana. Anti-slavery +friends were not very abundant in Indiana, at that time, and beds were +not more plentiful than friends. We often slept out, in preference to +sleeping in the houses, at some points. At the close of one of our +meetings, we were invited home with a kindly-disposed old farmer, who, +in the generous enthusiasm of the moment, seemed to have forgotten that +he had but one spare bed, and that his guests were an ill-matched pair. +All went on pretty well, till near bed time, when signs of uneasiness +began to show themselves, among the unsophisticated sons and daughters. +White is remarkably fine looking, and very evidently a born gentleman; +the idea of putting us in the same bed was hardly to be tolerated; and +yet, there we were, and but the one bed for us, and that, by the way, +was in the same room occupied by the other members of the family. +White, as well as I, perceived the difficulty, for yonder slept the old +folks, there the sons, and a little farther along slept the daughters; +and but one other bed remained. Who should have this bed, was the +puzzling question. There was some whispering between the old folks, +some confused looks among the young, as the time for going to bed +approached. After witnessing the confusion as long as I liked, I +relieved the kindly-disposed family by playfully saying, “Friend White, +having got entirely rid of my prejudice against color, I think, as a +proof of it, I must allow you to sleep with me to-night.” White kept up +the joke, by seeming to esteem himself the favored party, and thus the +difficulty was removed. If we went to a hotel, and called for dinner, +the landlord was sure to set one table for White and another for me, +always taking him to be master, and me the servant. Large eyes were +generally made when the order was given to remove the dishes from my +table to that of White’s. In those days, it was thought strange that a +white man and a colored man could dine peaceably at the same table, and +in some parts the strangeness of such a sight has not entirely +subsided. + +Some people will have it that there is a natural, an inherent, and an +invincible repugnance in the breast of the white race toward +dark-colored people; and some very intelligent colored men think that +their proscription is owing solely to the color which nature has given +them. They hold that they are rated according to their color, and that +it is impossible for white people ever to look upon dark races of men, +or men belonging to the African race, with other than feelings of +aversion. My experience, both serious and mirthful, combats this +conclusion. Leaving out of sight, for a moment, grave facts, to this +point, I will state one or two, which illustrate a very interesting +feature of American character as well as American prejudice. Riding +from Boston to Albany, a few years ago, I found myself in a large car, +well filled with passengers. The seat next to me was about the only +vacant one. At every stopping place we took in new passengers, all of +whom, on reaching the seat next to me, cast a disdainful glance upon +it, and passed to another car, leaving me in the full enjoyment of a +hole form. For a time, I did not know but that my riding there was +prejudicial to the interest of the railroad company. A circumstance +occurred, however, which gave me an elevated position at once. Among +the passengers on this train was Gov. George N. Briggs. I was not +acquainted with him, and had no idea that I was known to him, however, +I was, for upon observing me, the governor left his place, and making +his way toward me, respectfully asked the privilege of a seat by my +side; and upon introducing himself, we entered into a conversation very +pleasant and instructive to me. The despised seat now became honored. +His excellency had removed all the prejudice against sitting by the +side of a Negro; and upon his leaving it, as he did, on reaching +Pittsfield, there were at least one dozen applicants for the place. The +governor had, without changing my skin a single shade, made the place +respectable which before was despicable. + +A similar incident happened to me once on the Boston and New Bedford +railroad, and the leading party to it has since been governor of the +state of Massachusetts. I allude to Col. John Henry Clifford. Lest the +reader may fancy I am aiming to elevate myself, by claiming too much +intimacy with great men, I must state that my only acquaintance with +Col. Clifford was formed while I was _his hired servant_, during the +first winter of my escape from slavery. I owe it him to say, that in +that relation I found him always kind and gentlemanly. But to the +incident. I entered a car at Boston, for New Bedford, which, with the +exception of a single seat was full, and found I must occupy this, or +stand up, during the journey. Having no mind to do this, I stepped up +to the man having the next seat, and who had a few parcels on the seat, +and gently asked leave to take a seat by his side. My fellow-passenger +gave me a look made up of reproach and indignation, and asked me why I +should come to that particular seat. I assured him, in the gentlest +manner, that of all others this was the seat for me. Finding that I was +actually about to sit down, he sang out, “O! stop, stop! and let me get +out!” Suiting the action to the word, up the agitated man got, and +sauntered to the other end of the car, and was compelled to stand for +most of the way thereafter. Halfway to New Bedford, or more, Col. +Clifford, recognizing me, left his seat, and not having seen me before +since I had ceased to wait on him (in everything except hard arguments +against his pro-slavery position), apparently forgetful of his rank, +manifested, in greeting me, something of the feeling of an old friend. +This demonstration was not lost on the gentleman whose dignity I had, +an hour before, most seriously offended. Col. Clifford was known to be +about the most aristocratic gentleman in Bristol county; and it was +evidently thought that I must be somebody, else I should not have been +thus noticed, by a person so distinguished. Sure enough, after Col. +Clifford left me, I found myself surrounded with friends; and among the +number, my offended friend stood nearest, and with an apology for his +rudeness, which I could not resist, although it was one of the lamest +ever offered. With such facts as these before me—and I have many of +them—I am inclined to think that pride and fashion have much to do with +the treatment commonly extended to colored people in the United States. +I once heard a very plain man say (and he was cross-eyed, and awkwardly +flung together in other respects) that he should be a handsome man when +public opinion shall be changed. + +Since I have been editing and publishing a journal devoted to the cause +of liberty and progress, I have had my mind more directed to the +condition and circumstances of the free colored people than when I was +the agent of an abolition society. The result has been a corresponding +change in the disposition of my time and labors. I have felt it to be a +part of my mission—under a gracious Providence to impress my sable +brothers in this country with the conviction that, notwithstanding the +ten thousand discouragements and the powerful hinderances, which beset +their existence in this country—notwithstanding the blood-written +history of Africa, and her children, from whom we have descended, or +the clouds and darkness (whose stillness and gloom are made only more +awful by wrathful thunder and lightning) now overshadowing +them—progress is yet possible, and bright skies shall yet shine upon +their pathway; and that “Ethiopia shall yet reach forth her hand unto +God.” + +Believing that one of the best means of emancipating the slaves of the +south is to improve and elevate the character of the free colored +people of the north I shall labor in the future, as I have labored in +the past, to promote the moral, social, religious, and intellectual +elevation of the free colored people; never forgetting my own humble +orgin(sic), nor refusing, while Heaven lends me ability, to use my +voice, my pen, or my vote, to advocate the great and primary work of +the universal and unconditional emancipation of my entire race. + + + + +RECEPTION SPEECH 10. At Finsbury Chapel, Moorfields, England, May 12, + + +1846 + +Mr. Douglass rose amid loud cheers, and said: I feel exceedingly glad +of the opportunity now afforded me of presenting the claims of my +brethren in bonds in the United States, to so many in London and from +various parts of Britain, who have assembled here on the present +occasion. I have nothing to commend me to your consideration in the way +of learning, nothing in the way of education, to entitle me to your +attention; and you are aware that slavery is a very bad school for +rearing teachers of morality and religion. Twenty-one years of my life +have been spent in slavery—personal slavery—surrounded by degrading +influences, such as can exist nowhere beyond the pale of slavery; and +it will not be strange, if under such circumstances, I should betray, +in what I have to say to you, a deficiency of that refinement which is +seldom or ever found, except among persons that have experienced +superior advantages to those which I have enjoyed. But I will take it +for granted that you know something about the degrading influences of +slavery, and that you will not expect great things from me this +evening, but simply such facts as I may be able to advance immediately +in connection with my own experience of slavery. + +Now, what is this system of slavery? This is the subject of my lecture +this evening—what is the character of this institution? I am about to +answer the inquiry, what is American slavery? I do this the more +readily, since I have found persons in this country who have identified +the term slavery with that which I think it is not, and in some +instances, I have feared, in so doing, have rather (unwittingly, I +know) detracted much from the horror with which the term slavery is +contemplated. It is common in this country to distinguish every bad +thing by the name of slavery. Intemperance is slavery; to be deprived +of the right to vote is slavery, says one; to have to work hard is +slavery, says another; and I do not know but that if we should let them +go on, they would say that to eat when we are hungry, to walk when we +desire to have exercise, or to minister to our necessities, or have +necessities at all, is slavery. I do not wish for a moment to detract +from the horror with which the evil of intemperance is contemplated—not +at all; nor do I wish to throw the slightest obstruction in the way of +any political freedom that any class of persons in this country may +desire to obtain. But I am here to say that I think the term slavery is +sometimes abused by identifying it with that which it is not. Slavery +in the United States is the granting of that power by which one man +exercises and enforces a right of property in the body and soul of +another. The condition of a slave is simply that of the brute beast. He +is a piece of property—a marketable commodity, in the language of the +law, to be bought or sold at the will and caprice of the master who +claims him to be his property; he is spoken of, thought of, and treated +as property. His own good, his conscience, his intellect, his +affections, are all set aside by the master. The will and the wishes of +the master are the law of the slave. He is as much a piece of property +as a horse. If he is fed, he is fed because he is property. If he is +clothed, it is with a view to the increase of his value as property. +Whatever of comfort is necessary to him for his body or soul that is +inconsistent with his being property, is carefully wrested from him, +not only by public opinion, but by the law of the country. He is +carefully deprived of everything that tends in the slightest degree to +detract from his value as property. He is deprived of education. God +has given him an intellect; the slaveholder declares it shall not be +cultivated. If his moral perception leads him in a course contrary to +his value as property, the slaveholder declares he shall not exercise +it. The marriage institution cannot exist among slaves, and one-sixth +of the population of democratic America is denied its privileges by the +law of the land. What is to be thought of a nation boasting of its +liberty, boasting of its humanity, boasting of its Christianity, +boasting of its love of justice and purity, and yet having within its +own borders three millions of persons denied by law the right of +marriage?—what must be the condition of that people? I need not lift up +the veil by giving you any experience of my own. Every one that can put +two ideas together, must see the most fearful results from such a state +of things as I have just mentioned. If any of these three millions find +for themselves companions, and prove themselves honest, upright, +virtuous persons to each other, yet in these cases—few as I am bound to +confess they are—the virtuous live in constant apprehension of being +torn asunder by the merciless men-stealers that claim them as their +property. This is American slavery; no marriage—no education—the light +of the gospel shut out from the dark mind of the bondman—and he +forbidden by law to learn to read. If a mother shall teach her children +to read, the law in Louisiana proclaims that she may be hanged by the +neck. If the father attempt to give his son a knowledge of letters, he +may be punished by the whip in one instance, and in another be killed, +at the discretion of the court. Three millions of people shut out from +the light of knowledge! It is easy for you to conceive the evil that +must result from such a state of things. + +I now come to the physical evils of slavery. I do not wish to dwell at +length upon these, but it seems right to speak of them, not so much to +influence your minds on this question, as to let the slaveholders of +America know that the curtain which conceals their crimes is being +lifted abroad; that we are opening the dark cell, and leading the +people into the horrible recesses of what they are pleased to call +their domestic institution. We want them to know that a knowledge of +their whippings, their scourgings, their brandings, their chainings, is +not confined to their plantations, but that some Negro of theirs has +broken loose from his chains—has burst through the dark incrustation of +slavery, and is now exposing their deeds of deep damnation to the gaze +of the christian people of England. + +The slaveholders resort to all kinds of cruelty. If I were disposed, I +have matter enough to interest you on this question for five or six +evenings, but I will not dwell at length upon these cruelties. Suffice +it to say, that all of the peculiar modes of torture that were resorted +to in the West India islands, are resorted to, I believe, even more +frequently, in the United States of America. Starvation, the bloody +whip, the chain, the gag, the thumb-screw, cat-hauling, the +cat-o’-nine-tails, the dungeon, the blood-hound, are all in requisition +to keep the slave in his condition as a slave in the United States. If +any one has a doubt upon this point, I would ask him to read the +chapter on slavery in Dickens’s _Notes on America_. If any man has a +doubt upon it, I have here the “testimony of a thousand witnesses,” +which I can give at any length, all going to prove the truth of my +statement. The blood-hound is regularly trained in the United States, +and advertisements are to be found in the southern papers of the Union, +from persons advertising themselves as blood-hound trainers, and +offering to hunt down slaves at fifteen dollars a piece, recommending +their hounds as the fleetest in the neighborhood, never known to fail. +Advertisements are from time to time inserted, stating that slaves have +escaped with iron collars about their necks, with bands of iron about +their feet, marked with the lash, branded with red-hot irons, the +initials of their master’s name burned into their flesh; and the +masters advertise the fact of their being thus branded with their own +signature, thereby proving to the world, that, however damning it may +appear to non-slavers, such practices are not regarded discreditable +among the slaveholders themselves. Why, I believe if a man should brand +his horse in this country—burn the initials of his name into any of his +cattle, and publish the ferocious deed here—that the united execrations +of Christians in Britain would descend upon him. Yet in the United +States, human beings are thus branded. As Whittier says— + +... Our countrymen in chains, +The whip on woman’s shrinking flesh, +Our soil yet reddening with the stains +Caught from her scourgings warm and fresh. + + +The slave-dealer boldly publishes his infamous acts to the world. Of +all things that have been said of slavery to which exception has been +taken by slaveholders, this, the charge of cruelty, stands foremost, +and yet there is no charge capable of clearer demonstration, than that +of the most barbarous inhumanity on the part of the slaveholders toward +their slaves. And all this is necessary; it is necessary to resort to +these cruelties, in order to _make the slave a slave_, and to _keep him +a slave_. Why, my experience all goes to prove the truth of what you +will call a marvelous proposition, that the better you treat a slave, +the more you destroy his value _as a slave_, and enhance the +probability of his eluding the grasp of the slaveholder; the more +kindly you treat him, the more wretched you make him, while you keep +him in the condition of a slave. My experience, I say, confirms the +truth of this proposition. When I was treated exceedingly ill; when my +back was being scourged daily; when I was whipped within an inch of my +life—_life_ was all I cared for. “Spare my life,” was my continual +prayer. When I was looking for the blow about to be inflicted upon my +head, I was not thinking of my liberty; it was my life. But, as soon as +the blow was not to be feared, then came the longing for liberty. If a +slave has a bad master, his ambition is to get a better; when he gets a +better, he aspires to have the best; and when he gets the best, he +aspires to be his own master. But the slave must be brutalized to keep +him as a slave. The slaveholder feels this necessity. I admit this +necessity. If it be right to hold slaves at all, it is right to hold +them in the only way in which they can be held; and this can be done +only by shutting out the light of education from their minds, and +brutalizing their persons. The whip, the chain, the gag, the +thumb-screw, the blood-hound, the stocks, and all the other bloody +paraphernalia of the slave system, are indispensably necessary to the +relation of master and slave. The slave must be subjected to these, or +he ceases to be a slave. Let him know that the whip is burned; that the +fetters have been turned to some useful and profitable employment; that +the chain is no longer for his limbs; that the blood-hound is no longer +to be put upon his track; that his master’s authority over him is no +longer to be enforced by taking his life—and immediately he walks out +from the house of bondage and asserts his freedom as a man. The +slaveholder finds it necessary to have these implements to keep the +slave in bondage; finds it necessary to be able to say, “Unless you do +so and so; unless you do as I bid you—I will take away your life!” + +Some of the most awful scenes of cruelty are constantly taking place in +the middle states of the Union. We have in those states what are called +the slave-breeding states. Allow me to speak plainly. Although it is +harrowing to your feelings, it is necessary that the facts of the case +should be stated. We have in the United States slave-breeding states. +The very state from which the minister from our court to yours comes, +is one of these states—Maryland, where men, women, and children are +reared for the market, just as horses, sheep, and swine are raised for +the market. Slave-rearing is there looked upon as a legitimate trade; +the law sanctions it, public opinion upholds it, the church does not +condemn it. It goes on in all its bloody horrors, sustained by the +auctioneer’s block. If you would see the cruelties of this system, hear +the following narrative. Not long since the following scene occurred. A +slave-woman and a slaveman had united themselves as man and wife in the +absence of any law to protect them as man and wife. They had lived +together by the permission, not by right, of their master, and they had +reared a family. The master found it expedient, and for his interest, +to sell them. He did not ask them their wishes in regard to the matter +at all; they were not consulted. The man and woman were brought to the +auctioneer’s block, under the sound of the hammer. The cry was raised, +“Here goes; who bids cash?” Think of it—a man and wife to be sold! The +woman was placed on the auctioneer’s block; her limbs, as is customary, +were brutally exposed to the purchasers, who examined her with all the +freedom with which they would examine a horse. There stood the husband, +powerless; no right to his wife; the master’s right preeminent. She was +sold. He was next brought to the auctioneer’s block. His eyes followed +his wife in the distance; and he looked beseechingly, imploringly, to +the man that had bought his wife, to buy him also. But he was at length +bid off to another person. He was about to be separated forever from +her he loved. No word of his, no work of his, could save him from this +separation. He asked permission of his new master to go and take the +hand of his wife at parting. It was denied him. In the agony of his +soul he rushed from the man who had just bought him, that he might take +a farewell of his wife; but his way was obstructed, he was struck over +the head with a loaded whip, and was held for a moment; but his agony +was too great. When he was let go, he fell a corpse at the feet of his +master. His heart was broken. Such scenes are the everyday fruits of +American slavery. Some two years since, the Hon. Seth. M. Gates, an +anti-slavery gentleman of the state of New York, a representative in +the congress of the United States, told me he saw with his own eyes the +following circumstances. In the national District of Columbia, over +which the star-spangled emblem is constantly waving, where orators are +ever holding forth on the subject of American liberty, American +democracy, American republicanism, there are two slave prisons. When +going across a bridge, leading to one of these prisons, he saw a young +woman run out, bare-footed and bare-headed, and with very little +clothing on. She was running with all speed to the bridge he was +approaching. His eye was fixed upon her, and he stopped to see what was +the matter. He had not paused long before he saw three men run out +after her. He now knew what the nature of the case was; a slave +escaping from her chains—a young woman, a sister—escaping from the +bondage in which she had been held. She made her way to the bridge, but +had not reached, ere from the Virginia side there came two +slaveholders. As soon as they saw them, her pursuers called out, “Stop +her!” True to their Virginian instincts, they came to the rescue of +their brother kidnappers, across the bridge. The poor girl now saw that +there was no chance for her. It was a trying time. She knew if she went +back, she must be a slave forever—she must be dragged down to the +scenes of pollution which the slaveholders continually provide for most +of the poor, sinking, wretched young women, whom they call their +property. She formed her resolution; and just as those who were about +to take her, were going to put hands upon her, to drag her back, she +leaped over the balustrades of the bridge, and down she went to rise no +more. She chose death, rather than to go back into the hands of those +christian slaveholders from whom she had escaped. + +Can it be possible that such things as these exist in the United +States? Are not these the exceptions? Are any such scenes as this +general? Are not such deeds condemned by the law and denounced by +public opinion? Let me read to you a few of the laws of the +slaveholding states of America. I think no better exposure of slavery +can be made than is made by the laws of the states in which slavery +exists. I prefer reading the laws to making any statement in +confirmation of what I have said myself; for the slaveholders cannot +object to this testimony, since it is the calm, the cool, the +deliberate enactment of their wisest heads, of their most +clear-sighted, their own constituted representatives. “If more than +seven slaves together are found in any road without a white person, +twenty lashes a piece; for visiting a plantation without a written +pass, ten lashes; for letting loose a boat from where it is made fast, +thirty-nine lashes for the first offense; and for the second, shall +have cut off from his head one ear; for keeping or carrying a club, +thirty-nine lashes; for having any article for sale, without a ticket +from his master, ten lashes; for traveling in any other than the most +usual and accustomed road, when going alone to any place, forty lashes; +for traveling in the night without a pass, forty lashes.” I am afraid +you do not understand the awful character of these lashes. You must +bring it before your mind. A human being in a perfect state of nudity, +tied hand and foot to a stake, and a strong man standing behind with a +heavy whip, knotted at the end, each blow cutting into the flesh, and +leaving the warm blood dripping to the feet; and for these trifles. +“For being found in another person’s negro-quarters, forty lashes; for +hunting with dogs in the woods, thirty lashes; for being on horseback +without the written permission of his master, twenty-five lashes; for +riding or going abroad in the night, or riding horses in the day time, +without leave, a slave may be whipped, cropped, or branded in the cheek +with the letter R. or otherwise punished, such punishment not extending +to life, or so as to render him unfit for labor.” The laws referred to, +may be found by consulting _Brevard’s Digest; Haywood’s Manual; +Virginia Revised Code; Prince’s Digest; Missouri Laws; Mississippi +Revised Code_. A man, for going to visit his brethren, without the +permission of his master—and in many instances he may not have that +permission; his master, from caprice or other reasons, may not be +willing to allow it—may be caught on his way, dragged to a post, the +branding-iron heated, and the name of his master or the letter R +branded into his cheek or on his forehead. They treat slaves thus, on +the principle that they must punish for light offenses, in order to +prevent the commission of larger ones. I wish you to mark that in the +single state of Virginia there are seventy-one crimes for which a +colored man may be executed; while there are only three of these +crimes, which, when committed by a white man, will subject him to that +punishment. There are many of these crimes which if the white man did +not commit, he would be regarded as a scoundrel and a coward. In the +state of Maryland, there is a law to this effect: that if a slave shall +strike his master, he may be hanged, his head severed from his body, +his body quartered, and his head and quarters set up in the most +prominent places in the neighborhood. If a colored woman, in the +defense of her own virtue, in defense of her own person, should shield +herself from the brutal attacks of her tyrannical master, or make the +slightest resistance, she may be killed on the spot. No law whatever +will bring the guilty man to justice for the crime. + +But you will ask me, can these things be possible in a land professing +Christianity? Yes, they are so; and this is not the worst. No; a darker +feature is yet to be presented than the mere existence of these facts. +I have to inform you that the religion of the southern states, at this +time, is the great supporter, the great sanctioner of the bloody +atrocities to which I have referred. While America is printing tracts +and bibles; sending missionaries abroad to convert the heathen; +expending her money in various ways for the promotion of the gospel in +foreign lands—the slave not only lies forgotten, uncared for, but is +trampled under foot by the very churches of the land. What have we in +America? Why, we have slavery made part of the religion of the land. +Yes, the pulpit there stands up as the great defender of this cursed +_institution_, as it is called. Ministers of religion come forward and +torture the hallowed pages of inspired wisdom to sanction the bloody +deed. They stand forth as the foremost, the strongest defenders of this +“institution.” As a proof of this, I need not do more than state the +general fact, that slavery has existed under the droppings of the +sanctuary of the south for the last two hundred years, and there has +not been any war between the _religion_ and the _slavery_ of the south. +Whips, chains, gags, and thumb-screws have all lain under the droppings +of the sanctuary, and instead of rusting from off the limbs of the +bondman, those droppings have served to preserve them in all their +strength. Instead of preaching the gospel against this tyranny, rebuke, +and wrong, ministers of religion have sought, by all and every means, +to throw in the back-ground whatever in the bible could be construed +into opposition to slavery, and to bring forward that which they could +torture into its support. This I conceive to be the darkest feature of +slavery, and the most difficult to attack, because it is identified +with religion, and exposes those who denounce it to the charge of +infidelity. Yes, those with whom I have been laboring, namely, the old +organization anti-slavery society of America, have been again and again +stigmatized as infidels, and for what reason? Why, solely in +consequence of the faithfulness of their attacks upon the slaveholding +religion of the southern states, and the northern religion that +sympathizes with it. I have found it difficult to speak on this matter +without persons coming forward and saying, “Douglass, are you not +afraid of injuring the cause of Christ? You do not desire to do so, we +know; but are you not undermining religion?” This has been said to me +again and again, even since I came to this country, but I cannot be +induced to leave off these exposures. I love the religion of our +blessed Savior. I love that religion that comes from above, in the +“wisdom of God,” which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy +to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and +without hypocrisy. I love that religion that sends its votaries to bind +up the wounds of him that has fallen among thieves. I love that +religion that makes it the duty of its disciples to visit the father +less and the widow in their affliction. I love that religion that is +based upon the glorious principle, of love to God and love to man; +which makes its followers do unto others as they themselves would be +done by. If you demand liberty to yourself, it says, grant it to your +neighbors. If you claim a right to think for yourself, it says, allow +your neighbors the same right. If you claim to act for yourself, it +says, allow your neighbors the same right. It is because I love this +religion that I hate the slaveholding, the woman-whipping, the +mind-darkening, the soul-destroying religion that exists in the +southern states of America. It is because I regard the one as good, and +pure, and holy, that I cannot but regard the other as bad, corrupt, and +wicked. Loving the one I must hate the other; holding to the one I must +reject the other. + +I may be asked, why I am so anxious to bring this subject before the +British public—why I do not confine my efforts to the United States? My +answer is, first, that slavery is the common enemy of mankind, and all +mankind should be made acquainted with its abominable character. My +next answer is, that the slave is a man, and, as such, is entitled to +your sympathy as a brother. All the feelings, all the susceptibilities, +all the capacities, which you have, he has. He is a part of the human +family. He has been the prey—the common prey—of Christendom for the +last three hundred years, and it is but right, it is but just, it is +but proper, that his wrongs should be known throughout the world. I +have another reason for bringing this matter before the British public, +and it is this: slavery is a system of wrong, so blinding to all +around, so hardening to the heart, so corrupting to the morals, so +deleterious to religion, so sapping to all the principles of justice in +its immediate vicinity, that the community surrounding it lack the +moral stamina necessary to its removal. It is a system of such gigantic +evil, so strong, so overwhelming in its power, that no one nation is +equal to its removal. It requires the humanity of Christianity, the +morality of the world to remove it. Hence, I call upon the people of +Britain to look at this matter, and to exert the influence I am about +to show they possess, for the removal of slavery from America. I can +appeal to them, as strongly by their regard for the slaveholder as for +the slave, to labor in this cause. I am here, because you have an +influence on America that no other nation can have. You have been drawn +together by the power of steam to a marvelous extent; the distance +between London and Boston is now reduced to some twelve or fourteen +days, so that the denunciations against slavery, uttered in London this +week, may be heard in a fortnight in the streets of Boston, and +reverberating amidst the hills of Massachusetts. There is nothing said +here against slavery that will not be recorded in the United States. I +am here, also, because the slaveholders do not want me to be here; they +would rather that I were not here. I have adopted a maxim laid down by +Napoleon, never to occupy ground which the enemy would like me to +occupy. The slaveholders would much rather have me, if I will denounce +slavery, denounce it in the northern states, where their friends and +supporters are, who will stand by and mob me for denouncing it. They +feel something as the man felt, when he uttered his prayer, in which he +made out a most horrible case for himself, and one of his neighbors +touched him and said, “My friend, I always had the opinion of you that +you have now expressed for yourself—that you are a very great sinner.” +Coming from himself, it was all very well, but coming from a stranger +it was rather cutting. The slaveholders felt that when slavery was +denounced among themselves, it was not so bad; but let one of the +slaves get loose, let him summon the people of Britain, and make known +to them the conduct of the slaveholders toward their slaves, and it +cuts them to the quick, and produces a sensation such as would be +produced by nothing else. The power I exert now is something like the +power that is exerted by the man at the end of the lever; my influence +now is just in proportion to the distance that I am from the United +States. My exposure of slavery abroad will tell more upon the hearts +and consciences of slaveholders, than if I was attacking them in +America; for almost every paper that I now receive from the United +States, comes teeming with statements about this fugitive Negro, +calling him a “glib-tongued scoundrel,” and saying that he is running +out against the institutions and people of America. I deny the charge +that I am saying a word against the institutions of America, or the +people, as such. What I have to say is against slavery and +slaveholders. I feel at liberty to speak on this subject. I have on my +back the marks of the lash; I have four sisters and one brother now +under the galling chain. I feel it my duty to cry aloud and spare not. +I am not averse to having the good opinion of my fellow creatures. I am +not averse to being kindly regarded by all men; but I am bound, even at +the hazard of making a large class of religionists in this country hate +me, oppose me, and malign me as they have done—I am bound by the +prayers, and tears, and entreaties of three millions of kneeling +bondsmen, to have no compromise with men who are in any shape or form +connected with the slaveholders of America. I expose slavery in this +country, because to expose it is to kill it. Slavery is one of those +monsters of darkness to whom the light of truth is death. Expose +slavery, and it dies. Light is to slavery what the heat of the sun is +to the root of a tree; it must die under it. All the slaveholder asks +of me is silence. He does not ask me to go abroad and preach _in favor_ +of slavery; he does not ask any one to do that. He would not say that +slavery is a good thing, but the best under the circumstances. The +slaveholders want total darkness on the subject. They want the hatchway +shut down, that the monster may crawl in his den of darkness, crushing +human hopes and happiness, destroying the bondman at will, and having +no one to reprove or rebuke him. Slavery shrinks from the light; it +hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest its deeds should be +reproved. To tear off the mask from this abominable system, to expose +it to the light of heaven, aye, to the heat of the sun, that it may +burn and wither it out of existence, is my object in coming to this +country. I want the slaveholder surrounded, as by a wall of +anti-slavery fire, so that he may see the condemnation of himself and +his system glaring down in letters of light. I want him to feel that he +has no sympathy in England, Scotland, or Ireland; that he has none in +Canada, none in Mexico, none among the poor wild Indians; that the +voice of the civilized, aye, and savage world is against him. I would +have condemnation blaze down upon him in every direction, till, stunned +and overwhelmed with shame and confusion, he is compelled to let go the +grasp he holds upon the persons of his victims, and restore them to +their long-lost rights. + + + + +Dr. Campbell’s Reply + + +From Rev. Dr. Campbell’s brilliant reply we extract the following: +FREDERICK DOUGLASS, “the beast of burden,” the portion of “goods and +chattels,” the representative of three millions of men, has been raised +up! Shall I say the _man?_ If there is a man on earth, he is a man. My +blood boiled within me when I heard his address tonight, and thought +that he had left behind him three millions of such men. + +We must see more of this man; we must have more of this man. One would +have taken a voyage round the globe some forty years back—especially +since the introduction of steam—to have heard such an exposure of +slavery from the lips of a slave. It will be an era in the individual +history of the present assembly. Our children—our boys and girls—I have +tonight seen the delightful sympathy of their hearts evinced by their +heaving breasts, while their eyes sparkled with wonder and admiration, +that this black man—this slave—had so much logic, so much wit, so much +fancy, so much eloquence. He was something more than a man, according +to their little notions. Then, I say, we must hear him again. We have +got a purpose to accomplish. He has appealed to the pulpit of England. +The English pulpit is with him. He has appealed to the press of +England; the press of England is conducted by English hearts, and that +press will do him justice. About ten days hence, and his second master, +who may well prize “such a piece of goods,” will have the pleasure of +reading his burning words, and his first master will bless himself that +he has got quit of him. We have to create public opinion, or rather, +not to create it, for it is created already; but we have to foster it; +and when tonight I heard those magnificent words—the words of Curran, +by which my heart, from boyhood, has ofttimes been deeply moved—I +rejoice to think that they embody an instinct of an Englishman’s +nature. I heard, with inexpressible delight, how they told on this +mighty mass of the citizens of the metropolis. + +Britain has now no slaves; we can therefore talk to the other nations +now, as we could not have talked a dozen years ago. I want the whole of +the London ministry to meet Douglass. For as his appeal is to England, +and throughout England, I should rejoice in the idea of churchmen and +dissenters merging all sectional distinctions in this cause. Let us +have a public breakfast. Let the ministers meet him; let them hear him; +let them grasp his hand; and let him enlist their sympathies on behalf +of the slave. Let him inspire them with abhorrence of the +man-stealer—the slaveholder. No slaveholding American shall ever my +cross my door. No slaveholding or slavery-supporting minister shall +ever pollute my pulpit. While I have a tongue to speak, or a hand to +write, I will, to the utmost of my power, oppose these slaveholding +men. We must have Douglass amongst us to aid in fostering public +opinion. + +The great conflict with slavery must now take place in America; and +while they are adding other slave states to the Union, our business is +to step forward and help the abolitionists there. It is a pleasing +circumstance that such a body of men has risen in America, and whilst +we hurl our thunders against her slavers, let us make a distinction +between those who advocate slavery and those who oppose it. George +Thompson has been there. This man, Frederick Douglass, has been there, +and has been compelled to flee. I wish, when he first set foot on our +shores, he had made a solemn vow, and said, “Now that I am free, and in +the sanctuary of freedom, I will never return till I have seen the +emancipation of my country completed.” He wants to surround these men, +the slaveholders, as by a wall of fire; and he himself may do much +toward kindling it. Let him travel over the island—east, west, north, +and south—everywhere diffusing knowledge and awakening principle, till +the whole nation become a body of petitioners to America. He will, he +must, do it. He must for a season make England his home. He must send +for his wife. He must send for his children. I want to see the sons and +daughters of such a sire. We, too, must do something for him and them +worthy of the English name. I do not like the idea of a man of such +mental dimensions, such moral courage, and all but incomparable talent, +having his own small wants, and the wants of a distant wife and +children, supplied by the poor profits of his publication, the sketch +of his life. Let the pamphlet be bought by tens of thousands. But we +will do something more for him, shall we not? + +It only remains that we pass a resolution of thanks to Frederick +Douglass, the slave that was, the man that is! He that was covered with +chains, and that is now being covered with glory, and whom we will send +back a gentleman. + + + + +LETTER TO HIS OLD MASTER. 11. To My Old Master, Thomas Auld + + +SIR—The long and intimate, though by no means friendly, relation which +unhappily subsisted between you and myself, leads me to hope that you +will easily account for the great liberty which I now take in +addressing you in this open and public manner. The same fact may remove +any disagreeable surprise which you may experience on again finding +your name coupled with mine, in any other way than in an advertisement, +accurately describing my person, and offering a large sum for my +arrest. In thus dragging you again before the public, I am aware that I +shall subject myself to no inconsiderable amount of censure. I shall +probably be charged with an unwarrantable, if not a wanton and reckless +disregard of the rights and properties of private life. There are those +north as well as south who entertain a much higher respect for rights +which are merely conventional, than they do for rights which are +personal and essential. Not a few there are in our country, who, while +they have no scruples against robbing the laborer of the hard earned +results of his patient industry, will be shocked by the extremely +indelicate manner of bringing your name before the public. Believing +this to be the case, and wishing to meet every reasonable or plausible +objection to my conduct, I will frankly state the ground upon which I +justfy(sic) myself in this instance, as well as on former occasions +when I have thought proper to mention your name in public. All will +agree that a man guilty of theft, robbery, or murder, has forfeited the +right to concealment and private life; that the community have a right +to subject such persons to the most complete exposure. However much +they may desire retirement, and aim to conceal themselves and their +movements from the popular gaze, the public have a right to ferret them +out, and bring their conduct before the proper tribunals of the country +for investigation. Sir, you will undoubtedly make the proper +application of these generally admitted principles, and will easily see +the light in which you are regarded by me; I will not therefore +manifest ill temper, by calling you hard names. I know you to be a man +of some intelligence, and can readily determine the precise estimate +which I entertain of your character. I may therefore indulge in +language which may seem to others indirect and ambiguous, and yet be +quite well understood by yourself. + +I have selected this day on which to address you, because it is the +anniversary of my emancipation; and knowing no better way, I am led to +this as the best mode of celebrating that truly important events. Just +ten years ago this beautiful September morning, yon bright sun beheld +me a slave—a poor degraded chattel—trembling at the sound of your +voice, lamenting that I was a man, and wishing myself a brute. The +hopes which I had treasured up for weeks of a safe and successful +escape from your grasp, were powerfully confronted at this last hour by +dark clouds of doubt and fear, making my person shake and my bosom to +heave with the heavy contest between hope and fear. I have no words to +describe to you the deep agony of soul which I experienced on that +never-to-be-forgotten morning—for I left by daylight. I was making a +leap in the dark. The probabilities, so far as I could by reason +determine them, were stoutly against the undertaking. The preliminaries +and precautions I had adopted previously, all worked badly. I was like +one going to war without weapons—ten chances of defeat to one of +victory. One in whom I had confided, and one who had promised me +assistance, appalled by fear at the trial hour, deserted me, thus +leaving the responsibility of success or failure solely with myself. +You, sir, can never know my feelings. As I look back to them, I can +scarcely realize that I have passed through a scene so trying. Trying, +however, as they were, and gloomy as was the prospect, thanks be to the +Most High, who is ever the God of the oppressed, at the moment which +was to determine my whole earthly career, His grace was sufficient; my +mind was made up. I embraced the golden opportunity, took the morning +tide at the flood, and a free man, young, active, and strong, is the +result. + +I have often thought I should like to explain to you the grounds upon +which I have justified myself in running away from you. I am almost +ashamed to do so now, for by this time you may have discovered them +yourself. I will, however, glance at them. When yet but a child about +six years old, I imbibed the determination to run away. The very first +mental effort that I now remember on my part, was an attempt to solve +the mystery—why am I a slave? and with this question my youthful mind +was troubled for many days, pressing upon me more heavily at times than +others. When I saw the slave-driver whip a slave-woman, cut the blood +out of her neck, and heard her piteous cries, I went away into the +corner of the fence, wept and pondered over the mystery. I had, through +some medium, I know not what, got some idea of God, the Creator of all +mankind, the black and the white, and that he had made the blacks to +serve the whites as slaves. How he could do this and be _good_, I could +not tell. I was not satisfied with this theory, which made God +responsible for slavery, for it pained me greatly, and I have wept over +it long and often. At one time, your first wife, Mrs. Lucretia, heard +me sighing and saw me shedding tears, and asked of me the matter, but I +was afraid to tell her. I was puzzled with this question, till one +night while sitting in the kitchen, I heard some of the old slaves +talking of their parents having been stolen from Africa by white men, +and were sold here as slaves. The whole mystery was solved at once. +Very soon after this, my Aunt Jinny and Uncle Noah ran away, and the +great noise made about it by your father-in-law, made me for the first +time acquainted with the fact, that there were free states as well as +slave states. From that time, I resolved that I would some day run +away. The morality of the act I dispose of as follows: I am myself; you +are yourself; we are two distinct persons, equal persons. What you are, +I am. You are a man, and so am I. God created both, and made us +separate beings. I am not by nature bond to you, or you to me. Nature +does not make your existence depend upon me, or mine to depend upon +yours. I cannot walk upon your legs, or you upon mine. I cannot breathe +for you, or you for me; I must breathe for myself, and you for +yourself. We are distinct persons, and are each equally provided with +faculties necessary to our individual existence. In leaving you, I took +nothing but what belonged to me, and in no way lessened your means for +obtaining an _honest_ living. Your faculties remained yours, and mine +became useful to their rightful owner. I therefore see no wrong in any +part of the transaction. It is true, I went off secretly; but that was +more your fault than mine. Had I let you into the secret, you would +have defeated the enterprise entirely; but for this, I should have been +really glad to have made you acquainted with my intentions to leave. + +You may perhaps want to know how I like my present condition. I am free +to say, I greatly prefer it to that which I occupied in Maryland. I am, +however, by no means prejudiced against the state as such. Its +geography, climate, fertility, and products, are such as to make it a +very desirable abode for any man; and but for the existence of slavery +there, it is not impossible that I might again take up my abode in that +state. It is not that I love Maryland less, but freedom more. You will +be surprised to learn that people at the north labor under the strange +delusion that if the slaves were emancipated at the south, they would +flock to the north. So far from this being the case, in that event, you +would see many old and familiar faces back again to the south. The fact +is, there are few here who would not return to the south in the event +of emancipation. We want to live in the land of our birth, and to lay +our bones by the side of our fathers; and nothing short of an intense +love of personal freedom keeps us from the south. For the sake of this, +most of us would live on a crust of bread and a cup of cold water. + +Since I left you, I have had a rich experience. I have occupied +stations which I never dreamed of when a slave. Three out of the ten +years since I left you, I spent as a common laborer on the wharves of +New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was there I earned my first free dollar. +It was mine. I could spend it as I pleased. I could buy hams or herring +with it, without asking any odds of anybody. That was a precious dollar +to me. You remember when I used to make seven, or eight, or even nine +dollars a week in Baltimore, you would take every cent of it from me +every Saturday night, saying that I belonged to you, and my earnings +also. I never liked this conduct on your part—to say the best, I +thought it a little mean. I would not have served you so. But let that +pass. I was a little awkward about counting money in New England +fashion when I first landed in New Bedford. I came near betraying +myself several times. I caught myself saying phip, for fourpence; and +at one time a man actually charged me with being a runaway, whereupon I +was silly enough to become one by running away from him, for I was +greatly afraid he might adopt measures to get me again into slavery, a +condition I then dreaded more than death. + +I soon learned, however, to count money, as well as to make it, and got +on swimmingly. I married soon after leaving you; in fact, I was engaged +to be married before I left you; and instead of finding my companion a +burden, she was truly a helpmate. She went to live at service, and I to +work on the wharf, and though we toiled hard the first winter, we never +lived more happily. After remaining in New Bedford for three years, I +met with William Lloyd Garrison, a person of whom you have _possibly_ +heard, as he is pretty generally known among slaveholders. He put it +into my head that I might make myself serviceable to the cause of the +slave, by devoting a portion of my time to telling my own sorrows, and +those of other slaves, which had come under my observation. This was +the commencement of a higher state of existence than any to which I had +ever aspired. I was thrown into society the most pure, enlightened, and +benevolent, that the country affords. Among these I have never +forgotten you, but have invariably made you the topic of +conversation—thus giving you all the notoriety I could do. I need not +tell you that the opinion formed of you in these circles is far from +being favorable. They have little respect for your honesty, and less +for your religion. + +But I was going on to relate to you something of my interesting +experience. I had not long enjoyed the excellent society to which I +have referred, before the light of its excellence exerted a beneficial +influence on my mind and heart. Much of my early dislike of white +persons was removed, and their manners, habits, and customs, so +entirely unlike what I had been used to in the kitchen-quarters on the +plantations of the south, fairly charmed me, and gave me a strong +disrelish for the coarse and degrading customs of my former condition. +I therefore made an effort so to improve my mind and deportment, as to +be somewhat fitted to the station to which I seemed almost +providentially called. The transition from degradation to +respectability was indeed great, and to get from one to the other +without carrying some marks of one’s former condition, is truly a +difficult matter. I would not have you think that I am now entirely +clear of all plantation peculiarities, but my friends here, while they +entertain the strongest dislike to them, regard me with that charity to +which my past life somewhat entitles me, so that my condition in this +respect is exceedingly pleasant. So far as my domestic affairs are +concerned, I can boast of as comfortable a dwelling as your own. I have +an industrious and neat companion, and four dear children—the oldest a +girl of nine years, and three fine boys, the oldest eight, the next +six, and the youngest four years old. The three oldest are now going +regularly to school—two can read and write, and the other can spell, +with tolerable correctness, words of two syllables. Dear fellows! they +are all in comfortable beds, and are sound asleep, perfectly secure +under my own roof. There are no slaveholders here to rend my heart by +snatching them from my arms, or blast a mother’s dearest hopes by +tearing them from her bosom. These dear children are ours—not to work +up into rice, sugar, and tobacco, but to watch over, regard, and +protect, and to rear them up in the nurture and admonition of the +gospel—to train them up in the paths of wisdom and virtue, and, as far +as we can, to make them useful to the world and to themselves. Oh! sir, +a slaveholder never appears to me so completely an agent of hell, as +when I think of and look upon my dear children. It is then that my +feelings rise above my control. I meant to have said more with respect +to my own prosperity and happiness, but thoughts and feelings which +this recital has quickened, unfit me to proceed further in that +direction. The grim horrors of slavery rise in all their ghastly terror +before me; the wails of millions pierce my heart and chill my blood. I +remember the chain, the gag, the bloody whip; the death-like gloom +overshadowing the broken spirit of the fettered bondman; the appalling +liability of his being torn away from wife and children, and sold like +a beast in the market. Say not that this is a picture of fancy. You +well know that I wear stripes on my back, inflicted by your direction; +and that you, while we were brothers in the same church, caused this +right hand, with which I am now penning this letter, to be closely tied +to my left, and my person dragged, at the pistol’s mouth, fifteen +miles, from the Bay Side to Easton, to be sold like a beast in the +market, for the alleged crime of intending to escape from your +possession. All this, and more, you remember, and know to be perfectly +true, not only of yourself, but of nearly all of the slaveholders +around you. + +At this moment, you are probably the guilty holder of at least three of +my own dear sisters, and my only brother, in bondage. These you regard +as your property. They are recorded on your ledger, or perhaps have +been sold to human flesh-mongers, with a view to filling our own +ever-hungry purse. Sir, I desire to know how and where these dear +sisters are. Have you sold them? or are they still in your possession? +What has become of them? are they living or dead? And my dear old +grandmother, whom you turned out like an old horse to die in the +woods—is she still alive? Write and let me know all about them. If my +grandmother be still alive, she is of no service to you, for by this +time she must be nearly eighty years old—too old to be cared for by one +to whom she has ceased to be of service; send her to me at Rochester, +or bring her to Philadelphia, and it shall be the crowning happiness of +my life to take care of her in her old age. Oh! she was to me a mother +and a father, so far as hard toil for my comfort could make her such. +Send me my grandmother! that I may watch over and take care of her in +her old age. And my sisters—let me know all about them. I would write +to them, and learn all I want to know of them, without disturbing you +in any way, but that, through your unrighteous conduct, they have been +entirely deprived of the power to read and write. You have kept them in +utter ignorance, and have therefore robbed them of the sweet enjoyments +of writing or receiving letters from absent friends and relatives. Your +wickedness and cruelty, committed in this respect on your +fellow-creatures, are greater than all the stripes you have laid upon +my back or theirs. It is an outrage upon the soul, a war upon the +immortal spirit, and one for which you must give account at the bar of +our common Father and Creator. + +The responsibility which you have assumed in this regard is truly +awful, and how you could stagger under it these many years is +marvelous. Your mind must have become darkened, your heart hardened, +your conscience seared and petrified, or you would have long since +thrown off the accursed load, and sought relief at the hands of a +sin-forgiving God. How, let me ask, would you look upon me, were I, +some dark night, in company with a band of hardened villains, to enter +the precincts of your elegant dwelling, and seize the person of your +own lovely daughter, Amanda, and carry her off from your family, +friends, and all the loved ones of her youth—make her my slave—compel +her to work, and I take her wages—place her name on my ledger as +property—disregard her personal rights—fetter the powers of her +immortal soul by denying her the right and privilege of learning to +read and write—feed her coarsely—clothe her scantily, and whip her on +the naked back occasionally; more, and still more horrible, leave her +unprotected—a degraded victim to the brutal lust of fiendish overseers, +who would pollute, blight, and blast her fair soul—rob her of all +dignity—destroy her virtue, and annihilate in her person all the graces +that adorn the character of virtuous womanhood? I ask, how would you +regard me, if such were my conduct? Oh! the vocabulary of the damned +would not afford a word sufficiently infernal to express your idea of +my God-provoking wickedness. Yet, sir, your treatment of my beloved +sisters is in all essential points precisely like the case I have now +supposed. Damning as would be such a deed on my part, it would be no +more so than that which you have committed against me and my sisters. + +I will now bring this letter to a close; you shall hear from me again +unless you let me hear from you. I intend to make use of you as a +weapon with which to assail the system of slavery—as a means of +concentrating public attention on the system, and deepening the horror +of trafficking in the souls and bodies of men. I shall make use of you +as a means of exposing the character of the American church and +clergy—and as a means of bringing this guilty nation, with yourself, to +repentance. In doing this, I entertain no malice toward you personally. +There is no roof under which you would be more safe than mine, and +there is nothing in my house which you might need for your comfort, +which I would not readily grant. Indeed, I should esteem it a privilege +to set you an example as to how mankind ought to treat each other. + +I am your fellow-man, but not your slave. + + + + +THE NATURE OF SLAVERY. Extract from a Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester, + + +December 1, 1850 + +More than twenty years of my life were consumed in a state of slavery. +My childhood was environed by the baneful peculiarities of the slave +system. I grew up to manhood in the presence of this hydra headed +monster—not as a master—not as an idle spectator—not as the guest of +the slaveholder—but as A SLAVE, eating the bread and drinking the cup +of slavery with the most degraded of my brother-bondmen, and sharing +with them all the painful conditions of their wretched lot. In +consideration of these facts, I feel that I have a right to speak, and +to speak _strongly_. Yet, my friends, I feel bound to speak truly. + +Goading as have been the cruelties to which I have been +subjected—bitter as have been the trials through which I have +passed—exasperating as have been, and still are, the indignities +offered to my manhood—I find in them no excuse for the slightest +departure from truth in dealing with any branch of this subject. + +First of all, I will state, as well as I can, the legal and social +relation of master and slave. A master is one—to speak in the +vocabulary of the southern states—who claims and exercises a right of +property in the person of a fellow-man. This he does with the force of +the law and the sanction of southern religion. The law gives the master +absolute power over the slave. He may work him, flog him, hire him out, +sell him, and, in certain contingencies, _kill_ him, with perfect +impunity. The slave is a human being, divested of all rights—reduced to +the level of a brute—a mere “chattel” in the eye of the law—placed +beyond the circle of human brotherhood—cut off from his kind—his name, +which the “recording angel” may have enrolled in heaven, among the +blest, is impiously inserted in a _master’s ledger_, with horses, +sheep, and swine. In law, the slave has no wife, no children, no +country, and no home. He can own nothing, possess nothing, acquire +nothing, but what must belong to another. To eat the fruit of his own +toil, to clothe his person with the work of his own hands, is +considered stealing. He toils that another may reap the fruit; he is +industrious that another may live in idleness; he eats unbolted meal +that another may eat the bread of fine flour; he labors in chains at +home, under a burning sun and biting lash, that another may ride in +ease and splendor abroad; he lives in ignorance that another may be +educated; he is abused that another may be exalted; he rests his +toil-worn limbs on the cold, damp ground that another may repose on the +softest pillow; he is clad in coarse and tattered raiment that another +may be arrayed in purple and fine linen; he is sheltered only by the +wretched hovel that a master may dwell in a magnificent mansion; and to +this condition he is bound down as by an arm of iron. + +From this monstrous relation there springs an unceasing stream of most +revolting cruelties. The very accompaniments of the slave system stamp +it as the offspring of hell itself. To ensure good behavior, the +slaveholder relies on the whip; to induce proper humility, he relies on +the whip; to rebuke what he is pleased to term insolence, he relies on +the whip; to supply the place of wages as an incentive to toil, he +relies on the whip; to bind down the spirit of the slave, to imbrute +and destroy his manhood, he relies on the whip, the chain, the gag, the +thumb-screw, the pillory, the bowie knife the pistol, and the +blood-hound. These are the necessary and unvarying accompaniments of +the system. Wherever slavery is found, these horrid instruments are +also found. Whether on the coast of Africa, among the savage tribes, or +in South Carolina, among the refined and civilized, slavery is the +same, and its accompaniments one and the same. It makes no difference +whether the slaveholder worships the God of the Christians, or is a +follower of Mahomet, he is the minister of the same cruelty, and the +author of the same misery. _Slavery_ is always _slavery;_ always the +same foul, haggard, and damning scourge, whether found in the eastern +or in the western hemisphere. + +There is a still deeper shade to be given to this picture. The physical +cruelties are indeed sufficiently harassing and revolting; but they are +as a few grains of sand on the sea shore, or a few drops of water in +the great ocean, compared with the stupendous wrongs which it inflicts +upon the mental, moral, and religious nature of its hapless victims. It +is only when we contemplate the slave as a moral and intellectual +being, that we can adequately comprehend the unparalleled enormity of +slavery, and the intense criminality of the slaveholder. I have said +that the slave was a man. “What a piece of work is man! How noble in +reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving how express and +admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a God! +The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!” + +The slave is a man, “the image of God,” but “a little lower than the +angels;” possessing a soul, eternal and indestructible; capable of +endless happiness, or immeasurable woe; a creature of hopes and fears, +of affections and passions, of joys and sorrows, and he is endowed with +those mysterious powers by which man soars above the things of time and +sense, and grasps, with undying tenacity, the elevating and sublimely +glorious idea of a God. It is _such_ a being that is smitten and +blasted. The first work of slavery is to mar and deface those +characteristics of its victims which distinguish _men_ from _things_, +and _persons_ from _property_. Its first aim is to destroy all sense of +high moral and religious responsibility. It reduces man to a mere +machine. It cuts him off from his Maker, it hides from him the laws of +God, and leaves him to grope his way from time to eternity in the dark, +under the arbitrary and despotic control of a frail, depraved, and +sinful fellow-man. As the serpent-charmer of India is compelled to +extract the deadly teeth of his venomous prey before he is able to +handle him with impunity, so the slaveholder must strike down the +conscience of the slave before he can obtain the entire mastery over +his victim. + +It is, then, the first business of the enslaver of men to blunt, +deaden, and destroy the central principle of human responsibility. +Conscience is, to the individual soul, and to society, what the law of +gravitation is to the universe. It holds society together; it is the +basis of all trust and confidence; it is the pillar of all moral +rectitude. Without it, suspicion would take the place of trust; vice +would be more than a match for virtue; men would prey upon each other, +like the wild beasts of the desert; and earth would become a _hell_. + +Nor is slavery more adverse to the conscience than it is to the mind. +This is shown by the fact, that in every state of the American Union, +where slavery exists, except the state of Kentucky, there are laws +absolutely prohibitory of education among the slaves. The crime of +teaching a slave to read is punishable with severe fines and +imprisonment, and, in some instances, with _death itself_. + +Nor are the laws respecting this matter a dead letter. Cases may occur +in which they are disregarded, and a few instances may be found where +slaves may have learned to read; but such are isolated cases, and only +prove the rule. The great mass of slaveholders look upon education +among the slaves as utterly subversive of the slave system. I well +remember when my mistress first announced to my master that she had +discovered that I could read. His face colored at once with surprise +and chagrin. He said that “I was ruined, and my value as a slave +destroyed; that a slave should know nothing but to obey his master; +that to give a negro an inch would lead him to take an ell; that having +learned how to read, I would soon want to know how to write; and that +by-and-by I would be running away.” I think my audience will bear +witness to the correctness of this philosophy, and to the literal +fulfillment of this prophecy. + +It is perfectly well understood at the south, that to educate a slave +is to make him discontened(sic) with slavery, and to invest him with a +power which shall open to him the treasures of freedom; and since the +object of the slaveholder is to maintain complete authority over his +slave, his constant vigilance is exercised to prevent everything which +militates against, or endangers, the stability of his authority. +Education being among the menacing influences, and, perhaps, the most +dangerous, is, therefore, the most cautiously guarded against. + +It is true that we do not often hear of the enforcement of the law, +punishing as a crime the teaching of slaves to read, but this is not +because of a want of disposition to enforce it. The true reason or +explanation of the matter is this: there is the greatest unanimity of +opinion among the white population in the south in favor of the policy +of keeping the slave in ignorance. There is, perhaps, another reason +why the law against education is so seldom violated. The slave is too +poor to be able to offer a temptation sufficiently strong to induce a +white man to violate it; and it is not to be supposed that in a +community where the moral and religious sentiment is in favor of +slavery, many martyrs will be found sacrificing their liberty and lives +by violating those prohibitory enactments. + +As a general rule, then, darkness reigns over the abodes of the +enslaved, and “how great is that darkness!” + +We are sometimes told of the contentment of the slaves, and are +entertained with vivid pictures of their happiness. We are told that +they often dance and sing; that their masters frequently give them +wherewith to make merry; in fine, that they have little of which to +complain. I admit that the slave does sometimes sing, dance, and appear +to be merry. But what does this prove? It only proves to my mind, that +though slavery is armed with a thousand stings, it is not able entirely +to kill the elastic spirit of the bondman. That spirit will rise and +walk abroad, despite of whips and chains, and extract from the cup of +nature occasional drops of joy and gladness. No thanks to the +slaveholder, nor to slavery, that the vivacious captive may sometimes +dance in his chains; his very mirth in such circumstances stands before +God as an accusing angel against his enslaver. + +It is often said, by the opponents of the anti-slavery cause, that the +condition of the people of Ireland is more deplorable than that of the +American slaves. Far be it from me to underrate the sufferings of the +Irish people. They have been long oppressed; and the same heart that +prompts me to plead the cause of the American bondman, makes it +impossible for me not to sympathize with the oppressed of all lands. +Yet I must say that there is no analogy between the two cases. The +Irishman is poor, but he is not a slave. He may be in rags, but he is +not a slave. He is still the master of his own body, and can say with +the poet, “The hand of Douglass is his own.” “The world is all before +him, where to choose;” and poor as may be my opinion of the British +parliament, I cannot believe that it will ever sink to such a depth of +infamy as to pass a law for the recapture of fugitive Irishmen! The +shame and scandal of kidnapping will long remain wholly monopolized by +the American congress. The Irishman has not only the liberty to +emigrate from his country, but he has liberty at home. He can write, +and speak, and cooperate for the attainment of his rights and the +redress of his wrongs. + +The multitude can assemble upon all the green hills and fertile plains +of the Emerald Isle; they can pour out their grievances, and proclaim +their wants without molestation; and the press, that “swift-winged +messenger,” can bear the tidings of their doings to the extreme bounds +of the civilized world. They have their “Conciliation Hall,” on the +banks of the Liffey, their reform clubs, and their newspapers; they +pass resolutions, send forth addresses, and enjoy the right of +petition. But how is it with the American slave? Where may he assemble? +Where is his Conciliation Hall? Where are his newspapers? Where is his +right of petition? Where is his freedom of speech? his liberty of the +press? and his right of locomotion? He is said to be happy; happy men +can speak. But ask the slave what is his condition—what his state of +mind—what he thinks of enslavement? and you had as well address your +inquiries to the _silent dead_. There comes no _voice_ from the +enslaved. We are left to gather his feelings by imagining what ours +would be, were our souls in his soul’s stead. + +If there were no other fact descriptive of slavery, than that the slave +is dumb, this alone would be sufficient to mark the slave system as a +grand aggregation of human horrors. + +Most who are present, will have observed that leading men in this +country have been putting forth their skill to secure quiet to the +nation. A system of measures to promote this object was adopted a few +months ago in congress. The result of those measures is known. Instead +of quiet, they have produced alarm; instead of peace, they have brought +us war; and so it must ever be. + +While this nation is guilty of the enslavement of three millions of +innocent men and women, it is as idle to think of having a sound and +lasting peace, as it is to think there is no God to take cognizance of +the affairs of men. There can be no peace to the wicked while slavery +continues in the land. It will be condemned; and while it is condemned +there will be agitation. Nature must cease to be nature; men must +become monsters; humanity must be transformed; Christianity must be +exterminated; all ideas of justice and the laws of eternal goodness +must be utterly blotted out from the human soul—ere a system so foul +and infernal can escape condemnation, or this guilty republic can have +a sound, enduring peace. + + + + +INHUMANITY OF SLAVERY. Extract from A Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester, + + +December 8, 1850 + +The relation of master and slave has been called patriarchal, and only +second in benignity and tenderness to that of the parent and child. +This representation is doubtless believed by many northern people; and +this may account, in part, for the lack of interest which we find among +persons whom we are bound to believe to be honest and humane. What, +then, are the facts? Here I will not quote my own experience in +slavery; for this you might call one-sided testimony. I will not cite +the declarations of abolitionists; for these you might pronounce +exaggerations. I will not rely upon advertisements cut from newspapers; +for these you might call isolated cases. But I will refer you to the +laws adopted by the legislatures of the slave states. I give you such +evidence, because it cannot be invalidated nor denied. I hold in my +hand sundry extracts from the slave codes of our country, from which I +will quote. * * * + +Now, if the foregoing be an indication of kindness, _what is cruelty_? +If this be parental affection, _what is bitter malignity_? A more +atrocious and blood-thirsty string of laws could not well be conceived +of. And yet I am bound to say that they fall short of indicating the +horrible cruelties constantly practiced in the slave states. + +I admit that there are individual slaveholders less cruel and barbarous +than is allowed by law; but these form the exception. The majority of +slaveholders find it necessary, to insure obedience, at times, to avail +themselves of the utmost extent of the law, and many go beyond it. If +kindness were the rule, we should not see advertisements filling the +columns of almost every southern newspaper, offering large rewards for +fugitive slaves, and describing them as being branded with irons, +loaded with chains, and scarred by the whip. One of the most telling +testimonies against the pretended kindness of slaveholders, is the fact +that uncounted numbers of fugitives are now inhabiting the Dismal +Swamp, preferring the untamed wilderness to their cultivated +homes—choosing rather to encounter hunger and thirst, and to roam with +the wild beasts of the forest, running the hazard of being hunted and +shot down, than to submit to the authority of _kind_ masters. + +I tell you, my friends, humanity is never driven to such an unnatural +course of life, without great wrong. The slave finds more of the milk +of human kindness in the bosom of the savage Indian, than in the heart +of his _Christian_ master. He leaves the man of the _bible_, and takes +refuge with the man of the _tomahawk_. He rushes from the praying +slaveholder into the paws of the bear. He quits the homes of men for +the haunts of wolves. He prefers to encounter a life of trial, however +bitter, or death, however terrible, to dragging out his existence under +the dominion of these _kind_ masters. + +The apologists for slavery often speak of the abuses of slavery; and +they tell us that they are as much opposed to those abuses as we are; +and that they would go as far to correct those abuses and to ameliorate +the condition of the slave as anybody. The answer to that view is, that +slavery is itself an abuse; that it lives by abuse; and dies by the +absence of abuse. Grant that slavery is right; grant that the relations +of master and slave may innocently exist; and there is not a single +outrage which was ever committed against the slave but what finds an +apology in the very necessity of the case. As we said by a slaveholder +(the Rev. A. G. Few) to the Methodist conference, “If the relation be +right, the means to maintain it are also right;” for without those +means slavery could not exist. Remove the dreadful scourge—the plaited +thong—the galling fetter—the accursed chain—and let the slaveholder +rely solely upon moral and religious power, by which to secure +obedience to his orders, and how long do you suppose a slave would +remain on his plantation? The case only needs to be stated; it carries +its own refutation with it. + +Absolute and arbitrary power can never be maintained by one man over +the body and soul of another man, without brutal chastisement and +enormous cruelty. + +To talk of _kindness_ entering into a relation in which one party is +robbed of wife, of children, of his hard earnings, of home, of friends, +of society, of knowledge, and of all that makes this life desirable, is +most absurd, wicked, and preposterous. + +I have shown that slavery is wicked—wicked, in that it violates the +great law of liberty, written on every human heart—wicked, in that it +violates the first command of the decalogue—wicked, in that it fosters +the most disgusting licentiousness—wicked, in that it mars and defaces +the image of God by cruel and barbarous inflictions—wicked, in that it +contravenes the laws of eternal justice, and tramples in the dust all +the humane and heavenly precepts of the New Testament. + +The evils resulting from this huge system of iniquity are not confined +to the states south of Mason and Dixon’s line. Its noxious influence +can easily be traced throughout our northern borders. It comes even as +far north as the state of New York. Traces of it may be seen even in +Rochester; and travelers have told me it casts its gloomy shadows +across the lake, approaching the very shores of Queen Victoria’s +dominions. + +The presence of slavery may be explained by—as it is the explanation +of—the mobocratic violence which lately disgraced New York, and which +still more recently disgraced the city of Boston. These violent +demonstrations, these outrageous invasions of human rights, faintly +indicate the presence and power of slavery here. It is a significant +fact, that while meetings for almost any purpose under heaven may be +held unmolested in the city of Boston, that in the same city, a meeting +cannot be peaceably held for the purpose of preaching the doctrine of +the American Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created +equal.” The pestiferous breath of slavery taints the whole moral +atmosphere of the north, and enervates the moral energies of the whole +people. + +The moment a foreigner ventures upon our soil, and utters a natural +repugnance to oppression, that moment he is made to feel that there is +little sympathy in this land for him. If he were greeted with smiles +before, he meets with frowns now; and it shall go well with him if he +be not subjected to that peculiarly fining method of showing fealty to +slavery, the assaults of a mob. + +Now, will any man tell me that such a state of things is natural, and +that such conduct on the part of the people of the north, springs from +a consciousness of rectitude? No! every fibre of the human heart unites +in detestation of tyranny, and it is only when the human mind has +become familiarized with slavery, is accustomed to its injustice, and +corrupted by its selfishness, that it fails to record its abhorrence of +slavery, and does not exult in the triumphs of liberty. + +The northern people have been long connected with slavery; they have +been linked to a decaying corpse, which has destroyed the moral health. +The union of the government; the union of the north and south, in the +political parties; the union in the religious organizations of the +land, have all served to deaden the moral sense of the northern people, +and to impregnate them with sentiments and ideas forever in conflict +with what as a nation we call _genius of American institutions_. +Rightly viewed, this is an alarming fact, and ought to rally all that +is pure, just, and holy in one determined effort to crush the monster +of corruption, and to scatter “its guilty profits” to the winds. In a +high moral sense, as well as in a national sense, the whole American +people are responsible for slavery, and must share, in its guilt and +shame, with the most obdurate men-stealers of the south. + +While slavery exists, and the union of these states endures, every +American citizen must bear the chagrin of hearing his country branded +before the world as a nation of liars and hypocrites; and behold his +cherished flag pointed at with the utmost scorn and derision. Even now +an American _abroad_ is pointed out in the crowd, as coming from a land +where men gain their fortunes by “the blood of souls,” from a land of +slave markets, of blood-hounds, and slave-hunters; and, in some +circles, such a man is shunned altogether, as a moral pest. Is it not +time, then, for every American to awake, and inquire into his duty with +respect to this subject? + +Wendell Phillips—the eloquent New England orator—on his return from +Europe, in 1842, said, “As I stood upon the shores of Genoa, and saw +floating on the placid waters of the Mediterranean, the beautiful +American war ship Ohio, with her masts tapering proportionately aloft, +and an eastern sun reflecting her noble form upon the sparkling waters, +attracting the gaze of the multitude, my first impulse was of pride, to +think myself an American; but when I thought that the first time that +gallant ship would gird on her gorgeous apparel, and wake from beneath +her sides her dormant thunders, it would be in defense of the African +slave trade, I blushed in utter _shame_ for my country.” + +Let me say again, _slavery is alike the sin and the shame of the +American people;_ it is a blot upon the American name, and the only +national reproach which need make an American hang his head in shame, +in the presence of monarchical governments. + +With this gigantic evil in the land, we are constantly told to look _at +home;_ if we say ought against crowned heads, we are pointed to our +enslaved millions; if we talk of sending missionaries and bibles +abroad, we are pointed to three millions now lying in worse than +heathen darkness; if we express a word of sympathy for Kossuth and his +Hungarian fugitive brethren, we are pointed to that horrible and +hell-black enactment, “the fugitive slave bill.” + +Slavery blunts the edge of all our rebukes of tyranny abroad—the +criticisms that we make upon other nations, only call forth ridicule, +contempt, and scorn. In a word, we are made a reproach and a by-word to +a mocking earth, and we must continue to be so made, so long as slavery +continues to pollute our soil. + +We have heard much of late of the virtue of patriotism, the love of +country, &c., and this sentiment, so natural and so strong, has been +impiously appealed to, by all the powers of human selfishness, to +cherish the viper which is stinging our national life away. In its +name, we have been called upon to deepen our infamy before the world, +to rivet the fetter more firmly on the limbs of the enslaved, and to +become utterly insensible to the voice of human woe that is wafted to +us on every southern gale. We have been called upon, in its name, to +desecrate our whole land by the footprints of slave-hunters, and even +to engage ourselves in the horrible business of kidnapping. + +I, too, would invoke the spirit of patriotism; not in a narrow and +restricted sense, but, I trust, with a broad and manly signification; +not to cover up our national sins, but to inspire us with sincere +repentance; not to hide our shame from the the(sic) world’s gaze, but +utterly to abolish the cause of that shame; not to explain away our +gross inconsistencies as a nation, but to remove the hateful, jarring, +and incongruous elements from the land; not to sustain an egregious +wrong, but to unite all our energies in the grand effort to remedy that +wrong. + +I would invoke the spirit of patriotism, in the name of the law of the +living God, natural and revealed, and in the full belief that +“righteousness exalteth a nation, while sin is a reproach to any +people.” “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that +despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from the +holding of bribes, he shall dwell on high, his place of defense shall +be the munitions of rocks, bread shall be given him, his water shall be +sure.” + +We have not only heard much lately of patriotism, and of its aid being +invoked on the side of slavery and injustice, but the very prosperity +of this people has been called in to deafen them to the voice of duty, +and to lead them onward in the pathway of sin. Thus has the blessing of +God been converted into a curse. In the spirit of genuine patriotism, I +warn the American people, by all that is just and honorable, to BEWARE! + +I warn them that, strong, proud, and prosperous though we be, there is +a power above us that can “bring down high looks; at the breath of +whose mouth our wealth may take wings; and before whom every knee shall +bow;” and who can tell how soon the avenging angel may pass over our +land, and the sable bondmen now in chains, may become the instruments +of our nation’s chastisement! Without appealing to any higher feeling, +I would warn the American people, and the American government, to be +wise in their day and generation. I exhort them to remember the history +of other nations; and I remind them that America cannot always sit “as +a queen,” in peace and repose; that prouder and stronger governments +than this have been shattered by the bolts of a just God; that the time +may come when those they now despise and hate, may be needed; when +those whom they now compel by oppression to be enemies, may be wanted +as friends. What has been, may be again. There is a point beyond which +human endurance cannot go. The crushed worm may yet turn under the heel +of the oppressor. I warn them, then, with all solemnity, and in the +name of retributive justice, _to look to their ways;_ for in an evil +hour, those sable arms that have, for the last two centuries, been +engaged in cultivating and adorning the fair fields of our country, may +yet become the instruments of terror, desolation, and death, throughout +our borders. + +It was the sage of the Old Dominion that said—while speaking of the +possibility of a conflict between the slaves and the slaveholders—“God +has no attribute that could take sides with the oppressor in such a +contest. I tremble for my country when I reflect that God _is just_, +and that his justice cannot sleep forever.” Such is the warning voice +of Thomas Jefferson; and every day’s experience since its utterance +until now, confirms its wisdom, and commends its truth. + + + + +WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?. Extract from an Oration, at + + +Rochester, July 5, 1852 + +Fellow-Citizens—Pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to +speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your +national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom +and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, +extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble +offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits, and +express devout gratitude for the blessings, resulting from your +independence to us? + +Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer +could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be +light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold that +a nation’s sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the +claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such +priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his +voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation’s jubilee, when the chains +of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case +like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the “lame man leap as +an hart.” + +But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of +the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this +glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the +immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day +rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, +liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is +shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to +you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is +_yours_, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in +fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him +to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious +irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? +If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it +is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up +to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that +nation in irrecoverable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament +of a peeled and woe-smitten people. + +“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we +remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst +thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a +song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one +of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange +land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her +cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of +my mouth.” + +Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultous joy, I hear the +mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, +are to-day rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach +them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding +children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and +may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!” To forget them, to pass +lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, +would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a +reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, +is AMERICAN SLAVERY. I shall see this day and its popular +characteristics from the slave’s point of view. Standing there, +identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not +hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct +of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July. +Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions +of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and +revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and +solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and +the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of +humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, +in the name of the constitution and the bible, which are disregarded +and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all +the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate +slavery—the great sin and shame of America! “I will not equivocate; I +will not excuse;” I will use the severest language I can command; and +yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not +blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not +confess to be right and just. + +But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this +circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a +favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and +denounce less, would you persuade more and rebuke less, your cause +would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain +there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed +would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of +this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a +man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders +themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their +government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the +part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the state of +Virginia, which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he +be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of these +same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is +this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual, +and responsible being. The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is +admitted in the fact that southern statute books are covered with +enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching +of the slave to read or write. When you can point to any such laws, in +reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the +manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of +the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and +the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from +a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man! + +For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro +race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are plowing, planting, and +reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, +constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, +copper, silver, and gold; that, while we are reading, writing, and +cyphering, acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among +us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and +teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises +common to other men—digging gold in California, capturing the whale in +the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, +acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and +children, and, above all, confessing and worshiping the Christian’s +God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave—we +are called upon to prove that we are men! + +Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the +rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I +argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for republicans? +Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a +matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of +the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look +to-day in the presence of Americans, dividing and subdividing a +discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom, speaking +of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively? To do +so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your +understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that +does not know that slavery is wrong for _him_. + +What! am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of +their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of +their relations to their fellow-men, to beat them with sticks, to flay +their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them +with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock +out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and +submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system, thus marked +with blood and stained with pollution, is wrong? No; I will not. I have +better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would +imply. + +What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; +that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are +mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman +cannot be divine. Who can reason on such a proposition! They that can, +may! I cannot. The time for such argument is past. + +At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is +needed. Oh! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I +would to-day pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting +reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that +is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need +the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation +must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the +propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation +must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed +and denounced. + +What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that +reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross +injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your +celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your +national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty +and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; +your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and +hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade +and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and +hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation +of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more +shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at +this very hour. + +Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the +monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South +America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay +your facts by the side of the every-day practices of this nation, and +you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless +hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. + + + + +THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE. Extract from an Oration, at Rochester, July + + +5, 1852 + +Take the American slave trade, which, we are told by the papers, is +especially prosperous just now. Ex-senator Benton tells us that the +price of men was never higher than now. He mentions the fact to show +that slavery is in no danger. This trade is one of the peculiarities of +American institutions. It is carried on in all the large towns and +cities in one-half of this confederacy; and millions are pocketed every +year by dealers in this horrid traffic. In several states this trade is +a chief source of wealth. It is called (in contradistinction to the +foreign slave trade) _“the internal slave trade_.” It is, probably, +called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the +foreign slave trade is contemplated. That trade has long since been +denounced by this government as piracy. It has been denounced with +burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable +traffic. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a +squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Everywhere in this +country, it is safe to speak of this foreign slave trade as a most +inhuman traffic, opposed alike to the laws of God and of man. The duty +to extirpate and destroy it is admitted even by our _doctors of +divinity_. In order to put an end to it, some of these last have +consented that their colored brethren (nominally free) should leave +this country, and establish themselves on the western coast of Africa. +It is, however, a notable fact, that, while so much execration is +poured out by Americans, upon those engaged in the foreign slave trade, +the men engaged in the slave trade between the states pass without +condemnation, and their business is deemed honorable. + +Behold the practical operation of this internal slave trade—the +American slave trade sustained by American politics and American +religion! Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the +market. You know what is a swine-drover? I will show you a man-drover. +They inhabit all our southern states. They perambulate the country, and +crowd the highways of the nation with droves of human stock. You will +see one of these human-flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip, and +bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, +from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. These wretched +people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. They are +food for the cotton-field and the deadly sugar-mill. Mark the sad +procession as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives +them. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries +on his affrighted captives. There, see the old man, with locks thinned +and gray. Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose +shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the +brow of the babe in her arms. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, +yes, weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn. +The drove moves tardily. Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed their +strength. Suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the discharge of a +rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain rattles simultaneously; your +ears are saluted with a scream that seems to have torn its way to the +center of your soul. The crack you heard was the sound of the slave +whip; the scream you heard was from the woman you saw with the babe. +Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains; +that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. Follow this drove to +New Orleans. Attend the auction; see men examined like horses; see the +forms of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of +American slave-buyers. See this drove sold and separated forever; and +never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered +multitude. Tell me, citizens, where, under the sun, can you witness a +spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Yet this is but a glance at the +American slave trade, as it exists at this moment, in the ruling part +of the United States. + +I was born amid such sights and scenes. To me the American slave trade +is a terrible reality. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a +sense of its horrors. I lived on Philpot street, Fell’s Point, +Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves the slave ships in the +basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of human flesh, +waiting for favorable winds to waft them down the Chesapeake. There +was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt street, +by Austin Woldfolk. His agents were sent into every town and county in +Maryland, announcing their arrival through the papers, and on flaming +hand-bills, headed, “cash for negroes.” These men were generally well +dressed, and very captivating in their manners; ever ready to drink, to +treat, and to gamble. The fate of many a slave has depended upon the +turn of a single card; and many a child has been snatched from the arms +of its mothers by bargains arranged in a state of brutal drunkenness. + +The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, +chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. When a sufficient number +have been collected here, a ship is chartered, for the purpose of +conveying the forlorn crew to Mobile or to New Orleans. From the +slave-prison to the ship, they are usually driven in the darkness of +night; for since the anti-slavery agitation a certain caution is +observed. + +In the deep, still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by +the dead, heavy footsteps and the piteous cries of the chained gangs +that passed our door. The anguish of my boyish heart was intense; and I +was often consoled, when speaking to my mistress in the morning, to +hear her say that the custom was very wicked; that she hated to hear +the rattle of the chains, and the heart-rending cries. I was glad to +find one who sympathized with me in my horror. + +Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is to-day in active operation +in this boasted republic. In the solitude of my spirit, I see clouds of +dust raised on the highways of the south; I see the bleeding footsteps; +I hear the doleful wail of fettered humanity, on the way to the slave +markets, where the victims are to be sold like horses, sheep, and +swine, knocked off to the highest bidder. There I see the tenderest +ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice, and rapacity of +the buyers and sellers of men. My soul sickens at the sight. + +Is this the land your fathers loved? + The freedom which they toiled to win? +Is this the earth whereon they moved? + Are these the graves they slumber in? + + +But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things +remains to be presented. By an act of the American congress, not yet +two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and +revolting form. By that act, Mason and Dixon’s line has been +obliterated; New York has become as Virginia; and the power to hold, +hunt, and sell men, women, and children as slaves, remains no longer a +mere state institution, but is now an institution of the whole United +States. The power is coextensive with the star-spangled banner and +American christianity. Where these go, may also go the merciless +slave-hunter. Where these are, man is not sacred. He is a bird for the +sportsman’s gun. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, +the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. Your broad +republican domain is a hunting-ground for _men_. Not for thieves and +robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. +Your law-makers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this +hellish sport. Your president, your secretary of state, your lords, +nobles, and ecclesiastics, enforce as a duty you owe to your free and +glorious country and to your God, that you do this accursed thing. Not +fewer than forty Americans have within the past two years been hunted +down, and without a moment’s warning, hurried away in chains, and +consigned to slavery and excruciating torture. Some of these have had +wives and children dependent on them for bread; but of this no account +was made. The right of the hunter to his prey, stands superior to the +right of marriage, and to _all_ rights in this republic, the rights of +God included! For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, +nor religion. The fugitive slave law makes MERCY TO THEM A CRIME; and +bribes the judge who tries them. An American judge GETS TEN DOLLARS FOR +EVERY VICTIM HE CONSIGNS to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. +The oath of an(sic) two villains is sufficient, under this hell-black +enactment, to send the most pious and exemplary black man into the +remorseless jaws of slavery! His own testimony is nothing. He can bring +no witnesses for himself. The minister of American justice is bound by +the law to hear but _one side_, and that side is the side of the +oppressor. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. Let it be +thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king hating, +people-loving, democratic, Christian America, the seats of justice are +filled with judges, who hold their office under an open and palpable +_bribe_, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a man’s liberty, _to +hear only his accusers!_ + +In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of +administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, +and in diabolical intent, this fugitive slave law stands alone in the +annals of tyrannical legislation. I doubt if there be another nation on +the globe having the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the +statute-book. If any man in this assembly thinks differently from me in +this matter, and feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly +confront him at any suitable time and place he may select. + + + + +THE SLAVERY PARTY. Extract from a Speech Delivered before the A. A. S. + + +Society, in New York, May, 1853. + +Sir, it is evident that there is in this country a purely slavery +party—a party which exists for no other earthly purpose but to promote +the interests of slavery. The presence of this party is felt everywhere +in the republic. It is known by no particular name, and has assumed no +definite shape; but its branches reach far and wide in the church and +in the state. This shapeless and nameless party is not intangible in +other and more important respects. That party, sir, has determined upon +a fixed, definite, and comprehensive policy toward the whole colored +population of the United States. What that policy is, it becomes us as +abolitionists, and especially does it become the colored people +themselves, to consider and to understand fully. We ought to know who +our enemies are, where they are, and what are their objects and +measures. Well, sir, here is my version of it—not original with me—but +mine because I hold it to be true. + +I understand this policy to comprehend five cardinal objects. They are +these: 1st. The complete suppression of all anti-slavery discussion. +2d. The expatriation of the entire free people of color from the United +States. 3d. The unending perpetuation of slavery in this republic. 4th. +The nationalization of slavery to the extent of making slavery +respected in every state of the Union. 5th. The extension of slavery +over Mexico and the entire South American states. + +Sir, these objects are forcibly presented to us in the stern logic of +passing events; in the facts which are and have been passing around us +during the last three years. The country has been and is now dividing +on these grand issues. In their magnitude, these issues cast all others +into the shade, depriving them of all life and vitality. Old party ties +are broken. Like is finding its like on either side of these great +issues, and the great battle is at hand. For the present, the best +representative of the slavery party in politics is the democratic +party. Its great head for the present is President Pierce, whose boast +it was, before his election, that his whole life had been consistent +with the interests of slavery, that he is above reproach on that score. +In his inaugural address, he reassures the south on this point. Well, +the head of the slave power being in power, it is natural that the pro +slavery elements should cluster around the administration, and this is +rapidly being done. A fraternization is going on. The stringent +protectionists and the free-traders strike hands. The supporters of +Fillmore are becoming the supporters of Pierce. The silver-gray whig +shakes hands with the hunker democrat; the former only differing from +the latter in name. They are of one heart, one mind, and the union is +natural and perhaps inevitable. Both hate Negroes; both hate progress; +both hate the “higher law;” both hate William H. Seward; both hate the +free democratic party; and upon this hateful basis they are forming a +union of hatred. “Pilate and Herod are thus made friends.” Even the +central organ of the whig party is extending its beggar hand for a +morsel from the table of slavery democracy, and when spurned from the +feast by the more deserving, it pockets the insult; when kicked on one +side it turns the other, and preseveres in its importunities. The fact +is, that paper comprehends the demands of the times; it understands the +age and its issues; it wisely sees that slavery and freedom are the +great antagonistic forces in the country, and it goes to its own side. +Silver grays and hunkers all understand this. They are, therefore, +rapidly sinking all other questions to nothing, compared with the +increasing demands of slavery. They are collecting, arranging, and +consolidating their forces for the accomplishment of their appointed +work. + +The keystone to the arch of this grand union of the slavery party of +the United States, is the compromise of 1850. In that compromise we +have all the objects of our slaveholding policy specified. It is, sir, +favorable to this view of the designs of the slave power, that both the +whig and the democratic party bent lower, sunk deeper, and strained +harder, in their conventions, preparatory to the late presidential +election, to meet the demands of the slavery party than at any previous +time in their history. Never did parties come before the northern +people with propositions of such undisguised contempt for the moral +sentiment and the religious ideas of that people. They virtually asked +them to unite in a war upon free speech, and upon conscience, and to +drive the Almighty presence from the councils of the nation. Resting +their platforms upon the fugitive slave bill, they boldly asked the +people for political power to execute the horrible and hell-black +provisions of that bill. The history of that election reveals, with +great clearness, the extent to which slavery has shot its leprous +distillment through the life-blood of the nation. The party most +thoroughly opposed to the cause of justice and humanity, triumphed; +while the party suspected of a leaning toward liberty, was +overwhelmingly defeated, some say annihilated. + +But here is a still more important fact, illustrating the designs of +the slave power. It is a fact full of meaning, that no sooner did the +democratic slavery party come into power, than a system of legislation +was presented to the legislatures of the northern states, designed to +put the states in harmony with the fugitive slave law, and the +malignant bearing of the national government toward the colored +inhabitants of the country. This whole movement on the part of the +states, bears the evidence of having one origin, emanating from one +head, and urged forward by one power. It was simultaneous, uniform, and +general, and looked to one end. It was intended to put thorns under +feet already bleeding; to crush a people already bowed down; to enslave +a people already but half free; in a word, it was intended to +discourage, dishearten, and drive the free colored people out of the +country. In looking at the recent black law of Illinois, one is struck +dumb with its enormity. It would seem that the men who enacted that +law, had not only banished from their minds all sense of justice, but +all sense of shame. It coolly proposes to sell the bodies and souls of +the blacks to increase the intelligence and refinement of the whites; +to rob every black stranger who ventures among them, to increase their +literary fund. + +While this is going on in the states, a pro-slavery, political board of +health is established at Washington. Senators Hale, Chase, and Sumner +are robbed of a part of their senatorial dignity and consequence as +representing sovereign states, because they have refused to be +inoculated with the slavery virus. Among the services which a senator +is expected by his state to perform, are many that can only be done +efficiently on committees; and, in saying to these honorable senators, +you shall not serve on the committees of this body, the slavery party +took the responsibility of robbing and insulting the states that sent +them. It is an attempt at Washington to decide for the states who shall +be sent to the senate. Sir, it strikes me that this aggression on the +part of the slave power did not meet at the hands of the proscribed +senators the rebuke which we had a right to expect would be +administered. It seems to me that an opportunity was lost, that the +great principle of senatorial equality was left undefended, at a time +when its vindication was sternly demanded. But it is not to the purpose +of my present statement to criticise the conduct of our friends. I am +persuaded that much ought to be left to the discretion of anti slavery +men in congress, and charges of recreancy should never be made but on +the most sufficient grounds. For, of all the places in the world where +an anti-slavery man needs the confidence and encouragement of friends, +I take Washington to be that place. + +Let me now call attention to the social influences which are operating +and cooperating with the slavery party of the country, designed to +contribute to one or all of the grand objects aimed at by that party. +We see here the black man attacked in his vital interests; prejudice +and hate are excited against him; enmity is stirred up between him and +other laborers. The Irish people, warm-hearted, generous, and +sympathizing with the oppressed everywhere, when they stand upon their +own green island, are instantly taught, on arriving in this Christian +country, to hate and despise the colored people. They are taught to +believe that we eat the bread which of right belongs to them. The cruel +lie is told the Irish, that our adversity is essential to their +prosperity. Sir, the Irish-American will find out his mistake one day. +He will find that in assuming our avocation he also has assumed our +degradation. But for the present we are sufferers. The old employments +by which we have heretofore gained our livelihood, are gradually, and +it may be inevitably, passing into other hands. Every hour sees us +elbowed out of some employment to make room perhaps for some +newly-arrived emigrants, whose hunger and color are thought to give +them a title to especial favor. White men are becoming house-servants, +cooks, and stewards, common laborers, and flunkeys to our gentry, and, +for aught I see, they adjust themselves to their stations with all +becoming obsequiousness. This fact proves that if we cannot rise to the +whites, the whites can fall to us. Now, sir, look once more. While the +colored people are thus elbowed out of employment; while the enmity of +emigrants is being excited against us; while state after state enacts +laws against us; while we are hunted down, like wild game, and +oppressed with a general feeling of insecurity—the American +colonization society—that old offender against the best interests and +slanderer of the colored people—awakens to new life, and vigorously +presses its scheme upon the consideration of the people and the +government. New papers are started—some for the north and some for the +south—and each in its tone adapting itself to its latitude. Government, +state and national, is called upon for appropriations to enable the +society to send us out of the country by steam! They want steamers to +carry letters and Negroes to Africa. Evidently, this society looks upon +our “extremity as its opportunity,” and we may expect that it will use +the occasion well. They do not deplore, but glory, in our misfortunes. + +But, sir, I must hasten. I have thus briefly given my view of one +aspect of the present condition and future prospects of the colored +people of the United States. And what I have said is far from +encouraging to my afflicted people. I have seen the cloud gather upon +the sable brows of some who hear me. I confess the case looks black +enough. Sir, I am not a hopeful man. I think I am apt even to +undercalculate the benefits of the future. Yet, sir, in this seemingly +desperate case, I do not despair for my people. There is a bright side +to almost every picture of this kind; and ours is no exception to the +general rule. If the influences against us are strong, those for us are +also strong. To the inquiry, will our enemies prevail in the execution +of their designs. In my God and in my soul, I believe they _will not_. +Let us look at the first object sought for by the slavery party of the +country, viz: the suppression of anti slavery discussion. They desire +to suppress discussion on this subject, with a view to the peace of the +slaveholder and the security of slavery. Now, sir, neither the +principle nor the subordinate objects here declared, can be at all +gained by the slave power, and for this reason: It involves the +proposition to padlock the lips of the whites, in order to secure the +fetters on the limbs of the blacks. The right of speech, precious and +priceless, _cannot, will not_, be surrendered to slavery. Its +suppression is asked for, as I have said, to give peace and security to +slaveholders. Sir, that thing cannot be done. God has interposed an +insuperable obstacle to any such result. “There can be _no peace_, +saith my God, to the wicked.” Suppose it were possible to put down this +discussion, what would it avail the guilty slaveholder, pillowed as he +is upon heaving bosoms of ruined souls? He could not have a peaceful +spirit. If every anti-slavery tongue in the nation were silent—every +anti-slavery organization dissolved—every anti-slavery press +demolished—every anti slavery periodical, paper, book, pamphlet, or +what not, were searched out, gathered, deliberately burned to ashes, +and their ashes given to the four winds of heaven, still, still the +slaveholder could have _“no peace_.” In every pulsation of his heart, +in every throb of his life, in every glance of his eye, in the breeze +that soothes, and in the thunder that startles, would be waked up an +accuser, whose cause is, “Thou art, verily, guilty concerning thy +brother.” + + + + +THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. Extracts from a Lecture before Various + + +Anti-Slavery Bodies, in the Winter of 1855. + +A grand movement on the part of mankind, in any direction, or for any +purpose, moral or political, is an interesting fact, fit and proper to +be studied. It is such, not only for those who eagerly participate in +it, but also for those who stand aloof from it—even for those by whom +it is opposed. I take the anti-slavery movement to be such an one, and +a movement as sublime and glorious in its character, as it is holy and +beneficent in the ends it aims to accomplish. At this moment, I deem it +safe to say, it is properly engrossing more minds in this country than +any other subject now before the American people. The late John C. +Calhoun—one of the mightiest men that ever stood up in the American +senate—did not deem it beneath him; and he probably studied it as +deeply, though not as honestly, as Gerrit Smith, or William Lloyd +Garrison. He evinced the greatest familiarity with the subject; and the +greatest efforts of his last years in the senate had direct reference +to this movement. His eagle eye watched every new development connected +with it; and he was ever prompt to inform the south of every important +step in its progress. He never allowed himself to make light of it; but +always spoke of it and treated it as a matter of grave import; and in +this he showed himself a master of the mental, moral, and religious +constitution of human society. Daniel Webster, too, in the better days +of his life, before he gave his assent to the fugitive slave bill, and +trampled upon all his earlier and better convictions—when his eye was +yet single—he clearly comprehended the nature of the elements involved +in this movement; and in his own majestic eloquence, warned the south, +and the country, to have a care how they attempted to put it down. He +is an illustration that it is easier to give, than to take, good +advice. To these two men—the greatest men to whom the nation has yet +given birth—may be traced the two great facts of the present—the south +triumphant, and the north humbled. Their names may stand thus—Calhoun +and domination—Webster and degradation. Yet again. If to the enemies of +liberty this subject is one of engrossing interest, vastly more so +should it be such to freedom’s friends. The latter, it leads to the +gates of all valuable knowledge—philanthropic, ethical, and religious; +for it brings them to the study of man, wonderfully and fearfully +made—the proper study of man through all time—the open book, in which +are the records of time and eternity. + +Of the existence and power of the anti-slavery movement, as a fact, you +need no evidence. The nation has seen its face, and felt the +controlling pressure of its hand. You have seen it moving in all +directions, and in all weathers, and in all places, appearing most +where desired least, and pressing hardest where most resisted. No place +is exempt. The quiet prayer meeting, and the stormy halls of national +debate, share its presence alike. It is a common intruder, and of +course has the name of being ungentlemanly. Brethren who had long sung, +in the most affectionate fervor, and with the greatest sense of +security, + +Together let us sweetly live—together let us die, + + +have been suddenly and violently separated by it, and ranged in hostile +attitude toward each other. The Methodist, one of the most powerful +religious organizations of this country, has been rent asunder, and its +strongest bolts of denominational brotherhood started at a single +surge. It has changed the tone of the northern pulpit, and modified +that of the press. A celebrated divine, who, four years ago, was for +flinging his own mother, or brother, into the remorseless jaws of the +monster slavery, lest he should swallow up the Union, now recognizes +anti-slavery as a characteristic of future civilization. Signs and +wonders follow this movement; and the fact just stated is one of them. +Party ties are loosened by it; and men are compelled to take sides for +or against it, whether they will or not. Come from where he may, or +come for what he may, he is compelled to show his hand. What is this +mighty force? What is its history? and what is its destiny? Is it +ancient or modern, transient or permanent? Has it turned aside, like a +stranger and a sojourner, to tarry for a night? or has it come to rest +with us forever? Excellent chances are here for speculation; and some +of them are quite profound. We might, for instance, proceed to inquire +not only into the philosophy of the anti-slavery movement, but into the +philosophy of the law, in obedience to which that movement started into +existence. We might demand to know what is that law or power, which, at +different times, disposes the minds of men to this or that particular +object—now for peace, and now for war—now for freedom, and now for +slavery; but this profound question I leave to the abolitionists of the +superior class to answer. The speculations which must precede such +answer, would afford, perhaps, about the same satisfaction as the +learned theories which have rained down upon the world, from time to +time, as to the origin of evil. I shall, therefore, avoid water in +which I cannot swim, and deal with anti-slavery as a fact, like any +other fact in the history of mankind, capable of being described and +understood, both as to its internal forces, and its external phases and +relations. + +[After an eloquent, a full, and highly interesting exposition of the +nature, character, and history of the anti-slavery movement, from the +insertion of which want of space precludes us, he concluded in the +following happy manner.] + +Present organizations may perish, but the cause will go on. That cause +has a life, distinct and independent of the organizations patched up +from time to time to carry it forward. Looked at, apart from the bones +and sinews and body, it is a thing immortal. It is the very essence of +justice, liberty, and love. The moral life of human society, it cannot +die while conscience, honor, and humanity remain. If but one be filled +with it, the cause lives. Its incarnation in any one individual man, +leaves the whole world a priesthood, occupying the highest moral +eminence even that of disinterested benevolence. Whoso has ascended his +height, and has the grace to stand there, has the world at his feet, +and is the world’s teacher, as of divine right. He may set in judgment +on the age, upon the civilization of the age, and upon the religion of +the age; for he has a test, a sure and certain test, by which to try +all institutions, and to measure all men. I say, he may do this, but +this is not the chief business for which he is qualified. The great +work to which he is called is not that of judgment. Like the Prince of +Peace, he may say, if I judge, I judge righteous judgment; still +mainly, like him, he may say, this is not his work. The man who has +thoroughly embraced the principles of justice, love, and liberty, like +the true preacher of Christianity, is less anxious to reproach the +world of its sins, than to win it to repentance. His great work on +earth is to exemplify, and to illustrate, and to ingraft those +principles upon the living and practical understandings of all men +within the reach of his influence. This is his work; long or short his +years, many or few his adherents, powerful or weak his +instrumentalities, through good report, or through bad report, this is +his work. It is to snatch from the bosom of nature the latent facts of +each individual man’s experience, and with steady hand to hold them up +fresh and glowing, enforcing, with all his power, their acknowledgment +and practical adoption. If there be but _one_ such man in the land, no +matter what becomes of abolition societies and parties, there will be +an anti-slavery cause, and an anti-slavery movement. Fortunately for +that cause, and fortunately for him by whom it is espoused, it requires +no extraordinary amount of talent to preach it or to receive it when +preached. The grand secret of its power is, that each of its principles +is easily rendered appreciable to the faculty of reason in man, and +that the most unenlightened conscience has no difficulty in deciding on +which side to register its testimony. It can call its preachers from +among the fishermen, and raise them to power. In every human breast, it +has an advocate which can be silent only when the heart is dead. It +comes home to every man’s understanding, and appeals directly to every +man’s conscience. A man that does not recognize and approve for himself +the rights and privileges contended for, in behalf of the American +slave, has not yet been found. In whatever else men may differ, they +are alike in the apprehension of their natural and personal rights. The +difference between abolitionists and those by whom they are opposed, is +not as to principles. All are agreed in respect to these. The manner of +applying them is the point of difference. + +The slaveholder himself, the daily robber of his equal brother, +discourses eloquently as to the excellency of justice, and the man who +employs a brutal driver to flay the flesh of his negroes, is not +offended when kindness and humanity are commended. Every time the +abolitionist speaks of justice, the anti-abolitionist assents says, +yes, I wish the world were filled with a disposition to render to every +man what is rightfully due him; I should then get what is due me. +That’s right; let us have justice. By all means, let us have justice. +Every time the abolitionist speaks in honor of human liberty, he +touches a chord in the heart of the anti-abolitionist, which responds +in harmonious vibrations. Liberty—yes, that is evidently my right, and +let him beware who attempts to invade or abridge that right. Every time +he speaks of love, of human brotherhood, and the reciprocal duties of +man and man, the anti-abolitionist assents—says, yes, all right—all +true—we cannot have such ideas too often, or too fully expressed. So he +says, and so he feels, and only shows thereby that he is a man as well +as an anti-abolitionist. You have only to keep out of sight the manner +of applying your principles, to get them endorsed every time. +Contemplating himself, he sees truth with absolute clearness and +distinctness. He only blunders when asked to lose sight of himself. In +his own cause he can beat a Boston lawyer, but he is dumb when asked to +plead the cause of others. He knows very well whatsoever he would have +done unto himself, but is quite in doubt as to having the same thing +done unto others. It is just here, that lions spring up in the path of +duty, and the battle once fought in heaven is refought on the earth. So +it is, so hath it ever been, and so must it ever be, when the claims of +justice and mercy make their demand at the door of human selfishness. +Nevertheless, there is that within which ever pleads for the right and +the just. + +In conclusion, I have taken a sober view of the present anti-slavery +movement. I am sober, but not hopeless. There is no denying, for it is +everywhere admitted, that the anti-slavery question is the great moral +and social question now before the American people. A state of things +has gradually been developed, by which that question has become the +first thing in order. It must be met. Herein is my hope. The great idea +of impartial liberty is now fairly before the American people. +Anti-slavery is no longer a thing to be prevented. The time for +prevention is past. This is great gain. When the movement was younger +and weaker—when it wrought in a Boston garret to human apprehension, it +might have been silently put out of the way. Things are different now. +It has grown too large—its friends are too numerous—its facilities too +abundant—its ramifications too extended—its power too omnipotent, to be +snuffed out by the contingencies of infancy. A thousand strong men +might be struck down, and its ranks still be invincible. One flash from +the heart-supplied intellect of Harriet Beecher Stowe could light a +million camp fires in front of the embattled host of slavery, which not +all the waters of the Mississippi, mingled as they are with blood, +could extinguish. The present will be looked to by after coming +generations, as the age of anti-slavery literature—when supply on the +gallop could not keep pace with the ever growing demand—when a picture +of a Negro on the cover was a help to the sale of a book—when +conservative lyceums and other American literary associations began +first to select their orators for distinguished occasions from the +ranks of the previously despised abolitionists. If the anti-slavery +movement shall fail now, it will not be from outward opposition, but +from inward decay. Its auxiliaries are everywhere. Scholars, authors, +orators, poets, and statesmen give it their aid. The most brilliant of +American poets volunteer in its service. Whittier speaks in burning +verse to more than thirty thousand, in the National Era. Your own +Longfellow whispers, in every hour of trial and disappointment, “labor +and wait.” James Russell Lowell is reminding us that “men are more than +institutions.” Pierpont cheers the heart of the pilgrim in search of +liberty, by singing the praises of “the north star.” Bryant, too, is +with us; and though chained to the car of party, and dragged on amidst +a whirl of political excitement, he snatches a moment for letting drop +a smiling verse of sympathy for the man in chains. The poets are with +us. It would seem almost absurd to say it, considering the use that has +been made of them, that we have allies in the Ethiopian songs; those +songs that constitute our national music, and without which we have no +national music. They are heart songs, and the finest feelings of human +nature are expressed in them. “Lucy Neal,” “Old Kentucky Home,” and +“Uncle Ned,” can make the heart sad as well as merry, and can call +forth a tear as well as a smile. They awaken the sympathies for the +slave, in which antislavery principles take root, grow, and flourish. +In addition to authors, poets, and scholars at home, the moral sense of +the civilized world is with us. England, France, and Germany, the three +great lights of modern civilization, are with us, and every American +traveler learns to regret the existence of slavery in his country. The +growth of intelligence, the influence of commerce, steam, wind, and +lightning are our allies. It would be easy to amplify this summary, and +to swell the vast conglomeration of our material forces; but there is a +deeper and truer method of measuring the power of our cause, and of +comprehending its vitality. This is to be found in its accordance with +the best elements of human nature. It is beyond the power of slavery to +annihilate affinities recognized and established by the Almighty. The +slave is bound to mankind by the powerful and inextricable net-work of +human brotherhood. His voice is the voice of a man, and his cry is the +cry of a man in distress, and man must cease to be man before he can +become insensible to that cry. It is the righteous of the cause—the +humanity of the cause—which constitutes its potency. As one genuine +bankbill is worth more than a thousand counterfeits, so is one man, +with right on his side, worth more than a thousand in the wrong. “One +may chase a thousand, and put ten thousand to flight.” It is, +therefore, upon the goodness of our cause, more than upon all other +auxiliaries, that we depend for its final triumph. + +Another source of congratulations is the fact that, amid all the +efforts made by the church, the government, and the people at large, to +stay the onward progress of this movement, its course has been onward, +steady, straight, unshaken, and unchecked from the beginning. Slavery +has gained victories large and numerous; but never as against this +movement—against a temporizing policy, and against northern timidity, +the slave power has been victorious; but against the spread and +prevalence in the country, of a spirit of resistance to its aggression, +and of sentiments favorable to its entire overthrow, it has yet +accomplished nothing. Every measure, yet devised and executed, having +for its object the suppression of anti-slavery, has been as idle and +fruitless as pouring oil to extinguish fire. A general rejoicing took +place on the passage of “the compromise measures” of 1850. Those +measures were called peace measures, and were afterward termed by both +the great parties of the country, as well as by leading statesmen, a +final settlement of the whole question of slavery; but experience has +laughed to scorn the wisdom of pro-slavery statesmen; and their final +settlement of agitation seems to be the final revival, on a broader and +grander scale than ever before, of the question which they vainly +attempted to suppress forever. The fugitive slave bill has especially +been of positive service to the anti-slavery movement. It has +illustrated before all the people the horrible character of slavery +toward the slave, in hunting him down in a free state, and tearing him +away from wife and children, thus setting its claims higher than +marriage or parental claims. It has revealed the arrogant and +overbearing spirit of the slave states toward the free states; +despising their principles—shocking their feelings of humanity, not +only by bringing before them the abominations of slavery, but by +attempting to make them parties to the crime. It has called into +exercise among the colored people, the hunted ones, a spirit of manly +resistance well calculated to surround them with a bulwark of sympathy +and respect hitherto unknown. For men are always disposed to respect +and defend rights, when the victims of oppression stand up manfully for +themselves. + +There is another element of power added to the anti-slavery movement, +of great importance; it is the conviction, becoming every day more +general and universal, that slavery must be abolished at the south, or +it will demoralize and destroy liberty at the north. It is the nature +of slavery to beget a state of things all around it favorable to its +own continuance. This fact, connected with the system of bondage, is +beginning to be more fully realized. The slave-holder is not satisfied +to associate with men in the church or in the state, unless he can +thereby stain them with the blood of his slaves. To be a slave-holder +is to be a propagandist from necessity; for slavery can only live by +keeping down the under-growth morality which nature supplies. Every +new-born white babe comes armed from the Eternal presence, to make war +on slavery. The heart of pity, which would melt in due time over the +brutal chastisements it sees inflicted on the helpless, must be +hardened. And this work goes on every day in the year, and every hour +in the day. + +What is done at home is being done also abroad here in the north. And +even now the question may be asked, have we at this moment a single +free state in the Union? The alarm at this point will become more +general. The slave power must go on in its career of exactions. Give, +give, will be its cry, till the timidity which concedes shall give +place to courage, which shall resist. Such is the voice of experience, +such has been the past, such is the present, and such will be that +future, which, so sure as man is man, will come. Here I leave the +subject; and I leave off where I began, consoling myself and +congratulating the friends of freedom upon the fact that the +anti-slavery cause is not a new thing under the sun; not some moral +delusion which a few years’ experience may dispel. It has appeared +among men in all ages, and summoned its advocates from all ranks. Its +foundations are laid in the deepest and holiest convictions, and from +whatever soul the demon, selfishness, is expelled, there will this +cause take up its abode. Old as the everlasting hills; immovable as the +throne of God; and certain as the purposes of eternal power, against +all hinderances, and against all delays, and despite all the mutations +of human instrumentalities, it is the faith of my soul, that this +anti-slavery cause will triumph. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +1 (return) [ Letter, Introduction to _Life of Frederick Douglass_, +Boston, 1841.] + +2 (return) [ One of these ladies, impelled by the same noble spirit +which carried Miss Nightingale to Scutari, has devoted her time, her +untiring energies, to a great extent her means, and her high literary +abilities, to the advancement and support of Frederick Douglass’ Paper, +the only organ of the downtrodden, edited and published by one of +themselves, in the United States.] + +3 (return) [ Mr. Stephen Myers, of Albany, deserves mention as one of +the most persevering among the colored editorial fraternity.] + +4 (return) [ The German physiologists have even discovered vegetable +matter—starch—in the human body. See _Med. Chirurgical Rev_., Oct., +1854, p. 339.] + +5 (return) [ Mr. Wm. H. Topp, of Albany.] + +6 (return) [ This is the same man who gave me the roots to prevent my +being whipped by Mr. Covey. He was “a clever soul.” We used frequently +to talk about the fight with Covey, and as often as we did so, he would +claim my success as the result of the roots which he gave me. This +superstition is very common among the more ignorant slaves. A slave +seldom dies, but that his death is attributed to trickery.] + +7 (return) [ He was a whole-souled man, fully imbued with a love of his +afflicted and hunted people, and took pleasure in being to me, as was +his wont, “Eyes to the blind, and legs to the lame.” This brave and +devoted man suffered much from the persecutions common to all who have +been prominent benefactors. He at last became blind, and needed a +friend to guide him, even as he had been a guide to others. Even in his +blindness, he exhibited his manly character. In search of health, he +became a physician. When hope of gaining is(sic) own was gone, he had +hope for others. Believing in hydropathy, he established, at +Northampton, Massachusetts, a large _“Water Cure,”_ and became one of +the most successful of all engaged in that mode of treatment.] + +8 (return) [ The following is a copy of these curious papers, both of +my transfer from Thomas to Hugh Auld, and from Hugh to myself: + +“Know all men by these Presents, That I, Thomas Auld, of Talbot county, +and state of Maryland, for and in consideration of the sum of one +hundred dollars, current money, to me paid by Hugh Auld, of the city of +Baltimore, in the said state, at and before the sealing and delivery of +these presents, the receipt whereof, I, the said Thomas Auld, do hereby +acknowledge, have granted, bargained, and sold, and by these presents +do grant, bargain, and sell unto the said Hugh Auld, his executors, +administrators, and assigns, ONE NEGRO MAN, by the name of FREDERICK +BAILY, or DOUGLASS, as he callls(sic) himself—he is now about +twenty-eight years of age—to have and to hold the said negro man for +life. And I, the said Thomas Auld, for myself my heirs, executors, and +administrators, all and singular, the said FREDERICK BAILY _alias_ +DOUGLASS, unto the said Hugh Auld, his executors, administrators, and +assigns against me, the said Thomas Auld, my executors, and +administrators, and against ali and every other person or persons +whatsoever, shall and will warrant and forever defend by these +presents. In witness whereof, I set my hand and seal, this thirteenth +day of November, eighteen hundred and forty-six. + +THOMAS AULD + +“Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of Wrightson Jones. + +“JOHN C. LEAS. + +The authenticity of this bill of sale is attested by N. Harrington, a +justice of the peace of the state of Maryland, and for the county of +Talbot, dated same day as above. + +“To all whom it may concern: Be it known, that I, Hugh Auld, of the +city of Baltimore, in Baltimore county, in the state of Maryland, for +divers good causes and considerations, me thereunto moving, have +released from slavery, liberated, manumitted, and set free, and by +these presents do hereby release from slavery, liberate, manumit, and +set free, MY NEGRO MAN, named FREDERICK BAILY, otherwise called +DOUGLASS, being of the age of twenty-eight years, or thereabouts, and +able to work and gain a sufficient livelihood and maintenance; and him +the said negro man named FREDERICK BAILY, otherwise called FREDERICK +DOUGLASS, I do declare to be henceforth free, manumitted, and +discharged from all manner of servitude to me, my executors, and +administrators forever. + +“In witness whereof, I, the said Hugh Auld, have hereunto set my hand +and seal the fifth of December, in the year one thousand eight hundred +and forty-six. + +Hugh Auld + +“Sealed and delivered in presence of T. Hanson Belt. + +“JAMES N. S. T. WRIGHT”] + +9 (return) [ See Appendix to this volume, page 317.] + +10 (return) [ Mr. Douglass’ published speeches alone, would fill two +volumes of the size of this. Our space will only permit the insertion +of the extracts which follow; and which, for originality of thought, +beauty and force of expression, and for impassioned, indignatory +eloquence, have seldom been equaled.] + +11 (return) [ It is not often that chattels address their owners. The +following letter is unique; and probably the only specimen of the kind +extant. It was written while in England.] + + + + +Contents + + PREFACE + LETTER FROM WENDELL PHILLIPS, ESQ. + FREDERICK DOUGLASS. + CHAPTER I + CHAPTER II + CHAPTER III + CHAPTER IV + CHAPTER V + CHAPTER VI + CHAPTER VII + CHAPTER VIII + CHAPTER IX + CHAPTER X + CHAPTER XI + APPENDIX + A PARODY + + + + + PREFACE + + +In the month of August, 1841, I attended an anti-slavery convention in +Nantucket, at which it was my happiness to become acquainted with +_Frederick Douglass_, the writer of the following Narrative. He was a +stranger to nearly every member of that body; but, having recently made +his escape from the southern prison-house of bondage, and feeling his +curiosity excited to ascertain the principles and measures of the +abolitionists,—of whom he had heard a somewhat vague description while +he was a slave,—he was induced to give his attendance, on the occasion +alluded to, though at that time a resident in New Bedford. + +Fortunate, most fortunate occurrence!—fortunate for the millions of his +manacled brethren, yet panting for deliverance from their awful +thraldom!—fortunate for the cause of negro emancipation, and of +universal liberty!—fortunate for the land of his birth, which he has +already done so much to save and bless!—fortunate for a large circle of +friends and acquaintances, whose sympathy and affection he has strongly +secured by the many sufferings he has endured, by his virtuous traits +of character, by his ever-abiding remembrance of those who are in +bonds, as being bound with them!—fortunate for the multitudes, in +various parts of our republic, whose minds he has enlightened on the +subject of slavery, and who have been melted to tears by his pathos, or +roused to virtuous indignation by his stirring eloquence against the +enslavers of men!—fortunate for himself, as it at once brought him into +the field of public usefulness, “gave the world assurance of a MAN,” +quickened the slumbering energies of his soul, and consecrated him to +the great work of breaking the rod of the oppressor, and letting the +oppressed go free! + +I shall never forget his first speech at the convention—the +extraordinary emotion it excited in my own mind—the powerful impression +it created upon a crowded auditory, completely taken by surprise—the +applause which followed from the beginning to the end of his felicitous +remarks. I think I never hated slavery so intensely as at that moment; +certainly, my perception of the enormous outrage which is inflicted by +it, on the godlike nature of its victims, was rendered far more clear +than ever. There stood one, in physical proportion and stature +commanding and exact—in intellect richly endowed—in natural eloquence a +prodigy—in soul manifestly “created but a little lower than the +angels”—yet a slave, ay, a fugitive slave,—trembling for his safety, +hardly daring to believe that on the American soil, a single white +person could be found who would befriend him at all hazards, for the +love of God and humanity! Capable of high attainments as an +intellectual and moral being—needing nothing but a comparatively small +amount of cultivation to make him an ornament to society and a blessing +to his race—by the law of the land, by the voice of the people, by the +terms of the slave code, he was only a piece of property, a beast of +burden, a chattel personal, nevertheless! + +A beloved friend from New Bedford prevailed on Mr. DOUGLASS to address +the convention. He came forward to the platform with a hesitancy and +embarrassment, necessarily the attendants of a sensitive mind in such a +novel position. After apologizing for his ignorance, and reminding the +audience that slavery was a poor school for the human intellect and +heart, he proceeded to narrate some of the facts in his own history as +a slave, and in the course of his speech gave utterance to many noble +thoughts and thrilling reflections. As soon as he had taken his seat, +filled with hope and admiration, I rose, and declared that PATRICK +HENRY, of revolutionary fame, never made a speech more eloquent in the +cause of liberty, than the one we had just listened to from the lips of +that hunted fugitive. So I believed at that time—such is my belief now. +I reminded the audience of the peril which surrounded this +self-emancipated young man at the North,—even in Massachusetts, on the +soil of the Pilgrim Fathers, among the descendants of revolutionary +sires; and I appealed to them, whether they would ever allow him to be +carried back into slavery,—law or no law, constitution or no +constitution. The response was unanimous and in thunder-tones—“NO!” +“Will you succor and protect him as a brother-man—a resident of the old +Bay State?” “YES!” shouted the whole mass, with an energy so startling, +that the ruthless tyrants south of Mason and Dixon’s line might almost +have heard the mighty burst of feeling, and recognized it as the pledge +of an invincible determination, on the part of those who gave it, never +to betray him that wanders, but to hide the outcast, and firmly to +abide the consequences. + +It was at once deeply impressed upon my mind, that, if Mr. DOUGLASS +could be persuaded to consecrate his time and talents to the promotion +of the anti-slavery enterprise, a powerful impetus would be given to +it, and a stunning blow at the same time inflicted on northern +prejudice against a colored complexion. I therefore endeavored to +instil hope and courage into his mind, in order that he might dare to +engage in a vocation so anomalous and responsible for a person in his +situation; and I was seconded in this effort by warm-hearted friends, +especially by the late General Agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery +Society, Mr. JOHN A. COLLINS, whose judgment in this instance entirely +coincided with my own. At first, he could give no encouragement; with +unfeigned diffidence, he expressed his conviction that he was not +adequate to the performance of so great a task; the path marked out was +wholly an untrodden one; he was sincerely apprehensive that he should +do more harm than good. After much deliberation, however, he consented +to make a trial; and ever since that period, he has acted as a +lecturing agent, under the auspices either of the American or the +Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. In labors he has been most +abundant; and his success in combating prejudice, in gaining +proselytes, in agitating the public mind, has far surpassed the most +sanguine expectations that were raised at the commencement of his +brilliant career. He has borne himself with gentleness and meekness, +yet with true manliness of character. As a public speaker, he excels in +pathos, wit, comparison, imitation, strength of reasoning, and fluency +of language. There is in him that union of head and heart, which is +indispensable to an enlightenment of the heads and a winning of the +hearts of others. May his strength continue to be equal to his day! May +he continue to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of God,” that he +may be increasingly serviceable in the cause of bleeding humanity, +whether at home or abroad! + +It is certainly a very remarkable fact, that one of the most efficient +advocates of the slave population, now before the public, is a fugitive +slave, in the person of _Frederick Douglass_; and that the free colored +population of the United States are as ably represented by one of their +own number, in the person of _Charles Lenox Remond_, whose eloquent +appeals have extorted the highest applause of multitudes on both sides +of the Atlantic. Let the calumniators of the colored race despise +themselves for their baseness and illiberality of spirit, and +henceforth cease to talk of the natural inferiority of those who +require nothing but time and opportunity to attain to the highest point +of human excellence. + +It may, perhaps, be fairly questioned, whether any other portion of the +population of the earth could have endured the privations, sufferings +and horrors of slavery, without having become more degraded in the +scale of humanity than the slaves of African descent. Nothing has been +left undone to cripple their intellects, darken their minds, debase +their moral nature, obliterate all traces of their relationship to +mankind; and yet how wonderfully they have sustained the mighty load of +a most frightful bondage, under which they have been groaning for +centuries! To illustrate the effect of slavery on the white man,—to +show that he has no powers of endurance, in such a condition, superior +to those of his black brother,—_Daniel O’Connell_, the distinguished +advocate of universal emancipation, and the mightiest champion of +prostrate but not conquered Ireland, relates the following anecdote in +a speech delivered by him in the Conciliation Hall, Dublin, before the +Loyal National Repeal Association, March 31, 1845. “No matter,” said +_Mr. O’Connell_, “under what specious term it may disguise itself, +slavery is still hideous. _It has a natural, an inevitable tendency to +brutalize every noble faculty of man._ An American sailor, who was cast +away on the shore of Africa, where he was kept in slavery for three +years, was, at the expiration of that period, found to be imbruted and +stultified—he had lost all reasoning power; and having forgotten his +native language, could only utter some savage gibberish between Arabic +and English, which nobody could understand, and which even he himself +found difficulty in pronouncing. So much for the humanizing influence +of _The Domestic Institution_!” Admitting this to have been an +extraordinary case of mental deterioration, it proves at least that the +white slave can sink as low in the scale of humanity as the black one. + +_Mr. Douglass_ has very properly chosen to write his own Narrative, in +his own style, and according to the best of his ability, rather than to +employ some one else. It is, therefore, entirely his own production; +and, considering how long and dark was the career he had to run as a +slave,—how few have been his opportunities to improve his mind since he +broke his iron fetters,—it is, in my judgment, highly creditable to his +head and heart. He who can peruse it without a tearful eye, a heaving +breast, an afflicted spirit,—without being filled with an unutterable +abhorrence of slavery and all its abettors, and animated with a +determination to seek the immediate overthrow of that execrable +system,—without trembling for the fate of this country in the hands of +a righteous God, who is ever on the side of the oppressed, and whose +arm is not shortened that it cannot save,—must have a flinty heart, and +be qualified to act the part of a trafficker “in slaves and the souls +of men.” I am confident that it is essentially true in all its +statements; that nothing has been set down in malice, nothing +exaggerated, nothing drawn from the imagination; that it comes short of +the reality, rather than overstates a single fact in regard to _slavery +as it is_. The experience of _Frederick Douglass_, as a slave, was not +a peculiar one; his lot was not especially a hard one; his case may be +regarded as a very fair specimen of the treatment of slaves in +Maryland, in which State it is conceded that they are better fed and +less cruelly treated than in Georgia, Alabama, or Louisiana. Many have +suffered incomparably more, while very few on the plantations have +suffered less, than himself. Yet how deplorable was his situation! what +terrible chastisements were inflicted upon his person! what still more +shocking outrages were perpetrated upon his mind! with all his noble +powers and sublime aspirations, how like a brute was he treated, even +by those professing to have the same mind in them that was in Christ +Jesus! to what dreadful liabilities was he continually subjected! how +destitute of friendly counsel and aid, even in his greatest +extremities! how heavy was the midnight of woe which shrouded in +blackness the last ray of hope, and filled the future with terror and +gloom! what longings after freedom took possession of his breast, and +how his misery augmented, in proportion as he grew reflective and +intelligent,—thus demonstrating that a happy slave is an extinct man! +how he thought, reasoned, felt, under the lash of the driver, with the +chains upon his limbs! what perils he encountered in his endeavors to +escape from his horrible doom! and how signal have been his deliverance +and preservation in the midst of a nation of pitiless enemies! + +This Narrative contains many affecting incidents, many passages of +great eloquence and power; but I think the most thrilling one of them +all is the description _Douglass_ gives of his feelings, as he stood +soliloquizing respecting his fate, and the chances of his one day being +a freeman, on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay—viewing the receding +vessels as they flew with their white wings before the breeze, and +apostrophizing them as animated by the living spirit of freedom. Who +can read that passage, and be insensible to its pathos and sublimity? +Compressed into it is a whole Alexandrian library of thought, feeling, +and sentiment—all that can, all that need be urged, in the form of +expostulation, entreaty, rebuke, against that crime of crimes,—making +man the property of his fellow-man! O, how accursed is that system, +which entombs the godlike mind of man, defaces the divine image, +reduces those who by creation were crowned with glory and honor to a +level with four-footed beasts, and exalts the dealer in human flesh +above all that is called God! Why should its existence be prolonged one +hour? Is it not evil, only evil, and that continually? What does its +presence imply but the absence of all fear of God, all regard for man, +on the part of the people of the United States? Heaven speed its +eternal overthrow! + +So profoundly ignorant of the nature of slavery are many persons, that +they are stubbornly incredulous whenever they read or listen to any +recital of the cruelties which are daily inflicted on its victims. They +do not deny that the slaves are held as property; but that terrible +fact seems to convey to their minds no idea of injustice, exposure to +outrage, or savage barbarity. Tell them of cruel scourgings, of +mutilations and brandings, of scenes of pollution and blood, of the +banishment of all light and knowledge, and they affect to be greatly +indignant at such enormous exaggerations, such wholesale misstatements, +such abominable libels on the character of the southern planters! As if +all these direful outrages were not the natural results of slavery! As +if it were less cruel to reduce a human being to the condition of a +thing, than to give him a severe flagellation, or to deprive him of +necessary food and clothing! As if whips, chains, thumb-screws, +paddles, blood-hounds, overseers, drivers, patrols, were not all +indispensable to keep the slaves down, and to give protection to their +ruthless oppressors! As if, when the marriage institution is abolished, +concubinage, adultery, and incest, must not necessarily abound; when +all the rights of humanity are annihilated, any barrier remains to +protect the victim from the fury of the spoiler; when absolute power is +assumed over life and liberty, it will not be wielded with destructive +sway! Skeptics of this character abound in society. In some few +instances, their incredulity arises from a want of reflection; but, +generally, it indicates a hatred of the light, a desire to shield +slavery from the assaults of its foes, a contempt of the colored race, +whether bond or free. Such will try to discredit the shocking tales of +slaveholding cruelty which are recorded in this truthful Narrative; but +they will labor in vain. _Mr. Douglass_ has frankly disclosed the place +of his birth, the names of those who claimed ownership in his body and +soul, and the names also of those who committed the crimes which he has +alleged against them. His statements, therefore, may easily be +disproved, if they are untrue. + +In the course of his Narrative, he relates two instances of murderous +cruelty,—in one of which a planter deliberately shot a slave belonging +to a neighboring plantation, who had unintentionally gotten within his +lordly domain in quest of fish; and in the other, an overseer blew out +the brains of a slave who had fled to a stream of water to escape a +bloody scourging. _Mr. Douglass_ states that in neither of these +instances was any thing done by way of legal arrest or judicial +investigation. The Baltimore American, of March 17, 1845, relates a +similar case of atrocity, perpetrated with similar impunity—as +follows:—“_Shooting a slave._—We learn, upon the authority of a letter +from Charles county, Maryland, received by a gentleman of this city, +that a young man, named Matthews, a nephew of General Matthews, and +whose father, it is believed, holds an office at Washington, killed one +of the slaves upon his father’s farm by shooting him. The letter states +that young Matthews had been left in charge of the farm; that he gave +an order to the servant, which was disobeyed, when he proceeded to the +house, _obtained a gun, and, returning, shot the servant._ He +immediately, the letter continues, fled to his father’s residence, +where he still remains unmolested.”—Let it never be forgotten, that no +slaveholder or overseer can be convicted of any outrage perpetrated on +the person of a slave, however diabolical it may be, on the testimony +of colored witnesses, whether bond or free. By the slave code, they are +adjudged to be as incompetent to testify against a white man, as though +they were indeed a part of the brute creation. Hence, there is no legal +protection in fact, whatever there may be in form, for the slave +population; and any amount of cruelty may be inflicted on them with +impunity. Is it possible for the human mind to conceive of a more +horrible state of society? + +The effect of a religious profession on the conduct of southern masters +is vividly described in the following Narrative, and shown to be any +thing but salutary. In the nature of the case, it must be in the +highest degree pernicious. The testimony of _Mr. Douglass_, on this +point, is sustained by a cloud of witnesses, whose veracity is +unimpeachable. “A slaveholder’s profession of Christianity is a +palpable imposture. He is a felon of the highest grade. He is a +man-stealer. It is of no importance what you put in the other scale.” + +Reader! are you with the man-stealers in sympathy and purpose, or on +the side of their down-trodden victims? If with the former, then are +you the foe of God and man. If with the latter, what are you prepared +to do and dare in their behalf? Be faithful, be vigilant, be untiring +in your efforts to break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free. +Come what may—cost what it may—inscribe on the banner which you unfurl +to the breeze, as your religious and political motto—“NO COMPROMISE +WITH SLAVERY! NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS!” + +WM. LLOYD GARRISON BOSTON, + +_May_ 1, 1845. + + + + + LETTER FROM WENDELL PHILLIPS, ESQ. + + +BOSTON, _April_ 22, 1845. + +My Dear Friend: + +You remember the old fable of “The Man and the Lion,” where the lion +complained that he should not be so misrepresented “when the lions +wrote history.” + +I am glad the time has come when the “lions write history.” We have +been left long enough to gather the character of slavery from the +involuntary evidence of the masters. One might, indeed, rest +sufficiently satisfied with what, it is evident, must be, in general, +the results of such a relation, without seeking farther to find whether +they have followed in every instance. Indeed, those who stare at the +half-peck of corn a week, and love to count the lashes on the slave’s +back, are seldom the “stuff” out of which reformers and abolitionists +are to be made. I remember that, in 1838, many were waiting for the +results of the West India experiment, before they could come into our +ranks. Those “results” have come long ago; but, alas! few of that +number have come with them, as converts. A man must be disposed to +judge of emancipation by other tests than whether it has increased the +produce of sugar,—and to hate slavery for other reasons than because it +starves men and whips women,—before he is ready to lay the first stone +of his anti-slavery life. + +I was glad to learn, in your story, how early the most neglected of +God’s children waken to a sense of their rights, and of the injustice +done them. Experience is a keen teacher; and long before you had +mastered your A B C, or knew where the “white sails” of the Chesapeake +were bound, you began, I see, to gauge the wretchedness of the slave, +not by his hunger and want, not by his lashes and toil, but by the +cruel and blighting death which gathers over his soul. + +In connection with this, there is one circumstance which makes your +recollections peculiarly valuable, and renders your early insight the +more remarkable. You come from that part of the country where we are +told slavery appears with its fairest features. Let us hear, then, what +it is at its best estate—gaze on its bright side, if it has one; and +then imagination may task her powers to add dark lines to the picture, +as she travels southward to that (for the colored man) Valley of the +Shadow of Death, where the Mississippi sweeps along. + +Again, we have known you long, and can put the most entire confidence +in your truth, candor, and sincerity. Every one who has heard you speak +has felt, and, I am confident, every one who reads your book will feel, +persuaded that you give them a fair specimen of the whole truth. No +one-sided portrait,—no wholesale complaints,—but strict justice done, +whenever individual kindliness has neutralized, for a moment, the +deadly system with which it was strangely allied. You have been with +us, too, some years, and can fairly compare the twilight of rights, +which your race enjoy at the North, with that “noon of night” under +which they labor south of Mason and Dixon’s line. Tell us whether, +after all, the half-free colored man of Massachusetts is worse off than +the pampered slave of the rice swamps! + +In reading your life, no one can say that we have unfairly picked out +some rare specimens of cruelty. We know that the bitter drops, which +even you have drained from the cup, are no incidental aggravations, no +individual ills, but such as must mingle always and necessarily in the +lot of every slave. They are the essential ingredients, not the +occasional results, of the system. + +After all, I shall read your book with trembling for you. Some years +ago, when you were beginning to tell me your real name and birthplace, +you may remember I stopped you, and preferred to remain ignorant of +all. With the exception of a vague description, so I continued, till +the other day, when you read me your memoirs. I hardly knew, at the +time, whether to thank you or not for the sight of them, when I +reflected that it was still dangerous, in Massachusetts, for honest men +to tell their names! They say the fathers, in 1776, signed the +Declaration of Independence with the halter about their necks. You, +too, publish your declaration of freedom with danger compassing you +around. In all the broad lands which the Constitution of the United +States overshadows, there is no single spot,—however narrow or +desolate,—where a fugitive slave can plant himself and say, “I am +safe.” The whole armory of Northern Law has no shield for you. I am +free to say that, in your place, I should throw the MS. into the fire. + +You, perhaps, may tell your story in safety, endeared as you are to so +many warm hearts by rare gifts, and a still rarer devotion of them to +the service of others. But it will be owing only to your labors, and +the fearless efforts of those who, trampling the laws and Constitution +of the country under their feet, are determined that they will “hide +the outcast,” and that their hearths shall be, spite of the law, an +asylum for the oppressed, if, some time or other, the humblest may +stand in our streets, and bear witness in safety against the cruelties +of which he has been the victim. + +Yet it is sad to think, that these very throbbing hearts which welcome +your story, and form your best safeguard in telling it, are all beating +contrary to the “statute in such case made and provided.” Go on, my +dear friend, till you, and those who, like you, have been saved, so as +by fire, from the dark prison-house, shall stereotype these free, +illegal pulses into statutes; and New England, cutting loose from a +blood-stained Union, shall glory in being the house of refuge for the +oppressed,—till we no longer merely “_hide_ the outcast,” or make a +merit of standing idly by while he is hunted in our midst; but, +consecrating anew the soil of the Pilgrims as an asylum for the +oppressed, proclaim our _welcome_ to the slave so loudly, that the +tones shall reach every hut in the Carolinas, and make the +broken-hearted bondman leap up at the thought of old Massachusetts. + +God speed the day! +_Till then, and ever,_ +Yours truly, +WENDELL PHILLIPS + + + + + FREDERICK DOUGLASS. + + +Frederick Douglass was born in slavery as Frederick Augustus Washington +Bailey near Easton in Talbot County, Maryland. He was not sure of the +exact year of his birth, but he knew that it was 1817 or 1818. As a +young boy he was sent to Baltimore, to be a house servant, where he +learned to read and write, with the assistance of his master’s wife. In +1838 he escaped from slavery and went to New York City, where he +married Anna Murray, a free colored woman whom he had met in Baltimore. +Soon thereafter he changed his name to Frederick Douglass. In 1841 he +addressed a convention of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in +Nantucket and so greatly impressed the group that they immediately +employed him as an agent. He was such an impressive orator that +numerous persons doubted if he had ever been a slave, so he wrote +_Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass_. During the Civil War he +assisted in the recruiting of colored men for the 54th and 55th +Massachusetts Regiments and consistently argued for the emancipation of +slaves. After the war he was active in securing and protecting the +rights of the freemen. In his later years, at different times, he was +secretary of the Santo Domingo Commission, marshall and recorder of +deeds of the District of Columbia, and United States Minister to Haiti. +His other autobiographical works are _My Bondage And My Freedom_ and +_Life And Times Of Frederick Douglass_, published in 1855 and 1881 +respectively. He died in 1895. + + + + + CHAPTER I + + +I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from +Easton, in Talbot county, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my +age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the +larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know +of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to +keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember to have ever met a +slave who could tell of his birthday. They seldom come nearer to it +than planting-time, harvest-time, cherry-time, spring-time, or +fall-time. A want of information concerning my own was a source of +unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell +their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same +privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquiries of my master +concerning it. He deemed all such inquiries on the part of a slave +improper and impertinent, and evidence of a restless spirit. The +nearest estimate I can give makes me now between twenty-seven and +twenty-eight years of age. I come to this, from hearing my master say, +some time during 1835, I was about seventeen years old. + +My mother was named Harriet Bailey. She was the daughter of Isaac and +Betsey Bailey, both colored, and quite dark. My mother was of a darker +complexion than either my grandmother or grandfather. + +My father was a white man. He was admitted to be such by all I ever +heard speak of my parentage. The opinion was also whispered that my +master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, I know +nothing; the means of knowing was withheld from me. My mother and I +were separated when I was but an infant—before I knew her as my mother. +It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, +to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, +before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken +from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and +the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field +labor. For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to +hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and +to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child. +This is the inevitable result. + +I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five +times in my life; and each of these times was very short in duration, +and at night. She was hired by a Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve +miles from my home. She made her journeys to see me in the night, +travelling the whole distance on foot, after the performance of her +day’s work. She was a field hand, and a whipping is the penalty of not +being in the field at sunrise, unless a slave has special permission +from his or her master to the contrary—a permission which they seldom +get, and one that gives to him that gives it the proud name of being a +kind master. I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light +of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and +get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone. Very little +communication ever took place between us. Death soon ended what little +we could have while she lived, and with it her hardships and suffering. +She died when I was about seven years old, on one of my master’s farms, +near Lee’s Mill. I was not allowed to be present during her illness, at +her death, or burial. She was gone long before I knew any thing about +it. Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing +presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of her +death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the +death of a stranger. + +Called thus suddenly away, she left me without the slightest intimation +of who my father was. The whisper that my master was my father, may or +may not be true; and, true or false, it is of but little consequence to +my purpose whilst the fact remains, in all its glaring odiousness, that +slaveholders have ordained, and by law established, that the children +of slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of their +mothers; and this is done too obviously to administer to their own +lusts, and make a gratification of their wicked desires profitable as +well as pleasurable; for by this cunning arrangement, the slaveholder, +in cases not a few, sustains to his slaves the double relation of +master and father. + +I know of such cases; and it is worthy of remark that such slaves +invariably suffer greater hardships, and have more to contend with, +than others. They are, in the first place, a constant offence to their +mistress. She is ever disposed to find fault with them; they can seldom +do any thing to please her; she is never better pleased than when she +sees them under the lash, especially when she suspects her husband of +showing to his mulatto children favors which he withholds from his +black slaves. The master is frequently compelled to sell this class of +his slaves, out of deference to the feelings of his white wife; and, +cruel as the deed may strike any one to be, for a man to sell his own +children to human flesh-mongers, it is often the dictate of humanity +for him to do so; for, unless he does this, he must not only whip them +himself, but must stand by and see one white son tie up his brother, of +but few shades darker complexion than himself, and ply the gory lash to +his naked back; and if he lisp one word of disapproval, it is set down +to his parental partiality, and only makes a bad matter worse, both for +himself and the slave whom he would protect and defend. + +Every year brings with it multitudes of this class of slaves. It was +doubtless in consequence of a knowledge of this fact, that one great +statesman of the south predicted the downfall of slavery by the +inevitable laws of population. Whether this prophecy is ever fulfilled +or not, it is nevertheless plain that a very different-looking class of +people are springing up at the south, and are now held in slavery, from +those originally brought to this country from Africa; and if their +increase do no other good, it will do away the force of the argument, +that God cursed Ham, and therefore American slavery is right. If the +lineal descendants of Ham are alone to be scripturally enslaved, it is +certain that slavery at the south must soon become unscriptural; for +thousands are ushered into the world, annually, who, like myself, owe +their existence to white fathers, and those fathers most frequently +their own masters. + +I have had two masters. My first master’s name was Anthony. I do not +remember his first name. He was generally called Captain Anthony—a +title which, I presume, he acquired by sailing a craft on the +Chesapeake Bay. He was not considered a rich slaveholder. He owned two +or three farms, and about thirty slaves. His farms and slaves were +under the care of an overseer. The overseer’s name was Plummer. Mr. +Plummer was a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and a savage +monster. He always went armed with a cowskin and a heavy cudgel. I have +known him to cut and slash the women’s heads so horribly, that even +master would be enraged at his cruelty, and would threaten to whip him +if he did not mind himself. Master, however, was not a humane +slaveholder. It required extraordinary barbarity on the part of an +overseer to affect him. He was a cruel man, hardened by a long life of +slaveholding. He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping +a slave. I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most +heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to +a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered +with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, +seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she +screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there +he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her +to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to +swing the blood-clotted cowskin. I remember the first time I ever +witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a child, but I well +remember it. I never shall forget it whilst I remember any thing. It +was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed +to be a witness and a participant. It struck me with awful force. It +was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, +through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle. I +wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it. + +This occurrence took place very soon after I went to live with my old +master, and under the following circumstances. Aunt Hester went out one +night,—where or for what I do not know,—and happened to be absent when +my master desired her presence. He had ordered her not to go out +evenings, and warned her that she must never let him catch her in +company with a young man, who was paying attention to her belonging to +Colonel Lloyd. The young man’s name was Ned Roberts, generally called +Lloyd’s Ned. Why master was so careful of her, may be safely left to +conjecture. She was a woman of noble form, and of graceful proportions, +having very few equals, and fewer superiors, in personal appearance, +among the colored or white women of our neighborhood. + +Aunt Hester had not only disobeyed his orders in going out, but had +been found in company with Lloyd’s Ned; which circumstance, I found, +from what he said while whipping her, was the chief offence. Had he +been a man of pure morals himself, he might have been thought +interested in protecting the innocence of my aunt; but those who knew +him will not suspect him of any such virtue. Before he commenced +whipping Aunt Hester, he took her into the kitchen, and stripped her +from neck to waist, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back, entirely +naked. He then told her to cross her hands, calling her at the same +time a d——d b—-h. After crossing her hands, he tied them with a strong +rope, and led her to a stool under a large hook in the joist, put in +for the purpose. He made her get upon the stool, and tied her hands to +the hook. She now stood fair for his infernal purpose. Her arms were +stretched up at their full length, so that she stood upon the ends of +her toes. He then said to her, “Now, you d——d b—-h, I’ll learn you how +to disobey my orders!” and after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced +to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood (amid +heart-rending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came +dripping to the floor. I was so terrified and horror-stricken at the +sight, that I hid myself in a closet, and dared not venture out till +long after the bloody transaction was over. I expected it would be my +turn next. It was all new to me. I had never seen any thing like it +before. I had always lived with my grandmother on the outskirts of the +plantation, where she was put to raise the children of the younger +women. I had therefore been, until now, out of the way of the bloody +scenes that often occurred on the plantation. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + +My master’s family consisted of two sons, Andrew and Richard; one +daughter, Lucretia, and her husband, Captain Thomas Auld. They lived in +one house, upon the home plantation of Colonel Edward Lloyd. My master +was Colonel Lloyd’s clerk and superintendent. He was what might be +called the overseer of the overseers. I spent two years of childhood on +this plantation in my old master’s family. It was here that I witnessed +the bloody transaction recorded in the first chapter; and as I received +my first impressions of slavery on this plantation, I will give some +description of it, and of slavery as it there existed. The plantation +is about twelve miles north of Easton, in Talbot county, and is +situated on the border of Miles River. The principal products raised +upon it were tobacco, corn, and wheat. These were raised in great +abundance; so that, with the products of this and the other farms +belonging to him, he was able to keep in almost constant employment a +large sloop, in carrying them to market at Baltimore. This sloop was +named Sally Lloyd, in honor of one of the colonel’s daughters. My +master’s son-in-law, Captain Auld, was master of the vessel; she was +otherwise manned by the colonel’s own slaves. Their names were Peter, +Isaac, Rich, and Jake. These were esteemed very highly by the other +slaves, and looked upon as the privileged ones of the plantation; for +it was no small affair, in the eyes of the slaves, to be allowed to see +Baltimore. + +Colonel Lloyd kept from three to four hundred slaves on his home +plantation, and owned a large number more on the neighboring farms +belonging to him. The names of the farms nearest to the home plantation +were Wye Town and New Design. “Wye Town” was under the overseership of +a man named Noah Willis. New Design was under the overseership of a Mr. +Townsend. The overseers of these, and all the rest of the farms, +numbering over twenty, received advice and direction from the managers +of the home plantation. This was the great business place. It was the +seat of government for the whole twenty farms. All disputes among the +overseers were settled here. If a slave was convicted of any high +misdemeanor, became unmanageable, or evinced a determination to run +away, he was brought immediately here, severely whipped, put on board +the sloop, carried to Baltimore, and sold to Austin Woolfolk, or some +other slave-trader, as a warning to the slaves remaining. + +Here, too, the slaves of all the other farms received their monthly +allowance of food, and their yearly clothing. The men and women slaves +received, as their monthly allowance of food, eight pounds of pork, or +its equivalent in fish, and one bushel of corn meal. Their yearly +clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts, one pair of linen +trousers, like the shirts, one jacket, one pair of trousers for winter, +made of coarse negro cloth, one pair of stockings, and one pair of +shoes; the whole of which could not have cost more than seven dollars. +The allowance of the slave children was given to their mothers, or the +old women having the care of them. The children unable to work in the +field had neither shoes, stockings, jackets, nor trousers, given to +them; their clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts per year. +When these failed them, they went naked until the next allowance-day. +Children from seven to ten years old, of both sexes, almost naked, +might be seen at all seasons of the year. + +There were no beds given the slaves, unless one coarse blanket be +considered such, and none but the men and women had these. This, +however, is not considered a very great privation. They find less +difficulty from the want of beds, than from the want of time to sleep; +for when their day’s work in the field is done, the most of them having +their washing, mending, and cooking to do, and having few or none of +the ordinary facilities for doing either of these, very many of their +sleeping hours are consumed in preparing for the field the coming day; +and when this is done, old and young, male and female, married and +single, drop down side by side, on one common bed,—the cold, damp +floor,—each covering himself or herself with their miserable blankets; +and here they sleep till they are summoned to the field by the driver’s +horn. At the sound of this, all must rise, and be off to the field. +There must be no halting; every one must be at his or her post; and woe +betides them who hear not this morning summons to the field; for if +they are not awakened by the sense of hearing, they are by the sense of +feeling: no age nor sex finds any favor. Mr. Severe, the overseer, used +to stand by the door of the quarter, armed with a large hickory stick +and heavy cowskin, ready to whip any one who was so unfortunate as not +to hear, or, from any other cause, was prevented from being ready to +start for the field at the sound of the horn. + +Mr. Severe was rightly named: he was a cruel man. I have seen him whip +a woman, causing the blood to run half an hour at the time; and this, +too, in the midst of her crying children, pleading for their mother’s +release. He seemed to take pleasure in manifesting his fiendish +barbarity. Added to his cruelty, he was a profane swearer. It was +enough to chill the blood and stiffen the hair of an ordinary man to +hear him talk. Scarce a sentence escaped him but that was commenced or +concluded by some horrid oath. The field was the place to witness his +cruelty and profanity. His presence made it both the field of blood and +of blasphemy. From the rising till the going down of the sun, he was +cursing, raving, cutting, and slashing among the slaves of the field, +in the most frightful manner. His career was short. He died very soon +after I went to Colonel Lloyd’s; and he died as he lived, uttering, +with his dying groans, bitter curses and horrid oaths. His death was +regarded by the slaves as the result of a merciful providence. + +Mr. Severe’s place was filled by a Mr. Hopkins. He was a very different +man. He was less cruel, less profane, and made less noise, than Mr. +Severe. His course was characterized by no extraordinary demonstrations +of cruelty. He whipped, but seemed to take no pleasure in it. He was +called by the slaves a good overseer. + +The home plantation of Colonel Lloyd wore the appearance of a country +village. All the mechanical operations for all the farms were performed +here. The shoemaking and mending, the blacksmithing, cartwrighting, +coopering, weaving, and grain-grinding, were all performed by the +slaves on the home plantation. The whole place wore a business-like +aspect very unlike the neighboring farms. The number of houses, too, +conspired to give it advantage over the neighboring farms. It was +called by the slaves the _Great House Farm._ Few privileges were +esteemed higher, by the slaves of the out-farms, than that of being +selected to do errands at the Great House Farm. It was associated in +their minds with greatness. A representative could not be prouder of +his election to a seat in the American Congress, than a slave on one of +the out-farms would be of his election to do errands at the Great House +Farm. They regarded it as evidence of great confidence reposed in them +by their overseers; and it was on this account, as well as a constant +desire to be out of the field from under the driver’s lash, that they +esteemed it a high privilege, one worth careful living for. He was +called the smartest and most trusty fellow, who had this honor +conferred upon him the most frequently. The competitors for this office +sought as diligently to please their overseers, as the office-seekers +in the political parties seek to please and deceive the people. The +same traits of character might be seen in Colonel Lloyd’s slaves, as +are seen in the slaves of the political parties. + +The slaves selected to go to the Great House Farm, for the monthly +allowance for themselves and their fellow-slaves, were peculiarly +enthusiastic. While on their way, they would make the dense old woods, +for miles around, reverberate with their wild songs, revealing at once +the highest joy and the deepest sadness. They would compose and sing as +they went along, consulting neither time nor tune. The thought that +came up, came out—if not in the word, in the sound;—and as frequently +in the one as in the other. They would sometimes sing the most pathetic +sentiment in the most rapturous tone, and the most rapturous sentiment +in the most pathetic tone. Into all of their songs they would manage to +weave something of the Great House Farm. Especially would they do this, +when leaving home. They would then sing most exultingly the following +words:— + +“I am going away to the Great House Farm! +O, yea! O, yea! O!” + + +This they would sing, as a chorus, to words which to many would seem +unmeaning jargon, but which, nevertheless, were full of meaning to +themselves. I have sometimes thought that the mere hearing of those +songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character +of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of philosophy on the +subject could do. + +I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and +apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I +neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear. They told a +tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; +they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and +complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone +was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance +from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my +spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness. I have frequently found +myself in tears while hearing them. The mere recurrence to those songs, +even now, afflicts me; and while I am writing these lines, an +expression of feeling has already found its way down my cheek. To those +songs I trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing +character of slavery. I can never get rid of that conception. Those +songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my +sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If any one wishes to be impressed +with the soul-killing effects of slavery, let him go to Colonel Lloyd’s +plantation, and, on allowance-day, place himself in the deep pine +woods, and there let him, in silence, analyze the sounds that shall +pass through the chambers of his soul,—and if he is not thus impressed, +it will only be because “there is no flesh in his obdurate heart.” + +I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to +find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence +of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a +greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs +of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by +them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such +is my experience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to +express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike +uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast +away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as +evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the +songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + +Colonel Lloyd kept a large and finely cultivated garden, which afforded +almost constant employment for four men, besides the chief gardener, +(Mr. M’Durmond.) This garden was probably the greatest attraction of +the place. During the summer months, people came from far and near—from +Baltimore, Easton, and Annapolis—to see it. It abounded in fruits of +almost every description, from the hardy apple of the north to the +delicate orange of the south. This garden was not the least source of +trouble on the plantation. Its excellent fruit was quite a temptation +to the hungry swarms of boys, as well as the older slaves, belonging to +the colonel, few of whom had the virtue or the vice to resist it. +Scarcely a day passed, during the summer, but that some slave had to +take the lash for stealing fruit. The colonel had to resort to all +kinds of stratagems to keep his slaves out of the garden. The last and +most successful one was that of tarring his fence all around; after +which, if a slave was caught with any tar upon his person, it was +deemed sufficient proof that he had either been into the garden, or had +tried to get in. In either case, he was severely whipped by the chief +gardener. This plan worked well; the slaves became as fearful of tar as +of the lash. They seemed to realize the impossibility of touching _tar_ +without being defiled. + +The colonel also kept a splendid riding equipage. His stable and +carriage-house presented the appearance of some of our large city +livery establishments. His horses were of the finest form and noblest +blood. His carriage-house contained three splendid coaches, three or +four gigs, besides dearborns and barouches of the most fashionable +style. + +This establishment was under the care of two slaves—old Barney and +young Barney—father and son. To attend to this establishment was their +sole work. But it was by no means an easy employment; for in nothing +was Colonel Lloyd more particular than in the management of his horses. +The slightest inattention to these was unpardonable, and was visited +upon those, under whose care they were placed, with the severest +punishment; no excuse could shield them, if the colonel only suspected +any want of attention to his horses—a supposition which he frequently +indulged, and one which, of course, made the office of old and young +Barney a very trying one. They never knew when they were safe from +punishment. They were frequently whipped when least deserving, and +escaped whipping when most deserving it. Every thing depended upon the +looks of the horses, and the state of Colonel Lloyd’s own mind when his +horses were brought to him for use. If a horse did not move fast +enough, or hold his head high enough, it was owing to some fault of his +keepers. It was painful to stand near the stable-door, and hear the +various complaints against the keepers when a horse was taken out for +use. “This horse has not had proper attention. He has not been +sufficiently rubbed and curried, or he has not been properly fed; his +food was too wet or too dry; he got it too soon or too late; he was too +hot or too cold; he had too much hay, and not enough of grain; or he +had too much grain, and not enough of hay; instead of old Barney’s +attending to the horse, he had very improperly left it to his son.” To +all these complaints, no matter how unjust, the slave must answer never +a word. Colonel Lloyd could not brook any contradiction from a slave. +When he spoke, a slave must stand, listen, and tremble; and such was +literally the case. I have seen Colonel Lloyd make old Barney, a man +between fifty and sixty years of age, uncover his bald head, kneel down +upon the cold, damp ground, and receive upon his naked and toil-worn +shoulders more than thirty lashes at the time. Colonel Lloyd had three +sons—Edward, Murray, and Daniel,—and three sons-in-law, Mr. Winder, Mr. +Nicholson, and Mr. Lowndes. All of these lived at the Great House Farm, +and enjoyed the luxury of whipping the servants when they pleased, from +old Barney down to William Wilkes, the coach-driver. I have seen Winder +make one of the house-servants stand off from him a suitable distance +to be touched with the end of his whip, and at every stroke raise great +ridges upon his back. + +To describe the wealth of Colonel Lloyd would be almost equal to +describing the riches of Job. He kept from ten to fifteen +house-servants. He was said to own a thousand slaves, and I think this +estimate quite within the truth. Colonel Lloyd owned so many that he +did not know them when he saw them; nor did all the slaves of the +out-farms know him. It is reported of him, that, while riding along the +road one day, he met a colored man, and addressed him in the usual +manner of speaking to colored people on the public highways of the +south: “Well, boy, whom do you belong to?” “To Colonel Lloyd,” replied +the slave. “Well, does the colonel treat you well?” “No, sir,” was the +ready reply. “What, does he work you too hard?” “Yes, sir.” “Well, +don’t he give you enough to eat?” “Yes, sir, he gives me enough, such +as it is.” + +The colonel, after ascertaining where the slave belonged, rode on; the +man also went on about his business, not dreaming that he had been +conversing with his master. He thought, said, and heard nothing more of +the matter, until two or three weeks afterwards. The poor man was then +informed by his overseer that, for having found fault with his master, +he was now to be sold to a Georgia trader. He was immediately chained +and handcuffed; and thus, without a moment’s warning, he was snatched +away, and forever sundered, from his family and friends, by a hand more +unrelenting than death. This is the penalty of telling the truth, of +telling the simple truth, in answer to a series of plain questions. + +It is partly in consequence of such facts, that slaves, when inquired +of as to their condition and the character of their masters, almost +universally say they are contented, and that their masters are kind. +The slaveholders have been known to send in spies among their slaves, +to ascertain their views and feelings in regard to their condition. The +frequency of this has had the effect to establish among the slaves the +maxim, that a still tongue makes a wise head. They suppress the truth +rather than take the consequences of telling it, and in so doing prove +themselves a part of the human family. If they have any thing to say of +their masters, it is generally in their masters’ favor, especially when +speaking to an untried man. I have been frequently asked, when a slave, +if I had a kind master, and do not remember ever to have given a +negative answer; nor did I, in pursuing this course, consider myself as +uttering what was absolutely false; for I always measured the kindness +of my master by the standard of kindness set up among slaveholders +around us. Moreover, slaves are like other people, and imbibe +prejudices quite common to others. They think their own better than +that of others. Many, under the influence of this prejudice, think +their own masters are better than the masters of other slaves; and +this, too, in some cases, when the very reverse is true. Indeed, it is +not uncommon for slaves even to fall out and quarrel among themselves +about the relative goodness of their masters, each contending for the +superior goodness of his own over that of the others. At the very same +time, they mutually execrate their masters when viewed separately. It +was so on our plantation. When Colonel Lloyd’s slaves met the slaves of +Jacob Jepson, they seldom parted without a quarrel about their masters; +Colonel Lloyd’s slaves contending that he was the richest, and Mr. +Jepson’s slaves that he was the smartest, and most of a man. Colonel +Lloyd’s slaves would boast his ability to buy and sell Jacob Jepson. +Mr. Jepson’s slaves would boast his ability to whip Colonel Lloyd. +These quarrels would almost always end in a fight between the parties, +and those that whipped were supposed to have gained the point at issue. +They seemed to think that the greatness of their masters was +transferable to themselves. It was considered as being bad enough to be +a slave; but to be a poor man’s slave was deemed a disgrace indeed! + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + +Mr. Hopkins remained but a short time in the office of overseer. Why +his career was so short, I do not know, but suppose he lacked the +necessary severity to suit Colonel Lloyd. Mr. Hopkins was succeeded by +Mr. Austin Gore, a man possessing, in an eminent degree, all those +traits of character indispensable to what is called a first-rate +overseer. Mr. Gore had served Colonel Lloyd, in the capacity of +overseer, upon one of the out-farms, and had shown himself worthy of +the high station of overseer upon the home or Great House Farm. + +Mr. Gore was proud, ambitious, and persevering. He was artful, cruel, +and obdurate. He was just the man for such a place, and it was just the +place for such a man. It afforded scope for the full exercise of all +his powers, and he seemed to be perfectly at home in it. He was one of +those who could torture the slightest look, word, or gesture, on the +part of the slave, into impudence, and would treat it accordingly. +There must be no answering back to him; no explanation was allowed a +slave, showing himself to have been wrongfully accused. Mr. Gore acted +fully up to the maxim laid down by slaveholders,—“It is better that a +dozen slaves should suffer under the lash, than that the overseer +should be convicted, in the presence of the slaves, of having been at +fault.” No matter how innocent a slave might be—it availed him nothing, +when accused by Mr. Gore of any misdemeanor. To be accused was to be +convicted, and to be convicted was to be punished; the one always +following the other with immutable certainty. To escape punishment was +to escape accusation; and few slaves had the fortune to do either, +under the overseership of Mr. Gore. He was just proud enough to demand +the most debasing homage of the slave, and quite servile enough to +crouch, himself, at the feet of the master. He was ambitious enough to +be contented with nothing short of the highest rank of overseers, and +persevering enough to reach the height of his ambition. He was cruel +enough to inflict the severest punishment, artful enough to descend to +the lowest trickery, and obdurate enough to be insensible to the voice +of a reproving conscience. He was, of all the overseers, the most +dreaded by the slaves. His presence was painful; his eye flashed +confusion; and seldom was his sharp, shrill voice heard, without +producing horror and trembling in their ranks. + +Mr. Gore was a grave man, and, though a young man, he indulged in no +jokes, said no funny words, seldom smiled. His words were in perfect +keeping with his looks, and his looks were in perfect keeping with his +words. Overseers will sometimes indulge in a witty word, even with the +slaves; not so with Mr. Gore. He spoke but to command, and commanded +but to be obeyed; he dealt sparingly with his words, and bountifully +with his whip, never using the former where the latter would answer as +well. When he whipped, he seemed to do so from a sense of duty, and +feared no consequences. He did nothing reluctantly, no matter how +disagreeable; always at his post, never inconsistent. He never promised +but to fulfil. He was, in a word, a man of the most inflexible firmness +and stone-like coolness. + +His savage barbarity was equalled only by the consummate coolness with +which he committed the grossest and most savage deeds upon the slaves +under his charge. Mr. Gore once undertook to whip one of Colonel +Lloyd’s slaves, by the name of Demby. He had given Demby but few +stripes, when, to get rid of the scourging, he ran and plunged himself +into a creek, and stood there at the depth of his shoulders, refusing +to come out. Mr. Gore told him that he would give him three calls, and +that, if he did not come out at the third call, he would shoot him. The +first call was given. Demby made no response, but stood his ground. The +second and third calls were given with the same result. Mr. Gore then, +without consultation or deliberation with any one, not even giving +Demby an additional call, raised his musket to his face, taking deadly +aim at his standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was no more. +His mangled body sank out of sight, and blood and brains marked the +water where he had stood. + +A thrill of horror flashed through every soul upon the plantation, +excepting Mr. Gore. He alone seemed cool and collected. He was asked by +Colonel Lloyd and my old master, why he resorted to this extraordinary +expedient. His reply was, (as well as I can remember,) that Demby had +become unmanageable. He was setting a dangerous example to the other +slaves,—one which, if suffered to pass without some such demonstration +on his part, would finally lead to the total subversion of all rule and +order upon the plantation. He argued that if one slave refused to be +corrected, and escaped with his life, the other slaves would soon copy +the example; the result of which would be, the freedom of the slaves, +and the enslavement of the whites. Mr. Gore’s defence was satisfactory. +He was continued in his station as overseer upon the home plantation. +His fame as an overseer went abroad. His horrid crime was not even +submitted to judicial investigation. It was committed in the presence +of slaves, and they of course could neither institute a suit, nor +testify against him; and thus the guilty perpetrator of one of the +bloodiest and most foul murders goes unwhipped of justice, and +uncensured by the community in which he lives. Mr. Gore lived in St. +Michael’s, Talbot county, Maryland, when I left there; and if he is +still alive, he very probably lives there now; and if so, he is now, as +he was then, as highly esteemed and as much respected as though his +guilty soul had not been stained with his brother’s blood. + +I speak advisedly when I say this,—that killing a slave, or any colored +person, in Talbot county, Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either +by the courts or the community. Mr. Thomas Lanman, of St. Michael’s, +killed two slaves, one of whom he killed with a hatchet, by knocking +his brains out. He used to boast of the commission of the awful and +bloody deed. I have heard him do so laughingly, saying, among other +things, that he was the only benefactor of his country in the company, +and that when others would do as much as he had done, we should be +relieved of “the d——d niggers.” + +The wife of Mr. Giles Hicks, living but a short distance from where I +used to live, murdered my wife’s cousin, a young girl between fifteen +and sixteen years of age, mangling her person in the most horrible +manner, breaking her nose and breastbone with a stick, so that the poor +girl expired in a few hours afterward. She was immediately buried, but +had not been in her untimely grave but a few hours before she was taken +up and examined by the coroner, who decided that she had come to her +death by severe beating. The offence for which this girl was thus +murdered was this:—She had been set that night to mind Mrs. Hicks’s +baby, and during the night she fell asleep, and the baby cried. She, +having lost her rest for several nights previous, did not hear the +crying. They were both in the room with Mrs. Hicks. Mrs. Hicks, finding +the girl slow to move, jumped from her bed, seized an oak stick of wood +by the fireplace, and with it broke the girl’s nose and breastbone, and +thus ended her life. I will not say that this most horrid murder +produced no sensation in the community. It did produce sensation, but +not enough to bring the murderess to punishment. There was a warrant +issued for her arrest, but it was never served. Thus she escaped not +only punishment, but even the pain of being arraigned before a court +for her horrid crime. + +Whilst I am detailing bloody deeds which took place during my stay on +Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, I will briefly narrate another, which +occurred about the same time as the murder of Demby by Mr. Gore. + +Colonel Lloyd’s slaves were in the habit of spending a part of their +nights and Sundays in fishing for oysters, and in this way made up the +deficiency of their scanty allowance. An old man belonging to Colonel +Lloyd, while thus engaged, happened to get beyond the limits of Colonel +Lloyd’s, and on the premises of Mr. Beal Bondly. At this trespass, Mr. +Bondly took offence, and with his musket came down to the shore, and +blew its deadly contents into the poor old man. + +Mr. Bondly came over to see Colonel Lloyd the next day, whether to pay +him for his property, or to justify himself in what he had done, I know +not. At any rate, this whole fiendish transaction was soon hushed up. +There was very little said about it at all, and nothing done. It was a +common saying, even among little white boys, that it was worth a +half-cent to kill a “nigger,” and a half-cent to bury one. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + +As to my own treatment while I lived on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, it +was very similar to that of the other slave children. I was not old +enough to work in the field, and there being little else than field +work to do, I had a great deal of leisure time. The most I had to do +was to drive up the cows at evening, keep the fowls out of the garden, +keep the front yard clean, and run of errands for my old master’s +daughter, Mrs. Lucretia Auld. The most of my leisure time I spent in +helping Master Daniel Lloyd in finding his birds, after he had shot +them. My connection with Master Daniel was of some advantage to me. He +became quite attached to me, and was a sort of protector of me. He +would not allow the older boys to impose upon me, and would divide his +cakes with me. + +I was seldom whipped by my old master, and suffered little from any +thing else than hunger and cold. I suffered much from hunger, but much +more from cold. In hottest summer and coldest winter, I was kept almost +naked—no shoes, no stockings, no jacket, no trousers, nothing on but a +coarse tow linen shirt, reaching only to my knees. I had no bed. I must +have perished with cold, but that, the coldest nights, I used to steal +a bag which was used for carrying corn to the mill. I would crawl into +this bag, and there sleep on the cold, damp, clay floor, with my head +in and feet out. My feet have been so cracked with the frost, that the +pen with which I am writing might be laid in the gashes. + +We were not regularly allowanced. Our food was coarse corn meal boiled. +This was called _mush_. It was put into a large wooden tray or trough, +and set down upon the ground. The children were then called, like so +many pigs, and like so many pigs they would come and devour the mush; +some with oyster-shells, others with pieces of shingle, some with naked +hands, and none with spoons. He that ate fastest got most; he that was +strongest secured the best place; and few left the trough satisfied. + +I was probably between seven and eight years old when I left Colonel +Lloyd’s plantation. I left it with joy. I shall never forget the +ecstasy with which I received the intelligence that my old master +(Anthony) had determined to let me go to Baltimore, to live with Mr. +Hugh Auld, brother to my old master’s son-in-law, Captain Thomas Auld. +I received this information about three days before my departure. They +were three of the happiest days I ever enjoyed. I spent the most part +of all these three days in the creek, washing off the plantation scurf, +and preparing myself for my departure. + +The pride of appearance which this would indicate was not my own. I +spent the time in washing, not so much because I wished to, but because +Mrs. Lucretia had told me I must get all the dead skin off my feet and +knees before I could go to Baltimore; for the people in Baltimore were +very cleanly, and would laugh at me if I looked dirty. Besides, she was +going to give me a pair of trousers, which I should not put on unless I +got all the dirt off me. The thought of owning a pair of trousers was +great indeed! It was almost a sufficient motive, not only to make me +take off what would be called by pig-drovers the mange, but the skin +itself. I went at it in good earnest, working for the first time with +the hope of reward. + +The ties that ordinarily bind children to their homes were all +suspended in my case. I found no severe trial in my departure. My home +was charmless; it was not home to me; on parting from it, I could not +feel that I was leaving any thing which I could have enjoyed by +staying. My mother was dead, my grandmother lived far off, so that I +seldom saw her. I had two sisters and one brother, that lived in the +same house with me; but the early separation of us from our mother had +well nigh blotted the fact of our relationship from our memories. I +looked for home elsewhere, and was confident of finding none which I +should relish less than the one which I was leaving. If, however, I +found in my new home hardship, hunger, whipping, and nakedness, I had +the consolation that I should not have escaped any one of them by +staying. Having already had more than a taste of them in the house of +my old master, and having endured them there, I very naturally inferred +my ability to endure them elsewhere, and especially at Baltimore; for I +had something of the feeling about Baltimore that is expressed in the +proverb, that “being hanged in England is preferable to dying a natural +death in Ireland.” I had the strongest desire to see Baltimore. Cousin +Tom, though not fluent in speech, had inspired me with that desire by +his eloquent description of the place. I could never point out any +thing at the Great House, no matter how beautiful or powerful, but that +he had seen something at Baltimore far exceeding, both in beauty and +strength, the object which I pointed out to him. Even the Great House +itself, with all its pictures, was far inferior to many buildings in +Baltimore. So strong was my desire, that I thought a gratification of +it would fully compensate for whatever loss of comforts I should +sustain by the exchange. I left without a regret, and with the highest +hopes of future happiness. + +We sailed out of Miles River for Baltimore on a Saturday morning. I +remember only the day of the week, for at that time I had no knowledge +of the days of the month, nor the months of the year. On setting sail, +I walked aft, and gave to Colonel Lloyd’s plantation what I hoped would +be the last look. I then placed myself in the bows of the sloop, and +there spent the remainder of the day in looking ahead, interesting +myself in what was in the distance rather than in things near by or +behind. + +In the afternoon of that day, we reached Annapolis, the capital of the +State. We stopped but a few moments, so that I had no time to go on +shore. It was the first large town that I had ever seen, and though it +would look small compared with some of our New England factory +villages, I thought it a wonderful place for its size—more imposing +even than the Great House Farm! + +We arrived at Baltimore early on Sunday morning, landing at Smith’s +Wharf, not far from Bowley’s Wharf. We had on board the sloop a large +flock of sheep; and after aiding in driving them to the slaughterhouse +of Mr. Curtis on Louden Slater’s Hill, I was conducted by Rich, one of +the hands belonging on board of the sloop, to my new home in Alliciana +Street, near Mr. Gardner’s ship-yard, on Fells Point. + +Mr. and Mrs. Auld were both at home, and met me at the door with their +little son Thomas, to take care of whom I had been given. And here I +saw what I had never seen before; it was a white face beaming with the +most kindly emotions; it was the face of my new mistress, Sophia Auld. +I wish I could describe the rapture that flashed through my soul as I +beheld it. It was a new and strange sight to me, brightening up my +pathway with the light of happiness. Little Thomas was told, there was +his Freddy,—and I was told to take care of little Thomas; and thus I +entered upon the duties of my new home with the most cheering prospect +ahead. + +I look upon my departure from Colonel Lloyd’s plantation as one of the +most interesting events of my life. It is possible, and even quite +probable, that but for the mere circumstance of being removed from that +plantation to Baltimore, I should have to-day, instead of being here +seated by my own table, in the enjoyment of freedom and the happiness +of home, writing this Narrative, been confined in the galling chains of +slavery. Going to live at Baltimore laid the foundation, and opened the +gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity. I have ever regarded it as +the first plain manifestation of that kind providence which has ever +since attended me, and marked my life with so many favors. I regarded +the selection of myself as being somewhat remarkable. There were a +number of slave children that might have been sent from the plantation +to Baltimore. There were those younger, those older, and those of the +same age. I was chosen from among them all, and was the first, last, +and only choice. + +I may be deemed superstitious, and even egotistical, in regarding this +event as a special interposition of divine Providence in my favor. But +I should be false to the earliest sentiments of my soul, if I +suppressed the opinion. I prefer to be true to myself, even at the +hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, +and incur my own abhorrence. From my earliest recollection, I date the +entertainment of a deep conviction that slavery would not always be +able to hold me within its foul embrace; and in the darkest hours of my +career in slavery, this living word of faith and spirit of hope +departed not from me, but remained like ministering angels to cheer me +through the gloom. This good spirit was from God, and to him I offer +thanksgiving and praise. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + +My new mistress proved to be all she appeared when I first met her at +the door,—a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings. She had +never had a slave under her control previously to myself, and prior to +her marriage she had been dependent upon her own industry for a living. +She was by trade a weaver; and by constant application to her business, +she had been in a good degree preserved from the blighting and +dehumanizing effects of slavery. I was utterly astonished at her +goodness. I scarcely knew how to behave towards her. She was entirely +unlike any other white woman I had ever seen. I could not approach her +as I was accustomed to approach other white ladies. My early +instruction was all out of place. The crouching servility, usually so +acceptable a quality in a slave, did not answer when manifested toward +her. Her favor was not gained by it; she seemed to be disturbed by it. +She did not deem it impudent or unmannerly for a slave to look her in +the face. The meanest slave was put fully at ease in her presence, and +none left without feeling better for having seen her. Her face was made +of heavenly smiles, and her voice of tranquil music. + +But, alas! this kind heart had but a short time to remain such. The +fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon +commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of +slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet +accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic +face gave place to that of a demon. + +Very soon after I went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, she very kindly +commenced to teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she +assisted me in learning to spell words of three or four letters. Just +at this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and +at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among +other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave +to read. To use his own words, further, he said, “If you give a nigger +an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey +his master—to do as he is told to do. Learning would _spoil_ the best +nigger in the world. Now,” said he, “if you teach that nigger (speaking +of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever +unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of +no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a +great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy.” These +words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay +slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought. +It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark and mysterious +things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but +struggled in vain. I now understood what had been to me a most +perplexing difficulty—to wit, the white man’s power to enslave the +black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From +that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was +just what I wanted, and I got it at a time when I the least expected +it. Whilst I was saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my kind +mistress, I was gladdened by the invaluable instruction which, by the +merest accident, I had gained from my master. Though conscious of the +difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and +a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read. The +very decided manner with which he spoke, and strove to impress his wife +with the evil consequences of giving me instruction, served to convince +me that he was deeply sensible of the truths he was uttering. It gave +me the best assurance that I might rely with the utmost confidence on +the results which, he said, would flow from teaching me to read. What +he most dreaded, that I most desired. What he most loved, that I most +hated. That which to him was a great evil, to be carefully shunned, was +to me a great good, to be diligently sought; and the argument which he +so warmly urged, against my learning to read, only served to inspire me +with a desire and determination to learn. In learning to read, I owe +almost as much to the bitter opposition of my master, as to the kindly +aid of my mistress. I acknowledge the benefit of both. + +I had resided but a short time in Baltimore before I observed a marked +difference, in the treatment of slaves, from that which I had witnessed +in the country. A city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave +on the plantation. He is much better fed and clothed, and enjoys +privileges altogether unknown to the slave on the plantation. There is +a vestige of decency, a sense of shame, that does much to curb and +check those outbreaks of atrocious cruelty so commonly enacted upon the +plantation. He is a desperate slaveholder, who will shock the humanity +of his non-slaveholding neighbors with the cries of his lacerated +slave. Few are willing to incur the odium attaching to the reputation +of being a cruel master; and above all things, they would not be known +as not giving a slave enough to eat. Every city slaveholder is anxious +to have it known of him, that he feeds his slaves well; and it is due +to them to say, that most of them do give their slaves enough to eat. +There are, however, some painful exceptions to this rule. Directly +opposite to us, on Philpot Street, lived Mr. Thomas Hamilton. He owned +two slaves. Their names were Henrietta and Mary. Henrietta was about +twenty-two years of age, Mary was about fourteen; and of all the +mangled and emaciated creatures I ever looked upon, these two were the +most so. His heart must be harder than stone, that could look upon +these unmoved. The head, neck, and shoulders of Mary were literally cut +to pieces. I have frequently felt her head, and found it nearly covered +with festering sores, caused by the lash of her cruel mistress. I do +not know that her master ever whipped her, but I have been an +eye-witness to the cruelty of Mrs. Hamilton. I used to be in Mr. +Hamilton’s house nearly every day. Mrs. Hamilton used to sit in a large +chair in the middle of the room, with a heavy cowskin always by her +side, and scarce an hour passed during the day but was marked by the +blood of one of these slaves. The girls seldom passed her without her +saying, “Move faster, you _black gip!_” at the same time giving them a +blow with the cowskin over the head or shoulders, often drawing the +blood. She would then say, “Take that, you _black gip!_” continuing, +“If you don’t move faster, I’ll move you!” Added to the cruel lashings +to which these slaves were subjected, they were kept nearly +half-starved. They seldom knew what it was to eat a full meal. I have +seen Mary contending with the pigs for the offal thrown into the +street. So much was Mary kicked and cut to pieces, that she was oftener +called “_pecked_” than by her name. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + +I lived in Master Hugh’s family about seven years. During this time, I +succeeded in learning to read and write. In accomplishing this, I was +compelled to resort to various stratagems. I had no regular teacher. My +mistress, who had kindly commenced to instruct me, had, in compliance +with the advice and direction of her husband, not only ceased to +instruct, but had set her face against my being instructed by any one +else. It is due, however, to my mistress to say of her, that she did +not adopt this course of treatment immediately. She at first lacked the +depravity indispensable to shutting me up in mental darkness. It was at +least necessary for her to have some training in the exercise of +irresponsible power, to make her equal to the task of treating me as +though I were a brute. + +My mistress was, as I have said, a kind and tender-hearted woman; and +in the simplicity of her soul she commenced, when I first went to live +with her, to treat me as she supposed one human being ought to treat +another. In entering upon the duties of a slaveholder, she did not seem +to perceive that I sustained to her the relation of a mere chattel, and +that for her to treat me as a human being was not only wrong, but +dangerously so. Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me. +When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman. +There was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not a tear. She had +bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every +mourner that came within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to +divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender +heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of +tiger-like fierceness. The first step in her downward course was in her +ceasing to instruct me. She now commenced to practise her husband’s +precepts. She finally became even more violent in her opposition than +her husband himself. She was not satisfied with simply doing as well as +he had commanded; she seemed anxious to do better. Nothing seemed to +make her more angry than to see me with a newspaper. She seemed to +think that here lay the danger. I have had her rush at me with a face +made all up of fury, and snatch from me a newspaper, in a manner that +fully revealed her apprehension. She was an apt woman; and a little +experience soon demonstrated, to her satisfaction, that education and +slavery were incompatible with each other. + +From this time I was most narrowly watched. If I was in a separate room +any considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of having a +book, and was at once called to give an account of myself. All this, +however, was too late. The first step had been taken. Mistress, in +teaching me the alphabet, had given me the _inch,_ and no precaution +could prevent me from taking the _ell._ + +The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, +was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in +the street. As many of these as I could, I converted into teachers. +With their kindly aid, obtained at different times and in different +places, I finally succeeded in learning to read. When I was sent of +errands, I always took my book with me, and by going one part of my +errand quickly, I found time to get a lesson before my return. I used +also to carry bread with me, enough of which was always in the house, +and to which I was always welcome; for I was much better off in this +regard than many of the poor white children in our neighborhood. This +bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, +would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge. I am strongly +tempted to give the names of two or three of those little boys, as a +testimonial of the gratitude and affection I bear them; but prudence +forbids;—not that it would injure me, but it might embarrass them; for +it is almost an unpardonable offence to teach slaves to read in this +Christian country. It is enough to say of the dear little fellows, that +they lived on Philpot Street, very near Durgin and Bailey’s ship-yard. +I used to talk this matter of slavery over with them. I would sometimes +say to them, I wished I could be as free as they would be when they got +to be men. “You will be free as soon as you are twenty-one, _but I am a +slave for life!_ Have not I as good a right to be free as you have?” +These words used to trouble them; they would express for me the +liveliest sympathy, and console me with the hope that something would +occur by which I might be free. + +I was now about twelve years old, and the thought of being _a slave for +life_ began to bear heavily upon my heart. Just about this time, I got +hold of a book entitled “The Columbian Orator.” Every opportunity I +got, I used to read this book. Among much of other interesting matter, +I found in it a dialogue between a master and his slave. The slave was +represented as having run away from his master three times. The +dialogue represented the conversation which took place between them, +when the slave was retaken the third time. In this dialogue, the whole +argument in behalf of slavery was brought forward by the master, all of +which was disposed of by the slave. The slave was made to say some very +smart as well as impressive things in reply to his master—things which +had the desired though unexpected effect; for the conversation resulted +in the voluntary emancipation of the slave on the part of the master. + +In the same book, I met with one of Sheridan’s mighty speeches on and +in behalf of Catholic emancipation. These were choice documents to me. +I read them over and over again with unabated interest. They gave +tongue to interesting thoughts of my own soul, which had frequently +flashed through my mind, and died away for want of utterance. The moral +which I gained from the dialogue was the power of truth over the +conscience of even a slaveholder. What I got from Sheridan was a bold +denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights. +The reading of these documents enabled me to utter my thoughts, and to +meet the arguments brought forward to sustain slavery; but while they +relieved me of one difficulty, they brought on another even more +painful than the one of which I was relieved. The more I read, the more +I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no +other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their +homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a +strange land reduced us to slavery. I loathed them as being the meanest +as well as the most wicked of men. As I read and contemplated the +subject, behold! that very discontentment which Master Hugh had +predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to torment +and sting my soul to unutterable anguish. As I writhed under it, I +would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than +a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without +the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder +upon which to get out. In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves +for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast. I preferred +the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Any thing, no matter +what, to get rid of thinking! It was this everlasting thinking of my +condition that tormented me. There was no getting rid of it. It was +pressed upon me by every object within sight or hearing, animate or +inanimate. The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal +wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was +heard in every sound, and seen in every thing. It was ever present to +torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without +seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without +feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, +breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm. + +I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself +dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I +should have killed myself, or done something for which I should have +been killed. While in this state of mind, I was eager to hear any one +speak of slavery. I was a ready listener. Every little while, I could +hear something about the abolitionists. It was some time before I found +what the word meant. It was always used in such connections as to make +it an interesting word to me. If a slave ran away and succeeded in +getting clear, or if a slave killed his master, set fire to a barn, or +did any thing very wrong in the mind of a slaveholder, it was spoken of +as the fruit of _abolition._ Hearing the word in this connection very +often, I set about learning what it meant. The dictionary afforded me +little or no help. I found it was “the act of abolishing;” but then I +did not know what was to be abolished. Here I was perplexed. I did not +dare to ask any one about its meaning, for I was satisfied that it was +something they wanted me to know very little about. After a patient +waiting, I got one of our city papers, containing an account of the +number of petitions from the north, praying for the abolition of +slavery in the District of Columbia, and of the slave trade between the +States. From this time I understood the words _abolition_ and +_abolitionist,_ and always drew near when that word was spoken, +expecting to hear something of importance to myself and fellow-slaves. +The light broke in upon me by degrees. I went one day down on the wharf +of Mr. Waters; and seeing two Irishmen unloading a scow of stone, I +went, unasked, and helped them. When we had finished, one of them came +to me and asked me if I were a slave. I told him I was. He asked, “Are +ye a slave for life?” I told him that I was. The good Irishman seemed +to be deeply affected by the statement. He said to the other that it +was a pity so fine a little fellow as myself should be a slave for +life. He said it was a shame to hold me. They both advised me to run +away to the north; that I should find friends there, and that I should +be free. I pretended not to be interested in what they said, and +treated them as if I did not understand them; for I feared they might +be treacherous. White men have been known to encourage slaves to +escape, and then, to get the reward, catch them and return them to +their masters. I was afraid that these seemingly good men might use me +so; but I nevertheless remembered their advice, and from that time I +resolved to run away. I looked forward to a time at which it would be +safe for me to escape. I was too young to think of doing so +immediately; besides, I wished to learn how to write, as I might have +occasion to write my own pass. I consoled myself with the hope that I +should one day find a good chance. Meanwhile, I would learn to write. + +The idea as to how I might learn to write was suggested to me by being +in Durgin and Bailey’s ship-yard, and frequently seeing the ship +carpenters, after hewing, and getting a piece of timber ready for use, +write on the timber the name of that part of the ship for which it was +intended. When a piece of timber was intended for the larboard side, it +would be marked thus—“L.” When a piece was for the starboard side, it +would be marked thus—“S.” A piece for the larboard side forward, would +be marked thus—“L. F.” When a piece was for starboard side forward, it +would be marked thus—“S. F.” For larboard aft, it would be marked +thus—“L. A.” For starboard aft, it would be marked thus—“S. A.” I soon +learned the names of these letters, and for what they were intended +when placed upon a piece of timber in the ship-yard. I immediately +commenced copying them, and in a short time was able to make the four +letters named. After that, when I met with any boy who I knew could +write, I would tell him I could write as well as he. The next word +would be, “I don’t believe you. Let me see you try it.” I would then +make the letters which I had been so fortunate as to learn, and ask him +to beat that. In this way I got a good many lessons in writing, which +it is quite possible I should never have gotten in any other way. +During this time, my copy-book was the board fence, brick wall, and +pavement; my pen and ink was a lump of chalk. With these, I learned +mainly how to write. I then commenced and continued copying the Italics +in Webster’s Spelling Book, until I could make them all without looking +on the book. By this time, my little Master Thomas had gone to school, +and learned how to write, and had written over a number of copy-books. +These had been brought home, and shown to some of our near neighbors, +and then laid aside. My mistress used to go to class meeting at the +Wilk Street meetinghouse every Monday afternoon, and leave me to take +care of the house. When left thus, I used to spend the time in writing +in the spaces left in Master Thomas’s copy-book, copying what he had +written. I continued to do this until I could write a hand very similar +to that of Master Thomas. Thus, after a long, tedious effort for years, +I finally succeeded in learning how to write. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + +In a very short time after I went to live at Baltimore, my old master’s +youngest son Richard died; and in about three years and six months +after his death, my old master, Captain Anthony, died, leaving only his +son, Andrew, and daughter, Lucretia, to share his estate. He died while +on a visit to see his daughter at Hillsborough. Cut off thus +unexpectedly, he left no will as to the disposal of his property. It +was therefore necessary to have a valuation of the property, that it +might be equally divided between Mrs. Lucretia and Master Andrew. I was +immediately sent for, to be valued with the other property. Here again +my feelings rose up in detestation of slavery. I had now a new +conception of my degraded condition. Prior to this, I had become, if +not insensible to my lot, at least partly so. I left Baltimore with a +young heart overborne with sadness, and a soul full of apprehension. I +took passage with Captain Rowe, in the schooner Wild Cat, and, after a +sail of about twenty-four hours, I found myself near the place of my +birth. I had now been absent from it almost, if not quite, five years. +I, however, remembered the place very well. I was only about five years +old when I left it, to go and live with my old master on Colonel +Lloyd’s plantation; so that I was now between ten and eleven years old. + +We were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women, old and +young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep, and swine. +There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all +holding the same rank in the scale of being, and were all subjected to +the same narrow examination. Silvery-headed age and sprightly youth, +maids and matrons, had to undergo the same indelicate inspection. At +this moment, I saw more clearly than ever the brutalizing effects of +slavery upon both slave and slaveholder. + +After the valuation, then came the division. I have no language to +express the high excitement and deep anxiety which were felt among us +poor slaves during this time. Our fate for life was now to be decided. +We had no more voice in that decision than the brutes among whom we +were ranked. A single word from the white men was enough—against all +our wishes, prayers, and entreaties—to sunder forever the dearest +friends, dearest kindred, and strongest ties known to human beings. In +addition to the pain of separation, there was the horrid dread of +falling into the hands of Master Andrew. He was known to us all as +being a most cruel wretch,—a common drunkard, who had, by his reckless +mismanagement and profligate dissipation, already wasted a large +portion of his father’s property. We all felt that we might as well be +sold at once to the Georgia traders, as to pass into his hands; for we +knew that that would be our inevitable condition,—a condition held by +us all in the utmost horror and dread. + +I suffered more anxiety than most of my fellow-slaves. I had known what +it was to be kindly treated; they had known nothing of the kind. They +had seen little or nothing of the world. They were in very deed men and +women of sorrow, and acquainted with grief. Their backs had been made +familiar with the bloody lash, so that they had become callous; mine +was yet tender; for while at Baltimore I got few whippings, and few +slaves could boast of a kinder master and mistress than myself; and the +thought of passing out of their hands into those of Master Andrew—a man +who, but a few days before, to give me a sample of his bloody +disposition, took my little brother by the throat, threw him on the +ground, and with the heel of his boot stamped upon his head till the +blood gushed from his nose and ears—was well calculated to make me +anxious as to my fate. After he had committed this savage outrage upon +my brother, he turned to me, and said that was the way he meant to +serve me one of these days,—meaning, I suppose, when I came into his +possession. + +Thanks to a kind Providence, I fell to the portion of Mrs. Lucretia, +and was sent immediately back to Baltimore, to live again in the family +of Master Hugh. Their joy at my return equalled their sorrow at my +departure. It was a glad day to me. I had escaped a worse than lion’s +jaws. I was absent from Baltimore, for the purpose of valuation and +division, just about one month, and it seemed to have been six. + +Very soon after my return to Baltimore, my mistress, Lucretia, died, +leaving her husband and one child, Amanda; and in a very short time +after her death, Master Andrew died. Now all the property of my old +master, slaves included, was in the hands of strangers,—strangers who +had had nothing to do with accumulating it. Not a slave was left free. +All remained slaves, from the youngest to the oldest. If any one thing +in my experience, more than another, served to deepen my conviction of +the infernal character of slavery, and to fill me with unutterable +loathing of slaveholders, it was their base ingratitude to my poor old +grandmother. She had served my old master faithfully from youth to old +age. She had been the source of all his wealth; she had peopled his +plantation with slaves; she had become a great grandmother in his +service. She had rocked him in infancy, attended him in childhood, +served him through life, and at his death wiped from his icy brow the +cold death-sweat, and closed his eyes forever. She was nevertheless +left a slave—a slave for life—a slave in the hands of strangers; and in +their hands she saw her children, her grandchildren, and her +great-grandchildren, divided, like so many sheep, without being +gratified with the small privilege of a single word, as to their or her +own destiny. And, to cap the climax of their base ingratitude and +fiendish barbarity, my grandmother, who was now very old, having +outlived my old master and all his children, having seen the beginning +and end of all of them, and her present owners finding she was of but +little value, her frame already racked with the pains of old age, and +complete helplessness fast stealing over her once active limbs, they +took her to the woods, built her a little hut, put up a little +mud-chimney, and then made her welcome to the privilege of supporting +herself there in perfect loneliness; thus virtually turning her out to +die! If my poor old grandmother now lives, she lives to suffer in utter +loneliness; she lives to remember and mourn over the loss of children, +the loss of grandchildren, and the loss of great-grandchildren. They +are, in the language of the slave’s poet, Whittier,— + +“Gone, gone, sold and gone +To the rice swamp dank and lone, +Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings, +Where the noisome insect stings, +Where the fever-demon strews +Poison with the falling dews, +Where the sickly sunbeams glare +Through the hot and misty air:— +Gone, gone, sold and gone +To the rice swamp dank and lone, +From Virginia hills and waters— +Woe is me, my stolen daughters!” + + +The hearth is desolate. The children, the unconscious children, who +once sang and danced in her presence, are gone. She gropes her way, in +the darkness of age, for a drink of water. Instead of the voices of her +children, she hears by day the moans of the dove, and by night the +screams of the hideous owl. All is gloom. The grave is at the door. And +now, when weighed down by the pains and aches of old age, when the head +inclines to the feet, when the beginning and ending of human existence +meet, and helpless infancy and painful old age combine together—at this +time, this most needful time, the time for the exercise of that +tenderness and affection which children only can exercise towards a +declining parent—my poor old grandmother, the devoted mother of twelve +children, is left all alone, in yonder little hut, before a few dim +embers. She stands—she sits—she staggers—she falls—she groans—she +dies—and there are none of her children or grandchildren present, to +wipe from her wrinkled brow the cold sweat of death, or to place +beneath the sod her fallen remains. Will not a righteous God visit for +these things? + +In about two years after the death of Mrs. Lucretia, Master Thomas +married his second wife. Her name was Rowena Hamilton. She was the +eldest daughter of Mr. William Hamilton. Master now lived in St. +Michael’s. Not long after his marriage, a misunderstanding took place +between himself and Master Hugh; and as a means of punishing his +brother, he took me from him to live with himself at St. Michael’s. +Here I underwent another most painful separation. It, however, was not +so severe as the one I dreaded at the division of property; for, during +this interval, a great change had taken place in Master Hugh and his +once kind and affectionate wife. The influence of brandy upon him, and +of slavery upon her, had effected a disastrous change in the characters +of both; so that, as far as they were concerned, I thought I had little +to lose by the change. But it was not to them that I was attached. It +was to those little Baltimore boys that I felt the strongest +attachment. I had received many good lessons from them, and was still +receiving them, and the thought of leaving them was painful indeed. I +was leaving, too, without the hope of ever being allowed to return. +Master Thomas had said he would never let me return again. The barrier +betwixt himself and brother he considered impassable. + +I then had to regret that I did not at least make the attempt to carry +out my resolution to run away; for the chances of success are tenfold +greater from the city than from the country. + +I sailed from Baltimore for St. Michael’s in the sloop Amanda, Captain +Edward Dodson. On my passage, I paid particular attention to the +direction which the steamboats took to go to Philadelphia. I found, +instead of going down, on reaching North Point they went up the bay, in +a north-easterly direction. I deemed this knowledge of the utmost +importance. My determination to run away was again revived. I resolved +to wait only so long as the offering of a favorable opportunity. When +that came, I was determined to be off. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + +I have now reached a period of my life when I can give dates. I left +Baltimore, and went to live with Master Thomas Auld, at St. Michael’s, +in March, 1832. It was now more than seven years since I lived with him +in the family of my old master, on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation. We of +course were now almost entire strangers to each other. He was to me a +new master, and I to him a new slave. I was ignorant of his temper and +disposition; he was equally so of mine. A very short time, however, +brought us into full acquaintance with each other. I was made +acquainted with his wife not less than with himself. They were well +matched, being equally mean and cruel. I was now, for the first time +during a space of more than seven years, made to feel the painful +gnawings of hunger—a something which I had not experienced before since +I left Colonel Lloyd’s plantation. It went hard enough with me then, +when I could look back to no period at which I had enjoyed a +sufficiency. It was tenfold harder after living in Master Hugh’s +family, where I had always had enough to eat, and of that which was +good. I have said Master Thomas was a mean man. He was so. Not to give +a slave enough to eat, is regarded as the most aggravated development +of meanness even among slaveholders. The rule is, no matter how coarse +the food, only let there be enough of it. This is the theory; and in +the part of Maryland from which I came, it is the general +practice,—though there are many exceptions. Master Thomas gave us +enough of neither coarse nor fine food. There were four slaves of us in +the kitchen—my sister Eliza, my aunt Priscilla, Henny, and myself; and +we were allowed less than a half of a bushel of corn-meal per week, and +very little else, either in the shape of meat or vegetables. It was not +enough for us to subsist upon. We were therefore reduced to the +wretched necessity of living at the expense of our neighbors. This we +did by begging and stealing, whichever came handy in the time of need, +the one being considered as legitimate as the other. A great many times +have we poor creatures been nearly perishing with hunger, when food in +abundance lay mouldering in the safe and smoke-house, and our pious +mistress was aware of the fact; and yet that mistress and her husband +would kneel every morning, and pray that God would bless them in basket +and store! + +Bad as all slaveholders are, we seldom meet one destitute of every +element of character commanding respect. My master was one of this rare +sort. I do not know of one single noble act ever performed by him. The +leading trait in his character was meanness; and if there were any +other element in his nature, it was made subject to this. He was mean; +and, like most other mean men, he lacked the ability to conceal his +meanness. Captain Auld was not born a slaveholder. He had been a poor +man, master only of a Bay craft. He came into possession of all his +slaves by marriage; and of all men, adopted slaveholders are the worst. +He was cruel, but cowardly. He commanded without firmness. In the +enforcement of his rules, he was at times rigid, and at times lax. At +times, he spoke to his slaves with the firmness of Napoleon and the +fury of a demon; at other times, he might well be mistaken for an +inquirer who had lost his way. He did nothing of himself. He might have +passed for a lion, but for his ears. In all things noble which he +attempted, his own meanness shone most conspicuous. His airs, words, +and actions, were the airs, words, and actions of born slaveholders, +and, being assumed, were awkward enough. He was not even a good +imitator. He possessed all the disposition to deceive, but wanted the +power. Having no resources within himself, he was compelled to be the +copyist of many, and being such, he was forever the victim of +inconsistency; and of consequence he was an object of contempt, and was +held as such even by his slaves. The luxury of having slaves of his own +to wait upon him was something new and unprepared for. He was a +slaveholder without the ability to hold slaves. He found himself +incapable of managing his slaves either by force, fear, or fraud. We +seldom called him “master;” we generally called him “Captain Auld,” and +were hardly disposed to title him at all. I doubt not that our conduct +had much to do with making him appear awkward, and of consequence +fretful. Our want of reverence for him must have perplexed him greatly. +He wished to have us call him master, but lacked the firmness necessary +to command us to do so. His wife used to insist upon our calling him +so, but to no purpose. In August, 1832, my master attended a Methodist +camp-meeting held in the Bay-side, Talbot county, and there experienced +religion. I indulged a faint hope that his conversion would lead him to +emancipate his slaves, and that, if he did not do this, it would, at +any rate, make him more kind and humane. I was disappointed in both +these respects. It neither made him to be humane to his slaves, nor to +emancipate them. If it had any effect on his character, it made him +more cruel and hateful in all his ways; for I believe him to have been +a much worse man after his conversion than before. Prior to his +conversion, he relied upon his own depravity to shield and sustain him +in his savage barbarity; but after his conversion, he found religious +sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty. He made the greatest +pretensions to piety. His house was the house of prayer. He prayed +morning, noon, and night. He very soon distinguished himself among his +brethren, and was soon made a class-leader and exhorter. His activity +in revivals was great, and he proved himself an instrument in the hands +of the church in converting many souls. His house was the preachers’ +home. They used to take great pleasure in coming there to put up; for +while he starved us, he stuffed them. We have had three or four +preachers there at a time. The names of those who used to come most +frequently while I lived there, were Mr. Storks, Mr. Ewery, Mr. +Humphry, and Mr. Hickey. I have also seen Mr. George Cookman at our +house. We slaves loved Mr. Cookman. We believed him to be a good man. +We thought him instrumental in getting Mr. Samuel Harrison, a very rich +slaveholder, to emancipate his slaves; and by some means got the +impression that he was laboring to effect the emancipation of all the +slaves. When he was at our house, we were sure to be called in to +prayers. When the others were there, we were sometimes called in and +sometimes not. Mr. Cookman took more notice of us than either of the +other ministers. He could not come among us without betraying his +sympathy for us, and, stupid as we were, we had the sagacity to see it. + +While I lived with my master in St. Michael’s, there was a white young +man, a Mr. Wilson, who proposed to keep a Sabbath school for the +instruction of such slaves as might be disposed to learn to read the +New Testament. We met but three times, when Mr. West and Mr. Fairbanks, +both class-leaders, with many others, came upon us with sticks and +other missiles, drove us off, and forbade us to meet again. Thus ended +our little Sabbath school in the pious town of St. Michael’s. + +I have said my master found religious sanction for his cruelty. As an +example, I will state one of many facts going to prove the charge. I +have seen him tie up a lame young woman, and whip her with a heavy +cowskin upon her naked shoulders, causing the warm red blood to drip; +and, in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote this passage +of Scripture—“He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, +shall be beaten with many stripes.” + +Master would keep this lacerated young woman tied up in this horrid +situation four or five hours at a time. I have known him to tie her up +early in the morning, and whip her before breakfast; leave her, go to +his store, return at dinner, and whip her again, cutting her in the +places already made raw with his cruel lash. The secret of master’s +cruelty toward “Henny” is found in the fact of her being almost +helpless. When quite a child, she fell into the fire, and burned +herself horribly. Her hands were so burnt that she never got the use of +them. She could do very little but bear heavy burdens. She was to +master a bill of expense; and as he was a mean man, she was a constant +offence to him. He seemed desirous of getting the poor girl out of +existence. He gave her away once to his sister; but, being a poor gift, +she was not disposed to keep her. Finally, my benevolent master, to use +his own words, “set her adrift to take care of herself.” Here was a +recently-converted man, holding on upon the mother, and at the same +time turning out her helpless child, to starve and die! Master Thomas +was one of the many pious slaveholders who hold slaves for the very +charitable purpose of taking care of them. + +My master and myself had quite a number of differences. He found me +unsuitable to his purpose. My city life, he said, had had a very +pernicious effect upon me. It had almost ruined me for every good +purpose, and fitted me for every thing which was bad. One of my +greatest faults was that of letting his horse run away, and go down to +his father-in-law’s farm, which was about five miles from St. +Michael’s. I would then have to go after it. My reason for this kind of +carelessness, or carefulness, was, that I could always get something to +eat when I went there. Master William Hamilton, my master’s +father-in-law, always gave his slaves enough to eat. I never left there +hungry, no matter how great the need of my speedy return. Master Thomas +at length said he would stand it no longer. I had lived with him nine +months, during which time he had given me a number of severe whippings, +all to no good purpose. He resolved to put me out, as he said, to be +broken; and, for this purpose, he let me for one year to a man named +Edward Covey. Mr. Covey was a poor man, a farm-renter. He rented the +place upon which he lived, as also the hands with which he tilled it. +Mr. Covey had acquired a very high reputation for breaking young +slaves, and this reputation was of immense value to him. It enabled him +to get his farm tilled with much less expense to himself than he could +have had it done without such a reputation. Some slaveholders thought +it not much loss to allow Mr. Covey to have their slaves one year, for +the sake of the training to which they were subjected, without any +other compensation. He could hire young help with great ease, in +consequence of this reputation. Added to the natural good qualities of +Mr. Covey, he was a professor of religion—a pious soul—a member and a +class-leader in the Methodist church. All of this added weight to his +reputation as a “nigger-breaker.” I was aware of all the facts, having +been made acquainted with them by a young man who had lived there. I +nevertheless made the change gladly; for I was sure of getting enough +to eat, which is not the smallest consideration to a hungry man. + + + + + CHAPTER X + + +I had left Master Thomas’s house, and went to live with Mr. Covey, on +the 1st of January, 1833. I was now, for the first time in my life, a +field hand. In my new employment, I found myself even more awkward than +a country boy appeared to be in a large city. I had been at my new home +but one week before Mr. Covey gave me a very severe whipping, cutting +my back, causing the blood to run, and raising ridges on my flesh as +large as my little finger. The details of this affair are as follows: +Mr. Covey sent me, very early in the morning of one of our coldest days +in the month of January, to the woods, to get a load of wood. He gave +me a team of unbroken oxen. He told me which was the in-hand ox, and +which the off-hand one. He then tied the end of a large rope around the +horns of the in-hand ox, and gave me the other end of it, and told me, +if the oxen started to run, that I must hold on upon the rope. I had +never driven oxen before, and of course I was very awkward. I, however, +succeeded in getting to the edge of the woods with little difficulty; +but I had got a very few rods into the woods, when the oxen took +fright, and started full tilt, carrying the cart against trees, and +over stumps, in the most frightful manner. I expected every moment that +my brains would be dashed out against the trees. After running thus for +a considerable distance, they finally upset the cart, dashing it with +great force against a tree, and threw themselves into a dense thicket. +How I escaped death, I do not know. There I was, entirely alone, in a +thick wood, in a place new to me. My cart was upset and shattered, my +oxen were entangled among the young trees, and there was none to help +me. After a long spell of effort, I succeeded in getting my cart +righted, my oxen disentangled, and again yoked to the cart. I now +proceeded with my team to the place where I had, the day before, been +chopping wood, and loaded my cart pretty heavily, thinking in this way +to tame my oxen. I then proceeded on my way home. I had now consumed +one half of the day. I got out of the woods safely, and now felt out of +danger. I stopped my oxen to open the woods gate; and just as I did so, +before I could get hold of my ox-rope, the oxen again started, rushed +through the gate, catching it between the wheel and the body of the +cart, tearing it to pieces, and coming within a few inches of crushing +me against the gate-post. Thus twice, in one short day, I escaped death +by the merest chance. On my return, I told Mr. Covey what had happened, +and how it happened. He ordered me to return to the woods again +immediately. I did so, and he followed on after me. Just as I got into +the woods, he came up and told me to stop my cart, and that he would +teach me how to trifle away my time, and break gates. He then went to a +large gum-tree, and with his axe cut three large switches, and, after +trimming them up neatly with his pocketknife, he ordered me to take off +my clothes. I made him no answer, but stood with my clothes on. He +repeated his order. I still made him no answer, nor did I move to strip +myself. Upon this he rushed at me with the fierceness of a tiger, tore +off my clothes, and lashed me till he had worn out his switches, +cutting me so savagely as to leave the marks visible for a long time +after. This whipping was the first of a number just like it, and for +similar offences. + +I lived with Mr. Covey one year. During the first six months, of that +year, scarce a week passed without his whipping me. I was seldom free +from a sore back. My awkwardness was almost always his excuse for +whipping me. We were worked fully up to the point of endurance. Long +before day we were up, our horses fed, and by the first approach of day +we were off to the field with our hoes and ploughing teams. Mr. Covey +gave us enough to eat, but scarce time to eat it. We were often less +than five minutes taking our meals. We were often in the field from the +first approach of day till its last lingering ray had left us; and at +saving-fodder time, midnight often caught us in the field binding +blades. + +Covey would be out with us. The way he used to stand it, was this. He +would spend the most of his afternoons in bed. He would then come out +fresh in the evening, ready to urge us on with his words, example, and +frequently with the whip. Mr. Covey was one of the few slaveholders who +could and did work with his hands. He was a hard-working man. He knew +by himself just what a man or a boy could do. There was no deceiving +him. His work went on in his absence almost as well as in his presence; +and he had the faculty of making us feel that he was ever present with +us. This he did by surprising us. He seldom approached the spot where +we were at work openly, if he could do it secretly. He always aimed at +taking us by surprise. Such was his cunning, that we used to call him, +among ourselves, “the snake.” When we were at work in the cornfield, he +would sometimes crawl on his hands and knees to avoid detection, and +all at once he would rise nearly in our midst, and scream out, “Ha, ha! +Come, come! Dash on, dash on!” This being his mode of attack, it was +never safe to stop a single minute. His comings were like a thief in +the night. He appeared to us as being ever at hand. He was under every +tree, behind every stump, in every bush, and at every window, on the +plantation. He would sometimes mount his horse, as if bound to St. +Michael’s, a distance of seven miles, and in half an hour afterwards +you would see him coiled up in the corner of the wood-fence, watching +every motion of the slaves. He would, for this purpose, leave his horse +tied up in the woods. Again, he would sometimes walk up to us, and give +us orders as though he was upon the point of starting on a long +journey, turn his back upon us, and make as though he was going to the +house to get ready; and, before he would get half way thither, he would +turn short and crawl into a fence-corner, or behind some tree, and +there watch us till the going down of the sun. + +Mr. Covey’s _forte_ consisted in his power to deceive. His life was +devoted to planning and perpetrating the grossest deceptions. Every +thing he possessed in the shape of learning or religion, he made +conform to his disposition to deceive. He seemed to think himself equal +to deceiving the Almighty. He would make a short prayer in the morning, +and a long prayer at night; and, strange as it may seem, few men would +at times appear more devotional than he. The exercises of his family +devotions were always commenced with singing; and, as he was a very +poor singer himself, the duty of raising the hymn generally came upon +me. He would read his hymn, and nod at me to commence. I would at times +do so; at others, I would not. My non-compliance would almost always +produce much confusion. To show himself independent of me, he would +start and stagger through with his hymn in the most discordant manner. +In this state of mind, he prayed with more than ordinary spirit. Poor +man! such was his disposition, and success at deceiving, I do verily +believe that he sometimes deceived himself into the solemn belief, that +he was a sincere worshipper of the most high God; and this, too, at a +time when he may be said to have been guilty of compelling his woman +slave to commit the sin of adultery. The facts in the case are these: +Mr. Covey was a poor man; he was just commencing in life; he was only +able to buy one slave; and, shocking as is the fact, he bought her, as +he said, for _a breeder_. This woman was named Caroline. Mr. Covey +bought her from Mr. Thomas Lowe, about six miles from St. Michael’s. +She was a large, able-bodied woman, about twenty years old. She had +already given birth to one child, which proved her to be just what he +wanted. After buying her, he hired a married man of Mr. Samuel +Harrison, to live with him one year; and him he used to fasten up with +her every night! The result was, that, at the end of the year, the +miserable woman gave birth to twins. At this result Mr. Covey seemed to +be highly pleased, both with the man and the wretched woman. Such was +his joy, and that of his wife, that nothing they could do for Caroline +during her confinement was too good, or too hard, to be done. The +children were regarded as being quite an addition to his wealth. + +If at any one time of my life more than another, I was made to drink +the bitterest dregs of slavery, that time was during the first six +months of my stay with Mr. Covey. We were worked in all weathers. It +was never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, blow, hail, or +snow, too hard for us to work in the field. Work, work, work, was +scarcely more the order of the day than of the night. The longest days +were too short for him, and the shortest nights too long for him. I was +somewhat unmanageable when I first went there, but a few months of this +discipline tamed me. Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken +in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my +intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful +spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed +in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute! + +Sunday was my only leisure time. I spent this in a sort of beast-like +stupor, between sleep and wake, under some large tree. At times I would +rise up, a flash of energetic freedom would dart through my soul, +accompanied with a faint beam of hope, that flickered for a moment, and +then vanished. I sank down again, mourning over my wretched condition. +I was sometimes prompted to take my life, and that of Covey, but was +prevented by a combination of hope and fear. My sufferings on this +plantation seem now like a dream rather than a stern reality. + +Our house stood within a few rods of the Chesapeake Bay, whose broad +bosom was ever white with sails from every quarter of the habitable +globe. Those beautiful vessels, robed in purest white, so delightful to +the eye of freemen, were to me so many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and +torment me with thoughts of my wretched condition. I have often, in the +deep stillness of a summer’s Sabbath, stood all alone upon the lofty +banks of that noble bay, and traced, with saddened heart and tearful +eye, the countless number of sails moving off to the mighty ocean. The +sight of these always affected me powerfully. My thoughts would compel +utterance; and there, with no audience but the Almighty, I would pour +out my soul’s complaint, in my rude way, with an apostrophe to the +moving multitude of ships:— + +“You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my +chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I +sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swift-winged angels, +that fly round the world; I am confined in bands of iron! O that I were +free! O, that I were on one of your gallant decks, and under your +protecting wing! Alas! betwixt me and you, the turbid waters roll. Go +on, go on. O that I could also go! Could I but swim! If I could fly! O, +why was I born a man, of whom to make a brute! The glad ship is gone; +she hides in the dim distance. I am left in the hottest hell of +unending slavery. O God, save me! God, deliver me! Let me be free! Is +there any God? Why am I a slave? I will run away. I will not stand it. +Get caught, or get clear, I’ll try it. I had as well die with ague as +the fever. I have only one life to lose. I had as well be killed +running as die standing. Only think of it; one hundred miles straight +north, and I am free! Try it? Yes! God helping me, I will. It cannot be +that I shall live and die a slave. I will take to the water. This very +bay shall yet bear me into freedom. The steamboats steered in a +north-east course from North Point. I will do the same; and when I get +to the head of the bay, I will turn my canoe adrift, and walk straight +through Delaware into Pennsylvania. When I get there, I shall not be +required to have a pass; I can travel without being disturbed. Let but +the first opportunity offer, and, come what will, I am off. Meanwhile, +I will try to bear up under the yoke. I am not the only slave in the +world. Why should I fret? I can bear as much as any of them. Besides, I +am but a boy, and all boys are bound to some one. It may be that my +misery in slavery will only increase my happiness when I get free. +There is a better day coming.” + +Thus I used to think, and thus I used to speak to myself; goaded almost +to madness at one moment, and at the next reconciling myself to my +wretched lot. + +I have already intimated that my condition was much worse, during the +first six months of my stay at Mr. Covey’s, than in the last six. The +circumstances leading to the change in Mr. Covey’s course toward me +form an epoch in my humble history. You have seen how a man was made a +slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man. On one of the hottest +days of the month of August, 1833, Bill Smith, William Hughes, a slave +named Eli, and myself, were engaged in fanning wheat. Hughes was +clearing the fanned wheat from before the fan. Eli was turning, Smith +was feeding, and I was carrying wheat to the fan. The work was simple, +requiring strength rather than intellect; yet, to one entirely unused +to such work, it came very hard. About three o’clock of that day, I +broke down; my strength failed me; I was seized with a violent aching +of the head, attended with extreme dizziness; I trembled in every limb. +Finding what was coming, I nerved myself up, feeling it would never do +to stop work. I stood as long as I could stagger to the hopper with +grain. When I could stand no longer, I fell, and felt as if held down +by an immense weight. The fan of course stopped; every one had his own +work to do; and no one could do the work of the other, and have his own +go on at the same time. + +Mr. Covey was at the house, about one hundred yards from the +treading-yard where we were fanning. On hearing the fan stop, he left +immediately, and came to the spot where we were. He hastily inquired +what the matter was. Bill answered that I was sick, and there was no +one to bring wheat to the fan. I had by this time crawled away under +the side of the post and rail-fence by which the yard was enclosed, +hoping to find relief by getting out of the sun. He then asked where I +was. He was told by one of the hands. He came to the spot, and, after +looking at me awhile, asked me what was the matter. I told him as well +as I could, for I scarce had strength to speak. He then gave me a +savage kick in the side, and told me to get up. I tried to do so, but +fell back in the attempt. He gave me another kick, and again told me to +rise. I again tried, and succeeded in gaining my feet; but, stooping to +get the tub with which I was feeding the fan, I again staggered and +fell. While down in this situation, Mr. Covey took up the hickory slat +with which Hughes had been striking off the half-bushel measure, and +with it gave me a heavy blow upon the head, making a large wound, and +the blood ran freely; and with this again told me to get up. I made no +effort to comply, having now made up my mind to let him do his worst. +In a short time after receiving this blow, my head grew better. Mr. +Covey had now left me to my fate. At this moment I resolved, for the +first time, to go to my master, enter a complaint, and ask his +protection. In order to do this, I must that afternoon walk seven +miles; and this, under the circumstances, was truly a severe +undertaking. I was exceedingly feeble; made so as much by the kicks and +blows which I received, as by the severe fit of sickness to which I had +been subjected. I, however, watched my chance, while Covey was looking +in an opposite direction, and started for St. Michael’s. I succeeded in +getting a considerable distance on my way to the woods, when Covey +discovered me, and called after me to come back, threatening what he +would do if I did not come. I disregarded both his calls and his +threats, and made my way to the woods as fast as my feeble state would +allow; and thinking I might be overhauled by him if I kept the road, I +walked through the woods, keeping far enough from the road to avoid +detection, and near enough to prevent losing my way. I had not gone far +before my little strength again failed me. I could go no farther. I +fell down, and lay for a considerable time. The blood was yet oozing +from the wound on my head. For a time I thought I should bleed to +death; and think now that I should have done so, but that the blood so +matted my hair as to stop the wound. After lying there about three +quarters of an hour, I nerved myself up again, and started on my way, +through bogs and briers, barefooted and bareheaded, tearing my feet +sometimes at nearly every step; and after a journey of about seven +miles, occupying some five hours to perform it, I arrived at master’s +store. I then presented an appearance enough to affect any but a heart +of iron. From the crown of my head to my feet, I was covered with +blood. My hair was all clotted with dust and blood; my shirt was stiff +with blood. I suppose I looked like a man who had escaped a den of wild +beasts, and barely escaped them. In this state I appeared before my +master, humbly entreating him to interpose his authority for my +protection. I told him all the circumstances as well as I could, and it +seemed, as I spoke, at times to affect him. He would then walk the +floor, and seek to justify Covey by saying he expected I deserved it. +He asked me what I wanted. I told him, to let me get a new home; that +as sure as I lived with Mr. Covey again, I should live with but to die +with him; that Covey would surely kill me; he was in a fair way for it. +Master Thomas ridiculed the idea that there was any danger of Mr. +Covey’s killing me, and said that he knew Mr. Covey; that he was a good +man, and that he could not think of taking me from him; that, should he +do so, he would lose the whole year’s wages; that I belonged to Mr. +Covey for one year, and that I must go back to him, come what might; +and that I must not trouble him with any more stories, or that he would +himself _get hold of me_. After threatening me thus, he gave me a very +large dose of salts, telling me that I might remain in St. Michael’s +that night, (it being quite late,) but that I must be off back to Mr. +Covey’s early in the morning; and that if I did not, he would _get hold +of me,_ which meant that he would whip me. I remained all night, and, +according to his orders, I started off to Covey’s in the morning, +(Saturday morning,) wearied in body and broken in spirit. I got no +supper that night, or breakfast that morning. I reached Covey’s about +nine o’clock; and just as I was getting over the fence that divided +Mrs. Kemp’s fields from ours, out ran Covey with his cowskin, to give +me another whipping. Before he could reach me, I succeeded in getting +to the cornfield; and as the corn was very high, it afforded me the +means of hiding. He seemed very angry, and searched for me a long time. +My behavior was altogether unaccountable. He finally gave up the chase, +thinking, I suppose, that I must come home for something to eat; he +would give himself no further trouble in looking for me. I spent that +day mostly in the woods, having the alternative before me,—to go home +and be whipped to death, or stay in the woods and be starved to death. +That night, I fell in with Sandy Jenkins, a slave with whom I was +somewhat acquainted. Sandy had a free wife who lived about four miles +from Mr. Covey’s; and it being Saturday, he was on his way to see her. +I told him my circumstances, and he very kindly invited me to go home +with him. I went home with him, and talked this whole matter over, and +got his advice as to what course it was best for me to pursue. I found +Sandy an old adviser. He told me, with great solemnity, I must go back +to Covey; but that before I went, I must go with him into another part +of the woods, where there was a certain _root,_ which, if I would take +some of it with me, carrying it _always on my right side,_ would render +it impossible for Mr. Covey, or any other white man, to whip me. He +said he had carried it for years; and since he had done so, he had +never received a blow, and never expected to while he carried it. I at +first rejected the idea, that the simple carrying of a root in my +pocket would have any such effect as he had said, and was not disposed +to take it; but Sandy impressed the necessity with much earnestness, +telling me it could do no harm, if it did no good. To please him, I at +length took the root, and, according to his direction, carried it upon +my right side. This was Sunday morning. I immediately started for home; +and upon entering the yard gate, out came Mr. Covey on his way to +meeting. He spoke to me very kindly, bade me drive the pigs from a lot +near by, and passed on towards the church. Now, this singular conduct +of Mr. Covey really made me begin to think that there was something in +the _root_ which Sandy had given me; and had it been on any other day +than Sunday, I could have attributed the conduct to no other cause than +the influence of that root; and as it was, I was half inclined to think +the _root_ to be something more than I at first had taken it to be. All +went well till Monday morning. On this morning, the virtue of the +_root_ was fully tested. Long before daylight, I was called to go and +rub, curry, and feed, the horses. I obeyed, and was glad to obey. But +whilst thus engaged, whilst in the act of throwing down some blades +from the loft, Mr. Covey entered the stable with a long rope; and just +as I was half out of the loft, he caught hold of my legs, and was about +tying me. As soon as I found what he was up to, I gave a sudden spring, +and as I did so, he holding to my legs, I was brought sprawling on the +stable floor. Mr. Covey seemed now to think he had me, and could do +what he pleased; but at this moment—from whence came the spirit I don’t +know—I resolved to fight; and, suiting my action to the resolution, I +seized Covey hard by the throat; and as I did so, I rose. He held on to +me, and I to him. My resistance was so entirely unexpected that Covey +seemed taken all aback. He trembled like a leaf. This gave me +assurance, and I held him uneasy, causing the blood to run where I +touched him with the ends of my fingers. Mr. Covey soon called out to +Hughes for help. Hughes came, and, while Covey held me, attempted to +tie my right hand. While he was in the act of doing so, I watched my +chance, and gave him a heavy kick close under the ribs. This kick +fairly sickened Hughes, so that he left me in the hands of Mr. Covey. +This kick had the effect of not only weakening Hughes, but Covey also. +When he saw Hughes bending over with pain, his courage quailed. He +asked me if I meant to persist in my resistance. I told him I did, come +what might; that he had used me like a brute for six months, and that I +was determined to be used so no longer. With that, he strove to drag me +to a stick that was lying just out of the stable door. He meant to +knock me down. But just as he was leaning over to get the stick, I +seized him with both hands by his collar, and brought him by a sudden +snatch to the ground. By this time, Bill came. Covey called upon him +for assistance. Bill wanted to know what he could do. Covey said, “Take +hold of him, take hold of him!” Bill said his master hired him out to +work, and not to help to whip me; so he left Covey and myself to fight +our own battle out. We were at it for nearly two hours. Covey at length +let me go, puffing and blowing at a great rate, saying that if I had +not resisted, he would not have whipped me half so much. The truth was, +that he had not whipped me at all. I considered him as getting entirely +the worst end of the bargain; for he had drawn no blood from me, but I +had from him. The whole six months afterwards, that I spent with Mr. +Covey, he never laid the weight of his finger upon me in anger. He +would occasionally say, he didn’t want to get hold of me again. “No,” +thought I, “you need not; for you will come off worse than you did +before.” + +This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning-point in my career as a +slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived +within me a sense of my own manhood. It recalled the departed +self-confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free. +The gratification afforded by the triumph was a full compensation for +whatever else might follow, even death itself. He only can understand +the deep satisfaction which I experienced, who has himself repelled by +force the bloody arm of slavery. I felt as I never felt before. It was +a glorious resurrection, from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of +freedom. My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance +took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a +slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in +fact. I did not hesitate to let it be known of me, that the white man +who expected to succeed in whipping, must also succeed in killing me. + +From this time I was never again what might be called fairly whipped, +though I remained a slave four years afterwards. I had several fights, +but was never whipped. + +It was for a long time a matter of surprise to me why Mr. Covey did not +immediately have me taken by the constable to the whipping-post, and +there regularly whipped for the crime of raising my hand against a +white man in defence of myself. And the only explanation I can now +think of does not entirely satisfy me; but such as it is, I will give +it. Mr. Covey enjoyed the most unbounded reputation for being a +first-rate overseer and negro-breaker. It was of considerable +importance to him. That reputation was at stake; and had he sent me—a +boy about sixteen years old—to the public whipping-post, his reputation +would have been lost; so, to save his reputation, he suffered me to go +unpunished. + +My term of actual service to Mr. Edward Covey ended on Christmas day, +1833. The days between Christmas and New Year’s day are allowed as +holidays; and, accordingly, we were not required to perform any labor, +more than to feed and take care of the stock. This time we regarded as +our own, by the grace of our masters; and we therefore used or abused +it nearly as we pleased. Those of us who had families at a distance, +were generally allowed to spend the whole six days in their society. +This time, however, was spent in various ways. The staid, sober, +thinking and industrious ones of our number would employ themselves in +making corn-brooms, mats, horse-collars, and baskets; and another class +of us would spend the time in hunting opossums, hares, and coons. But +by far the larger part engaged in such sports and merriments as playing +ball, wrestling, running foot-races, fiddling, dancing, and drinking +whisky; and this latter mode of spending the time was by far the most +agreeable to the feelings of our masters. A slave who would work during +the holidays was considered by our masters as scarcely deserving them. +He was regarded as one who rejected the favor of his master. It was +deemed a disgrace not to get drunk at Christmas; and he was regarded as +lazy indeed, who had not provided himself with the necessary means, +during the year, to get whisky enough to last him through Christmas. + +From what I know of the effect of these holidays upon the slave, I +believe them to be among the most effective means in the hands of the +slaveholder in keeping down the spirit of insurrection. Were the +slaveholders at once to abandon this practice, I have not the slightest +doubt it would lead to an immediate insurrection among the slaves. +These holidays serve as conductors, or safety-valves, to carry off the +rebellious spirit of enslaved humanity. But for these, the slave would +be forced up to the wildest desperation; and woe betide the +slaveholder, the day he ventures to remove or hinder the operation of +those conductors! I warn him that, in such an event, a spirit will go +forth in their midst, more to be dreaded than the most appalling +earthquake. + +The holidays are part and parcel of the gross fraud, wrong, and +inhumanity of slavery. They are professedly a custom established by the +benevolence of the slaveholders; but I undertake to say, it is the +result of selfishness, and one of the grossest frauds committed upon +the down-trodden slave. They do not give the slaves this time because +they would not like to have their work during its continuance, but +because they know it would be unsafe to deprive them of it. This will +be seen by the fact, that the slaveholders like to have their slaves +spend those days just in such a manner as to make them as glad of their +ending as of their beginning. Their object seems to be, to disgust +their slaves with freedom, by plunging them into the lowest depths of +dissipation. For instance, the slaveholders not only like to see the +slave drink of his own accord, but will adopt various plans to make him +drunk. One plan is, to make bets on their slaves, as to who can drink +the most whisky without getting drunk; and in this way they succeed in +getting whole multitudes to drink to excess. Thus, when the slave asks +for virtuous freedom, the cunning slaveholder, knowing his ignorance, +cheats him with a dose of vicious dissipation, artfully labelled with +the name of liberty. The most of us used to drink it down, and the +result was just what might be supposed; many of us were led to think +that there was little to choose between liberty and slavery. We felt, +and very properly too, that we had almost as well be slaves to man as +to rum. So, when the holidays ended, we staggered up from the filth of +our wallowing, took a long breath, and marched to the field,—feeling, +upon the whole, rather glad to go, from what our master had deceived us +into a belief was freedom, back to the arms of slavery. + +I have said that this mode of treatment is a part of the whole system +of fraud and inhumanity of slavery. It is so. The mode here adopted to +disgust the slave with freedom, by allowing him to see only the abuse +of it, is carried out in other things. For instance, a slave loves +molasses; he steals some. His master, in many cases, goes off to town, +and buys a large quantity; he returns, takes his whip, and commands the +slave to eat the molasses, until the poor fellow is made sick at the +very mention of it. The same mode is sometimes adopted to make the +slaves refrain from asking for more food than their regular allowance. +A slave runs through his allowance, and applies for more. His master is +enraged at him; but, not willing to send him off without food, gives +him more than is necessary, and compels him to eat it within a given +time. Then, if he complains that he cannot eat it, he is said to be +satisfied neither full nor fasting, and is whipped for being hard to +please! I have an abundance of such illustrations of the same +principle, drawn from my own observation, but think the cases I have +cited sufficient. The practice is a very common one. + +On the first of January, 1834, I left Mr. Covey, and went to live with +Mr. William Freeland, who lived about three miles from St. Michael’s. I +soon found Mr. Freeland a very different man from Mr. Covey. Though not +rich, he was what would be called an educated southern gentleman. Mr. +Covey, as I have shown, was a well-trained negro-breaker and +slave-driver. The former (slaveholder though he was) seemed to possess +some regard for honor, some reverence for justice, and some respect for +humanity. The latter seemed totally insensible to all such sentiments. +Mr. Freeland had many of the faults peculiar to slaveholders, such as +being very passionate and fretful; but I must do him the justice to +say, that he was exceedingly free from those degrading vices to which +Mr. Covey was constantly addicted. The one was open and frank, and we +always knew where to find him. The other was a most artful deceiver, +and could be understood only by such as were skilful enough to detect +his cunningly-devised frauds. Another advantage I gained in my new +master was, he made no pretensions to, or profession of, religion; and +this, in my opinion, was truly a great advantage. I assert most +unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for +the most horrid crimes,—a justifier of the most appalling barbarity,—a +sanctifier of the most hateful frauds,—and a dark shelter under, which +the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders +find the strongest protection. Were I to be again reduced to the chains +of slavery, next to that enslavement, I should regard being the slave +of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. For +of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders +are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most +cruel and cowardly, of all others. It was my unhappy lot not only to +belong to a religious slaveholder, but to live in a community of such +religionists. Very near Mr. Freeland lived the Rev. Daniel Weeden, and +in the same neighborhood lived the Rev. Rigby Hopkins. These were +members and ministers in the Reformed Methodist Church. Mr. Weeden +owned, among others, a woman slave, whose name I have forgotten. This +woman’s back, for weeks, was kept literally raw, made so by the lash of +this merciless, _religious_ wretch. He used to hire hands. His maxim +was, Behave well or behave ill, it is the duty of a master occasionally +to whip a slave, to remind him of his master’s authority. Such was his +theory, and such his practice. + +Mr. Hopkins was even worse than Mr. Weeden. His chief boast was his +ability to manage slaves. The peculiar feature of his government was +that of whipping slaves in advance of deserving it. He always managed +to have one or more of his slaves to whip every Monday morning. He did +this to alarm their fears, and strike terror into those who escaped. +His plan was to whip for the smallest offences, to prevent the +commission of large ones. Mr. Hopkins could always find some excuse for +whipping a slave. It would astonish one, unaccustomed to a slaveholding +life, to see with what wonderful ease a slaveholder can find things, of +which to make occasion to whip a slave. A mere look, word, or motion,—a +mistake, accident, or want of power,—are all matters for which a slave +may be whipped at any time. Does a slave look dissatisfied? It is said, +he has the devil in him, and it must be whipped out. Does he speak +loudly when spoken to by his master? Then he is getting high-minded, +and should be taken down a button-hole lower. Does he forget to pull +off his hat at the approach of a white person? Then he is wanting in +reverence, and should be whipped for it. Does he ever venture to +vindicate his conduct, when censured for it? Then he is guilty of +impudence,—one of the greatest crimes of which a slave can be guilty. +Does he ever venture to suggest a different mode of doing things from +that pointed out by his master? He is indeed presumptuous, and getting +above himself; and nothing less than a flogging will do for him. Does +he, while ploughing, break a plough,—or, while hoeing, break a hoe? It +is owing to his carelessness, and for it a slave must always be +whipped. Mr. Hopkins could always find something of this sort to +justify the use of the lash, and he seldom failed to embrace such +opportunities. There was not a man in the whole county, with whom the +slaves who had the getting their own home, would not prefer to live, +rather than with this Rev. Mr. Hopkins. And yet there was not a man any +where round, who made higher professions of religion, or was more +active in revivals,—more attentive to the class, love-feast, prayer and +preaching meetings, or more devotional in his family,—that prayed +earlier, later, louder, and longer,—than this same reverend +slave-driver, Rigby Hopkins. + +But to return to Mr. Freeland, and to my experience while in his +employment. He, like Mr. Covey, gave us enough to eat; but, unlike Mr. +Covey, he also gave us sufficient time to take our meals. He worked us +hard, but always between sunrise and sunset. He required a good deal of +work to be done, but gave us good tools with which to work. His farm +was large, but he employed hands enough to work it, and with ease, +compared with many of his neighbors. My treatment, while in his +employment, was heavenly, compared with what I experienced at the hands +of Mr. Edward Covey. + +Mr. Freeland was himself the owner of but two slaves. Their names were +Henry Harris and John Harris. The rest of his hands he hired. These +consisted of myself, Sandy Jenkins,[1] and Handy Caldwell. + + [1] This is the same man who gave me the roots to prevent my being + whipped by Mr. Covey. He was “a clever soul.” We used frequently to + talk about the fight with Covey, and as often as we did so, he would + claim my success as the result of the roots which he gave me. This + superstition is very common among the more ignorant slaves. A slave + seldom dies but that his death is attributed to trickery. + + +Henry and John were quite intelligent, and in a very little while after +I went there, I succeeded in creating in them a strong desire to learn +how to read. This desire soon sprang up in the others also. They very +soon mustered up some old spelling-books, and nothing would do but that +I must keep a Sabbath school. I agreed to do so, and accordingly +devoted my Sundays to teaching these my loved fellow-slaves how to +read. Neither of them knew his letters when I went there. Some of the +slaves of the neighboring farms found what was going on, and also +availed themselves of this little opportunity to learn to read. It was +understood, among all who came, that there must be as little display +about it as possible. It was necessary to keep our religious masters at +St. Michael’s unacquainted with the fact, that, instead of spending the +Sabbath in wrestling, boxing, and drinking whisky, we were trying to +learn how to read the will of God; for they had much rather see us +engaged in those degrading sports, than to see us behaving like +intellectual, moral, and accountable beings. My blood boils as I think +of the bloody manner in which Messrs. Wright Fairbanks and Garrison +West, both class-leaders, in connection with many others, rushed in +upon us with sticks and stones, and broke up our virtuous little +Sabbath school, at St. Michael’s—all calling themselves Christians! +humble followers of the Lord Jesus Christ! But I am again digressing. + +I held my Sabbath school at the house of a free colored man, whose name +I deem it imprudent to mention; for should it be known, it might +embarrass him greatly, though the crime of holding the school was +committed ten years ago. I had at one time over forty scholars, and +those of the right sort, ardently desiring to learn. They were of all +ages, though mostly men and women. I look back to those Sundays with an +amount of pleasure not to be expressed. They were great days to my +soul. The work of instructing my dear fellow-slaves was the sweetest +engagement with which I was ever blessed. We loved each other, and to +leave them at the close of the Sabbath was a severe cross indeed. When +I think that these precious souls are to-day shut up in the +prison-house of slavery, my feelings overcome me, and I am almost ready +to ask, “Does a righteous God govern the universe? and for what does he +hold the thunders in his right hand, if not to smite the oppressor, and +deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the spoiler?” These dear souls +came not to Sabbath school because it was popular to do so, nor did I +teach them because it was reputable to be thus engaged. Every moment +they spent in that school, they were liable to be taken up, and given +thirty-nine lashes. They came because they wished to learn. Their minds +had been starved by their cruel masters. They had been shut up in +mental darkness. I taught them, because it was the delight of my soul +to be doing something that looked like bettering the condition of my +race. I kept up my school nearly the whole year I lived with Mr. +Freeland; and, beside my Sabbath school, I devoted three evenings in +the week, during the winter, to teaching the slaves at home. And I have +the happiness to know, that several of those who came to Sabbath school +learned how to read; and that one, at least, is now free through my +agency. + +The year passed off smoothly. It seemed only about half as long as the +year which preceded it. I went through it without receiving a single +blow. I will give Mr. Freeland the credit of being the best master I +ever had, _till I became my own master._ For the ease with which I +passed the year, I was, however, somewhat indebted to the society of my +fellow-slaves. They were noble souls; they not only possessed loving +hearts, but brave ones. We were linked and interlinked with each other. +I loved them with a love stronger than any thing I have experienced +since. It is sometimes said that we slaves do not love and confide in +each other. In answer to this assertion, I can say, I never loved any +or confided in any people more than my fellow-slaves, and especially +those with whom I lived at Mr. Freeland’s. I believe we would have died +for each other. We never undertook to do any thing, of any importance, +without a mutual consultation. We never moved separately. We were one; +and as much so by our tempers and dispositions, as by the mutual +hardships to which we were necessarily subjected by our condition as +slaves. + +At the close of the year 1834, Mr. Freeland again hired me of my +master, for the year 1835. But, by this time, I began to want to live +_upon free land_ as well as _with Freeland;_ and I was no longer +content, therefore, to live with him or any other slaveholder. I began, +with the commencement of the year, to prepare myself for a final +struggle, which should decide my fate one way or the other. My tendency +was upward. I was fast approaching manhood, and year after year had +passed, and I was still a slave. These thoughts roused me—I must do +something. I therefore resolved that 1835 should not pass without +witnessing an attempt, on my part, to secure my liberty. But I was not +willing to cherish this determination alone. My fellow-slaves were dear +to me. I was anxious to have them participate with me in this, my +life-giving determination. I therefore, though with great prudence, +commenced early to ascertain their views and feelings in regard to +their condition, and to imbue their minds with thoughts of freedom. I +bent myself to devising ways and means for our escape, and meanwhile +strove, on all fitting occasions, to impress them with the gross fraud +and inhumanity of slavery. I went first to Henry, next to John, then to +the others. I found, in them all, warm hearts and noble spirits. They +were ready to hear, and ready to act when a feasible plan should be +proposed. This was what I wanted. I talked to them of our want of +manhood, if we submitted to our enslavement without at least one noble +effort to be free. We met often, and consulted frequently, and told our +hopes and fears, recounted the difficulties, real and imagined, which +we should be called on to meet. At times we were almost disposed to +give up, and try to content ourselves with our wretched lot; at others, +we were firm and unbending in our determination to go. Whenever we +suggested any plan, there was shrinking—the odds were fearful. Our path +was beset with the greatest obstacles; and if we succeeded in gaining +the end of it, our right to be free was yet questionable—we were yet +liable to be returned to bondage. We could see no spot, this side of +the ocean, where we could be free. We knew nothing about Canada. Our +knowledge of the north did not extend farther than New York; and to go +there, and be forever harassed with the frightful liability of being +returned to slavery—with the certainty of being treated tenfold worse +than before—the thought was truly a horrible one, and one which it was +not easy to overcome. The case sometimes stood thus: At every gate +through which we were to pass, we saw a watchman—at every ferry a +guard—on every bridge a sentinel—and in every wood a patrol. We were +hemmed in upon every side. Here were the difficulties, real or +imagined—the good to be sought, and the evil to be shunned. On the one +hand, there stood slavery, a stern reality, glaring frightfully upon +us,—its robes already crimsoned with the blood of millions, and even +now feasting itself greedily upon our own flesh. On the other hand, +away back in the dim distance, under the flickering light of the north +star, behind some craggy hill or snow-covered mountain, stood a +doubtful freedom—half frozen—beckoning us to come and share its +hospitality. This in itself was sometimes enough to stagger us; but +when we permitted ourselves to survey the road, we were frequently +appalled. Upon either side we saw grim death, assuming the most horrid +shapes. Now it was starvation, causing us to eat our own flesh;—now we +were contending with the waves, and were drowned;—now we were +overtaken, and torn to pieces by the fangs of the terrible bloodhound. +We were stung by scorpions, chased by wild beasts, bitten by snakes, +and finally, after having nearly reached the desired spot,—after +swimming rivers, encountering wild beasts, sleeping in the woods, +suffering hunger and nakedness,—we were overtaken by our pursuers, and, +in our resistance, we were shot dead upon the spot! I say, this picture +sometimes appalled us, and made us + +“rather bear those ills we had, +Than fly to others, that we knew not of.” + + +In coming to a fixed determination to run away, we did more than +Patrick Henry, when he resolved upon liberty or death. With us it was a +doubtful liberty at most, and almost certain death if we failed. For my +part, I should prefer death to hopeless bondage. + +Sandy, one of our number, gave up the notion, but still encouraged us. +Our company then consisted of Henry Harris, John Harris, Henry Bailey, +Charles Roberts, and myself. Henry Bailey was my uncle, and belonged to +my master. Charles married my aunt: he belonged to my master’s +father-in-law, Mr. William Hamilton. + +The plan we finally concluded upon was, to get a large canoe belonging +to Mr. Hamilton, and upon the Saturday night previous to Easter +holidays, paddle directly up the Chesapeake Bay. On our arrival at the +head of the bay, a distance of seventy or eighty miles from where we +lived, it was our purpose to turn our canoe adrift, and follow the +guidance of the north star till we got beyond the limits of Maryland. +Our reason for taking the water route was, that we were less liable to +be suspected as runaways; we hoped to be regarded as fishermen; +whereas, if we should take the land route, we should be subjected to +interruptions of almost every kind. Any one having a white face, and +being so disposed, could stop us, and subject us to examination. + +The week before our intended start, I wrote several protections, one +for each of us. As well as I can remember, they were in the following +words, to wit:— + +“This is to certify that I, the undersigned, have given the bearer, my +servant, full liberty to go to Baltimore, and spend the Easter +holidays. Written with mine own hand, &c., 1835. + + +“WILLIAM HAMILTON, +“Near St. Michael’s, in Talbot county, Maryland.” + + +We were not going to Baltimore; but, in going up the bay, we went +toward Baltimore, and these protections were only intended to protect +us while on the bay. + +As the time drew near for our departure, our anxiety became more and +more intense. It was truly a matter of life and death with us. The +strength of our determination was about to be fully tested. At this +time, I was very active in explaining every difficulty, removing every +doubt, dispelling every fear, and inspiring all with the firmness +indispensable to success in our undertaking; assuring them that half +was gained the instant we made the move; we had talked long enough; we +were now ready to move; if not now, we never should be; and if we did +not intend to move now, we had as well fold our arms, sit down, and +acknowledge ourselves fit only to be slaves. This, none of us were +prepared to acknowledge. Every man stood firm; and at our last meeting, +we pledged ourselves afresh, in the most solemn manner, that, at the +time appointed, we would certainly start in pursuit of freedom. This +was in the middle of the week, at the end of which we were to be off. +We went, as usual, to our several fields of labor, but with bosoms +highly agitated with thoughts of our truly hazardous undertaking. We +tried to conceal our feelings as much as possible; and I think we +succeeded very well. + +After a painful waiting, the Saturday morning, whose night was to +witness our departure, came. I hailed it with joy, bring what of +sadness it might. Friday night was a sleepless one for me. I probably +felt more anxious than the rest, because I was, by common consent, at +the head of the whole affair. The responsibility of success or failure +lay heavily upon me. The glory of the one, and the confusion of the +other, were alike mine. The first two hours of that morning were such +as I never experienced before, and hope never to again. Early in the +morning, we went, as usual, to the field. We were spreading manure; and +all at once, while thus engaged, I was overwhelmed with an +indescribable feeling, in the fulness of which I turned to Sandy, who +was near by, and said, “We are betrayed!” “Well,” said he, “that +thought has this moment struck me.” We said no more. I was never more +certain of any thing. + +The horn was blown as usual, and we went up from the field to the house +for breakfast. I went for the form, more than for want of any thing to +eat that morning. Just as I got to the house, in looking out at the +lane gate, I saw four white men, with two colored men. The white men +were on horseback, and the colored ones were walking behind, as if +tied. I watched them a few moments till they got up to our lane gate. +Here they halted, and tied the colored men to the gate-post. I was not +yet certain as to what the matter was. In a few moments, in rode Mr. +Hamilton, with a speed betokening great excitement. He came to the +door, and inquired if Master William was in. He was told he was at the +barn. Mr. Hamilton, without dismounting, rode up to the barn with +extraordinary speed. In a few moments, he and Mr. Freeland returned to +the house. By this time, the three constables rode up, and in great +haste dismounted, tied their horses, and met Master William and Mr. +Hamilton returning from the barn; and after talking awhile, they all +walked up to the kitchen door. There was no one in the kitchen but +myself and John. Henry and Sandy were up at the barn. Mr. Freeland put +his head in at the door, and called me by name, saying, there were some +gentlemen at the door who wished to see me. I stepped to the door, and +inquired what they wanted. They at once seized me, and, without giving +me any satisfaction, tied me—lashing my hands closely together. I +insisted upon knowing what the matter was. They at length said, that +they had learned I had been in a “scrape,” and that I was to be +examined before my master; and if their information proved false, I +should not be hurt. + +In a few moments, they succeeded in tying John. They then turned to +Henry, who had by this time returned, and commanded him to cross his +hands. “I won’t!” said Henry, in a firm tone, indicating his readiness +to meet the consequences of his refusal. “Won’t you?” said Tom Graham, +the constable. “No, I won’t!” said Henry, in a still stronger tone. +With this, two of the constables pulled out their shining pistols, and +swore, by their Creator, that they would make him cross his hands or +kill him. Each cocked his pistol, and, with fingers on the trigger, +walked up to Henry, saying, at the same time, if he did not cross his +hands, they would blow his damned heart out. “Shoot me, shoot me!” said +Henry; “you can’t kill me but once. Shoot, shoot,—and be damned! _I +won’t be tied!_” This he said in a tone of loud defiance; and at the +same time, with a motion as quick as lightning, he with one single +stroke dashed the pistols from the hand of each constable. As he did +this, all hands fell upon him, and, after beating him some time, they +finally overpowered him, and got him tied. + +During the scuffle, I managed, I know not how, to get my pass out, and, +without being discovered, put it into the fire. We were all now tied; +and just as we were to leave for Easton jail, Betsy Freeland, mother of +William Freeland, came to the door with her hands full of biscuits, and +divided them between Henry and John. She then delivered herself of a +speech, to the following effect:—addressing herself to me, she said, +“_You devil! You yellow devil!_ it was you that put it into the heads +of Henry and John to run away. But for you, you long-legged mulatto +devil! Henry nor John would never have thought of such a thing.” I made +no reply, and was immediately hurried off towards St. Michael’s. Just a +moment previous to the scuffle with Henry, Mr. Hamilton suggested the +propriety of making a search for the protections which he had +understood Frederick had written for himself and the rest. But, just at +the moment he was about carrying his proposal into effect, his aid was +needed in helping to tie Henry; and the excitement attending the +scuffle caused them either to forget, or to deem it unsafe, under the +circumstances, to search. So we were not yet convicted of the intention +to run away. + +When we got about half way to St. Michael’s, while the constables +having us in charge were looking ahead, Henry inquired of me what he +should do with his pass. I told him to eat it with his biscuit, and own +nothing; and we passed the word around, “_Own nothing;_” and “_Own +nothing!_” said we all. Our confidence in each other was unshaken. We +were resolved to succeed or fail together, after the calamity had +befallen us as much as before. We were now prepared for any thing. We +were to be dragged that morning fifteen miles behind horses, and then +to be placed in the Easton jail. When we reached St. Michael’s, we +underwent a sort of examination. We all denied that we ever intended to +run away. We did this more to bring out the evidence against us, than +from any hope of getting clear of being sold; for, as I have said, we +were ready for that. The fact was, we cared but little where we went, +so we went together. Our greatest concern was about separation. We +dreaded that more than any thing this side of death. We found the +evidence against us to be the testimony of one person; our master would +not tell who it was; but we came to a unanimous decision among +ourselves as to who their informant was. We were sent off to the jail +at Easton. When we got there, we were delivered up to the sheriff, Mr. +Joseph Graham, and by him placed in jail. Henry, John, and myself, were +placed in one room together—Charles, and Henry Bailey, in another. +Their object in separating us was to hinder concert. + +We had been in jail scarcely twenty minutes, when a swarm of slave +traders, and agents for slave traders, flocked into jail to look at us, +and to ascertain if we were for sale. Such a set of beings I never saw +before! I felt myself surrounded by so many fiends from perdition. A +band of pirates never looked more like their father, the devil. They +laughed and grinned over us, saying, “Ah, my boys! we have got you, +haven’t we?” And after taunting us in various ways, they one by one +went into an examination of us, with intent to ascertain our value. +They would impudently ask us if we would not like to have them for our +masters. We would make them no answer, and leave them to find out as +best they could. Then they would curse and swear at us, telling us that +they could take the devil out of us in a very little while, if we were +only in their hands. + +While in jail, we found ourselves in much more comfortable quarters +than we expected when we went there. We did not get much to eat, nor +that which was very good; but we had a good clean room, from the +windows of which we could see what was going on in the street, which +was very much better than though we had been placed in one of the dark, +damp cells. Upon the whole, we got along very well, so far as the jail +and its keeper were concerned. Immediately after the holidays were +over, contrary to all our expectations, Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Freeland +came up to Easton, and took Charles, the two Henrys, and John, out of +jail, and carried them home, leaving me alone. I regarded this +separation as a final one. It caused me more pain than any thing else +in the whole transaction. I was ready for any thing rather than +separation. I supposed that they had consulted together, and had +decided that, as I was the whole cause of the intention of the others +to run away, it was hard to make the innocent suffer with the guilty; +and that they had, therefore, concluded to take the others home, and +sell me, as a warning to the others that remained. It is due to the +noble Henry to say, he seemed almost as reluctant at leaving the prison +as at leaving home to come to the prison. But we knew we should, in all +probability, be separated, if we were sold; and since he was in their +hands, he concluded to go peaceably home. + +I was now left to my fate. I was all alone, and within the walls of a +stone prison. But a few days before, and I was full of hope. I expected +to have been safe in a land of freedom; but now I was covered with +gloom, sunk down to the utmost despair. I thought the possibility of +freedom was gone. I was kept in this way about one week, at the end of +which, Captain Auld, my master, to my surprise and utter astonishment, +came up, and took me out, with the intention of sending me, with a +gentleman of his acquaintance, into Alabama. But, from some cause or +other, he did not send me to Alabama, but concluded to send me back to +Baltimore, to live again with his brother Hugh, and to learn a trade. + +Thus, after an absence of three years and one month, I was once more +permitted to return to my old home at Baltimore. My master sent me +away, because there existed against me a very great prejudice in the +community, and he feared I might be killed. + +In a few weeks after I went to Baltimore, Master Hugh hired me to Mr. +William Gardner, an extensive ship-builder, on Fell’s Point. I was put +there to learn how to calk. It, however, proved a very unfavorable +place for the accomplishment of this object. Mr. Gardner was engaged +that spring in building two large man-of-war brigs, professedly for the +Mexican government. The vessels were to be launched in the July of that +year, and in failure thereof, Mr. Gardner was to lose a considerable +sum; so that when I entered, all was hurry. There was no time to learn +any thing. Every man had to do that which he knew how to do. In +entering the shipyard, my orders from Mr. Gardner were, to do whatever +the carpenters commanded me to do. This was placing me at the beck and +call of about seventy-five men. I was to regard all these as masters. +Their word was to be my law. My situation was a most trying one. At +times I needed a dozen pair of hands. I was called a dozen ways in the +space of a single minute. Three or four voices would strike my ear at +the same moment. It was—“Fred., come help me to cant this timber +here.”—“Fred., come carry this timber yonder.”—“Fred., bring that +roller here.”—“Fred., go get a fresh can of water.”—“Fred., come help +saw off the end of this timber.”—“Fred., go quick, and get the +crowbar.”—“Fred., hold on the end of this fall.”—“Fred., go to the +blacksmith’s shop, and get a new punch.”—“Hurra, Fred! run and bring me +a cold chisel.”—“I say, Fred., bear a hand, and get up a fire as quick +as lightning under that steam-box.”—“Halloo, nigger! come, turn this +grindstone.”—“Come, come! move, move! and _bowse_ this timber +forward.”—“I say, darky, blast your eyes, why don’t you heat up some +pitch?”—“Halloo! halloo! halloo!” (Three voices at the same time.) +“Come here!—Go there!—Hold on where you are! Damn you, if you move, +I’ll knock your brains out!” + +This was my school for eight months; and I might have remained there +longer, but for a most horrid fight I had with four of the white +apprentices, in which my left eye was nearly knocked out, and I was +horribly mangled in other respects. The facts in the case were these: +Until a very little while after I went there, white and black +ship-carpenters worked side by side, and no one seemed to see any +impropriety in it. All hands seemed to be very well satisfied. Many of +the black carpenters were freemen. Things seemed to be going on very +well. All at once, the white carpenters knocked off, and said they +would not work with free colored workmen. Their reason for this, as +alleged, was, that if free colored carpenters were encouraged, they +would soon take the trade into their own hands, and poor white men +would be thrown out of employment. They therefore felt called upon at +once to put a stop to it. And, taking advantage of Mr. Gardner’s +necessities, they broke off, swearing they would work no longer, unless +he would discharge his black carpenters. Now, though this did not +extend to me in form, it did reach me in fact. My fellow-apprentices +very soon began to feel it degrading to them to work with me. They +began to put on airs, and talk about the “niggers” taking the country, +saying we all ought to be killed; and, being encouraged by the +journeymen, they commenced making my condition as hard as they could, +by hectoring me around, and sometimes striking me. I, of course, kept +the vow I made after the fight with Mr. Covey, and struck back again, +regardless of consequences; and while I kept them from combining, I +succeeded very well; for I could whip the whole of them, taking them +separately. They, however, at length combined, and came upon me, armed +with sticks, stones, and heavy handspikes. One came in front with a +half brick. There was one at each side of me, and one behind me. While +I was attending to those in front, and on either side, the one behind +ran up with the handspike, and struck me a heavy blow upon the head. It +stunned me. I fell, and with this they all ran upon me, and fell to +beating me with their fists. I let them lay on for a while, gathering +strength. In an instant, I gave a sudden surge, and rose to my hands +and knees. Just as I did that, one of their number gave me, with his +heavy boot, a powerful kick in the left eye. My eyeball seemed to have +burst. When they saw my eye closed, and badly swollen, they left me. +With this I seized the handspike, and for a time pursued them. But here +the carpenters interfered, and I thought I might as well give it up. It +was impossible to stand my hand against so many. All this took place in +sight of not less than fifty white ship-carpenters, and not one +interposed a friendly word; but some cried, “Kill the damned nigger! +Kill him! kill him! He struck a white person.” I found my only chance +for life was in flight. I succeeded in getting away without an +additional blow, and barely so; for to strike a white man is death by +Lynch law,—and that was the law in Mr. Gardner’s ship-yard; nor is +there much of any other out of Mr. Gardner’s ship-yard. + +I went directly home, and told the story of my wrongs to Master Hugh; +and I am happy to say of him, irreligious as he was, his conduct was +heavenly, compared with that of his brother Thomas under similar +circumstances. He listened attentively to my narration of the +circumstances leading to the savage outrage, and gave many proofs of +his strong indignation at it. The heart of my once overkind mistress +was again melted into pity. My puffed-out eye and blood-covered face +moved her to tears. She took a chair by me, washed the blood from my +face, and, with a mother’s tenderness, bound up my head, covering the +wounded eye with a lean piece of fresh beef. It was almost compensation +for my suffering to witness, once more, a manifestation of kindness +from this, my once affectionate old mistress. Master Hugh was very much +enraged. He gave expression to his feelings by pouring out curses upon +the heads of those who did the deed. As soon as I got a little the +better of my bruises, he took me with him to Esquire Watson’s, on Bond +Street, to see what could be done about the matter. Mr. Watson inquired +who saw the assault committed. Master Hugh told him it was done in Mr. +Gardner’s ship-yard at midday, where there were a large company of men +at work. “As to that,” he said, “the deed was done, and there was no +question as to who did it.” His answer was, he could do nothing in the +case, unless some white man would come forward and testify. He could +issue no warrant on my word. If I had been killed in the presence of a +thousand colored people, their testimony combined would have been +insufficient to have arrested one of the murderers. Master Hugh, for +once, was compelled to say this state of things was too bad. Of course, +it was impossible to get any white man to volunteer his testimony in my +behalf, and against the white young men. Even those who may have +sympathized with me were not prepared to do this. It required a degree +of courage unknown to them to do so; for just at that time, the +slightest manifestation of humanity toward a colored person was +denounced as abolitionism, and that name subjected its bearer to +frightful liabilities. The watchwords of the bloody-minded in that +region, and in those days, were, “Damn the abolitionists!” and “Damn +the niggers!” There was nothing done, and probably nothing would have +been done if I had been killed. Such was, and such remains, the state +of things in the Christian city of Baltimore. + +Master Hugh, finding he could get no redress, refused to let me go back +again to Mr. Gardner. He kept me himself, and his wife dressed my wound +till I was again restored to health. He then took me into the ship-yard +of which he was foreman, in the employment of Mr. Walter Price. There I +was immediately set to calking, and very soon learned the art of using +my mallet and irons. In the course of one year from the time I left Mr. +Gardner’s, I was able to command the highest wages given to the most +experienced calkers. I was now of some importance to my master. I was +bringing him from six to seven dollars per week. I sometimes brought +him nine dollars per week: my wages were a dollar and a half a day. +After learning how to calk, I sought my own employment, made my own +contracts, and collected the money which I earned. My pathway became +much more smooth than before; my condition was now much more +comfortable. When I could get no calking to do, I did nothing. During +these leisure times, those old notions about freedom would steal over +me again. When in Mr. Gardner’s employment, I was kept in such a +perpetual whirl of excitement, I could think of nothing, scarcely, but +my life; and in thinking of my life, I almost forgot my liberty. I have +observed this in my experience of slavery,—that whenever my condition +was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only +increased my desire to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain +my freedom. I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is +necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his +moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the +power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in +slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be +brought to that only when he ceases to be a man. + +I was now getting, as I have said, one dollar and fifty cents per day. +I contracted for it; I earned it; it was paid to me; it was rightfully +my own; yet, upon each returning Saturday night, I was compelled to +deliver every cent of that money to Master Hugh. And why? Not because +he earned it,—not because he had any hand in earning it,—not because I +owed it to him,—nor because he possessed the slightest shadow of a +right to it; but solely because he had the power to compel me to give +it up. The right of the grim-visaged pirate upon the high seas is +exactly the same. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + +I now come to that part of my life during which I planned, and finally +succeeded in making, my escape from slavery. But before narrating any +of the peculiar circumstances, I deem it proper to make known my +intention not to state all the facts connected with the transaction. My +reasons for pursuing this course may be understood from the following: +First, were I to give a minute statement of all the facts, it is not +only possible, but quite probable, that others would thereby be +involved in the most embarrassing difficulties. Secondly, such a +statement would most undoubtedly induce greater vigilance on the part +of slaveholders than has existed heretofore among them; which would, of +course, be the means of guarding a door whereby some dear brother +bondman might escape his galling chains. I deeply regret the necessity +that impels me to suppress any thing of importance connected with my +experience in slavery. It would afford me great pleasure indeed, as +well as materially add to the interest of my narrative, were I at +liberty to gratify a curiosity, which I know exists in the minds of +many, by an accurate statement of all the facts pertaining to my most +fortunate escape. But I must deprive myself of this pleasure, and the +curious of the gratification which such a statement would afford. I +would allow myself to suffer under the greatest imputations which +evil-minded men might suggest, rather than exculpate myself, and +thereby run the hazard of closing the slightest avenue by which a +brother slave might clear himself of the chains and fetters of slavery. + +I have never approved of the very public manner in which some of our +western friends have conducted what they call the _underground +railroad,_ but which I think, by their open declarations, has been made +most emphatically the _upperground railroad._ I honor those good men +and women for their noble daring, and applaud them for willingly +subjecting themselves to bloody persecution, by openly avowing their +participation in the escape of slaves. I, however, can see very little +good resulting from such a course, either to themselves or the slaves +escaping; while, upon the other hand, I see and feel assured that those +open declarations are a positive evil to the slaves remaining, who are +seeking to escape. They do nothing towards enlightening the slave, +whilst they do much towards enlightening the master. They stimulate him +to greater watchfulness, and enhance his power to capture his slave. We +owe something to the slave south of the line as well as to those north +of it; and in aiding the latter on their way to freedom, we should be +careful to do nothing which would be likely to hinder the former from +escaping from slavery. I would keep the merciless slaveholder +profoundly ignorant of the means of flight adopted by the slave. I +would leave him to imagine himself surrounded by myriads of invisible +tormentors, ever ready to snatch from his infernal grasp his trembling +prey. Let him be left to feel his way in the dark; let darkness +commensurate with his crime hover over him; and let him feel that at +every step he takes, in pursuit of the flying bondman, he is running +the frightful risk of having his hot brains dashed out by an invisible +agency. Let us render the tyrant no aid; let us not hold the light by +which he can trace the footprints of our flying brother. But enough of +this. I will now proceed to the statement of those facts, connected +with my escape, for which I am alone responsible, and for which no one +can be made to suffer but myself. + +In the early part of the year 1838, I became quite restless. I could +see no reason why I should, at the end of each week, pour the reward of +my toil into the purse of my master. When I carried to him my weekly +wages, he would, after counting the money, look me in the face with a +robber-like fierceness, and ask, “Is this all?” He was satisfied with +nothing less than the last cent. He would, however, when I made him six +dollars, sometimes give me six cents, to encourage me. It had the +opposite effect. I regarded it as a sort of admission of my right to +the whole. The fact that he gave me any part of my wages was proof, to +my mind, that he believed me entitled to the whole of them. I always +felt worse for having received any thing; for I feared that the giving +me a few cents would ease his conscience, and make him feel himself to +be a pretty honorable sort of robber. My discontent grew upon me. I was +ever on the look-out for means of escape; and, finding no direct means, +I determined to try to hire my time, with a view of getting money with +which to make my escape. In the spring of 1838, when Master Thomas came +to Baltimore to purchase his spring goods, I got an opportunity, and +applied to him to allow me to hire my time. He unhesitatingly refused +my request, and told me this was another stratagem by which to escape. +He told me I could go nowhere but that he could get me; and that, in +the event of my running away, he should spare no pains in his efforts +to catch me. He exhorted me to content myself, and be obedient. He told +me, if I would be happy, I must lay out no plans for the future. He +said, if I behaved myself properly, he would take care of me. Indeed, +he advised me to complete thoughtlessness of the future, and taught me +to depend solely upon him for happiness. He seemed to see fully the +pressing necessity of setting aside my intellectual nature, in order to +contentment in slavery. But in spite of him, and even in spite of +myself, I continued to think, and to think about the injustice of my +enslavement, and the means of escape. + +About two months after this, I applied to Master Hugh for the privilege +of hiring my time. He was not acquainted with the fact that I had +applied to Master Thomas, and had been refused. He too, at first, +seemed disposed to refuse; but, after some reflection, he granted me +the privilege, and proposed the following terms: I was to be allowed +all my time, make all contracts with those for whom I worked, and find +my own employment; and, in return for this liberty, I was to pay him +three dollars at the end of each week; find myself in calking tools, +and in board and clothing. My board was two dollars and a half per +week. This, with the wear and tear of clothing and calking tools, made +my regular expenses about six dollars per week. This amount I was +compelled to make up, or relinquish the privilege of hiring my time. +Rain or shine, work or no work, at the end of each week the money must +be forthcoming, or I must give up my privilege. This arrangement, it +will be perceived, was decidedly in my master’s favor. It relieved him +of all need of looking after me. His money was sure. He received all +the benefits of slaveholding without its evils; while I endured all the +evils of a slave, and suffered all the care and anxiety of a freeman. I +found it a hard bargain. But, hard as it was, I thought it better than +the old mode of getting along. It was a step towards freedom to be +allowed to bear the responsibilities of a freeman, and I was determined +to hold on upon it. I bent myself to the work of making money. I was +ready to work at night as well as day, and by the most untiring +perseverance and industry, I made enough to meet my expenses, and lay +up a little money every week. I went on thus from May till August. +Master Hugh then refused to allow me to hire my time longer. The ground +for his refusal was a failure on my part, one Saturday night, to pay +him for my week’s time. This failure was occasioned by my attending a +camp meeting about ten miles from Baltimore. During the week, I had +entered into an engagement with a number of young friends to start from +Baltimore to the camp ground early Saturday evening; and being detained +by my employer, I was unable to get down to Master Hugh’s without +disappointing the company. I knew that Master Hugh was in no special +need of the money that night. I therefore decided to go to camp +meeting, and upon my return pay him the three dollars. I staid at the +camp meeting one day longer than I intended when I left. But as soon as +I returned, I called upon him to pay him what he considered his due. I +found him very angry; he could scarce restrain his wrath. He said he +had a great mind to give me a severe whipping. He wished to know how I +dared go out of the city without asking his permission. I told him I +hired my time and while I paid him the price which he asked for it, I +did not know that I was bound to ask him when and where I should go. +This reply troubled him; and, after reflecting a few moments, he turned +to me, and said I should hire my time no longer; that the next thing he +should know of, I would be running away. Upon the same plea, he told me +to bring my tools and clothing home forthwith. I did so; but instead of +seeking work, as I had been accustomed to do previously to hiring my +time, I spent the whole week without the performance of a single stroke +of work. I did this in retaliation. Saturday night, he called upon me +as usual for my week’s wages. I told him I had no wages; I had done no +work that week. Here we were upon the point of coming to blows. He +raved, and swore his determination to get hold of me. I did not allow +myself a single word; but was resolved, if he laid the weight of his +hand upon me, it should be blow for blow. He did not strike me, but +told me that he would find me in constant employment in future. I +thought the matter over during the next day, Sunday, and finally +resolved upon the third day of September, as the day upon which I would +make a second attempt to secure my freedom. I now had three weeks +during which to prepare for my journey. Early on Monday morning, before +Master Hugh had time to make any engagement for me, I went out and got +employment of Mr. Butler, at his ship-yard near the drawbridge, upon +what is called the City Block, thus making it unnecessary for him to +seek employment for me. At the end of the week, I brought him between +eight and nine dollars. He seemed very well pleased, and asked why I +did not do the same the week before. He little knew what my plans were. +My object in working steadily was to remove any suspicion he might +entertain of my intent to run away; and in this I succeeded admirably. +I suppose he thought I was never better satisfied with my condition +than at the very time during which I was planning my escape. The second +week passed, and again I carried him my full wages; and so well pleased +was he, that he gave me twenty-five cents, (quite a large sum for a +slaveholder to give a slave,) and bade me to make a good use of it. I +told him I would. + +Things went on without very smoothly indeed, but within there was +trouble. It is impossible for me to describe my feelings as the time of +my contemplated start drew near. I had a number of warmhearted friends +in Baltimore,—friends that I loved almost as I did my life,—and the +thought of being separated from them forever was painful beyond +expression. It is my opinion that thousands would escape from slavery, +who now remain, but for the strong cords of affection that bind them to +their friends. The thought of leaving my friends was decidedly the most +painful thought with which I had to contend. The love of them was my +tender point, and shook my decision more than all things else. Besides +the pain of separation, the dread and apprehension of a failure +exceeded what I had experienced at my first attempt. The appalling +defeat I then sustained returned to torment me. I felt assured that, if +I failed in this attempt, my case would be a hopeless one—it would seal +my fate as a slave forever. I could not hope to get off with any thing +less than the severest punishment, and being placed beyond the means of +escape. It required no very vivid imagination to depict the most +frightful scenes through which I should have to pass, in case I failed. +The wretchedness of slavery, and the blessedness of freedom, were +perpetually before me. It was life and death with me. But I remained +firm, and, according to my resolution, on the third day of September, +1838, I left my chains, and succeeded in reaching New York without the +slightest interruption of any kind. How I did so,—what means I +adopted,—what direction I travelled, and by what mode of conveyance,—I +must leave unexplained, for the reasons before mentioned. + +I have been frequently asked how I felt when I found myself in a free +State. I have never been able to answer the question with any +satisfaction to myself. It was a moment of the highest excitement I +ever experienced. I suppose I felt as one may imagine the unarmed +mariner to feel when he is rescued by a friendly man-of-war from the +pursuit of a pirate. In writing to a dear friend, immediately after my +arrival at New York, I said I felt like one who had escaped a den of +hungry lions. This state of mind, however, very soon subsided; and I +was again seized with a feeling of great insecurity and loneliness. I +was yet liable to be taken back, and subjected to all the tortures of +slavery. This in itself was enough to damp the ardor of my enthusiasm. +But the loneliness overcame me. There I was in the midst of thousands, +and yet a perfect stranger; without home and without friends, in the +midst of thousands of my own brethren—children of a common Father, and +yet I dared not to unfold to any one of them my sad condition. I was +afraid to speak to any one for fear of speaking to the wrong one, and +thereby falling into the hands of money-loving kidnappers, whose +business it was to lie in wait for the panting fugitive, as the +ferocious beasts of the forest lie in wait for their prey. The motto +which I adopted when I started from slavery was this—“Trust no man!” I +saw in every white man an enemy, and in almost every colored man cause +for distrust. It was a most painful situation; and, to understand it, +one must needs experience it, or imagine himself in similar +circumstances. Let him be a fugitive slave in a strange land—a land +given up to be the hunting-ground for slaveholders—whose inhabitants +are legalized kidnappers—where he is every moment subjected to the +terrible liability of being seized upon by his fellowmen, as the +hideous crocodile seizes upon his prey!—I say, let him place himself in +my situation—without home or friends—without money or credit—wanting +shelter, and no one to give it—wanting bread, and no money to buy +it,—and at the same time let him feel that he is pursued by merciless +men-hunters, and in total darkness as to what to do, where to go, or +where to stay,—perfectly helpless both as to the means of defence and +means of escape,—in the midst of plenty, yet suffering the terrible +gnawings of hunger,—in the midst of houses, yet having no home,—among +fellow-men, yet feeling as if in the midst of wild beasts, whose +greediness to swallow up the trembling and half-famished fugitive is +only equalled by that with which the monsters of the deep swallow up +the helpless fish upon which they subsist,—I say, let him be placed in +this most trying situation,—the situation in which I was placed,—then, +and not till then, will he fully appreciate the hardships of, and know +how to sympathize with, the toil-worn and whip-scarred fugitive slave. + +Thank Heaven, I remained but a short time in this distressed situation. +I was relieved from it by the humane hand of _Mr. David Ruggles_, whose +vigilance, kindness, and perseverance, I shall never forget. I am glad +of an opportunity to express, as far as words can, the love and +gratitude I bear him. Mr. Ruggles is now afflicted with blindness, and +is himself in need of the same kind offices which he was once so +forward in the performance of toward others. I had been in New York but +a few days, when Mr. Ruggles sought me out, and very kindly took me to +his boarding-house at the corner of Church and Lespenard Streets. Mr. +Ruggles was then very deeply engaged in the memorable _Darg_ case, as +well as attending to a number of other fugitive slaves, devising ways +and means for their successful escape; and, though watched and hemmed +in on almost every side, he seemed to be more than a match for his +enemies. + +Very soon after I went to Mr. Ruggles, he wished to know of me where I +wanted to go; as he deemed it unsafe for me to remain in New York. I +told him I was a calker, and should like to go where I could get work. +I thought of going to Canada; but he decided against it, and in favor +of my going to New Bedford, thinking I should be able to get work there +at my trade. At this time, Anna,[2] my intended wife, came on; for I +wrote to her immediately after my arrival at New York, (notwithstanding +my homeless, houseless, and helpless condition,) informing her of my +successful flight, and wishing her to come on forthwith. In a few days +after her arrival, Mr. Ruggles called in the Rev. J. W. C. Pennington, +who, in the presence of Mr. Ruggles, Mrs. Michaels, and two or three +others, performed the marriage ceremony, and gave us a certificate, of +which the following is an exact copy:— + +“This may certify, that I joined together in holy matrimony Frederick +Johnson[3] and Anna Murray, as man and wife, in the presence of Mr. +David Ruggles and Mrs. Michaels. + + +“JAMES W. C. PENNINGTON +“_New York, Sept_. 15, 1838” + + + [2] She was free. + + + [3] I had changed my name from Frederick _Bailey_ to that of + _Johnson_. + + +Upon receiving this certificate, and a five-dollar bill from Mr. +Ruggles, I shouldered one part of our baggage, and Anna took up the +other, and we set out forthwith to take passage on board of the +steamboat John W. Richmond for Newport, on our way to New Bedford. Mr. +Ruggles gave me a letter to a Mr. Shaw in Newport, and told me, in case +my money did not serve me to New Bedford, to stop in Newport and obtain +further assistance; but upon our arrival at Newport, we were so anxious +to get to a place of safety, that, notwithstanding we lacked the +necessary money to pay our fare, we decided to take seats in the stage, +and promise to pay when we got to New Bedford. We were encouraged to do +this by two excellent gentlemen, residents of New Bedford, whose names +I afterward ascertained to be Joseph Ricketson and William C. Taber. +They seemed at once to understand our circumstances, and gave us such +assurance of their friendliness as put us fully at ease in their +presence. + +It was good indeed to meet with such friends, at such a time. Upon +reaching New Bedford, we were directed to the house of Mr. Nathan +Johnson, by whom we were kindly received, and hospitably provided for. +Both Mr. and Mrs. Johnson took a deep and lively interest in our +welfare. They proved themselves quite worthy of the name of +abolitionists. When the stage-driver found us unable to pay our fare, +he held on upon our baggage as security for the debt. I had but to +mention the fact to Mr. Johnson, and he forthwith advanced the money. + +We now began to feel a degree of safety, and to prepare ourselves for +the duties and responsibilities of a life of freedom. On the morning +after our arrival at New Bedford, while at the breakfast-table, the +question arose as to what name I should be called by. The name given me +by my mother was, “Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey.” I, however, +had dispensed with the two middle names long before I left Maryland so +that I was generally known by the name of “Frederick Bailey.” I started +from Baltimore bearing the name of “Stanley.” When I got to New York, I +again changed my name to “Frederick Johnson,” and thought that would be +the last change. But when I got to New Bedford, I found it necessary +again to change my name. The reason of this necessity was, that there +were so many Johnsons in New Bedford, it was already quite difficult to +distinguish between them. I gave Mr. Johnson the privilege of choosing +me a name, but told him he must not take from me the name of +“Frederick.” I must hold on to that, to preserve a sense of my +identity. Mr. Johnson had just been reading the “Lady of the Lake,” and +at once suggested that my name be “Douglass.” From that time until now +I have been called “Frederick Douglass;” and as I am more widely known +by that name than by either of the others, I shall continue to use it +as my own. + +I was quite disappointed at the general appearance of things in New +Bedford. The impression which I had received respecting the character +and condition of the people of the north, I found to be singularly +erroneous. I had very strangely supposed, while in slavery, that few of +the comforts, and scarcely any of the luxuries, of life were enjoyed at +the north, compared with what were enjoyed by the slaveholders of the +south. I probably came to this conclusion from the fact that northern +people owned no slaves. I supposed that they were about upon a level +with the non-slaveholding population of the south. I knew _they_ were +exceedingly poor, and I had been accustomed to regard their poverty as +the necessary consequence of their being non-slaveholders. I had +somehow imbibed the opinion that, in the absence of slaves, there could +be no wealth, and very little refinement. And upon coming to the north, +I expected to meet with a rough, hard-handed, and uncultivated +population, living in the most Spartan-like simplicity, knowing nothing +of the ease, luxury, pomp, and grandeur of southern slaveholders. Such +being my conjectures, any one acquainted with the appearance of New +Bedford may very readily infer how palpably I must have seen my +mistake. + +In the afternoon of the day when I reached New Bedford, I visited the +wharves, to take a view of the shipping. Here I found myself surrounded +with the strongest proofs of wealth. Lying at the wharves, and riding +in the stream, I saw many ships of the finest model, in the best order, +and of the largest size. Upon the right and left, I was walled in by +granite warehouses of the widest dimensions, stowed to their utmost +capacity with the necessaries and comforts of life. Added to this, +almost every body seemed to be at work, but noiselessly so, compared +with what I had been accustomed to in Baltimore. There were no loud +songs heard from those engaged in loading and unloading ships. I heard +no deep oaths or horrid curses on the laborer. I saw no whipping of +men; but all seemed to go smoothly on. Every man appeared to understand +his work, and went at it with a sober, yet cheerful earnestness, which +betokened the deep interest which he felt in what he was doing, as well +as a sense of his own dignity as a man. To me this looked exceedingly +strange. From the wharves I strolled around and over the town, gazing +with wonder and admiration at the splendid churches, beautiful +dwellings, and finely-cultivated gardens; evincing an amount of wealth, +comfort, taste, and refinement, such as I had never seen in any part of +slaveholding Maryland. + +Every thing looked clean, new, and beautiful. I saw few or no +dilapidated houses, with poverty-stricken inmates; no half-naked +children and barefooted women, such as I had been accustomed to see in +Hillsborough, Easton, St. Michael’s, and Baltimore. The people looked +more able, stronger, healthier, and happier, than those of Maryland. I +was for once made glad by a view of extreme wealth, without being +saddened by seeing extreme poverty. But the most astonishing as well as +the most interesting thing to me was the condition of the colored +people, a great many of whom, like myself, had escaped thither as a +refuge from the hunters of men. I found many, who had not been seven +years out of their chains, living in finer houses, and evidently +enjoying more of the comforts of life, than the average of slaveholders +in Maryland. I will venture to assert, that my friend Mr. Nathan +Johnson (of whom I can say with a grateful heart, “I was hungry, and he +gave me meat; I was thirsty, and he gave me drink; I was a stranger, +and he took me in”) lived in a neater house; dined at a better table; +took, paid for, and read, more newspapers; better understood the moral, +religious, and political character of the nation,—than nine tenths of +the slaveholders in Talbot county Maryland. Yet Mr. Johnson was a +working man. His hands were hardened by toil, and not his alone, but +those also of Mrs. Johnson. I found the colored people much more +spirited than I had supposed they would be. I found among them a +determination to protect each other from the blood-thirsty kidnapper, +at all hazards. Soon after my arrival, I was told of a circumstance +which illustrated their spirit. A colored man and a fugitive slave were +on unfriendly terms. The former was heard to threaten the latter with +informing his master of his whereabouts. Straightway a meeting was +called among the colored people, under the stereotyped notice, +“Business of importance!” The betrayer was invited to attend. The +people came at the appointed hour, and organized the meeting by +appointing a very religious old gentleman as president, who, I believe, +made a prayer, after which he addressed the meeting as follows: +“_Friends, we have got him here, and I would recommend that you young +men just take him outside the door, and kill him!_” With this, a number +of them bolted at him; but they were intercepted by some more timid +than themselves, and the betrayer escaped their vengeance, and has not +been seen in New Bedford since. I believe there have been no more such +threats, and should there be hereafter, I doubt not that death would be +the consequence. + +I found employment, the third day after my arrival, in stowing a sloop +with a load of oil. It was new, dirty, and hard work for me; but I went +at it with a glad heart and a willing hand. I was now my own master. It +was a happy moment, the rapture of which can be understood only by +those who have been slaves. It was the first work, the reward of which +was to be entirely my own. There was no Master Hugh standing ready, the +moment I earned the money, to rob me of it. I worked that day with a +pleasure I had never before experienced. I was at work for myself and +newly-married wife. It was to me the starting-point of a new existence. +When I got through with that job, I went in pursuit of a job of +calking; but such was the strength of prejudice against color, among +the white calkers, that they refused to work with me, and of course I +could get no employment.[4] Finding my trade of no immediate benefit, I +threw off my calking habiliments, and prepared myself to do any kind of +work I could get to do. Mr. Johnson kindly let me have his wood-horse +and saw, and I very soon found myself a plenty of work. There was no +work too hard—none too dirty. I was ready to saw wood, shovel coal, +carry wood, sweep the chimney, or roll oil casks,—all of which I did +for nearly three years in New Bedford, before I became known to the +anti-slavery world. + + [4] I am told that colored persons can now get employment at calking + in New Bedford—a result of anti-slavery effort. + + +In about four months after I went to New Bedford, there came a young +man to me, and inquired if I did not wish to take the “Liberator.” I +told him I did; but, just having made my escape from slavery, I +remarked that I was unable to pay for it then. I, however, finally +became a subscriber to it. The paper came, and I read it from week to +week with such feelings as it would be quite idle for me to attempt to +describe. The paper became my meat and my drink. My soul was set all on +fire. Its sympathy for my brethren in bonds—its scathing denunciations +of slaveholders—its faithful exposures of slavery—and its powerful +attacks upon the upholders of the institution—sent a thrill of joy +through my soul, such as I had never felt before! + +I had not long been a reader of the “Liberator,” before I got a pretty +correct idea of the principles, measures and spirit of the anti-slavery +reform. I took right hold of the cause. I could do but little; but what +I could, I did with a joyful heart, and never felt happier than when in +an anti-slavery meeting. I seldom had much to say at the meetings, +because what I wanted to say was said so much better by others. But, +while attending an anti-slavery convention at Nantucket, on the 11th of +August, 1841, I felt strongly moved to speak, and was at the same time +much urged to do so by Mr. William C. Coffin, a gentleman who had heard +me speak in the colored people’s meeting at New Bedford. It was a +severe cross, and I took it up reluctantly. The truth was, I felt +myself a slave, and the idea of speaking to white people weighed me +down. I spoke but a few moments, when I felt a degree of freedom, and +said what I desired with considerable ease. From that time until now, I +have been engaged in pleading the cause of my brethren—with what +success, and with what devotion, I leave those acquainted with my +labors to decide. + + + + APPENDIX + + +I find, since reading over the foregoing Narrative, that I have, in +several instances, spoken in such a tone and manner, respecting +religion, as may possibly lead those unacquainted with my religious +views to suppose me an opponent of all religion. To remove the +liability of such misapprehension, I deem it proper to append the +following brief explanation. What I have said respecting and against +religion, I mean strictly to apply to the _slaveholding religion_ of +this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, +between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, +I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide, that to receive the +one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as +bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity +to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial +Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, +women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical +Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most +deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I +look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, +and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer case of +“stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in.” I +am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious +pomp and show, together with the horrible inconsistencies, which every +where surround me. We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers +for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members. The man who +wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on +Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. The +man who robs me of my earnings at the end of each week meets me as a +class-leader on Sunday morning, to show me the way of life, and the +path of salvation. He who sells my sister, for purposes of +prostitution, stands forth as the pious advocate of purity. He who +proclaims it a religious duty to read the Bible denies me the right of +learning to read the name of the God who made me. He who is the +religious advocate of marriage robs whole millions of its sacred +influence, and leaves them to the ravages of wholesale pollution. The +warm defender of the sacredness of the family relation is the same that +scatters whole families,—sundering husbands and wives, parents and +children, sisters and brothers,—leaving the hut vacant, and the hearth +desolate. We see the thief preaching against theft, and the adulterer +against adultery. We have men sold to build churches, women sold to +support the gospel, and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the _Poor +Heathen! All For The Glory Of God And The Good Of Souls!_ The slave +auctioneer’s bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, +and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the +religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals +in the slave-trade go hand in hand together. The slave prison and the +church stand near each other. The clanking of fetters and the rattling +of chains in the prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the +church, may be heard at the same time. The dealers in the bodies and +souls of men erect their stand in the presence of the pulpit, and they +mutually help each other. The dealer gives his blood-stained gold to +support the pulpit, and the pulpit, in return, covers his infernal +business with the garb of Christianity. Here we have religion and +robbery the allies of each other—devils dressed in angels’ robes, and +hell presenting the semblance of paradise. + +“Just God! and these are they,v Who minister at thine altar, God of +right! +Men who their hands, with prayer and blessing, lay +On Israel’s ark of light. + +“What! preach, and kidnap men? +Give thanks, and rob thy own afflicted poor? +Talk of thy glorious liberty, and then +Bolt hard the captive’s door? + +“What! servants of thy own +Merciful Son, who came to seek and save +The homeless and the outcast, fettering down +The tasked and plundered slave! + +“Pilate and Herod friends! +Chief priests and rulers, as of old, combine! +Just God and holy! is that church which lends +Strength to the spoiler thine?” + + +The Christianity of America is a Christianity, of whose votaries it may +be as truly said, as it was of the ancient scribes and Pharisees, “They +bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s +shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their +fingers. All their works they do for to be seen of men.—They love the +uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, . . . +. . . and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.—But woe unto you, scribes +and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against +men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are +entering to go in. Ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make +long prayers; therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Ye +compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye +make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.—Woe unto you, +scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, +and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, +mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the +other undone. Ye blind guides! which strain at a gnat, and swallow a +camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make +clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but within, they are +full of extortion and excess.—Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, +hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear +beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all +uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but +within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” + +Dark and terrible as is this picture, I hold it to be strictly true of +the overwhelming mass of professed Christians in America. They strain +at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Could any thing be more true of our +churches? They would be shocked at the proposition of fellowshipping a +_sheep_-stealer; and at the same time they hug to their communion a +_man_-stealer, and brand me with being an infidel, if I find fault with +them for it. They attend with Pharisaical strictness to the outward +forms of religion, and at the same time neglect the weightier matters +of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. They are always ready to +sacrifice, but seldom to show mercy. They are they who are represented +as professing to love God whom they have not seen, whilst they hate +their brother whom they have seen. They love the heathen on the other +side of the globe. They can pray for him, pay money to have the Bible +put into his hand, and missionaries to instruct him; while they despise +and totally neglect the heathen at their own doors. + +Such is, very briefly, my view of the religion of this land; and to +avoid any misunderstanding, growing out of the use of general terms, I +mean by the religion of this land, that which is revealed in the words, +deeds, and actions, of those bodies, north and south, calling +themselves Christian churches, and yet in union with slaveholders. It +is against religion, as presented by these bodies, that I have felt it +my duty to testify. + +I conclude these remarks by copying the following portrait of the +religion of the south, (which is, by communion and fellowship, the +religion of the north,) which I soberly affirm is “true to the life,” +and without caricature or the slightest exaggeration. It is said to +have been drawn, several years before the present anti-slavery +agitation began, by a northern Methodist preacher, who, while residing +at the south, had an opportunity to see slaveholding morals, manners, +and piety, with his own eyes. “Shall I not visit for these things? +saith the Lord. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?” + + +A PARODY + + +“Come, saints and sinners, hear me tell +How pious priests whip Jack and Nell, +And women buy and children sell, +And preach all sinners down to hell, +And sing of heavenly union. + +“They’ll bleat and baa, dona like goats, +Gorge down black sheep, and strain at motes, +Array their backs in fine black coats, +Then seize their negroes by their throats, +And choke, for heavenly union. + +“They’ll church you if you sip a dram, +And damn you if you steal a lamb; +Yet rob old Tony, Doll, and Sam, +Of human rights, and bread and ham; +Kidnapper’s heavenly union. + +“They’ll loudly talk of Christ’s reward, +And bind his image with a cord, +And scold, and swing the lash abhorred, +And sell their brother in the Lord +To handcuffed heavenly union. + +“They’ll read and sing a sacred song, +And make a prayer both loud and long, +And teach the right and do the wrong, +Hailing the brother, sister throng, +With words of heavenly union. + +“We wonder how such saints can sing, +Or praise the Lord upon the wing, +Who roar, and scold, and whip, and sting, +And to their slaves and mammon cling, +In guilty conscience union. + +“They’ll raise tobacco, corn, and rye, +And drive, and thieve, and cheat, and lie, +And lay up treasures in the sky, +By making switch and cowskin fly, +In hope of heavenly union. + +“They’ll crack old Tony on the skull, +And preach and roar like Bashan bull, +Or braying ass, of mischief full, +Then seize old Jacob by the wool, +And pull for heavenly union. + +“A roaring, ranting, sleek man-thief, +Who lived on mutton, veal, and beef, +Yet never would afford relief +To needy, sable sons of grief, +Was big with heavenly union. + +“‘Love not the world,’ the preacher said, +And winked his eye, and shook his head; +He seized on Tom, and Dick, and Ned, +Cut short their meat, and clothes, and bread, +Yet still loved heavenly union. + +“Another preacher whining spoke +Of One whose heart for sinners broke: +He tied old Nanny to an oak, +And drew the blood at every stroke, +And prayed for heavenly union. + +“Two others oped their iron jaws, +And waved their children-stealing paws; +There sat their children in gewgaws; +By stinting negroes’ backs and maws, +They kept up heavenly union. + +“All good from Jack another takes, +And entertains their flirts and rakes, +Who dress as sleek as glossy snakes, +And cram their mouths with sweetened cakes; +And this goes down for union.” + + +Sincerely and earnestly hoping that this little book may do something +toward throwing light on the American slave system, and hastening the +glad day of deliverance to the millions of my brethren in +bonds—faithfully relying upon the power of truth, love, and justice, +for success in my humble efforts—and solemnly pledging my self anew to +the sacred cause,—I subscribe myself, + +FREDERICK DOUGLASS. + + +LYNN, _Mass., April_ 28, 1845. + + +THE END + + + +THE +NEGRO PROBLEM + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I Industrial Education for the Negro + _Booker T. Washington_ 7 + + II The Talented Tenth + _W.E. Burghardt DuBois_ 31 + +III The Disfranchisement of the Negro + _ Charles W. Chesnutt_ 77 + + IV The Negro and the Law + _Wilford H. Smith_ 125 + + V The Characteristics of the Negro People + _H.T. Kealing_ 161 + + VI Representative American Negroes + _Paul Laurence Dunbar_ 187 + +VII The Negro's Place in American Life at the Present Day + _T. Thomas Fortune_ 211 + + +[_Transcriber's Note: Variant spellings have been left in the text. Obvious +typos have been corrected and indicated with a footnote._] + + + + + +_Industrial Education for the Negro_ + +By BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, + +Principal of Tuskegee Institute + + The necessity for the race's learning the difference between being + worked and working. He would not confine the Negro to industrial life, + but believes that the very best service which any one can render to what + is called the "higher education" is to teach the present generation to + work and save. This will create the wealth from which alone can come + leisure and the opportunity for higher education. + + +One of the most fundamental and far-reaching deeds that has been +accomplished during the last quarter of a century has been that by which +the Negro has been helped to find himself and to learn the secrets of +civilization--to learn that there are a few simple, cardinal principles +upon which a race must start its upward course, unless it would fail, and +its last estate be worse than its first. + +It has been necessary for the Negro to learn the difference between being +worked and working--to learn that being worked meant degradation, while +working means civilization; that all forms of labor are honorable, and all +forms of idleness disgraceful. It has been necessary for him to learn that +all races that have got upon their feet have done so largely by laying an +economic foundation, and, in general, by beginning in a proper cultivation +and ownership of the soil. + +Forty years ago my race emerged from slavery into freedom. If, in too many +cases, the Negro race began development at the wrong end, it was largely +because neither white nor black properly understood the case. Nor is it +any wonder that this was so, for never before in the history of the world +had just such a problem been presented as that of the two races at the +coming of freedom in this country. + +For two hundred and fifty years, I believe the way for the redemption of +the Negro was being prepared through industrial development. Through all +those years the Southern white man did business with the Negro in a way +that no one else has done business with him. In most cases if a Southern +white man wanted a house built he consulted a Negro mechanic about the +plan and about the actual building of the structure. If he wanted a suit +of clothes made he went to a Negro tailor, and for shoes he went to a +shoemaker of the same race. In a certain way every slave plantation in the +South was an industrial school. On these plantations young colored men and +women were constantly being trained not only as farmers but as carpenters, +blacksmiths, wheelwrights, brick masons, engineers, cooks, laundresses, +sewing women and housekeepers. + +I do not mean in any way to apologize for the curse of slavery, which was +a curse to both races, but in what I say about industrial training in +slavery I am simply stating facts. This training was crude, and was given +for selfish purposes. It did not answer the highest ends, because there +was an absence of mental training in connection with the training of the +hand. To a large degree, though, this business contact with the Southern +white man, and the industrial training on the plantations, left the Negro +at the close of the war in possession of nearly all the common and skilled +labor in the South. The industries that gave the South its power, +prominence and wealth prior to the Civil War were mainly the raising of +cotton, sugar cane, rice and tobacco. Before the way could be prepared for +the proper growing and marketing of these crops forests had to be cleared, +houses to be built, public roads and railroads constructed. In all these +works the Negro did most of the heavy work. In the planting, cultivating +and marketing of the crops not only was the Negro the chief dependence, +but in the manufacture of tobacco he became a skilled and proficient +workman, and in this, up to the present time, in the South, holds the lead +in the large tobacco manufactories. + +In most of the industries, though, what happened? For nearly twenty years +after the war, except in a few instances, the value of the industrial +training given by the plantations was overlooked. Negro men and women were +educated in literature, in mathematics and in the sciences, with little +thought of what had been taking place during the preceding two hundred and +fifty years, except, perhaps, as something to be escaped, to be got as +far away from as possible. As a generation began to pass, those who had +been trained as mechanics in slavery began to disappear by death, and +gradually it began to be realized that there were few to take their +places. There were young men educated in foreign tongues, but few in +carpentry or in mechanical or architectural drawing. Many were trained in +Latin, but few as engineers and blacksmiths. Too many were taken from the +farm and educated, but educated in everything but farming. For this reason +they had no interest in farming and did not return to it. And yet +eighty-five per cent. of the Negro population of the Southern states lives +and for a considerable time will continue to live in the country +districts. The charge is often brought against the members of my race--and +too often justly, I confess--that they are found leaving the country +districts and flocking into the great cities where temptations are more +frequent and harder to resist, and where the Negro people too often become +demoralized. Think, though, how frequently it is the case that from the +first day that a pupil begins to go to school his books teach him much +about the cities of the world and city life, and almost nothing about the +country. How natural it is, then, that when he has the ordering of his +life he wants to live it in the city. + +Only a short time before his death the late Mr. C.P. Huntington, to whose +memory a magnificent library has just been given by his widow to the +Hampton Institute for Negroes, in Virginia, said in a public address some +words which seem to me so wise that I want to quote them here: + +"Our schools teach everybody a little of almost everything, but, in my +opinion, they teach very few children just what they ought to know in +order to make their way successfully in life. They do not put into their +hands the tools they are best fitted to use, and hence so many failures. +Many a mother and sister have worked and slaved, living upon scanty food, +in order to give a son and brother a "liberal education," and in doing +this have built up a barrier between the boy and the work he was fitted to +do. Let me say to you that all honest work is honorable work. If the labor +is manual, and seems common, you will have all the more chance to be +thinking of other things, or of work that is higher and brings better pay, +and to work out in your minds better and higher duties and +responsibilities for yourselves, and for thinking of ways by which you can +help others as well as yourselves, and bring them up to your own higher +level." + +Some years ago, when we decided to make tailoring a part of our training +at the Tuskegee Institute, I was amazed to find that it was almost +impossible to find in the whole country an educated colored man who could +teach the making of clothing. We could find numbers of them who could +teach astronomy, theology, Latin or grammar, but almost none who could +instruct in the making of clothing, something that has to be used by every +one of us every day in the year. How often have I been discouraged as I +have gone through the South, and into the homes of the people of my race, +and have found women who could converse intelligently upon abstruse +subjects, and yet could not tell how to improve the condition of the +poorly cooked and still more poorly served bread and meat which they and +their families were eating three times a day. It is discouraging to find a +girl who can tell you the geographical location of any country on the +globe and who does not know where to place the dishes upon a common dinner +table. It is discouraging to find a woman who knows much about theoretical +chemistry, and who cannot properly wash and iron a shirt. + +In what I say here I would not by any means have it understood that I +would limit or circumscribe the mental development of the Negro-student. +No race can be lifted until its mind is awakened and strengthened. By the +side of industrial training should always go mental and moral training, +but the pushing of mere abstract knowledge into the head means little. We +want more than the mere performance of mental gymnastics. Our knowledge +must be harnessed to the things of real life. I would encourage the Negro +to secure all the mental strength, all the mental culture--whether gleaned +from science, mathematics, history, language or literature that his +circumstances will allow, but I believe most earnestly that for years to +come the education of the people of my race should be so directed that the +greatest proportion of the mental strength of the masses will be brought +to bear upon the every-day practical things of life, upon something that +is needed to be done, and something which they will be permitted to do in +the community in which they reside. And just the same with the +professional class which the race needs and must have, I would say give +the men and women of that class, too, the training which will best fit +them to perform in the most successful manner the service which the race +demands. + +I would not confine the race to industrial life, not even to agriculture, +for example, although I believe that by far the greater part of the Negro +race is best off in the country districts and must and should continue to +live there, but I would teach the race that in industry the foundation +must be laid--that the very best service which any one can render to what +is called the higher education is to teach the present generation to +provide a material or industrial foundation. On such a foundation as this +will grow habits of thrift, a love of work, economy, ownership of +property, bank accounts. Out of it in the future will grow practical +education, professional education, positions of public responsibility. Out +of it will grow moral and religious strength. Out of it will grow wealth +from which alone can come leisure and the opportunity for the enjoyment of +literature and the fine arts. + +In the words of the late beloved Frederick Douglass: "Every blow of the +sledge hammer wielded by a sable arm is a powerful blow in support of our +cause. Every colored mechanic is by virtue of circumstances an elevator of +his race. Every house built by a black man is a strong tower against the +allied hosts of prejudice. It is impossible for us to attach too much +importance to this aspect of the subject. Without industrial development +there can be no wealth; without wealth there can be no leisure; without +leisure no opportunity for thoughtful reflection and the cultivation of +the higher arts." + +I would set no limits to the attainments of the Negro in arts, in letters +or statesmanship, but I believe the surest way to reach those ends is by +laying the foundation in the little things of life that lie immediately +about one's door. I plead for industrial education and development for the +Negro not because I want to cramp him, but because I want to free him. I +want to see him enter the all-powerful business and commercial world. + +It was such combined mental, moral and industrial education which the late +General Armstrong set out to give at the Hampton Institute when he +established that school thirty years ago. The Hampton Institute has +continued along the lines laid down by its great founder, and now each +year an increasing number of similar schools are being established in the +South, for the people of both races. + +Early in the history of the Tuskegee Institute we began to combine +industrial training with mental and moral culture. Our first efforts were +in the direction of agriculture, and we began teaching this with no +appliances except one hoe and a blind mule. From this small beginning we +have grown until now the Institute owns two thousand acres of land, eight +hundred of which are cultivated each year by the young men of the school. +We began teaching wheelwrighting and blacksmithing in a small way to the +men, and laundry work, cooking and sewing and housekeeping to the young +women. The fourteen hundred and over young men and women who attended the +school during the last school year received instruction--in addition to +academic and religious training--in thirty-three trades and industries, +including carpentry, blacksmithing, printing, wheelwrighting +harnessmaking, painting, machinery, founding, shoemaking, brickmasonry and +brickmaking, plastering, sawmilling, tinsmithing, tailoring, mechanical +and architectural drawing, electrical and steam engineering, canning, +sewing, dressmaking, millinery, cooking, laundering, housekeeping, +mattress making, basketry, nursing, agriculture, dairying and stock +raising, horticulture. + +Not only do the students receive instruction in these trades, but they do +actual work, by means of which more than half of them pay some part or all +of their expenses while remaining at the school. Of the sixty buildings +belonging to the school all but four were almost wholly erected by the +students as a part of their industrial education. Even the bricks which go +into the walls are made by students in the school's brick yard, in which, +last year, they manufactured two million bricks. + +When we first began this work at Tuskegee, and the idea got spread among +the people of my race that the students who came to the Tuskegee school +were to be taught industries in connection with their academic studies, +were, in other words, to be taught to work, I received a great many verbal +messages and letters from parents informing me that they wanted their +children taught books, but not how to work. This protest went on for three +or four years, but I am glad to be able to say now that our people have +very generally been educated to a point where they see their own needs and +conditions so clearly that it has been several years since we have had a +single protest from parents against the teaching of industries, and there +is now a positive enthusiasm for it. In fact, public sentiment among the +students at Tuskegee is now so strong for industrial training that it +would hardly permit a student to remain on the grounds who was unwilling +to labor. + +It seems to me that too often mere book education leaves the Negro young +man or woman in a weak position. For example, I have seen a Negro girl +taught by her mother to help her in doing laundry work at home. Later, +when this same girl was graduated from the public schools or a high school +and returned home she finds herself educated out of sympathy with laundry +work, and yet not able to find anything to do which seems in keeping with +the cost and character of her education. Under these circumstances we +cannot be surprised if she does not fulfill the expectations made for her. +What should have been done for her, it seems to me, was to give her along +with her academic education thorough training in the latest and best +methods of laundry work, so that she could have put so much skill and +intelligence into it that the work would have been lifted out from the +plane of drudgery[A]. The home which she would then have been able to +found by the results of her work would have enabled her to help her +children to take a still more responsible position in life. + +Almost from the first Tuskegee has kept in mind--and this I think should +be the policy of all industrial schools--fitting students for occupations +which would be open to them in their home communities. Some years ago we +noted the fact that there was beginning to be a demand in the South for +men to operate dairies in a skillful, modern manner. We opened a dairy +department in connection with the school, where a number of young men +could have instruction in the latest and most scientific methods of dairy +work. At present we have calls--mainly from Southern white men--for twice +as many dairymen as we are able to supply. What is equally satisfactory, +the reports which come to us indicate that our young men are giving the +highest satisfaction and are fast changing and improving the dairy product +in the communities into which they go. I use the dairy here as an example. +What I have said of this is equally true of many of the other industries +which we teach. Aside from the economic value of this work I cannot but +believe, and my observation confirms me in my belief, that as we continue +to place Negro men and women of intelligence, religion, modesty, +conscience and skill in every community in the South, who will prove by +actual results their value to the community, I cannot but believe, I say, +that this will constitute a solution to many of the present political and +social difficulties. + +Many seem to think that industrial education is meant to make the Negro +work as he worked in the days of slavery. This is far from my conception +of industrial education. If this training is worth anything to the Negro, +it consists in teaching him how not to work, but how to make the forces of +nature--air, steam, water, horse-power and electricity--work for him. If +it has any value it is in lifting labor up out of toil and drudgery into +the plane of the dignified and the beautiful. The Negro in the South works +and works hard; but too often his ignorance and lack of skill causes him +to do his work in the most costly and shiftless manner, and this keeps him +near the bottom of the ladder in the economic world. + +I have not emphasized particularly in these pages the great need of +training the Negro in agriculture, but I believe that this branch of +industrial education does need very great emphasis. In this connection I +want to quote some words which Mr. Edgar Gardner Murphy, of Montgomery, +Alabama, has recently written upon this subject: + +"We must incorporate into our public school system a larger recognition of +the practical and industrial elements in educational training. Ours is an +agricultural population. The school must be brought more closely to the +soil. The teaching of history, for example, is all very well, but nobody +can really know anything of history unless he has been taught to see +things grow--has so seen things not only with the outward eye, but with +the eyes of his intelligence and conscience. The actual things of the +present are more important, however, than the institutions of the past. +Even to young children can be shown the simpler conditions and processes +of growth--how corn is put into the ground--how cotton and potatoes +should be planted--how to choose the soil best adapted to a particular +plant, how to improve that soil, how to care for the plant while it grows, +how to get the most value out of it, how to use the elements of waste for +the fertilization of other crops; how, through the alternation of crops, +the land may be made to increase the annual value of its products--these +things, upon their elementary side are absolutely vital to the worth and +success of hundreds of thousands of these people of the Negro race, and +yet our whole educational system has practically ignored them. + + * * * * * + +"Such work will mean not only an education in agriculture, but an +education through agriculture and education, through natural symbols and +practical forms, which will educate as deeply, as broadly and as truly as +any other system which the world has known. Such changes will bring far +larger results than the mere improvement of our Negroes. They will give +us an agricultural class, a class of tenants or small land owners, trained +not away from the soil, but in relation to the soil and in intelligent +dependence upon its resources." + +I close, then, as I began, by saying that as a slave the Negro was worked, +and that as a freeman he must learn to work. There is still doubt in many +quarters as to the ability of the Negro unguided, unsupported, to hew his +own path and put into visible, tangible, indisputable form, products and +signs of civilization. This doubt cannot be much affected by abstract +arguments, no matter how delicately and convincingly woven together. +Patiently, quietly, doggedly, persistently, through summer and winter, +sunshine and shadow, by self-sacrifice, by foresight, by honesty and +industry, we must re-enforce argument with results. One farm bought, one +house built, one home sweetly and intelligently kept, one man who is the +largest tax payer or has the largest bank account, one school or church +maintained, one factory running successfully, one truck garden profitably +cultivated, one patient cured by a Negro doctor, one sermon well +preached, one office well filled, one life cleanly lived--these will tell +more in our favor than all the abstract eloquence that can be summoned to +plead our cause. Our pathway must be up through the soil, up through +swamps, up through forests, up through the streams, the rocks, up through +commerce, education and religion! + +[Footnote A: In the original, this was 'drudggery'.] + + + + +_The Talented Tenth_ + +By PROF. W.E. BURGHARDT DuBOIS + + A strong plea for the higher education of the Negro, which those who are + interested in the future of the freedmen cannot afford to ignore. Prof. + DuBois produces ample evidence to prove conclusively the truth of his + statement that "to attempt to establish any sort of a system of common + and industrial school training, without _first_ providing for the higher + training of the very best teachers, is simply throwing your money to the + winds." + +[Illustration: W.E. BURGHARDT DuBOIS.] + + +The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional +men. The problem of education, then, among Negroes must first of all deal +with the Talented Tenth; it is the problem of developing the Best of this +race that they may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of +the Worst, in their own and other races. Now the training of men is a +difficult and intricate task. Its technique is a matter for educational +experts, but its object is for the vision of seers. If we make money the +object of man-training, we shall develop money-makers but not necessarily +men; if we make technical skill the object of education, we may possess +artisans but not, in nature, men. Men we shall have only as we make +manhood the object of the work of the schools--intelligence, broad +sympathy, knowledge of the world that was and is, and of the relation of +men to it--this is the curriculum of that Higher Education which must +underlie true life. On this foundation we may build bread winning, skill +of hand and quickness of brain, with never a fear lest the child and man +mistake the means of living for the object of life. + + * * * * * + +If this be true--and who can deny it--three tasks lay before me; first to +show from the past that the Talented Tenth as they have risen among +American Negroes have been worthy of leadership; secondly, to show how +these men may be educated and developed; and thirdly, to show their +relation to the Negro problem. + + * * * * * + +You misjudge us because you do not know us. From the very first it has +been the educated and intelligent of the Negro people that have led and +elevated the mass, and the sole obstacles that nullified and retarded +their efforts were slavery and race prejudice; for what is slavery but +the legalized survival of the unfit and the nullification of the work of +natural internal leadership? Negro leadership, therefore, sought from the +first to rid the race of this awful incubus that it might make way for +natural selection and the survival of the fittest. In colonial days came +Phillis Wheatley and Paul Cuffe striving against the bars of prejudice; +and Benjamin Banneker, the almanac maker, voiced their longings when he +said to Thomas Jefferson, "I freely and cheerfully acknowledge that I am +of the African race, and in colour which is natural to them, of the +deepest dye; and it is under a sense of the most profound gratitude to the +Supreme Ruler of the Universe, that I now confess to you that I am not +under that state of tyrannical thraldom and inhuman captivity to which too +many of my brethren are doomed, but that I have abundantly tasted of the +fruition of those blessings which proceed from that free and unequalled +liberty with which you are favored, and which I hope you will willingly +allow, you have mercifully received from the immediate hand of that Being +from whom proceedeth every good and perfect gift. + +"Suffer me to recall to your mind that time, in which the arms of the +British crown were exerted with every powerful effort, in order to reduce +you to a state of servitude; look back, I entreat you, on the variety of +dangers to which you were exposed; reflect on that period in which every +human aid appeared unavailable, and in which even hope and fortitude wore +the aspect of inability to the conflict, and you cannot but be led to a +serious and grateful sense of your miraculous and providential +preservation, you cannot but acknowledge, that the present freedom and +tranquility which you enjoy, you have mercifully received, and that a +peculiar blessing of heaven. + +"This, sir, was a time when you clearly saw into the injustice of a state +of Slavery, and in which you had just apprehensions of the horrors of its +condition. It was then that your abhorrence thereof was so excited, that +you publicly held forth this true and invaluable doctrine, which is worthy +to be recorded and remembered in all succeeding ages: 'We hold these +truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; that they are +endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are life, +liberty and the pursuit of happiness.'" + +Then came Dr. James Derham, who could tell even the learned Dr. Rush +something of medicine, and Lemuel Haynes, to whom Middlebury College gave +an honorary A.M. in 1804. These and others we may call the Revolutionary +group of distinguished Negroes--they were persons of marked ability, +leaders of a Talented Tenth, standing conspicuously among the best of +their time. They strove by word and deed to save the color line from +becoming the line between the bond and free, but all they could do was +nullified by Eli Whitney and the Curse of Gold. So they passed into +forgetfulness. + +But their spirit did not wholly die; here and there in the early part of +the century came other exceptional men. Some were natural sons of +unnatural fathers and were given often a liberal training and thus a race +of educated mulattoes sprang up to plead for black men's rights. There was +Ira Aldridge, whom all Europe loved to honor; there was that Voice crying +in the Wilderness, David Walker, and saying: + +"I declare it does appear to me as though some nations think God is +asleep, or that he made the Africans for nothing else but to dig their +mines and work their farms, or they cannot believe history, sacred or +profane. I ask every man who has a heart, and is blessed with the +privilege of believing--Is not God a God of justice to all his creatures? +Do you say he is? Then if he gives peace and tranquility to tyrants and +permits them to keep our fathers, our mothers, ourselves and our children +in eternal ignorance and wretchedness to support them and their families, +would he be to us a God of Justice? I ask, O, ye Christians, who hold us +and our children in the most abject ignorance and degradation that ever a +people were afflicted with since the world began--I say if God gives you +peace and tranquility, and suffers you thus to go on afflicting us, and +our children, who have never given you the least provocation--would He be +to us a God of Justice? If you will allow that we are men, who feel for +each other, does not the blood of our fathers and of us, their children, +cry aloud to the Lord of Sabaoth against you for the cruelties and murders +with which you have and do continue to afflict us?" + +This was the wild voice that first aroused Southern legislators in 1829 to +the terrors of abolitionism. + +In 1831 there met that first Negro convention in Philadelphia, at which +the world gaped curiously but which bravely attacked the problems of race +and slavery, crying out against persecution and declaring that "Laws as +cruel in themselves as they were unconstitutional and unjust, have in many +places been enacted against our poor, unfriended and unoffending brethren +(without a shadow of provocation on our part), at whose bare recital the +very savage draws himself up for fear of contagion--looks noble and +prides himself because he bears not the name of Christian." Side by side +this free Negro movement, and the movement for abolition, strove until +they merged into one strong stream. Too little notice has been taken of +the work which the Talented Tenth among Negroes took in the great +abolition crusade. From the very day that a Philadelphia colored man +became the first subscriber to Garrison's "Liberator," to the day when +Negro soldiers made the Emancipation Proclamation possible, black leaders +worked shoulder to shoulder with white men in a movement, the success of +which would have been impossible without them. There was Purvis and +Remond, Pennington and Highland Garnett, Sojourner Truth and Alexander +Crummel, and above all, Frederick Douglass--what would the abolition +movement have been without them? They stood as living examples of the +possibilities of the Negro race, their own hard experiences and well +wrought culture said silently more than all the drawn periods of +orators--they were the men who made American slavery impossible. As Maria +Weston Chapman once said, from the school of anti-slavery agitation "a +throng of authors, editors, lawyers, orators and accomplished gentlemen of +color have taken their degree! It has equally implanted hopes and +aspirations, noble thoughts, and sublime purposes, in the hearts of both +races. It has prepared the white man for the freedom of the black man, and +it has made the black man scorn the thought of enslavement, as does a +white man, as far as its influence has extended. Strengthen that noble +influence! Before its organization, the country only saw here and there in +slavery some faithful Cudjoe or Dinah, whose strong natures blossomed even +in bondage, like a fine plant beneath a heavy stone. Now, under the +elevating and cherishing influence of the American Anti-slavery Society, +the colored race, like the white, furnishes Corinthian capitals for the +noblest temples." + +Where were these black abolitionists trained? Some, like Frederick +Douglass, were self-trained, but yet trained liberally; others, like +Alexander Crummell and McCune Smith, graduated from famous foreign +universities. Most of them rose up through the colored schools of New York +and Philadelphia and Boston, taught by college-bred men like Russworm, of +Dartmouth, and college-bred white men like Neau and Benezet. + +After emancipation came a new group of educated and gifted leaders: +Langston, Bruce and Elliot, Greener, Williams and Payne. Through political +organization, historical and polemic writing and moral regeneration, these +men strove to uplift their people. It is the fashion of to-day to sneer at +them and to say that with freedom Negro leadership should have begun at +the plow and not in the Senate--a foolish and mischievous lie; two hundred +and fifty years that black serf toiled at the plow and yet that toiling +was in vain till the Senate passed the war amendments; and two hundred +and fifty years more the half-free serf of to-day may toil at his plow, +but unless he have political rights and righteously guarded civic +status, he will still remain the poverty-stricken and ignorant plaything +of rascals, that he now is. This all sane men know even if they dare +not say it. + +And so we come to the present--a day of cowardice and vacillation, of +strident wide-voiced wrong and faint hearted compromise; of double-faced +dallying with Truth and Right. Who are to-day guiding the work of the +Negro people? The "exceptions" of course. And yet so sure as this Talented +Tenth is pointed out, the blind worshippers of the Average cry out in +alarm: "These are exceptions, look here at death, disease and crime--these +are the happy rule." Of course they are the rule, because a silly nation +made them the rule: Because for three long centuries this people lynched +Negroes who dared to be brave, raped black women who dared to be virtuous, +crushed dark-hued youth who dared to be ambitious, and encouraged and +made to flourish servility and lewdness and apathy. But not even this was +able to crush all manhood and chastity and aspiration from black folk. A +saving remnant continually survives and persists, continually aspires, +continually shows itself in thrift and ability and character. Exceptional +it is to be sure, but this is its chiefest promise; it shows the +capability of Negro blood, the promise of black men. Do Americans ever +stop to reflect that there are in this land a million men of Negro blood, +well-educated, owners of homes, against the honor of whose womanhood no +breath was ever raised, whose men occupy positions of trust and +usefulness, and who, judged by any standard, have reached the full measure +of the best type of modern European culture? Is it fair, is it decent, is +it Christian to ignore these facts of the Negro problem, to belittle such +aspiration, to nullify such leadership and seek to crush these people back +into the mass out of which by toil and travail, they and their fathers +have raised themselves? + +Can the masses of the Negro people be in any possible way more quickly +raised than by the effort and example of this aristocracy of talent and +character? Was there ever a nation on God's fair earth civilized from the +bottom upward? Never; it is, ever was and ever will be from the top +downward that culture filters. The Talented Tenth rises and pulls all that +are worth the saving up to their vantage ground. This is the history of +human progress; and the two historic mistakes which have hindered that +progress were the thinking first that no more could ever rise save the few +already risen; or second, that it would better the unrisen to pull the +risen down. + +How then shall the leaders of a struggling people be trained and the hands +of the risen few strengthened? There can be but one answer: The best and +most capable of their youth must be schooled in the colleges and +universities of the land. We will not quarrel as to just what the +university of the Negro should teach or how it should teach it--I +willingly admit that each soul and each race-soul needs its own peculiar +curriculum. But this is true: A university is a human invention for the +transmission of knowledge and culture from generation to generation, +through the training of quick minds and pure hearts, and for this work no +other human invention will suffice, not even trade and industrial schools. + +All men cannot go to college but some men must; every isolated group or +nation must have its yeast, must have for the talented few centers of +training where men are not so mystified and befuddled by the hard and +necessary toil of earning a living, as to have no aims higher than their +bellies, and no God greater than Gold. This is true training, and thus in +the beginning were the favored sons of the freedmen trained. Out of the +colleges of the North came, after the blood of war, Ware, Cravath, Chase, +Andrews, Bumstead and Spence to build the foundations of knowledge and +civilization in the black South. Where ought they to have begun to build? +At the bottom, of course, quibbles the mole with his eyes in the earth. +Aye! truly at the bottom, at the very bottom; at the bottom of knowledge, +down in the very depths of knowledge there where the roots of justice +strike into the lowest soil of Truth. And so they did begin; they founded +colleges, and up from the colleges shot normal schools, and out from the +normal schools went teachers, and around the normal teachers clustered +other teachers to teach the public schools; the college trained in Greek +and Latin and mathematics, 2,000 men; and these men trained full 50,000 +others in morals and manners, and they in turn taught thrift and the +alphabet to nine millions of men, who to-day hold $300,000,000 of +property. It was a miracle--the most wonderful peace-battle of the 19th +century, and yet to-day men smile at it, and in fine superiority tell us +that it was all a strange mistake; that a proper way to found a system of +education is first to gather the children and buy them spelling books and +hoes; afterward men may look about for teachers, if haply they may find +them; or again they would teach men Work, but as for Life--why, what has +Work to do with Life, they ask vacantly. + +Was the work of these college founders successful; did it stand the test +of time? Did the college graduates, with all their fine theories of life, +really live? Are they useful men helping to civilize and elevate their +less fortunate fellows? Let us see. Omitting all institutions which have +not actually graduated students from a college course, there are to-day in +the United States thirty-four institutions giving something above high +school training to Negroes and designed especially for this race. + +Three of these were established in border States before the War; thirteen +were planted by the Freedmen's Bureau in the years 1864-1869; nine were +established between 1870 and 1880 by various church bodies; five were +established after 1881 by Negro churches, and four are state institutions +supported by United States' agricultural funds. In most cases the college +departments are small adjuncts to high and common school work. As a matter +of fact six institutions--Atlanta, Fisk, Howard, Shaw, Wilberforce and +Leland, are the important Negro colleges so far as actual work and number +of students are concerned. In all these institutions, seven hundred and +fifty Negro college students are enrolled. In grade the best of these +colleges are about a year behind the smaller New England colleges and a +typical curriculum is that of Atlanta University. Here students from the +grammar grades, after a three years' high school course, take a college +course of 136 weeks. One-fourth of this time is given to Latin and Greek; +one-fifth, to English and modern languages; one-sixth, to history and +social science; one-seventh, to natural science; one-eighth to +mathematics, and one-eighth to philosophy and pedagogy. + +In addition to these students in the South, Negroes have attended Northern +colleges for many years. As early as 1826 one was graduated from Bowdoin +College, and from that time till to-day nearly every year has seen +elsewhere, other such graduates. They have, of course, met much color +prejudice. Fifty years ago very few colleges would admit them at all. Even +to-day no Negro has ever been admitted to Princeton, and at some other +leading institutions they are rather endured than encouraged. Oberlin was +the great pioneer in the work of blotting out the color line in colleges, +and has more Negro graduates by far than any other Northern college. + +The total number of Negro college graduates up to 1899, (several of the +graduates of that year not being reported), was as follows: + +---------------+---------------+----------------- + |Negro Colleges.| White Colleges. +---------------+---------------+----------------- +Before '76 | 137 | 75 + '75-80 | 143 | 22 + '80-85 | 250 | 31 + '85-90 | 413 | 43 + '90-95 | 465 | 66 + '96-99 | 475 | 88 +Class Unknown | 57 | 64 +---------------+---------------+----------------- +Total | 1,914 | 390 +---------------+---------------+----------------- + +Of these graduates 2,079 were men and 252 were women; 50 per cent. of +Northern-born college men come South to work among the masses of their +people, at a sacrifice which few people realize; nearly 90 per cent. of +the Southern-born graduates instead of seeking that personal freedom and +broader intellectual atmosphere which their training has led them, in some +degree, to conceive, stay and labor and wait in the midst of their black +neighbors and relatives. + +The most interesting question, and in many respects the crucial question, +to be asked concerning college-bred Negroes, is: Do they earn a living? It +has been intimated more than once that the higher training of Negroes has +resulted in sending into the world of work, men who could find nothing to +do suitable to their talents. Now and then there comes a rumor of a +colored college man working at menial service, etc. Fortunately, returns +as to occupations of college-bred Negroes, gathered by the Atlanta +conference, are quite full--nearly sixty per cent. of the total number of +graduates. + +This enables us to reach fairly certain conclusions as to the occupations +of all college-bred Negroes. Of 1,312 persons reported, there were: + +---------------------------------+----------+------------ + | Per Cent.| +---------------------------------+----------+------------ +Teachers, | 53.4 |************ +Clergymen, | 16.8 |****** +Physicians, etc., | 6.3 |**** +Students, | 5.6 |*** +Lawyers, | 4.7 |*** +In Govt. Service, | 4.0 |** +In Business, | 3.6 |** +Farmers and Artisans, | 2.7 |* +Editors, Secretaries and Clerks, | 2.4 |* +Miscellaneous. | .5 |* +---------------------------------+----------+------------ + +Over half are teachers, a sixth are preachers, another sixth are students +and professional men; over 6 per cent. are farmers, artisans and +merchants, and 4 per cent. are in government service. In detail the +occupations are as follows: + +_Occupations of College-Bred Men._ + +Teachers: + Presidents and Deans, 19 + Teacher of Music, 7 + Professors, Principals and Teachers, 675 Total 701 + +Clergymen: + Bishop, 1 + Chaplains U.S. Army, 2 + Missionaries, 9 + Presiding Elders, 12 + Preachers, 197 Total 221 + +Physicians, + Doctors of Medicine, 76 + Druggists, 4 + Dentists, 3 Total 83 + +Students, 74 + +Lawyers, 62 + +Civil Service: + U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary, 1 + U.S. Consul, 1 + U.S. Deputy Collector, 1 + U.S. Gauger, 1 + U.S. Postmasters, 2 + U.S. Clerks, 44 + State Civil Service, 2 + City Civil Service, 1 Total 53 + +Business Men: + Merchants, etc., 30 + Managers, 13 + Real Estate Dealers, 4 Total 47 + +Farmers, 26 + +Clerks and Secretaries: + Secretary of National Societies, 7 + Clerks, etc., 15 Total 22 + +Artisans, 9 + +Editors, 9 + +Miscellaneous, 5 + +These figures illustrate vividly the function of the college-bred Negro. +He is, as he ought to be, the group leader, the man who sets the ideals of +the community where he lives, directs its thoughts and heads its social +movements. It need hardly be argued that the Negro people need social +leadership more than most groups; that they have no traditions to fall +back upon, no long established customs, no strong family ties, no well +defined social classes. All these things must be slowly and painfully +evolved. The preacher was, even before the war, the group leader of the +Negroes, and the church their greatest social institution. Naturally this +preacher was ignorant and often immoral, and the problem of replacing the +older type by better educated men has been a difficult one. Both by direct +work and by direct influence on other preachers, and on congregations, the +college-bred preacher has an opportunity for reformatory work and moral +inspiration, the value of which cannot be overestimated. + +It has, however, been in the furnishing of teachers that the Negro college +has found its peculiar function. Few persons realize how vast a work, how +mighty a revolution has been thus accomplished. To furnish five millions +and more of ignorant people with teachers of their own race and blood, in +one generation, was not only a very difficult undertaking, but a very +important one, in that, it placed before the eyes of almost every Negro +child an attainable ideal. It brought the masses of the blacks in contact +with modern civilization, made black men the leaders of their communities +and trainers of the new generation. In this work college-bred Negroes were +first teachers, and then teachers of teachers. And here it is that the +broad culture of college work has been of peculiar value. Knowledge of +life and its wider meaning, has been the point of the Negro's deepest +ignorance, and the sending out of teachers whose training has not been +simply for bread winning, but also for human culture, has been of +inestimable value in the training of these men. + +In earlier years the two occupations of preacher and teacher were +practically the only ones open to the black college graduate. Of later +years a larger diversity of life among his people, has opened new avenues +of employment. Nor have these college men been paupers and spendthrifts; +557 college-bred Negroes owned in 1899, $1,342,862.50 worth of real +estate, (assessed value) or $2,411 per family. The real value of the total +accumulations of the whole group is perhaps about $10,000,000, or $5,000 a +piece. Pitiful, is it not, beside the fortunes of oil kings and steel +trusts, but after all is the fortune of the millionaire the only stamp of +true and successful living? Alas! it is, with many, and there's the rub. + +The problem of training the Negro is to-day immensely complicated by the +fact that the whole question of the efficiency and appropriateness of our +present systems of education, for any kind of child, is a matter of active +debate, in which final settlement seems still afar off. Consequently it +often happens that persons arguing for or against certain systems of +education for Negroes, have these controversies in mind and miss the real +question at issue. The main question, so far as the Southern Negro is +concerned, is: What under the present circumstance, must a system of +education do in order to raise the Negro as quickly as possible in the +scale of civilization? The answer to this question seems to me clear: It +must strengthen the Negro's character, increase his knowledge and teach +him to earn a living. Now it goes without saying, that it is hard to do +all these things simultaneously or suddenly, and that at the same time it +will not do to give all the attention to one and neglect the others; we +could give black boys trades, but that alone will not civilize a race of +ex-slaves; we might simply increase their knowledge of the world, but this +would not necessarily make them wish to use this knowledge honestly; we +might seek to strengthen character and purpose, but to what end if this +people have nothing to eat or to wear? A system of education is not one +thing, nor does it have a single definite object, nor is it a mere matter +of schools. Education is that whole system of human training within and +without the school house walls, which molds and develops men. If then we +start out to train an ignorant and unskilled people with a heritage of bad +habits, our system of training must set before itself two great aims--the +one dealing with knowledge and character, the other part seeking to give +the child the technical knowledge necessary for him to earn a living under +the present circumstances. These objects are accomplished in part by the +opening of the common schools on the one, and of the industrial schools on +the other. But only in part, for there must also be trained those who are +to teach these schools--men and women of knowledge and culture and +technical skill who understand modern civilization, and have the training +and aptitude to impart it to the children under them. There must be +teachers, and teachers of teachers, and to attempt to establish any sort +of a system of common and industrial school training, without _first_ +(and I say _first_ advisedly) without _first_ providing for the higher +training of the very best teachers, is simply throwing your money to the +winds. School houses do not teach themselves--piles of brick and mortar +and machinery do not send out _men_. It is the trained, living human soul, +cultivated and strengthened by long study and thought, that breathes the +real breath of life into boys and girls and makes them human, whether they +be black or white, Greek, Russian or American. Nothing, in these latter +days, has so dampened the faith of thinking Negroes in recent educational +movements, as the fact that such movements have been accompanied by +ridicule and denouncement and decrying of those very institutions of +higher training which made the Negro public school possible, and make +Negro industrial schools thinkable. It was Fisk, Atlanta, Howard and +Straight, those colleges born of the faith and sacrifice of the +abolitionists, that placed in the black schools of the South the 30,000 +teachers and more, which some, who depreciate the work of these higher +schools, are using to teach their own new experiments. If Hampton, +Tuskegee and the hundred other industrial schools prove in the future to +be as successful as they deserve to be, then their success in training +black artisans for the South, will be due primarily to the white colleges +of the North and the black colleges of the South, which trained the +teachers who to-day conduct these institutions. There was a time when the +American people believed pretty devoutly that a log of wood with a boy at +one end and Mark Hopkins at the other, represented the highest ideal of +human training. But in these eager days it would seem that we have changed +all that and think it necessary to add a couple of saw-mills and a hammer +to this outfit, and, at a pinch, to dispense with the services of Mark +Hopkins. + +I would not deny, or for a moment seem to deny, the paramount necessity of +teaching the Negro to work, and to work steadily and skillfully; or seem +to depreciate in the slightest degree the important part industrial +schools must play in the accomplishment of these ends, but I _do_ say, and +insist upon it, that it is industrialism drunk with its vision of success, +to imagine that its own work can be accomplished without providing for the +training of broadly cultured men and women to teach its own teachers, and +to teach the teachers of the public schools. + +But I have already said that human education is not simply a matter of +schools; it is much more a matter of family and group life--the training +of one's home, of one's daily companions, of one's social class. Now the +black boy of the South moves in a black world--a world with its own +leaders, its own thoughts, its own ideals. In this world he gets by far +the larger part of his life training, and through the eyes of this dark +world he peers into the veiled world beyond. Who guides and determines the +education which he receives in his world? His teachers here are the +group-leaders of the Negro people--the physicians and clergymen, the +trained fathers and mothers, the influential and forceful men about him of +all kinds; here it is, if at all, that the culture of the surrounding +world trickles through and is handed on by the graduates of the higher +schools. Can such culture training of group leaders be neglected? Can we +afford to ignore it? Do you think that if the leaders of thought among +Negroes are not trained and educated thinkers, that they will have no +leaders? On the contrary a hundred half-trained demagogues will still hold +the places they so largely occupy now, and hundreds of vociferous +busy-bodies will multiply. You have no choice; either you must help +furnish this race from within its own ranks with thoughtful men of trained +leadership, or you must suffer the evil consequences of a headless +misguided rabble. + +I am an earnest advocate of manual training and trade teaching for black +boys, and for white boys, too. I believe that next to the founding of +Negro colleges the most valuable addition to Negro education since the +war, has been industrial training for black boys. Nevertheless, I insist +that the object of all true education is not to make men carpenters, it is +to make carpenters men; there are two means of making the carpenter a man, +each equally important: the first is to give the group and community in +which he works, liberally trained teachers and leaders to teach him and +his family what life means; the second is to give him sufficient +intelligence and technical skill to make him an efficient workman; the +first object demands the Negro college and college-bred men--not a +quantity of such colleges, but a few of excellent quality; not too many +college-bred men, but enough to leaven the lump, to inspire the masses, to +raise the Talented Tenth to leadership; the second object demands a good +system of common schools, well-taught, conveniently located and properly +equipped. + +The Sixth Atlanta Conference truly said in 1901: + +"We call the attention of the Nation to the fact that less than one +million of the three million Negro children of school age, are at present +regularly attending school, and these attend a session which lasts only a +few months. + +"We are to-day deliberately rearing millions of our citizens in ignorance, +and at the same time limiting the rights of citizenship by educational +qualifications. This is unjust. Half the black youth of the land have no +opportunities open to them for learning to read, write and cipher. In the +discussion as to the proper training of Negro children after they leave +the public schools, we have forgotten that they are not yet decently +provided with public schools. + +"Propositions are beginning to be made in the South to reduce the already +meagre school facilities of Negroes. We congratulate the South on +resisting, as much as it has, this pressure, and on the many millions it +has spent on Negro education. But it is only fair to point out that Negro +taxes and the Negroes' share of the income from indirect taxes and +endowments have fully repaid this expenditure, so that the Negro public +school system has not in all probability cost the white taxpayers a single +cent since the war. + +"This is not fair. Negro schools should be a public burden, since they are +a public benefit. The Negro has a right to demand good common school +training at the hands of the States and the Nation since by their fault he +is not in position to pay for this himself." + +What is the chief need for the building up of the Negro public school in +the South? The Negro race in the South needs teachers to-day above all +else. This is the concurrent testimony of all who know the situation. For +the supply of this great demand two things are needed--institutions of +higher education and money for school houses and salaries. It is usually +assumed that a hundred or more institutions for Negro training are to-day +turning out so many teachers and college-bred men that the race is +threatened with an over-supply. This is sheer nonsense. There are to-day +less than 3,000 living Negro college graduates in the United States, and +less than 1,000 Negroes in college. Moreover, in the 164 schools for +Negroes, 95 per cent. of their students are doing elementary and secondary +work, work which should be done in the public schools. Over half the +remaining 2,157 students are taking high school studies. The mass of +so-called "normal" schools for the Negro, are simply doing elementary +common school work, or, at most, high school work, with a little +instruction in methods. The Negro colleges and the post-graduate courses +at other institutions are the only agencies for the broader and more +careful training of teachers. The work of these institutions is hampered +for lack of funds. It is getting increasingly difficult to get funds for +training teachers in the best modern methods, and yet all over the South, +from State Superintendents, county officials, city boards and school +principals comes the wail, "We need TEACHERS!" and teachers must be +trained. As the fairest minded of all white Southerners, Atticus G. +Haygood, once said: "The defects of colored teachers are so great as to +create an urgent necessity for training better ones. Their excellencies +and their successes are sufficient to justify the best hopes of success in +the effort, and to vindicate the judgment of those who make large +investments of money and service, to give to colored students opportunity +for thoroughly preparing themselves for the work of teaching children of +their people." + +The truth of this has been strikingly shown in the marked improvement of +white teachers in the South. Twenty years ago the rank and file of white +public school teachers were not as good as the Negro teachers. But they, +by scholarships and good salaries, have been encouraged to thorough normal +and collegiate preparation, while the Negro teachers have been discouraged +by starvation wages and the idea that any training will do for a black +teacher. If carpenters are needed it is well and good to train men as +carpenters. But to train men as carpenters, and then set them to teaching +is wasteful and criminal; and to train men as teachers and then refuse +them living wages, unless they become carpenters, is rank nonsense. + +The United States Commissioner of Education says in his report for 1900: +"For comparison between the white and colored enrollment in secondary and +higher education, I have added together the enrollment in high schools and +secondary schools, with the attendance on colleges and universities, not +being sure of the actual grade of work done in the colleges and +universities. The work done in the secondary schools is reported in such +detail in this office, that there can be no doubt of its grade." + +He then makes the following comparisons of persons in every million +enrolled in secondary and higher education: + + _Whole Country._ _Negroes._ +1880 4,362 1,289 +1900 10,743 2,061 + +And he concludes: "While the number in colored high schools and colleges +had increased somewhat faster than the population, it had not kept pace +with the average of the whole country, for it had fallen from 30 per cent. +to 24 per cent. of the average quota. Of all colored pupils, one (1) in +one hundred was engaged in secondary and higher work, and that ratio has +continued substantially for the past twenty years. If the ratio of colored +population in secondary and higher education is to be equal to the average +for the whole country, it must be increased to five times its present +average." And if this be true of the secondary and higher education, it is +safe to say that the Negro has not one-tenth his quota in college studies. +How baseless, therefore, is the charge of too much training! We need Negro +teachers for the Negro common schools, and we need first-class normal +schools and colleges to train them. This is the work of higher Negro +education and it must be done. + +Further than this, after being provided with group leaders of +civilization, and a foundation of intelligence in the public schools, the +carpenter, in order to be a man, needs technical skill. This calls for +trade schools. Now trade schools are not nearly such simple things as +people once thought. The original idea was that the "Industrial" school +was to furnish education, practically free, to those willing to work for +it; it was to "do" things--i.e.: become a center of productive industry, +it was to be partially, if not wholly, self-supporting, and it was to +teach trades. Admirable as were some of the ideas underlying this scheme, +the whole thing simply would not work in practice; it was found that if +you were to use time and material to teach trades thoroughly, you could +not at the same time keep the industries on a commercial basis and make +them pay. Many schools started out to do this on a large scale and went +into virtual bankruptcy. Moreover, it was found also that it was possible +to teach a boy a trade mechanically, without giving him the full +educative benefit of the process, and, vice versa, that there was a +distinctive educative value in teaching a boy to use his hands and eyes in +carrying out certain physical processes, even though he did not actually +learn a trade. It has happened, therefore, in the last decade, that a +noticeable change has come over the industrial schools. In the first place +the idea of commercially remunerative industry in a school is being pushed +rapidly to the back-ground. There are still schools with shops and farms +that bring an income, and schools that use student labor partially for the +erection of their buildings and the furnishing of equipment. It is coming +to be seen, however, in the education of the Negro, as clearly as it has +been seen in the education of the youths the world over, that it is the +_boy_ and not the material product, that is the true object of education. +Consequently the object of the industrial school came to be the thorough +training of boys regardless of the cost of the training, so long as it was +thoroughly well done. + +Even at this point, however, the difficulties were not surmounted. In the +first place modern industry has taken great strides since the war, and the +teaching of trades is no longer a simple matter. Machinery and long +processes of work have greatly changed the work of the carpenter, the +ironworker and the shoemaker. A really efficient workman must be to-day an +intelligent man who has had good technical training in addition to +thorough common school, and perhaps even higher training. To meet this +situation the industrial schools began a further development; they +established distinct Trade Schools for the thorough training of better +class artisans, and at the same time they sought to preserve for the +purposes of general education, such of the simpler processes of elementary +trade learning as were best suited therefor. In this differentiation of +the Trade School and manual training, the best of the industrial schools +simply followed the plain trend of the present educational epoch. A +prominent educator tells us that, in Sweden, "In the beginning the +economic conception was generally adopted, and everywhere manual training +was looked upon as a means of preparing the children of the common people +to earn their living. But gradually it came to be recognized that manual +training has a more elevated purpose, and one, indeed, more useful in the +deeper meaning of the term. It came to be considered as an educative +process for the complete moral, physical and intellectual development of +the child." + +Thus, again, in the manning of trade schools and manual training schools +we are thrown back upon the higher training as its source and chief +support. There was a time when any aged and wornout carpenter could teach +in a trade school. But not so to-day. Indeed the demand for college-bred +men by a school like Tuskegee, ought to make Mr. Booker T. Washington the +firmest friend of higher training. Here he has as helpers the son of a +Negro senator, trained in Greek and the humanities, and graduated at +Harvard; the son of a Negro congressman and lawyer, trained in Latin and +mathematics, and graduated at Oberlin; he has as his wife, a woman who +read Virgil and Homer in the same class room with me; he has as college +chaplain, a classical graduate of Atlanta University; as teacher of +science, a graduate of Fisk; as teacher of history, a graduate of +Smith,--indeed some thirty of his chief teachers are college graduates, +and instead of studying French grammars in the midst of weeds, or buying +pianos for dirty cabins, they are at Mr. Washington's right hand helping +him in a noble work. And yet one of the effects of Mr. Washington's +propaganda has been to throw doubt upon the expediency of such training +for Negroes, as these persons have had. + + * * * * * + +Men of America, the problem is plain before you. Here is a race +transplanted through the criminal foolishness of your fathers. Whether you +like it or not the millions are here, and here they will remain. If you do +not lift them up, they will pull you down. Education and work are the +levers to uplift a people. Work alone will not do it unless inspired by +the right ideals and guided by intelligence. Education must not simply +teach work--it must teach Life. The Talented Tenth of the Negro race +must be made leaders of thought and missionaries of culture among their +people. No others can do this work and Negro colleges must train men +for it. The Negro race, like all other races, is going to be saved by +its exceptional men. + + + + +_The Disfranchisement of the Negro_ + +By CHARLES W. CHESNUTT + + In this paper the author presents a straightforward statement of facts + concerning the disfranchisement of the Negro in the Southern States. Mr. + Chesnutt, who is too well known as a writer to need any introduction to + an American audience, puts the case for the Negro to the American people + very plainly, and spares neither the North nor the South. + +[Illustration: CHARLES W. CHESNUTT.] + + +The right of American citizens of African descent, commonly called +Negroes, to vote upon the same terms as other citizens of the United +States, is plainly declared and firmly fixed by the Constitution. No such +person is called upon to present reasons why he should possess this right: +that question is foreclosed by the Constitution. The object of the +elective franchise is to give representation. So long as the Constitution +retains its present form, any State Constitution, or statute, which seeks, +by juggling the ballot, to deny the colored race fair representation, is a +clear violation of the fundamental law of the land, and a corresponding +injustice to those thus deprived of this right. + +For thirty-five years this has been the law. As long as it was measurably +respected, the colored people made rapid strides in education, wealth, +character and self-respect. This the census proves, all statements to the +contrary notwithstanding. A generation has grown to manhood and womanhood +under the great, inspiring freedom conferred by the Constitution and +protected by the right of suffrage--protected in large degree by the mere +naked right, even when its exercise was hindered or denied by unlawful +means. They have developed, in every Southern community, good citizens, +who, if sustained and encouraged by just laws and liberal institutions, +would greatly augment their number with the passing years, and soon wipe +out the reproach of ignorance, unthrift, low morals and social +inefficiency, thrown at them indiscriminately and therefore unjustly, and +made the excuse for the equally undiscriminating contempt of their persons +and their rights. They have reduced their illiteracy nearly 50 per cent. +Excluded from the institutions of higher learning in their own States, +their young men hold their own, and occasionally carry away honors, in +the universities of the North. They have accumulated three hundred million +dollars worth of real and personal property. Individuals among them have +acquired substantial wealth, and several have attained to something like +national distinction in art, letters and educational leadership. They are +numerously represented in the learned professions. Heavily handicapped, +they have made such rapid progress that the suspicion is justified that +their advancement, rather than any stagnation or retrogression, is the +true secret of the virulent Southern hostility to their rights, which has +so influenced Northern opinion that it stands mute, and leaves the colored +people, upon whom the North conferred liberty, to the tender mercies of +those who have always denied their fitness for it. + +It may be said, in passing, that the word "Negro," where used in this +paper, is used solely for convenience. By the census of 1890 there were +1,000,000 colored people in the country who were half, or more than half, +white, and logically there must be, as in fact there are, so many who +share the white blood in some degree, as to justify the assertion that the +race problem in the United States concerns the welfare and the status of a +mixed race. Their rights are not one whit the more sacred because of this +fact; but in an argument where injustice is sought to be excused because +of fundamental differences of race, it is well enough to bear in mind that +the race whose rights and liberties are endangered all over this country +by disfranchisement at the South, are the colored people who live in the +United States to-day, and not the low-browed, man-eating savage whom the +Southern white likes to set upon a block and contrast with Shakespeare and +Newton and Washington and Lincoln. + +Despite and in defiance of the Federal Constitution, to-day in the six +Southern States of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, North Carolina, South +Carolina and Virginia, containing an aggregate colored population of about +6,000,000, these have been, to all intents and purposes, denied, so far +as the States can effect it, the right to vote. This disfranchisement is +accomplished by various methods, devised with much transparent ingenuity, +the effort being in each instance to violate the spirit of the Federal +Constitution by disfranchising the Negro, while seeming to respect its +letter by avoiding the mention of race or color. + +These restrictions fall into three groups. The first comprises a property +qualification--the ownership of $300 worth or more of real or personal +property (Alabama, Louisiana, Virginia and South Carolina); the payment of +a poll tax (Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia); an educational +qualification--the ability to read and write (Alabama, Louisiana, North +Carolina). Thus far, those who believe in a restricted suffrage +everywhere, could perhaps find no reasonable fault with any one of these +qualifications, applied either separately or together. + +But the Negro has made such progress that these restrictions alone would +perhaps not deprive him of effective representation. Hence the second +group. This comprises an "understanding" clause--the applicant must be +able "to read, or understand when read to him, any clause in the +Constitution" (Mississippi), or to read and explain, or to understand and +explain when read to him, any section of the Constitution (Virginia); an +employment qualification--the voter must be regularly employed in some +lawful occupation (Alabama); a character qualification--the voter must be +a person of good character and who "understands the duties and obligations +of citizens under a republican (!) form of government" (Alabama). + +The qualifications under the first group it will be seen, are capable of +exact demonstration; those under the second group are left to the +discretion and judgment of the registering officer--for in most instances +these are all requirements for registration, which must precede voting. + +But the first group, by its own force, and the second group, under +imaginable conditions, might exclude not only the Negro vote, but a large +part of the white vote. Hence, the third group, which comprises: a +military service qualification--any man who went to war, willingly or +unwillingly, in a good cause or a bad, is entitled to register (Ala., +Va.); a prescriptive qualification, under which are included all male +persons who were entitled to vote on January 1, 1867, at which date the +Negro had not yet been given the right to vote; a hereditary +qualification, (the so-called "grandfather" clause), whereby any son +(Va.), or descendant (Ala.), of a soldier, and (N.C.) the descendant of +any person who had the right to vote on January 1, 1867, inherits that +right. If the voter wish to take advantage of these last provisions, which +are in the nature of exceptions to a general rule, he must register within +a stated time, whereupon he becomes a member of a privileged class of +permanently enrolled voters not subject to any of the other restrictions. + +It will be seen that these restrictions are variously combined in the +different States, and it is apparent that if combined to their declared +end, practically every Negro may, under color of law, be denied the right +to vote, and practically every white man accorded that right. The +effectiveness of these provisions to exclude the Negro vote is proved by +the Alabama registration under the new State Constitution. Out of a total, +by the census of 1900, of 181,471 Negro "males of voting age," less than +3,000 are registered; in Montgomery county alone, the seat of the State +capital, where there are 7,000 Negro males of voting age, only 47 have +been allowed to register, while in several counties not one single Negro +is permitted to exercise the franchise. + +These methods of disfranchisement have stood such tests as the United +States Courts, including the Supreme Court, have thus far seen fit to +apply, in such cases as have been before them for adjudication. These +include a case based upon the "understanding" clause of the Mississippi +Constitution, in which the Supreme Court held, in effect, that since there +was no ambiguity in the language employed and the Negro was not directly +named, the Court would not go behind the wording of the Constitution to +find a meaning which discriminated against the colored voter; and the +recent case of Jackson vs. Giles, brought by a colored citizen of +Montgomery, Alabama, in which the Supreme Court confesses itself impotent +to provide a remedy for what, by inference, it acknowledges _may_ be a +"great political wrong," carefully avoiding, however, to state that it is +a wrong, although the vital prayer of the petition was for a decision upon +this very point. + +Now, what is the effect of this wholesale disfranchisement of colored men, +upon their citizenship. The value of food to the human organism is not +measured by the pains of an occasional surfeit, but by the effect of its +entire deprivation. Whether a class of citizens should vote, even if not +always wisely--what class does?--may best be determined by considering +their condition when they are without the right to vote. + +The colored people are left, in the States where they have been +disfranchised, absolutely without representation, direct or indirect, in +any law-making body, in any court of justice, in any branch of +government--for the feeble remnant of voters left by law is so +inconsiderable as to be without a shadow of power. Constituting one-eighth +of the population of the whole country, two-fifths of the whole Southern +people, and a majority in several States, they are not able, because +disfranchised where most numerous, to send one representative to the +Congress, which, by the decision in the Alabama case, is held by the +Supreme Court to be the only body, outside of the State itself, competent +to give relief from a great political wrong. By former decisions of the +same tribunal, even Congress is impotent to protect their civil rights, +the Fourteenth Amendment having long since, by the consent of the same +Court, been in many respects as completely nullified as the Fifteenth +Amendment is now sought to be. They have no direct representation in any +Southern legislature, and no voice in determining the choice of white men +who might be friendly to their rights. Nor are they able to influence the +election of judges or other public officials, to whom are entrusted the +protection of their lives, their liberties and their property. No judge is +rendered careful, no sheriff diligent, for fear that he may offend a black +constituency; the contrary is most lamentably true; day after day the +catalogue of lynchings and anti-Negro riots upon every imaginable pretext, +grows longer and more appalling. The country stands face to face with the +revival of slavery; at the moment of this writing a federal grand jury in +Alabama is uncovering a system of peonage established under cover of law. + +Under the Southern program it is sought to exclude colored men from every +grade of the public service; not only from the higher administrative +functions, to which few of them would in any event, for a long time +aspire, but from the lowest as well. A Negro may not be a constable or a +policeman. He is subjected by law to many degrading discriminations. He is +required to be separated from white people on railroads and street cars, +and, by custom, debarred from inns and places of public entertainment. His +equal right to a free public education is constantly threatened and is +nowhere equitably recognized. In Georgia, as has been shown by Dr. DuBois, +where the law provides for a pro rata distribution of the public school +fund between the races, and where the colored school population is 48 per +cent. of the total, the amount of the fund devoted to their schools is +only 20 per cent. In New Orleans, with an immense colored population, many +of whom are persons of means and culture, all colored public schools above +the fifth grade have been abolished. + +The Negro is subjected to taxation without representation, which the +forefathers of this Republic made the basis of a bloody revolution. + +Flushed with their local success, and encouraged by the timidity of the +Courts and the indifference of public opinion, the Southern whites have +carried their campaign into the national government, with an ominous +degree of success. If they shall have their way, no Negro can fill any +federal office, or occupy, in the public service, any position that is not +menial. This is not an inference, but the openly, passionately avowed +sentiment of the white South. The right to employment in the public +service is an exceedingly valuable one, for which white men have struggled +and fought. A vast army of men are employed in the administration of +public affairs. Many avenues of employment are closed to colored men by +popular prejudice. If their right to public employment is recognized, and +the way to it open through the civil service, or the appointing power, or +the suffrages of the people, it will prove, as it has already, a strong +incentive to effort and a powerful lever for advancement. Its value to the +Negro, like that of the right to vote, may be judged by the eagerness of +the whites to deprive him of it. + +Not only is the Negro taxed without representation in the States referred +to, but he pays, through the tariff and internal revenue, a tax to a +National government whose supreme judicial tribunal declares that it +cannot, through the executive arm, enforce its own decrees, and, +therefore, refuses to pass upon a question, squarely before it, involving +a basic right of citizenship. For the decision of the Supreme Court in the +Giles case, if it foreshadows the attitude which the Court will take upon +other cases to the same general end which will soon come before it, is +scarcely less than a reaffirmation of the Dred Scott decision; it +certainly amounts to this--that in spite of the Fifteenth Amendment, +colored men in the United States have no political rights which the States +are bound to respect. To say this much is to say that all the privileges +and immunities which Negroes henceforth enjoy, must be by favor of the +whites; they are not _rights_. The whites have so declared; they proclaim +that the country is theirs, that the Negro should be thankful that he has +so much, when so much more might be withheld from him. He stands upon a +lower footing than any alien; he has no government to which he may look +for protection. + +Moreover, the white South sends to Congress, on a basis including the +Negro population, a delegation nearly twice as large as it is justly +entitled to, and one which may always safely be relied upon to oppose in +Congress every measure which seeks to protect the equality, or to enlarge +the rights of colored citizens. The grossness of this injustice is all the +more apparent since the Supreme Court, in the Alabama case referred to, +has declared the legislative and political department of the government to +be the only power which can right a political wrong. Under this decision +still further attacks upon the liberties of the citizen may be confidently +expected. Armed with the Negro's sole weapon of defense, the white South +stands ready to smite down his rights. The ballot was first given to the +Negro to defend him against this very thing. He needs it now far more than +then, and for even stronger reasons. The 9,000,000 free colored people of +to-day have vastly more to defend than the 3,000,000 hapless blacks who +had just emerged from slavery. If there be those who maintain that it was +a mistake to give the Negro the ballot at the time and in the manner in +which it was given, let them take to heart this reflection: that to +deprive him of it to-day, or to so restrict it as to leave him utterly +defenseless against the present relentless attitude of the South toward +his rights, will prove to be a mistake so much greater than the first, as +to be no less than a crime, from which not alone the Southern Negro must +suffer, but for which the nation will as surely pay the penalty as it paid +for the crime of slavery. Contempt for law is death to a republic, and +this one has developed alarming symptoms of the disease. + +And now, having thus robbed the Negro of every political and civil +_right_, the white South, in palliation of its course, makes a great show +of magnanimity in leaving him, as the sole remnant of what he acquired +through the Civil War, a very inadequate public school education, which, +by the present program, is to be directed mainly towards making him a +better agricultural laborer. Even this is put forward as a favor, although +the Negro's property is taxed to pay for it, and his labor as well. For it +is a well settled principle of political economy, that land and machinery +of themselves produce nothing, and that labor indirectly pays its fair +proportion of the tax upon the public's wealth. The white South seems to +stand to the Negro at present as one, who, having been reluctantly +compelled to release another from bondage, sees him stumbling forward and +upward, neglected by his friends and scarcely yet conscious of his own +strength; seizes him, binds him, and having bereft him of speech, of sight +and of manhood, "yokes him with the mule" and exclaims, with a show of +virtue which ought to deceive no one: "Behold how good a friend I am of +yours! Have I not left you a stomach and a pair of arms, and will I not +generously permit you to work for me with the one, that you may thereby +gain enough to fill the other? A brain you do not need. We will relieve +you of any responsibility that might seem to demand such an organ." + +The argument of peace-loving Northern white men and Negro opportunists +that the political power of the Negro having long ago been suppressed by +unlawful means, his right to vote is a mere paper right, of no real value, +and therefore to be lightly yielded for the sake of a hypothetical +harmony, is fatally short-sighted. It is precisely the attitude and +essentially the argument which would have surrendered to the South in the +sixties, and would have left this country to rot in slavery for another +generation. White men do not thus argue concerning their own rights. They +know too well the value of ideals. Southern white men see too clearly the +latent power of these unexercised rights. If the political power of the +Negro was a nullity because of his ignorance and lack of leadership, why +were they not content to leave it so, with the pleasing assurance that if +it ever became effective, it would be because the Negroes had grown fit +for its exercise? On the contrary, they have not rested until the +possibility of its revival was apparently headed off by new State +Constitutions. Nor are they satisfied with this. There is no doubt that an +effort will be made to secure the repeal of the Fifteenth Amendment, and +thus forestall the development of the wealthy and educated Negro, whom the +South seems to anticipate as a greater menace than the ignorant ex-slave. +However improbable this repeal may seem, it is not a subject to be lightly +dismissed; for it is within the power of the white people of the nation to +do whatever they wish in the premises--they did it once; they can do it +again. The Negro and his friends should see to it that the white majority +shall never wish to do anything to his hurt. There still stands, before +the Negro-hating whites of the South, the specter of a Supreme Court +which will interpret the Constitution to mean what it says, and what those +who enacted it meant, and what the nation, which ratified it, understood, +and which will find power, in a nation which goes beyond seas to +administer the affairs of distant peoples, to enforce its own fundamental +laws; the specter, too, of an aroused public opinion which will compel +Congress and the Courts to preserve the liberties of the Republic, which +are the liberties of the people. To wilfully neglect the suffrage, to hold +it lightly, is to tamper with a sacred right; to yield it for anything +else whatever is simply suicidal. Dropping the element of race, +disfranchisement is no more than to say to the poor and poorly taught, +that they must relinquish the right to defend themselves against +oppression until they shall have become rich and learned, in competition +with those already thus favored and possessing the ballot in addition. +This is not the philosophy of history. The growth of liberty has been the +constant struggle of the poor against the privileged classes; and the +goal of that struggle has ever been the equality of all men before the +law. The Negro who would yield this right, deserves to be a slave; he has +the servile spirit. The rich and the educated can, by virtue of their +influence, command many votes; can find other means of protection; the +poor man has but one, he should guard it as a sacred treasure. Long ago, +by fair treatment, the white leaders of the South might have bound the +Negro to themselves with hoops of steel. They have not chosen to take this +course, but by assuming from the beginning an attitude hostile to his +rights, have never gained his confidence, and now seek by foul means to +destroy where they have never sought by fair means to control. + +I have spoken of the effect of disfranchisement upon the colored race; it +is to the race as a whole, that the argument of the problem is generally +directed. But the unit of society in a republic is the individual, and not +the race, the failure to recognize this fact being the fundamental error +which has beclouded the whole discussion. The effect of disfranchisement +upon the individual is scarcely less disastrous. I do not speak of the +moral effect of injustice upon those who suffer from it; I refer rather to +the practical consequences which may be appreciated by any mind. No +country is free in which the way upward is not open for every man to try, +and for every properly qualified man to attain whatever of good the +community life may offer. Such a condition does not exist, at the South, +even in theory, for any man of color. In no career can such a man compete +with white men upon equal terms. He must not only meet the prejudice of +the individual, not only the united prejudice of the white community; but +lest some one should wish to treat him fairly, he is met at every turn +with some legal prohibition which says, "Thou shalt not," or "Thus far +shalt thou go and no farther." But the Negro race is viable; it adapts +itself readily to circumstances; and being thus adaptable, there is +always the temptation to + + "Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, + Where thrift may follow fawning." + +He who can most skilfully balance himself upon the advancing or receding +wave of white opinion concerning his race, is surest of such measure of +prosperity as is permitted to men of dark skins. There are Negro teachers +in the South--the privilege of teaching in their own schools is the one +respectable branch of the public service still left open to them--who, for +a grudging appropriation from a Southern legislature, will decry their own +race, approve their own degradation, and laud their oppressors. Deprived +of the right to vote, and, therefore, of any power to demand what is their +due, they feel impelled to buy the tolerance of the whites at any +sacrifice. If to live is the first duty of man, as perhaps it is the first +instinct, then those who thus stoop to conquer may be right. But is it +needful to stoop so low, and if so, where lies the ultimate +responsibility for this abasement? + +I shall say nothing about the moral effect of disfranchisement upon the +white people, or upon the State itself. What slavery made of the Southern +whites is a matter of history. The abolition of slavery gave the South an +opportunity to emerge from barbarism. Present conditions indicate that the +spirit which dominated slavery still curses the fair section over which +that institution spread its blight. + +And now, is the situation remediless? If not so, where lies the remedy? +First let us take up those remedies suggested by the men who approve of +disfranchisement, though they may sometimes deplore the method, or regret +the necessity. + +Time, we are told, heals all diseases, rights all wrongs, and is the only +cure for this one. It is a cowardly argument. These people are entitled to +their rights to-day, while they are yet alive to enjoy them; and it is +poor statesmanship and worse morals to nurse a present evil and thrust it +forward upon a future generation for correction. The nation can no more +honestly do this than it could thrust back upon a past generation the +responsibility for slavery. It had to meet that responsibility; it ought +to meet this one. + +Education has been put forward as the great corrective--preferably +industrial education. The intellect of the whites is to be educated to the +point where they will so appreciate the blessings of liberty and equality, +as of their own motion to enlarge and defend the Negro's rights. The +Negroes, on the other hand, are to be so trained as to make them, not +equal with the whites in any way--God save the mark! this would be +unthinkable!--but so useful to the community that the whites will protect +them rather than to lose their valuable services. Some few enthusiasts go +so far as to maintain that by virtue of education the Negro will, in time, +become strong enough to protect himself against any aggression of the +whites; this, it may be said, is a strictly Northern view. + +It is not quite clearly apparent how education alone, in the ordinary +meaning of the word, is to solve, in any appreciable time, the problem of +the relations of Southern white and black people. The need of education of +all kinds for both races is wofully apparent. But men and nations have +been free without being learned, and there have been educated slaves. +Liberty has been known to languish where culture had reached a very high +development. Nations do not first become rich and learned and then free, +but the lesson of history has been that they first become free and then +rich and learned, and oftentimes fall back into slavery again because of +too great wealth, and the resulting luxury and carelessness of civic +virtues. The process of education has been going on rapidly in the +Southern States since the Civil War, and yet, if we take superficial +indications, the rights of the Negroes are at a lower ebb than at any time +during the thirty-five years of their freedom, and the race prejudice more +intense and uncompromising. It is not apparent that educated Southerners +are less rancorous than others in their speech concerning the Negro, or +less hostile in their attitude toward his rights. It is their voice alone +that we have heard in this discussion; and if, as they state, they are +liberal in their views as compared with the more ignorant whites, then God +save the Negro! + +I was told, in so many words, two years ago, by the Superintendent of +Public Schools of a Southern city that "there was no place in the modern +world for the Negro, except under the ground." If gentlemen holding such +opinions are to instruct the white youth of the South, would it be at all +surprising if these, later on, should devote a portion of their leisure to +the improvement of civilization by putting under the ground as many of +this superfluous race as possible? + +The sole excuse made in the South for the prevalent injustice to the Negro +is the difference in race, and the inequalities and antipathies resulting +therefrom. It has nowhere been declared as a part of the Southern program +that the Negro, when educated, is to be given a fair representation in +government or an equal opportunity in life; the contrary has been +strenuously asserted; education can never make of him anything but a +Negro, and, therefore, essentially inferior, and not to be safely trusted +with any degree of power. A system of education which would tend to soften +the asperities and lessen the inequalities between the races would be of +inestimable value. An education which by a rigid separation of the races +from the kindergarten to the university, fosters this racial antipathy, +and is directed toward emphasizing the superiority of one class and the +inferiority of another, might easily have disastrous, rather than +beneficial results. It would render the oppressing class more powerful to +injure, the oppressed quicker to perceive and keener to resent the injury, +without proportionate power of defense. The same assimilative education +which is given at the North to all children alike, whereby native and +foreign, black and white, are taught side by side in every grade of +instruction, and are compelled by the exigencies of discipline to keep +their prejudices in abeyance, and are given the opportunity to learn and +appreciate one another's good qualities, and to establish friendly +relations which may exist throughout life, is absent from the Southern +system of education, both of the past and as proposed for the future. +Education is in a broad sense a remedy for all social ills; but the +disease we have to deal with now is not only constitutional but acute. A +wise physician does not simply give a tonic for a diseased limb, or a high +fever; the patient might be dead before the constitutional remedy could +become effective. The evils of slavery, its injury to whites and blacks, +and to the body politic, was clearly perceived and acknowledged by the +educated leaders of the South as far back as the Revolutionary War and the +Constitutional Convention, and yet they made no effort to abolish it. +Their remedy was the same--time, education, social and economic +development;--and yet a bloody war was necessary to destroy slavery and +put its spirit temporarily to sleep. When the South and its friends are +ready to propose a system of education which will recognize and teach the +equality of all men before the law, the potency of education alone to +settle the race problem will be more clearly apparent. + +At present even good Northern men, who wish to educate the Negroes, feel +impelled to buy this privilege from the none too eager white South, by +conceding away the civil and political rights of those whom they would +benefit. They have, indeed, gone farther than the Southerners themselves +in approving the disfranchisement of the colored race. Most Southern men, +now that they have carried their point and disfranchised the Negro, are +willing to admit, in the language of a recent number of the _Charleston +Evening Post_, that "the attitude of the Southern white man toward the +Negro is incompatible with the fundamental ideas of the republic." It +remained for our Clevelands and Abbotts and Parkhursts to assure them that +their unlawful course was right and justifiable, and for the most +distinguished Negro leader to declare that "every revised Constitution +throughout the Southern States has put a premium upon intelligence, +ownership of property, thrift and character." So does every penitentiary +sentence put a premium upon good conduct; but it is poor consolation to +the one unjustly condemned, to be told that he may shorten his sentence +somewhat by good behavior. Dr. Booker T. Washington, whose language is +quoted above, has, by his eminent services in the cause of education, won +deserved renown. If he has seemed, at times, to those jealous of the best +things for their race, to decry the higher education, it can easily be +borne in mind that his career is bound up in the success of an industrial +school; hence any undue stress which he may put upon that branch of +education may safely be ascribed to the natural zeal of the promoter, +without detracting in any degree from the essential value of his +teachings in favor of manual training, thrift and character-building. But +Mr. Washington's prominence as an educational leader, among a race whose +prominent leaders are so few, has at times forced him, perhaps +reluctantly, to express himself in regard to the political condition of +his people, and here his utterances have not always been so wise nor so +happy. He has declared himself in favor of a restricted suffrage, which at +present means, for his own people, nothing less than complete loss of +representation--indeed it is only in that connection that the question has +been seriously mooted; and he has advised them to go slow in seeking to +enforce their civil and political rights, which, in effect, means silent +submission to injustice. Southern white men may applaud this advice as +wise, because it fits in with their purposes; but Senator McEnery of +Louisiana, in a recent article in the _Independent_, voices the Southern +white opinion of such acquiescence when he says: "What other race would +have submitted so many years to slavery without complaint? _What other +race would have submitted so quietly to disfranchisement?_ These facts +stamp his (the Negro's) inferiority to the white race." The time to +philosophize about the good there is in evil, is not while its correction +is still possible, but, if at all, after all hope of correction is past. +Until then it calls for nothing but rigorous condemnation. To try to read +any good thing into these fraudulent Southern constitutions, or to accept +them as an accomplished fact, is to condone a crime against one's race. +Those who commit crime should bear the odium. It is not a pleasing +spectacle to see the robbed applaud the robber. Silence were better. + +It has become fashionable to question the wisdom of the Fifteenth +Amendment. I believe it to have been an act of the highest statesmanship, +based upon the fundamental idea of this Republic, entirely justified by +conditions; experimental in its nature, perhaps, as every new thing must +be, but just in principle; a choice between methods, of which it seemed +to the great statesmen of that epoch the wisest and the best, and +essentially the most just, bearing in mind the interests of the freedmen +and the Nation, as well as the feelings of the Southern whites; never +fairly tried, and therefore, not yet to be justly condemned. Not one of +those who condemn it, has been able, even in the light of subsequent +events, to suggest a better method by which the liberty and civil rights +of the freedmen and their descendants could have been protected. Its +abandonment, as I have shown, leaves this liberty and these rights frankly +without any guaranteed protection. All the education which philanthropy or +the State could offer as a _substitute_ for equality of rights, would be a +poor exchange; there is no defensible reason why they should not go hand +in hand, each encouraging and strengthening the other. The education which +one can demand as a right is likely to do more good than the education for +which one must sue as a favor. + +The chief argument against Negro suffrage, the insistently proclaimed +argument, worn threadbare in Congress, on the platform, in the pulpit, in +the press, in poetry, in fiction, in impassioned rhetoric, is the +reconstruction period. And yet the evils of that period were due far more +to the venality and indifference of white men than to the incapacity of +black voters. The revised Southern Constitutions adopted under +reconstruction reveal a higher statesmanship than any which preceded or +have followed them, and prove that the freed voters could as easily have +been led into the paths of civic righteousness as into those of +misgovernment. Certain it is that under reconstruction the civil and +political rights of all men were more secure in those States than they +have ever been since. We will hear less of the evils of reconstruction, +now that the bugaboo has served its purpose by disfranchising the Negro, +it will be laid aside for a time while the nation discusses the political +corruption of great cities; the scandalous conditions in Rhode Island; the +evils attending reconstruction in the Philippines, and the scandals in +the postoffice department--for none of which, by the way, is the Negro +charged with any responsibility, and for none of which is the restriction +of the suffrage a remedy seriously proposed. Rhode Island is indeed the +only Northern State which has a property qualification for the franchise! + +There are three tribunals to which the colored people may justly appeal +for the protection of their rights: the United States Courts, Congress and +public opinion. At present all three seem mainly indifferent to any +question of human rights under the Constitution. Indeed, Congress and the +Courts merely follow public opinion, seldom lead it. Congress never enacts +a measure which is believed to oppose public opinion;--your Congressman +keeps his ear to the ground. The high, serene atmosphere of the Courts is +not impervious to its voice; they rarely enforce a law contrary to public +opinion, even the Supreme Court being able, as Charles Sumner once put it, +to find a reason for every decision it may wish to render; or, as +experience has shown, a method to evade any question which it cannot +decently decide in accordance with public opinion. The art of straddling +is not confined to the political arena. The Southern situation has been +well described by a colored editor in Richmond: "When we seek relief at +the hands of Congress, we are informed that our plea involves a legal +question, and we are referred to the Courts. When we appeal to the Courts, +we are gravely told that the question is a political one, and that we must +go to Congress. When Congress enacts remedial legislation, our enemies +take it to the Supreme Court, which promptly declares it +unconstitutional." The Negro might chase his rights round and round this +circle until the end of time, without finding any relief. + +Yet the Constitution is clear and unequivocal in its terms, and no Supreme +Court can indefinitely continue to construe it as meaning anything but +what it says. This Court should be bombarded with suits until it makes +some definite pronouncement, one way or the other, on the broad question +of the constitutionality of the disfranchising Constitutions of the +Southern States. The Negro and his friends will then have a clean-cut +issue to take to the forum of public opinion, and a distinct ground upon +which to demand legislation for the enforcement of the Federal +Constitution. The case from Alabama was carried to the Supreme Court +expressly to determine the constitutionality of the Alabama Constitution. +The Court declared itself without jurisdiction, and in the same breath +went into the merits of the case far enough to deny relief, without +passing upon the real issue. Had it said, as it might with absolute +justice and perfect propriety, that the Alabama Constitution is a bold and +impudent violation of the Fifteenth Amendment, the purpose of the lawsuit +would have been accomplished and a righteous cause vastly strengthened. + +But public opinion cannot remain permanently indifferent to so vital a +question. The agitation is already on. It is at present largely academic, +but is slowly and resistlessly, forcing itself into politics, which is the +medium through which republics settle such questions. It cannot much +longer be contemptuously or indifferently elbowed aside. The South itself +seems bent upon forcing the question to an issue, as, by its arrogant +assumptions, it brought on the Civil War. From that section, too, there +come now and then, side by side with tales of Southern outrage, excusing +voices, which at the same time are accusing voices; which admit that the +white South is dealing with the Negro unjustly and unwisely; that the +Golden Rule has been forgotten; that the interests of white men alone have +been taken into account, and that their true interests as well are being +sacrificed. There is a silent white South, uneasy in conscience, darkened +in counsel, groping for the light, and willing to do the right. They are +as yet a feeble folk, their voices scarcely audible above the clamor of +the mob. May their convictions ripen into wisdom, and may their numbers +and their courage increase! If the class of Southern white men of whom +Judge Jones of Alabama, is so noble a representative, are supported and +encouraged by a righteous public opinion at the North, they may, in time, +become the dominant white South, and we may then look for wisdom and +justice in the place where, so far as the Negro is concerned, they now +seem well-nigh strangers. But even these gentlemen will do well to bear in +mind that so long as they discriminate in any way against the Negro's +equality of right, so long do they set class against class and open the +door to every sort of discrimination. There can be no middle ground +between justice and injustice, between the citizen and the serf. + +It is not likely that the North, upon the sober second thought, will +permit the dearly-bought results of the Civil War to be nullified by any +change in the Constitution. As long as the Fifteenth Amendment stands, the +_rights_ of colored citizens are ultimately secure. There were would-be +despots in England after the granting of Magna Charta; but it outlived +them all, and the liberties of the English people are secure. There was +slavery in this land after the Declaration of Independence, yet the faces +of those who love liberty have ever turned to that immortal document. So +will the Constitution and its principles outlive the prejudices which +would seek to overthrow it. + +What colored men of the South can do to secure their citizenship to-day, +or in the immediate future, is not very clear. Their utterances on +political questions, unless they be to concede away the political rights +of their race, or to soothe the consciences of white men by suggesting +that the problem is insoluble except by some slow remedial process which +will become effectual only in the distant future, are received with scant +respect--could scarcely, indeed, be otherwise received, without a voting +constituency to back them up,--and must be cautiously made, lest they meet +an actively hostile reception. But there are many colored men at the +North, where their civil and political rights in the main are respected. +There every honest man has a vote, which he may freely cast, and which is +reasonably sure to be fairly counted. When this race develops a sufficient +power of combination, under adequate leadership,--and there are signs +already that this time is near at hand,--the Northern vote can be wielded +irresistibly for the defense of the rights of their Southern brethren. + +In the meantime the Northern colored men have the right of free speech, +and they should never cease to demand their rights, to clamor for them, to +guard them jealously, and insistently to invoke law and public sentiment +to maintain them. He who would be free must learn to protect his freedom. +Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. He who would be respected must +respect himself. The best friend of the Negro is he who would rather see, +within the borders of this republic one million free citizens of that +race, equal before the law, than ten million cringing serfs existing by a +contemptuous sufferance. A race that is willing to survive upon any other +terms is scarcely worthy of consideration. + +The direct remedy for the disfranchisement of the Negro lies through +political action. One scarcely sees the philosophy of distinguishing +between a civil and a political right. But the Supreme Court has +recognized this distinction and has designated Congress as the power to +right a political wrong. The Fifteenth Amendment gives Congress power to +enforce its provisions. The power would seem to be inherent in government +itself; but anticipating that the enforcement of the Amendment might +involve difficulty, they made the superorogatory declaration. Moreover, +they went further, and passed laws by which they provided for such +enforcement. These the Supreme Court has so far declared insufficient. It +is for Congress to make more laws. It is for colored men and for white men +who are not content to see the blood-bought results of the Civil War +nullified, to urge and direct public opinion to the point where it will +demand stringent legislation to enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth +Amendments. This demand will rest in law, in morals and in true +statesmanship; no difficulties attending it could be worse than the +present ignoble attitude of the Nation toward its own laws and its own +ideals--without courage to enforce them, without conscience to change +them, the United States presents the spectacle of a Nation drifting +aimlessly, so far as this vital, National problem is concerned, upon the +sea of irresolution, toward the maelstrom of anarchy. + +The right of Congress, under the Fourteenth Amendment, to reduce Southern +representation can hardly be disputed. But Congress has a simpler and more +direct method to accomplish the same end. It is the sole judge of the +qualifications of its own members, and the sole judge of whether any +member presenting his credentials has met those qualifications. It can +refuse to seat any member who comes from a district where voters have been +disfranchised: it can judge for itself whether this has been done, and +there is no appeal from its decision. + +If, when it has passed a law, any Court shall refuse to obey its behests, +it can impeach the judges. If any president refuse to lend the executive +arm of the government to the enforcement of the law, it can impeach the +president. No such extreme measures are likely to be necessary for the +enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments--and the +Thirteenth, which is also threatened--but they are mentioned as showing +that Congress is supreme; and Congress proceeds, the House directly, the +Senate indirectly, from the people and is governed by public opinion. If +the reduction of Southern representation were to be regarded in the light +of a bargain by which the Fifteenth Amendment was surrendered, then it +might prove fatal to liberty. If it be inflicted as a punishment and a +warning, to be followed by more drastic measures if not sufficient, it +would serve a useful purpose. The Fifteenth Amendment declares that the +right to vote _shall not_ be denied or abridged on account of color; and +any measure adopted by Congress should look to that end. Only as the power +to injure the Negro in Congress is reduced thereby, would a reduction of +representation protect the Negro; without other measures it would still +leave him in the hands of the Southern whites, who could safely be +trusted to make him pay for their humiliation. + +Finally, there is, somewhere in the Universe a "Power that works for +righteousness," and that leads men to do justice to one another. To this +power, working upon the hearts and consciences of men, the Negro can +always appeal. He has the right upon his side, and in the end the right +will prevail. The Negro will, in time, attain to full manhood and +citizenship throughout the United States. No better guaranty of this is +needed than a comparison of his present with his past. Toward this he must +do his part, as lies within his power and his opportunity. But it will be, +after all, largely a white man's conflict, fought out in the forum of the +public conscience. The Negro, though eager enough when opportunity +offered, had comparatively little to do with the abolition of slavery, +which was a vastly more formidable task than will be the enforcement of +the Fifteenth Amendment. + + + + +_The Negro and the Law_ + +By WILFORD H. SMITH + + The law and how it is dodged by enactments infringing upon the rights + guaranteed to the freedmen by constitutional amendment. A powerful plea + for justice for the Negro. + +[Illustration: WILFORD H. SMITH.] + + +The colored people in the United States are indebted to the beneficent +provisions of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution of +the United States, for the establishment of their freedom and citizenship, +and it is to these mainly they must look for the maintenance of their +liberty and the protection of their civil rights. These amendments +followed close upon the Emancipation Proclamation issued January 1st, +1863, by President Lincoln, and his call for volunteers, which was +answered by more than three hundred thousand negro soldiers, who, during +three years of military service, helped the Union arms to victory at +Appomattox. Standing in the shadow of the awful calamity and deep distress +of the civil war, and grateful to God for peace and victory over the +rebellion, the American people, who upheld the Union, rose to the sublime +heights of doing justice to the former slaves, who had grown and +multiplied with the country from the early settlement at Jamestown. It +looked like an effort to pay them back for their years of faithfulness and +unrequited toil, by not only making them free but placing them on equal +footing with themselves in the fundamental law. Certainly, they intended +at least, that they should have as many rights under the Constitution as +are given to white naturalized citizens who come to this country from all +the nations of Europe. + +The 13th amendment provides that neither slavery nor involuntary +servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have +been duly convicted, shall exist in the United States or any place subject +to their jurisdiction. + +The 14th amendment provides in section one, that all persons born or +naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, +are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside. +No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges +or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any State +deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of +law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection +of the law. + +The 15th amendment provides that the right of citizens of the United +States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by +any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. + +Chief Justice Waite, in the case of the United States vs. Cruikshank, 92nd +U.S. 542, said:-- + +"The 14th amendment prohibits a State from denying to any person within +its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. The equality of the +rights of citizens is a principle of republicanism. Every Republican +government is in duty bound to protect all its citizens in the enjoyment +of this principle if within its power." + +The same Chief Justice, in the case of the United States vs. Reese, 92nd +U.S. 214, said: + +"The 15th amendment does not confer the right of suffrage upon anyone. It +prevents the States or the United States from giving preference in this +particular to one citizen of the United States over another, on account of +race, color or previous condition of servitude. Before its adoption this +could be done. It was as much within the power of a State to exclude +citizens of the United States from voting on account of race and color, as +it was on account of age, property or education. Now it is not." + +Notwithstanding the manifest meaning of equality of citizenship contained +in the constitutional amendments, it was found necessary to reinforce them +by a civil rights law, enacted by the Congress of the United States, March +1st, 1875, entitled, "An Act To Protect All Citizens In Their Civil and +Legal Rights." Its preamble and first section are as follows:--Preamble: +"Whereas, it is essential to just government we recognize the equality of +all men before the law, and hold that it is the duty of government in its +dealings with the people to mete out equal and exact justice to all, of +whatever nativity, race, color or persuasion, religious or political, and +it being the appropriate object of legislation to enact great fundamental +principles into law, therefore, + +"Be it enacted that all persons within the jurisdiction of the United +States shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the +accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges of inns, public +conveyances on land or water, theatres and other places of public +amusement, subject only to the conditions and limitations established by +law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color, regardless +to any previous condition of servitude." + +The Supreme Court of the United States has held this salutary law +unconstitutional and void as applied to the States, but binding in the +District of Columbia, and the Territories over which the government of the +United States has control.--Civil Rights cases 109 U.S. 63. Since the +Supreme Court's ruling, many Northern and Western States have enacted +similar civil rights laws. Equality of citizenship in the United States +suffered a severe blow when the civil rights bill was struck down by the +Supreme Court. The colored people looked upon the decision as unsound, and +prompted by race prejudice. It was clear that the amendments to the +Constitution were adopted to secure not only their freedom, but their +equal civil rights, and by ratifying the amendments the several States +conceded to the Federal government the power and authority of maintaining +not alone their freedom, but their equal civil rights in the United States +as well. + +The Federal Supreme Court put a narrow interpretation on the Constitution, +rather than a liberal one in favor of equal rights; in marked contrast to +a recent decision of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New +York in a civil rights case arising under the statute of New York, Burks +vs. Bosso, 81 N.Y. Supp, 384. The New York Supreme Court held this +language: "The liberation of the slaves, and the suppression of the +rebellion, was supplemented by the amendments to the national Constitution +according to the colored people their civil rights and investing them with +citizenship. The amendments indicated a clear purpose to secure equal +rights to the black people with the white race. The legislative intent +must control, and that may be gathered from circumstances inducing the +act. Where that intent has been unvaryingly manifested in one direction, +and that in the prohibition of any discrimination against a large class of +citizens, the courts should not hesitate to keep apace with legislative +purpose. We must remember that the slightest trace of African blood places +a man under the ban of belonging to that race. However respectable and +whatever he may be, he is ostracized socially, and when the policy of the +law is against extending the prohibition of his civil rights, a liberal, +rather than a narrow interpretation should be given to enactments +evidencing the intent to eliminate race discrimination, as far as that +can be accomplished by legislative intervention." + +The statutory enactments and recent Constitutions of most of the former +slave-holding States, show that they have never looked with favor upon the +amendments to the national Constitution. They rather regard them as war +measures designed by the North to humiliate and punish the people of those +States lately in rebellion. While in the main they accept the 13th +amendment and concede that the negro should have personal freedom, they +have never been altogether in harmony with the spirit and purposes of the +14th and 15th amendments. There seems to be a distinct and positive fear +on the part of the South that if the negro is given a man's chance, and is +accorded equal civil rights with white men on the juries, on common +carriers, and in public places, that it will in some way lead to his +social equality. This fallacious argument is persisted in, notwithstanding +the well-known fact, that although the Jews are the leaders in the wealth +and commerce of the South, their civil equality has never, except in rare +instances, led to any social intermingling with the Southern whites. + +Holding these views the Southern people in 1875, found means to overcome +the Republican majorities in all the re-constructed States, and +practically drove the negroes out of the law-making bodies of all those +States. So that, now in all the Southern States, so far as can be +ascertained, there is not one negro sitting as a representative in any of +the law-making bodies. The next step was to deny them representation on +the grand and petit juries in the State courts, through Jury +Commissioners, who excluded them from the panels. + +To be taxed without representation is a serious injustice in a republic +whose foundations are laid upon the principle of "no taxation without +representation." But serious as this phase of the case must appear, +infinitely more serious is the case when we consider the fact that they +are likewise excluded from the grand and petit juries in all the State +courts, with the fewest and rarest exceptions. The courts sit in judgment +upon their lives and liberties, and dispose of their dearest earthly +possessions. They are not entitled to life, liberty or property if the +courts should decide they are not, and yet in this all-important tribunal +they are denied all voice, except as parties and witnesses, and here and +there a negro lawyer is permitted to appear. One vote on the grand jury +might prevent an indictment, and save disgrace and the risk of public +trial; while one vote on the petit jury might save a life or a term of +imprisonment, for an innocent person pursued and persecuted by powerful +enemies. + +With no voice in the making of the laws, which they are bound to obey, nor +in their administration by the courts, thus tied and helpless, the negroes +were proscribed by a system of legal enactments intended to wholly nullify +the letter and spirit of the war amendments to the national organic law. +This crusade was begun by enacting a system of Jim-Crow car laws in all +the Southern States, so that now the Jim-Crow cars run from the Gulf of +Mexico into the national capital. They are called, "Separate Car Laws," +providing for separate but equal accommodations for whites and negroes. +Though fair on their face, they are everywhere known to discriminate +against the colored people in their administration, and were intended to +humiliate and degrade them. + +Setting apart separate places for negroes on public carriers, is just as +repugnant to the spirit and intent of the national Constitution, as would +be a law compelling all Jews or all Roman Catholics to occupy compartments +specially set apart for them on account of their religion. If these +statutes were not especially aimed at the negro, an arrangement of +different fares, such as first, second and third classes, would have been +far more just and preferable, and would have enabled the refined and +exclusive of both races to avoid the presence of the coarse and vicious, +by selecting the more expensive fare. Still these laws have been upheld by +the Federal Supreme Court, and pronounced not in conflict with the +amendments to the Constitution of the United States. + +City ordinances providing for separate street cars for white and colored +passengers, are in force in Atlanta, New Orleans, and in nearly all the +cities of the South. In all the principal cities of Alabama, a certain +portion of the street cars is set apart and marked for negroes. The +conductors are clothed with the authority of determining to what race the +passenger belongs, and may arrest persons refusing to obey his orders. It +is often a very difficult task to determine to what race some passengers +belong, there being so many dark-white persons that might be mistaken for +negroes, and persons known as negroes who are as fair as any white person. + +In the State of Georgia, a negro cannot purchase a berth in a sleeping +car, under any circumstances, no matter where his destination, owing to +the following statute enacted December 20th, 1899: "Sleeping car +companies, and all railroads operating sleeping cars in this State, shall +separate the white and colored races, and shall not permit them to occupy +the same compartment; provided, that nothing in this act shall be +construed to compel sleeping car companies or railroads operating sleeping +cars, to carry persons of color in sleeping or parlor cars; provided also, +that this act shall not apply to colored nurses or servants travelling +with their employers." The violation of this statute is a misdemeanor. + +Article 45, section 639 of the statutes of Georgia, 1895, makes it a +misdemeanor to keep or confine white and colored convicts together, or to +chain them together going to and from work. There is also a statute in +Georgia requiring that a separate tax list be kept in every county, of the +property of white and colored persons. Both races generally approve the +laws prohibiting inter-marriages between white and colored persons, which +seem to be uniform throughout the Southern States. + +Florida seems to have gone a step further than the rest, and by sections +2612 and 2613, Revised Statutes, 1892, it is made a misdemeanor for a +white man and a colored woman, and vice versa, to sleep under the same +roof at night, occupying the same room. Florida is entitled to credit, +however, for a statute making marriages between white and colored persons +prior to 1866, where they continue to live together, valid and binding to +all intents and purposes. + +In addition to this forced separation of the races by law, "from the +cradle to the grave," there is yet a sadder and more deplorable +separation, in the almost universal disposition to leave the negroes +wholly and severely to themselves in their home life and religious life, +by the white Christian people of the South, distinctly manifesting no +concern in their moral and religious development. + +In Georgia and the Carolinas, and all the Gulf States (except Texas, where +the farm labor is mostly white) the negroes on the farms are held by a +system of laws which prevents them from leaving the plantations, and +enables the landlord to punish them by fine and imprisonment for any +alleged breach of contract. In the administration of these laws they are +virtually made slaves to the landlord, as long as they are in debt, and it +is wholly in the power of the landlord to forever keep them in debt. + +By section 355, of the Criminal Code of South Carolina, 1902, it is made a +misdemeanor to violate a contract to work and labor on a farm, subject to +a fine of not less than five dollars, and more than one hundred dollars, +or imprisonment for not less than ten days, or more than thirty. It is +also made a misdemeanor to employ any farm laborer while under contract +with another, or to persuade or entice a farm laborer to leave his +employer. + +The Georgia laws are a little stronger in this respect than the laws of +the other States. By section 121, of the Code of Georgia, 1895, it is +provided, "that if any person shall, by offering higher wages, or in any +other way entice, persuade or decoy, or attempt to entice, persuade or +decoy any farm laborer from his employer, he shall be guilty of a +misdemeanor." Again, by act of December 17th, 1901, the Georgia +Legislature passed a law making it an offense to rent land, or furnish +land to a farm laborer, after he has contracted with another landlord, +without first obtaining the consent of the first landlord. + +The presence of large numbers of negroes in the towns and cities of the +South and North can be accounted for by such laws as the above, +administered by ignorant country magistrates, in nearly all cases the +pliant tools of the landlords. + +The boldest and most open violation of the negro's rights under the +Federal Constitution, was the enactment of the grand-father clauses, and +understanding clauses in the new Constitutions of Louisiana, Alabama, the +Carolinas, and Virginia, which have had the effect to deprive the great +body of them of the right to vote in those States, for no other reason +than their race and color. Although thus depriving him of his vote, and +all voice in the State governments at the South, in all of them his +property is taxed to pay pensions to Confederate soldiers, who fought to +continue him in slavery. The fact is, the franchise had been practically +taken from the negroes in the South since 1876, by admitted fraudulent +methods and intimidation in elections, but it was not until late years +that this nullification of the amendments was enacted into State +Constitutions. + +This brings me to the proposition that it is mainly in the enforcement, or +the administration of the laws, however fair and equal they may appear on +their face, that the constitutional rights of negroes to equal protection +and treatment are denied, not only in the South but in many Northern +States. There are noble exceptions, however, of high-toned honorable +gentlemen on the bench as trial judges, and Supreme Court justices, in the +South, who without regard to consequences have stood for fairness and +justice to the negro in their courts. + +With the population of the South distinctly divided into two classes, not +the rich and poor, not the educated and ignorant, not the moral and +immoral, but simply whites and blacks, all negroes being generally +regarded as inferior and not entitled to the same rights as any white +person, it is bound to be a difficult matter to obtain fair and just +results, when there is any sort of conflict between the races. The negro +realizes this, and knows that he is at an immense disadvantage when he is +forced to litigate with a white man in civil matters, and much more so +when he is charged with a crime by a white person. + +The juries in the South almost always reject the testimony of any number +of negroes if given in opposition to that of a white witness, and this is +true in many instances, no matter how unreasonable or inconsistent the +testimony of the white witness may be. Jurors in the South have been heard +to admit that they would be socially ostracized if they brought in a +verdict upon colored testimony alone, in opposition to white testimony. + +Perhaps it can be best explained how the negro fares in the courts of the +South by giving a few cases showing how justice is administered to him: + +A negro boy was brought to the bar for trial before a police magistrate, +in a Southern capital city, charged with assault and battery on a white +boy about the same age, but a little larger. The testimony showed that the +white boy had beat the negro on several previous occasions as he passed on +his way to school, and each time the negro showed no disposition to fight. +On the morning of the charge he attacked the negro and attempted to cut +him with a knife, because the negro's mother had reported to the white +boy's mother the previous assaults, and asked her to chastise him. The +colored boy in trying to keep from being cut was compelled to fight, and +got the advantage and threw the white boy down and blacked his eyes. The +magistrate on this evidence fined the negro twenty-five dollars. The +mother of the negro having once been a servant for the magistrate, found +courage to rise, and said: "Jedge, yo Honer, can I speak?" The magistrate +replied, "Yes, go on." She said, "Well, Jedge, my boy is ben tellin' me +about dis white boy meddlin' him on his way to school, but I would not let +my boy fight, 'cause I 'tole him he couldn't git no jestice in law. But he +had no other way to go to school 'ceptin' gwine dat way; and den jedge, +dis white chile is bigger an my chile and jumped on him fust with a knife +for nothin', befo' my boy tetched him. Jedge I am a po' woman, and washes +fur a livin', and ain't got nobody to help me, and can't raise all dat +money. I think dat white boy's mammy ought to pay half of dis fine." By +this time her voice had become stifled by her tears. The judge turned to +the mother of the white boy and said, "Madam, are you willing to pay half +of this fine?" She answered, "Yes, Your Honor." And the judge changed the +order to a fine of $12.50 each, against both boys. + +A celebrated case in point reported in the books is, George Maury vs. The +State of Miss., 68 Miss. 605. I reproduce the court's statement of the +case:--"This is an appeal from the Circuit Court of Kemper County. +Appellant was convicted of murder and sentenced to imprisonment for life. +He appears in this court without counsel. The facts are briefly these: +One, Nicholson, a white man, accompanied by his little son seven years +old, was driving an ox team along a public road; he had occasion to stop +and the oxen were driven by his son; defendant, a negro, also in an ox +wagon, was going along the road in an opposite direction, and met +Nicholson's wagon in charge of the little boy. It was after dark, and when +the wagons met, according to the testimony of Nicholson, the defendant +insultingly demanded of the boy to give the way, and cursed and abused +him. Nicholson, hearing the colloquy, hurried to the scene and a fight +ensued between him and Maury, in which the latter got the advantage, +inflicting severe blows upon Nicholson. This occurred on Thursday, and on +the following Sunday night, Nicholson, in company with eleven or twelve of +his friends, rode to the farm of Maury, and after sending several of their +number to ascertain if he was at home, rode rapidly into his yard and +called for him. Not finding him, they proceeded to search the premises, +and found several colored men shut up in the smoke house, the door of +which some of the searching party had broken open. Maury, the accused, was +not found there, and about that time some one called out, "Here is +George." Some of the party then started in the direction of the cotton +house from which the voice proceeded, when a volley was fired from it, and +two of the searching party were killed, one of whom was the son of the +former owner of the defendant, and the other a brother-in-law of +Nicholson. The members of the raiding party testified that their purpose +in going to the home of the defendant was merely to arrest him. It was, +however, shown that Nicholson, immediately after the fight on Thursday, +informed Cobb, and Cobb between Thursday and Sunday night collected the +men who joined in the raid. No affidavit for the arrest of Maury had been +made, and none of the party had any warrant, or made any announcement to +the defendant or his family, of the object of their visit. The accused who +testified in his own behalf, denied that he was at home at the time of the +shooting, and says he fled before the raiding party arrived. He also +contradicted Nicholson in his account of the difficulty with him, and +denies that he spoke harshly to the child." Chief Justice Campbell, in +delivering the opinion of the court said, "It is inconceivable that the +crime of murder is predicable of the facts disclosed by the evidence in +this case. The time and place and circumstances of the killing forbid any +such conclusion as a verdict of guilty of murder." The judgment of the +trial court was reversed. + +This same Chief Justice, in the case of Monroe vs. Mississippi, 71 Miss. +201, where a negro was convicted of rape, makes use of the following +brave and noble language, reversing the case on the ground of the +insufficiency of the evidence: "We might greatly lighten our labors by +deferring in all cases to the verdict approved by the presiding judge as +to the facts, but our duty is to administer justice without respect of +persons, and do equal right to the poor and the rich. Hence the +disposition, which we are not ashamed to confess we have, to guard +jealously the rights of the poor and friendless and despised, and to be +astute as far as we properly may, against injustice, whether proceeding +from wilfulness or indifference." + +The country has produced no abler jurist, nor the South no greater man +than Ex-Chief Justice Campbell of Mississippi. If the counsel of such men +as he and Chief Justice Garret of the Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, +could obtain in the South, there would be no problem between the races. +All would be contented because justice would be administered to the whites +and blacks alike. + +In the administration of the suffrage sections under the new +Constitutions of the South by the partisan boards of registrars, the same +discrimination against negroes was practiced. Their methods are of more or +less interest. The plan was to exclude all negroes from the electorate +without excluding a single white man. Under the Alabama Constitution, a +soldier in the Civil War, either on the Federal or Confederate side, is +entitled to qualification. When a negro goes up to register as a soldier +he is asked for his discharge. When he presents it he is asked, "How do we +know that you are the man whose name is written in this discharge? Bring +us two white men whom we know and who will swear that you have not found +this paper, and that they know that you were a soldier in the company and +regiment in which you claim to have been." This, of course, could not be +done, and the ex-soldier who risked his life for the Union is denied the +right to vote. + +The same Constitution provides that if not a soldier or the legal +descendant of one, an elector must be of good character and understand the +duties and obligations of citizenship under a Republican form of +government. When a negro claims qualifications under the good character +and understanding clauses he is put through an examination similar to the +following: + +"What is a republican form of government? + +"What is a limited monarchy? + +"What islands did the United States come into possession of by the +Spanish-American War? + +"What is the difference between Jeffersonian Democracy and Calhoun +principles, as compared to the Monroe Doctrine? + +"If the Nicaragua Canal is cut, what will be the effect if the Pacific +Ocean is two feet higher than the Atlantic?" Should these questions be +answered satisfactorily, the negro must still produce two white men known +to the registrars to testify to his good character. A remarkable +exception in the treatment of negroes by the registrars of Dallas county, +Alabama, is shown in the following account taken from the Montgomery +Advertizer:-- + +"An old negro barber by the name of Edward E. Harris, stepped in before +the registrars, hat in hand, humble and polite, with a kindly smile on his +face. He respectfully asked to be registered. He signed the application +and waited a few minutes until the registrars had disposed of some other +matters, and being impressed with his respectful bearing, some member of +the board commenced to ask a few questions. The old man told his story in +a straight forward manner. He said: "Gentlemen, I am getting to be a +pretty old man. I was born here in the South, and I followed my young +master through all of the campaigns in Virginia, when Mas' Bob Lee made it +so warm for the Yankees. But our luck left us at Gettysburg. The Yankees +got around in our rear there, and I got a bullet in the back of my head, +and one in my leg before I got out of that scrape. But I was not hurt +much, and my greatest anxiety was about my young master, Mr. John Holly, +who was a member of the Bur Rifles, 18th Mississippi. He was a private and +enlisted at Jackson, Miss. + +"He could not be found the first day; I looked all among the dead on the +battle field for him and he was not there. Next day I got a permit to go +through the hospitals, and I looked into the face of every soldier +closely, in the hope of finding my young master. After many hours of +searching I found him, but he was dangerously wounded. I stayed by his +side, wounded as I was, for three long weeks, but he gradually grew worse +and then he died. I went out with the body and saw it buried as decently +as I could, and then I went back to Jackson and told the young mistress +how brave he was in battle, how good he was to me, and told her all the +words he had sent her, as he lay there on that rude cot in the hospital. +That is my record as a Confederate soldier, and if you gentlemen care to +give me a certificate of registration, I would be much obliged to you." +It is needless to say that old Ed. Harris got his certificate. + +It is insisted upon by the leaders of public opinion at the South, that +negroes should not be given equal political and civil rights with white +men, defined by law and enforceable by the courts; but that they should be +content to strive to deserve the good wishes and friendly feeling of the +whites, and if the South is let alone, they will see to it that negroes +get becoming treatment. + +While there is a large number of the high-toned, chivalrous element of the +old master class yet living, who would stand by the negro and not permit +him to be wronged if they could prevent it, yet they are powerless to +control the great mass of the poor whites who are most bitter in their +prejudices against the negro. They should also bear in mind that the old +master class is rapidly passing way, and that there is constantly an +influx of foreigners to the South, and in less than fifty years the +Italians, or some other foreign nationality, may be the ruling class in +all the Southern States; and the negro, deprived of all political and +civil rights by the Constitution and laws, would be wholly at the mercy of +a people without sympathy for him. + +In order to show the fallacy and the wrong and injustice of this doctrine, +and how helplessly exposed it leaves the negro to the prejudices of the +poor whites, I relate a tragedy in the life of a friend of mine, who was +well known and respected in the town of Rayville, Louisiana. + +Sewall Smith, for many years ran the leading barber shop for whites in the +town of Rayville, and was well-liked and respected by the leading white +men of the entire parish. At the suggestion of his customers he bought +Louisiana state lands while they were cheap, before the railroad was put +through between Vicksburg and Shreveport; and as the road passed near his +lands he was thereby made a rich man, as wealth goes in those parts. His +good fortune, however, did not swell his head and he remained the same to +his friends. He became so useful in his parish that there was never a +public gathering of the leading white business men that he was not invited +to it, and he was always on the delegations to all the levee or river +conventions sent from his parish. He was chosen to such places by white +men exclusively; and in his own town he was as safe from wrong or injury, +on account of his race or color, as any white man. + +After the trains began to run through Rayville, on the Shreveport road, he +had occasion to visit the town of Ruston, in another parish some miles in +the interior, and as he got off at the depot, a barefoot, poor white boy +asked to carry his satchel. Smith was a fine looking mulatto, dressed +well, and could have easily been taken for a white man, and the boy might +not have known at the time he was a negro. When he arrived at his stopping +place he gave the boy such a large coin that he asked permission to take +his satchel back to the train on the following day when he was to return. +The next day the boy came for the satchel, and they had nearly reached the +depot about train time, when they passed a saloon where a crowd of poor +whites sat on boxes whittling sticks. The sight of a negro having a white +boy carrying his satchel quite enraged them, and after cursing and abusing +Smith and the boy, they undertook to kick and assault Smith. Smith +defended himself. The result was a shooting affair, in which Smith shot +two or three of them and was himself shot. The train rolled up while the +fight was in progress, and without inquiring the cause or asking any +questions whatever, fully a hundred white men jumped off the train and +riddled Smith with bullets. That was the end of it. Nobody was indicted or +even arrested for killing an insolent "nigger" that did not keep his +place. That is the way the affair was regarded in Ruston. Of course, the +people of Rayville very much regretted it, but they could not do anything, +and could not afford to defend the rights of a negro against white men +under such circumstances, and the matter dropped. + +I have preferred not to mention the numerous ways and many instances in +which the rights of negroes are denied in public places, and on the common +carriers in the South, under circumstances very humiliating and degrading. +Nor have I cared to refer to the barbarous and inhuman prison systems of +the South, that are worse than anything the imagination can conceive in a +civilized and Christian land, as shown by reports of legislative +committees. + +If the negro can secure a fair and impartial trial in the courts, and can +be secure in his life and liberty and property, so as not to be deprived +of them except by due process of law, and can have a voice in the making +and administration of the laws, he shall have gone a great way in the +South. It is to be hoped that public opinion can be awakened to this +extent, and that it may assist him to attain that end. + + + + +_The Characteristics of the Negro People_ + +By H.T. KEALING + + A frank statement of the virtues and failings of the race, indicating + very clearly the evils which must be overcome, and the good which must + be developed, if success is really to attend the effort to uplift them. + +[Illustration: H.T. KEALING.] + + +The characteristics of the Negro are of two kinds--the inborn and the +inbred. As they reveal themselves to us, this distinction may not be seen, +but it exists. Inborn qualities are ineradicable; they belong to the +blood; they constitute individuality; they are independent, or nearly so, +of time and habitat. Inbred qualities are acquired, and are the result of +experience. They may be overcome by a reversal of the process which +created them. The fundamental, or inborn, characteristics of the Negro may +be found in the African, as well as the American, Negro; but the inbred +characteristics of the latter belong to the American life alone. + +There is but one human nature, made up of constituent elements the same in +all men, and racial or national differences arise from the predominance +of one or another element in this or that race. It is a question of +proportion. The Negro is not a Caucasian, not a Chinese, not an Indian; +though no psychological quality in the one is absent from the other. The +same moral sense, called conscience; the same love of harmony in color or +in sound; the same pleasure in acquiring knowledge; the same love of truth +in word, or of fitness in relation; the same love of respect and +approbation; the same vengeful or benevolent feelings; the same appetites, +belong to all, but in varying proportions. They form the indicia to a +people's mission, and are our best guides to God's purpose in creating us. +They constitute the material to be worked on in educating a race, and +suggest in every case where the stress of civilization or education should +be applied in order to follow the lines of least resistance. + +But there are also certain manifestations, the result of training or +neglect, which are not inborn. As they are inculcable, so they are +eradicable; and it is only by a loose terminology that we apply the term +characteristics to them without distinction between them and the inherent +traits. In considering the characteristics of the Negro people, therefore, +we must not confuse the constitutional with the removable. Studied with +sympathy and at first hand, the black man of America will be seen to +possess certain predominant idiosyncrasies of which the following form a +fair catalogue: + +_He is intensely religious._ True religion is based upon a belief in the +supernatural, upon faith and feeling. A people deeply superstitious are +apt to be deeply religious, for both rest upon a belief in a spiritual +world. Superstition differs from religion in being the untrained and +unenlightened gropings of the human soul after the mysteries of the higher +life; while the latter, more or less enlightened, "feels after God, if +haply," it may find Him. The Negro gives abundant evidence of both phases. +The absolute inability of the master, in the days of slavery, while +successfully vetoing all other kinds of convocation, to stop the Negro's +church meetings, as well as the almost phenomenal influence and growth of +his churches since; and his constant referring of every event, adverse or +favorable, to the personal ministrations of the Creator, are things unique +and persistent. And the master class reposed more faith in their slaves' +religion ofttimes than they did in their own. Doubtless much of the +reverential feeling that pervades the American home to-day, above that of +all other nations, is the result of the Negro mammy's devotion and loyalty +to God. + +_He is imaginative._ This is not evinced so much in creative directions as +in poetical, musical, combinatory, inventional and what, if coupled with +learning, we call literary imagination. Negro eloquence is proverbial. The +crudest sermon of the most unlettered slave abounded in tropes and glowing +tongue pictures of apochalyptic visions all his own; and, indeed, the +poetic quality of his mind is seen in all his natural efforts when the +self-consciousness of education does not stand guard. The staid religious +muse of Phillis Wheatley and the rollicking, somewhat jibing, verse of +Dunbar show it equally, unpremeditated and spontaneous. + +I have heard by the hour some ordinary old uneducated Negro tell those +inimitable animal stories, brought to literary existence in "Uncle Remus," +with such quaint humor, delicious conceit and masterly delineation of +plot, character and incident that nothing but the conventional rating of +Aesop's Fables could put them in the same class. Then, there are more +Negro inventors than the world supposes. This faculty is impossible +without a well-ordered imagination held in leash by a good memory and +large perception. + +_He is affectionate and without vindictiveness._ He does not nurse even +great wrongs. Mercurial as he is, often furiously angry and frequently in +murderous mood, he comes nearer not letting the sun go down upon his anger +than any other man I know. Like Brutus, he may be compared to the flint +which, + + "Much enforced, shows a hasty spark, + And straight is cold again." + +His affection is not less towards the Caucasian than to his own race. It +is not saying too much to remark that the soul of the Negro yearns for the +white man's good will and respect; and the old ties of love that subsisted +in so many instances in the days of slavery still survive where the +ex-slave still lives. The touching case of a Negro Bishop who returned to +the State in which he had been a slave, and rode twenty miles to see and +alleviate the financial distress of his former master is an exception to +numerous other similar cases only in the prominence of the Negro +concerned. I know of another case of a man whose tongue seems dipped in +hyssop when he begins to tell of the wrongs of his race, and who will not +allow anyone to say in his presence that any good came out of slavery, +even incidentally; yet he supports the widowed and aged wife of his +former master. And, surely, if these two instances are not sufficient to +establish the general proposition, none will gainsay the patience, +vigilance, loyalty and helpfulness of the Negro slave during the Civil +War, and of his good old wife who nursed white children at her breast at a +time when all ties save those of affection were ruptured, and when no +protection but devoted hearts watched over the "great house," whose head +and master was at the front, fighting to perpetuate slavery. Was it +stupidity on the Negro's part? Not at all. He was well informed as to the +occurrences of the times. A freemasonry kept him posted as well as the +whites were themselves on the course of the war and the issue of each +battle. Was it fear that kept him at the old home? Not that, either. Many +thousands _did_ cross the line to freedom; many other thousands (200,000) +fought in the ranks for freedom, but none of them--those who went and +those who stayed--those who fought and those who worked,--betrayed a +trust, outraged a female, or rebelled against a duty. It was love, the +natural wellings of affectionate natures. + +_He has great endurance, both dispositional and physical._ So true is the +first that his patience has been the marvel of the world; and, indeed, +many, regarding this trait manifested in such an unusual degree, doubted +the Negro's courage, till the splendid record of the '60's and the equal, +but more recent, record of the '90's, wrote forbearance as the real +explanation of an endurance seemingly so at variance with manly spirit. + +Of his physical powers, his whole record as a laborer at killing tasks in +the most trying climate in America speaks so eloquently that nothing but +the statistics of cotton, corn, rice, sugar, railroad ties and felled +forests can add to the praise of this burden-bearer of the nation. The +census tables here are more romantic and thrilling than figures of +rhetoric. + +_He is courageous._ His page in the war record of this country is without +blot or blemish. His commanders unite in pronouncing him admirable for +courage in the field, commendable for obedience in camp. That he should +exhibit such excellent fighting qualities as a soldier, and yet exercise +the forbearance that characterizes him as a citizen, is remarkable. + +_He is cheerful._ His ivories are as famous as his songs. That the South +is "sunny" is largely due to the brightness his rollicking laugh and +unfailing good nature bring to it. Though the mudsill of the labor world, +he whistles as he hoes, and no dark broodings or whispered conspirings mar +the cheerful acceptance of the load he bears. Against the rubber bumper of +his good cheer things that have crushed and maddened others rebound +without damage. When one hears the quaint jubilee songs, set to minor +cadence, he might suppose them the expressions of a melancholy people. +They are not to be so interpreted. Rather are they the expression of an +experience, not a nature. Like the subdued voice of a caged bird, these +songs are the coinage of an occasion, and not the free note of nature. +The slave sang of griefs he was not allowed to discuss, hence his songs. +This cheerfulness has enabled the Negro to live and increase under +circumstances which, in all other instances, have decimated, if not +exterminated, inferior peoples. His plasticity to moulding forces and his +resiliency against crushing ones come from a Thalian philosophy, +unconscious and unstudied, that extracts Epicurean delights from funeral +meats. + +The above traits are inborn and fundamental, belonging to the race +everywhere, in Africa as well as America. Strict correctness requires, +however, that attention be called to the fact that there are tribal +differences among African Negroes that amount almost to the national +variations of Europe; and these are reflected in American Negroes, who are +the descendants of these different tribes. There is as much difference +between the Mandingo and the Hottentot, both black, as between the Italian +and the German, both white; or between the Bushman and the Zulu, both +black, as between the Russian and the Englishman, both white. Scientific +exactness, therefore, would require a closer analysis of racial +characteristics than an article of this length could give; but, speaking +in a large way, it may be said that in whatever outward conformity may +come to the race in America by reason of training or contact, these traits +will lie at the base, the very warp and woof of his soul texture. + +If, now, we turn to consider his inbred traits, those the result of +experience, conditions and environments, we find that they exist mainly as +deficiencies and deformities. These have been superimposed upon the native +soul endowment. Slavery has been called the Negro's great schoolmaster, +because it took him a savage and released him civilized; took him a +heathen and released him a Christian; took him an idler and released him a +laborer. Undoubtedly it did these things superficially, but one great +defect is to be charged against this school--it did not teach him the +meaning of home, purity and providence. To do this is the burden of +freedom. + +The emancipated Negro struggles up to-day against many obstacles, the +entailment of a brutal slavery. Leaving out of consideration the many who +have already emerged, let us apply our thoughts to the great body of +submerged people in the congested districts of city and country who +present a real problem, and who must be helped to higher things. We note +some of the heritages under which they stagger up into full development: + +_Shiftlessness._ He had no need to devise and plan in bondage. There was +no need for an enterprising spirit; consequently, he is lacking in +leadership and self-reliance. He is inclined to stay in ruts, and applies +himself listlessly to a task, feeling that the directive agency should +come from without. + +_Incontinence._ It is not to the point to say that others are, too. +Undoubtedly, example has as much to do with this laxity as neglect. We +simply record the fact. A slave's value was increased by his prolificacy. +Begetting children for the auction block could hardly sanctify family +ties. It was not nearly so necessary for a slave to know his father as his +owner. Added to the promiscuity encouraged and often forced among this +class, was the dreadful license which cast lustful Caucasian eyes upon +"likely" Negro women. + +_Indolence._ Most men are, especially in a warm climate: but the Negro +acquired more than the natural share, because to him as a bondman laziness +was great gain, for he had no pecuniary interest in his own labor. Hence, +holidays were more to be desired than whole labor days, and he learned to +do as little as he might, be excused as often as he could, and hail +Saturday as the oasis in a desert week. He hails it yet. The labor +efficiency of the Negro has greatly increased since the emancipation, for +self-interest is a factor now. In 1865, each Negro produced two-thirds of +a bale of cotton; now he produces an average of one whole bale to the man. +But there is still woful waste of productive energy. A calculation +showing the comparative productive capacity, man for man, between the +Northern[B] and Southern laborer would be very interesting. + +_Improvidence and Extravagance._ He will drop the most important job to go +on an excursion or parade with his lodge. He spends large sums on +expensive clothing and luxuries, while going without things necessary to a +real home. He will cheerfully eat fat bacon and "pone" corn-bread all the +week[C] in order to indulge in unlimited soda-water, melon and fish at the +end. In the cities he is oftener seen dealing with the pawn-broker than +the banker. His house, when furnished at all, is better furnished that +that of a white man of equal earning power, but it is on the installment +plan. He is loath to buy a house, because he has no taste for +responsibility nor faith in himself to manage large concerns; but organs, +pianos, clocks, sewing-machines and parlor suits, on time, have no terrors +for him. This is because he has been accustomed to think in small +numbers. He does not regard the Scotchman's "mickle," because he does not +stop to consider that the end is a "muckle." He has amassed, at full +valuation, nearly a billion dollars' worth of property, despite this, but +this is about one-half of what proper providence would have shown. + +_Untidiness._ Travel through the South and you will be struck with the +general misfit and dilapidated appearance of things. Palings are missing +from the fences, gates sag on single hinges, houses are unpainted, window +panes are broken, yards unkempt and the appearance of a squalor greater +than the real is seen on every side. The inside of the house meets the +suggestions of the outside. This is a projection of the slave's "quarters" +into freedom. The cabin of the slave was, at best, a place to eat and +sleep in; there was no thought of the esthetic in such places. A quilt on +a plank was a luxury to the tired farm-hand, and paint was nothing to the +poor, sun-scorched fellow who sought the house for shade rather than +beauty. Habits of personal cleanliness were not inculcated, and even now +it is the exception to find a modern bath-room in a Southern home. + +_Dishonesty._ This is the logic, if not the training, of slavery. It is +easy for the unrequited toiler in another's field to justify reprisal; +hence there arose among the Negroes an amended Commandment which added to +"Thou shalt not steal" the clause, "except thou be stolen from." It was no +great fault, then, according to this code, to purloin a pig, a sheep, a +chicken, or a few potatoes from a master who took all from the slave. + +_Untruthfulness._ This is seen more in innocent and childish exaggeration +than in vicious distortion. It is the vice of untutored minds to run to +gossip and make miracles of the matter-of-fact. The Negro also tells +falsehoods from excess of good nature. He promises to do a piece of work +on a certain day, because it is so much easier and pleasanter to say Yes, +and stay away, than it is to say No. + +_Business Unreliability._ He does not meet a promise in the way and at +the time promised. Not being accustomed to business, he has small +conception of the place the promise has in the business world. It is only +recently he has begun to deal with banks. He, who has no credit, sees[D] +no loss of it in a protested note, especially if he intends to pay it some +time. That chain which links one man's obligation to another man's +solvency he has not considered. He is really as good and safe a debt-payer +when he owes a white man as the latter can have, but the methods of the +modern bank, placing a time limit on debts, is his detestation. He much +prefers the _laissez-faire_ of the Southern plantation store. + +_Lack of Initiative._ It was the policy of slavery to crush out the +combining instinct, and it was well done; for, outside of churches and +secret societies, the Negro has done little to increase the social +efficiency which can combine many men into an organic whole, subject to +the corporate will and direction. He has, however, made some hopeful +beginnings. + +_Suspicion of his own race._ He was taught to watch other Negroes and tell +all that they did. This was slavery's native detective force to discover +incipient insurrection. Each slave learned to distrust his fellow. And +added to this is the knowledge one Negro has that no other has had half +sufficient experience in business to be a wise counsellor, or a safe +steward of another man's funds. Almost all Negroes who have acquired +wealth have entrusted its management to white men. + +_Ignorance._ The causes of his ignorance all know. That he has thrown off +one-half of it in forty years is a wonderful showing; but a great incubus +remains in the other half, and it demands the nation's attention. What the +census calls literacy is often very shallow. The cause of this shallowness +lies, in part, in the poor character and short duration of Southern +schools; in the poverty that snatches the child from school prematurely to +work for bread; in the multitude of mushroom colleges and get-smart-quick +universities scattered over the South, and in the glamour of a +professional education that entices poorly prepared students into special +work. + +Add to this, too, the commercialism of the age which regards each day in +school as a day out of the market. Boys and girls by scores learn the +mechanical parts of type-writing and stenography without the basal culture +which gives these callings their greatest efficiency. They copy a +manuscript, Chinese-like, mistakes and all; they take you phonetically in +sense as well as sound, having no reserve to draw upon to interpret a +learned allusion or unusual phrase. Thus while prejudice makes it hard to +secure a place, auto-deficiency loses many a one that is secured. + +We have discussed the leading characteristics of the Negro, his inborn +excellencies and inbred defects, candidly and as they are to be seen in +the great mass whose place determines the status of the race as a whole. +It would, however, be to small purpose if we did not ask what can be done +to develop the innate good and correct the bad in a race so puissant and +numerous? This mass is not inert; it has great reactionary force, +modifying and influencing all about it. The Negro's excellences have +entered into American character and life already; so have his weaknesses. +He has brought cheer, love, emotion and religion in saving measure to the +land. He has given it wealth by his brawn and liberty by his blood. His +self-respect, even in abasement, has kept him struggling upward; his +confidence in his own future has infected his friends and kept him from +nursing despondency or planning anarchy. But he has laid, and does lay, +burdens upon the land, too: his ignorance, his low average of morality, +his low standards of home, his lack of enterprise, his lack of +self-reliance--these must be cured. + +Evidently, he is to be "solved" by educational processes. Everyone of his +inborn traits must be respected and developed to proper proportion. +Excesses and excrescences must not be carelessly dealt with, for they mark +the fertility of a soil that raises rank weeds because no gardener has +tilled it. His religion must become "ethics touched with feeling"--not a +paroxysm, but a principle. His imagination must be given a rudder to guide +its sails; and the first fruits of its proper exercise, as seen in a +Dunbar, a Chesnutt, a Coleridge-Taylor and a Tanner, must be pedestaled +along the Appian Way over which others are to march. His affection must be +met with larger love; his patience rewarded with privilege; his courage +called to defend the rights of others rather than redress his own wrongs. +Thus shall he supplement from within the best efforts of good men without. + +To cure the evils entailed upon him by an unhappy past, he must be +educated to work with skill, with self-direction, in combination and +unremittingly. Industrial education with constant application, is the +slogan of his rise from racial pauperism to productive manliness. Not that +exceptional minds should not have exceptional opportunities (and they +already exist); but that the great majority of awkward and unskilled ones, +who must work somehow, somewhere, all the time, shall have their +opportunities for training in industrial schools near them and with +courses consonant with the lives they are to lead. Let the ninety and nine +who must work, either with trained or fumbling hands, have a chance. Train +the Negro to accept and carry responsibility by putting it upon him. Train +him, more than any schools are now doing, in morals--to speak the truth, +to keep a promise, to touch only his own property, to trust the +trustworthy among his own race, to risk something in business, to strike +out in new lines of endeavor, to buy houses and make homes, to regard +beauty as well as utility, to save rather than display. In short, let us +subordinate mere knowledge to the work of invigorating the will, +energizing productive effort and clarifying moral vision. Let us make safe +men rather than vociferous mountebanks; let us put deftness in daily labor +above sleight-of-hand tricks, and common sense, well trained, above +classical smatterings, which awe the multitude but butter no parsnips. + +If we do this, America will have enriched her blood, ennobled her record +and shown the world how to deal with its Dark Races without reproach. + +[Footnote B: In the original, this was 'Northen'.] + +[Footnote C: In the original, this was 'weeek'.] + +[Footnote D: In the original, this was 'seees'.] + + + + +_Representative American Negroes_ + +By PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR + + An enumeration of some of the noteworthy American Negroes of to-day and + yesterday, with some account of their lives and their work. In this + paper Mr. Dunbar has turned out his largest and most successful picture + of the colored people. It is a noble canvas crowded with heroic figures. + + +In considering who and what are representative Negroes there are +circumstances which compel one to question what is a representative man of +the colored race. Some men are born great, some achieve greatness and +others lived during the reconstruction period. To have achieved something +for the betterment of his race rather than for the aggrandizement of +himself, seems to be a man's best title to be called representative. The +street corner politician, who through questionable methods or even through +skillful manipulation, succeeds in securing the janitorship of the Court +House, may be written up in the local papers as "representative," but is +he? + +I have in mind a young man in Baltimore, Bernard Taylor by name, who to me +is more truly representative of the race than half of the "Judges," +"Colonels," "Doctors" and "Honorables" whose stock cuts burden the pages +of our negro journals week after week. I have said that he is young. +Beyond that he is quiet and unobtrusive; but quiet as he is, the worth of +his work can be somewhat estimated when it is known that he has set the +standard for young men in a city that has the largest colored population +in the world. + +It is not that as an individual he has ridden to success one enterprise +after another. It is not that he has shown capabilities far beyond his +years, nor yet that his personal energy will not let him stop at one +triumph. The importance of him lies in the fact that his influence upon +his fellows is all for good, and in a large community of young Negroes the +worth of this cannot be over-estimated. He has taught them that striving +is worth while, and by the very force of his example of industry and +perseverance, he stands out from the mass. He does not tell how to do +things, he does them. Nothing has contributed more to his success than +his alertness, and nothing has been more closely followed by his +observers, and yet I sometimes wonder when looking at him, how old he must +be, how world weary, before the race turns from its worship of the +political janitor and says of him, "this is one of our representative +men." + +This, however, is a matter of values and neither the negro himself, his +friends, his enemies, his lauders, nor his critics has grown quite certain +in appraising these. The rabid agitator who goes about the land preaching +the independence and glory of his race, and by his very mouthings +retarding both, the saintly missionary, whose only mission is like that of +"Pooh Bah," to be insulted; the man of the cloth who thunders against the +sins of the world and from whom honest women draw away their skirts, the +man who talks temperance and tipples high-balls--these are not +representative, and whatever their station in life, they should be rated +at their proper value, for there is a difference between attainment and +achievement. + +Under the pure light of reason, the ignorant carpet bagger judge is a +person and not a personality. The illiterate and inefficient black man, +whom circumstance put into Congress, was "a representative" but was not +representative. So the peculiar conditions of the days immediately after +the war have made it necessary to draw fine distinctions. + +When Robert Smalls, a slave, piloted the Confederate ship Planter out of +Charleston Harbor under the very guns of the men who were employing him, +who owned him, his body, his soul, and the husk of his allegiance, and +brought it over to the Union, it is a question which forty years has not +settled as to whether he was a hero or a felon, a patriot or a traitor. So +much has been said of the old Negro's fidelity to his masters that +something different might have been expected of him. But take the singular +conditions: the first faint streaks of a long delayed dawn had just begun +to illumine the sky and this black pilot with his face turned toward the +East had no eye for the darkness behind him. He had no time to analyze his +position, the right or wrong of it. He had no opportunity to question +whether it was loyalty to a union in which he aspired to citizenship, or +disloyalty to his masters of the despised confederacy. It was not a time +to argue, it was a time to do; and with rare power of decision, skill of +action and with indomitable courage, he steered the good ship Planter past +Fort Johnson, past Fort Sumter, past Morris Island, out where the flag, +the flag of his hopes and fears floated over the federal fleet. And Robert +Smalls had done something, something that made him loved and hated, +praised and maligned, revered and despised, but something that made him +representative of the best that there is in sturdy Negro manhood. + +It may seem a far cry from Robert Smalls, the pilot of the Planter, to +Booker T. Washington, Principal of the Institute at Tuskegee, Alabama. +But much the same traits of character have made the success of the two +men; the knowledge of what to do, the courage to do it, and the following +out of a single purpose. They are both pilots, and the waters through +which their helms have swung have been equally stormy. The methods of both +have been questioned; but singularly neither one has stopped to question +himself, but has gone straight on to his goal over the barriers of +criticism, malice and distrust. The secret of Mr. Washington's power is +organization, and organization after all is only a concentration of force. +This concentration only expresses his own personality, in which every +trait and quality tend toward one definite end. They say of this man that +he is a man of one idea, but that one is a great one and he has merely +concentrated all his powers upon it; in other words he has organized +himself and gone forth to gather in whatever about him was essential. + +Pilot he is, steadfast and unafraid, strong in his own belief,--yes +strong enough to make others believe in him. Without doubt or skepticism, +himself he has confounded the skeptics. + +Less statesmanlike than Douglass, less scholarly than DuBois, less +eloquent than the late J.C. Price, he is yet the foremost figure in Negro +national life. He is a great educator and a great man, and though one may +not always agree with him, one must always respect him. The race has +produced no more adroit diplomatist than he. The statement is broad but +there is no better proof of it than the fact that while he is our most +astute politician, he has succeeded in convincing both himself and the +country that he is not in politics. He has none of the qualities of the +curb-stone politician. He is bigger, broader, better, and the highest +compliment that could be paid him is that through all his ups and downs, +with all he has seen of humanity, he has kept his faith and his ideals. +While Mr. Washington stands pre-eminent in his race there are other names +that must be mentioned with him as co-workers in the education of the +world, names that for lack of time can be only mentioned and passed. + +W.H. Council, of Normal, Alabama, has been doing at his school a good and +great work along the same lines as Tuskegee. R.R. Wright, of the State +College of Georgia, "We'se a-risin' Wright," he is called, and by his own +life and work for his people he has made true the boyish prophecy which in +the old days inspired Whittier's poem. Three decades ago this was his +message from the lowly South, "Tell 'em we'se a-risin," and by thought, by +word, by deed, he has been "Tellin' em so" ever since. The old Southern +school has melted into the misty shades of an unregretted past. A new +generation, new issues, new conditions, have replaced the old, but the boy +who sent that message from the heart of the Southland to the North's heart +of hearts has risen, and a martyred President did not blush to call him +friend. + +So much of the Negro's time has been given to the making of teachers that +it is difficult to stop when one has begun enumerating some of those who +have stood out more than usually forceful. For my part, there are two more +whom I cannot pass over. Kelly Miller, of Howard University, Washington, +D.C., is another instructor far above the average. He is a mathematician +and a thinker. The world has long been convinced of what the colored man +could do in music and in oratory, but it has always been skeptical, when +he is to be considered as a student of any exact science. Miller, in his +own person, has settled all that. He finished at Johns Hopkins where they +will remember him. He is not only a teacher but an author who writes with +authority upon his chosen themes, whether he is always known as a Negro +writer or not. He is endowed with an accurate, analytical mind, and the +most engaging blackness, for which some of us thank God, because there can +be no argument as to the source of his mental powers. + +Now of the other, William E.B. DuBois, what shall be said? Educator and +author, political economist and poet, an Eastern man against a Southern +back-ground, he looms up strong, vivid and in bold relief. I say looms +advisedly, because, intellectually, there is something so distinctively +big about the man. Since the death of the aged Dr. Crummell, we have had +no such ripe and finished scholar. Dr. DuBois, Harvard gave him to us, and +there he received his Ph.D., impresses one as having reduced all life and +all literature to a perfect system. There is about him a fascinating calm +of certain power, whether as a searcher after economic facts, under the +wing of the University of Pennsylvania, or defying the "powers that be" in +a Negro college or leading his pupils along the way of light, one always +feels in him this same sense of conscious, restrained, but assured force. + +Some years ago in the course of his researches, he took occasion to tell +his own people some plain hard truths, and oh, what a howl of protest and +denunciation went up from their assembled throats, but it never once +disturbed his magnificent calm. He believed what he had said, and not for +a single moment did he think of abandoning his position. + +He goes at truth as a hard-riding old English squire would take a +difficult fence. Let the ditch be beyond if it will. + +Dr. DuBois would be the first to disclaim the name of poet but everything +outside of his statistical work convicts him. The rhythm of his style, his +fancy, his imagery, all bid him bide with those whose souls go singing by +a golden way. He has written a number of notable pamphlets and books, the +latest of which is "The Soul of the Black Folk," an invaluable +contribution to the discussion of the race problem by a man who knows +whereof he speaks. + +Dr. DuBois is at Atlanta University and has had every opportunity to +observe all the phases of America's great question, and I wish I might +write at length of his books. + +It may be urged that too much time has already been taken up with the +educational side of the Negro, but the reasonableness of this must become +apparent when one remembers that for the last forty years the most helpful +men of the race have come from the ranks of its teachers, and few of those +who have finally done any big thing, but have at some time or other held +the scepter of authority in a school. They may have changed later and +grown, indeed they must have done so, but the fact remains that their +poise, their discipline, the impulse for their growth came largely from +their work in the school room. + +There is perhaps no more notable example of this phase of Negro life than +the Hon. Richard Theodore Greener, our present Consul at Vladivostok. He +was, I believe, the first of our race to graduate from Harvard and he has +always been regarded as one of the most scholarly men who, through the +touch of Negro blood, belongs to us. He has been historian, journalist and +lecturer, but back of all this he was a teacher; and for years after his +graduation he was a distinguished professor at the most famous of all the +old Negro colleges. This institution is now a thing of the past, but the +men who knew it in its palmy days speak of it still with longing and +regret. It is claimed, and from the names and qualities of the men, not +without justice, that no school for the higher education of the black man +has furnished a finer curriculum or possessed a better equipped or more +efficient faculty. Among these, Richard T. Greener was a bright, +particular star. + +After the passing of the school, Mr. Greener turned to other activities. +His highest characteristics were a fearless patience and a hope that +buoyed him up through days of doubt and disappointment. Author and editor +he was, but he was not satisfied with these. Beyond their scope were +higher things that beckoned him. Politics, or perhaps better, political +science, allured him, and he applied himself to a course that brought him +into intimate contact with the leaders of his country, white and black. A +man of wide information, great knowledge and close grasp of events he made +himself invaluable to his party and then with his usual patience awaited +his reward. + +The story of how he came to his own cannot be told without just a shade of +bitterness darkening the smile that one must give to it all. The cause for +which he had worked triumphed. The men for whom he had striven gained +their goal and now, Greener must be recognized, but-- + +Vladivostok, your dictionary will tell you, is a sea-port in the maritime +Province of Siberia, situated on the Golden Horn of Peter the Great. It +will tell you also that it is the chief Russian naval station on the +Pacific. It is an out of the way place and one who has not the +world-circling desire would rather hesitate before setting out thither. It +was to this post that Mr. Greener was appointed. + +"Exile," his friends did not hesitate to say. "Why didn't the Government +make it a sentence instead of veiling it in the guise of an appointment?" +asked others sarcastically. + +"Will he go?" That was the general question that rose and fell, whispered +and thundered about the new appointee, and in the midst of it all, silent +and dignified, he kept his council. The next thing Washington knew he was +gone. There was a gasp of astonishment and then things settled back into +their former state of monotony and Greener was forgotten. + +But in the eastern sky, darkness began to arise, the warning flash of +danger swept across the heavens, the thunder drum of war began to roll. +For a moment the world listened in breathless suspense, the suspense of +horror. Louder and louder rose the thunder peal until it drowned every +other sound in the ears of the nation, every other sound save the cries +and wails of dying women and the shrieks of tortured children. Then +France, England, Germany, Japan and America marshalled their forces and +swept eastward to save and to avenge. The story of the Boxer uprising has +been told, but little has been said of how Vladivostok, "A sea-port in the +maritime Province of Siberia," became one of the most important points of +communication with the outside world, and its Consul came frequently to be +heard from by the State Department. And so Greener after years of patience +and toil had come to his own. If the government had wished to get him out +of the way, it had reckoned without China. + +A new order of things has come into Negro-American politics and this man +has become a part of it. It matters not that he began his work under the +old regime. So did Judge Gibbs, a man eighty years of age, but he, too, +has kept abreast of the times, and although the reminiscences in his +delightful autobiography take one back to the hazy days when the land was +young and politics a more strenuous thing than it is even now, when there +was anarchy in Louisiana and civil war in Arkansas, when one shot first +and questioned afterward; yet because his mind is still active, because +he has changed his methods with the changing time, because his influence +over young men is greatly potent still; he is, in the race, perhaps, the +best representative of what the old has brought to the new. + +Beside him strong, forceful, commanding, stands the figure of George H. +White, whose farewell speech before the Fifty-sixth Congress, when through +the disfranchisement of Negroes he was defeated for re-election, stirred +the country and fired the hearts of his brothers. He has won his place +through honesty, bravery and aggressiveness. He has given something to the +nation that the nation needed, and with such men as Pinchback, Lynch, +Terrell and others of like ilk, acting in concert, it is but a matter of +time when his worth shall induce a repentant people, with a justice +builded upon the foundation of its old prejudice, to ask the Negro back to +take a hand in the affairs of state. + +Add to all this the facts that the Negro has his representatives in the +commercial world: McCoy and Granville T. Woods, inventors; in the +agricultural world with J.H. Groves, the potato king of Kansas, who last +year shipped from his own railway siding seventy-two thousand five hundred +bushels of potatoes alone; in the military, with Capt. Charles A. Young, a +West Pointer, now stationed at the Presidio; that in medicine, he +possesses in Daniel H. Williams, of Chicago, one of the really great +surgeons of the country; that Edward H. Morris, a black man, is one of the +most brilliant lawyers at the brilliant Cook County bar; that in every +walk of life he has men and women who stand for something definite and +concrete, and it seems to me that there can be little doubt that the race +problem will gradually solve itself. + +I have spoken of "men and women," and indeed the women must not be +forgotten, for to them the men look for much of the inspiration and +impulse that drives them forward to success. Mrs. Mary Church Terrell +upon the platform speaking for Negro womanhood and Miss Sarah Brown, her +direct opposite, a little woman sitting up in her aerie above a noisy New +York street, stand for the very best that there is in our mothers, wives +and sisters. The one fully in the public eye, with learning and eloquence, +telling the hopes and fears of her kind; the other in suffering and +retirement, with her knowledge of the human heart and her gentleness +inspiring all who meet her to better and nobler lives. They are both doing +their work bravely and grandly. But when the unitiate ask who is "la +Petite Reine," we think of the quiet little woman in a New York fifth +floor back and are silent. + +She is a patron of all our literature and art and we have both. Whether it +is a new song by Will Marion Cook or a new book by DuBois or Chestnut, +than whom no one has ever told the life of the Negro more accurately and +convincingly, she knows it and has a kindly word of praise or +encouragement. + +In looking over the field for such an article as this, one just begins to +realize how many Negroes are representative of something, and now it seems +that in closing no better names could be chosen than those of the two +Tanners. + +From time immemorial, Religion and Art have gone together, but it remained +for us to place them in the persons of these two men, in the relation of +father and son. Bishop Benj. Tucker Tanner, of the A.M.E. Church, is not +only a theologian and a priest, he is a dignified, polished man of the +higher world and a poet. He has succeeded because he was prepared for +success. As to his writings, he will, perhaps, think most highly of "His +Apology For African Methodism;" but some of us, while respecting this, +will turn from it to the poems and hymns that have sung themselves out of +his gentle heart. + +Is it any wonder that his son, Henry O. Tanner, is a poet with the brush +or that the French Government has found it out? From the father must have +come the man's artistic impulse, and he carried it on and on to a golden +fruition. In the Luxembourg gallery hangs his picture, "The Raising of +Lazarus." At the Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, I saw his +"Annunciation," both a long way from his "Banjo Lesson," and thinking of +him I began to wonder whether, in spite of all the industrial tumult, it +were not in the field of art, music and literature that the Negro was to +make his highest contribution to American civilization. But this is merely +a question which time will answer. + +All these of whom I have spoken are men who have striven and achieved and +the reasons underlying their success are the same that account for the +advancement of men of any other race: preparation, perseverance, bravery, +patience, honesty and the power to seize the opportunity. + +It is a little dark still, but there are warnings of the day and somewhere +out of the darkness a bird is singing to the Dawn. + + + + +_The Negro's Place in American Life at the Present Day_ + +BY T. THOMAS FORTUNE + + Considering the two hundred and forty-five years of his slavery and the + comparatively short time he has enjoyed the opportunities of freedom, + his place in American life at the present day is creditable to him and + promising for the future. + +[Illustration: T. THOMAS FORTUNE.] + + +There can be no healthy growth in the life of a race or a nation without a +self-reliant spirit animating the whole body; if it amounts to optimism, +devoid of egotism and vanity, so much the better. This spirit necessarily +carries with it intense pride of race, or of nation, as the case may be, +and ramifies the whole mass, inspiring and shaping its thought and effort, +however humble or exalted these may be,--as it takes "all sorts and +conditions of men" to make up a social order, instinct with the ambition +and the activity which work for "high thinking and right living," of which +modern evolution in all directions is the most powerful illustration in +history. If pride of ancestry can, happily, be added to pride of race and +nation, and these are re-enforced by self-reliance, courage and correct +moral living, the possible success of such people may be accepted, without +equivocation, as a foregone conclusion. I have found all of these +requirements so finely blended in the life and character of no people as +that of the Japanese, who are just now emerging from "the double night of +ages" into the vivifying sunlight of modern progress. + +What is the Negro's place in American life at the present day? + +The answer depends entirely upon the point of view. Unfortunately for the +Afro-American people, they have no pride of ancestry; in the main, few of +them can trace their parentage back four generations; and the "daughter of +an hundred earls" of whom there are probably many, is unconscious of her +descent, and would profit nothing by it if this were not true. The blood +of all the ethnic types that go to make up American citizenship flows in +the veins of the Afro-American people, so that of the ten million of them +in this country, accounted for by the Federal census, not more than four +million are of pure negroid descent, while some four million of them, not +accounted for by the Federal census, have escaped into the ranks of the +white race, and are re-enforced very largely by such escapements every +year. The vitiation of blood has operated irresistibly to weaken that +pride of ancestry, which is the foundation-stone of pride of race; so that +the Afro-American people have been held together rather by the segregation +decreed by law and public opinion than by ties of consanguinity since +their manumission and enfranchisement. It is not because they are poor and +ignorant and oppressed, as a mass, that there is no such sympathy of +thought and unity of effort among them as among Irishmen and Jews the +world over, but because the vitiation of blood, beyond the honorable +restrictions of law, has destroyed, in large measure, that pride of +ancestry upon which pride of race must be builded. In no other logical +way can we account for the failure of the Afro-American people to stand +together, as other oppressed races do, and have done, for the righting of +wrongs against them authorized by the laws of the several states, if not +by the Federal Constitution, and sanctioned or tolerated by public +opinion. In nothing has this radical defect been more noticeable since the +War of the Rebellion than in the uniform failure of the people to sustain +such civic organizations as exist and have existed, to test in the courts +of law and in the forum of public opinion the validity of organic laws of +States intended to deprive them of the civil and political rights +guaranteed to them by the Federal Constitution. The two such organizations +of this character which have appealed to them are the National +Afro-American League, organized in Chicago, in 1890, and the National +Afro-American Council, organized in Rochester, New York, out of the +League, in 1898. The latter organization still exists, the strongest of +its kind, but it has never commanded the sympathy and support of the +masses of the people, nor is there, or has there been, substantial +agreement and concert of effort among the thoughtful men of the race along +these lines. They have been restrained by selfish, personal and petty +motives, while the constitutional rights which vitalize their citizenship +have been "denied or abridged" by legislation of certain of the States and +by public opinion, even as Nero fiddled while Rome burned. If they had +been actuated by a strong pride of ancestry and of race, if they had felt +that injury to one was injury to all, if they had hung together instead of +hanging separately, their place in the civil and political life of the +Republic to-day would not be that, largely, of pariahs, with none so poor +as to do them honor, but that of equality of right under the law enjoyed +by all other alien ethnic forces in our citizenship. They who will not +help themselves are usually not helped by others. They who make a loud +noise and courageously contend for what is theirs, usually enjoy the +respect and confidence of their fellows and get, in the end, what belongs +to them, or a reasonable modification of it. + +As a consequence of inability to unite in thought and effort for the +conservation of their civil and political rights, the Afro-American +Negroes and colored people have lost, by fundamental enactments of the old +slave-holding States, all of the civil and political rights guaranteed +them by the Federal Constitution, in the full enjoyment of which they were +from the adoption of the War Amendments up to 1876-7, when they were +sacrificed by their Republican allies of the North and West, in the +alienation of their State governments, in order to save the Presidency to +Mr. Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio. Their reverses in this matter in the old +slave-holding States, coupled with a vast mass of class legislation, +modelled on the slave code, have affected the Afro-American people in +their civil and political rights in all of the States of the Republic, +especially as far as public opinion is concerned. This was inevitable, +and follows in every instance in history where a race element of the +citizenship is set aside by law or public opinion as separate and distinct +from its fellows, with a fixed status or caste. + +It will take the Afro-American people fully a century to recover what they +lost of civil and political equality under the law in the Southern States, +as a result of the re-actionary and bloody movement begun in the +Reconstruction period by the Southern whites, and culminating in +1877,--the excesses of the Reconstruction governments, about which so much +is said to the discredit of the Negro, being chargeable to the weakness +and corruption of Northern carpet-baggers, who were the master and +responsible spirits of the time and the situation, rather than to the +weakness, the ignorance and venality of their Negro dupes, who, very +naturally, followed where they led, as any other grateful people would +have done. For, were not these same Northern carpet-baggers the direct +representatives of the Government and the Army which crushed the slave +power and broke the shackles of the slave? Even so. The Northern +carpet-baggers planned and got the plunder, and have it; the Negro got the +credit and the odium, and have them yet. It often happens that way in +history, that the innocent dupes are made to suffer for the misdeeds and +crimes of the guilty. + +The recovery of civil and political rights under the Constitution, as +"denied or abridged" by the constitutions of the States, more especially +those of the old slave holding ones, will be a slow and tedious process, +and will come to the individual rather than to the race, as the reward of +character and thrift; because, for reasons already stated, it will hardly +be possible in the future, as it has not been in the past, to unify the +mass of the Afro-American people, in thought and conduct, for a proper +contention in the courts and at the ballot-box and in the education of +public opinion, to accomplish this purpose. Perhaps there is no other +instance in history where everything depended so largely upon the +individual, and so little upon the mass of his race, for that development +in the religious and civic virtues which makes more surely for an +honorable status in any citizenship than constitutions or legislative +enactments built upon them. + +But even from this point of view, I am disposed to believe that the +Negro's civil and political rights are more firmly fixed in law and public +opinion than was true at the close of the Reconstruction period, when +everything relating to him was unsettled and confused, based in +legislative guarantees, subject to approval or disapproval of the dominant +public opinion of the several States, and that he will gradually work out +his own salvation under the Constitution,--such as Charles Sumner, +Thaddeus Stevens, Benjamin F. Butler, Frederick Douglass, and their +co-workers, hoped and labored that he might enjoy. He has lost nothing +under the fundamental law; such of these restrictions, as apply to him by +the law of certain of the States, necessarily apply to white men in like +circumstances of ignorance and poverty, and can be overcome, in time, by +assiduous courtship of the schoolmaster and the bank cashier. The extent +to which the individual members of the race are overcoming the +restrictions made a bar to their enjoyment of civil and political rights +under the Constitution is gratifying to those who wish the race well and +who look beyond the present into the future: while it is disturbing the +dreams of those who spend most of their time and thought in abortive +efforts to "keep the 'nigger' in his place"--as if any man or race could +have a place in the world's thought and effort which he did not make for +himself! In our grand Republic, at least, it has been so often +demonstrated as to become proverbial, that the door of opportunity shall +be closed to no man, and that he shall be allowed to have that place in +our national life which he makes for himself. So it is with the Negro now, +as an individual. Will it be so with him in the future as a race? To +answer that we shall first have to determine that he has a race. + +However he may be lacking in pride of ancestry and race, no one can accuse +the Negro of lack of pride of Nation and State, and even of county. +Indeed, his pride in the Republic and his devotion to it are among the +most pathetic phases of his pathetic history, from Jamestown, in 1620, to +San Juan Hill, in 1898. He has given everything to the Republic,--his +labor and blood and prayers. What has the Republic given him, but blows +and rebuffs and criminal ingratitude! And he stands now, ready and eager, +to give the Republic all that he has. What does the Republic stand ready +and eager to give him? Let the answer come out of the mouth of the future. + +It is a fair conclusion that the Negro has a firmer and more assured civil +and political status in American life to-day than at the close of the +Reconstruction period, paradoxical as this may appear to many, despite the +adverse legislation of the old slave-holding States, and the tolerant +favor shown such legislation by the Federal Supreme Court, in such +opinions as it has delivered, from time to time, upon the subject, since +the adoption of the War amendments to the Federal Constitution. +Technically, the Negro stands upon equality with all other citizens under +this large body of special and class legislation; but, as a matter of +fact, it is so framed that the greatest inequality prevails, and was +intended to prevail, in the administration of it by the several States +chiefly concerned. As long as such legislation by the States specifies, on +the face of it, that it shall operate upon all citizens equally, however +unequally and unjustly the legislation may be interpreted and administered +by the local courts, the Federal Supreme Court has held, time and again, +that no hardship was worked, and, if so, that the aggrieved had his +recourse in appeal to the higher courts of the State of which he is a +citizen,--a recourse at this time precisely like that of carrying coal to +New Castle. + +Under the circumstances, there is no alternative for the Negro citizen +but to work out his salvation under the Constitution, as other citizens +have done and are doing. It will be a long and tedious process before the +equitable adjustment has been attained, but that does not much matter, as +full and fair enjoyment of civil and political rights requires much time +and patience and hard labor in any given situation, where two races come +together in the same governmental environment; such as is the case of the +Negro in America, the Irishman in Ireland, and the Jew everywhere in +Europe. It is just as well, perhaps, that the Negro will have to work out +his salvation under the Constitution as an individual rather than as a +race, as the Jew has done it in Great Britain and as the Irishman will +have to do it under the same Empire, as it is and has been the tendency of +our law and precedent to subordinate race elements and to exalt the +individual citizens as indivisible "parts of one stupendous whole." When +this has been accomplished by the law in the case of the Negro, as in the +case of other alien ethnic elements of the citizenship, it will be more +gradually, but assuredly, accomplished by society at large, the +indestructible foundation of which was laid by the reckless and brutal +prostitution of black women by white men in the days of slavery, from +which a vast army of mulattoes were produced, who have been and are, +gradually, by honorable marriage among themselves, changing the alleged +"race characteristics and tendencies" of the Negro people. A race element, +it is safe and fair to conclude, incapable, like that of the North +American Indian, of such a process of elimination and assimilation, will +always be a thorn in the flesh of the Republic, in which there is, +admittedly, no place for the integrality and growth of a distinct race +type. The Afro-American people, for reasons that I have stated, are even +now very far from being such a distinct race type, and without further +admixture of white and black blood, will continue to be less so to the end +of the chapter. It seems to me that this view of the matter has not +received the consideration that it deserves at the hands of those who set +themselves up as past grand masters in the business of "solving the race +problem," and in accurately defining "The Negro's Place in American Life +at the Present Day." The negroid type and the Afro-American type are two +very distinct types, and the sociologist who confounds them, as is very +generally done, is bound to confuse his subject and his audience. + +It is a debatable question as to whether the Negro's present industrial +position is better or worse than it was, say, at the close of the +Reconstruction period. As a mass, I am inclined to the opinion that it is +worse, as the laws of the States where he is congregated most numerously +are so framed as to favor the employer in every instance, and he does not +scruple to get all out of the industrial slave that he can; which is, in +the main, vastly more than the slave master got, as the latter was at the +expense of housing, feeding, clothing and providing medical service for +his chattel, while the former is relieved of this expense and trouble. +Prof. W.E.B. DuBois, of Atlanta University, who has made a critical study +of the rural Negro of the Southern States, sums up the industrial phase of +the matter in the following ("The Souls of Black Folk," pp. 39-40): + +"For this much all men know: Despite compromise, war and struggle, the +Negro is not free. In the backwoods of the Gulf States, for miles and +miles, he may not leave the plantation of his birth; in well-nigh the +whole rural South the black farmers are peons, bound by law and custom to +an economic slavery, from which the only escape is death or the +penitentiary. In the most cultured sections and cities of the South the +Negroes are a segregated servile caste, with restricted rights and +privileges. Before the courts, both in law and custom, they stand on a +different and peculiar basis. Taxation without representation is the rule +of their political life. And the result of all this is, and in nature must +have been, lawlessness and crime." + +It is a dark and gloomy picture, the substitution of industrial for +chattel slavery, with none of the legal and selfish restraints upon the +employer which surrounded and actuated the master. And this is true of the +entire mass of the Afro-American laborers of the Southern States. Out of +the mass have arisen a large number of individuals who own and till their +own lands. This element is very largely recruited every year, and to this +source must we look for the gradual undermining of the industrial slavery +of the mass of the people. Here, too, we have a long and tedious process +of evolution, but it is nothing new in the history of races circumstanced +as the Afro-American people are. That the Negro is destined, however, to +be the landlord and master agriculturist of the Southern States is a +probability sustained by all the facts in the situation; not the least of +which being the tendency of the poor white class and small farmers to +abandon agricultural pursuits for those of the factory and the mine, from +which the Negro laborer is excluded, partially in the mine and wholly in +the factory. The development of mine and factory industries in the +Southern States in the past two decades has been one of the most +remarkable in industrial history. + +In the skilled trades, at the close of the War of the Rebellion, most of +the work was done by Negroes educated as artisans in the hard school of +slavery, but there has been a steady decline in the number of such +laborers, not because of lack of skill, but because trade unionism has +gradually taken possession of such employments in the South, and will not +allow the Negro to work alongside of the white man. And this is the rule +of the trade unions in all parts of the country. It is to be hoped that +there may be a gradual broadening of the views of white laborers in this +vital matter and a change of attitude by the trade unions that they +dominate. Can we reasonably expect this? As matters now stand, it is the +individual Negro artisan, often a master contractor, who can work at his +trade and give employment to his fellows. Fortunately, there are a great +many of these in all parts of the Southern States, and their number is +increasing every year, as the result of the rapid growth and high favor of +industrial schools, where the trades are taught. A very great deal should +be expected from this source, as a Negro contractor stands very nearly on +as good footing as a white one in the bidding, when he has established a +reputation for reliability. The facts obtained in every Southern city bear +out this view of the matter. The individual black man has a fighting +chance for success in the skilled trades; and, as he succeeds, will draw +the skilled mass after him. The proper solution of the skilled labor +problem is strictly within the power of the individual Negro. I believe +that he is solving it, and that he will ultimately solve it. + +It is, however, in the marvellous building up of a legal, comfortable and +happy home life, where none whatever existed at the close of the War of +the Rebellion; in the no less stupendous development of the church life, +with large and puissant organizations that command the respect and +admiration of mankind, and owning splendid church property valued at +millions of dollars; in the quenchless thirst of the mass of the people +for useful knowledge, displayed at the close of the War of the Rebellion, +and abating nothing of its intense keenness since, with the remarkable +reduction in the illiteracy of the mass of the people, as is eloquently +disclosed by the census reports--it is in these results that no cause for +complaint or discouragement can be found. The whole race here stands on +improved ground over that it occupied at the close of the War of the +Rebellion; albeit, even here, the individual has outstripped the mass of +the race, as it was but natural that he should and always will. But, while +this is true and gratifying to all those that hope the Afro-American +people well, it is also true, and equally gratifying that, as far as the +mass is concerned, the home life, the church and the school house have +come into the life of the people, in some sort, everywhere, giving the +whole race a character and a standing in the estimation of mankind which +it did not have at the close of the war, and presaging, logically, unless +all signs fail, a development along high and honorable lines in the +future; the results from which, I predict, at the end of the ensuing half +century, builded upon the foundation already laid, being such as to +confound the prophets of evil, who never cease to doubt and shake their +heads, asking: "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" We have the +answer already in the social and home life of the people, which is so vast +an improvement over the conditions and the heritage of slavery as to +stagger the understanding of those who are informed on the subject, or +will take the trouble to inform themselves. + +If we have much loose moral living, it is not sanctioned by the mass, +wedlock being the rule, and not the exception; if we have a vast volume of +illiteracy, we have reduced it by forty per cent. since the war, and the +school houses are all full of children eager to learn, and the schools of +higher and industrial training cannot accommodate all those who knock at +their doors for admission; if we have more than our share of criminality, +we have also churches in every hamlet and city, to which a vast majority +of the people belong, and which are insistently pointing "the way, the +light and the truth" to higher and nobler living. + +Mindful, therefore, of the Negro's two hundred and forty-five years of +slave education and unrequited toil, and of his thirty years of partial +freedom and less than partial opportunity, who shall say that his place in +American life at the present day is not all that should be reasonably +expected of him, that it is not creditable to him, and that it is not a +sufficient augury for better and nobler and higher thinking, striving and +building in the future? Social growth is the slowest of all growth. If +there be signs of growth, then, there is reasonable hope for a healthy +maturity. There are plenty of such signs, and he who runs may read them, +if he will. + + + + + + + + + + + + + The American Negro Academy + + Occasional Papers, No. 2. + + + The Conservation of Races. + + BY + W. E. BURGHARDT Du BOIS. + + + WASHINGTON, D. C. + Published by the Academy. + 1897. + + + + Baptist Magazine Print, + Washington, D. C. + + Orders may be sent to John H. Wills. + The Boston Cheap Book Store, + Washington, D. C. + + + + +Announcement + + +The American Negro Academy believes that upon those of the race who have +had the advantages of higher education and culture, rests the +responsibility of taking concerted steps for the employment of these +agencies to uplift the race to higher planes of thought and action. + +Two great obstacles to this consummation are apparent: (_a_) The lack of +unity, want of harmony, absence of a self-sacrificing spirit, and no +well-defined line of policy seeking definite aims; and (_b_) The +persistent, relentless, at times covert opposition employed to thwart +the Negro at every step of his upward struggles to establish the +justness of his claim to the highest physical, intellectual and moral +possibilities. + +The Academy will, therefore, from time to time, publish such papers as +in their judgment aid, by their broad and scholarly treatment of the +topics discussed the dissemination of principles tending to the growth +and development of the Negro along right lines, and the vindication of +that race against vicious assaults. + + + + +THE CONSERVATION OF RACES. + + +The American Negro has always felt an intense personal interest in +discussions as to the origins and destinies of races: primarily because +back of most discussions of race with which he is familiar, have lurked +certain assumptions as to his natural abilities, as to his political, +intellectual and moral status, which he felt were wrong. He has, +consequently, been led to deprecate and minimize race distinctions, to +believe intensely that out of one blood God created all nations, and to +speak of human brotherhood as though it were the possibility of an +already dawning to-morrow. + +Nevertheless, in our calmer moments we must acknowledge that human +beings are divided into races; that in this country the two most extreme +types of the world's races have met, and the resulting problem as to the +future relations of these types is not only of intense and living +interest to us, but forms an epoch in the history of mankind. + +It is necessary, therefore, in planning our movements, in guiding our +future development, that at times we rise above the pressing, but +smaller questions of separate schools and cars, wage-discrimination and +lynch law, to survey the whole question of race in human philosophy and +to lay, on a basis of broad knowledge and careful insight, those large +lines of policy and higher ideals which may form our guiding lines and +boundaries in the practical difficulties of every day. For it is certain +that all human striving must recognize the hard limits of natural law, +and that any striving, no matter how intense and earnest, which is +against the constitution of the world, is vain. The question, then, +which we must seriously consider is this: What is the real meaning of +Race; what has, in the past, been the law of race development, and what +lessons has the past history of race development to teach the rising +Negro people? + +When we thus come to inquire into the essential difference of races we +find it hard to come at once to any definite conclusion. Many criteria +of race differences have in the past been proposed, as color, hair, +cranial measurements and language. And manifestly, in each of these +respects, human beings differ widely. They vary in color, for instance, +from the marble-like pallor of the Scandinavian to the rich, dark brown +of the Zulu, passing by the creamy Slav, the yellow Chinese, the light +brown Sicilian and the brown Egyptian. Men vary, too, in the texture of +hair from the obstinately straight hair of the Chinese to the +obstinately tufted and frizzled hair of the Bushman. In measurement of +heads, again, men vary; from the broad-headed Tartar to the +medium-headed European and the narrow-headed Hottentot; or, again in +language, from the highly-inflected Roman tongue to the monosyllabic +Chinese. All these physical characteristics are patent enough, and if +they agreed with each other it would be very easy to classify mankind. +Unfortunately for scientists, however, these criteria of race are most +exasperatingly intermingled. Color does not agree with texture of hair, +for many of the dark races have straight hair; nor does color agree with +the breadth of the head, for the yellow Tartar has a broader head than +the German; nor, again, has the science of language as yet succeeded in +clearing up the relative authority of these various and contradictory +criteria. The final word of science, so far, is that we have at least +two, perhaps three, great families of human beings--the whites and +Negroes, possibly the yellow race. That other races have arisen from the +intermingling of the blood of these two. This broad division of the +world's races which men like Huxley and Raetzel have introduced as more +nearly true than the old five-race scheme of Blumenbach, is nothing more +than an acknowledgment that, so far as purely physical characteristics +are concerned, the differences between men do not explain all the +differences of their history. It declares, as Darwin himself said, that +great as is the physical unlikeness of the various races of men their +likenesses are greater, and upon this rests the whole scientific +doctrine of Human Brotherhood. + +Although the wonderful developments of human history teach that the +grosser physical differences of color, hair and bone go but a short way +toward explaining the different roles which groups of men have played +in Human Progress, yet there are differences--subtle, delicate and +elusive, though they may be--which have silently but definitely +separated men into groups. While these subtle forces have generally +followed the natural cleavage of common blood, descent and physical +peculiarities, they have at other times swept across and ignored these. +At all times, however, they have divided human beings into races, which, +while they perhaps transcend scientific definition, nevertheless, are +clearly defined to the eye of the Historian and Sociologist. + +If this be true, then the history of the world is the history, not of +individuals, but of groups, not of nations, but of races, and he who +ignores or seeks to override the race idea in human history ignores and +overrides the central thought of all history. What, then, is a race? It +is a vast family of human beings, generally of common blood and +language, always of common history, traditions and impulses, who are +both voluntarily and involuntarily striving together for the +accomplishment of certain more or less vividly conceived ideals of life. + +Turning to real history, there can be no doubt, first, as to the +widespread, nay, universal, prevalence of the race idea, the race +spirit, the race ideal, and as to its efficiency as the vastest and most +ingenious invention for human progress. We, who have been reared and +trained under the individualistic philosophy of the Declaration of +Independence and the laisser-faire philosophy of Adam Smith, are loath +to see and loath to acknowledge this patent fact of human history. We +see the Pharaohs, Caesars, Toussaints and Napoleons of history and +forget the vast races of which they were but epitomized expressions. We +are apt to think in our American impatience, that while it may have been +true in the past that closed race groups made history, that here in +conglomerate America _nous avons changer tout cela_--we have changed all +that, and have no need of this ancient instrument of progress. This +assumption of which the Negro people are especially fond, can not be +established by a careful consideration of history. + +We find upon the world's stage today eight distinctly differentiated +races, in the sense in which History tells us the word must be used. +They are, the Slavs of eastern Europe, the Teutons of middle Europe, the +English of Great Britain and America, the Romance nations of Southern +and Western Europe, the Negroes of Africa and America, the Semitic +people of Western Asia and Northern Africa, the Hindoos of Central Asia +and the Mongolians of Eastern Asia. There are, of course, other minor +race groups, as the American Indians, the Esquimaux and the South Sea +Islanders; these larger races, too, are far from homogeneous; the Slav +includes the Czech, the Magyar, the Pole and the Russian; the Teuton +includes the German, the Scandinavian and the Dutch; the English include +the Scotch, the Irish and the conglomerate American. Under Romance +nations the widely-differing Frenchman, Italian, Sicilian and Spaniard +are comprehended. The term Negro is, perhaps, the most indefinite of +all, combining the Mulattoes and Zamboes of America and the Egyptians, +Bantus and Bushmen of Africa. Among the Hindoos are traces of widely +differing nations, while the great Chinese, Tartar, Corean and Japanese +families fall under the one designation--Mongolian. + +The question now is: What is the real distinction between these nations? +Is it the physical differences of blood, color and cranial measurements? +Certainly we must all acknowledge that physical differences play a great +part, and that, with wide exceptions and qualifications, these eight +great races of to-day follow the cleavage of physical race distinctions; +the English and Teuton represent the white variety of mankind; the +Mongolian, the yellow; the Negroes, the black. Between these are many +crosses and mixtures, where Mongolian and Teuton have blended into the +Slav, and other mixtures have produced the Romance nations and the +Semites. But while race differences have followed mainly physical race +lines, yet no mere physical distinctions would really define or explain +the deeper differences--the cohesiveness and continuity of these groups. +The deeper differences are spiritual, psychical, differences--undoubtedly +based on the physical, but infinitely transcending them. The forces that +bind together the Teuton nations are, then, first, their race identity +and common blood; secondly, and more important, a common history, common +laws and religion, similar habits of thought and a conscious striving +together for certain ideals of life. The whole process which has brought +about these race differentiations has been a growth, and the great +characteristic of this growth has been the differentiation of spiritual +and mental differences between great races of mankind and the +integration of physical differences. + +The age of nomadic tribes of closely related individuals represents the +maximum of physical differences. They were practically vast families, +and there were as many groups as families. As the families came together +to form cities the physical differences lessened, purity of blood was +replaced by the requirement of domicile, and all who lived within the +city bounds became gradually to be regarded as members of the group; +_i. e._, there was a slight and slow breaking down of physical barriers. +This, however, was accompanied by an increase of the spiritual and +social differences between cities. This city became husbandmen, this, +merchants, another warriors, and so on. The _ideals of life_ for which +the different cities struggled were different. When at last cities began +to coalesce into nations there was another breaking down of barriers +which separated groups of men. The larger and broader differences of +color, hair and physical proportions were not by any means ignored, but +myriads of minor differences disappeared, and the sociological and +historical races of men began to approximate the present division of +races as indicated by physical researches. At the same time the +spiritual and physical differences of race groups which constituted the +nations became deep and decisive. The English nation stood for +constitutional liberty and commercial freedom; the German nation for +science and philosophy; the Romance nations stood for literature and +art, and the other race groups are striving, each in its own way, to +develope for civilization its particular message, its particular ideal, +which shall help to guide the world nearer and nearer that perfection of +human life for which we all long, that + + "one far off Divine event." + +This has been the function of race differences up to the present time. +What shall be its function in the future? Manifestly some of the great +races of today--particularly the Negro race--have not as yet given to +civilization the full spiritual message which they are capable of +giving. I will not say that the Negro race has as yet given no message +to the world, for it is still a mooted question among scientists as to +just how far Egyptian civilization was Negro in its origin; if it was +not wholly Negro, it was certainly very closely allied. Be that as it +may, however the fact still remains that the full, complete Negro +message of the whole Negro race has not as yet been given to the world: +that the messages and ideal of the yellow race have not been completed, +and that the striving of the mighty Slavs has but begun. The question +is, then: How shall this message be delivered; how shall these various +ideals be realized? The answer is plain: By the development of these +race groups, not as individuals, but as races. For the development of +Japanese genius, Japanese literature and art, Japanese spirit, only +Japanese, bound and welded together, Japanese inspired by one vast +ideal, can work out in its fullness the wonderful message which Japan +has for the nations of the earth. For the development of Negro genius, +of Negro literature and art, of Negro spirit, only Negroes bound and +welded together, Negroes inspired by one vast ideal, can work out in its +fullness the great message we have for humanity. We cannot reverse +history; we are subject to the same natural laws as other races, and if +the Negro is ever to be a factor in the world's history--if among the +gaily-colored banners that deck the broad ramparts of civilization is to +hang one uncompromising black, then it must be placed there by black +hands, fashioned by black heads and hallowed by the travail of +200,000,000 black hearts beating in one glad song of jubilee. + +For this reason, the advance guard of the Negro people--the 8,000,000 +people of Negro blood in the United States of America--must soon come to +realize that if they are to take their just place in the van of +Pan-Negroism, then their destiny is _not_ absorption by the white +Americans. That if in America it is to be proven for the first time in +the modern world that not only Negroes are capable of evolving +individual men like Toussaint, the Saviour, but are a nation stored with +wonderful possibilities of culture, then their destiny is not a servile +imitation of Anglo-Saxon culture, but a stalwart originality which shall +unswervingly follow Negro ideals. + +It may, however, be objected here that the situation of our race in +America renders this attitude impossible; that our sole hope of +salvation lies in our being able to lose our race identity in the +commingled blood of the nation; and that any other course would merely +increase the friction of races which we call race prejudice, and against +which we have so long and so earnestly fought. + +Here, then, is the dilemma, and it is a puzzling one, I admit. No Negro +who has given earnest thought to the situation of his people in America +has failed, at some time in life, to find himself at these cross-roads; +has failed to ask himself at some time: What, after all, am I? Am I an +American or am I a Negro? Can I be both? Or is it my duty to cease to be +a Negro as soon as possible and be an American? If I strive as a Negro, +am I not perpetuating the very cleft that threatens and separates Black +and White America? Is not my only possible practical aim the subduction +of all that is Negro in me to the American? Does my black blood place +upon me any more obligation to assert my nationality than German, or +Irish or Italian blood would? + +It is such incessant self-questioning and the hesitation that arises +from it, that is making the present period a time of vacillation and +contradiction for the American Negro; combined race action is stifled, +race responsibility is shirked, race enterprises languish, and the best +blood, the best talent, the best energy of the Negro people cannot be +marshalled to do the bidding of the race. They stand back to make room +for every rascal and demagogue who chooses to cloak his selfish deviltry +under the veil of race pride. + +Is this right? Is it rational? Is it good policy? Have we in America a +distinct mission as a race--a distinct sphere of action and an +opportunity for race development, or is self-obliteration the highest +end to which Negro blood dare aspire? + +If we carefully consider what race prejudice really is, we find it, +historically, to be nothing but the friction between different groups of +people; it is the difference in aim, in feeling, in ideals of two +different races; if, now, this difference exists touching territory, +laws, language, or even religion, it is manifest that these people +cannot live in the same territory without fatal collision; but if, on +the other hand, there is substantial agreement in laws, language and +religion; if there is a satisfactory adjustment of economic life, then +there is no reason why, in the same country and on the same street, two +or three great national ideals might not thrive and develop, that men of +different races might not strive together for their race ideals as well, +perhaps even better, than in isolation. Here, it seems to me, is the +reading of the riddle that puzzles so many of us. We are Americans, not +only by birth and by citizenship, but by our political ideals, our +language, our religion. Farther than that, our Americanism does not go. +At that point, we are Negroes, members of a vast historic race that from +the very dawn of creation has slept, but half awakening in the dark +forests of its African fatherland. We are the first fruits of this new +nation, the harbinger of that black to-morrow which is yet destined to +soften the whiteness of the Teutonic to-day. We are that people whose +subtle sense of song has given America its only American music, its only +American fairy tales, its only touch of pathos and humor amid its mad +money-getting plutocracy. As such, it is our duty to conserve our +physical powers, our intellectual endowments, our spiritual ideals; as a +race we must strive by race organization, by race solidarity, by race +unity to the realization of that broader humanity which freely +recognizes differences in men, but sternly deprecates inequality in +their opportunities of development. + +For the accomplishment of these ends we need race organizations: Negro +colleges, Negro newspapers, Negro business organizations, a Negro school +of literature and art, and an intellectual clearing house, for all these +products of the Negro mind, which we may call a Negro Academy. Not only +is all this necessary for positive advance, it is absolutely imperative +for negative defense. Let us not deceive ourselves at our situation in +this country. Weighted with a heritage of moral iniquity from our past +history, hard pressed in the economic world by foreign immigrants and +native prejudice, hated here, despised there and pitied everywhere; our +one haven of refuge is ourselves, and but one means of advance, our own +belief in our great destiny, our own implicit trust in our ability and +worth. There is no power under God's high heaven that can stop the +advance of eight thousand thousand honest, earnest, inspired and united +people. But--and here is the rub--they _must_ be honest, fearlessly +criticising their own faults, zealously correcting them; they must be +_earnest_. No people that laughs at itself, and ridicules itself, and +wishes to God it was anything but itself ever wrote its name in history; +it _must_ be inspired with the Divine faith of our black mothers, that +out of the blood and dust of battle will march a victorious host, a +mighty nation, a peculiar people, to speak to the nations of earth a +Divine truth that shall make them free. And such a people must be +united; not merely united for the organized theft of political spoils, +not united to disgrace religion with whoremongers and ward-heelers; not +united merely to protest and pass resolutions, but united to stop the +ravages of consumption among the Negro people, united to keep black boys +from loafing, gambling and crime; united to guard the purity of black +women and to reduce that vast army of black prostitutes that is today +marching to hell; and united in serious organizations, to determine by +careful conference and thoughtful interchange of opinion the broad lines +of policy and action for the American Negro. + +This is the reason for being which the American Negro Academy has. It +aims at once to be the epitome and expression of the intellect of the +black-blooded people of America, the exponent of the race ideals of one +of the world's great races. As such, the Academy must, if successful, be + + (_a_). Representative in character. + + (_b_). Impartial in conduct. + + (_c_). Firm in leadership. + +It must be representative in character; not in that it represents all +interests or all factions, but in that it seeks to comprise something of +the _best_ thought, the most unselfish striving and the highest ideals. +There are scattered in forgotten nooks and corners throughout the land, +Negroes of some considerable training, of high minds, and high motives, +who are unknown to their fellows, who exert far too little influence. +These the Negro Academy should strive to bring into touch with each +other and to give them a common mouthpiece. + +The Academy should be impartial in conduct; while it aims to exalt the +people it should aim to do so by truth--not by lies, by honesty--not by +flattery. It should continually impress the fact upon the Negro people +that they must not expect to have things done for them--they MUST DO FOR +THEMSELVES; that they have on their hands a vast work of self-reformation +to do, and that a little less complaint and whining, and a little more +dogged work and manly striving would do us more credit and benefit than a +thousand Force or Civil Rights bills. + +Finally, the American Negro Academy must point out a practical path of +advance to the Negro people; there lie before every Negro today hundreds +of questions of policy and right which must be settled and which each +one settles now, not in accordance with any rule, but by impulse or +individual preference; for instance: What should be the attitude of +Negroes toward the educational qualification for voters? What should be +our attitude toward separate schools? How should we meet discriminations +on railways and in hotels? Such questions need not so much specific +answers for each part as a general expression of policy, and nobody +should be better fitted to announce such a policy than a representative +honest Negro Academy. + +All this, however, must come in time after careful organization and long +conference. The immediate work before us should be practical and have +direct bearing upon the situation of the Negro. The historical work of +collecting the laws of the United States and of the various States of +the Union with regard to the Negro is a work of such magnitude and +importance that no body but one like this could think of undertaking it. +If we could accomplish that one task we would justify our existence. + +In the field of Sociology an appalling work lies before us. First, we +must unflinchingly and bravely face the truth, not with apologies, but +with solemn earnestness. The Negro Academy ought to sound a note of +warning that would echo in every black cabin in the land: _Unless we +conquer our present vices they will conquer us_; we are diseased, we are +developing criminal tendencies, and an alarmingly large percentage of +our men and women are sexually impure. The Negro Academy should stand +and proclaim this over the housetops, crying with Garrison: _I will not +equivocate, I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard_. The +Academy should seek to gather about it the talented, unselfish men, the +pure and noble-minded women, to fight an army of devils that disgraces +our manhood and our womanhood. There does not stand today upon God's +earth a race more capable in muscle, in intellect, in morals, than the +American Negro, if he will bend his energies in the right direction; if +he will + + Burst his birth's invidious bar + And grasp the skirts of happy chance, + And breast the blows of circumstance, + And grapple with his evil star. + +In science and morals, I have indicated two fields of work for the +Academy. Finally, in practical policy, I wish to suggest the following +_Academy Creed_: + +1. We believe that the Negro people, as a race, have a contribution to +make to civilization and humanity, which no other race can make. + +2. We believe it the duty of the Americans of Negro descent, as a body, +to maintain their race identity until this mission of the Negro people +is accomplished, and the ideal of human brotherhood has become a +practical possibility. + +3. We believe that, unless modern civilization is a failure, it is +entirely feasible and practicable for two races in such essential +political, economic and religious harmony as the white and colored +people of America, to develop side by side in peace and mutual +happiness, the peculiar contribution which each has to make to the +culture of their common country. + +4. As a means to this end we advocate, not such social equality between +these races as would disregard human likes and dislikes, but such a +social equilibrium as would, throughout all the complicated relations of +life, give due and just consideration to culture, ability, and moral +worth, whether they be found under white or black skins. + +5. We believe that the first and greatest step toward the settlement of +the present friction between the races--commonly called the Negro +Problem--lies in the correction of the immorality, crime and laziness +among the Negroes themselves, which still remains as a heritage from +slavery. We believe that only earnest and long continued efforts on our +own part can cure these social ills. + +6. We believe that the second great step toward a better adjustment of +the relations between the races, should be a more impartial selection of +ability in the economic and intellectual world, and a greater respect +for personal liberty and worth, regardless of race. We believe that only +earnest efforts on the part of the white people of this country will +bring much needed reform in these matters. + +7. On the basis of the foregoing declaration, and firmly believing in +our high destiny, we, as American Negroes, are resolved to strive in +every honorable way for the realization of the best and highest aims, +for the development of strong manhood and pure womanhood, and for the +rearing of a race ideal in America and Africa, to the glory of God and +the uplifting of the Negro people. W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. + +The following misprints have been corrected: + "menta" corrected to "mental" (page 8) + "o;ganization" corrected to "organization" (page 14) + +Other than the corrections listed above, printer's spelling and +hyphenation usage have been retained. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Conservation of Races, by +W. E. Burghardt Du Bois + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONSERVATION OF RACES *** + +***** This file should be named 31254.txt or 31254.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/2/5/31254/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Stephanie Eason, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +CONTENTS + + Preface + I Africa + II The Coming of Black Men + III Ethiopia and Egypt + IV The Niger and Islam + V Guinea and Congo + VI The Great Lakes and Zymbabwe + VII The War of Races at Land's End +VIII African Culture + IX The Trade in Men + X The West Indies and Latin America + XI The Negro in the United States + XII The Negro Problems + Suggestions for Further Reading + + +MAPS + +The Physical Geography of Africa +Ancient Kingdoms of Africa +Races in Africa +Distribution of Negro Blood, Ancient and Modern + + + + +THE NEGRO + + + + +TO +A FAITHFUL HELPER +M.G.A. + + + + +PREFACE + + +The time has not yet come for a complete history of the Negro +peoples. Archaeological research in Africa has just begun, and many +sources of information in Arabian, Portuguese, and other tongues are +not fully at our command; and, too, it must frankly be confessed, +racial prejudice against darker peoples is still too strong in so-called +civilized centers for judicial appraisement of the peoples of Africa. +Much intensive monographic work in history and science is needed +to clear mooted points and quiet the controversialist who mistakes +present personal desire for scientific proof. + +Nevertheless, I have not been able to withstand the temptation to +essay such short general statement of the main known facts and their +fair interpretation as shall enable the general reader to know as men +a sixth or more of the human race. Manifestly so short a story must +be mainly conclusions and generalizations with but meager indication +of authorities and underlying arguments. Possibly, if the Public +will, a later and larger book may be more satisfactory on these points. + +W.E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS. + +New York City, Feb. 1, 1915. + + + + +[Illustration: The Physical Geography of Africa] + + + + +I AFRICA + + "Behold! +The Sphinx is Africa. The bond +Of Silence is upon her. Old +And white with tombs, and rent and shorn; +With raiment wet with tears and torn, +And trampled on, yet all untamed." + +MILLER + + +Africa is at once the most romantic and the most tragic of continents. Its +very names reveal its mystery and wide-reaching influence. It is the +"Ethiopia" of the Greek, the "Kush" and "Punt" of the Egyptian, and the +Arabian "Land of the Blacks." To modern Europe it is the "Dark Continent" +and "Land of Contrasts"; in literature it is the seat of the Sphinx and +the lotus eaters, the home of the dwarfs, gnomes, and pixies, and the +refuge of the gods; in commerce it is the slave mart and the source of +ivory, ebony, rubber, gold, and diamonds. What other continent can rival +in interest this Ancient of Days? + +There are those, nevertheless, who would write universal history and leave +out Africa. But how, asks Ratzel, can one leave out the land of Egypt and +Carthage? and Frobenius declares that in future Africa must more and more +be regarded as an integral part of the great movement of world history. +Yet it is true that the history of Africa is unusual, and its strangeness +is due in no small degree to the physical peculiarities of the continent. +With three times the area of Europe it has a coast line a fifth shorter. +Like Europe it is a peninsula of Asia, curving southwestward around the +Indian Sea. It has few gulfs, bays, capes, or islands. Even the rivers, +though large and long, are not means of communication with the outer +world, because from the central high plateau they plunge in rapids and +cataracts to the narrow coastlands and the sea. + +The general physical contour of Africa has been likened to an inverted +plate with one or more rows of mountains at the edge and a low coastal +belt. In the south the central plateau is three thousand or more feet +above the sea, while in the north it is a little over one thousand feet. +Thus two main divisions of the continent are easily distinguished: the +broad northern rectangle, reaching down as far as the Gulf of Guinea and +Cape Guardafui, with seven million square miles; and the peninsula which +tapers toward the south, with five million square miles. + +Four great rivers and many lesser streams water the continent. The +greatest is the Congo in the center, with its vast curving and endless +estuaries; then the Nile, draining the cluster of the Great Lakes and +flowing northward "like some grave, mighty thought, threading a dream"; +the Niger in the northwest, watering the Sudan below the Sahara; and, +finally, the Zambesi, with its greater Niagara in the southeast. Even +these waters leave room for deserts both south and north, but the greater +ones are the three million square miles of sand wastes in the north. + +More than any other land, Africa lies in the tropics, with a warm, dry +climate, save in the central Congo region, where rain at all seasons +brings tropical luxuriance. The flora is rich but not wide in variety, +including the gum acacia, ebony, several dye woods, the kola nut, and +probably tobacco and millet. To these many plants have been added in +historic times. The fauna is rich in mammals, and here, too, many from +other continents have been widely introduced and used. + +Primarily Africa is the Land of the Blacks. The world has always been +familiar with black men, who represent one of the most ancient of human +stocks. Of the ancient world gathered about the Mediterranean, they formed +a part and were viewed with no surprise or dislike, because this world saw +them come and go and play their part with other men. Was Clitus the +brother-in-law of Alexander the Great less to be honored because he +happened to be black? Was Terence less famous? The medieval European +world, developing under the favorable physical conditions of the north +temperate zone, knew the black man chiefly as a legend or occasional +curiosity, but still as a fellow man--an Othello or a Prester John or an +Antar. + +The modern world, in contrast, knows the Negro chiefly as a bond slave in +the West Indies and America. Add to this the fact that the darker races in +other parts of the world have, in the last four centuries, lagged behind +the flying and even feverish footsteps of Europe, and we face to-day a +widespread assumption throughout the dominant world that color is a mark +of inferiority. + +The result is that in writing of this, one of the most ancient, +persistent, and widespread stocks of mankind, one faces astounding +prejudice. That which may be assumed as true of white men must be proven +beyond peradventure if it relates to Negroes. One who writes of the +development of the Negro race must continually insist that he is writing +of a normal human stock, and that whatever it is fair to predicate of the +mass of human beings may be predicated of the Negro. It is the silent +refusal to do this which has led to so much false writing on Africa and +of its inhabitants. Take, for instance, the answer to the apparently +simple question "What is a Negro?" We find the most extraordinary +confusion of thought and difference of opinion. There is a certain type in +the minds of most people which, as David Livingstone said, can be found +only in caricature and not in real life. When scientists have tried to +find an extreme type of black, ugly, and woolly-haired Negro, they have +been compelled more and more to limit his home even in Africa. At least +nine-tenths of the African people do not at all conform to this type, and +the typical Negro, after being denied a dwelling place in the Sudan, along +the Nile, in East Central Africa, and in South Africa, was finally given a +very small country between the Senegal and the Niger, and even there was +found to give trace of many stocks. As Winwood Reade says, "The typical +Negro is a rare variety even among Negroes." + +As a matter of fact we cannot take such extreme and largely fanciful stock +as typifying that which we may fairly call the Negro race. In the case of +no other race is so narrow a definition attempted. A "white" man may be of +any color, size, or facial conformation and have endless variety of +cranial measurement and physical characteristics. A "yellow" man is +perhaps an even vaguer conception. + +In fact it is generally recognized to-day that no scientific definition of +race is possible. Differences, and striking differences, there are between +men and groups of men, but they fade into each other so insensibly that we +can only indicate the main divisions of men in broad outlines. As Von +Luschan says, "The question of the number of human races has quite lost +its _raison d'etre_ and has become a subject rather of philosophic +speculation than of scientific research. It is of no more importance now +to know how many human races there are than to know how many angels can +dance on the point of a needle. Our aim now is to find out how ancient and +primitive races developed from others and how races changed or evolved +through migration and inter-breeding."[1] + +The mulatto (using the term loosely to indicate either an intermediate +type between white and black or a mingling of the two) is as typically +African as the black man and cannot logically be included in the "white" +race, especially when American usage includes the mulatto in the Negro +race. + +It is reasonable, according to fact and historic usage, to include under +the word "Negro" the darker peoples of Africa characterized by a brown +skin, curled or "frizzled" hair, full and sometimes everted lips, a +tendency to a development of the maxillary parts of the face, and a +dolichocephalic head. This type is not fixed or definite. The color varies +widely; it is never black or bluish, as some say, and it becomes often +light brown or yellow. The hair varies from curly to a wool-like mass, and +the facial angle and cranial form show wide variation. + +It is as impossible in Africa as elsewhere to fix with any certainty the +limits of racial variation due to climate and the variation due to +intermingling. In the past, when scientists assumed one unvarying Negro +type, every variation from that type was interpreted as meaning mixture of +blood. To-day we recognize a broader normal African type which, as +Palgrave says, may best be studied "among the statues of the Egyptian +rooms of the British Museum; the larger gentle eye, the full but not +over-protruding lips, the rounded contour, and the good-natured, easy, +sensuous expression. This is the genuine African model." To this race +Africa in the main and parts of Asia have belonged since prehistoric +times. + +The color of this variety of man, as the color of other varieties, is due +to climate. Conditions of heat, cold, and moisture, working for thousands +of years through the skin and other organs, have given men their +differences of color. This color pigment is a protection against sunlight +and consequently varies with the intensity of the sunlight. Thus in Africa +we find the blackest men in the fierce sunlight of the desert, red pygmies +in the forest, and yellow Bushmen on the cooler southern plateau. + +Next to the color, the hair is the most distinguishing characteristic of +the Negro, but the two characteristics do not vary with each other. Some +of the blackest of the Negroes have curly rather than woolly hair, while +the crispest, most closely curled hair is found among the yellow +Hottentots and Bushmen. The difference between the hair of the lighter and +darker races is a difference of degree, not of kind, and can be easily +measured. If the hair follicles of a China-man, a European, and a Negro +are cut across transversely, it will be found that the diameter of the +first is 100 by 77 to 85, the second 100 by 62 to 72, while that of the +Negro is 100 by 40 to 60. This elliptical form of the Negro's hair causes +it to curl more or less tightly. + +There have been repeated efforts to discover, by measurements of various +kinds, further and more decisive differences which would serve as really +scientific determinants of race. Gradually these efforts have been given +up. To-day we realize that there are no hard and fast racial types among +men. Race is a dynamic and not a static conception, and the typical races +are continually changing and developing, amalgamating and differentiating. +In this little book, then, we are studying the history of the darker part +of the human family, which is separated from the rest of mankind by no +absolute physical line, but which nevertheless forms, as a mass, a social +group distinct in history, appearance, and to some extent in spiritual +gift. + +We cannot study Africa without, however, noting some of the other races +concerned in its history, particularly the Asiatic Semites. The +intercourse of Africa with Arabia and other parts of Asia has been so +close and long-continued that it is impossible to-day to disentangle the +blood relationships. Negro blood certainly appears in strong strain among +the Semites, and the obvious mulatto groups in Africa, arising from +ancient and modern mingling of Semite and Negro, has given rise to the +term "Hamite," under cover of which millions of Negroids have been +characteristically transferred to the "white" race by some eager +scientists. + +The earliest Semites came to Africa across the Red Sea. The Phoenicians +came along the northern coasts a thousand years before Christ and began +settlements which culminated in Carthage and extended down the Atlantic +shores of North Africa nearly to the Gulf of Guinea. + +From the earliest times the Greeks have been in contact with Africa as +visitors, traders, and colonists, and the Persian influence came with +Cambyses and others. Roman Africa was bounded by the desert, but at times +came into contact with the blacks across the Sahara and in the valley of +the Nile. After the breaking up of the Roman Empire the Greek and Latin +Christians filtered through Africa, followed finally by a Germanic +invasion in 429 A.D. + +In the seventh century the All-Mother, Asia, claimed Africa again for her +own and blew a cloud of Semitic Mohammedanism all across North Africa, +veiling the dark continent from Europe for a thousand years and converting +vast masses of the blacks to Islam. The Portuguese began to raise the veil +in the fifteenth century, sailing down the Atlantic coast and initiating +the modern slave trade. The Spanish, French, Dutch, and English followed +them, but as traders in men rather than explorers. + +The Portuguese explored the coasts of the Gulf of Guinea, visiting the +interior kingdoms, and then passing by the mouth of the Congo proceeded +southward. Eventually they rounded the Cape of Good Hope and pursued their +explorations as far as the mountains of Abyssinia. This began the modern +exploration of Africa, which is a curious fairy tale, and recalls to us +the great names of Livingstone, Burton, Speke, Stanley, Barth, +Schweinfurth, and many others. In this way Africa has been made known to +the modern world. + +The difficulty of this modern lifting of the veil of centuries emphasizes +two physical facts that underlie all African history: the peculiar +inaccessibility of the continent to peoples from without, which made it so +easily possible for the great human drama played here to hide itself from +the ears of other worlds; and, on the other hand, the absence of interior +barriers--the great stretch of that central plateau which placed +practically every budding center of culture at the mercy of barbarism, +sweeping a thousand miles, with no Alps or Himalayas or Appalachians to +hinder. + +With this peculiarly uninviting coast line and the difficulties in +interior segregation must be considered the climate of Africa. While there +is much diversity and many salubrious tracts along with vast barren +wastes, yet, as Sir Harry Johnston well remarks, "Africa is the chief +stronghold of the real Devil--the reactionary forces of Nature hostile to +the uprise of Humanity. Here Beelzebub, King of the Flies, marshals his +vermiform and arthropod hosts--insects, ticks, and nematode worms--which +more than in other continents (excepting Negroid Asia) convey to the skin, +veins, intestines, and spinal marrow of men and other vertebrates the +microorganisms which cause deadly, disfiguring, or debilitating diseases, +or themselves create the morbid condition of the persecuted human being, +beasts, bird, reptile, frog, or fish."[2] The inhabitants of this land +have had a sheer fight for physical survival comparable with that in no +other great continent, and this must not be forgotten when we consider +their history. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Von Luschan: in _Inter-Racial Problems_, p. 16. + +[2] Johnston: _Negro in the New World_, pp. 14-15. + + + + +II THE COMING OF BLACK MEN + + +The movements of prehistoric man can be seen as yet but dimly in the +uncertain mists of time. This is the story that to-day seems most +probable: from some center in southern Asia primitive human beings began +to differentiate in two directions. Toward the south appeared the +primitive Negro, long-headed and with flattened hair follicle. He spread +along southern Asia and passed over into Africa, where he survives to-day +as the reddish dwarfs of the center and the Bushmen of South Africa. + +Northward and eastward primitive man became broader headed and +straight-haired and spread over eastern Asia, forming the Mongolian type. +Either through the intermingling of these two types or, as some prefer to +think, by the direct prolongation of the original primitive man, a third +intermediate type of human being appeared with hair and cranial +measurement intermediate between the primitive Negro and Mongolian. All +these three types of men intermingled their blood freely and developed +variations according to climate and environment. + +Other and older theories and legends of the origin and spread of mankind +are of interest now only because so many human beings have believed them +in the past. The biblical story of Shem, Ham, and Japheth retains the +interest of a primitive myth with its measure of allegorical truth,[3] but +has, of course, no historic basis. + +The older "Aryan" theory assumed the migration into Europe of one dominant +Asiatic race of civilized conquerors, to whose blood and influence all +modern culture was due. To this "white" race Semitic Asia, a large part of +black Africa, and all Europe was supposed to belong. This "Aryan" theory +has been practically abandoned in the light of recent research, and it +seems probable now that from the primitive Negroid stock evolved in Asia +the Semites either by local variation or intermingling with other stocks; +later there developed the Mediterranean race, with Negroid +characteristics, and the modern Negroes. The blue-eyed, light-haired +Germanic people may have arisen as a modern variation of the mixed peoples +produced by the mingling of Asiatic and African elements. The last word on +this development has not yet been said, and there is still much to learn +and explain; but it is certainly proved to-day beyond doubt that the +so-called Hamites of Africa, the brown and black curly and frizzly-haired +inhabitants of North and East Africa, are not "white" men if we draw the +line between white and black in any logical way. + +The primitive Negroid race of men developed in Asia wandered eastward as +well as westward. They entered on the one hand Burmah and the South Sea +Islands, and on the other hand they came through Mesopotamia and gave +curly hair and a Negroid type to Jew, Syrian, and Assyrian. Ancient +statues of Indian divinities show the Negro type with black face and +close-curled hair, and early Babylonian culture was Negroid. In Arabia the +Negroes may have divided, and one stream perhaps wandered into Europe by +way of Syria. Traces of these Negroes are manifest not only in skeletons, +but in the brunette type of all South Europe. The other branch proceeded +to Egypt and tropical Africa. Another, but perhaps less probable, theory +is that ancient Negroes may have entered Africa from Europe, since the +most ancient skulls of Algeria are Negroid. + +The primitive African was not an extreme type. One may judge from modern +pygmy and Bushmen that his color was reddish or yellow, and his skull was +sometimes round like the Mongolian. He entered Africa not less than fifty +thousand years ago and settled eventually in the broad region between Lake +Chad and the Great Lakes and remained there long stretches of years. + +After a lapse of perhaps thirty thousand years there entered Africa a +further migration of Asiatic people, Negroid in many characteristics, but +lighter and straighter haired than the primitive Negroes. From this +Mediterranean race was developed the modern inhabitants of the shores of +the Mediterranean in Europe, Asia, and Africa and, by mingling with the +primitive Negroes, the ancient Egyptians and modern Negroid races of +Africa. + +As we near historic times the migrations of men became more frequent from +Asia and from Europe, and in Africa came movements and minglings which +give to the whole of Africa a distinct mulatto character. The primitive +Negro stock was "mulatto" in the sense of being not widely differentiated +from the dark, original Australoid stock. As the earlier yellow Negro +developed in the African tropics to the bigger, blacker type, he was +continually mingling his blood with similar types developed in temperate +climes to sallower color and straighter hair. + +We find therefore, in Africa to-day, every degree of development in +Negroid stocks and every degree of intermingling of these developments, +both among African peoples and between Africans, Europeans, and Asiatics. +The mistake is continually made of considering these types as transitions +between absolute Caucasians and absolute Negroes. No such absolute type +ever existed on either side. Both were slowly differentiated from a common +ancestry and continually remingled their blood while the differentiating +was progressing. From prehistoric times down to to-day Africa is, in this +sense, primarily the land of the mulatto. So, too, was earlier Europe and +Asia; only in these countries the mulatto was early bleached by the +climate, while in Africa he was darkened. + +It is not easy to summarize the history of these dark African peoples, +because so little is known and so much is still in dispute. Yet, by +avoiding the real controversies and being unafraid of mere questions of +definition, we may trace a great human movement with considerable +definiteness. + +Three main Negro types early made their appearance: the lighter and +smaller primitive stock; the larger forest Negro in the center and on the +west coast, and the tall, black Nilotic Negro in the eastern Sudan. In the +earliest times we find the Negroes in the valley of the Nile, pressing +downward from the interior. Here they mingled with Semitic types, and +after a lapse of millenniums there arose from this mingling the culture of +Ethiopia and Egypt, probably the first of higher human cultures. + +To the west of the Nile the Negroes expanded straight across the continent +to the Atlantic. Centers of higher culture appeared very early along the +Gulf of Guinea and curling backward met Egyptian, Ethiopian, and even +European and Asiatic influences about Lake Chad. To the southeast, nearer +the primitive seats of the earliest African immigrants and open to +Egyptian and East Indian influences, the Negro culture which culminated at +Zymbabwe arose, and one may trace throughout South Africa its wide +ramifications. + +All these movements gradually aroused the central tribes to unrest. They +beat against the barriers north, northeast, and west, but gradually +settled into a great southeastward migration. Calling themselves proudly +La Bantu (The People), they grew by agglomeration into a warlike nation, +speaking one language. They eventually conquered all Africa south of the +Gulf of Guinea and spread their influence to the northward. + +While these great movements were slowly transforming Africa, she was also +receiving influences from beyond her shores and sending influences out. +With mulatto Egypt black Africa was always in closest touch, so much so +that to some all evidence of Negro uplift seem Egyptian in origin. The +truth is, rather, that Egypt was herself always palpably Negroid, and from +her vantage ground as almost the only African gateway received and +transmitted Negro ideals. + +Phoenician, Greek, and Roman came into touch more or less with black +Africa. Carthage, that North African city of a million men, had a large +caravan trade with Negroland in ivory, metals, cloth, precious stones, and +slaves. Black men served in the Carthaginian armies and marched with +Hannibal on Rome. In some of the North African kingdoms the infiltration +of Negro blood was very large and kings like Massinissa and Jugurtha were +Negroid. By way of the Atlantic the Carthaginians reached the African west +coast. Greek and Roman influences came through the desert, and the +Byzantine Empire and Persia came into communication with Negroland by way +of the valley of the Nile. The influence of these trade routes, added to +those of Egypt, Ethiopia, Benin, and Yoruba, stimulated centers of culture +in the central and western Sudan, and European and African trade early +reached large volume. + +Negro soldiers were used largely in the armies that enabled the +Mohammedans to conquer North Africa and Spain. Beginning in the tenth +century and slowly creeping across the desert into Negroland, the new +religion found an already existent culture and came, not a conqueror, but +as an adapter and inspirer. Civilization received new impetus and a wave +of Mohammedanism swept eastward, erecting the great kingdoms of Melle, the +Songhay, Bornu, and the Hausa states. The older Negro culture was not +overthrown, but, like a great wedge, pushed upward and inward from Yoruba, +and gave stubborn battle to the newer culture for seven or eight +centuries. + +Then it was, in the fifteenth century, that the heart disease of Africa +developed in its most virulent form. There is a modern theory that black +men are and always have been naturally slaves. Nothing is further from the +truth. In the ancient world Africa was no more a slave hunting ground than +Europe or Asia, and both Greece and Rome had much larger numbers of white +slaves than of black. It was natural that a stream of black slaves should +have poured into Egypt, because the chief line of Egyptian conquest and +defense lay toward the heart of Africa. Moreover, the Egyptians, +themselves of Negro descent, had not only Negro slaves but Negroes among +their highest nobility and even among their Pharaohs. Mohammedan +conquerors enslaved peoples of all colors in Europe, Asia, and Africa, but +eventually their empire centered in Asia and Africa and their slaves came +principally from these countries. Asia submitted to Islam except in the +Far East, which was self-protecting. Negro Africa submitted only +partially, and the remaining heathen were in small states which could not +effectively protect themselves against the Mohammedan slave trade. In this +wise the slave trade gradually began to center in Africa, for religious +and political rather than for racial reasons. + +The typical African culture was the culture of family, town, and small +tribe. Hence domestic slavery easily developed a slave trade through war +and commerce. Only the integrating force of state building could have +stopped this slave trade. Was this failure to develop the great state a +racial characteristic? This does not seem a fair conclusion. In four great +centers state building began in Africa. In Ethiopia several large states +were built up, but they tottered before the onslaughts of Egypt, Persia, +Rome, and Byzantium, on the one hand, and finally fell before the +turbulent Bantu warriors from the interior. The second attempt at empire +building began in the southeast, but the same Bantu hordes, pressing now +slowly, now fiercely, from the congested center of the continent, +gradually overthrew this state and erected on its ruins a series of +smaller and more transient kingdoms. + +The third attempt at state building arose on the Guinea coast in Benin and +Yoruba. It never got much beyond a federation of large industrial cities. +Its expansion toward the Congo valley was probably a prime cause of the +original Bantu movements to the southeast. Toward the north and northeast, +on the other hand, these city-states met the Sudanese armed with the new +imperial Mohammedan idea. Just as Latin Rome gave the imperial idea to the +Nordic races, so Islam brought this idea to the Sudan. + +In the consequent attempts at imperialism in the western Sudan there +arose the largest of the African empires. Two circumstances, however, +militated against this empire building: first, the fierce resistance of +the heathen south made war continuous and slaves one of the articles of +systematic commerce. Secondly, the highways of legitimate African commerce +had for millenniums lain to the north. These were suddenly closed by the +Moors in the sixteenth century, and the Negro empires were thrown into the +turmoil of internal war. + +It was then that the European slave traders came from the southwest. They +found partially disrupted Negro states on the west coast and falling +empires in the Sudan, together with the old unrest of over-population and +migration in the valley of the Congo. They not only offered a demand for +the usual slave trade, but they increased it to an enormous degree, until +their demand, added to the demand of the Mohammedan in Africa and Asia, +made human beings the highest priced article of commerce in Africa. Under +such circumstances there could be but one end: the virtual uprooting of +ancient African culture, leaving only misty reminders of the ruin in the +customs and work of the people. To complete this disaster came the +partition of the continent among European nations and the modern attempt +to exploit the country and the natives for the economic benefit of the +white world, together with the transplanting of black nations to the new +western world and their rise and self-assertion there. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] Ham is probably the Egyptian word "Khem" (black), the native name of +Egypt. In the original myth Canaan and not Ham was Noah's third son. + +The biblical story of the "curse of Canaan" (Genesis IX, 24-25) has been +the basis of an astonishing literature which has to-day only a +psychological interest. It is sufficient to remember that for several +centuries leaders of the Christian Church gravely defended Negro slavery +and oppression as the rightful curse of God upon the descendants of a son +who had been disrespectful to his drunken father! Cf. Bishop Hopkins: +_Bible Views of Slavery_, p. 7. + + + + +III ETHIOPIA AND EGYPT + + +Having viewed now the land and movements of African people in main +outline, let us scan more narrowly the history of five main centers of +activity and culture, namely: the valleys of the Nile and of the Congo, +the borders of the great Gulf of Guinea, the Sudan, and South Africa. +These divisions do not cover all of Negro Africa, but they take in the +main areas and the main lines in development. + +First, we turn to the valley of the Nile, perhaps the most ancient of +known seats of civilization in the world, and certainly the oldest in +Africa, with a culture reaching back six or eight thousand years. Like all +civilizations it drew largely from without and undoubtedly arose in the +valley of the Nile, because that valley was so easily made a center for +the meeting of men of all types and from all parts of the world. At the +same time Egyptian civilization seems to have been African in its +beginnings and in its main line of development, despite strong influences +from all parts of Asia. Of what race, then, were the Egyptians? They +certainly were not white in any sense of the modern use of that +word--neither in color nor physical measurement, in hair nor countenance, +in language nor social customs. They stood in relationship nearest the +Negro race in earliest times, and then gradually through the infiltration +of Mediterranean and Semitic elements became what would be described in +America as a light mulatto stock of Octoroons or Quadroons. This stock was +varied continually; now by new infiltration of Negro blood from the south, +now by Negroid and Semitic blood from the east, now by Berber types from +the north and west. + +Egyptian monuments show distinctly Negro and mulatto faces. Herodotus, in +an incontrovertible passage, alludes to the Egyptians as "black and +curly-haired"[4]--a peculiarly significant statement from one used to the +brunette Mediterranean type; in another passage, concerning the fable of +the Dodonian Oracle, he again alludes to the swarthy color of the +Egyptians as exceedingly dark and even black. AEschylus, mentioning a boat +seen from the shore, declares that its crew are Egyptians, because of +their black complexions. + +Modern measurements, with all their admitted limitations, show that in the +Thebaid from one-seventh to one-third of the Egyptian population were +Negroes, and that of the predynastic Egyptians less than half could be +classed as non-Negroid. Judging from measurements in the tombs of nobles +as late as the eighteenth dynasty, Negroes form at least one-sixth of the +higher class.[5] + +Such measurements are by no means conclusive, but they are apt to be +under rather than over statements of the prevalence of Negro blood. Head +measurements of Negro Americans would probably place most of them in the +category of whites. The evidence of language also connects Egypt with +Africa and the Negro race rather than with Asia, while religious +ceremonies and social customs all go to strengthen this evidence. + +The ethnic history of Northeast Africa would seem, therefore, to have been +this: predynastic Egypt was settled by Negroes from Ethiopia. They were of +varied type: the broad-nosed, woolly-haired type to which the word "Negro" +is sometimes confined; the black, curly-haired, sharper featured type, +which must be considered an equally Negroid variation. These Negroes met +and mingled with the invading Mediterranean race from North Africa and +Asia. Thus the blood of the sallower race spread south and that of the +darker race north. Black priests appear in Crete three thousand years +before Christ, and Arabia is to this day thoroughly permeated with Negro +blood. Perhaps, as Chamberlain says, "one of the prime reasons why no +civilization of the type of that of the Nile arose in other parts of the +continent, if such a thing were at all possible, was that Egypt acted as a +sort of channel by which the genius of Negro-land was drafted off into the +service of Mediterranean and Asiatic culture."[6] + +To one familiar with the striking and beautiful types arising from the +mingling of Negro with Latin and Germanic types in America, the puzzle of +the Egyptian type is easily solved. It was unlike any of its neighbors and +a unique type until one views the modern mulatto; then the faces of +Rahotep and Nefert, of Khafra and Amenemhat I, of Aahmes and Nefertari, +and even of the great Ramessu II, become curiously familiar. + +The history of Egypt is a science in itself. Before the reign of the first +recorded king, five thousand years or more before Christ, there had +already existed in Egypt a culture and art arising by long evolution from +the days of paleolithic man, among a distinctly Negroid people. About 4777 +B.C. Aha-Mena began the first of three successive Egyptian empires. This +lasted two thousand years, with many Pharaohs, like Khafra of the Fourth +Dynasty, of a strongly Negroid cast of countenance. + +At the end of the period the empire fell apart into Egyptian and Ethiopian +halves, and a silence of three centuries ensued. It is quite possible that +an incursion of conquering black men from the south poured over the land +in these years and dotted Egypt in the next centuries with monuments on +which the full-blooded Negro type is strongly and triumphantly impressed. +The great Sphinx at Gizeh, so familiar to all the world, the Sphinxes of +Tanis, the statue from the Fayum, the statue of the Esquiline at Rome, +and the Colossi of Bubastis all represent black, full-blooded Negroes and +are described by Petrie as "having high cheek bones, flat cheeks, both in +one plane, a massive nose, firm projecting lips, and thick hair, with an +austere and almost savage expression of power."[7] + +Blyden, the great modern black leader of West Africa, said of the Sphinx +at Gizeh: "Her features are decidedly of the African or Negro type, with +'expanded nostrils.' If, then, the Sphinx was placed here--looking out in +majestic and mysterious silence over the empty plain where once stood the +great city of Memphis in all its pride and glory, as an 'emblematic +representation of the king'--is not the inference clear as to the peculiar +type or race to which that king belonged?"[8] + +The middle empire arose 3064 B.C. and lasted nearly twenty-four centuries. +Under Pharaohs whose Negro descent is plainly evident, like Amenemhat I +and III and Usertesen I, the ancient glories of Egypt were restored and +surpassed. At the same time there is strong continuous pressure from the +wild and unruly Negro tribes of the upper Nile valley, and we get some +idea of the fear which they inspired throughout Egypt when we read of the +great national rejoicing which followed the triumph of Usertesen III (c. +2660-22) over these hordes. He drove them back and attempted to confine +them to the edge of the Nubian Desert above the Second Cataract. Hemmed in +here, they set up a state about this time and founded Nepata. + +Notwithstanding this repulse of black men, less than one hundred years +later a full-blooded Negro from the south, Ra Nehesi, was seated on the +throne of the Pharaohs and was called "The king's eldest son." This may +mean that an incursion from the far south had placed a black conqueror on +the throne. At any rate, the whole empire was in some way shaken, and two +hundred years later the invasion of the Hyksos began. The domination of +Hyksos kings who may have been Negroids from Asia[9] lasted for five +hundred years. + +The redemption of Egypt from these barbarians came from Upper Egypt, led +by the mulatto Aahmes. He founded in 1703 B.C. the new empire, which +lasted fifteen hundred years. His queen, Nefertari, "the most venerated +figure of Egyptian history,"[10] was a Negress of great beauty, strong +personality, and of unusual administrative force. She was for many years +joint ruler with her son, Amenhotep I, who succeeded his father.[11] + +The new empire was a period of foreign conquest and internal splendor and +finally of religious dispute and overthrow. Syria was conquered in these +reigns and Asiatic civilization and influences poured in upon Egypt. The +great Tahutmes III, whose reign was "one of the grandest and most eventful +in Egyptian history,"[12] had a strong Negroid countenance, as had also +Queen Hatshepsut, who sent the celebrated expedition to reopen ancient +trade with the Hottentots of Punt. A new strain of Negro blood came to the +royal line through Queen Mutemua about 1420 B.C., whose son, Amenhotep +III, built a great temple at Luqsor and the Colossi at Memnon. + +The whole of the period in a sense culminated in the great Ramessu II, the +oppressor of the Hebrews, who with his Egyptian, Libyan, and Negro armies +fought half the world. His reign, however, was the beginning of decline, +and foes began to press Egypt from the white north and the black south. +The priests transferred their power at Thebes, while the Assyrians under +Nimrod overran Lower Egypt. The center of interest is now transferred to +Ethiopia, and we pass to the more shadowy history of that land. + +The most perfect example of Egyptian poetry left to us is a celebration of +the prowess of Usertesen III in confining the turbulent Negro tribes to +the territory below the Second Cataract of the Nile. The Egyptians called +this territory Kush, and in the farthest confines of Kush lay Punt, the +cradle of their race. To the ancient Mediterranean world Ethiopia (i.e., +the Land of the Black-faced) was a region of gods and fairies. Zeus and +Poseidon feasted each year among the "blameless Ethiopians," and Black +Memnon, King of Ethiopia, was one of the greatest of heroes. + +"The Ethiopians conceive themselves," says Diodorus Siculus (Lib. III), +"to be of greater antiquity than any other nation; and it is probable +that, born under the sun's path, its warmth may have ripened them earlier +than other men. They suppose themselves also to be the inventors of divine +worship, of festivals, of solemn assemblies, of sacrifices, and every +religious practice. They affirm that the Egyptians are one of their +colonies." + +The Egyptians themselves, in later days, affirmed that they and their +civilization came from the south and from the black tribes of Punt, and +certainly "at the earliest period in which human remains have been +recovered Egypt and Lower Nubia appear to have formed culturally and +racially one land."[13] + +The forging ahead of Egypt in culture was mainly from economic causes. +Ethiopia, living in a much poorer land with limited agricultural +facilities, held to the old arts and customs, and at the same time lost +the best elements of its population to Egypt, absorbing meantime the +oncoming and wilder Negro tribes from the south and west. Under the old +empire, therefore, Ethiopia remained in comparative poverty, except as +some of its tribes invaded Egypt with their handicrafts. + +As soon as the civilization below the Second Cataract reached a height +noticeably above that of Ethiopia, there was continued effort to protect +that civilization against the incursion of barbarians. Hundreds of +campaigns through thousands of years repeatedly subdued or checked the +blacks and brought them in as captives to mingle their blood with the +Egyptian nation; but the Egyptian frontier was not advanced. + +A separate and independent Ethiopian culture finally began to arise during +the middle empire of Egypt and centered at Nepata and Meroe. Widespread +trade in gold, ivory, precious stones, skins, wood, and works of +handicraft arose.[14] The Negro began to figure as the great trader of +Egypt. + +This new wealth of Ethiopia excited the cupidity of the Pharaohs and led +to aggression and larger intercourse, until at last, when the dread Hyksos +appeared, Ethiopia became both a physical and cultural refuge for +conquered Egypt. The legitimate Pharaohs moved to Thebes, nearer the +boundaries of Ethiopia, and from here, under Negroid rulers, Lower Egypt +was redeemed. + +The ensuing new empire witnessed the gradual incorporation of Ethiopia +into Egypt, although the darker kingdom continued to resist. Both mulatto +Pharaohs, Aahmes and Amenhotep I, sent expeditions into Ethiopia, and in +the latter's day sons of the reigning Pharaoh began to assume the title of +"Royal Son of Kush" in some such way as the son of the King of England +becomes the Prince of Wales. + +Trade relations were renewed with Punt under circumstances which lead us +to place that land in the region of the African lakes. The Sudanese tribes +were aroused by these and other incursions, until the revolts became +formidable in the fourteenth century before Christ. + +Egyptian culture, however, gradually conquered Ethiopia where her armies +could not, and Egyptian religion and civil rule began to center in the +darker kingdom. When, therefore, Shesheng I, the Libyan, usurped the +throne of the Pharaohs in the tenth century B.C., the Egyptian legitimate +dynasty went to Nepata as king priests and established a theocratic +monarchy. Gathering strength, the Ethiopian kingdom under this dynasty +expanded north about 750 B.C. and for a century ruled all Egypt. + +The first king, Pankhy, was Egyptian bred and not noticeably Negroid, but +his successors showed more and more evidence of Negro blood--Kashta the +Kushite, Shabaka, Tarharqa, and Tanutamen. During the century of Ethiopian +rule a royal son was appointed to rule Egypt, just as formerly a royal +Egyptian had ruled Kush. In many ways this Ethiopian kingdom showed its +Negro peculiarities: first, in its worship of distinctly Sudanese gods; +secondly, in the rigid custom of female succession in the kingdom, and +thirdly, by the election of kings from the various royal claimants to the +throne. "It was the heyday of the Negro. For the greater part of the +century ... Egypt itself was subject to the blacks, just as in the new +empire the Sudan had been subject to Egypt."[15] + +Egypt now began to fall into the hands of Asia and was conquered first by +the Assyrians and then by the Persians, but the Ethiopian kings kept their +independence. Aspeluta, whose mother and sister are represented as +full-blooded Negroes, ruled from 630 to 600 B.C. Horsiatef (560-525 B.C.) +made nine expeditions against the warlike tribes south of Meroe, and his +successor, Nastosenen (525-500 B.C.) was the one who repelled Cambyses. He +also removed the capital from Nepata to Meroe, although Nepata continued +to be the religious capital and the Ethiopian kings were still crowned on +its golden throne. + +From the fifth to the second century B.C. we find the wild Sudanese tribes +pressing in from the west and Greek culture penetrating from the east. +King Arg-Amen (Ergamenes) showed strong Greek influences and at the same +time began to employ the Ethiopian speech in writing and used a new +Ethiopian alphabet. + +While the Ethiopian kings were still crowned at Nepata, Meroe gradually +became the real capital and supported at one time four thousand artisans +and two hundred thousand soldiers. It was here that the famous Candaces +reigned as queens. Pliny tells us that one Candace of the time of Nero had +had forty-four predecessors on the throne, while another Candace figures +in the New Testament.[16] + +It was probably this latter Candace who warred against Rome at the time of +Augustus and received unusual consideration from her formidable foe. The +prestige of Ethiopia at this time was considerable throughout the world. +Pseudo-Callisthenes tells an evidently fabulous story of the visit of +Alexander the Great to Candace, Queen of Meroe, which nevertheless +illustrates her fame: Candace will not let him enter Ethiopia and says he +is not to scorn her people because they are black, for they are whiter in +soul than his white folk. She sent him gold, maidens, parrots, sphinxes, +and a crown of emeralds and pearls. She ruled eighty tribes, who were +ready to punish those who attacked her. + +The Romans continued to have so much trouble with their Ethiopian frontier +that finally, when Semitic mulattoes appeared in the east, the Emperor +Diocletian invited the wild Sudanese tribe of Nubians (Nobadae) from the +west to repel them. These Nubians eventually embraced Christianity, and +northern Ethiopia came to be known in time as Nubia. + +The Semitic mulattoes from the east came from the highlands bordering the +Red Sea and Asia. On both sides of this sea Negro blood is strongly in +evidence, predominant in Africa and influential in Asia. Ludolphus, +writing in the seventeenth century, says that the Abyssinians "are +generally black, which [color] they most admire." Trade and war united the +two shores, and merchants have passed to and fro for thirty centuries. + +In this way Arabian, Jewish, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman influences spread +slowly upon the Negro foundation. Early legendary history declares that a +queen, Maqueda, or Nikaula of Sheba, a state of Central Abyssinia, visited +Solomon in 1050 B.C. and had her son Menelik educated in Jerusalem. This +was the supposed beginning of the Axumite kingdom, the capital of which, +Axume, was a flourishing center of trade. Ptolemy Evergetes and his +successors did much to open Abyssinia to the world, but most of the +population of that day was nomadic. In the fourth century Byzantine +influences began to be felt, and in 330 St. Athanasius of Alexandria +consecrated Fromentius as Bishop of Ethiopia. He tutored the heir to the +Abyssinian kingdom and began its gradual christianization. By the early +part of the sixth century Abyssinia was trading with India and Byzantium +and was so far recognized as a Christian country that the Emperor +Justinian appealed to King Kaleb to protect the Christians in southwestern +Arabia. Kaleb conquered Yemen in 525 and held it fifty years. + +Eventually a Jewish princess, Judith, usurped the Axumite throne; the +Abyssinians were expelled from Arabia, and a long period begins when as +Gibbon says, "encompassed by the enemies of their religion, the Ethiopians +slept for nearly a thousand years, forgetful of the world by whom they +were forgotten." Throughout the middle ages, however, the legend of a +great Christian kingdom hidden away in Africa persisted, and the search +for Prester John became one of the world quests. + +It was the expanding power of Abyssinia that led Rome to call in the +Nubians from the western desert. The Nubians had formed a strong league of +tribes, and as the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia declined they drove back +the Abyssinians, who had already established themselves at Meroe. + +In the sixth century the Nubians were converted to Christianity by a +Byzantine priest, and they immediately began to develop. A new capital, +Dongola, replaced Nepata and Meroe, and by the twelfth century churches +and brick dwellings had appeared. As the Mohammedan flood pressed up the +Nile valley it was the Nubians that held it back for two centuries. + +Farther south other wild tribes pushed out of the Sudan and began a +similar development. Chief among these were the Fung, who fixed their +capital at Senaar, at the junction of the White and Blue Nile. When the +Mohammedan flood finally passed over Nubia, the Fung diverted it by +declaring themselves Moslems. This left the Fung as the dominant power in +the fifteenth century from the Three Cataracts to Fazogli and from the Red +Sea at Suakin to the White Nile. Islam then swept on south in a great +circle, skirted the Great Lakes, and then curled back to Somaliland, +completely isolating Abyssinia. + +Between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries the Egyptian Sudan became a +congeries of Mohammedan kingdoms with Arab, mulatto, and Negro kings. Far +to the west, near Lake Chad, arose in 1520 the sultanate of Baghirmi, +which reached its highest power in the seventh century. This dynasty was +overthrown by the Negroid Mabas, who established Wadai to the eastward +about 1640. South of Wadai lay the heathen and cannibals of the Congo +valley, against which Islam never prevailed. East of Wadai and nearer the +Nile lay the kindred state of Darfur, a Nubian nation whose sultans +reigned over two hundred years and which reached great prosperity in the +early seventeenth century under Soliman Solon. + +Before the Mohammedan power reached Abyssinia the Portuguese pioneers had +entered the country from the east and begun to open the country again to +European knowledge. Without doubt, in the centuries of silence, a +civilization of some height had flourished in Abyssinia, but all authentic +records were destroyed by fire in the tenth century. When the Portuguese +came, the older Axumite kingdom had fallen and had been succeeded by a +number of petty states. + +The Sudanese kingdoms of the Sudan resisted the power of the Mameluke beys +in Egypt, and later the power of the Turks until the nineteenth century, +when the Sudan was made nominally a part of Egypt. Continuous upheaval, +war, and conquest had by this time done their work, and little of ancient +Ethiopian culture survived except the slave trade. + +The entrance of England into Egypt, after the building of the Suez Canal, +stirred up eventually revolt in the Sudan, for political, economic, and +religious reasons. Led by a Sudanese Negro, Mohammed Ahmad, who claimed to +be the Messiah (Mahdi), the Sudan arose in revolt in 1881, determined to +resist a hated religion, foreign rule, and interference with their chief +commerce, the trade in slaves. The Sudan was soon aflame, and the able +mulatto general, Osman Digna, aided by revolt among the heathen Dinka, +drove Egypt and England out of the Sudan for sixteen years. It was not +until 1898 that England reentered the Sudan and in petty revenge +desecrated the bones of the brave, even if misguided, prophet. + +Meantime this Mahdist revolt had delayed England's designs on Abyssinia, +and the Italians, replacing her, attempted a protectorate. Menelik of +Shoa, one of the smaller kingdoms of Abyssinia, was a shrewd man of +predominantly Negro blood, and had been induced to make a treaty with the +Italians after King John had been killed by the Mahdists. The exact terms +of the treaty were disputed, but undoubtedly the Italians tried by this +means to reduce Menelik to vassalage. Menelik stoutly resisted, and at the +great battle of Adua, one of the decisive battles of the modern world, the +Abyssinians on March 1, 1896, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Italians, +killing four thousand of them and capturing two thousand prisoners. The +empress, Taitou, a full-blooded Negress, led some of the charges. By this +battle Abyssinia became independent. + +Such in vague and general outline is the strange story of the valley of +the Nile--of Egypt, the motherland of human culture and + +"That starr'd Ethiop Queen that strove To set her beauty's praise above +The sea nymphs." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] [Greek: "autos de eikasa tede kai hote melanchroes eisi kai +oulotriches."] Liber II, Cap. 104. + +[5] Cf. Maciver and Thompson: _Ancient Races of the Thebaid_. + +[6] _Journal of Race Development_, I, 484. + +[7] Petrie: _History of Egypt_, I, 51, 237. + +[8] _From West Africa to Palestine_, p. 114. + +[9] Depending partly on whether the so-called Hyksos sphinxes belong to +the period of the Hyksos kings or to an earlier period (cf. Petrie, I, +52-53, 237). That Negroids largely dominated in the early history of +western Asia is proven by the monuments. + +[10] Petrie: _History of Egypt_, II, 337. + +[11] Chamberlain: _Journal of Race Development_, April, 1911. + +[12] Petrie: _History of Egypt_, II, 337. + +[13] Reisner: _Archeological Survey of Nubia_, I, 319. + +[14] Hoskins declares that the arch had its origin in Ethiopia. + +[15] Maciver and Wooley: _Areika_, p. 2. + +[16] Acts VIII, 27. + + + + +IV THE NIGER AND ISLAM + + +The Arabian expression "Bilad es Sudan" (Land of the Blacks) was applied +to the whole region south of the Sahara, from the Atlantic to the Nile. It +is a territory some thirty-five hundred miles by six hundred miles, +containing two million square miles, and has to-day a population of +perhaps eighty million. It is thus two-thirds the size of the United +States and quite as thickly settled. In the western Sudan the Niger plays +the same role as the Nile in the east. In this chapter we follow the +history of the Niger. + +The history of this part of Africa was probably something as follows: +primitive man, entering Africa from Arabia, found the Great Lakes, spread +in the Nile valley, and wandered westward to the Niger. Herodotus tells of +certain youths who penetrated the desert to the Niger and found there a +city of black dwarfs. Succeeding migrations of Negroes and Negroids pushed +the dwarfs gradually into the inhospitable forests and occupied the Sudan, +pushing on to the Atlantic. Here the newcomers, curling northward, met the +Mediterranean race coming down across the western desert, while to the +southward the Negro came to the Gulf of Guinea and the thick forests of +the Congo valley. Indigenous civilizations arose on the west coast in +Yoruba and Benin, and contact of these with the Mediterranean race in the +desert, and with Egyptian and Arab from the east, gave rise to centers of +Negro culture in the Sudan at Ghana and Melle and in Songhay, Nupe, the +Hausa states, and Bornu. + +The history of the Sudan thus leads us back again to Ethiopia, that +strange and ancient center of world civilization whose inhabitants in the +ancient world were considered to be the most pious and the oldest of men. +From this center the black originators of African culture, and to a large +degree of world culture, wandered not simply down the Nile, but also +westward. These Negroes developed the original substratum of culture which +later influences modified but never displaced. + +We know that Egyptian Pharaohs in several cases ventured into the western +Sudan and that Egyptian influences are distinctly traceable. Greek and +Byzantine culture and Phoenician and Carthaginian trade also penetrated, +while Islam finally made this whole land her own. Behind all these +influences, however, stood from the first an indigenous Negro culture. The +stone figures of Sherbro, the megaliths of Gambia, the art and industry of +the west coast are all too deep and original evidences of civilization to +be merely importations from abroad. + +Nor was the Sudan the inert recipient of foreign influence when it came. +According to credible legend, the "Great King" at Byzantium imported +glass, tin, silver, bronze, cut stones, and other treasure from the Sudan. +Embassies were sent and states like Nupe recognized the suzerainty of the +Byzantine emperor. The people of Nupe especially were filled with pride +when the Byzantine people learned certain kinds of work in bronze and +glass from them, and this intercourse was only interrupted by the +Mohammedan conquest. + +To this ancient culture, modified somewhat by Byzantine and Christian +influences, came Islam. It approached from the northwest, coming +stealthily and slowly and being handed on particularly by the Mandingo +Negroes. About 1000-1200 A.D. the situation was this: Ghana was on the +edge of the desert in the north, Mandingoland between the Niger and the +Senegal in the south and the western Sahara, Djolof was in the west on the +Senegal, and the Songhay on the Niger in the center. The Mohammedans came +chiefly as traders and found a trade already established. Here and there +in the great cities were districts set aside for these new merchants, and +the Mohammedans gave frequent evidence of their respect for these black +nations. + +Islam did not found new states, but modified and united Negro states +already ancient; it did not initiate new commerce, but developed a +widespread trade already established. It is, as Frobenius says, "easily +proved from chronicles written in Arabic that Islam was only effective in +fact as a fertilizer and stimulant. The essential point is the +resuscitative and invigorative concentration of Negro power in the service +of a new era and a Moslem propaganda, as well as the reaction thereby +produced."[17] + +Early in the eighth century Islam had conquered North Africa and converted +the Berbers. Aided by black soldiers, the Moslems crossed into Spain; in +the following century Berber and Arab armies crossed the west end of the +Sahara and came to Negroland. Later in the eleventh century Arabs +penetrated the Sudan and Central Africa from the east, filtering through +the Negro tribes of Darfur, Kanem, and neighboring regions. The Arabs were +too nearly akin to Negroes to draw an absolute color line. Antar, one of +the great pre-Islamic poets of Arabia, was the son of a black woman, and +one of the great poets at the court of Haroun al Raschid was black. In the +twelfth century a learned Negro poet resided at Seville, and Sidjilmessa, +the last town in Lower Morocco toward the desert, was founded in 757 by a +Negro who ruled over the Berber inhabitants. Indeed, many towns in the +Sudan and the desert were thus ruled, and felt no incongruity in this +arrangement. They say, to be sure, that the Moors destroyed Audhoghast +because it paid tribute to the black town of Ghana, but this was because +the town was heathen and not because it was black. On the other hand, +there is a story that a Berber king overthrew one of the cities of the +Sudan and all the black women committed suicide, being too proud to allow +themselves to fall into the hands of white men. + +In the west the Moslems first came into touch with the Negro kingdom of +Ghana. Here large quantities of gold were gathered in early days, and we +have names of seventy-four rulers before 300 A.D. running through +twenty-one generations. This would take us back approximately a thousand +years to 700 B.C., or about the time that Pharaoh Necho of Egypt sent out +the Phoenician expedition which circumnavigated Africa, and possibly +before the time when Hanno, the Carthaginian, explored the west coast of +Africa. + +By the middle of the eleventh century Ghana was the principal kingdom in +the western Sudan. Already the town had a native and a Mussulman quarter, +and was built of wood and stone with surrounding gardens. The king had an +army of two hundred thousand and the wealth of the country was great. A +century later the king had become Mohammedan in faith and had a palace +with sculptures and glass windows. The great reason for this development +was the desert trade. Gold, skins, ivory, kola nuts, gums, honey, wheat, +and cotton were exported, and the whole Mediterranean coast traded in the +Sudan. Other and lesser black kingdoms like Tekrou, Silla, and Masina +surrounded Ghana. + +In the early part of the thirteenth century the prestige of Ghana began to +fall before the rising Mandingan kingdom to the west. Melle, as it was +called, was founded in 1235 and formed an open door for Moslem and Moorish +traders. The new kingdom, helped by its expanding trade, began to grow, +and Islam slowly surrounded the older Negro culture west, north, and east. +However, a great mass of the older heathen culture, pushing itself upward +from the Guinea coast, stood firmly against Islam down to the nineteenth +century. + +Steadily Mohammedanism triumphed in the growing states which almost +encircled the protagonists of ancient Atlantic culture. Mandingan Melle +eventually supplanted Ghana in prestige and power, after Ghana had been +overthrown by the heathen Su Su from the south. + +The territory of Melle lay southeast of Ghana and some five hundred miles +north of the Gulf of Guinea. Its kings were known by the title of Mansa, +and from the middle of the thirteenth century to the middle of the +fourteenth the Mellestine, as its dominion was called, was the leading +power in the land of the blacks. Its greatest king, Mari Jalak (Mansa +Musa), made his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, with a caravan of sixty +thousand persons, including twelve thousand young slaves gowned in figured +cotton and Persian silk. He took eighty camel loads of gold dust (worth +about five million dollars) to defray his expenses, and greatly impressed +the people of the East with his magnificence. + +On his return he found that Timbuktu had been sacked by the Mossi, but he +rebuilt the town and filled the new mosque with learned blacks from the +University of Fez. Mansa Musa reigned twenty-five years and "was +distinguished by his ability and by the holiness of his life. The justice +of his administration was such that the memory of it still lives."[18] The +Mellestine preserved its preeminence until the beginning of the sixteenth +century, when the rod of Sudanese empire passed to Songhay, the largest +and most famous of the black empires. + +The known history of Songhay covers a thousand years and three dynasties +and centers in the great bend of the Niger. There were thirty kings of the +First Dynasty, reigning from 700 to 1335. During the reign of one of these +the Songhay kingdom became the vassal kingdom of Melle, then at the height +of its glory. In addition to this the Mossi crossed the valley, plundered +Timbuktu in 1339, and separated Jenne, the original seat of the Songhay, +from the main empire. The sixteenth king was converted to Mohammedanism in +1009, and after that all the Songhay princes were Mohammedans. Mansa Musa +took two young Songhay princes to the court of Melle to be educated in +1326. These boys when grown ran away and founded a new dynasty in Songhay, +that of the Sonnis, in 1355. Seventeen of these kings reigned, the last +and greatest being Sonni Ali, who ascended the throne in 1464. Melle was +at this time declining, other cities like Jenne, with its seven thousand +villages, were rising, and the Tuaregs (Berbers with Negro blood) had +captured Timbuktu. + +Sonni Ali was a soldier and began his career with the conquest of Timbuktu +in 1469. He also succeeded in capturing Jenne and attacked the Mossi and +other enemies on all sides. Finally he concentrated his forces for the +destruction of Melle and subdued nearly the whole empire on the west bend +of the Niger. In summing up Sonni Ali's military career the chronicle says +of him, "He surpassed all his predecessors in the numbers and valor of his +soldiery. His conquests were many and his renown extended from the rising +to the setting of the sun. If it is the will of God, he will be long +spoken of."[19] + +Sonni Ali was a Songhay Negro whose father was a Berber. He was succeeded +by a full-blooded black, Mohammed Abou Bekr, who had been his prime +minister. Mohammed was hailed as "Askia" (usurper) and is best known as +Mohammed Askia. He was strictly orthodox where Ali was rather a scoffer, +and an organizer where Ali was a warrior. On his pilgrimage to Mecca in +1495 there was nothing of the barbaric splendor of Mansa Musa, but a +brilliant group of scholars and holy men with a small escort of fifteen +hundred soldiers and nine hundred thousand dollars in gold. He stopped and +consulted with scholars and politicians and studied matters of taxation, +weights and measures, trade, religious tolerance, and manners. In Cairo, +where he was invested by the reigning caliph of Egypt, he may have heard +of the struggle of Europe for the trade of the Indies, and perhaps of the +parceling of the new world between Portugal and Spain. He returned to the +Sudan in 1497, instituted a standing army of slaves, undertook a holy war +against the indomitable Mossi, and finally marched against the Hausa. He +subdued these cities and even imposed the rule of black men on the Berber +town of Agades, a rich city of merchants and artificers with stately +mansions. In fine Askia, during his reign, conquered and consolidated an +empire two thousand miles long by one thousand wide at its greatest +diameters; a territory as large as all Europe. The territory was divided +into four vice royalties, and the system of Melle, with its +semi-independent native dynasties, was carried out. His empire extended +from the Atlantic to Lake Chad and from the salt mines of Tegazza and the +town of Augila in the north to the 10th degree of north latitude toward +the south. + +It was a six months' journey across the empire and, it is said, "he was +obeyed with as much docility on the farthest limits of the empire as he +was in his own palace, and there reigned everywhere great plenty and +absolute peace."[20] The University of Sankore became a center of learning +in correspondence with Egypt and North Africa and had a swarm of black +Sudanese students. Law, literature, grammar, geography and surgery were +studied. Askia the Great reigned thirty-six years, and his dynasty +continued on the throne until after the Moorish conquest in 1591. + +Meanwhile, to the eastward, two powerful states appeared. They never +disputed the military supremacy of Songhay, but their industrial +development was marvelous. The Hausa states were formed by seven original +cities, of which Kano was the oldest and Katsena the most famous. Their +greatest leaders, Mohammed Rimpa and Ahmadu Kesoke, arose in the fifteenth +and early sixteenth centuries. The land was subject to the Songhay, but +the cities became industrious centers of smelting, weaving, and dyeing. +Katsena especially, in the middle of the sixteenth century, is described +as a place thirteen or fourteen miles in circumference, divided into +quarters for strangers, for visitors from various other states, and for +the different trades and industries, as saddlers, shoemakers, dyers, etc. + +Beyond the Hausa states and bordering on Lake Chad was Bornu. The people +of Bornu had a large infiltration of Berber blood, but were predominantly +Negro. Berber mulattoes had been kings in early days, but they were soon +replaced by black men. Under the early kings, who can be traced back to +the third century, these people had ruled nearly all the territory between +the Nile and Lake Chad. The country was known as Kanem, and the pagan +dynasty of Dugu reigned there from the middle of the ninth to the end of +the eleventh century. Mohammedanism was introduced from Egypt at the end +of the eleventh century, and under the Mohammedan kings Kanem became one +of the first powers of the Sudan. By the end of the twelfth century the +armies of Kanem were very powerful and its rulers were known as "Kings of +Kanem and Lords of Bornu." In the thirteenth century the kings even dared +to invade the southern country down toward the valley of the Congo. + +Meantime great things were happening in the world beyond the desert, the +ocean, and the Nile. Arabian Mohammedanism had succumbed to the wild +fanaticism of the Seljukian Turks. These new conquerors were not only +firmly planted at the gates of Vienna, but had swept the shores of the +Mediterranean and sent all Europe scouring the seas for their lost trade +connections with the riches of India. Religious zeal, fear of conquest, +and commercial greed inflamed Europe against the Mohammedan and led to the +discovery of a new world, the riches of which poured first on Spain. +Oppression of the Moors followed, and in 1502 they were driven back into +Africa, despoiled and humbled. Here the Spaniards followed and harassed +them and here the Turks, fighting the Christians, captured the +Mediterranean ports and cut the Moors off permanently from Europe. In the +slow years that followed, huddled in Northwest Africa, they became a +decadent people and finally cast their eyes toward Negroland. + +The Moors in Morocco had come to look upon the Sudan as a gold mine, and +knew that the Sudan was especially dependent upon salt. In 1545 Morocco +claimed the principal salt mines at Tegazza, but the reigning Askia +refused to recognize the claim. + +When the Sultan Elmansour came to the throne of Morocco, he increased the +efficiency of his army by supplying it with fire arms and cannon. +Elmansour determined to attack the Sudan and sent four hundred men under +Pasha Djouder, who left Morocco in 1590. The Songhay, with their bows and +arrows, were helpless against powder and shot, and they were defeated at +Tenkadibou April 12, 1591. Askia Ishak, the king, offered terms, and +Djouder Pasha referred them to Morocco. The sultan, angry with his +general's delay, deposed him and sent another, who crushed and +treacherously murdered the king and set up a puppet. Thereafter there were +two Askias, one under the Moors at Timbuktu and one who maintained himself +in the Hausa states, which the Moors could not subdue. Anarchy reigned in +Songhay. The Moors tried to put down disorder with a high hand, drove out +and murdered the distinguished men of Timbuktu, and as a result let loose +a riot of robbery and decadence throughout the Sudan. Pasha now succeeded +pasha with revolt and misrule until in 1612 the soldiers elected their own +pasha and deliberately shut themselves up in the Sudan by cutting off +approach from the north. + +Hausaland and Bornu were still open to Turkish and Mohammedan influence +from the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the slave trade from the south, +but the face of the finest Negro civilization the modern world had ever +produced was veiled from Europe and given to the defilement of wild +Moorish soldiers. In 1623 it is written "excesses of every kind are now +committed unchecked by the soldiery," and "the country is profoundly +convulsed and oppressed."[21] The Tuaregs marched down from the desert and +deprived the Moors of many of the principal towns. The rest of the empire +of the Songhay was by the end of the eighteenth century divided among +separate Moorish chiefs, who bought supplies from the Negro peasantry and +were "at once the vainest, proudest, and perhaps the most bigoted, +ferocious, and intolerant of all the nations of the south."[22] They lived +a nomadic life, plundering the Negroes. To such depths did the mighty +Songhay fall. + +As the Songhay declined a new power arose in the nineteenth century, the +Fula. The Fula, who vary in race from Berber mulattoes to full-blooded +Negroes, may be the result of a westward migration of some people like the +"Leukoaethiopi" of Pliny, or they may have arisen from the migration of +Berber mulattoes in the western oases, driven south by Romans and Arabs. + +These wandering herdsmen lived on the Senegal River and the ocean in very +early times and were not heard of until the nineteenth century. By this +time they had changed to a Negro or dark mulatto people and lived +scattered in small communities between the Atlantic and Darfur. They were +without political union or national sentiment, but were all Mohammedans. +Then came a sudden change, and led by a religious fanatic, these despised +and persecuted people became masters of the central Sudan. They were the +ones who at last broke down that great wedge of resisting Atlantic +culture, after it had been undermined and disintegrated by the American +slave trade. + +Thus Islam finally triumphed in the Sudan and the ancient culture combined +with the new. In the Sudan to-day one may find evidences of the union of +two classes of people. The representatives of the older civilization dwell +as peasants in small communities, carrying on industries and speaking a +large number of different languages. With them or above them is the ruling +Mohammedan caste, speaking four main languages: Mandingo, Hausa, Fula, and +Arabic. These latter form the state builders. Negro blood predominates +among both classes, but naturally there is more Berber blood among the +Mohammedan invaders. + +Europe during the middle ages had some knowledge of these movements in the +Sudan and Africa. Melle and Songhay appear on medieval maps. In literature +we have many allusions: the mulatto king, Feirifis, was one of Wolfram von +Eschenbach's heroes; Prester John furnished endless lore; Othello, the +warrior, and the black king represented by medieval art as among the three +wise men, and the various black Virgin Marys' all show legendary knowledge +of what African civilization was at that time doing. + +It is a curious commentary on modern prejudice that most of this splendid +history of civilization and uplift is unknown to-day, and men confidently +assert that Negroes have no history. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] Frobenius: _Voice of Africa_, II, 359-360. + +[18] Ibn Khaldun, quoted in Lugard, p. 128. + +[19] Quoted in Lugard, p. 180. + +[20] Es-Sa 'di, quoted by Lugard, p. 199. + +[21] Lugard, p. 373. + +[22] Mungo Park, quoted in Lugard, p. 374. + + + + +V GUINEA AND CONGO + + +One of the great cities of the Sudan was Jenne. The chronicle says "that +its markets are held every day of the week and its populations are very +enormous. Its seven thousand villages are so near to one another that the +chief of Jenne has no need of messengers. If he wishes to send a note to +Lake Dibo, for instance, it is cried from the gate of the town and +repeated from village to village, by which means it reaches its +destination almost instantly."[23] + + + +From the name of this city we get the modern name Guinea, which is used +to-day to designate the country contiguous to the great gulf of that +name--a territory often referred to in general as West Africa. Here, +reaching from the mouth of the Gambia to the mouth of the Niger, is a +coast of six hundred miles, where a marvelous drama of world history has +been enacted. The coast and its hinterland comprehends many well-known +names. First comes ancient Guinea, then, modern Sierra Leone and Liberia; +then follow the various "coasts" of ancient traffic--the grain, ivory, +gold, and slave coasts--with the adjoining territories of Ashanti, +Dahomey, Lagos, and Benin, and farther back such tribal and territorial +names as those of the Mandingoes, Yorubas, the Mossi, Nupe, Borgu, and +others. + +Recent investigation makes it certain that an ancient civilization existed +on this coast which may have gone back as far as three thousand years +before Christ. Frobenius, perhaps fancifully, identified this African +coast with the Atlantis of the Greeks and as part of that great western +movement in human culture, "beyond the pillars of Hercules," which +thirteen centuries before Christ strove with Egypt and the East. It is, at +any rate, clear that ancient commerce reached down the west coast. The +Phoenicians, 600 B.C., and the Carthaginians, a century or more later, +record voyages, and these may have been attempted revivals of still more +ancient intercourse. + +These coasts at some unknown prehistoric period were peopled from the +Niger plateau toward the north and west by the black West African type of +Negro, while along the west end of the desert these Negroes mingled with +the Berbers, forming various Negroid races. + +Movement and migration is evident along this coast in ancient and modern +times. The Yoruba-Benin-Dahomey peoples were among the earliest arrivals, +with their remarkable art and industry, which places them in some lines of +technique abreast with the modern world. Behind them came the Mossi from +the north, and many other peoples in recent days have filtered through, +like the Limba and Temni of Sierra Leone and the Agni-Ashanti, who moved +from Borgu some two thousand years ago to the Gold and Ivory coasts. + +We have already noted in the main the history of black men along the +wonderful Niger and seen how, pushing up from the Gulf of Guinea, a +powerful wedge of ancient culture held back Islam for a thousand years, +now victorious, now stubbornly disputing every inch of retreat. The center +of this culture lay probably, in oldest times, above the Bight of Benin, +along the Slave Coast, and reached east, west, and north. We trace it +to-day not only in the remarkable tradition of the natives, but in stone +monuments, architecture, industrial and social organization, and works of +art in bronze, glass, and terra cotta. + +Benin art has been practiced without interruption for centuries, and Von +Luschan says that it is "of extraordinary significance that by the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a local and monumental art had been +learned in Benin which in many respects equaled European art and developed +a technique of the very highest accomplishment."[24] + +Summing up Yoruban civilization, Frobenius concluded that "the technical +summit of that civilization was reached in the terra-cotta industry, and +that the most important achievements in art were not expressed in stone, +but in fine clay baked in the furnace; that hollow casting was thoroughly +known, too, and practiced by these people; that iron was mainly used for +decoration; that, whatever their purpose, they kept their glass beads in +stoneware urns within their own locality, and that they manufactured both +earthen and glass ware; that the art of weaving was highly developed among +them; that the stone monuments, it is true, show some dexterity in +handling and are so far instructive, but in other respects evidence a +cultural condition insufficiently matured to grasp the utility of stone +monumental material; and, above all, that the then great and significant +idea of the universe as imaged in the Templum was current in those +days."[25] + +Effort has naturally been made to ascribe this civilization to white +people. First it was ascribed to Portuguese influence, but much of it is +evidently older than the Portuguese discovery. Egypt and India have been +evoked and Greece and Carthage. But all these explanations are +far-fetched. If ever a people exhibited unanswerable evidence of +indigenous civilization, it is the west-coast Africans. Undoubtedly they +adapted much that came to them, utilized new ideas, and grew from contact. +But their art and culture is Negro through and through. + +Yoruba forms one of the three city groups of West Africa; another is +around Timbuktu, and a third in the Hausa states. The Timbuktu cities have +from five to fifteen hundred towns, while the Yoruba cities have one +hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants and more. The Hausa cities are many +of them important, but few are as large as the Yoruba cities and they lie +farther apart. AH three centers, however, are connected with the Niger, +and the group nearest the coast--that is, the Yoruba cities--has the +greatest numbers of towns, the most developed architectural styles, and +the oldest institutions. + +The Yoruba cities are not only different from the Sudanese in population, +but in their social relations. The Sudanese cities were influenced from +the desert and the Mediterranean, and form nuclei of larger surrounding +monarchial states. The Yoruba cities, on the other hand, remained +comparatively autonomous organizations down to modern times, and their +relative importance changed from time to time without developing an +imperialistic idea or subordinating the group to one overpowering city. + +This social and industrial state of the Yorubas formerly spread and +wielded great influence. We find Yoruba reaching out and subduing states +like Nupe toward the northward. But the industrial democracy and city +autonomy of Yoruba lent itself indifferently to conquest, and the state +fell eventually a victim to the fanatical Fula Mohammedans and was made a +part of the modern sultanate of Gando. + +West of Yoruba on the lower courses of the Niger is Benin, an ancient +state which in 1897 traced its twenty-three kings back one thousand years; +some legends even named a line of sixty kings. It seems probable that +Benin developed the imperial idea and once extended its rule into the +Congo valley. Later and also to the west of the Yoruba come two states +showing a fiercer and ruder culture, Dahomey and Ashanti. The state of +Dahomey was founded by Tacondomi early in the seventeenth century, and +developed into a fierce and bloody tyranny with wholesale murder. The king +had a body of two thousand to five thousand Amazons renowned for their +bravery and armed with rifles. The kingdom was overthrown by the French in +1892-93. Under Sai Tutu, Ashanti arose to power in the seventeenth +century. A military aristocracy with cruel blood sacrifices was formed. By +1816 the king had at his disposal two hundred thousand soldiers. The +Ashanti power was crushed by the English in the war of 1873-74. + +In these states and in later years in Benin the whole character of +west-coast culture seems to change. In place of the Yoruban culture, with +its city democracy, its elevated religious ideas, its finely organized +industry, and its noble art, came Ashanti and Dahomey. What was it that +changed the character of the west coast from this to the orgies of war and +blood sacrifice which we read of later in these lands? + +There can be but one answer: the slave trade. Not simply the sale of men, +but an organized traffic of such proportions and widely organized +ramifications as to turn the attention and energies of men from nearly all +other industries, encourage war and all the cruelest passions of war, and +concentrate this traffic in precisely that part of Africa farthest from +the ancient Mediterranean lines of trade. + +We need not assume that the cultural change was sudden or absolute. +Ancient Yoruba had the cruelty of a semi-civilized land, but it was not +dominant or tyrannical. Modern Benin and Dahomey showed traces of skill, +culture, and industry along with inexplicable cruelty and +bloodthirstiness. But it was the slave trade that turned the balance and +set these lands backward. Dahomey was the last word in a series of human +disasters which began with the defeat of the Askias at Tenkadibou.[26] + +From the middle of the fifteenth to the last half of the nineteenth +centuries the American slave trade centered in Guinea and devastated the +coast morally, socially, and physically. European rum and fire arms were +traded for human beings, and it was not until 1787 that any measures were +taken to counteract this terrible scourge. In that year the idea arose of +repatriating stolen Negroes on that coast and establishing civilized +centers to supplant the slave trade. About four hundred Negroes from +England were sent to Sierra Leone, to whom the promoters considerately +added sixty white prostitutes as wives. The climate on the low coast, +however, was so deadly that new recruits were soon needed. An American +Negro, Thomas Peters, who had served as sergeant under Sir Henry Clinton +in the British army in America, went to England seeking an allotment of +land for his fellows. The Sierra Leone Company welcomed him and offered +free passage and land in Sierra Leone to the Negroes of Nova Scotia. As a +result fifteen vessels sailed with eleven hundred and ninety Negroes in +1792. Arriving in Africa, they found the chief white man in control there +so drunk that he soon died of delirium tremens. John Clarkson, however, +brother of Thomas Clarkson, the abolitionist, eventually took the lead, +founded Freetown, and the colony began its checkered career. In 1896 the +colony was saved from insurrection by the exiled Maroon Negroes from +Jamaica. After 1833, when emancipation in English colonies took place, +severer measures against the slave trade was possible and the colony began +to grow. To-day its imports and exports amount to fifteen million dollars +a year. + +Liberia was a similar American experiment. In 1816 American +philanthropists decided that slavery was bound to die out, but that the +problem lay in getting rid of the freed Negroes, of which there were then +two hundred thousand in the United States. Accordingly the American +Colonization Society was proposed this year and founded January 1, 1817, +with Bushrod Washington as President. It was first thought to encourage +migration to Sierra Leone, and eighty-eight Negroes were sent, but they +were not welcomed. As a result territory was bought in the present +confines of Liberia, December 15, 1821, and colonists began to arrive. A +little later an African depot for recaptured slaves taken in the +contraband slave trade, provided for in the Act of 1819, was established +and an agent was sent to Africa to form a settlement. Gradually this +settlement was merged with the settlement of the Colonization Society, and +from this union Liberia was finally evolved. + +The last white governor of Liberia died in 1841 and was succeeded by the +first colored governor, Joseph J. Roberts, a Virginian. The total +population in 1843 was about twenty-seven hundred and ninety, and with +this as a beginning in 1847 Governor Roberts declared the independence of +the state. The recognition of Liberian independence by all countries +except the United States followed in 1849. The United States, not wishing +to receive a Negro minister, did not recognize Liberia until 1862. + +No sooner was the independence of Liberia announced than England and +France began a long series of aggressions to limit her territory and +sovereignty. Considerable territory was lost by treaty, and in the effort +to get capital to develop the rest, Liberia was saddled with a debt of +four hundred thousand dollars, of which she received less than one hundred +thousand dollars in actual cash. Finally the Liberians turned to the +United States for capital and protection. As a result the Liberian customs +have been put under international control and Major Charles Young, the +ranking Negro officer in the United States army, with several colored +assistants, has been put in charge of the making of roads and drilling a +constabulary to keep order in the interior. + +To-day Liberia has an area of forty thousand square miles, about three +hundred and fifty miles of coast line, and an estimated total population +of two million of which fifty thousand are civilized. The revenue amounted +in 1913 to $531,500. The imports in 1912 were $1,667,857 and the exports +$1,199,152. The latter consisted chiefly of rubber, palm oil and kernels, +coffee, piassava fiber, ivory, ginger, camwood, and arnotto. + +Perhaps Liberia's greatest citizen was the late Edward Wilmot Blyden, who +migrated in early life from the Danish West Indies and became a prophet of +the renaissance of the Negro race. + +Turning now from Guinea we pass down the west coast. In 1482 Diego Cam of +Portugal, sailing this coast, set a stone at the mouth of a great river +which he called "The Mighty," but which eventually came to be known by the +name of the powerful Negro kingdom through which it flowed--the Congo. + +We must think of the valley of the Congo with its intricate interlacing of +water routes and jungle of forests as a vast caldron shut away at first +from the African world by known and unknown physical hindrances. Then it +was penetrated by the tiny red dwarfs and afterward horde after horde of +tall black men swirled into the valley like a maelstrom, moving usually +from north to east and from south to west. + +The Congo valley became, therefore, the center of the making of what we +know to-day as the Bantu nations. They are not a unified people, but a +congeries of tribes of considerable physical diversity, united by the +compelling bond of language and other customs imposed on the conquered by +invading conquerors. + +The history or these invasions we must to-day largely imagine. Between two +and three thousand years ago the wilder tribes of Negroes began to move +out of the region south or southeast of Lake Chad. This was always a land +of shadows and legends, where fearful cannibals dwelt and where no +Egyptian or Ethiopian or Sudanese armies dared to go. It is possible, +however, that pressure from civilization in the Nile valley and rising +culture around Lake Chad was at this time reenforced by expansion of the +Yoruba-Benin culture on the west coast. Perhaps, too, developing culture +around the Great Lakes in the east beckoned or the riotous fertility of +the Congo valleys became known. At any rate the movement commenced, now by +slow stages, now in wild forays. There may have been a preliminary +movement from east to west to the Gulf of Guinea. The main movement, +however, was eastward, skirting the Congo forests and passing down by the +Victoria Nyanza and Lake Tanganyika. Here two paths beckoned: the lakes +and the sea to the east, the Congo to the west. A great stream of men +swept toward the ocean and, dividing, turned northward and fought its way +down the Nile valley and into the Abyssinian highlands; another branch +turned south and approached the Zambesi, where we shall meet it again. + +Another horde of invaders turned westward and entered the valley of the +Congo in three columns. The northern column moved along the Lualaba and +Congo rivers to the Cameroons; the second column became the industrial and +state-building Luba and Lunda peoples in the southern Congo valley and +Angola; while the third column moved into Damaraland and mingled with +Bushman and Hottentot. + +In the Congo valley the invaders settled in village and plain, absorbed +such indigenous inhabitants as they found or drove them deeper into the +forest, and immediately began to develop industry and political +organization. They became skilled agriculturists, raising in some +localities a profusion of cereals, fruit, and vegetables such as manioc, +maize, yams, sweet potatoes, ground nuts, sorghum, gourds, beans, peas, +bananas, and plantains. Everywhere they showed skill in mining and the +welding of iron, copper, and other metals. They made weapons, wire and +ingots, cloth, and pottery, and a widespread system of trade arose. Some +tribes extracted rubber from the talamba root; others had remarkable +breeds of fowl and cattle, and still others divided their people by crafts +into farmers, smiths, boat builders, warriors, cabinet makers, armorers, +and speakers. Women here and there took part in public assemblies and were +rulers in some cases. Large towns were built, some of which required hours +to traverse from end to end. + +Many tribes developed intelligence of a high order. Wissmann called the Ba +Luba "a nation of thinkers." Bateman found them "thoroughly and +unimpeachably honest, brave to foolhardiness, and faithful to each other +and to their superiors." One of their kings, Calemba, "a really princely +prince," Bateman says would "amongst any people be a remarkable and indeed +in many respects a magnificent man."[27] + +These beginnings of human culture were, however, peculiarly vulnerable to +invading hosts of later comers. There were no natural protecting barriers +like the narrow Nile valley or the Kong mountains or the forests below +Lake Chad. Once the pathways to the valley were open and for hundreds of +years the newcomers kept arriving, especially from the welter of tribes +south of the Sudan and west of the Nile, which rising culture beyond kept +in unrest and turmoil. + +Against these intruders there was but one defense, the State. State +building was thus forced on the Congo valley. How early it started we +cannot say, but when the Portuguese arrived in the fifteenth century, +there had existed for centuries a large state among the Ba-Congo, with its +capital at the city now known as San Salvador. + +The Negro Mfumu, or emperor, was eventually induced to accept +Christianity. His sons and many young Negroes of high birth were taken to +Portugal to be educated. There several were raised to the Catholic +priesthood and one became bishop; others distinguished themselves at the +universities. Thus suddenly there arose a Catholic kingdom south of the +valley of the Congo, which lasted three centuries, but was partially +overthrown by invading barbarians from the interior in the seventeenth +century. A king of Congo still reigns as pensioner of Portugal, and on the +coast to-day are the remains of the kingdom in the civilized blacks and +mulattoes, who are intelligent traders and boat builders. + +Meantime the Luba-Lunda people to the eastward founded Kantanga and other +states, and in the sixteenth century the larger and more ambitious realm +of the Mwata Yamvo. The last of the fourteen rulers of this line was +feudal lord of about three hundred chiefs, who paid him tribute in ivory, +skins, corn, cloth, and salt. His territory included about one hundred +thousand square miles and two million or more inhabitants. Eventually this +state became torn by internal strife and revolt, especially by attacks +from the south across the Congo-Zambesi divide. + +Farther north, among the Ba-Lolo and the Ba-Songo, the village policy +persisted and the cannibals of the northeast pressed down on the more +settled tribes. The result was a curious blending of war and industry, +artistic tastes and savage customs. + +The organized slave trade of the Arabs penetrated the Congo valley in the +sixteenth century and soon was aiding all the forces of unrest and +turmoil. Industry was deranged and many tribes forced to take refuge in +caves and other hiding places. + +Here, as on the west coast, disintegration and retrogression followed, for +as the American traffic lessened, the Arabian traffic increased. When, +therefore, Stanley opened the Congo valley to modern knowledge, Leopold II +of Belgium conceived the idea of founding here a free international state +which was to bring civilization to the heart of Africa. Consequently there +was formed in 1878 an international committee to study the region. Stanley +was finally commissioned to inquire as to the best way of introducing +European trade and culture. "I am charged," he said, "to open and keep +open, if possible, all such districts and countries as I may explore, for +the benefit of the commercial world. The mission is supported by a +philanthropic society, which numbers nobleminded men of several nations. +It is not a religious society, but my instructions are entirely of that +spirit. No violence must be used, and wherever rejected, the mission must +withdraw to seek another field."[28] + +The Bula Matadi or Stone Breaker, as the natives called Stanley, threw +himself energetically into the work and had by 1881 built a road past the +falls to the plateau, where thousands of miles of river navigation were +thus opened. Stations were established, and by 1884 Stanley returned armed +with four hundred and fifty "treaties" with the native chiefs, and the new +"State" appealed to the world for recognition. + +The United States first recognized the "Congo Free State," which was at +last made a sovereign power under international guarantees by the Congress +of Berlin in the year 1885, and Leopold II was chosen its king. The state +had an area of about nine hundred thousand square miles, with a population +of about thirty million. + +One of the first tasks before the new state was to check the Arab slave +traders. The Arabs had hitherto acted as traders and middlemen along the +upper Congo, and when the English and Congo state overthrew Mzidi, the +reigning king in the Kantanga country, a general revolt of the Arabs and +mulattoes took place. For a time, 1892-93, the whites were driven out, but +in a year or two the Arabs and their allies were subdued. + +Humanity and commerce, however, did not replace the Arab slave traders. +Rather European greed and serfdom were substituted. The land was +confiscated by the state and farmed out to private Belgian corporations. +The wilder cannibal tribes were formed into a militia to prey on the +industrious, who were taxed with specific amounts of ivory and rubber, and +scourged and mutilated if they failed to pay. Harris declares that King +Leopold's regime meant the death of twelve million natives. + +"Europe was staggered at the Leopoldian atrocities, and they were terrible +indeed; but what we, who were behind the scenes, felt most keenly was the +fact that the real catastrophe in the Congo was the desolation and murder +in the larger sense. The invasion of family life, the ruthless destruction +of every social barrier, the shattering of every tribal law, the +introduction of criminal practices which struck the chiefs of the people +dumb with horror--in a word, a veritable avalanche of filth and immorality +overwhelmed the Congo tribes."[29] + +So notorious did the exploitation and misrule become that Leopold was +forced to take measures toward reform, and finally in 1909 the Free State +became a Belgian colony. Some reforms have been inaugurated and others may +follow, but the valley of the Congo will long stand as a monument of shame +to Christianity and European civilization. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] Quoted in Du Bois: _Timbuktu_. + +[24] Von Luschan: _Verhandlungen der berliner Gesellschaft fuer +Anthropologie_, etc., 1898. + +[25] Frobenius: _Voice of Africa_, Vol. I. + +[26] Cf. p. 58. + +[27] Keane: _Africa_, II, 117-118. + +[28] _The Congo_, I, Chap. III. + +[29] Harris: _Dawn in Africa_. + + + + +VI THE GREAT LAKES AND ZYMBABWE + + +We have already seen how a branch of the conquering Bantus turned eastward +by the Great Lakes and thus reached the sea and eventually both the Nile +and South Africa. + +This brought them into the ancient and mysterious land far up the Nile, +south of Ethiopia. Here lay the ancient Punt of the Egyptians (whether we +place it in Somaliland or, as seems far more likely, around the Great +Lakes) and here, as the Egyptians thought, their civilization began. The +earliest inhabitants of the land were apparently of the Bushman or +Hottentot type of Negro. These were gradually pushed southward and +westward by the intrusion of the Nilotic Negroes. Five thousand years +before Christ the mulatto Egyptians were in the Nile valley below the +First Cataract. The Negroes were in the Nile valley down as far as the +Second Cataract and between the First and Second Cataracts were Negroes +into whose veins Semitic blood had penetrated more or less. These mixed +elements became the ancestors of the modern Somali, Gala, Bishari, and +Beja and spread Negro blood into Arabia beyond the Red Sea. The Nilotic +Negroes to the south early became great traders in ivory, gold, leopard +skins, gums, beasts, birds, and slaves, and they opened up systematic +trade between Egypt and the Great Lakes. + +The result was endless movement and migration both in ancient and modern +days, which makes the cultural history of the Great Lakes region very +difficult to understand. Three great elements are, however, clear: first, +the Egyptian element, by the northward migration of the Negro ancestors of +predynastic Egypt and the southern conquests and trade of dynastic Egypt; +second, the Semitic influence from Arabia and Persia; third, the Negro +influences from western and central Africa. + +The migration of the Bantu is the first clearly defined movement of modern +times. As we have shown, they began to move southward at least a thousand +years before Christ, skirting the Congo forests and wandering along the +Great Lakes and down to the Zambesi. What did they find in this land? + +We do not know certainly, but from what we do know we may reconstruct the +situation in this way: the primitive culture of the Hottentots of Punt had +been further developed by them and by other stronger Negro stocks until it +reached a highly developed culture. Widespread agriculture, and mining of +gold, silver, and precious stones started a trade that penetrated to Asia +and North Africa. This may have been the source of the gold of the Ophir. + +The state that thus arose became in time strongly organized; it employed +slave labor in crushing the hard quartz, sinking pits, and carrying +underground galleries; it carried out a system of irrigation and built +stone buildings and fortifications. There exists to-day many remains of +these building operations in the Kalahari desert and in northern Rhodesia. +Five hundred groups, covering over an area of one hundred and fifty +thousand square miles, lie between the Limpopo and Zambesi rivers. Mining +operations have been carried on in these plains for generations, and one +estimate is that at least three hundred and seventy-five million dollars' +worth of gold had been extracted. Some have thought that the older +workings must date back to one or even three thousand years before the +Christian era. + +"There are other mines," writes De Barros in the seventeenth century,[30] +"in a district called Toroa, which is otherwise known as the kingdom of +Butua, whose ruler is a prince, by name Burrow, a vassal of Benomotapa. +This land is near the other which we said consisted of extensive plains, +and those ruins are the oldest that are known in that region. They are all +in a plain, in the middle of which stands a square fortress, all of +dressed stones within and without, well wrought and of marvelous size, +without any lime showing the joinings, the walls of which are over +twenty-five hands thick, but the height is not so great compared to the +thickness. And above the gateway of that edifice is an inscription which +some Moorish [Arab] traders who were there could not read, nor say what +writing it was. All these structures the people of this country call +Symbaoe [Zymbabwe], which with them means a court, for every place where +Benomotapa stays is so called." + +Later investigation has shown that these buildings were in many cases +carefully planned and built fortifications. At Niekerk, for instance, nine +or ten hills are fortified on concentric walls thirty to fifty feet in +number, with a place for the village at the top. The buildings are forts, +miniature citadels, and also workshops and cattle kraals. Iron implements +and handsome pottery were found here, and close to the Zambesi there are +extraordinary fortifications. Farther south at Inyanga there is less +strong defense, and at Umtali there are no fortifications, showing that +builders feared invasion from the north. + +These people worked in gold, silver, tin, copper, and bronze and made +beautiful pottery. There is evidence of religious significance in the +buildings, and what is called the temple was the royal residence and +served as a sort of acropolis. The surrounding residences in the valley +were evidently occupied by wealthy traders and were not fortified. Here +the gold was received from surrounding districts and bartered with +traders. + +As usual there have been repeated attempts to find an external and +especially an Asiatic origin for this culture. So far, however, +archeological research seems to confirm its African origin. The +implements, weapons, and art are characteristically African and there is +no evident connection with outside sources. How far back this civilization +dates it is difficult to say, a great deal depending upon the dating of +the iron age in South Africa. If it was the same as in the Mediterranean +regions, the earliest limit was 1000 B.C.; it might, however, have been +much earlier, especially if, as seems probable, the use of iron originated +in Africa. On the other hand the culmination of this culture has been +placed by some as late as the modern middle ages. + +What was it that overthrew this civilization? Undoubtedly the same sort of +raids of barbarous warriors that we have known in our day. For instance, +in 1570 there came upon the country of Mozambique, farther up the coast, +"such an inundation of pagans that they could not be numbered. They came +from that part of Monomotapa where is the great lake from which spring +these great rivers. They left no other signs of the towns they passed but +the heaps of ruins and the bones of inhabitants." So, too, it is told how +the Zimbas came, "a strange people never before seen there, who, leaving +their own country, traversed a great part of this Ethiopia like a scourge +of God, destroying every living thing they came across. They were twenty +thousand strong and marched without children or women," just as four +hundred years later the Zulu impi marched. Again in 1602 a horde of people +came from the interior called the Cabires, or cannibals. They entered the +kingdom of Monomotapa, and the reigning king, being weak, was in great +terror. Thus gradually the Monomotapa fell, and its power was scattered +until the Kaffir-Zulu raids of our day.[31] + +The Arab writer, Macoudi, in the tenth century visited the East African +coast somewhere north of the equator. He found the Indian Sea at that time +frequented by Arab and Persian vessels, but there were no Asiatic +settlements on the African shore. The Bantu, or as he calls them, Zenji, +inhabited the country as far south as Sofala, where they bordered upon the +Bushmen. These Bantus were under a ruler with the dynastic title of +Waklimi. He was paramount over all the other tribes of the north and could +put three hundred thousand men in the field. They used oxen as beasts of +burden and the country produced gold in abundance, while panther skin was +largely used for clothing. Ivory was sold to Asia and the Bantu used iron +for personal adornment instead of gold or silver. They rode on their oxen, +which ran with great speed, and they ate millet and honey and the flesh of +animals. + +Inland among the Bantu arose later the line of rulers called the +Monomotapa among the gifted Makalanga. Their state was very extensive, +ranging from the coast far into the interior and from Mozambique down to +the Limpopo. It was strongly organized, with feudatory allied states, and +carried on an extensive commerce by means of the traders on the coast. The +kings were converted to nominal Christianity by the Portuguese. + +There are indications of trade between Nupe in West Africa and Sofala on +the east coast, and certainly trade between Asia and East Africa is +earlier than the beginning of the Christian era. The Asiatic traders +settled on the coast and by means of mulatto and Negro merchants brought +Central Africa into contact with Arabia, India, China, and Malaysia. + +The coming of the Asiatics was in this wise: Zaide, great-grandson of Ali, +nephew and son-in-law of Mohammed, was banished from Arabia as a heretic. +He passed over to Africa and formed temporary settlements. His people +mingled with the blacks, and the resulting mulatto traders, known as the +Emoxaidi, seem to have wandered as far south as the equator. Soon other +Arabian families came over on account of oppression and founded the towns +of Magadosho and Brava, both not far north of the equator. The first town +became a place of importance and other settlements were made. The +Emoxaidi, whom the later immigrants regarded as heretics, were driven +inland and became the interpreting traders between the coast and the +Bantu. Some wanderers from Magadosho came into the Port of Sofala and +there learned that gold could be obtained. This led to a small Arab +settlement at that place. + +Seventy years later, and about fifty years before the Norman conquest of +England, certain Persians settled at Kilwa in East Africa, led by Ali, who +had been despised in his land because he was the son of a black Abyssinian +slave mother. Kilwa, because of this, eventually became the most important +commercial station on the East African coast, and in this and all these +settlements a very large mulatto population grew up, so that very soon the +whole settlement was indistinguishable in color from the Bantu. + +In 1330 Ibn Batuta visited Kilwa. He found an abundance of ivory and some +gold and heard that the inhabitants of Kilwa had gained victories over the +Zenji or Bantu. Kilwa had at that time three hundred mosques and was +"built of handsome houses of stone and lime, and very lofty, with their +windows like those of the Christians; in the same way it has streets, and +these houses have got terraces, and the wood-work is with the masonry, +with plenty of gardens, in which there are many fruit trees and much +water."[32] Kilwa after a time captured Sofala, seizing it from Magadosho. +Eventually Kilwa became mistress of the island of Zanzibar, of Mozambique, +and of much other territory. The forty-third ruler of Kilwa after Ali was +named Abraham, and he was ruling when the Portuguese arrived. The latter +reported that these people cultivated rice and cocoa, built ships, and had +considerable commerce with Asia. All the people, of whatever color, were +Mohammedans, and the richer were clothed in gorgeous robes of silk and +velvet. They traded with the inland Bantus and met numerous tribes, +receiving gold, ivory, millet, rice, cattle, poultry, and honey. + +On the islands the Asiatics were independent, but on the main lands south +of Kilwa the sheiks ruled only their own people, under the overlordship of +the Bantus, to whom they were compelled to pay large tribute each year. + +Vasco da Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope in 1497 and went north on the +east coast as far as India. In the next ten years the Portuguese had +occupied more than six different points on that coast, including +Sofala.[33] + +Thus civilization waxed and waned in East Africa among prehistoric +Negroes, Arab and Persian mulattoes on the coast, in the Zend or Zeng +empire of Bantu Negroes, and later in the Bantu rule of the Monomotapa. +And thus, too, among later throngs of the fiercer, warlike Bantu, the +ancient culture of the land largely died. Yet something survived, and in +the modern Bantu state, language, and industry can be found clear links +that establish the essential identity of the absorbed peoples with the +builders of Zymbabwe. + +So far we have traced the history of the lands into which the southward +stream of invading Bantus turned, and have followed them to the Limpopo +River. We turn now to the lands north from Lake Nyassa. + +The aboriginal Negroes sustained in prehistoric time invasions from the +northeast by Negroids of a type like the ancient Egyptians and like the +modern Gallas, Masai, and Somalis. To these migrations were added attacks +from the Nile Negroes to the north and the Bantu invaders from the south. +This has led to great differences among the groups of the population and +in their customs. Some are fierce mountaineers, occupying hilly plateaus +six thousand feet above the sea level; others, like the Wa Swahili, are +traders on the coast. There are the Masai, chocolate-colored and +frizzly-haired, organized for war and cattle lifting; and Negroids like +the Gallas, who, blending with the Bantus, have produced the race of +modern Uganda. + +It was in this region that the kingdom of Kitwara was founded by the Galla +chief, Kintu. About the beginning of the nineteenth century the empire was +dismembered, the largest share falling to Uganda. The ensuing history of +Uganda is of great interest. When King Mutesa came to the throne in 1862, +he found Mohammedan influences in his land and was induced to admit +English Protestants and French Catholics. Uganda thereupon became an +extraordinary religious battlefield between these three beliefs. Mutesa's +successor, Mwanga, caused an English bishop to be killed in 1885, +believing (as has since proven quite true) that the religion he offered +would be used as a cloak for conquest. The final result was that, after +open war between the religions, Uganda was made an English protectorate in +1894. + +The Negroes of Uganda are an intelligent people who had organized a +complex feudal state. At the head stood the king, and under him twelve +feudal lords. The present king, Daudi Chua, is the young grandson of +Mutesa and rules under the overlordship of England. + +Many things show the connection between Egypt and this part of Africa. The +same glass beads are found in Uganda and Upper Egypt, and similar canoes +are built. Harps and other instruments bear great resemblance. Finally the +Bahima, as the Galla invaders are called, are startlingly Egyptian in +type; at the same time they are undoubtedly Negro in hair and color. +Perhaps we have here the best racial picture of what ancient Egyptian and +upper Nile regions were in predynastic times and later. + +Thus in outline was seen the mission of The People--La Bantu as they +called themselves. They migrated, they settled, they tore down, and they +learned, and they in turn were often overthrown by succeeding tribes of +their own folk. They rule with their tongue and their power all Africa +south of the equator, save where the Europeans have entered. They have +never been conquered, although the gold and diamond traders have sought to +debauch them, and the ivory and rubber capitalists have cruelly wronged +their weaker groups. They are the Africans with whom the world of +to-morrow must reckon, just as the world of yesterday knew them to its +cost. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[30] Quoted in Bent: _Ruined Cities of Mashonaland_, pp. 203 ff. + +[31] Cf. "Ethiopia Oriental," by J. Dos Santos, in Theal's _Records of +South Africa_, Vol. VII. + +[32] Barbosa, quoted in Keane, II, 482. + +[33] It was called Sofala, from an Arabic word, and may be associated with +the Ophir of Solomon. So, too, the river Sabi, a little off Sofala, may be +associated with the name of the Queen of Sheba, whose lineage was supposed +to be perpetuated in the powerful Monomotapa as well as the Abyssinians. + + + + +VII THE WAR OF RACES AT LAND'S END + + +Primitive man in Africa is found in the interior jungles and down at +Land's End in South Africa. The Pygmy people in the jungles represent +to-day a small survival from the past, but a survival of curious interest, +pushed aside by the torrent of conquest. Also pushed on by these waves of +Bantu conquest, moved the ancient Abatwa or Bushmen. They are small in +stature, yellow in color, with crisp-curled hair. The traditions of the +Bushmen say that they came southward from the regions of the Great Lakes, +and indeed the king and queen of Punt, as depicted by the Egyptians, were +Bushmen or Hottentots. + +Their tribes may be divided, in accordance with their noticeable artistic +talents, into the painters and the sculptors. The sculptors entered South +Africa by moving southward through the more central portions of the +country, crossing the Zambesi, and coming down to the Cape. The painters, +on the other hand, came through Damaraland on the west coast; when they +came to the great mountain regions, they turned eastward and can be traced +as far as the mountains opposite Delagoa Bay. The mass of them settled +down in the lower part of the Cape and in the Kalahari desert. The +painters were true cave dwellers, but the sculptors lived in large +communities on the stony hills, which they marked with their carvings. + +These Bushmen believed in an ancient race of people who preceded them in +South Africa. They attributed magic power to these unknown folk, and said +that some of them had been translated as stars to the sky. Before their +groups were dispersed the Bushmen had regular government. Tribes with +their chiefs occupied well-defined tracts of country and were subdivided +into branch tribes under subsidiary chiefs. The great cave represented the +dignity and glory of the entire tribe. + +The Bushmen suffered most cruelly in the succeeding migrations and +conquests of South Africa. They fought desperately in self-defense; they +saw their women and children carried into bondage and they themselves +hunted like wild beasts. Both savage and civilized men appropriated their +land. Still they were brave people. "In this struggle for existence their +bitterest enemies, of whatever shade of color they might be, were forced +to make an unqualified acknowledgement of the courage and daring they so +invariably exhibited."[34] + +Here, to a remote corner of the world, where, as one of their number said, +they had supposed that the only beings in the world were Bushmen and +lions, came a series of invaders. It was the outer ripples of civilization +starting far away, the indigenous and external civilizations of Africa +beating with great impulse among the Ethiopians and the Egyptian mulattoes +and Sudanese Negroes and Yorubans, and driving the Bantu race southward. +The Bantus crowded more and more upon the primitive Bushmen, and probably +a mingling of the Bushmen and the Bantus gave rise to the Hottentots. + +The Hottentots, or as they called themselves, Khoi Khoin (Men of Men), +were physically a stronger race than the Abatwa and gave many evidences of +degeneration from a high culture, especially in the "phenomenal +perfection" of a language which "is so highly developed, both in its rich +phonetic system, as represented by a very delicately graduated series of +vowels and diphthongs, and in its varied grammatical structure, that +Lepsius sought for its affinities in the Egyptian at the other end of the +continent." + +When South Africa was first discovered there were two distinct types of +Hottentot. The more savage Hottentots were simply large, strong Bushmen, +using weapons superior to the Bushmen, without domestic cattle or sheep. +Other tribes nearer the center of South Africa were handsomer in +appearance and raised an Egyptian breed of cattle which they rode. + +In general the Hottentots were yellow, with close-curled hair, high cheek +bones, and somewhat oblique eyes. Their migration commenced about the end +of the fourteenth century and was, as is usual in such cases, a scattered, +straggling movement. The traditions of the Hottentots point to the lake +country of Central Africa as their place of origin, whence they were +driven by the Bechuana tribes of the Bantu. They fled westward to the +ocean and then turned south and came upon the Bushmen, whom they had only +partially subdued when the Dutch arrived as settlers in 1652. + +The Dutch "Boers" began by purchasing land from the Hottentots and then, +as they grew more powerful, they dispossessed the dark men and tried to +enslave them. There grew up a large Dutch-Hottentot class. Indeed the +filtration of Negro blood noticeable in modern Boers accounts for much +curious history. Soon after the advent of the Dutch some of the +Hottentots, of whom there were not more than thirty or forty thousand, led +by the Korana clans, began slowly to retreat northward, followed by the +invading Dutch and fighting the Dutch, each other, and the wretched +Bushmen. In the latter part of the eighteenth century the Hottentots had +reached the great interior plain and met the on-coming outposts of the +Bantu nations. + +The Bechuana, whom the Hottentots first met, were the most advanced of the +Negro tribes of Central Africa. They had crossed the Zambesi in the +fourteenth or fifteenth century; their government was a sort of feudal +system with hereditary chiefs and vassals; they were careful +agriculturists, laid out large towns with great regularity, and were the +most skilled of smiths. They used stone in building, carved on wood, and +many of them, too, were keen traders. These tribes, coming southward, +occupied the east-central part of South Africa comprising modern +Bechuanaland. Apparently they had started from the central lake country +somewhere late in the fifteenth century, and by the middle of the +eighteenth century one of their great chiefs, Tao, met the on-coming +Hottentots. + +The Hottentots compelled Tao to retreat, but the mulatto Gricquas arrived +from the south, and, allying themselves with the Bechuana, stopped the +rout. The Gricquas sprang from and took their name from an old Hottentot +tribe. They were led by Kok and Barends, and by adding other elements they +became, partly through their own efforts and partly through the efforts of +the missionaries, a community of fairly well civilized people. In +Gricqualand West the mulatto Gricquas, under their chiefs Kok and +Waterboer, lived until the discovery of diamonds. + +The Griquas and Bechuana tribes were thus gradually checking the +Hottentots when, in the nineteenth century, there came two new +developments: first, the English took possession of Cape Colony, and the +Dutch began to move in larger numbers toward the interior; secondly, a +newer and fiercer element of the Bantu tribes, the Zulu-Kaffirs, appeared. +The Kaffirs, or as they called themselves, the Amazosas, claimed descent +from Zuide, a great chief of the fifteenth century in the lake country. +They are among the tallest people in the world, averaging five feet ten +inches, and are slim, well-proportioned, and muscular. The more warlike +tribes were usually clothed in leopard or ox skins. Cattle formed their +chief wealth, stock breeding and hunting and fighting their main pursuits. +Mentally they were men of tact and intelligence, with a national religion +based upon ancestor worship, while their government was a patriarchal +monarchy limited by an aristocracy and almost feudal in character. The +common law which had grown up from the decisions of the chiefs made the +head of the family responsible for the conduct of its branches, a village +for all its residents, and the clan for all its villages. Finally there +was a paramount chief, who was the civil and military father of his +people. These people laid waste to the coast regions and in 1779 came in +contact with the Dutch. A series of Dutch-Kaffir wars ensued between 1779 +and 1795 in which the Dutch were hard pressed. + +In 1806 the English took final possession of Cape Colony. At that time +there were twenty-five thousand Boers, twenty-five thousand pure and mixed +Hottentots, and twenty-five thousand slaves secured from the east coast. +Between 1811 and 1877 there were six Kaffir-English wars. One of these in +1818 grew out of the ignorant interference of the English with the Kaffir +tribal system; then there came a terrible war between 1834 and 1835, +followed by the annexation of all the country as far as the Kei River. The +war of the Axe (1846-48) led to further annexation by the British. + +Hostilities broke out again in 1856 and 1863. In the former year, +despairing of resistance to invading England, a prophet arose who advised +the wholesale destruction of all Kaffir property except weapons, in order +that this faith might bring back their dead heroes. The result was that +almost a third of the nation perished from hunger. Fresh troubles occurred +in 1877, when the Ama-Xosa confederacy was finally broken up, and to-day +gradually these tribes are passing from independence to a state of mild +vassalage to the British. + +Meantime the more formidable part of the Zulu-Kaffirs had been united +under the terrible Chief Chaka. He had organized a military system, not a +new one by any means, but one of which we hear rumors back in the lake +regions in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. McDonald says, "There +has probably never been a more perfect system of discipline than that by +which Chaka ruled his army and kingdom. At a review an order might be +given in the most unexpected manner, which meant death to hundreds. If the +regiment hesitated or dared to remonstrate, so perfect was the discipline +and so great the jealousy that another was ready to cut them down. A +warrior returning from battle without his arms was put to death without +trial. A general returning unsuccessful in the main purpose of his +expedition shared the same fate. Whoever displeased the king was +immediately executed. The traditional courts practically ceased to exist +so far as the will and action of the tyrant was concerned." With this army +Chaka fell on tribe after tribe. The Bechuana fled before him and some +tribes of them were entirely destroyed. The Hottentots suffered severely +and one of his rival Zulu tribes under Umsilikatsi fled into Matabililand, +pushing back the Bechuana. By the time the English came to Port Natal, +Chaka was ruling over the whole southeastern seaboard, from the Limpopo +River to Cape Colony, including the Orange and Transvaal states and the +whole of Natal. Chaka was killed in 1828 and was eventually succeeded by +his brother Dingan, who reigned twelve years. It was during Dingan's reign +that England tried to abolish slavery in Cape Colony, but did not pay +promptly for the slaves, as she had promised; the result was the so-called +"Great Trek," about 1834, when thousands of Boers went into the interior +across the Orange and Vaal rivers. + +Dingan and these Boers were soon engaged in a death struggle in which the +Zulus were repulsed and Dingan replaced by Panda. Under this chief there +was something like repose for sixteen years, but in 1856 civil war broke +out between his sons, one of whom, Cetewayo, succeeded his father in 1882. +He fell into border disputes with the English, and the result was one of +the fiercest clashes of Europe and Africa in modern days. The Zulus fought +desperately, annihilating at one time a whole detachment and killing the +young prince Napoleon. But after all it was assagais against machine guns, +and the Zulus were finally defeated at Ulundi, July 4, 1879. Thereupon +Zululand was divided among thirteen semi-independent chiefs and became a +British protectorate. + +[Illustration: Ancient Kingdom of Africa] + +Since then the best lands have been gradually reoccupied by a large number +of tribes--Kaffirs from the south and Zulus from the north. The tribal +organization, without being actually broken up, has been deprived of its +dangerous features by appointing paid village headmen and transforming the +hereditary chief into a British government official. In Natal there are +about one hundred and seventy tribal chiefs, and nearly half of these have +been appointed by the governor. + +Umsilikatsi, who had been driven into Matabililand by the terrible Chaka +in 1828 and defeated by the Dutch in 1837, had finally reestablished his +headquarters in Rhodesia in 1838. Here he introduced the Zulu military +system and terrorized the peaceful and industrious Bechuana populations. +Lobengula succeeded Umsilikatsi in 1870 and, realizing that his power was +waning, began to retreat northward toward the Zambesi. He was finally +defeated by the British and native forces in 1893 and the land was +incorporated into South Central Africa. + +The result of all these movements was to break the inhabitants of +Bechuanaland into numerous fragments. There were small numbers of mulatto +Gricquas in the southwest and similar Bastaards in the northwest. The +Hottentots and Bushmen were dispersed into groups and seem doomed to +extinction, the last Hottentot chief being deposed in 1810 and replaced by +an English magistrate. Partially civilized Hottentots still live grouped +together in their kraals and are members of Christian churches. The +Bechuana hold their own in several centers; one is in Basutoland, west of +Natal, where a number of tribes were welded together under the far-sighted +Moshesh into a modern and fairly well civilized nation. In the north part +of Bechuanaland are the self-governing Bamangwato and the Batwana, the +former ruled by Khama, one of the canniest of modern rulers in Africa. + +Meantime, in Portuguese territory south of the Zambesi, there arose Gaza, +a contemporary and rival of Chaka. His son, Manikus, was deputed by +Dingan, Chaka's successor, to drive out the Portuguese. This Manikus +failed to do, and to escape vengeance he migrated north of the Limpopo. +Here he established his military kraal in a district thirty-six hundred +and fifty feet above the sea and one hundred and twenty miles inland from +Sofala. From this place his soldiery nearly succeeded in driving the +Portuguese out of East Africa. He was succeeded by his son, Umzila, and +Umzila's brother, Guzana (better known as Gungunyana), who exercised for a +time joint authority. Gungunyana was finally overthrown in November, 1895, +captured, and removed to the Azores. + +[Illustration: Races in Africa] + +North of the Zambesi, in British territory, the chief role in recent times +has been played by the Bechuana, the first of the Bantu to return +northward after the South African migration. Livingstone found there the +Makolo, who with other tribes had moved northward on account of the +pressure of the Dutch and Zulus below, and by conquering various tribes +in the Zambesi region had established a strong power. This kingdom was +nearly overthrown by the rebellion of the Barotse, and in 1875 the Barotse +kingdom comprised a large territory. To-day their king, Lewanika, rules +directly and indirectly fifty thousand square miles, with a population +between one and two and a half million. They are under a protectorate of +the British. + +In Southwest Africa, Hottentot mulattoes crossing from the Cape caused +widespread change. They were strong men and daring fighters and soon +became dominant in what is now German Southwest Africa, where they fought +fiercely with the Bantu Ova-Hereros. Armed with fire arms, these Namakwa +Hottentots threatened Portuguese West Africa, but Germany intervened, +ostensibly to protect missionaries. By spending millions of dollars and +thousands of soldiers Germany has nearly exterminated these brave men. + +Thus we have between the years 1400 and 1900 a great period of migration +up to 1750, when Bushmen, Hottentot, Bantu, and Dutch appeared in +succession at Land's End. In the latter part of the eighteenth century we +have the clash of the Hottentots and Bechuana, followed in the nineteenth +century by the terrible wars of Chaka, the Kaffirs, and Matabili. Finally, +in the latter half of the nineteenth century, we see the gradual +subjection of the Kaffir-Zulus and the Bechuana under the English and the +final conquest of the Dutch. The resulting racial problem in South Africa +is one of great intricacy. + +To the racial problem has been added the tremendous problem of modern +capital brought by the discovery of gold and diamond mines, so that the +future of the Negro race is peculiarly bound up in developments here at +Land's End, where the ship of the Flying Dutchman beats back and forth on +its endless quest. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[34] Stowe: Native Races of South Africa, pp. 215-216. + + + + +VIII AFRICAN CULTURE + + +We have followed the history of mankind in Africa down the valley of the +Nile, past Ethiopia to Egypt; we have seen kingdoms arise along the great +bend of the Niger and strive with the ancient culture at its mouth. We +have seen the remnants of mankind at Land's End, the ancient culture at +Punt and Zymbabwe, and followed the invading Bantu east, south, and west +to their greatest center in the vast jungle of the Congo valleys. + +We must now gather these threads together and ask what manner of men these +were and how far and in what way they progressed on the road of human +culture. + +That Negro peoples were the beginners of civilization along the Ganges, +the Euphrates, and the Nile seems proven. Early Babylon was founded by a +Negroid race. Hammurabi's code, the most ancient known, says "Anna and Bel +called me, Hammurabi the exalted prince, the worshiper of the gods; to +cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked, to prevent +the strong from oppressing the weak, to go forth like the sun over the +black-head race, to enlighten the land, and to further the welfare of the +people." The Assyrians show a distinct Negroid strain and early Egypt was +predominantly Negro. These earliest of cultures were crude and primitive, +but they represented the highest attainment of mankind after tens of +thousands of years in unawakened savagery. + +It has often been assumed that the Negro is physically inferior to other +races and markedly distinguishable from them; modern science gives no +authority for such an assumption. The supposed inferiority cannot rest on +color,[35] for that is "due to the combined influences of a great number +of factors of environment working through physiological processes," and +"however marked the contrasts may be, there is no corresponding difference +in anatomical structure discoverable."[36] So, too, difference in texture +of hair is a matter of degree, not kind, and is caused by heat, moisture, +exposure, and the like. + +The bony skeleton presents no distinctly racial lines of variation. +Prognathism "presents too many individual varieties to be taken as a +distinctive character of race."[37] Difference in physical measurements +does not show the Negro to be a more primitive evolutionary form. +Comparative ethnology to-day affords "no support to the view which sees in +the so-called lower races of mankind a transition stage from beast to +man."[38] + +Much has been made of the supposed smaller brain of the Negro race; but +this is as yet an unproved assumption, based on the uncritical measurement +of less than a thousand Negro brains as compared with eleven thousand or +more European brains. Even if future measurement prove the average Negro +brain lighter, the vast majority of Negro brain weights fall within the +same limits as the whites; and finally, "neither size nor weight of the +brain seems to be of importance" as an index of mental capacity. We may, +therefore, say with Ratzel, "There is only one species of man. The +variations are numerous, but do not go deep."[39] + +To this we may add the word of the Secretary of the First Races Congress: +"We are, then, under the necessity of concluding that an impartial +investigator would be inclined to look upon the various important peoples +of the world as to all intents and purposes essentially equal in +intellect, enterprise, morality, and physique."[40] + +If these conclusions are true, we should expect to see in Africa the +human drama play itself out much as in other lands, and such has actually +been the fact. At the same time we must expect peculiarities arising from +the physiography of the land--its climate, its rainfall, its deserts, and +the peculiar inaccessibility of the coast. + +Three principal zones of habitation appear: first, the steppes and deserts +around the Sahara in the north and the Kalahari desert in the south; +secondly, the grassy highlands bordering the Great Lakes and connecting +these two regions; thirdly, the forests and rivers of Central and West +Africa. In the deserts are the nomads, and the Pygmies are in the forest +fastnesses. Herdsmen and their cattle cover the steppes and highlands, +save where the tsetse fly prevents. In the open forests and grassy +highlands are the agriculturists. + +Among the forest farmers the village is the center of life, while in the +open steppes political life tends to spread into larger political units. +Political integration is, however, hindered by an ease of internal +communication almost as great as the difficulty of reaching outer worlds +beyond the continent. The narrow Nile valley alone presented physical +barriers formidable enough to keep back the invading barbarians of the +south, and even then with difficulty. Elsewhere communication was all too +easy. For a while the Congo forests fended away the restless, but this +only temporarily. + +On the whole Africa from the Sahara to the Cape offered no great physical +barrier to the invader, and we continually have whirlwinds of invading +hosts rushing now southward, now northward, from the interior to the coast +and from the coast inland, and hurling their force against states, +kingdoms, and cities. Some resisted for generations, some for centuries, +some but a few years. It is, then, this sudden change and the fear of it +that marks African culture, particularly in its political aspects, and +which makes it so difficult to trace this changing past. Nevertheless +beneath all change rests the strong substructure of custom, religion, +industry, and art well worth the attention of students. + +Starting with agriculture, we learn that "among all the great groups of +the 'natural' races, the Negroes are the best and keenest tillers of the +ground. A minority despise agriculture and breed cattle; many combine both +occupations. Among the genuine tillers the whole life of the family is +taken up in agriculture, and hence the months are by preference called +after the operations which they demand. Constant clearings change forests +to fields, and the ground is manured with the ashes of the burnt thicket. +In the middle of the fields rise the light watch-towers, from which a +watchman scares grain-eating birds and other thieves. An African +cultivated landscape is incomplete without barns. The rapidity with which, +when newly imported, the most various forms of cultivation spread in +Africa says much for the attention which is devoted to this branch of +economy. Industries, again, which may be called agricultural, like the +preparation of meal from millet and other crops, also from cassava, the +fabrication of fermented drinks from grain, or the manufacture of cotton, +are widely known and sedulously fostered."[41] + +Buecher reminds us of the deep impression made upon travelers when they +sight suddenly the well-attended fields of the natives on emerging from +the primeval forests. "In the more thickly populated parts of Africa these +fields often stretch for many a mile, and the assiduous care of the Negro +women shines in all the brighter light when we consider the insecurity of +life, the constant feuds and pillages, in which no one knows whether he +will in the end be able to harvest what he has sown. Livingstone gives +somewhere a graphic description of the devastations wrought by slave +hunts; the people were lying about slain, the dwellings were demolished; +in the fields, however, the grain was ripening and there was none to +harvest it."[42] + +Sheep, goat, and chickens are domestic animals all over Africa, and Von +Franzius considers Africa the home of the house cattle and the Negro as +the original tamer. Northeastern Africa especially is noted for +agriculture, cattle raising, and fruit culture. In the eastern Sudan, and +among the great Bantu tribes extending from the Sudan down toward the +south, cattle are evidences of wealth; one tribe, for instance, having so +many oxen that each village had ten or twelve thousand head. Lenz (1884), +Bouet-Williaumez (1848), Hecquard (1854), Bosman (1805), and Baker (1868) +all bear witness to this, and Schweinfurth (1878) tells us of great cattle +parks with two to three thousand head and of numerous agricultural and +cattle-raising tribes. Von der Decken (1859-61) described the paradise of +the dwellers about Kilimanjaro--the bananas, fruit, beans and peas, cattle +raising with stall feed, the fertilizing of the fields, and irrigation. +The Negroid Gallas have seven or eight cattle to each inhabitant. +Livingstone bears witness to the busy cattle raising of the Bantus and +Kaffirs. Hulub (1881) and Chapman (1868) tell of agriculture and fruit +raising in South Africa. Shutt (1884) found the tribes in the southwestern +basin of the Congo with sheep, swine, goats, and cattle. On this +agricultural and cattle-raising economic foundation has arisen the +organized industry of the artisan, the trader, and the manufacturer. + +While the Pygmies, still living in the age of wood, make no iron or stone +implements, they seem to know how to make bark cloth and fiber baskets and +simple outfits for hunting and fishing. Among the Bushmen the art of +making weapons and working in hides is quite common. The Hottentots are +further advanced in the industrial arts, being well versed in the +manufacture of clothing, weapons, and utensils. In the dressing of skins +and furs, as well as in the plaiting of cords and the weaving of mats, we +find evidences of their workmanship. In addition they are good workers in +iron and copper, using the sheepskin bellows for this purpose. The +Ashantis of the Gold Coast know how to make "cotton fabrics, turn and +glaze earthenware, forge iron, fabricate instruments and arms, embroider +rugs and carpets, and set gold and precious stones."[43] Among the people +of the banana zone we find rough basket work, coarse pottery, grass cloth, +and spoons made of wood and ivory. The people of the millet zone, because +of uncertain agricultural resources, quite generally turn to +manufacturing. Charcoal is prepared by the smiths, iron is smelted, and +numerous implements are manufactured. Among them we find axes, hatchets, +hoes, knives, nails, scythes, and other hardware. Cloaks, shoes, sandals, +shields, and water and oil vessels are made from leather which the natives +have dressed. Soap is manufactured in the Bautschi district, glass is +made, formed, and colored by the people of Nupeland, and in almost every +city cotton is spun and woven and dyed. Barth tells us that the weaving of +cotton was known in the Sudan as early as the eleventh century. There is +also extensive manufacture of wooden ware, tools, implements, and +utensils. + +In describing particular tribes, Baker and Felkin tell of smiths of +wonderful adroitness, goatskins prepared better than a European tanner +could do, drinking cups and kegs of remarkable symmetry, and polished clay +floors. Schweinfurth says, "The arrow and the spear heads are of the +finest and most artistic work; their bristlelike barbs and points are +baffling when one knows how few tools these smiths have." Excellent wood +carving is found among the Bongo, Ovambo, and Makololo. Pottery and +basketry and careful hut building distinguish many tribes. Cameron (1877) +tells of villages so clean, with huts so artistic, that, save in book +knowledge, the people occupied no low plane of civilization. The Mangbettu +work both iron and copper. "The masterpieces of the Monbutto [Mangbettu] +smiths are the fine chains worn as ornaments, and which in perfection of +form and fineness compare well with our best steel chains." Shubotz in +1911 called the Mangbettu "a highly cultivated people" in architecture and +handicraft. Barth found copper exported from Central Africa in competition +with European copper at Kano. + +Nor is the iron industry confined to the Sudan. About the Great Lakes and +other parts of Central Africa it is widely distributed. Thornton says, +"This iron industry proves that the East Africans stand by no means on so +low a plane of culture as many travelers would have us think. It is +unnecessary to be reminded what a people without instruction, and with the +rudest tools to do such skilled work, could do if furnished with steel +tools." Arrows made east of Lake Nyanza were found to be nearly as good as +the best Swedish iron in Birmingham. From Egypt to the Cape, Livingstone +assures us that the mortar and pestle, the long-handled axe, the goatskin +bellows, etc., have the same form, size, etc., pointing to a migration +southwestward. Holub (1879), on the Zambesi, found fine workers in iron +and bronze. The Bantu huts contain spoons, wooden dishes, milk pails, +calabashes, handmills, and axes. + +Kaffirs and Zulus, in the extreme south, are good smiths, and the latter +melt copper and tin together and draw wire from it, according to Kranz +(1880). West of the Great Lakes, Stanley (1878) found wonderful examples +of smith work: figures worked out of brass and much work in copper. +Cameron (1878) saw vases made near Lake Tanganyika which reminded him of +the amphorae in the Villa of Diomedes, Pompeii. Horn (1882) praises tribes +here for iron and copper work. Livingstone (1871) passed thirty smelting +houses in one journey, and Cameron came across bellows with valves, and +tribes who used knives in eating. He found tribes which no Europeans had +ever visited, who made ingots of copper in the form of the St. Andrew's +cross, which circulated even to the coast. In the southern Congo basin +iron and copper are worked; also wood and ivory carving and pottery making +are pursued. In equatorial West Africa, Lenz and Du Chaillu (1861) found +iron workers with charcoal, and also carvers of bone and ivory. Near Cape +Lopez, Huebbe-Schleiden found tribes making ivory needles inlaid with +ebony, while the arms and dishes of the Osaka are found among many tribes +even as far as the Atlantic Ocean. Wilson (1856) found natives in West +Africa who could repair American watches. + +Gold Coast Negroes make gold rings and chains, forming the metal into all +kinds of forms. Soyaux says, "The works in relief which natives of Lower +Guinea carve with their own knives out of ivory and hippopotamus teeth are +really entitled to be called works of art, and many wooden figures of +fetishes in the Ethnographical Museum of Berlin show some understanding of +the proportions of the human body." Great Bassam is called by Hecquard the +"Fatherland of Smiths." The Mandingo in the northwest are remarkable +workers in iron, silver, and gold, we are told by Mungo Park (1800), while +there is a mass of testimony as to the work in the north-west of Africa in +gold, tin, weaving, and dyeing. Caille found the Negroes in Bambana +manufacturing gunpowder (1824-28), and the Hausa make soap; so, too, +Negroes in Uganda and other parts have made guns after seeing European +models. + +So marked has been the work of Negro artisans and traders in the +manufacture and exchange of iron implements that a growing number of +archeologists are disposed to-day to consider the Negro as the originator +of the art of smelting iron. Gabriel de Mortillet (1883) declared Negroes +the only iron users among primitive people. Some would, therefore, argue +that the Negro learned it from other folk, but Andree declares that the +Negro developed his own "Iron Kingdom." Schweinfurth, Von Luschan, Boaz, +and others incline to the belief that the Negroes invented the smelting of +iron and passed it on to the Egyptians and to modern Europe. + +Boaz says, "It seems likely that at a time when the European was still +satisfied with rude stone tools, the African had invented or adopted the +art of smelting iron. Consider for a moment what this invention has meant +for the advance of the human race. As long as the hammer, knife, saw, +drill, the spade, and the hoe had to be chipped out of stone, or had to be +made of shell or hard wood, effective industrial work was not impossible, +but difficult. A great progress was made when copper found in large +nuggets was hammered out into tools and later on shaped by melting, and +when bronze was introduced; but the true advancement of industrial life +did not begin until the hard iron was discovered. It seems not unlikely +that the people who made the marvelous discovery of reducing iron ores by +smelting were the African Negroes. Neither ancient Europe, nor ancient +western Asia, nor ancient China knew the iron, and everything points to +its introduction from Africa. At the time of the great African discoveries +toward the end of the past century, the trade of the blacksmith was found +all over Africa, from north to south and from east to west. With his +simple bellows and a charcoal fire he reduced the ore that is found in +many parts of the continent and forged implements of great usefulness and +beauty."[44] + +Torday has argued recently, "I feel convinced by certain arguments that +seem to prove to my satisfaction that we are indebted to the Negro for the +very keystone of our modern civilization and that we owe him the discovery +of iron. That iron could be discovered by accident in Africa seems beyond +doubt: if this is so in other parts of the world, I am not competent to +say. I will only remind you that Schweinfurth and Petherick record the +fact that in the northern part of East Africa smelting furnaces are worked +without artificial air current and, on the other hand, Stuhlmann and +Kollmann found near Victoria Nyanza that the natives simply mixed powdered +ore with charcoal and by introduction of air currents obtained the metal. +These simple processes make it simple that iron should have been +discovered in East or Central Africa. No bronze implements have ever been +found in black Africa; had the Africans received iron from the Egyptians, +bronze would have preceded this metal and all traces of it would not have +disappeared. Black Africa was for a long time an exporter of iron, and +even in the twelfth century exports to India and Java are recorded by +Idrisi. + +"It is difficult to imagine that Egypt should have obtained it from +Europe where the oldest find (in Hallstadt) cannot be of an earlier period +than 800 B.C., or from Asia, where iron is not known before 1000 B.C., and +where, in the times of Ashur Nazir Pal, it was still used concurrently +with bronze, while iron beads have been only recently discovered by +Messrs. G.A. Wainwright and Bushe Fox in a predynastic grave, and where a +piece of this metal, possibly a tool, was found in the masonry of the +great pyramid."[45] + +The Negro is a born trader. Lenz says, "our sharpest European merchants, +even Jews and Armenians, can learn much of the cunning and trade of the +Negroes." We know that the trade between Central Africa and Egypt was in +the hands of Negroes for thousands of years, and in early days the cities +of the Sudan and North Africa grew rich through Negro trade. + +Leo Africanus, writing of Timbuktu in the sixteenth century, said, "It is +a wonder to see what plentie of Merchandize is daily brought hither and +how costly and sumptuous all things be.... Here are many shops of +artificers and merchants and especially of such as weave linnen and +cloth." + +Long before cotton weaving was a British industry, West Africa and the +Sudan were supplying a large part of the world with cotton cloth. Even +to-day cities like Kuka on the west shore of Lake Chad and Sokota are +manufacturing centers where cotton is spun and woven, skins tanned, +implements and iron ornaments made. + +"Travelers," says Buecher, "have often observed this tribal or local +development of industrial technique. 'The native villages,' relates a +Belgian observer of the Lower Congo, 'are often situated in groups. Their +activities are based upon reciprocality, and they are to a certain extent +the complements of one another. Each group has its more or less strongly +defined specialty. One carries on fishing; another produces palm wine; a +third devotes itself to trade and is broker for the others, supplying the +community with all products from outside; another has reserved to itself +work in iron and copper, making weapons for war and hunting, various +utensils, etc. None may, however, pass beyond the sphere of its own +specialty without exposing itself to the risk of being universally +proscribed.'" + +From the Loango Coast, Bastian tells of a great number of centers for +special products of domestic industry. "Loango excels in mats and fishing +baskets, while the carving of elephants' tusks is specially followed in +Chilungo. The so-called Mafooka hats with raised patterns are drawn +chiefly from the bordering country of Kakongo and Mayyume. In Bakunya are +made potter's wares, which are in great demand; in Basanza, excellent +swords; in Basundi, especially beautiful ornamented copper rings; on the +Congo, clever wood and tablet carvings; in Loango, ornamented clothes and +intricately designed mats; in Mayumbe, clothing of finely woven mat-work; +in Kakongo, embroidered hats and also burnt clay pitchers; and among the +Bayakas and Mantetjes, stuffs of woven grass."[46] + +A native Negro student tells of the development of trade among the +Ashanti. "It was a part of the state system of Ashanti to encourage trade. +The king once in every forty days, at the Adai custom, distributed among a +number of chiefs various sums of gold dust with a charge to turn the same +to good account. These chiefs then sent down to the coast caravans of +tradesmen, some of whom would be their slaves, sometimes some two or three +hundred strong, to barter ivory for European goods, or buy such goods with +gold dust, which the king obtained from the royal alluvial workings. Down +to 1873 a constant stream of Ashanti traders might be seen daily wending +their way to the merchants of the coast and back again, yielding more +certain wealth and prosperity to the merchants of the Gold Coast and Great +Britain than may be expected for some time yet to come from the mining +industry and railway development put together. The trade chiefs would, in +due time, render a faithful account to the king's stewards, being allowed +to retain a fair portion of the profit. In the king's household, too, he +would have special men who directly traded for him. Important chiefs +carried on the same system of trading with the coast as did the king. Thus +every member of the state, from the king downward, took an active interest +in the promotion of trade and in the keeping open of trade routes into the +interior."[47] + +The trade thus encouraged and carried on in various parts of West Africa +reached wide areas. From the Fish River to Kuka, and from Lagos to +Zanzibar, the markets have become great centers of trade, the leading +implement to civilization. Permanent markets are found in places like +Ujiji and Nyangwe, where everything can be bought and sold from +earthenware to wives; from the one to three thousand traders flocked here. + +"How like is the market traffic, with all its uproar and sound of human +voices, to one of our own markets! There is the same rivalry in praising +the goods, the violent, brisk movements, the expressive gesture, the +inquiring, searching glance, the changing looks of depreciation or +triumph, of apprehension, delight, approbation. So says Stanley. Trade +customs are not everywhere alike. If when negotiating with the Bangalas of +Angola you do not quickly give them what they want, they go away and do +not come back. Then perhaps they try to get possession of the coveted +object by means of theft. It is otherwise with the Songos and Kiokos, who +let you deal with them in the usual way. To buy even a small article you +must go to the market; people avoid trading anywhere else. If a man says +to another; 'Sell me this hen' or 'that fruit,' the answer as a rule will +be, 'Come to the market place.' The crowd gives confidence to individuals, +and the inviolability of the visitor to the market, and of the market +itself, looks like an idea of justice consecrated by long practice. Does +not this remind us of the old Germanic 'market place'?"[48] + +Turning now to Negro family and social life we find, as among all +primitive peoples, polygamy and marriage by actual or simulated purchase. +Out of the family develops the typical African village organization, which +is thus described in Ashanti by a native Gold Coast writer: "The headman, +as his name implies, is the head of a village community, a ward in a +township, or of a family. His position is important, inasmuch as he has +directly to deal with the composite elements of the general bulk of the +people. + +"It is the duty of the head of a family to bring up the members thereof in +the way they should go; and by 'family' you must understand the entire +lineal descendants of a materfamilias, if I may coin a convenient phrase. +It is expected of him by the state to bring up his charge in the knowledge +of matters political and traditional. It is his work to train up his wards +in the ways of loyalty and obedience to the powers that be. He is held +responsible for the freaks of recalcitrant members of his family, and he +is looked to to keep them within bounds and to insist upon conformity of +their party with the customs, laws, and traditional observances of the +community. In early times he could send off to exile by sale a troublesome +relative who would not observe the laws of the community. + +"It is a difficult task that he is set to, but in this matter he has +all-powerful helpers in the female members of the family, who will be +either the aunts, or the sisters, or the cousins, or the nieces of the +headman; and as their interests are identical with his in every +particular, the good women spontaneously train up their children to +implicit obedience to the headman, whose rule in the family thus becomes a +simple and an easy matter. 'The hand that rocks the cradle rules the +world.' What a power for good in the native state system would the mothers +of the Gold Coast and Ashanti become by judicious training upon native +lines! + +"The headman is par excellence the judge of his family or ward. Not only +is he called upon to settle domestic squabbles, but frequently he sits +judge over more serious matters arising between one member of the ward and +another; and where he is a man of ability and influence, men from other +wards bring him their disputes to settle. When he so settles disputes, he +is entitled to a hearing fee, which, however, is not so much as would be +payable in the regular court of the king or chief. + +"The headman is naturally an important member of his company and often is +a captain thereof. When he combines the two offices of headman and +captain, he renders to the community a very important service. For in +times of war, where the members of the ward would not serve cordially +under a stranger, they would in all cases face any danger with their own +kinsman as their leader. The headman is always succeeded by his uterine +brother, cousin, or nephew--the line of succession, that is to say, +following the customary law."[49] + +We may contrast this picture with the more warlike Bantus of Southeast +Africa. Each tribe lived by itself in a town with from five to fifteen +thousand inhabitants, surrounded by gardens of millet, beans, and +watermelon. Beyond these roamed their cattle, sheep, and goats. Their +religion was ancestor worship with sacrifice to spirits and the dead, and +some of the tribes made mummies of the corpses and clothed them for +burial. They wove cloth of cotton and bark, they carved wood and built +walls of unhewn stone. They had a standing military organization, and the +tribes had their various totems, so that they were known as the Men of +Iron, the Men of the Sun, the Men of the Serpents, Sons of the Corn +Cleaners, and the like. Their system of common law was well conceived and +there were organized tribunals of justice. In difficult cases precedents +were sought and learned antiquaries consulted. At the age of fifteen or +sixteen the boys were circumcised and formed into guilds. The land was +owned by the tribe and apportioned to the chief by each family, and the +main wealth of the tribe was in its cattle. + +In general, among the African clans the idea of private property was but +imperfectly developed and never included land. The main mass of visible +wealth belonged to the family and clan rather than to the individual; only +in the matter of weapons and ornaments was exclusive private ownership +generally recognized. + +The government, vested in fathers and chiefs, varied in different tribes +from absolute despotisms to limited monarchies, almost republican. Viewing +the Basuto National Assembly in South Africa, Lord Bryce recently wrote, +"The resemblance to the primary assemblies of the early peoples of Europe +is close enough to add another to the arguments which discredit the theory +that there is any such thing as an Aryan type of institutions."[50] + +While women are sold into marriage throughout Africa, nevertheless their +status is far removed from slavery. In the first place the tracing of +relationships through the female line, which is all but universal in +Africa, gives the mother great influence. Parental affection is very +strong, and throughout Negro Africa the mother is the most influential +councilor, even in cases of tyrants like Chaka or Mutesa. + +"No mother can love more tenderly or be more deeply beloved than the Negro +mother. Robin tells of a slave in Martinique who, with his savings, freed +his mother instead of himself. 'Everywhere in Africa,' writes Mungo Park, +'I have noticed that no greater affront can be offered a Negro than +insulting his mother. 'Strike me,' cried a Mandingo to his enemy, 'but +revile not my mother!' ... The Herero swears 'By my mother's tears!'.. The +Angola Negroes have a saying, 'As a mist lingers on the swamps, so lingers +the love of father and mother.'"[51] + +Black queens have often ruled African tribes. Among the Ba-Lolo, we are +told, women take part in public assemblies where all-important questions +are discussed. The system of educating children among such tribes as the +Yoruba is worthy of emulation by many more civilized peoples. + +Close knit with the family and social organization comes the religious +life of the Negro. 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, +"If you want, for example, to understand the position of man in nature +according to fetish, there is, as far as I know, no clearer statement of +it made than is made by Goethe in his superb 'Prometheus.'"[52] Fetish is +a severely logical way of accounting for the world in terms of good and +malignant spirits. + +"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."[53] + +Ellis tells us of the spirit belief of the Ewe people, who believe that +men and all nature have the indwelling "Kra," which is immortal; that the +man himself after death may exist as a ghost, which is often conceived of +as departed from the "Kra," a shadowy continuing of the man. Bryce, +speaking of the Kaffirs of South Africa, says, "To the Kaffirs, as to the +most savage races, the world was full of spirits--spirits of the rivers, +the mountains, and the woods. Most important were the ghosts of the dead, +who had power to injure or help the living, and who were, therefore, +propitiated by offerings at stated periods, as well as on occasions when +their aid was especially desired. This kind of worship, the worship once +most generally diffused throughout the world, and which held its ground +among the Greeks and Italians in the most flourishing period of ancient +civilization, as it does in China and Japan to-day, was, and is, virtually +the religion of the Kaffirs."[54] + +African religion does not, however, stop with fetish, but, as in the case +of other peoples, tends toward polytheism and monotheism. Among the +Yoruba, for instance, Frobenius shows that religion and city-state go hand +in hand. + +"The first experienced glance will here detect the fact that this nation +originally possessed a clear and definite organization so duly ordered and +so logical that we but seldom meet with its like among all the peoples of +the earth. And the basic idea of every clan's progeniture is a powerful +God; the legitimate order in which the descendants of a particular clan +unite in marriage to found new families, the essential origin of every +new-born babe's descent in the founder of its race and its consideration +as a part of the God in Chief; the security with which the newly wedded +wife not only may, but should, minister to her own God in an unfamiliar +home."[55] + +The Yoruba have a legend of a dying divinity. "This people ... give +evidence of a generalized system; a theocratic scheme, a well-conceived +perceptible organization, reared in rhythmically proportioned manner." + +Miss Kingsley says, "The African has a great Over God."[56] Nassau, the +missionary, declares, "After more than forty years' residence among these +tribes, fluently using their language, conversant with their customs, +dwelling intimately in their huts, associating with them in the various +relations of teacher, pastor, friend, master, fellow-traveler, and guest, +and in my special office as missionary, searching after their religious +thought (and therefore being allowed a deeper entrance into the arcana of +their soul than would be accorded to a passing explorer), I am able +unhesitatingly to say that among all the multitude of degraded ones with +whom I have met, I have seen or heard of none whose religious thought was +only a superstition. + +"Standing in the village street, surrounded by a company whom their chief +has courteously summoned at my request, when I say to him, 'I have come to +speak to your people,' I do not need to begin by telling them that there +is a God. Looking on that motley assemblage of villagers,--the bold, gaunt +cannibal with his armament of gun, spear, and dagger; the artisan with +rude adze in hand, or hands soiled at the antique bellows of the village +smithy; women who have hasted from their kitchen fire with hands white +with the manioc dough or still grasping the partly scaled fish; and +children checked in their play with tiny bow and arrow or startled from +their dusty street pursuit of dog or goat,--I have yet to be asked, 'Who +is God?'"[57] + +The basis of Egyptian religion was "of a purely Nigritian character,"[58] +and in its developed form Sudanese tribal gods were invoked and venerated +by the priests. In Upper Egypt, near the confines of Ethiopia, paintings +repeatedly represent black priests conferring on red Egyptian priests the +instruments and symbols of priesthood. In the Sudan to-day Frobenius +distinguishes four principal religions: first, earthly ancestor worship; +next, the social cosmogony of the Atlantic races; third, the religion of +the Bori, and fourth, Islam. The Bori religion spreads from Nubia as far +as the Hausa, and from Lake Chad in the Niger as far as the Yoruba. It is +the religion of possession and has been connected by some with Asiatic +influences. + +From without have come two great religious influences, Islam and +Christianity. Islam came by conquest, trade, and proselytism. As a +conqueror it reached Egypt in the seventh century and had by the end of +the fourteenth century firm footing in the Egyptian Sudan. It overran the +central Sudan by the close of the seventeenth century, and at the +beginning of the nineteenth century had swept over Senegambia and the +whole valley of the Niger down to the Gulf of Guinea. On the east Islam +approached as a trader in the eighth century; it spread into Somaliland +and overran Nubia in the fourteenth century. To-day Islam dominates Africa +north of ten degrees north latitude and is strong between five and ten +degrees north latitude. In the east it reaches below the Victoria Nyanza. + +Christianity early entered Africa; indeed, as Mommsen says, "It was +through Africa that Christianity became the religion of the world. +Tertullian and Cyprian were from Carthage, Arnobius from Sicca Veneria, +Lactantius, and probably in like manner Minucius Felix, in spite of their +Latin names, were natives of Africa, and not less so Augustine. In Africa +the Church found its most zealous confessors of the faith and its most +gifted defenders."[59] + +The Africa referred to here, however, was not Negroland, but Africa above +the desert, where Negro blood was represented in the ancient Mediterranean +race and by intercourse across the desert. On the other hand Christianity +was early represented in the valley of the Nile under "the most holy pope +and patriarch of the great city of Alexandria and of all of the land of +Egypt, of Jerusalem, the holy city, of Nubia, Abyssinia, and Pentapolis, +and all the preaching of St. Mark." This patriarchate had a hundred +bishoprics in the fourth century and included thousands of black +Christians. Through it the Cross preceded the Crescent in some of the +remotest parts of black Africa. + +All these beginnings were gradually overthrown by Islam except among the +Copts in Egypt, and in Abyssinia. The Portuguese in the sixteenth century +began to replant the Christian religion and for a while had great success, +both on the east and west coasts. Roman Catholic enterprise halted in the +eighteenth century and the Protestants began. To-day the west coast is +studded with English and German missions, South Africa is largely +Christian through French and English influence, and the region about the +Great Lakes is becoming christianized. The Roman Catholics have lately +increased their activities, and above all the Negroes of America have +entered with their own churches and with the curiously significant +"Ethiopian" movement. + +Coming now to other spiritual aspects of African culture, we can speak at +present only in a fragmentary way. Roughly speaking, Africa can be divided +into two language zones: north of the fifth degree of north latitude is +the zone of diversity, with at least a hundred groups of widely divergent +languages; south of the line there is one minor language +(Bushman-Hottentot), spoken by less than fifty thousand people, and +elsewhere the predominant Bantu tongue with its various dialects, spoken +by at least fifty million. The Bantu tongue, which thus rules all Central, +West, and South Africa, is an agglutinative tongue which makes especial +use of prefixes. The hundreds of Negro tongues or dialects in the north +represent most probably the result of war and migration and the breaking +up of ancient centers of culture. In Abyssinia and the great horn of East +Africa the influence of Semitic tongues is noted. Despite much effort on +the part of students, it has been impossible to show any Asiatic origin +for the Egyptian language. As Sergi maintains, "everything favors an +African origin."[60] The most brilliant suggestion of modern days links +together the Egyptian of North Africa and the Hottentot and Bushmen +tongues of South Africa. + +Language was reduced to writing among the Egyptians and Ethiopians and to +some extent elsewhere in Africa. Over 100 manuscripts of Ethiopian and +Ethiopic-Arabian literature are extant, including a version of the Bible +and historical chronicles. The Arabic was used as the written tongue of +the Sudan, and Negroland has given us in this tongue many chronicles and +other works of black authors. The greatest of these, the Epic of the Sudan +(Tarikh-es-Soudan), deserves to be placed among the classics of all +literature. In other parts of Africa there was no written language, but +there was, on the other hand, an unusual perfection of oral tradition +through bards, and extraordinary efficiency in telegraphy by drum and +horn. + +The folklore and proverbs of the African tribes are exceedingly rich. Some +of these have been made familiar to English writers through the work of +"Uncle Remus." Others have been collected by Johnston, Ellis, and Theal. + +A black bard of our own day has described the onslaught of the Matabili in +poetry of singular force and beauty: + + They saw the clouds ascend from the plains: + It was the smoke of burning towns. + The confusion of the whirlwind +Was in the heart of the great chief of the blue-colored cattle. + The shout was raised, + "They are friends!" + But they shouted again, + "They are foes!" +Till their near approach proclaimed them Matabili. + The men seized their arms, +And rushed out as if to chase the antelope. + The onset was as the voice of lightning, +And their javelins as the shaking of the forest in the autumn storm.[61] + +There can be no doubt of the Negro's deep and delicate sense of beauty in +form, color, and sound. Soyaux says of African industry, "Whoever denies +to them independent invention and individual taste in their work either +shuts his eyes intentionally before perfectly evident facts, or lack of +knowledge renders him an incompetent judge."[62] M. Rutot had lately told +us how the Negro race brought art and sculpture to pre-historic Europe. +The bones of the European Negroids are almost without exception found in +company with drawings and sculpture in high and low relief; some of their +sculptures, like the Wellendorff "Venus," are unusually well finished for +primitive man. So, too, the painting and carving of the Bushmen and their +forerunners in South Africa has drawn the admiration of students. The +Negro has been prolific in the invention of musical instruments and has +given a new and original music to the western world. + +Schweinfurth, who has preserved for us much of the industrial art of the +Negroes, speaks of their delight in the production of works of art for the +embellishment and convenience of life. Frobenius expressed his +astonishment at the originality of the African in the Yoruba temple which +he visited. "The lofty veranda was divided from the passageway by +fantastically carved and colored pillars. On the pillars were sculptured +knights, men climbing trees, women, gods, and mythical beings. The dark +chamber lying beyond showed a splendid red room with stone hatchets, +wooden figures, cowry beads, and jars. The whole picture, the columns +carved in colors in front of the colored altar, the old man sitting in the +circle of those who reverenced him, the open scaffolding of ninety +rafters, made a magnificent impression."[63] + +The Germans have found, in Kamarun, towns built, castellated, and +fortified in a manner that reminds one of the prehistoric cities of Crete. +The buildings and fortifications of Zymbabwe have already been described +and something has been said of the art of Benin, with its brass and bronze +and ivory. All the work of Benin in bronze and brass was executed by +casting, and by methods so complicated that it would be no easy task for a +modern European craftsman to imitate them. + +Perhaps no race has shown in its earlier development a more magnificent +art impulse than the Negro, and the student must not forget how far Negro +genius entered into the art in the valley of the Nile from Meroe and +Nepata down to the great temples of Egypt. + +Frobenius has recently directed the world's attention to art in West +Africa. Quartz and granite he found treated with great dexterity. But more +magnificent than the stone monument is the proof that at some remote era +glass was made and molded in Yorubaland and that the people here were +brilliant in the production of terra-cotta images. The great mass of +potsherds, lumps of glass, heaps of slag, etc., "proves, at all events, +that the glass industry flourished in this locality in ages past. It is +plain that the glass beads found to have been so very common in Africa +were not only not imported, but were actually manufactured in great +quantities at home." + +The terra-cotta pieces are "remains of another ancient and fine type of +art" and were "eloquent of a symmetry, a vitality, a delicacy of form, and +practically a reminiscence of the ancient Greeks." The antique bronze head +Frobenius describes as "a head of marvelous beauty, wonderfully cast," and +"almost equal in beauty and, at least, no less noble in form, and as +ancient as the terra-cotta heads."[64] + +In a park of monuments Frobenius saw the celebrated forge and hammer: a +mighty mass of iron, like a falling drop in shape, and a block of quartz +fashioned like a drum. Frobenius thinks these were relics dating from past +ages of culture, when the manipulation of quartz and granite was +thoroughly understood and when iron manipulation gave evidence of a skill +not met with to-day. + +Even when we contemplate such revolting survivals of savagery as +cannibalism we cannot jump too quickly at conclusions. Cannibalism is +spread over many parts of Negro Africa, yet the very tribes who practice +cannibalism show often other traits of industry and power. "These cannibal +Bassonga were, according to the types we met with, one of those rare +nations of the African interior which can be classed with the most +esthetic and skilled, most discreet and intelligent of all those generally +known to us as the so-called natural races. Before the Arabic and European +invasion they did not dwell in 'hamlets,' but in towns with twenty or +thirty thousand inhabitants, in towns whose highways were shaded by +avenues of splendid palms planted at regular intervals and laid out with +the symmetry of colonnades. Their pottery would be fertile in suggestion +to every art craftsman in Europe. Their weapons of iron were so perfectly +fashioned that no industrial art from abroad could improve upon their +workmanship. The iron blades were cunningly ornamented with damascened +copper, and the hilts artistically inlaid with the same metal. Moreover, +they were most industrious and capable husbandmen, whose careful tillage +of the suburbs made them able competitors of any gardener in Europe. Their +sexual and parental relations evidenced an amount of tact and delicacy of +feelings unsurpassed among ourselves, either in the simplicity of the +country or the refinements of the town. Originally their political and +municipal system was organized on the lines of a representative republic. +True, it is on record that these well-governed towns often waged an +internecine warfare; but in spite of this it had been their invariable +custom from time immemorial, even in times of strife, to keep the trade +routes open and to allow their own and foreign merchants to go their ways +unharmed. And the commerce of these nations ebbed and flowed along a road +of unknown age, running from Itimbiri to Batubenge, about six hundred +miles in length. This highway was destroyed by the 'missionaries of +civilization' from Arabia only toward the close of the eighteenth century. +But even in my own time there were still smiths who knew the names of +places along that wonderful trade route driven through the heart of the +'impenetrable forests of the Congo.' For every scrap of imported iron was +carried over it."[65] + +In disposition the Negro is among the most lovable of men. Practically all +the great travelers who have spent any considerable time in Africa testify +to this and pay deep tribute to the kindness with which they were +received. One has but to remember the classic story of Mungo Park, the +strong expressions of Livingstone, the words of Stanley and hundreds of +others to realize this. + +Ceremony and courtesy mark Negro life. Livingstone again and again reminds +us of "true African dignity." "When Ilifian men or women salute each +other, be it with a plain and easy curtsey (which is here the simplest +form adopted), or kneeling down, or throwing oneself upon the ground, or +kissing the dust with one's forehead, no matter which, there is yet a +deliberateness, a majesty, a dignity, a devoted earnestness in the manner +of its doing, which brings to light with every gesture, with every fold of +clothing, the deep significance and essential import of every single +action. Everyone may, without too greatly straining his attention, notice +the very striking precision and weight with which the upper and lower +native classes observe these niceties of intercourse."[66] + +All this does not mean that the African Negro is not human with the +all-too-well-known foibles of humanity. Primitive life among them is, +after all, as bare and cruel as among primitive Germans or Chinese, but it +is not more so, and the more we study the Negro the more we realize that +we are dealing with a normal human stock which under reasonable conditions +has developed and will develop in the same lines as other men. Why is it, +then, that so much of misinformation and contempt is widespread concerning +Africa and its people, not simply among the unthinking mass, but among men +of education and knowledge? + +One reason lies undoubtedly in the connotation of the term "Negro." In +North America a Negro may be seven-eights white, since the term refers to +any person of Negro descent. If we use the term in the same sense +concerning the inhabitants of the rest of world, we may say truthfully +that Negroes have been among the leaders of civilization in every age of +the world's history from ancient Babylon to modern America; that they have +contributed wonderful gifts in art, industry, political organization, and +religion, and that they are doing the same to-day in all parts of the +world. + +In sharp contrast to this usage the term "Negro" in Africa has been more +and more restricted until some scientists, late in the last century, +declared that the great mass of the black and brown people of Africa were +not Negroes at all, and that the "real" Negro dwells in a small space +between the Niger and the Senegal. Ratzel says, "If we ask what justifies +so narrow a limitation, we find that the hideous Negro type, which the +fancy of observers once saw all over Africa, but which, as Livingstone +says, is really to be seen only as a sign in front of tobacco shops, has +on closer inspection evaporated from all parts of Africa, to settle no one +knows how in just this region. If we understand that an extreme case may +have been taken for the genuine and pure form, even so we do not +comprehend the ground of its geographical limitation and location; for +wherever dark, woolly-haired men dwell, this ugly type also crops up. We +are here in the presence of a refinement of science which to an +unprejudiced eye will hardly hold water."[67] + +In this restricted sense the Negro has no history, culture, or ability, +for the simple fact that such human beings as have history and evidence +culture and ability are not Negroes! Between these two extreme +definitions, with unconscious adroitness, the most extraordinary and +contradictory conclusions have been reached. + +Let it therefore be said, once for all, that racial inferiority is not the +cause of anti-Negro prejudice. Boaz, the anthropologist, says, "An +unbiased estimate of the anthropological evidence so far brought forward +does not permit us to countenance the belief in a racial inferiority which +would unfit an individual of the Negro race to take his part in modern +civilization. We do not know of any demand made on the human body or mind +in modern life that anatomical or ethnological evidence would prove to be +beyond the powers of the Negro."[68] + +"We have every reason to suppose that all races are capable, under proper +guidance, of being fitted into the complex scheme of our modern +civilization, and the policy of artificially excluding them from its +benefits is as unjustifiable scientifically as it is ethically +abhorrent."[69] What is, then, this so-called "instinctive" modern +prejudice against black folk? + +Lord Bryce says of the intermingling of blacks and whites in South +America, "The ease with which the Spaniards have intermingled by marriage +with the Indian tribes--and the Portuguese have done the like, not only +with the Indians, but with the more physically dissimilar Negroes--shows +that race repugnance is no such constant and permanent factor in human +affairs as members of the Teutonic peoples are apt to assume. Instead of +being, as we Teutons suppose, the rule in the matter, we are rather the +exception, for in the ancient world there seems to have been little race +repulsion." + +In nearly every age and land men of Negro descent have distinguished +themselves. In literature there is Terence in Rome, Nosseyeb and Antar in +Arabia, Es-Sa'di in the Sudan, Pushkin in Russia, Dumas in France, Al +Kanemi in Spain, Heredia in the West Indies, and Dunbar in the United +States, not to mention the alleged Negro strain in AEsop and Robert +Browning. As rulers and warriors we remember such Negroes as Queen +Nefertari and Amenhotep III among many others in Egypt; Candace and +Ergamenes in Ethiopia; Mansa Musa, Sonni Ali, and Mohammed Askai in the +Sudan; Diaz in Brazil, Toussaint L'Ouverture in Hayti, Hannivalov in +Russia, Sakanouye Tamuramaro in Japan, the elder Dumas in France, Cazembe +and Chaka among the Bantu, and Menelik, of Abyssinia; the numberless black +leaders of India, and the mulatto strain of Alexander Hamilton. In music +and art we recall Bridgewater, the friend of Beethoven, and the +unexplained complexion of Beethoven's own father; Coleridge-Taylor in +England, Tanner in America, Gomez in Spain; Ira Aldridge, the actor, and +Johnson, Cook, and Burleigh, who are making the new American syncopated +music. In the Church we know that Negro blood coursed in the veins of many +of the Catholic African fathers, if not in certain of the popes; and there +were in modern days Benoit of Palermo, St. Benedict, Bishop Crowther, the +Mahdi who drove England from the Sudan, and Americans like Allen, Lot +Carey, and Alexander Crummell. In science, discovery, and invention the +Negroes claim Lislet Geoffroy of the French Academy, Latino and Amo, well +known in European university circles; and in America the explorers +Dorantes and Henson; Banneker, the almanac maker; Wood, the telephone +improver; McCoy, inventor of modern lubrication; Matseliger, who +revolutionized shoemaking. Here are names representing all degrees of +genius and talent from the mediocre to the highest, but they are strong +human testimony to the ability of this race. + +We must, then, look for the origin of modern color prejudice not to +physical or cultural causes, but to historic facts. And we shall find the +answer in modern Negro slavery and the slave trade. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[35] "Some authors write that the Ethiopians paint the devil white, in +disdain of our complexions."--Ludolf: _History of Ethiopia_, p. 72. + +[36] Ripley: _Races of Europe_, pp. 58, 62. + +[37] Denniker: _Races of Men_, p. 63. + +[38] G. Finot: _Race Prejudice_. F. Herz: _Moderne Rassentheorien_. + +[39] Ratzel: quoted in Spiller: _Inter-Racial Problems_, p. 31. + +[40] Spiller: _Inter-Racial Problems_, p. 35. + +[41] Ratzel: _History of Mankind_, II, 380 ff. + +[42] _Industrial Evolution_, p. 47. + +[43] These and other references in this chapter are from Schneider: +Culturfaehigkeit des Negers. + +[44] Atlanta University Leaflet, No. 19. + +[45] _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_, XLIII, 414, 415. +Cf. also _The Crisis_, Vol. IX, p. 234. + +[46] Buecher: _Industrial Revolution_ (tr. by Wickett), pp. 57-58. + +[47] Hayford: _Native Institutions_, pp. 95-96. + +[48] Ratzel, II, 376. + +[49] Hayford: _Native Institutions_, pp. 76 ff. + +[50] _Impressions of South Africa_, 3d ed., p. 352. + +[51] William Schneider. + +[52] _West African Studies_, Chap. V. + +[53] _Op. cit._ + +[54] _Impressions of South Africa._ + +[55] Frobenius: _Voice of Africa_, Vol. I. + +[56] _West African Studies_, p. 107. + +[57] Nassau: _Fetishism in West Africa_, p. 36. + +[58] _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, 9th ed., XX, 362. + +[59] _The African Provinces_, II, 345. + +[60] _Mediterranean Race_, p. 10. + +[61] Stowe: _Native Races_, etc., pp. 553-554. + +[62] Quoted in Schneider. + +[63] Frobenius: _Voice of Africa_, Vol. I, Chap. XIV. + +[64] Frobenius: _Voice of Africa_, Vol. I. + +[65] Frobenius: _Voice of Africa_, I, 14-15. + +[66] Frobenius: _Voice of Africa_, I, 272. + +[67] Ratzel: _History of Mankind_, II, 313. + +[68] Atlanta University Publications, No. 11. + +[69] Robert Lowie in the _New Review_, Sept., 1914. + + + + +IX THE TRADE IN MEN + + +Color was never a badge of slavery in the ancient or medieval world, nor +has it been in the modern world outside of Christian states. Homer sings +of a black man, a "reverend herald" + + Of visage solemn, sad, but sable hue, + Short, woolly curls, o'erfleeced his bending head,... + Eurybiates, in whose large soul alone, + Ulysses viewed an image of his own. + +Greece and Rome had their chief supplies of slaves from Europe and Asia. +Egypt enslaved races of all colors, and if there were more blacks than +others among her slaves, there were also more blacks among her nobles and +Pharaohs, and both facts are explained by her racial origin and +geographical position. The fall of Rome led to a cessation of the slave +trade, but after a long interval came the white slave trade of the +Saracens and Moors, and finally the modern trade in Negroes. + +Slavery as it exists universally among primitive people is a system +whereby captives in war are put to tasks about the homes and in the +fields, thus releasing the warriors for systematic fighting and the women +for leisure. Such slavery has been common among all peoples and was +wide-spread in Africa. The relative number of African slaves under these +conditions was small and the labor not hard; they were members of the +family and might and did often rise to high position in the tribe. + +Remembering that in the fifteenth century there was no great disparity +between the civilization of Negroland and that of Europe, what made the +striking difference in subsequent development? European civilization, cut +off by physical barriers from further incursions of barbaric races, +settled more and more to systematic industry and to the domination of one +religion; African culture and industries were threatened by powerful +barbarians from the west and central regions of the continent and by the +Moors in the north, and Islam had only partially converted the leading +peoples. + +When, therefore, a demand for workmen arose in America, European +exportation was limited by religious ties and economic stability. African +exportation was encouraged not simply by the Christian attitude toward +heathen, but also by the Moslem enmity toward the unconverted Negroes. Two +great modern religions, therefore, agreed at least in the policy of +enslaving heathen blacks, while the overthrow of black Askias by the Moors +at Tenkadibou brought that economic chaos among the advanced Negro peoples +and movement among the more barbarous tribes which proved of prime +advantage to the development of a systematic trade in men. + +The modern slave trade began with the Mohammedan conquests in Africa, when +heathen Negroes were seized to supply the harems, and as soldiers and +servants. They were bought from the masters and seized in war, until the +growing wealth and luxury of the conquerors demanded larger numbers. Then +Negroes from the Egyptian Sudan, Abyssinia, and Zanzibar began to pass +into Arabia, Persia, and India in increased numbers. As Negro kingdoms and +tribes rose to power they found the slave trade lucrative and natural, +since the raids in which slaves were captured were ordinary inter-tribal +wars. It was not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the +demand for slaves in Christian lands made slaves the object, and not the +incident, of African wars. + +In Mohammedan countries there were gleams of hope in slavery. In fiction +and in truth the black slave had a chance. Once converted to Islam, he +became a brother to the best, and the brotherhood of the faith was not the +sort of idle lie that Christian slave masters made it. In Arabia black +leaders arose like Antar; in India black slaves carved out principalities +where their descendants still rule. + +Some Negro slaves were brought to Europe by the Spaniards in the +fourteenth century, and a small trade was continued by the Portuguese, who +conquered territory from the "tawny" Moors of North Africa in the early +fifteenth century. Later, after their severe repulse at Al-Kasr-Al-Kabu, +the Portuguese began to creep down the west coast in quest of trade. They +reached the River of Gold in 1441, and their story is that their leader +seized certain free Moors and the next year exchanged them for ten black +slaves, a target of hide, ostrich eggs, and some gold dust. The trade was +easily justified on the ground that the Moors were Mohammedans and refused +to be converted to Christianity, while heathen Negroes would be better +subjects for conversion and stronger laborers. In the next few years a +small number of Negroes continued to be imported into Spain and Portugal +as servants. We find, for instance, in 1474, that Negro slaves were common +in Seville. There is a letter from Ferdinand and Isabella in the year 1474 +to a celebrated Negro, Juan de Valladolid, commonly called the "Negro +Count" (El Conde Negro), nominating him to the office of "mayoral of the +Negroes" in Seville. The slaves were apparently treated kindly, allowed to +keep their own dances and festivals, and to have their own chief, who +represented them in the courts, as against their own masters, and settled +their private quarrels. + +Between 1455 and 1492 little mention is made of slaves in the trade with +Africa. Columbus is said to have suggested Negroes for America, but +Ferdinand and Isabella refused. Nevertheless, by 1501, we have the first +incidental mention of Negroes going to America in a declaration that Negro +slaves "born in the power of Christians were to be allowed to pass to the +Indies, and the officers of the royal revenue were to receive the money to +be paid for their permits." + +About 1501 Ovando, Governor of Spanish America, was objecting to Negro +slaves and "solicited that no Negro slaves should be sent to Hispaniola, +for they fled amongst the Indians and taught them bad customs, and never +could be captured." Nevertheless a letter from the king to Ovando, dated +Segovia, the fifteenth of September, 1505, says, "I will send more Negro +slaves as you request; I think there may be a hundred. At each time a +trustworthy person will go with them who may have some share in the gold +they may collect and may promise them ease if they work well."[70] There +is a record of a hundred slaves being sent out this very year, and Diego +Columbus was notified of fifty to be sent from Seville for the mines in +1510. + +After this time frequent notices show that Negroes were common in the new +world.[71] When Pizarro, for instance, had been slain in Peru, his body +was dragged to the cathedral by two Negroes. After the battle of Anaquito +the head of the viceroy was cut off by a Negro, and during the great +earthquake in Guatemala a most remarkable figure was a gigantic Negro seen +in various parts of the city. Nunez had thirty Negroes with him on the top +of the Sierras, and there was rumor of an aboriginal tribe of Negroes in +South America. One of the last acts of King Ferdinand was to urge that no +more Negroes be sent to the West Indies, but under Charles V, Bishop Las +Casas drew up a plan of assisted migration to America and asked in 1517 +the right for immigrants to import twelve Negro slaves, in return for +which the Indians were to be freed. + +Las Casas, writing in his old age, owns his error: "This advice that +license should be given to bring Negro slaves to these lands, the Clerigo +Casas first gave, not considering the injustice with which the Portuguese +take them and make them slaves; which advice, after he had apprehended the +nature of the thing, he would not have given for all he had in the world. +For he always held that they had been made slaves unjustly and +tyrannically; for the same reason holds good of them as of the +Indians[72]." + +As soon as the plan was broached a Savoyard, Lorens de Gomenot, Governor +of Bresa, obtained a monopoly of this proposed trade and shrewdly sold it +to the Genoese for twenty-five thousand ducats. Other monopolies were +granted in 1523, 1527, and 1528[73]. Thus the American trade became +established and gradually grew, passing successively into the hands of the +Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, and the English. + +At first the trade was of the same kind and volume as that already passing +northward over the desert routes. Soon, however, the American trade +developed. A strong, unchecked demand for brute labor in the West Indies +and on the continent of America grew until it culminated in the eighteenth +century, when Negro slaves were crossing the Atlantic at the rate of fifty +to one hundred thousand a year. This called for slave raiding on a scale +that drew upon every part of Africa--upon the west coast, the western and +Egyptian Sudan, the valley of the Congo, Abyssinia, the lake regions, the +east coast, and Madagascar. Not simply the degraded and weaker types of +Negroes were seized, but the strong Bantu, the Mandingo and Songhay, the +Nubian and Nile Negroes, the Fula, and even the Asiatic Malay, were +represented in the raids. + +There was thus begun in modern days a new slavery and slave trade. It was +different from that of the past, because more and more it came in time to +be founded on racial caste, and this caste was made the foundation of a +new industrial system. For four hundred years, from 1450 to 1850, European +civilization carried on a systematic trade in human beings of such +tremendous proportions that the physical, economic, and moral effects are +still plainly to be remarked throughout the world. To this must be added +the large slave trade of Mussulman lands, which began with the seventh +century and raged almost unchecked until the end of the nineteenth +century. + +These were not days of decadence, but a period that gave the world +Shakespeare, Martin Luther, and Raphael, Haroun-al-Raschid and Abraham +Lincoln. It was the day of the greatest expansion of two of the world's +most pretentious religions and of the beginnings of the modern +organization of industry. In the midst of this advance and uplift this +slave trade and slavery spread more human misery, inculcated more +disrespect for and neglect of humanity, a greater callousness to +suffering, and more petty, cruel, human hatred than can well be +calculated. We may excuse and palliate it, and write history so as to let +men forget it; it remains the most inexcusable and despicable blot on +modern human history. + +The Portuguese built the first slave-trading fort at Elmina, on the Gold +Coast, in 1482, and extended their trade down the west coast and up the +east coast. Under them the abominable traffic grew larger and larger, +until it became far the most important in money value of all the commerce +of the Zambesi basin. There could be no extension of agriculture, no +mining, no progress of any kind where it was so extensively carried +on[74]. + +It was the Dutch, however, who launched the oversea slave trade as a +regular institution. They began their fight for freedom from Spain in +1579; in 1595, as a war measure against Spain, who at that time was +dominating Portugal, they made their first voyage to Guinea. By 1621 they +had captured Portugal's various slave forts on the west coast and they +proceeded to open sixteen forts along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. +Ships sailed from Holland to Africa, got slaves in exchange for their +goods, carried the slaves to the West Indies or Brazil, and returned home +laden with sugar. In 1621 the private companies trading in the west were +all merged into the Dutch West India Company, which sent in four years +fifteen thousand four hundred and thirty Negroes to Brazil, carried on war +with Spain, supplied even the English plantations, and gradually became +the great slave carrier of the day. + +The commercial supremacy of the Dutch early excited the envy and emulation +of the English. The Navigation Ordinance of 1651 was aimed at them, and +two wars were necessary to wrest the slave trade from them and place it in +the hands of the English. The final terms of peace, among other things, +surrendered New Netherlands to England and opened the way for England to +become henceforth the world's greatest slave trader. + +The English trade began with Sir John Hawkins' voyages in 1562 and later, +in which "the Jesus, our chiefe shippe" played a leading part. Desultory +trade was kept up by the English until the middle of the seventeenth +century, when English chartered slave-trading companies began to appear. +In 1662 the "Royal Adventurers," including the king, the queen dowager, +and the Duke of York, invested in the trade, and finally the Royal African +Company, which became the world's chief slave trader, was formed in 1672 +and carried on a growing trade for a quarter of a century. Jamaica had +finally been captured and held by Oliver Cromwell in 1655 and formed a +West Indian base for the trade in men. + +The chief contract for trade in Negroes was the celebrated "Asiento" or +agreement of the King of Spain to the importation of slaves into Spanish +domains. The Pope's Bull or Demarkation, 1493, debarred Spain from African +possessions, and compelled her to contract with other nations for slaves. +This contract was in the hands of the Portuguese in 1600; in 1640 the +Dutch received it, and in 1701 the French. The War of the Spanish +Succession brought this monopoly to England. + +This Asiento of 1713 was an agreement between England and Spain by which +the latter granted the former a monopoly of the Spanish colonial slave +trade for thirty years, and England engaged to supply the colonies within +that time with at least one hundred and forty-four thousand slaves at the +rate of forty-eight hundred per year. The English counted this prize as +the greatest result of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), which ended the +mighty struggle against the power of Louis XIV. The English held the +monopoly until the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), although they had to +go to war over it in 1739. + +From this agreement the slave traders reaped a harvest. The trade centered +at Liverpool, and that city's commercial greatness was built largely on +this foundation. In 1709 it sent out one slaver of thirty tons' burden; +encouraged by Parliamentary subsidies which amounted to nearly half a +million dollars between 1729 and 1750, the trade amounted to fifty-three +ships in 1751; eighty-six in 1765, and at the beginning of the nineteenth +century one hundred and eighty-five, which carried forty-nine thousand two +hundred and thirteen slaves in one year. + +The slave trade thus begun by the Portuguese, enlarged by the Dutch, and +carried to its culmination by the English centered on the west coast near +the seat of perhaps the oldest and most interesting culture of Africa. It +came at a critical time. The culture of Yoruba, Benin, Mossiland, and Nupe +had exhausted itself in a desperate attempt to stem the on-coming flood of +Mohammedan culture. It has succeeded in maintaining its small, loosely +federated city-states suited to trade, industry, and art. It had developed +strong resistance toward the Sudan state builders toward the north, as in +the case of the fighting Mossi; but behind this warlike resistance lay the +peaceful city life which gave industrial ideas to Byzantium and shared +something of Ethiopian and Mediterranean culture. + +The first advent of the slave traders increased and encouraged native +industry, as is evidenced by the bronze work of Benin; but soon this was +pushed into the background, for it was not bronze metal but bronze flesh +that Europe wanted. A new tyranny, blood-thirsty, cruel, and built on war, +forced itself forward in the Niger delta. The powerful state of Dahomey +arose early in the eighteenth century and became a devastating tyranny, +reaching its highest power early in the nineteenth century. Ashanti, a +similar kingdom, began its conquests in 1719 and grew with the slave +trade. Thus state building in West Africa began to replace the city +economy, but it was a state built on war and on war supported and +encouraged largely for the sake of trade in human flesh. The native +industries were changed and disorganized. Family ties and government were +weakened. Far into the heart of Africa this devilish disintegration, +coupled with Christian rum and Mohammedan raiding, penetrated. The face of +Africa was turned south on these slave traders instead of northward toward +the Mediterranean, where for two thousand years and more Europe and Africa +had met in legitimate trade and mutual respect. The full significance of +the battle of Tenkadibou, which overthrew the Askias, was now clear. +Hereafter Africa for centuries was to appear before the world, not as the +land of gold and ivory, of Mansa Musa and Meroe, but as a bound and +captive slave, dumb and degraded. + +The natural desire to avoid a painful subject has led historians to gloss +over the details of the slave trade and leave the impression that it was a +local west-coast phenomenon and confined to a few years. It was, on the +contrary, continent wide and centuries long and an economic, social, and +political catastrophe probably unparalleled in human history. + +The exact proportions of the slave trade can be estimated only +approximately. From 1680 to 1688 we know that the English African Company +alone 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. + +It seems probable that 25,000 Negroes a year arrived in America between +1698 and 1707. After the Asiento of 1713 this number rose to 30,000 +annually, and before the Revolutionary War it had reached at least 40,000 +and perhaps 100,000 slaves a year. + +The total number of slaves imported is not known. Dunbar estimates that +nearly 900,000 came to America in the sixteenth century, 2,750,000 in the +seventeenth, 7,000,000 in the eighteenth, and over 4,000,000 in the +nineteenth, perhaps 15,000,000 in all. Certainly it seems that at least +10,000,000 Negroes were expatriated. Probably every slave imported +represented on the average five corpses in Africa or on the high seas. The +American slave trade, therefore, meant the elimination of at least +60,000,000 Negroes from their fatherland. The Mohammedan slave trade meant +the expatriation or forcible migration in Africa of nearly as many more. +It would be conservative, then, to say that the slave trade cost Negro +Africa 100,000,000 souls. And yet people ask to-day the cause of the +stagnation of culture in that land since 1600! + +Such a large number of slaves could be supplied only by organized slave +raiding in every corner of Africa. The African continent gradually became +revolutionized. Whole regions were depopulated, whole tribes disappeared; +villages were built in caves and on hills or in forest fastnesses; the +character of peoples like those of Benin developed their worst excesses of +cruelty instead of the already flourishing arts of peace. The dark, +irresistible grasp of fetish took firmer hold on men's minds. + +Further advances toward civilization became impossible. Not only was there +the immense demand for slaves which had its outlet on the west coast, but +the slave caravans were streaming up through the desert to the +Mediterranean coast and down the valley of the Nile to the centers of +Mohammedanism. It was a rape of a continent to an extent never paralleled +in ancient or modern times. + +In the American trade there was not only the horrors of the slave raid, +which lined the winding paths of the African jungles with bleached bones, +but there was also the horrors of what was called the "middle passage," +that is, the voyage across the Atlantic. As Sir William Dolben said, "The +Negroes were chained to each other hand and foot, and stowed so close that +they were not allowed above a foot and a half for each in breadth. Thus +crammed together like herrings in a barrel, they contracted putrid and +fatal disorders; so that they who came to inspect them in a morning had +occasionally to pick dead slaves out of their rows, and to unchain their +carcases from the bodies of their wretched fellow-sufferers to whom they +had been fastened[75]." + +It was estimated that out of every one hundred lot shipped from Africa +only about fifty lived to be effective laborers across the sea, and among +the whites more seamen died in that trade in one year than in the whole +remaining trade of England in two. The full realization of the horrors of +the slave trade was slow in reaching the ears and conscience of the modern +world, just as to-day the treatment of dark natives in European colonies +is brought to publicity with the greatest difficulty. The first move +against the slave trade in England came in Parliament in 1776, but it was +not until thirty-one years later, in 1807, that the trade was banned +through the arduous labors of Clarkson, Wilberforce, Sharpe, and others. + +Denmark had already abolished the trade, and the United States attempted +to do so the following year. Portugal and Spain were induced to abolish +the trade between 1815 and 1830. Notwithstanding these laws, the +contraband trade went on until the beginning of the Civil War in America. +The reasons for this were the enormous profit of the trade and the +continued demand of the American slave barons, who had no sympathy with +the efforts to stop their source of cheap labor supply. + +However, philanthropy was not working alone to overthrow Negro slavery and +the slave trade. It was seen, first in England and later in other +countries, that slavery as an industrial system could not be made to work +satisfactorily in modern times. Its cost was too great, and one of the +causes of this cost was the slave insurrections from the very beginning, +when the slaves rose on the plantation of Diego Columbus down to the Civil +War in America. Actual and potential slave insurrection in the West +Indies, in North and South America, kept the slave owners in apprehension +and turmoil, or called for a police system difficult to maintain. In North +America revolt finally took the form of organized running away to the +North, and this, with the growing scarcity of suitable land and the moral +revolt, led to the Civil War and the disappearance of the American slave +trade. + +There was still, however, the Mohammedan slave trade to deal with, and +this has been the work of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In +the last quarter of the nineteenth century ten thousand slaves annually +were being distributed on the southern and eastern coast of the +Mediterranean and at the great slave market in Bornu. + +On the east coast of Africa in 1862 nineteen thousand slaves were passed +into Zanzibar and thence into Arabia and Persia. As late as 1880, three +thousand annually were being thus transplanted, but now the trade is about +stopped. To-day the only centers of actual slave trading may be said to be +the cocoa plantations of the Portuguese Islands on the west coast of +Africa, and the Congo Free State. + +Such is the story of the Rape of Ethiopia--a sordid, pitiful, cruel tale. +Raphael painted, Luther preached, Corneille wrote, and Milton sung; and +through it all, for four hundred years, the dark captives wound to the sea +amid the bleaching bones of the dead; for four hundred years the sharks +followed the scurrying ships; for four hundred years America was strewn +with the living and dying millions of a transplanted race; for four +hundred years Ethiopia stretched forth her hands unto God. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[70] Cf. Helps: _Spanish Conquest_, IV, 401. + +[71] Helps, _op. cit._, I, 219-220. + +[72] Helps, _op. cit._, II, 18-19. + +[73] Helps, _op. cit._, III, 211-212. + +[74] Theal: _History and Ethnography of South Africa before 1795_, I, 476. + +[75] Ingram: _History of Slavery_, p. 152. + + + + +X THE WEST INDIES AND LATIN AMERICA + + +That was a wonderful century, the fifteenth, when men realized that beyond +the scowling waste of western waters were dreams come true. Curious and +yet crassly human it is that, with all this poetry and romance, arose at +once the filthiest institution of the modern world and the costliest. For +on Negro slavery in America was built, not simply the abortive cotton +kingdom, but the foundations of that modern imperialism which is based on +the despising of backward men. + +According to some accounts Alonzo, "the Negro," piloted one of the ships +of Columbus, and certainly there was Negro blood among his sailors. As +early as 1528 there were nearly ten thousand Negroes in the new world. We +hear of them in all parts. In Honduras, for instance, a Negro is sent to +burn a native village; in 1555 the town council of Santiago de Chile voted +to allow an enfranchised Negro possession of land in the town, and +evidently treated him just as white applicants were treated. D'Allyon, who +explored the coast of Virginia in the first quarter of the sixteenth +century, used Negro slaves (who afterward revolted) to build his ships and +help in exploration; Balboa had with him thirty Negroes, who, in 1513, +helped to build the first ships on the Pacific coast; Cortez had three +hundred Negro porters in 1522. + +Before 1530 there were enough Negroes in Mexico to lead to an +insurrection, where the Negroes fought desperately, but were overcome and +their ringleaders executed. Later the followers of another Negro +insurgent, Bayano, were captured and sent back to Spain. Negroes founded +the town of Santiago del Principe in 1570, and in 1540 a Negro slave of +Hernandez de Alarcon was the only one of the party to carry a message +across the country to the Zunis of New Mexico. A Negro, Stephen Dorantes, +discovered New Mexico. This Stephen or "Estevanico" was sent ahead by +certain Spanish friars to the "Seven Cities of Cibola." "As soon as +Stephen had left said friars, he determined to earn all the reputation and +honor for himself, and that the boldness and daring of having alone +discovered those villages of high stories so much spoken of throughout +that country should be attributed to him; and carrying along with him the +people who followed him, he endeavored to cross the wilderness which is +between Cibola and the country he had gone through, and he was so far +ahead of the friars that when they arrived at Chichilticalli, which is on +the edge of the wilderness, he was already at Cibola, which is eighty +leagues of wilderness beyond." But the Indians of the new and strange +country took alarm and concluded that Stephen "must be a spy or guide for +some nations who intended to come and conquer them, because it seemed to +them unreasonable for him to say that the people were white in the country +from which he came, being black himself and being sent by them."[76] + +Slaves imported under the Asiento treaties went to all parts of the +Americas. Spanish America had by the close of the eighteenth century ten +thousand in Santo Domingo, eighty-four thousand in Cuba, fifty thousand in +Porto Rico, sixty thousand in Louisiana and Florida, and sixty thousand in +Central and South America. + +The history of the Negro in Spanish America centered in Cuba, Venezuela, +and Central America. In the sixteenth century slaves began to arrive in +Cuba and Negroes joined many of the exploring expeditions from there to +various parts of America. The slave trade greatly increased in the latter +part of the eighteenth century, and after the revolution in Hayti large +numbers of French emigrants from that island settled in Cuba. This and +Spanish greed increased the harshness of slavery and eventually led to +revolt among the Negroes. In 1844 Governor O'Donnell began a cruel +persecution of the blacks on account of a plot discovered among them. +Finally in 1866 the Ten Years' War broke out in which Negro and white +rebels joined. They demanded the abolition of slavery and equal political +rights for natives and foreigners, whites and blacks. The war was cruel +and bloody but ended in 1878 with the abolition of slavery, while a +further uprising the following year secured civil rights for Negroes. +Spanish economic oppression continued, however, and the leading chiefs of +the Ten Years' War including such leaders as the mulatto, Antonio Maceo, +with large numbers of Negro soldiers, took the field again in 1895. The +result was the freeing of Cuba by the intervention of the United States. +Negro regiments from the United States played here a leading role. A +number of leaders in Cuba in political, industrial, and literary lines +have been men of Negro descent. + +Slavery was abolished by Guatemala in 1824 and by Mexico in 1829. +Argentine, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Paraguay ceased to recognize it about +1825. Between 1840 and 1845 it came to an end in Colombia, Venezuela, and +Ecquador. Bolivar, Paez, Sucre, and other South American leaders used +Negro soldiers in fighting for freedom (1814-16), and Hayti twice at +critical times rendered assistance and received Bolivar twice as a +refugee. + +Brazil was the center of Portuguese slavery, but slaves were not +introduced in large numbers until about 1720, when diamonds were +discovered in the territory above Rio Janeiro. Gradually the seaboard from +Pernambuco to Rio Janeiro and beyond became filled with Negroes, and +although the slave trade north of the equator was theoretically abolished +by Portugal in 1815 and south of the equator in 1830, and by Brazil in +these regions in 1826 and 1830, nevertheless between 1825 and 1850 over a +million and a quarter of Negroes were introduced. Not until Brazil +abolished slavery in 1888 did the importation wholly cease. Brazilian +slavery allowed the slave to purchase his freedom, and the color line was +not strict. Even in the eighteenth century there were black clergy and +bishops; indeed the Negro clergy seem to have been on a higher moral level +than the whites. + +Insurrection was often attempted, especially among the Mohammedan Negroes +around Bahia. In 1695 a tribe of revolted slaves held out for a long time. +In 1719 a widespread conspiracy failed, but many of the leaders fled to +the forest. In 1828 a thousand rose in revolt at Bahia, and again in 1830. +From 1831 to 1837 revolt was in the air, and in 1835 came the great revolt +of the Mohammedans, who attempted to enthrone a queen. The Negroes fought +with furious bravery, but were finally defeated. + +By 1872 the number of free Negroes had very greatly increased, so that +emancipation did not come as a shock. While Mohammedan Negroes still gave +trouble and were in some cases sent back to Africa, yet on the whole +emancipation was peaceful, and whites, Negroes, and Indians are to-day +amalgamating into a new race. "At the present moment there is scarcely a +lowly or a highly placed federal or provincial official at the head of or +within any of the great departments of state that has not more or less +Negro or Amer-Indian blood in his veins."[77] + +Lord Bryce says, "It is hardly too much to say that along the coast from +Rio to Bahia and Pernambuco, as well as in parts of the interior behind +these two cities, the black population predominates.... The Brazilian +lower class intermarries freely with the black people; the Brazilian +middle class intermarries with mulattoes and Quadroons. Brazil is the one +country in the world, besides the Portuguese colonies on the east and west +coasts of Africa, in which a fusion of the European and African races is +proceeding unchecked by law or custom. The doctrines of human equality and +human solidarity have here their perfect work. The result is so far +satisfactory that there is little or no class friction. The white man does +not lynch or maltreat the Negro; indeed I have never heard of a lynching +anywhere in South America except occasionally as part of a political +convulsion. The Negro is not accused of insolence and does not seem to +develop any more criminality than naturally belongs to any ignorant +population with loose notions of morality and property. + +"What ultimate effect the intermixture of blood will have on the European +element in Brazil I will not venture to predict. If one may judge from a +few remarkable cases, it will not necessarily reduce the intellectual +standard. One of the ablest and most refined Brazilians I have known had +some color; and other such cases have been mentioned to me. Assumptions +and preconceptions must be eschewed, however plausible they may +seem."[78] + +A Brazilian writer said at the First Races Congress: "The cooperation of +the _metis_[79] in the advance of Brazil is notorious and far from +inconsiderable. They played the chief part during many years in Brazil in +the campaign for the abolition of slavery. I could quote celebrated names +of more than one of these _metis_ who put themselves at the head of the +literary movement. They fought with firmness and intrepidity in the press +and on the platform. They faced with courage the gravest perils to which +they were exposed in their struggle against the powerful slave owners, who +had the protection of a conservative government. They gave evidence of +sentiments of patriotism, self-denial, and appreciation during the long +campaign in Paraguay, fighting heroically at the boarding of the ships in +the naval battle of Riachuelo and in the attacks on the Brazilian army, on +numerous occasions in the course of this long South American war. It was +owing to their support that the republic was erected on the ruins of the +empire."[80] + +The Dutch brought the first slaves to the North American continent. John +Rolfe relates that the last of August, 1619, there came to Virginia "a +Dutch man of warre that sold us twenty Negars."[81] This was probably one +of the ships of the numerous private Dutch trading companies which early +entered into the developed and the lucrative African slave trade. Although +the Dutch thus commenced the continental slave trade they did not actually +furnish a very large number of slaves to the English colonies outside the +West Indies. A small trade had by 1698 brought a few thousand to New York +and still fewer to New Jersey. + +The Dutch found better scope for slaves in Guiana, which they settled in +1616. Sugar cane became the staple crop, but the Negroes early began to +revolt and the Dutch brought in East Indian coolies. The slaves were badly +treated and the runaways joined the revolted Bush Negroes in the interior. +From 1715 to 1775 there was continuous fighting with the Bush Negroes or +insurrections, until at last in 1749 a formal treaty between sixteen +hundred Negroes and the Dutch was made. Immediately a new group revolted +under a Mohammedan, Arabi, and they obtained land and liberty. In 1763 the +coast Negroes revolted. They were checked, but made terms and settled in +the interior. The Bush Negroes fought against both French and English to +save Guiana to the Dutch, but Guiana was eventually divided between the +three. The Bush Negroes still maintain their independence and vigor. + +The French encouraged settlements in the West Indies in the seventeenth +century, but at last, finding that French immigrants would not come, they +began about 1642 to import Negroes. Owing to wars with England, slaves +were supplied by the Dutch and Portuguese, although the Royal Senegal +Company held the coveted Asiento from 1701 to 1713. + +It was in the island of Hayti, however, that French slavery centered. +Pirates from many nations, but chiefly French, began to frequent the +island, and in 1663 the French annexed the eastern part, thus dividing the +island between France and Spain. By 1680 there were so many slaves and +mulattoes that Louis XIV issued his celebrated Code Noir, which was +notable in compelling bachelor masters, fathers of slave children, to +marry their concubines. Children followed the condition of the mother as +to slavery or freedom; they could have no property; harsh punishments were +provided for, but families could not be separated by sale except in the +case of grown children; emancipation with full civil rights was made +possible for any slave twenty years of age or more. When Louisiana was +settled and the Alabama coast, slaves were introduced there. Louisiana was +transferred to Spain in 1762, against the resistance of both settlers and +slaves, but Spain took possession in 1769 and introduced more Negroes. + +Later, in Hayti, a more liberal policy encouraged trade; war was over and +capital and slaves poured in. Sugar, coffee, chocolate, indigo, dyes, and +spices were raised. There were large numbers of mulattoes, many of whom +were educated in France, and many masters married Negro women who had +inherited large properties, just as in the United States to-day white men +are marrying eagerly the landed Indian women in the West. When white +immigration increased in 1749, however, prejudice arose against these +mulattoes and severe laws were passed depriving them of civil rights, +entrance into the professions, and the right to hold office; severe edicts +were enforced as to clothing, names, and social intercourse. Finally, +after 1777, mulattoes were forbidden to come to France. + +When the French Revolution broke out, the Haytians managed to send two +delegates to Paris. Nevertheless the planters maintained the upper hand, +and one of the colored delegates, Oge, on returning, started a small +rebellion. He and his companions were killed with great brutality. This +led the French government to grant full civil rights to free Negroes, +Immediately planters and free Negroes flew to arms against each other and +then, suddenly, August 22, 1791, the black slaves, of whom there were four +hundred and fifty-two thousand, arose in revolt to help the free Negroes. + +For many years runaway slaves had hidden in the mountains under their own +chiefs. One of the earliest of these chiefs was Polydor, in 1724, who was +succeeded by Macandal. The great chief of these runaways or "Maroons" at +the time of the slave revolt was Jean Francois, who was soon succeeded by +Biassou. + +Pierre Dominic Toussaint, known as Toussaint L'Ouverture, joined these +Maroon bands, where he was called "the doctor of the armies of the king," +and soon became chief aid to Jean Francois and Biassou. Upon their deaths +Toussaint rose to the chief command. He acquired complete control over the +blacks, not only in military matters, but in politics and social +organization; "the soldiers regarded him as a superior being, and the +farmers prostrated themselves before him. All his generals trembled before +him (Dessalines did not dare to look in his face), and all the world +trembled before his generals."[82] + +The revolt once started, blacks and mulattoes murdered whites without +mercy and the whites retaliated. Commissioners were sent from France, who +asked simply civil rights for freedmen, and not emancipation. Indeed that +was all that Toussaint himself had as yet demanded. The planters intrigued +with the British and this, together with the beheading of the king (an +impious act in the eyes of Negroes), induced Toussaint to join the +Spaniards. In 1793 British troops were landed and the French commissioners +in desperation declared the slaves emancipated. This at once won back +Toussaint from the Spaniards. He became supreme in the north, while +Rigaud, leader of the mulattoes, held the south and the west. By 1798 the +British, having lost most of their forces by yellow fever, surrendered +Mole St. Nicholas to Toussaint and departed. Rigaud finally left for +France, and Toussaint in 1800 was master of Hayti. He promulgated a +constitution under which Hayti was to be a self-governing colony; all men +were equal before the law, and trade was practically free. Toussaint was +to be president for life, with the power to name his successor. + +Napoleon Bonaparte, master of France, had at this time dreams of a great +American empire, and replied to Toussaint's new government by sending +twenty-five thousand men under his brother-in-law to subdue the +presumptuous Negroes, as a preliminary step to his occupation and +development of the Mississippi valley. Fierce fighting and yellow fever +decimated the French, but matters went hard with the Negroes too, and +Toussaint finally offered to yield. He was courteously received with +military honors and then, as soon as possible, treacherously seized, +bound, and sent to France. He was imprisoned at Fort Joux and died, +perhaps of poison, after studied humiliations, April 7, 1803. + +Thus perished the greatest of American Negroes and one of the great men of +all time, at the age of fifty-six. A French planter said, "God in his +terrestrial globe did not commune with a purer spirit."[83] Wendell +Phillips said, "Some doubt the courage of the Negro. Go to Hayti and stand +on those fifty thousand graves of the best soldiers France ever had and +ask them what they think of the Negro's sword. I would call him Napoleon, +but Napoleon made his way to empire over broken oaths and through a sea of +blood. This man never broke his word. I would call him Cromwell, but +Cromwell was only a soldier, and the state he founded went down with him +into his grave. I would call him Washington, but the great Virginian held +slaves. This man risked his empire rather than permit the slave trade in +the humblest village of his dominions. You think me a fanatic, for you +read history, not with your eyes, but with your prejudices. But fifty +years hence, when Truth gets a hearing, the Muse of history will put +Phocion for the Greek, Brutus for the Roman, Hampden for the English, La +Fayette for France, choose Washington as the bright, consummate flower of +our earlier civilization, then, dipping her pen in the sunlight, will +write in the clear blue, above them all, the name of the soldier, the +statesman, the martyr, Toussaint L'Ouverture." + +The treacherous killing of Toussaint did not conquer Hayti. In 1802 and +1803 some forty thousand French soldiers died of war and fever. A new +colored leader, Dessalines, arose and all the eight thousand remaining +French surrendered to the blockading British fleet. + +The effect of all this was far-reaching. Napoleon gave up his dream of +American empire and sold Louisiana for a song. "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 a Robert Livingstone or a Jefferson, but +to-day 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."[84] + +With the freedom of Hayti in 1801 came a century of struggle to fit the +people for the freedom they had won. They were yet slaves, crushed by a +cruel servitude, without education or religious instruction. The Haytian +leaders united upon Dessalines to maintain the independence of the +republic. Dessalines, like Toussaint and his lieutenant Christophe, was +noted in slavery days for his severity toward his fellows and the +discipline which he insisted on. He had other characteristics of African +chieftains. "There were seasons when he broke through his natural +sullenness and showed himself open, affable, and even generous. His vanity +was excessive and manifested itself in singular perversities."[85] He was +a man of great personal bravery and succeeded in maintaining the +independence of Hayti, which had already cost the Frenchmen fifty thousand +lives. + +On January 1, 1804, at the place whence Toussaint had been treacherously +seized and sent to France, the independence of Hayti was declared by the +military leaders. Dessalines was made governor-general for life and +afterward proclaimed himself emperor. This was not an act of +grandiloquence and mimicry. "It is truer to say that in it both Dessalines +and later Christophe were actuated by a clear insight into the social +history and peculiarities of their people. There was nothing in the +constitution which did not have its companion in Africa, where the +organization of society was despotic, with elective hereditary chiefs, +royal families, polygamic marriages, councils, and regencies."[86] + +The population was divided into soldiers and laborers. The territory was +parceled out to chiefs, and the laborers were bound to the soil and worked +under rigorous inspection; part of the products were reserved for their +support, and the rest went to the chiefs, the king, the general +government, and the army. The army was under stern discipline and +military service was compulsory. Women did much of the agricultural labor. +Under Toussaint the administration of this system was committed to +Dessalines, who carried it out with rigor; it was afterward followed by +Christophe. The latter even imported four thousand Negroes from Africa, +from whom he formed a national guard for patrolling the land. These +regulations brought back for a time a large part of the former prosperity +of the island. + +The severity with which Dessalines enforced the laws soon began to turn +many against him. The educated mulattoes especially objected to submission +to the savage African _mores_. Dessalines started to suppress their +revolt, but was killed in ambush in October, 1806. + +Great Britain now began to intrigue for a protectorate over the island and +the Spanish end of the island threatened attack. These difficulties were +overcome, but at a cost of great internal strain. After the death of +Dessalines it seemed that Hayti was about to dissolve into a number of +petty subdivisions. At one time Christophe was ruling as king in the +north, Petion as president at Port au Prince, Rigaud in the south, and a +semi-brigand, Goman, in the extreme southwest. Very soon, however, the +rivalry narrowed down to Petion and Christophe. Petion was a man of +considerable ability and did much, not simply for Hayti, but for South +America. Already as early as 1779, before the revolution in Hayti, the +Haytian Negroes had helped the United States. The British had captured +Savannah in 1778. The French fleet appeared on the coast of Georgia late +that year and was ordered to recruit men in Hayti. Eight hundred young +freedmen, blacks and mulattoes, offered to take part in the expedition, +and they fought valiantly in the siege and covered themselves with glory. +It was this legion that made the charge on the British and saved the +retreating American army. Among the men who fought there was Christophe. + +When Simon Bolivar, Commodore Aury, and many Venezuelan families were +driven from their country in 1815, they and their ships took temporary +refuge in Hayti. Notwithstanding the embarrassed condition of the +republic, Petion received them and gave them four thousand rifles with +ammunition, provisions, and last and best a printing press. He also +settled some international quarrels among members of the groups, and +Bolivar expressed himself afterward as being "overwhelmed with magnanimous +favors."[87] + +Petion died in 1818 and was succeeded by his friend Boyer. Christophe +committed suicide the following year and Boyer became not simply ruler of +western Hayti, but also, by arrangement with the eastern end of the +island, gained the mastery there, where they were afraid of Spanish +aggression. Thus from 1822 to 1843 Boyer, a man of much ability, ruled the +whole of the island and gained the recognition of Haytian independence +from France and other nations. + +France, under Charles X, demanded an indemnity of thirty million dollars +to reimburse the planters for confiscated lands and property. This Hayti +tried to pay, but the annual installment was a tremendous burden to the +impoverished country. Further negotiations were entered into. Finally in +1838 France recognized the independence of the republic and the indemnity +was reduced to twelve million dollars. Even this was a large burden for +Hayti, and the payment of it for years crippled the island. + +The United States and Great Britain in 1825-26 recognized the independence +of Hayti. A concordat was arranged with the Pope for governing the church +in Hayti, and finally in 1860 the church placed under the French +hierarchy. Thus Boyer did unusually well; but his necessary concessions to +France weakened his influence at home, and finally an earthquake, which +destroyed several towns in 1842, raised the superstitious of the populace +against him. He resigned in 1843, leaving the treasury well filled; but +with his withdrawal the Spanish portion of the island was lost to Hayti. + +The subsequent history of Hayti since 1843 has been the struggle of a +small divided country to maintain political independence. The rich +resources of the country called for foreign capital, but outside capital +meant political influence from abroad, which the little nation rightly +feared. Within, the old antagonism between the freedman and the slave +settled into a color line between the mulatto and the black, which for a +time meant the difference between educated liberalism and reactionary +ignorance. This difference has largely disappeared, but some vestiges of +the color line remain. The result has been reaction and savagery under +Soulouque, Dominique, and Nord Alexis, and decided advance under +presidents like Nissage-Saget, Solomon, Legitime, and Hyppolite. + +In political life Hayti is still in the sixteenth century; but in +economic life she has succeeded in placing on their own little farms the +happiest and most contented peasantry in the world, after raising them +from a veritable hell of slavery. If modern capitalistic greed can be +restrained from interference until the best elements of Hayti secure +permanent political leadership the triumph of the revolution will be +complete. + +In other parts of the French-American dominion the slaves achieved freedom +also by insurrection. In Guadeloupe they helped the French drive out the +British, and thus gained emancipation. In Martinique it took three revolts +and a civil war to bring freedom. + +The English slave empire in America centered in the Bermudas, Barbadoes, +Jamaica and the lesser islands, and in the United States. Barbadoes +developed a savage slave code, and the result was attempted slave +insurrections in 1674, 1692, and 1702. These were not successful, but a +rising in 1816 destroyed much property under the leadership of a mulatto, +Washington Franklin, and the repeal of bad laws and eventual +enfranchisement of the colored people followed. One Barbadian mulatto, Sir +Conrad Reeves, has held the position of chief justice in the island and +was knighted. A Negro insurrection in Dominica under Farcel greatly +exercised England in 1791 and 1794 and delayed slave trade abolition; in +1844 and 1847 further uprisings took place, and these continued from 1853 +to 1893. + +The chief island domain of English slavery was Jamaica. It was Oliver +Cromwell who, in his zeal for God and the slave trade, sent an expedition +to seize Hayti. His fleet, driven off there, took Jamaica in 1655. The +English found the mountains already infested with runaway slaves known as +"Maroons," and more Negroes joined them when the English arrived. In 1663 +the freedom of the Maroons was acknowledged, land was given them, and +their leader, Juan de Bolas, was made a colonel in the militia. He was +killed, however, in the following year, and from 1664 to 1738 the three +thousand or more black Maroons fought the British Empire in guerrilla +warfare. Soldiers, Indians, and dogs were sent against them, and finally +in 1738 Captain Cudjo and other chiefs made a formal treaty of peace with +Governor Trelawney. They were granted twenty-five hundred acres and their +freedom was recognized. + +The peace lasted until 1795, when they rebelled again and gave the +British a severe drubbing, besides murdering planters. Bloodhounds again +were imported. The Maroons offered to surrender on the express condition +that none of their number should be deported from the island, as the +legislature wished. General Walpole hesitated, but could get peace on no +other terms and gave his word. The Maroons surrendered their arms, and +immediately the whites seized six hundred of the ringleaders and +transported them to the snows of Nova Scotia! The legislature then voted a +sword worth twenty-five hundred dollars to General Walpole, which he +indignantly refused to accept. Eventually these exiled Maroons found their +way to Sierra Leone, West Africa, in time to save that colony to the +British crown.[88] + +The pressing desire for peace with the Maroons on the part of the white +planters arose from the new sugar culture introduced in 1673. A greatly +increased demand for slaves followed, and between 1700 and 1786 six +hundred and ten thousand slaves were imported; nevertheless, so severely +were they driven, that there were only three hundred thousand Negroes in +Jamaica in the latter year. + +Despite the Moravian missions and other efforts late in the eighteenth +century, unrest among the Jamaica slaves and freedmen grew and was +increased by the anti-slavery agitation in England and the revolt in +Hayti. There was an insurrection in 1796; and in 1831 again the Negroes of +northwest Jamaica, impatient because of the slow progress of the +emancipation, arose in revolt and destroyed nearly three and a half +million dollars' worth of property, well-nigh ruining the planters there. +The next year two hundred and fifty-five thousand slaves were set free, +for which the planters were paid nearly thirty million dollars. There +ensued a discouraging condition of industry. The white officials sent out +in these days were arbitrary and corrupt. Little was done for the mass of +the people and there was outrageous over-taxation. Nevertheless the +backwardness of the colony was attributed to the Negro. Governor Eyre +complained in 1865 that the young and strong were good for nothing and +were filling the jails; but a simultaneous report by a missionary told the +truth concerning the officials. This aroused the colored people, and a +mulatto, George William Gordon, called a meeting. Other meetings were +afterward held, and finally the Negro peasantry began a riot in 1861, in +which eighteen people were killed, only a few of whom were white. + +The result was that Governor Eyre tried and executed by court-martial 354 +persons, and in addition to this killed without trial 85, a total of 439. +One thousand Negro homes were burned to the ground and thousands of +Negroes flogged or mutilated. Children had their brains dashed out, +pregnant women were murdered, and Gordon was tried by court-martial and +hanged. In fact the punishment was, as the royal commissioners said, +"reckless and positively barbarous."[89] + +This high-handed act aroused England. Eyre was not punished, but the +island was made a crown colony in 1866, and given representation in the +legislature in 1886. + +In the island of St. Vincent, Indians first sought to enslave the fugitive +Negroes wrecked there, but the Negroes took the Carib women and then drove +the Indian men away. These "black Caribs" fought with Indians, English, +and others for three quarters of a century, until the Indians were +exterminated. The British took possession in 1763. The black Caribs +resisted, and after hard fighting signed a treaty in 1773, receiving +one-third of the island as their property. They afterward helped the +French against the British, and were finally deported to the island of +Ruatan, off Honduras. In Trinidad and British Guiana there have been +mutinies and rioting of slaves and a curious mingling of races. + +Other parts of South America must be dismissed briefly, because of +insufficient data. Colombia and Venezuela, with perhaps eight million +people, have at least one-third of their population of Negro and Indian +descent. Here Simon Bolivar with his Negro, mulatto, and Indian forces +began the war that liberated South America. Central America has a smaller +proportion of Negroids, perhaps one hundred thousand in all. Bolivia and +Peru have small amounts of Negro blood, while Argentine and Uruguay have +very little. The Negro population in these lands is everywhere in process +of rapid amalgamation with whites and Indians. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[76] H.O. Flipper's translation of Castaneda de Nafera's narrative. + +[77] Johnston: _Negro in the New World_, p. 109. + +[78] Bryce: _South America_, pp. 479-480. + +[79] I.e., mulattoes. + +[80] _Inter-Racial Problems_, p. 381. + +[81] Smith: _General History of Virginia_. + +[82] La Croix: _Memoires sur la Revolution_, I, 253, 408. + +[83] Marquis d'Hermonas. Cf. Johnston: _Negro in the New World_, p. 158. + +[84] DeWitt Talmage, in Christian Herald, November 28, 1906. + +[85] Aimes: _African Institutions in America_ (reprinted from _Journal of +American Folk Lore_), p. 25. + +[86] Brown: _History of San Domingo_, II, 158-159. + +[87] See Leger: _Hayti_, Chap. XI. + +[88] Cf. Chapter V, p. 69. + +[89] Johnston: _Negro in the New World_. + + + + +XI THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES + + +There were half a million slaves in the confines of the United States when +the Declaration of Independence declared "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." The +land that thus magniloquently heralded its advent into the family of +nations had supported the institution of human slavery for one hundred and +fifty-seven years and was destined to cling to it eighty-seven years +longer. + +The greatest experiment in Negro slavery as a modern industrial system was +made on the mainland of North America and in the confines of the present +United States. And this experiment was on such a scale and so +long-continued that it is profitable for study and reflection. There were +in the United States in its dependencies, in 1910, 9,828,294 persons of +acknowledged Negro descent, not including the considerable infiltration of +Negro blood which is not acknowledged and often not known. To-day the +number of persons called Negroes is probably about ten and a quarter +million. These persons are almost entirely descendants of African slaves, +brought to America in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and +nineteenth centuries. + +The importation of Negroes to the mainland of North America was small +until the British got the coveted privilege of the Asiento in 1713. Before +that Northern States like New York had received some slaves from the +Dutch, and New England had early developed a trade by which she imported a +number of house servants. Ships went out to the African coast with rum, +sold the rum, and brought the slaves to the West Indies; there they +exchanged the slaves for sugar and molasses and brought the molasses back +to New England, to be made into rum for further exploits. After the +Asiento treaty the Negro population increased in the eighteenth century +from about 50,000 in 1710 to 220,000 in 1750 and to 462,000 in 1770. When +the colonies became independent, the foreign slave trade was soon made +illegal; but illicit trade, annexation of territory and natural increase +enlarged the Negro population from a little over a million at the +beginning of the nineteenth century to four and a half millions at the +outbreak of the Civil War and to about ten and a quarter millions in 1914. + +The present so-called Negro population of the United States is: + +1. A mixture of the various African populations, Bantu, Sudanese, +west-coast Negroes, some dwarfs, and some traces of Arab, Berber, and +Semitic blood. + +2. A mixture of these strains with the blood of white Americans through a +system of concubinage of colored women in slavery days, together with some +legal intermarriage. + +The figures as to mulattoes[90] have been from time to time officially +acknowledged to be understatements. Probably one-third of the Negroes of +the United States have distinct traces of white blood. This blending of +the races has led to interesting human types, but racial prejudice has +hitherto prevented any scientific study of the matter. In general the +Negro population in the United States is brown in color, darkening to +almost black and shading off in the other direction to yellow and white, +and is indistinguishable in some cases from the white population. + +Much has been written of the black man in America, but most of this has +been from the point of view of the whites, so that we know of the effect +of Negro slavery on the whites, the strife among the whites for and +against abolition, and the consequent problem of the Negro so far as the +white population is concerned. + +This chapter, however, is dealing with the matter more from the point of +view of the Negro group itself, and seeking to show what slavery meant to +them, how they reacted against it, what they did to secure their freedom, +and what they are doing with their partial freedom to-day. + +The slaves landing from 1619 onward were received by the colonies at first +as laborers, on the same plane as other laborers. For a long time there +was in law no distinction between the indented white servant from England +and the black servant from Africa, except in the term of their service. +Even here the distinction was not always observed, some of the whites +being kept beyond term of their service and Negroes now and then securing +their freedom. Gradually the planters realized the advantage of laborers +held for life, but they were met by certain moral difficulties. The +opposition to slavery had from the first been largely stilled when it was +stated that this was a method of converting the heathen to Christianity. +The corollary was that when a slave was converted he became free. Up to +1660 or thereabouts it seemed accepted in most colonies and in the English +West Indies that baptism into a Christian church would free a Negro slave. +Masters therefore, were reluctant in the seventeenth century to have their +slaves receive Christian instruction. Massachusetts first apparently +legislated on this matter by enacting in 1641 that slavery should be +confined to captives in just wars "and such strangers as willingly sell +themselves or are sold to us,"[91] meaning by "strangers" apparently +heathen, but saying nothing as to the effect of conversion. Connecticut +adopted similar legislation in 1650, and Virginia declared in 1661 that +Negroes "are incapable of making satisfaction" for time lost in running +away by lengthening their time of services, thus implying that they were +slaves for life. Maryland declared in 1663 that Negro slaves should serve +_durante vita_, but it was not until 1667 that Virginia finally plucked up +courage to attack the issue squarely and declared by law: "Baptism doth +not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom, in +order that diverse masters freed from this doubt may more carefully +endeavor the propagation of Christianity."[92] + +The transplanting of the Negro from his African clan life to the West +Indian plantation was a social revolution. Marriage became geographical +and transient, while women and girls were without protection. + +The private home as a self-protective, independent unit did not exist. +That powerful institution, the polygamous African home, was almost +completely destroyed, and in its place in America arose sexual +promiscuity, a weak community life, with common dwelling, meals, and child +nurseries. The internal slave trade tended further to weaken natural ties. +A small number of favored house servants and artisans were raised above +this--had their private homes, came in contact with the culture of the +master class, and assimilated much of American civilization. This was, +however, exceptional; broadly speaking, the greatest social effect of +American slavery was to substitute for the polygamous Negro home a new +polygamy less guarded, less effective, and less civilized. + +At first sight it would seem that slavery completely destroyed every +vestige of spontaneous movement among the Negroes. This is not strictly +true. The vast power of the priest in the African state is well known; his +realm alone--the province of religion and medicine--remained largely +unaffected by the plantation system. 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 marvelous 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 rites of +fetish which in America is termed obe worship, or "voodooism."[93] +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 of to-day bases itself upon the sole surviving social +institution of the African fatherland, that accounts for its extraordinary +growth and vitality. + +The slave codes at first were really labor codes based on an attempt to +reestablish in America the waning feudalism of Europe. The laborers were +mainly black and were held for life. Above them came the artisans, free +whites with a few blacks, and above them the master class. The feudalism +called for the plantation system, and the plantation system as developed +in America, and particularly in Virginia, was at first a feudal domain. On +these plantations the master was practically supreme. The slave codes in +early days were but moderately harsh, allowing punishment by the master, +but restraining him in extreme cases and providing for care of the slaves +and of the aged. With the power, however, solely in the hands of the +master class, and with the master supreme on his own plantation, his power +over the slave was practically what he wished it to be. In some cases the +cruelty was as great as on the worst West Indian plantations. In other +cases the rule was mild and paternal. + +Up through this American feudalism the Negro began to rise. He learned in +the eighteenth century the English language, he began to be identified +with the Christian church, he mingled his blood to a considerable extent +with the master class. The house servants particularly were favored, in +some cases receiving education, and the number of free Negroes gradually +increased. + +Present-day students are often puzzled at the apparent contradictions of +Southern slavery. One hears, on the one hand, of the staid and gentle +patriarchy, the wide and sleepy plantations with lord and retainers, ease +and happiness; on the other hand one hears of barbarous cruelty and +unbridled power and wide oppression of men. Which is the true picture? The +answer is simple: both are true. They are not opposite sides of the same +shield; they are different shields. They are pictures, on the one hand, of +house service in the great country seats and in the towns, and on the +other hand of the field laborers who raised the great tobacco, rice, and +cotton crops. We have thus not only carelessly mixed pictures of what were +really different kinds of slavery, but of that which represented different +degrees in the development of the economic system. House service was the +older feudal idea of personal retainership, developed in Virginia and +Carolina in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It had all the +advantages and disadvantages of such a system; the advantage of the strong +personal tie and disadvantage of unyielding caste distinctions, with the +resultant immoralities. At its worst, however, it was a matter primarily +of human relationships. + +Out of this older type of slavery in the northern South there developed, +during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in the southern South the +type of slavery which corresponds to the modern factory system in its +worst conceivable form. It represented production of a staple product on a +large scale; between the owner and laborer were interposed the overseer +and the drivers. The slaves were whipped and driven to a mechanical task +system. Wide territory was needed, so that at last absentee landlordship +was common. It was this latter type of slavery that marked the cotton +kingdom, and the extension of the area of this system southward and +westward marked the aggressive world-conquering visions of the slave +barons. On the other hand it was the milder and far different Virginia +house service and the personal retainership of town life in which most +white children grew up; it was this that impressed their imaginations and +which they have so vividly portrayed. The Negroes, however, knew the other +side, for it was under the harsher, heartless driving of the fields that +fully nine-tenths of them lived. + +There early began to be some internal development and growth of +self-consciousness among the Negroes: for instance, in New England towns +Negro "governors" were elected. This was partly an African custom +transplanted and partly an endeavor to put the regulation of the slaves +into their own hands. Negroes voted in those days: for instance, in North +Carolina until 1835 the Constitution extended the franchise to every +freeman, and when Negroes were disfranchised in 1835, several hundred +colored men were deprived of the vote. In fact, as Albert Bushnell Hart +says, "In the colonies freed Negroes, like freed indentured white +servants, acquired property, founded families, and came into the political +community if they had the energy, thrift, and fortune to get the necessary +property."[94] + +The humanitarian movement of the eighteenth century was active toward +Negroes, because of the part which they played in the Revolutionary War. +Negro regiments and companies were raised in Connecticut and Rhode Island, +and a large number of Negroes were members of the continental armies +elsewhere. Individual Negroes distinguished themselves. It is estimated +that five thousand Negroes fought in the American armies. + +The mass of the Americans considered at the time of the adoption of the +Constitution that Negro slavery was doomed. There soon came a series of +laws emancipating slaves in the North: Vermont began in 1779, followed by +judicial decision in Massachusetts in 1780 and gradual emancipation in +Pennsylvania beginning the same year; emancipation was accomplished in New +Hampshire in 1783, and in Connecticut and Rhode Island in 1784. The +momentous exclusion of slavery in the Northwest Territory took place in +1787, and gradual emancipation began in New York and New Jersey in 1799 +and 1804. + +Beneficial and insurance societies began to appear among colored people. +Nearly every town of any size in Virginia in the early eighteenth century +had Negro organizations for caring for the sick and burying the dead. As +the number of free Negroes increased, particularly in the North, these +financial societies began to be openly formed. One of the earliest was the +Free African Society of Philadelphia. This eventually became the present +African Methodist Church, which has to-day half a million members and over +eleven million dollars' worth of property. + +Negroes began to be received into the white church bodies in separate +congregations, and before 1807 there is the record of the formation of +eight such Negro churches. This brought forth leaders who were usually +preachers in these churches. Richard Allen, the founder of the African +Methodist Church, was one; Lot Carey, one of the founders of Liberia, was +another. In the South there was John Chavis, who passed through a regular +course of studies at what is now Washington and Lee University. He started +a school for young white men in North Carolina and had among his pupils a +United States senator, sons of a chief justice of North Carolina, a +governor of the state, and many others. He was a full-blooded Negro, but a +Southern writer says that "all accounts agree that John Chavis was a +gentleman. He was received socially among the best whites and asked to +table."[95] + +In the war of 1812 thirty-three hundred Negroes helped Jackson win the +battle of New Orleans, and numbers fought in New York State and in the +navy under Perry, Channing, and others. Phyllis Wheatley, a Negro girl, +wrote poetry, and the mulatto, Benjamin Banneker, published one of the +first American series of almanacs. + +In fine, it seemed in the early years of the nineteenth century that +slavery in the United States would gradually disappear and that the Negro +would have, in time, a man's chance. A change came, however, between 1820 +and 1830, and it is directly traceable to the industrial revolution of the +nineteenth century. + +Between 1738 and 1830 there had come a remarkable series of inventions +which revolutionized the methods of making cloth. This series included the +invention of the fly shuttle, the carding machine, the steam engine, and +the power loom. The world began to look about for a cheaper and larger +supply of fiber for weaving. It was found in the cotton plant, and the +southern United States was especially adapted to its culture. The +invention of the cotton gin removed the last difficulties. The South now +had a crop which could be attended to by unskilled labor and for which +there was practically unlimited demand. There was land, and rich land, in +plenty. The result was that the cotton crop in the United States increased +from 8,000 bales in 1790 to 650,000 bales in 1820, to 2,500,000 bales in +1850, and to 4,000,000 bales in 1860. + +In this growth one sees the economic foundation of the new slavery in the +United States, which rose in the second decade of the nineteenth century. +Manifestly the fatal procrastination in dealing with slavery in the +eighteenth century received in the nineteenth century its terrible reward. +The change in the attitude toward slavery was manifest in various ways. +The South no longer excused slavery, but began to defend it as an economic +system. The enforcement of the slave trade laws became notoriously lax +and there was a tendency to make slave codes harsher. + +This led to retaliation on the part of the Negroes. There had not been in +the United States before this many attempts at insurrection. The slaves +were distributed over a wide territory, and before they became intelligent +enough to cooperate the chance of emancipation was held before them. +Several small insurrections are alluded to in South Carolina early in the +eighteenth century, and one by Cato at Stono in 1740 caused widespread +alarm. The Negro plot in New York in 1712 put the city into hysterics. +There was no further plotting on any scale until the Haytian revolt, when +Gabriel in Virginia made an abortive attempt. In 1822 a free Negro, +Denmark Vesey, in South Carolina, failed in a well-laid plot, and ten +years after that, in 1831, Nat Turner led his insurrection in Virginia and +killed fifty-one persons. The result of this insurrection was to +crystallize tendencies toward harshness which the economic revolution was +making advisable. + +A wave of legislation passed over the South, prohibiting the slaves from +learning to read and write, forbidding Negroes to preach, and interfering +with Negro religious meetings. Virginia declared in 1831 that neither +slaves nor free Negroes might preach, nor could they attend religious +service at night without permission. In North Carolina slaves and free +Negroes were forbidden to preach, exhort, or teach "in any prayer meeting +or other association for worship where slaves of different families are +collected together" on penalty of not more than thirty-nine lashes. +Maryland and Georgia and other states had similar laws. + +The real effective revolt of the Negro against slavery was not, however, +by fighting, but by running away, usually to the North, which had been +recently freed from slavery. From the beginning of the nineteenth century +slaves began to escape in considerable numbers. Four geographical paths +were chiefly followed: one, leading southward, was the line of swamps +along the coast from Norfolk, Virginia, to the northern border of Florida. +This gave rise to the Negro element among the Indians in Florida and led +to the two Seminole wars of 1817 and 1835. These wars were really slave +raids to make the Indians give up the Negro and half-breed slaves +domiciled among them. The wars cost the United States ten million dollars +and two thousand lives. + +The great Appalachian range, with its abutting mountains, was the safest +path northward. Through Tennessee and Kentucky and the heart of the +Cumberland Mountains, using the limestone caverns, was the third route, +and the valley of the Mississippi was the western tunnel. + +These runaways and the freedmen of the North soon began to form a group of +people who sought to consider the problem of slavery and the destiny of +the Negro in America. They passed through many psychological changes of +attitude in the years from 1700 to 1850. At first, in the early part of +the eighteenth century, there was but one thought: revolt and revenge. The +development of the latter half of the century brought an attitude of hope +and adjustment and emphasized the differences between the slave and the +free Negro. The first part of the nineteenth century brought two +movements: among the free Negroes an effort at self-development and +protection through organization; among slaves and recent fugitives a +distinct reversion to the older idea of revolt. + +As the new industrial slavery, following the rise of the cotton kingdom, +began to press harder, a period of storm and stress ensued in the black +world, and in 1829 came the first full-voiced, almost hysterical protest +of a Negro against slavery and the color line in David Walker's Appeal, +which aroused Southern legislatures to action. + +The decade 1830-40 was a severe period of trial. Not only were the chains +of slavery tighter in the South, but in the North the free Negro was +beginning to feel the ostracism and competition of white workingmen, +native and foreign. In Philadelphia, between 1829 and 1849, six mobs of +hoodlums and foreigners murdered and maltreated Negroes. In the Middle +West harsh black laws which had been enacted in earlier days were hauled +from their hiding places and put into effect. No Negro was allowed to +settle in Ohio unless he gave bond within twenty days to the amount of +five thousand dollars to guarantee his good behavior and support. +Harboring or concealing fugitives was heavily fined, and no Negro could +give evidence in any case where a white man was party. These laws began to +be enforced in 1829 and for three days riots went on in Cincinnati and +Negroes were shot and killed. Aroused, the Negroes sent a deputation to +Canada where they were offered asylum. Fully two thousand migrated from +Ohio. Later large numbers from other parts of the United States joined +them. + +In 1830-31 the first Negro conventions were called in Philadelphia to +consider the desperate condition of the Negro population, and in 1833 the +convention met again and local societies were formed. The first Negro +paper was issued in New York in 1827, while later emancipation in the +British West Indies brought some cheer in the darkness. + +A system of separate Negro schools was established and the little band of +abolitionists led by Garrison and others appeared. In spite of all the +untoward circumstances, therefore, the internal development of the free +Negro in the North went on. The Negro population increased twenty-three +per cent between 1830 and 1840; Philadelphia had, in 1838, one hundred +small beneficial societies, while Ohio Negroes had ten thousand acres of +land. The slave mutiny on the Creole, the establishment of the Negro Odd +Fellows, and the growth of the Negro churches all indicated advancement. + +Between 1830 and 1850 the concerted cooperation to assist fugitives came +to be known as the Underground Railroad. It was an organization not simply +of white philanthropists, but the cooperation of Negroes in the most +difficult part of the work made it possible. Hundreds of Negroes visited +the slave states to entice the slaves away, and the list of Underground +Railroad operators given by Siebert contains one hundred and twenty-eight +names of Negroes. In Canada and in the northern United States there was a +secret society, known as the League of Freedom, which especially worked to +help slaves run away. Harriet Tubman was one of the most energetic of +these slave conductors and brought away several thousand slaves. William +Lambert, a colored man, was reputed between 1829 and 1862 to have aided in +the escape of thirty thousand. + +The decade 1840-50 was a period of hope and uplift for the Negro group, +with clear evidences of distinct self-assertion and advance. A few +well-trained lawyers and physicians appeared, and colored men took their +place among the abolition orators. The catering business in Philadelphia +and other cities fell largely into their hands, and some small merchants +arose here and there. Above all, Frederick Douglass made his first speech +in 1841 and thereafter became one of the most prominent figures in the +abolition crusade. A new series of national conventions began to assemble +late in the forties, and the delegates were drawn from the artisans and +higher servants, showing a great increase of efficiency in the rank and +file of the free Negroes. + +By 1850 the Negroes had increased to three and a half million. Those in +Canada were being organized in settlements and were accumulating property. +The escape of fugitive slaves was systematized and some of the most +representative conventions met. One particularly, in 1854, grappled +frankly with the problem of emigration. It looked as though it was going +to be impossible for Negroes to remain in the United States and be free. +As early as 1788 a Negro union of Newport, Rhode Island, had proposed a +general exodus to Africa. John and Paul Cuffe, after petitioning for the +right to vote in 1780, started in 1815 for Africa, organizing an +expedition at their own expense which cost four thousand dollars. Lot +Carey organized the African Mission Society in 1813, and the first Negro +college graduate went to Liberia in 1829 and became superintendent of +public schools. The Colonization Society encouraged this migration, and +the Negroes themselves had organized the Canadian exodus. + +The Rochester Negro convention in 1853 pronounced against migration, but +nevertheless emissaries were sent in various directions to see what +inducements could be offered. One went to the Niger valley, one to Central +America, and one to Hayti. The Haytian trip was successful and about two +thousand black emigrants eventually settled in Hayti. + +Delaney, who went to Africa, concluded a treaty with eight kings offering +inducements to Negroes, but nothing came of it. In 1853 Negroes like +Purvis and Barbadoes helped in the formation of the American Anti-slavery +society, and for a while colored men cooperated with John Brown and +probably would have given him considerable help if they had thoroughly +known his plans. As it was, six or seven of his twenty-two followers were +Negroes. + +Meantime the slave power was impelled by the high price of slaves and the +exhaustion of cotton land to make increased demands. Slavery was forced +north of Mason and Dixon's line in 1820; a new slave empire with thousands +of slaves was annexed in 1850, and a fugitive slave law was passed which +endangered the liberty of every free Negro; finally a determined attempt +was made to force slavery into the Northwest in competition with free +white labor, and less effective but powerful movements arose to annex more +slave territory to the south and to reopen the African slave trade. + +It looked like a triumphal march for the slave barons, but each step cost +more than the last. Missouri gave rise to the early abolitionist movement. +Mexico and the fugitive slave law aroused deep opposition in the North, +and Kansas developed an attack upon the free labor system, not simply of +the North, but of the civilized world. The result was war; but the war was +not against slavery. It was fought to protect free white laborers against +the competition of slaves, and it was thought possible to do this by +segregating slavery. + +The first thing that vexed the Northern armies on Southern soil during the +war was the question of the disposition of the fugitive slaves, who +immediately began to arrive in increasing numbers. Butler confiscated +them, Fremont freed them, and Halleck caught and returned them; but their +numbers swelled to such large proportions that the mere economic problem +of their presence overshadowed everything else, especially after the +Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln was glad to have them come after once +he realized their strength to the Confederacy. + +The Emancipation Proclamation was forced, not simply by the necessity of +paralyzing industry in the South, but also by the necessity of employing +Negro soldiers. During the first two years of the war no one wanted Negro +soldiers. It was declared to be a "white man's war." General Hunter tried +to raise a regiment in South Carolina, but the War Department disavowed +the act. In Louisiana the Negroes were anxious to enlist, but were held +off. In the meantime the war did not go as well as the North had hoped, +and on the twenty-sixth of January, 1863, the Secretary of War authorized +the Governor of Massachusetts to raise two regiments of Negro troops. +Frederick Douglass and others began the work with enthusiasm, and in the +end one hundred and eighty-seven thousand Negroes enlisted in the Northern +armies, of whom seventy thousand were killed and wounded. The conduct of +these troops was exemplary. They were indispensable in camp duties and +brave on the field, where they fought in two hundred and thirteen battles. +General Banks wrote, "Their conduct was heroic. No troops could be more +determined or more daring."[96] + +The assault on Fort Wagner, led by a thousand black soldiers under the +white Colonel Shaw, is one of the greatest deeds of desperate bravery on +record. On the other hand the treatment of Negro soldiers when captured by +the Confederates was barbarous. At Fort Pillow, after the surrender of the +federal troops, the colored regiment was indiscriminately butchered and +some of them were buried alive. + +Abraham Lincoln said, "The slightest knowledge of arithmetic will prove to +any man that the rebel armies cannot be destroyed with Democratic +strategy. It would sacrifice all the white men of the North to do it. +There are now in the service of the United States near two hundred +thousand able-bodied colored men, most of them under arms, defending and +acquiring Union territory.... Abandon all the posts now garrisoned by +black men; take two hundred thousand men from our side and put them in the +battlefield or cornfield against us, and we would be compelled to abandon +the war in three weeks."[97] Emancipation thus came as a war measure to +break the power of the Confederacy, preserve the Union, and gain the +sympathy of the civilized world. + +However, two hundred and forty-four years of slavery could not be stopped +by edict. There were legal difficulties, the whole slow problem of +economic readjustment, and the subtle and far-reaching questions of future +race relations. + +The peculiar circumstances of emancipation forced the legal and political +difficulties to the front, and these were so striking that they have since +obscured the others in the eyes of students. Quite unexpectedly and +without forethought the nation had emancipated four million slaves. Once +the deed was done, the majority of the nation was glad and recognized that +this was, after all, the only result of a fearful four years' war which in +any degree justified it. But how was the result to be secured for all +time? There were three possibilities: (1) to declare the slave free and +leave him at the mercy of his former masters; (2) to establish a careful +government guardianship designed to guide the slave from legal to real +economic freedom; (3) to give the Negro the political power to guard +himself as well as he could during this development. It is very easy to +forget that the United States government tried each one of these in +succession and was literally forced to adopt the third, because the first +had utterly failed and the second was thought too "paternal" and +especially too costly. To leave the Negroes helpless after a paper edict +of emancipation was manifestly impossible. It would have meant that the +war had been fought in vain. + +Carl Schurz, who traversed the South just after the war, said, "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."[98] This Freedmen's Bureau was proposed by Charles Sumner. If it +had been presented to-day instead of fifty years ago, it would have been +regarded as a proposal far less revolutionary than the state insurance of +England and Germany. 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 were both simple and sensible: + +1. To oversee the making and enforcement of wage contracts for freedmen. + +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 relief +stations, etc. + +How a sensible people could expect really to conduct a slave into freedom +with less than this it is hard to see. 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. Precisely on this account the former masters opposed +the Freedmen's Bureau with all their influence. They did not want the +Negro trained or really freed, and they criticized mercilessly the many +mistakes of the new Bureau. + +The North at first thought to pay for the main cost of the Freedmen's +Bureau by confiscating the property of former slave owners; but finding +this not in accordance with law, they realized that they were embarking on +an enterprise which bade fair to add many millions to the already +staggering cost of the war. When, therefore, they saw that the abolition +of slavery could not be left to the white South and could not be done by +the North without time and money, they determined to put the +responsibility on the Negro himself. This was without a doubt a tremendous +experiment, but with all its manifest mistakes it succeeded to an +astonishing degree. It made the immediate reestablishment 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 slavery to the recovery of +political power, and in this interval, small as it was, the Negro took his +first steps toward economic freedom. + +The difficulties that stared reconstruction politicians in the face were +these: (1) They must act quickly. (2) Emancipation had increased the +political power of the South by one-sixth. Could this increased political +power be put in the hands of those who, in defense of slavery, had +disrupted the Union? (3) How was the abolition of slavery to be made +effective? (4) What was to be the political position of the freedmen? + +The Freedmen's Bureau in its short life accomplished a great task. Carl +Schurz, in 1865, felt warranted in saying that "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 that moral power whose interposition was so +necessary to prevent Southern society from falling at once into the chaos +of a general collision between its different elements."[99] +Notwithstanding this the Bureau was temporary, was regarded as a +makeshift, and soon abandoned. + +Meantime partial Negro suffrage seemed not only just, but almost +inevitable. Lincoln, in 1864, "cautiously" suggested to Louisiana's +private consideration "whether some of the colored people may not be let +in as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who fought +gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help in some trying time to +come, to keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom." Indeed, the +"family of freedom" in Louisiana being somewhat small just then, who else +was to be intrusted with the "jewel"? Later and for different reasons +Johnson, in 1865, wrote to 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 name, 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." + +The Negroes themselves began to ask for the suffrage. The Georgia +convention in Augusta (1866) advocated "a proposition to give those who +could write and read well and possessed a certain property qualification +the right of suffrage." The reply of the South to these suggestions was +decisive. In Tennessee alone was any action attempted that even suggested +possible Negro suffrage in the future, and that failed. In all other +states the "Black Codes" adopted were certainly not reassuring to the +friends of freedom. To be sure, it was not a time to look for calm, cool, +thoughtful action on the part of the white South. Their economic condition +was pitiable, their fear of Negro freedom genuine. Yet it was reasonable +to expect from them something less than repression and utter reaction +toward slavery. To some extent this expectation was fulfilled. The +abolition of slavery was recognized on the statute book, 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 in many cases +went harsh and unbearable regulations which largely neutralized the +concessions and certainly gave ground for an assumption that, once free, +the South would virtually reenslave the Negro. The colored people +themselves naturally feared this, protesting, as in Mississippi, "against +the reactionary policy prevailing and expressing the fear that the +legislature will pass such prescriptive laws as will drive the freedmen +from the state, or practically reenslave them." + +The codes spoke for themselves. As Burgess 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."[100] + +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 so as to +make it possible for a Negro to hold property and appear in some cases in +court; but that in most other respects the blacks would have remained in +slavery. + +What could prevent this? A Freedmen's Bureau established for ten, twenty, +or forty years, with a careful distribution of land and capital and a +system of education for the children, might have prevented such an +extension of slavery. But the country would not listen to such a +comprehensive plan. A restricted grant of the suffrage voluntarily made by +the states would have been a reassuring proof of a desire to treat the +freedmen fairly and would have balanced in part, at least, the increased +political power of the South. There was no such disposition evident. + +In Louisiana, for instance, under the proposed reconstruction "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 fifteen million dollars and many of them were well known for +their patriotic zeal and love for the Union."[101] + +Thus the arguments for universal Negro suffrage from the start were strong +and are still strong, and no one would question their strength were it not +for the assumption that the experiment failed. 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."[102] + +Carl Schurz wrote, "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."[103] + +The granting of full Negro suffrage meant one of two alternatives to the +South: (1) The uplift of the Negro for sheer self-preservation. This is +what Schurz and the saner North expected. As one Southern school +superintendent said, "The elevation of this class is a matter of prime +importance, since a ballot in the hands of a black citizen is quite as +potent as in the hands of a white one." Or (2) Negro suffrage meant a +determined concentration of Southern effort by actual force to deprive the +Negro of the ballot or nullify its use. This last is what really happened. +But even in this case, so much energy was taken in keeping the Negro from +voting that the plan for keeping him in virtual slavery and denying him +education partially failed. It took ten years to nullify Negro suffrage in +part and twenty years to escape the fear of federal intervention. In these +twenty years a vast number of Negroes had arisen so far as to escape +slavery forever. Debt peonage could be fastened on part of the rural South +and was; but even here the new Negro landholder appeared. Thus despite +everything the Fifteenth Amendment, and that alone, struck the death knell +of slavery. + +The steps toward the Fifteenth Amendment were taken slowly. First Negroes +were allowed to take part in reconstructing the state governments. This +was inevitable if loyal governments were to be obtained. Next the restored +state governments were directed to enfranchise all citizens, black or +white, or have their representation in Congress cut down proportionately. +Finally the United States said the last word of simple justice: the states +may regulate the suffrage, but no state may deprive a person of the right +to vote simply because he is a Negro or has been a slave. + +For such reasons the Negro was enfranchised. What was the result? No +language has been spared to describe these results as the worst +imaginable. This is not true. There were bad results, and bad results +arising from Negro suffrage; but those results were not so bad as usually +painted, nor was Negro suffrage the prime cause of many of them. 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 acquiescence; that besides this there +were, as might be expected, men, black and white, Northern and Southern, +only too eager to take advantage of such a situation for feathering their +own nests. Much evil must result in such case; 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 greater among whites than Negroes +both North and South, and while ignorance was the curse of Negroes, the +fault was not theirs and they took the initiative to correct it. + +The chief charges against the Negro governments are extravagance, theft, +and incompetency of officials. There is no serious charge that these +governments threatened civilization or the foundations of social order. +The charge is that they threatened property and that they were +inefficient. These charges are in part undoubtedly true, but they are +often exaggerated. The South had been terribly impoverished and saddled +with new social burdens. In other words, states with smaller resources +were asked not only to do a work of restoration, but a larger social +work. The property holders were aghast. They not only demurred, but, +predicting ruin and revolution, they appealed to secret societies, to +intimidation, force, and murder. They refused to believe that these +novices in government and their friends were aught but scamps and fools. +Under the circumstances occurring directly after the war, the wisest +statesman would have been compelled to resort to increased taxation and +would have, in turn, been execrated as extravagant, dishonest, and +incompetent. It is easy, therefore, to see what flaming and incredible +stories of Reconstruction governments could gain wide currency and belief. +In fact the extravagance, although great, was not universal, and much of +it was due to the extravagant spirit pervading the whole country in a day +of inflated currency and speculation. + +That the Negroes led by the astute thieves, became at first tools and +received some small share of the spoils is true. But two considerations +must be added: much of the legislation which resulted in fraud was +represented to the Negroes as good legislation, and thus their votes were +secured by deliberate misrepresentation. Take, for instance, the land +frauds of South Carolina. A wise Negro leader of that state, advocating +the state purchase of farm lands, said, "One of the greatest of slavery +bulwarks was the infernal plantation system, one man owning his thousand, +another his twenty, another fifty thousand 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."[104] + +From such arguments the Negroes were induced to aid a scheme to buy land +and distribute it. Yet a large part of eight hundred thousand dollars +appropriated was wasted and went to the white landholders' pockets. + +The most inexcusable cheating of the Negroes took place through the +Freedmen's Bank. This bank was incorporated by Congress in 1865 and had in +its list of incorporators some of the greatest names in America including +Peter Cooper, William Cullen Bryan and John Jay. Yet the bank was allowed +to fail in 1874 owing the freedmen their first savings of over three +millions of dollars. They have never been reimbursed. + +Many Negroes were undoubtedly venal, but more were ignorant and deceived. +The question is: Did they show any signs of a disposition to learn to +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 +ignorance, and second, a large and growing number of them revolted against +the extravagance and stealing that marred the beginning of Reconstruction, +and joined with the best elements to institute reform. 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 movements 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. "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 reestablished 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 two and a half million dollars than was the bonded debt of the state +in 1868, before the Republican Negroes and their white allies came into +power."[105] + +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 extravagance, and +started toward better things. 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. + +In the midst of all these difficulties the Negro governments in the South +accomplished much of positive good. We may recognize three things which +Negro rule gave to the South: (1) democratic government, (2) free public +schools, (3) new social legislation. + +In general, the words of Judge Albion W. Tourgee, a white "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 the jury box to thousands of white +men who had been debarred from them by a lack of earthly possessions. They +introduced home rule into 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 persons 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."[106] + +A thorough study of the legislation accompanying these constitutions and +its changes since shows 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 of officials, but the main +body of Reconstruction legislation stood. The Reconstruction democracy +brought forth new leaders and definitely overthrew the old Southern +aristocracy. Among these new men were Negroes of worth and ability. John +R. Lynch, when Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, was +given a public testimonial by Republicans and Democrats, and the leading +white paper said, "His bearing in office had been so proper, and his +rulings in such marked contrasts 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."[107] + +Of the colored treasurer of South Carolina the white 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 +robbery and in favor of good measures and good men."[108] + +Jonathan C. Gibbs, a colored man and the first state superintendent of +instruction in Florida, was a graduate of Dartmouth. He established the +system and brought it to success, dying in harness in 1874. Such men--and +there were others--ought not to be forgotten or confounded with other +types of colored and white Reconstruction leaders. + +There is no doubt 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 school system of the South. It was the question +upon which 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. + +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 from and even revolutionary to the laws in 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 elaborations +and development, still stands on the statute books of the South.[109] + +The triumph of reaction in the South inaugurated a new era in which we may +distinguish three phases: the renewed attempt to reduce the Negroes to +serfdom, the rise of the Negro metayer, and the economic disfranchisement +of the Southern working class. + +The attempt to replace individual slavery had been frustrated by the +Freedmen's Bureau and the Fifteenth Amendment. The disfranchisement of +1876 was followed by the widespread rise of "crime" peonage. Stringent +laws on vagrancy, guardianship, and labor contracts were enacted and large +discretion given judge and jury in cases of petty crime. As a result +Negroes were systematically arrested on the slightest pretext and the +labor of convicts leased to private parties. This "convict lease system" +was almost universal in the South until about 1890, when its outrageous +abuses and cruelties aroused the whole country. It still survives over +wide areas, and is not only responsible for the impression that the Negro +is a natural criminal, but also for the inability of the Southern courts +to perform their normal functions after so long a prostitution to ends far +removed from justice. + +In more normal economic lines the employers began with the labor contract +system. Before the war they owned labor, land, and subsistence. After the +war they still held the land and subsistence. The laborer was hired and +the subsistence "advanced" to him while the crop was growing. The fall of +the Freedmen's Bureau hindered the transmutation of this system into a +modern wage system, and allowed the laborers to be cheated by high +interest charges on the subsistence advanced and actual cheating often in +book accounts. + +The black laborers became deeply dissatisfied under this system and began +to migrate from the country to the cities, where there was an increasing +demand for labor. The employing farmers complained bitterly of the +scarcity of labor and of Negro "laziness," and secured the enactment of +harsher vagrancy and labor contract laws, and statutes against the +"enticement" of laborers. So severe were these laws that it was often +impossible for a laborer to stop work without committing a felony. +Nevertheless competition compelled the landholders to offer more +inducements to the farm hand. The result was the rise of the black share +tenant: the laborer securing better wages saved a little capital and began +to hire land in parcels of forty to eighty acres, furnishing his own tools +and seed and practically raising his own subsistence. In this way the +whole face of the labor contract in the South was, in the decade 1880-90, +in process of change from a nominal wage contract to a system of tenantry. +The great plantations were apparently broken up into forty and eighty acre +farms with black farmers. To many it seemed that emancipation was +accomplished, and the black folk were especially filled with joy and hope. + +It soon was evident, however, that the change was only partial. The +landlord still held the land in large parcels. He rented this in small +farms to tenants, but retained direct control. In theory the laborer was +furnishing capital, but in the majority of cases he was borrowing at +least a part of this capital from some merchant. + +The retail merchant in this way entered on the scene as middle man between +landlord and laborer. He guaranteed the landowner his rent and relieved +him of details by taking over the furnishing of supplies to the laborer. +He tempted the laborer by a larger stock of more attractive goods, made a +direct contract with him, and took a mortgage on the growing crop. Thus he +soon became the middle man to whom the profit of the transaction largely +flowed, and he began to get rich. + +If the new system benefited the merchant and the landlord, it also brought +some benefits to the black laborers. Numbers of these were still held in +peonage, and the mass were laborers working for scant board and clothes; +but above these began to rise a large number of independent tenants and +farm owners. + +In 1890, therefore, the South was faced by this question: Are we willing +to allow the Negro to advance as a free worker, peasant farmer, metayer, +and small capitalist, with only such handicaps as naturally impede the +poor and ignorant, or is it necessary to erect further artificial barriers +to restrain the advance of the Negroes? The answer was clear and +unmistakable. The advance of the freedmen had been too rapid and the South +feared it; every effort must be made to "keep the Negro in his place" as a +servile caste. + +To this end the South strove to make the disfranchisement of the Negroes +effective and final. Up to this time disfranchisement was illegal and +based on intimidation. The new laws passed between 1890 and 1910 sought on +their face to base the right to vote on property and education in such a +way as to exclude poor and illiterate Negroes and admit all whites. In +fact they could be administered so as to exclude nearly all Negroes. To +this was added a series of laws designed publicly to humiliate and +stigmatize Negro blood: as, for example, separate railway cars; separate +seats in street cars, and the like; these things were added to the +separation in schools and churches, and the denial of redress to seduced +colored women, which had long been the custom in the South. All these new +enactments meant not simply separation, but subordination, caste, +humiliation, and flagrant injustice. + +To all this was added a series of labor laws making the exploitation of +Negro labor more secure. All this legislation had to be accomplished in +the face of the labor movement throughout the world, and particularly in +the South, where it was beginning to enter among the white workers. This +was accomplished easily, however, by an appeal to race prejudice. No +method of inflaming the darkest passions of men was unused. The lynching +mob was given its glut of blood and egged on by purposely exaggerated and +often wholly invented tales of crime on the part of perhaps the most +peaceful and sweet-tempered race the world has ever known. Under the flame +of this outward noise went the more subtle and dangerous work. The +election laws passed in the states where three-fourths of the Negroes +live, were so ingeniously framed that a black university graduate could be +prevented from voting and the most ignorant white hoodlum could be +admitted to the polls. Labor laws were so arranged that imprisonment for +debt was possible and leaving an employer could be made a penitentiary +offense. Negro schools were cut off with small appropriations or wholly +neglected, and a determined effort was made with wide success to see that +no Negro had any voice either in the making or the administration of +local, state, or national law. + +The acquiescence of the white labor vote of the South was further insured +by throwing white and black laborers, so far as possible, into rival +competing groups and making each feel that the one was the cause of the +other's troubles. The neutrality of the white people of the North was +secured through their fear for the safety of large investments in the +South, and through the fatalistic attitude common both in America and +Europe toward the possibility of real advance on the part of the darker +nations. + +The reaction of the Negro Americans upon this wholesale and open attempt +to reduce them to serfdom has been interesting. Naturally they began to +organize and protest and in some cases to appeal to the courts. Then, to +their astonishment, there arose a colored leader, Mr. Booker T. +Washington, who advised them to yield to disfranchisement and caste and +wait for greater economic strength and general efficiency before demanding +full rights as American citizens. The white South naturally agreed with +Mr. Washington, and the white North thought they saw here a chance for +peace in the racial conflict and safety for their Southern investments. + +For a time the colored people hesitated. They respected Mr. Washington for +shrewdness and recognized the wisdom of his homely insistence on thrift +and hard work; but gradually they came to see more and more clearly that, +stripped of political power and emasculated by caste, they could never +gain sufficient economic strength to take their place as modern men. They +also realized that any lull in their protests would be taken advantage of +by Negro haters to push their caste program. They began, therefore, with +renewed persistence to fight for their fundamental rights as American +citizens. The struggle tended at first to bitter personal dissension +within the group. But wiser counsels and the advice of white friends +eventually prevailed and raised it to the broad level of a fight for the +fundamental principles of democracy. The launching of the "Niagara +Movement" by twenty-nine daring colored men in 1905, followed by the +formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored +People in 1910, marked an epoch in the advance of the Negro. This latter +organization, with its monthly organ, _The Crisis_, is now waging a +nation-wide fight for justice to Negroes. Other organizations, and a +number of strong Negro weekly papers are aiding in this fight. What has +been the net result of this struggle of half a century? + +In 1863 there were about five million persons of Negro descent in the +United States. Of these, four million and more were just being released +from slavery. These slaves could be bought and sold, could move from place +to place only with permission, were forbidden to learn to read or write, +and legally could never hold property or marry. Ninety per cent were +totally illiterate, and only one adult in six was a nominal Christian. + +Fifty years later, in 1913, there were in the United States ten and a +quarter million persons of Negro descent, an increase of one hundred and +five per cent. Legal slavery has been abolished leaving, however, vestiges +in debt slavery, peonage, and the convict lease system. The mass of the +freedmen and their sons have + +1. Earned a living as free and partially free laborers. + +2. Shared the responsibilities of government. + +3. Developed the internal organization of their race. + +4. Aspired to spiritual self-expression. + +The Negro was freed as a penniless, landless, naked, ignorant laborer. +There were a few free Negroes who owned property in the South, and a +larger number who owned property in the North; but ninety-nine per cent of +the race in the South were penniless field hands and servants. + +To-day there are two and a half million laborers, the majority of whom are +efficient wage earners. Above these are more than a million servants and +tenant farmers; skilled and semi-skilled workers make another million and +at the top of the economic column are 600,000 owners and managers of farms +and businesses, cash tenants, officials, and professional men. This makes +a total of 5,192,535 colored breadwinners in 1910. + +More specifically these breadwinners include 218,972 farm owners and +319,346 cash farm tenants and managers. There were in all 62,755 miners, +288,141 in the building and hand trades; 28,515 workers in clay, glass, +and stone; 41,739 iron and steel workers; 134,102 employees on railways; +62,822 draymen, cab drivers, and liverymen; 133,245 in wholesale and +retail trade; 32,170 in the public service; and 69,471 in professional +service, including 29,750 teachers, 17,495 clergymen, and 4,546 +physicians, dentists, trained nurses, etc. Finally, we must not forget +2,175,000 Negro homes, with their housewives, and 1,620,000 children in +school. + +Fifty years ago the overwhelming mass of these people were not only +penniless, but were themselves assessed as real estate. By 1875 the +Negroes probably had gotten hold of something between 2,000,000 and +4,000,000 acres of land through their bounties as soldiers and the low +price of land after the war. By 1880 this was increased to about 6,000,000 +acres; in 1890 to about 8,000,000 acres; in 1900 to over 12,000,000 acres. +In 1910 this land had increased to nearly 20,000,000 acres, a realm as +large as Ireland. + +The 120,738 farms owned by Negroes in 1890 increased to 218,972 in 1910, +or eighty-one per cent. The value of these farms increased from +$179,796,639 in 1900 to $440,992,439 in 1910; Negroes owned in 1910 about +500,000 homes out of a total of 2,175,000. Their total property in 1900 +was estimated at $300,000,000 by the American Economic Association. On the +same basis of calculation it would be worth to-day not less than +$800,000,000. + +Despite the disfranchisement of three-fourths of his voting population, +the Negro to-day is a recognized part of the American government. He holds +7,500 offices in the executive service of the nation, besides furnishing +four regiments in the army and a large number of sailors. In the state and +municipal service he holds nearly 20,000 other offices, and he furnishes +500,000 of the votes which rule the Union. + +In these same years the Negro has relearned the lost art of organization. +Slavery was the almost absolute denial of initiative and responsibility. +To-day Negroes have nearly 40,000 churches, with edifices worth at least +$75,000,000 and controlling nearly 4,000,000 members. They raise +themselves $7,500,000 a year for these churches. + +There are 200 private schools and colleges managed and almost entirely +supported by Negroes, and these and other public and private Negro schools +have received in 40 years $45,000,000 of Negro money in taxes and +donations. Five millions a year are raised by Negro secret and beneficial +societies which hold at least $6,000,000 in real estate. Negroes support +wholly or in part over 100 old folks' homes and orphanages, 30 hospitals, +and 500 cemeteries. Their organized commercial life is extending rapidly +and includes over 22,000 small retail businesses and 40 banks. + +Above and beyond this material growth has gone the spiritual uplift of a +great human race. From contempt and amusement they have passed to the +pity, perplexity, and fear on the part of their neighbors, while within +their own souls they have arisen from apathy and timid complaint to open +protest and more and more manly self-assertion. Where nine-tenths of them +could not read or write in 1860, to-day over two-thirds can; they have 300 +papers and periodicals, and their voice and expression are compelling +attention. Already in poetry, literature, music, and painting the work of +Americans of Negro descent has gained notable recognition. Instead of +being led and defended by others, as in the past, American Negroes are +gaining their own leaders, their own voices, their own ideals. +Self-realization is thus coming slowly but surely to another of the +world's great races, and they are to-day girding themselves to fight in +the van of progress, not simply for their own rights as men, but for the +ideals of the greater world in which they live: the emancipation of women, +universal peace, democratic government, the socialization of wealth, and +human brotherhood. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[90] + +The figures given by the census are as follows: +1850, mulattoes formed 11.2 per cent of the total Negro population. +1860, mulattoes formed 13.2 per cent of the total Negro population. +1870, mulattoes formed 12 per cent of the total Negro population. +1890, mulattoes formed 15.2 per cent of the total Negro population. +1910, mulattoes formed 20.9 per cent of the total Negro population. + +Or in actual numbers: +1850, 405,751 mulattoes. +1860, 588,352 mulattoes. +1870, 585,601 mulattoes. +1890, 1,132,060 mulattoes. +1910, 2,050,686 mulattoes. + +[91] Cf. "The Spanish Jurist Solorzaris," quoted in Helps: _Spanish +Conquest_, IV, 381. + +[92] Hurd: _Law of Freedom and Bondage_. + +[93] "Obi (Obeah, Obiah, or Obia) is the adjective; Obe or Obi, the noun. +It is of African origin, probably connected with Egyptian Ob, Aub, or +Obron, meaning 'serpent.' Moses forbids Israelites ever to consult the +demon Ob, i.e., 'Charmer, Wizard.' The Witch of Endor is called Oub or Ob. +Oubaois is the name of the Baselisk or Royal Serpent, emblem of the Sun, +and, according to Horus Appollo, 'the Ancient Deity of Africa.'"--Edwards: +_West Indies_, ed. 1819, II. 106-119. Cf. Johnston: _Negro in the New +World_, pp. 65-66; _also Atlanta University Publications_, No. 8, pp. 5-6. + +[94] _Boston Transcript_, March 24, 1906. + +[95] Bassett: _North Carolina_, pp. 73-76. + +[96] Cf. Wilson: _The Black Phalanx_. + +[97] Wilson: _The Black Phalanx_, p. 108. + +[98] _American Historical Review_, Vol. XV. + +[99] Report to President Johnson. + +[100] _Reconstruction and the Constitution._ + +[101] Brewster: _Sketches_, etc. + +[102] McPherson: _Reconstruction_, p. 52. + +[103] Report to the President, 1865. + +[104] _American Historical Review_, Vol. XV, No. 4. + +[105] _Occasional Papers_, American Negro Academy, No. 6. + +[106] _Occasional Papers_, American Negro Academy, No. 6. + +[107] _Jackson (Miss.) Clarion_, April 24, 1873. + +[108] Allen: _Governor Chamberlain's Administration_, p. 82. + +[109] Reconstruction Constitutions, practically unaltered, were kept in +Florida, 1868-85, seventeen years; Virginia, 1870-1902, thirty-two years; +South Carolina, 1868-95, twenty-seven years; Mississippi, 1868-90, +twenty-two years. + + + + +XII THE NEGRO PROBLEMS + + +It is impossible to separate the population of the world accurately by +race, since that is no scientific criterion by which to divide races. If +we divide the world, however, roughly into African Negroes and Negroids, +European whites, and Asiatic and American brown and yellow peoples, we +have approximately 150,000,000 Negroes, 500,000,000 whites, and +900,000,000 yellow and brown peoples. Of the 150,000,000 Negroes, +121,000,000 live in Africa, 27,000,000[110] in the new world, and +2,000,000 in Asia. + +What is to be the future relation of the Negro race to the rest of the +world? The visitor from Altruria might see here no peculiar problem. He +would expect the Negro race to develop along the lines of other human +races. In Africa his economic and political development would restore and +eventually outrun the ancient glories of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Yoruba; +overseas the West Indies would become a new and nobler Africa, built in +the very pathway of the new highway of commerce between East and West--the +real sea route to India; while in the United States a large part of its +citizenship (showing for perhaps centuries their dark descent, but +nevertheless equal sharers of and contributors to the civilization of the +West) would be the descendants of the wretched victims of the seventeenth, +eighteenth, and nineteenth century slave trade. + +This natural assumption of a stranger finds, however, lodging in the minds +of few present-day thinkers. On the contrary, such an outcome is usually +dismissed summarily. Most persons have accepted that tacit but clear +modern philosophy which assigns to the white race alone the hegemony of +the world and assumes that other races, and particularly the Negro race, +will either be content to serve the interests of the whites or die out +before their all-conquering march. This philosophy is the child of the +African slave trade and of the expansion of Europe during the nineteenth +century. + +The Negro slave trade was the first step in modern world commerce, +followed by the modern theory of colonial expansion. Slaves as an article +of commerce were shipped as long as the traffic paid. When the Americas +had enough black laborers for their immediate demand, the moral action of +the eighteenth century had a chance to make its faint voice heard. + +The moral repugnance was powerfully reenforced by the revolt of the slaves +in the West Indies and South America, and by the fact that North America +early began to regard itself as the seat of advanced ideas in politics, +religion, and humanity. + +Finally European capital began to find better investments than slave +shipping and flew to them. These better investments were the fruit of the +new industrial revolution of the nineteenth century, with its factory +system; they were also in part the result of the cheapened price of gold +and silver, brought about by slavery and the slave trade to the new world. +Commodities other than gold, and commodities capable of manufacture and +exploitation in Europe out of materials furnishable by America, became +enhanced in value; the bottom fell out of the commercial slave trade and +its suppression became possible. + +The middle of the nineteenth century saw the beginning of the rise of the +modern working class. By means of political power the laborers slowly but +surely began to demand a larger share in the profiting industry. In the +United States their demand bade fair to be halted by the competition of +slave labor. The labor vote, therefore, first confined slavery to limits +in which it could not live, and when the slave power sought to exceed +these territorial limits, it was suddenly and unintentionally abolished. + +As the emancipation of millions of dark workers took place in the West +Indies, North and South America, and parts of Africa at this time, it was +natural to assume that the uplift of this working class lay along the same +paths with that of European and American whites. This was the _first_ +suggested solution of the Negro problem. Consequently these Negroes +received partial enfranchisement, the beginnings of education, and some of +the elementary rights of wage earners and property holders, while the +independence of Liberia and Hayti was recognized. However, long before +they were strong enough to assert the rights thus granted or to gather +intelligence enough for proper group leadership, the new colonialism of +the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries began to dawn. The new +colonial theory transferred the reign of commercial privilege and +extraordinary profit from the exploitation of the European working class +to the exploitation of backward races under the political domination of +Europe. For the purpose of carrying out this idea the European and white +American working class was practically invited to share in this new +exploitation, and particularly were flattered by popular appeals to their +inherent superiority to "Dagoes," "Chinks," "Japs," and "Niggers." + +This tendency was strengthened by the fact that the new colonial expansion +centered in Africa. Thus in 1875 something less than one-tenth of Africa +was under nominal European control, but the Franco-Prussian War and the +exploration of the Congo led to new and fateful things. Germany desired +economic expansion and, being shut out from America by the Monroe +Doctrine, turned to Africa. France, humiliated in war, dreamed of an +African empire from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. Italy became ambitious +for Tripoli and Abyssinia. Great Britain began to take new interest in her +African realm, but found herself largely checkmated by the jealousy of all +Europe. Portugal sought to make good her ancient claim to the larger part +of the whole southern peninsula. It was Leopold of Belgium who started to +make the exploration and civilization of Africa an international movement. +This project failed, and the Congo Free State became in time simply a +Belgian colony. While the project was under discussion, the international +scramble for Africa began. As a result the Berlin Conference and +subsequent wars and treaties gave Great Britain control of 2,101,411 +square miles of African territory, in addition to Egypt and the Egyptian +Sudan with 1,600,000 square miles. This includes South Africa, +Bechuanaland and Rhodesia, East Africa, Uganda and Zanzibar, Nigeria, and +British West Africa. The French hold 4,106,950 square miles, including +nearly all North Africa (except Tripoli) west of the Niger valley and +Libyan Desert, and touching the Atlantic at four points. To this is added +the Island of Madagascar. The Germans have 910,150 square miles, +principally in Southeast and South-west Africa and the Kamerun. The +Portuguese retain 787,500 square miles in Southeast and Southwest Africa. +The Belgians have 900,000 square miles, while Liberia (43,000 square +miles) and Abyssinia (350,000 square miles) are independent. The Italians +have about 600,000 square miles and the Spanish less than 100,000 square +miles. + +This partition of Africa brought revision of the ideas of Negro uplift. +Why was it necessary, the European investors argued, to push a continent +of black workers along the paths of social uplift by education, +trades-unionism, property holding, and the electoral franchise when the +workers desired no change, and the rate of European profit would suffer? + +There quickly arose then the _second_ suggestion for settling the Negro +problem. It called for the virtual enslavement of natives in certain +industries, as rubber and ivory collecting in the Belgian Congo, cocoa +raising in Portuguese Angola, and diamond mining in South Africa. This new +slavery or "forced" labor was stoutly defended as a necessary foundation +for implanting modern industry in a barbarous land; but its likeness to +slavery was too clear and it has been modified, but not wholly abolished. + +The _third_ attempted solution of the Negro sought the result of the +_second_ by less direct methods. Negroes in Africa, the West Indies, and +America were to be forced to work by land monopoly, taxation, and little +or no education. In this way a docile industrial class working for low +wages, and not intelligent enough to unite in labor unions, was to be +developed. The peonage systems in parts of the United States and the labor +systems of many of the African colonies of Great Britain and Germany +illustrate this phase of solution.[111] It is also illustrated in many of +the West Indian islands where we have a predominant Negro population, and +this population freed from slavery and partially enfranchised. Land and +capital, however, have for the most part been so managed and monopolized +that the black peasantry have been reduced to straits to earn a living in +one of the richest parts of the world. The problem is now going to be +intensified when the world's commerce begins to sweep through the Panama +Canal. + +All these solutions and methods, however, run directly counter to modern +philanthropy, and have to be carried on with a certain concealment and +half-hypocrisy which is not only distasteful in itself, but always liable +to be discovered and exposed by some liberal or religious movement of the +masses of men and suddenly overthrown. These solutions are, therefore, +gradually merging into a _fourth_ solution, which is to-day very popular. +This solution says: Negroes differ from whites in their inherent genius +and stage of development. Their development must not, therefore, be sought +along European lines, but along their own native lines. Consequently the +effort is made to-day in British Nigeria, in the French Congo and Sudan, +in Uganda and Rhodesia to leave so far as possible the outward structure +of native life intact; the king or chief reigns, the popular assemblies +meet and act, the native courts adjudicate, and native social and family +life and religion prevail. All this, however, is subject to the veto and +command of a European magistracy supported by a native army with European +officers. The advantage of this method is that on its face it carries no +clue to its real working. Indeed it can always point to certain undoubted +advantages: the abolition of the slave trade, the suppression of war and +feud, the encouragement of peaceful industry. On the other hand, back of +practically all these experiments stands the economic motive--the +determination to use the organization, the land, and the people, not for +their own benefit, but for the benefit of white Europe. For this reason +education is seldom encouraged, modern religious ideas are carefully +limited, sound political development is sternly frowned upon, and industry +is degraded and changed to the demands of European markets. The most +ruthless class of white mercantile exploiters is allowed large liberty, if +not a free hand, and protected by a concerted attempt to deify white men +as such in the eyes of the native and in their own imagination.[112] + +White missionary societies are spending perhaps as much as five million +dollars a year in Africa and accomplishing much good, but at the same time +white merchants are sending at least twenty million dollars' worth of +European liquor into Africa each year, and the debauchery of the almost +unrestricted rum traffic goes far to neutralize missionary effort. + +[Illustration: Distribution of Negro Blood, Ancient and Modern] + +Under this last mentioned solution of the Negro problems we may put the +attempts at the segregation of Negroes and mulattoes in the United States +and to some extent in the West Indies. Ostensibly this is "separation" of +the races in society, civil rights, etc. In practice it is the +subordination of colored people of all grades under white tutelage, and +their separation as far as possible from contact with civilization in +dwelling place, in education, and in public life. + +On the other hand the economic significance of the Negro to-day is +tremendous. Black Africa to-day exports annually nearly two hundred +million dollars' worth of goods, and its economic development has scarcely +begun. The black West Indies export nearly one hundred million dollars' +worth of goods; to this must be added the labor value of Negroes in South +Africa, Egypt, the West Indies, North, Central, and South America, where +the result is blended in the common output of many races. The economic +foundation of the Negro problem can easily be seen to be a matter of many +hundreds of millions to-day, and ready to rise to the billions tomorrow. + +Such figures and facts give some slight idea of the economic meaning of +the Negro to-day as a worker and industrial factor. "Tropical Africa and +its peoples are being brought more irrevocably every year into the vortex +of the economic influences that sway the western world."[113] + +What do Negroes themselves think of these their problems and the attitude +of the world toward them? First and most significant, they are thinking. +There is as yet no great single centralizing of thought or unification of +opinion, but there are centers which are growing larger and larger and +touching edges. The most significant centers of this new thinking are, +perhaps naturally, outside Africa and in America: in the United States and +in the West Indies; this is followed by South Africa and West Africa and +then, more vaguely, by South America, with faint beginnings in East +Central Africa, Nigeria, and the Sudan. + +The Pan-African movement when it comes will not, however, be merely a +narrow racial propaganda. Already the more far-seeing Negroes sense the +coming unities: a unity of the working classes everywhere, a unity of the +colored races, a new unity of men. The proposed economic solution of the +Negro problem in Africa and America has turned the thoughts of Negroes +toward a realization of the fact that the modern white laborer of Europe +and America has the key to the serfdom of black folk, in his support of +militarism and colonial expansion. He is beginning to say to these +workingmen that, so long as black laborers are slaves, white laborers +cannot be free. Already there are signs in South Africa and the United +States of the beginning of understanding between the two classes. + +In a conscious sense of unity among colored races there is to-day only a +growing interest. There is slowly arising not only a curiously strong +brotherhood of Negro blood throughout the world, but the common cause of +the darker races against the intolerable assumptions and insults of +Europeans has already found expression. Most men in this world are +colored. A belief in humanity means a belief in colored men. The future +world will, in all reasonable probability, be what colored men make it. In +order for this colored world to come into its heritage, must the earth +again be drenched in the blood of fighting, snarling human beasts, or will +Reason and Good Will prevail? That such may be true, the character of the +Negro race is the best and greatest hope; for in its normal condition it +is at once the strongest and gentlest of the races of men: "Semper novi +quid ex Africa!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[110] Sir Harry Johnston estimates 135,000,000 Negroes, of whom 24,591,000 +live in America. See _Inter-Racial Problems_, p. 335. + +[111] The South African natives, in an appeal to the English Parliament, +show in an astonishing way the confiscation of their land by the English. +They say that in the Union of South Africa 1,250,000 whites own +264,000,000 acres of land, while the 4,500,000 natives have only +21,000,000 acres. On top of this the Union Parliament has passed a law +making even the future purchase of land by Negroes illegal save in +restricted areas! + +[112] The traveler Glave writes in the _Century Magazine_ (LIII, 913): +"Formerly [in the Congo Free State] an ordinary white man was merely +called 'bwana' or 'Mzunga'; now the merest insect of a pale face earns the +title of 'bwana Mkubwa' [big master]." + +[113] E.D. Morel, in the _Nineteenth Century_. + + + + +SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING + + +There is no general history of the Negro race. Perhaps Sir Harry H. +Johnston, in his various works on Africa, has come as near covering the +subject as any one writer, but his valuable books have puzzling +inconsistencies and inaccuracies. Keane's _Africa_ is a helpful +compendium, despite the fact that whenever Keane discovers intelligence in +an African he immediately discovers that its possessor is no "Negro." The +articles in the latest edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ are of +some value, except the ridiculous article on the "Negro" by T.A. Joyce. +Frobenius' newly published _Voice of Africa_ is broad-minded and +informing, and Brown's _Story of Africa and its Explorers_ brings together +much material in readable form. The compendiums by Keltie and White, and +Johnston's _Opening up of Africa_ are the best among the shorter +treatises. + +None of these authors write from the point of view of the Negro as a man, +or with anything but incidental acknowledgment of the existence or value +of his history. We may, however, set down certain books under the various +subjects which the chapters have treated. These books will consist of (1) +standard works for wider reading and (2) special works on which the author +has relied for his statements or which amplify his point of view. _The +latter are starred_. + + +THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF AFRICA + +A.S. White: _The Development of Africa_, 2d ed., 1892. + +Stanford's Compendium of Geography: _Africa_, by A.H. Keane, 2d ed., +1904-7. + +E. Reclus: _Universal Geography_, Vols. X-XIII. + + +RACIAL DIFFERENCES AND THE ORIGIN AND CHARACTERISTICS OF NEGROES + +J. Deniker: _The Races of Man_, etc., New York, 1904. + +*J. Finot: _Race Prejudice_ (tr. by Wade-Evans), New York, 1907. + +*W.Z. Ripley: _The Races of Europe_, etc., New York, 1899. + +*Jacques Loeb: in _The Crisis_, Vol. VIII, p. 84, Vol. IX, p. 92. + +*_Papers on Inter-Racial Problems Communicated to the First Universal +Races Congress_, etc. (ed. by G. Spiller), 1911. + +*G. Sergi: _The Mediterranean Race_, etc., London, 1901. + +*Franz Boas: _The Mind of Primitive Man_, New York, 1911. + +C.B. Davenport: _Heredity of Skin Color in Negro-White Crosses_, 1913. + + +EARLY MOVEMENTS OF THE NEGRO RACE + +*Sir Harry H. Johnston: _The Opening up of Africa_ (Home University +Library). + +---- _A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races_, Cambridge, +1905. + +*G.W. Stowe: _The Native Races of South Africa_ (ed. by G.M. Theal), +London, 1910. + +(Consult also Johnston's other works on Africa, and his article in Vol. +XLIII of the _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great +Britain and Ireland_; also _Inter-Racial Problems, and_ Deniker, noted +above.) + + +NEGRO IN ETHIOPIA AND EGYPT + +(The works of Breasted and Petrie, Maspero, Budge and Newberry and +Garstang are the standard books on Egypt. They mention the Negro, but +incidentally and often slightingly.) + +*A.F. Chamberlain: "The Contribution of the Negro to Human Civilization" +(_Journal of Race Development_, Vol. I, April, 1911). + +T.E.S. Scholes: _Glimpses of the Ages_, etc., London, 1905. + +W.H. Ferris: _The African Abroad_, etc., 2 vols., New Haven, 1913. + +E.A.W. Budge: _The Egyptian Sudan_, 2 vols., 1907. + +*_Archeological Survey of Nubia_. + +*A. Thompson and D. Randal McIver: _The Ancient Races of the Thebaid_, +1905. + + +ABYSSINIA + +Job Ludolphus: _A New History of Ethiopia_ (tr. by Gent), London, 1682. + +W.S. Harris: _Highlands of AEthiopia_, 3 vols., London, 1844. + +R.S. Whiteway: _The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia_ ... as narrated by +Castanhosa, etc., 1902. + + +THE NIGER RIVER AND ISLAM *F.L. Shaw (Lady Lugard): _A Tropical +Dependency_, etc., London, 1906. + +(The reader may dismiss as worthless Lady Lugard's definition of "Negro." +Otherwise her book is excellent.) + +*Es-Sa'di, Abderrahman Ben Abdallah, etc., translated into French by O. +Houdas, Paris, 1900. + +*F. DuBois: _Timbuktu the Mysterious_ (tr. by White), 1896. + +*W.D. Cooley: _The Negroland of the Arabs_, etc., 1841. + +*H. Barth: _Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa_, etc., 5 +vols., 1857-58. + +*Ibn Batuta: _Travels_, etc. (tr. by Lee), 1829. + +*Leo Africanus: _The History and Description of Africa_, etc. (tr. by +Pory, ed. by R. Brown), 3 vols., 1896. + +*E.W. Blyden: _Christianity, Islam, and the Negro Race_. + +*Leo Frobenius: _The Voice of Africa_ (tr. by Blind), 2 vols., 1913. + +Mungo Park: _Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa_, 1799. + + +THE NEGRO ON THE GUINEA COAST + +*Leo Frobenius (as above). + +Sir Harry H. Johnston: _Liberia_, 2 vols., New York, 1906. + +H.H. Foote: _Africa and the American Flag_, New York, 1859. + +T.H.T. McPherson: _A History of Liberia_, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins +Studies. + +T.J. Alldridge: _A Transformed Colony_ (Sierra Leone), London, 1910. + +E.D. Morel: _Affairs of West Africa_, 1902. + +H.L. Roth: _Great Benin and Its Customs_, 1903. + +*F. Starr: _Liberia_, 1913. + +W. Jay: _An Inquiry_, etc., 1835. + +*A.B. Ellis: _The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, 1887. + +---- _The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, 1890. + +---- _The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, 1894. + +C.H. Read and O.M. Dalton: _Antiquities from the City of Benin_, etc., +1899. + +*M.H. Kingsley: _West African Studies_, 2d. ed., 1904. + +*G.W. Ellis: _Negro Culture in West Africa_ (Vai-speaking peoples), 1914. + + + +THE CONGO VALLEY + +*G. Schweinfurth: _The Heart of Africa_, Vol. II, 1873. + +*H.M. Stanley: _Through the Dark Continent_, 2 vols., 1878. + +---- _In Darkest Africa_, 2 vols., 1890. + +---- _The Congo_, etc., 2 vols., London, 1885. + +H. von Wissman: _My Second Journey through Equatorial Africa_, 1891. + +*H.R. Fox-Bourne: _Civilization in Congoland_, 1903. + +Sir Harry H. Johnston: _George Grenfell and the Congo_, 2 vols., London, +1908. + +*E.D. Morel: _Red Rubber_, London, 1906. + + +THE NEGRO IN THE REGION OF THE GREAT LAKES + +*Sir Harry H. Johnston: _The Uganda Protectorate_, 2d ed., 2 vols., 1904. + +---- _British Central Africa_, 1897. + +---- _The Nile Quest_, 1903. + +*D. Randal McIver: _Mediaeval Rhodesia_, 1906. + +*_The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa_ (ed. by H. +Waller), 1874. + +J. Dos Santos: _Ethiopia Oriental_ (Theal's _Records of South Africa_, +Vol. VII). + +C. Peters: "Ophir and Punt in South Africa" (_African Society Journal_, +Vol. I). + +De Barros: _De Asia_. + +R. Burton: _Lake Regions of Central Africa_, 1860. + +R.P. Ashe: _Chronicles of Uganda_, 1894. + +(See also Stanley's works, as above.) + + +THE NEGRO IN SOUTH AFRICA + +*G.M. Theal: _History and Ethnography of South Africa of the Zambesi to +1795_, 3 vols., 1907-10. + +---- _History of South Africa since September, 1795_, 5 vols., 1908. + +---- _Records of South Eastern Africa_, 9 vols., 1898-1903. + +*J. Bryce: _Impressions of South Africa_, 1897. + +D. Livingstone: _Missionary Travels in South Africa_, 1857. + +*South African Native Affairs Commission, 1903-5, _Reports_, etc., 5 +vols., Cape Town, 1904-5. + +G. Lagden: _The Basutos_, London, 1909. + +J. Stewart: _Lovedale_, 1884. + +(See also Stowe, as above.) + + +ON NEGRO CIVILIZATION + +J. Dowd: _The Negro Races_, 1907, 1914. + +*H. Gregoire: _An Inquiry concerning the Intellectual and Moral Faculties +and Literature of Negroes_, etc. (tr. by Warden), Brooklyn, 1810. + +C. Buecher: _Industrial Evolution_ (tr. by Wickett), New York, 1904. + +*Franz Boas: "The Real Race Problem" (_The Crisis_, December, 1910). + +---- _Commencement Address_ (Atlanta University Leaflet, No. 19). + +*F. Ratzel: _The History of Mankind_ (tr. by Butler), 3 vols., 1904. + +C. Hayford: _Gold Coast Institutions_, 1903. + +A.B. Camphor: _Missionary Sketches and Folk Lore from Africa_, 1909. + +R.H. Nassau: _Fetishism in West Africa_, 1907. + +*William Schneider: _Die Culturfaehigkeit des Negers_, Frankfort, 1885. + +*G. Schweinfurth: _Artes Africanae_, etc., 1875. + +Duke of Mecklenburg: _From the Congo to the Niger and the Nile_ (English +tr.), Philadelphia, 1914. + +D. Crawford: _Thinking Black_. + +R.N. Cust: _Sketch of Modern Language of Africa_, 2 vols., 1883. + +H. Chatelain: _The Folk Lore of Angola_. + +D. Kidd: _The Essential Kaffir_, 1904. + +---- _Savage Childhood_, 1906. + +---- _Kaffir Socialism and the Dawn of Individualism_, 1908. + +M.H. Tongue: _Bushman Paintings_, Oxford, 1909. + +(See also the works of A.B. Ellis, Miss Kingsley, Sir Harry H. Johnston, +Frobenius, Stowe, Theal, and Ibn Batuta; and particularly Chamberlain's +article in the _Journal of Race Development_.) + + +THE SLAVE TRADE + +T.K. Ingram: _History of Slavery and Serfdom_, London, 1895. (Same article +revised in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition.) + +John R. Spears: The American Slave Trade, 1900. + +*T.F. Buxton: _The African Slave Trade and Its Remedy_, etc., 1896. + +T. Clarkson: _History ... of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade_, +etc., 2 vols., 1808. + +R. Drake: _Revelations of a Slave Smuggler_, New York, 1860. + +*_Report of the Lords of the Committee of Council_, etc., London, 1789. + +*B. Mayer: _Captain Canot or Twenty Years of an African Slaver_, etc., +1854. + +W.E.B. DuBois: _The suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the U.S.A._, +1896. + +(See also Bryan Edwards' _West Indies_.) + + +THE WEST INDIES AND SOUTH AMERICA + +Fletcher and Kidder: _Brazil and the Brazilians_, 1879. + +*Bryan Edwards: _History ... of the British West Indies_, 5 editions, +Vols. II-V, 1793-1819. + +*Sir Harry H. Johnston: _The Negro in the New World_, 1910. + +T.G. Steward: _The Haitian Revolution_, 1791-1804, 1914. + +J.N. Leger: _Haiti_, etc., 1907. + +J. Bryce: _South America_, etc., 1912. + +*J.B. de Lacerda: "The Metis or Half-Breeds of Brazil" (_Inter-Racial +Problems_, etc.) + +A.K. Fiske: _History of the West Indies_, 1899. + + +THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES + +*_Walker's Appeal_, 1829. + +*G.W. Williams: _History of the Negro Race in America_, 1619-1880, 1882. + +B.G. Brawley: _A Short History of the American Negro_, 1913. + +B.T. Washington: _Up from Slavery_, 1901. + +---- _The Story of the Negro_, 2 vols., 1909. + +*_The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man_, 1912. + +*G.E. Stroud: _Sketch of the Laws relating to Slavery_, etc., 1827. + +_The Human Way_: Addresses on Race Problems at the Southern Sociological +Congress, Atlanta, 1913 (ed. by J.E. McCulloch). + +W.J. Simmons: _Men of Mark_, 1887. + +*J.R. Giddings: _The Exiles of Florida_, 1858. + +W.E. Nell: _The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution_, etc., 1855. + +C.W. Chesnutt: _The Marrow of Tradition_, 1901. + +P.L. Dunbar: _Lyrics of Lowly Life_, 1896. + +*_Life and Times of Frederick Douglass_, revised edition, 1892. + +*H.E. Kreihbel: _Afro-American Folk Songs_, etc., 1914. + +T.P. Fenner and others: _Cabin and Plantation Songs_, 3d ed., 1901. + +W.F. Allen and others: _Slave Songs of the United States_, 1867. + +W.E.B. DuBois: "The Negro Race in the United States of America" +(_Inter-Racial Problems_, etc.). + +---- "The Economics of Negro Emancipation" (_Sociological Review_, +October, 1911). + +---- _John Brown_. + +---- _The Philadelphia Negro_, 1899. + +W.E.B. DuBois: "Reconstruction and its Benefits" (_American Historical +Review_, Vol. XV, No. 4). + +---- _editor_, The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races, monthly, 1910. + +---- _editor_, The Atlanta University Studies: + No. 1. _Mortality Among Negroes in Cities_, 1896. + No. 2. _Social and Physical Conditions of Negroes in Cities_, 1897. + No. 3. _Some Efforts of Negroes for Social Betterment_, 1898. + No. 4. _The Negro in Business_, 1899. + No. 5. _The College Bred Negro_, 1900. + No. 6. _The Negro Common School_, 1901. + No. 7. _The Negro Artisan_, 1902. + No. 8. _The Negro Church_, 1903. + No. 9. _Notes on Negro Crime_, 1904. + No. 10. _A Select Bibliography of the Negro American_, 1905. + No. 11. _Health and Physique of the Negro American_, 1906. + No. 12. _Economic Co-operation among Negro Americans_, 1907. + No. 13. _The Negro American Family_, 1908. + No. 14. _Efforts for Social Betterment among Negro Americans_, 1909. + No. 15. _The College Bred Negro American_, 1910. + No. 16. _The Common School and the Negro American_, 1911. + No. 17. _The Negro American Artisan_, 1912. + No. 18. _Morals and Manners among Negro Americans_, 1913. + +*G.W. Cable: _The Silent South_, etc., 1885. + +*J.R. Lynch: _The Facts of Reconstruction_, 1913. + +*J.T. Wilson: _The Black Phalanx_, 1897. + +William Goodell: _Slavery and Anti-Slavery_, 1852. + +G.S. Merriam: _The Negro and the Nation_, 1906. + +A.B. Hart: _The Southern South_, 1910. + +*G. Livermore: _An Historical Research respecting the Opinions of the +Founders of the Republic on Negroes_, etc., 1862. + +Hartshorn and Penniman: _An Era of Progress and Promise_, 1910 (profusely +illustrated). + +*James Brewster: _Sketches of Southern Mystery, Treason, and Murder_. + +Willcox and DuBois: _Negroes in the United States_ (United States Census +of 1900, Bulletin No. 8). + + +THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO RACE + +*J.S. Keltie: _The Partition of Africa_, 2d ed., 1895. + +B.T. Washington: _The Future of the Negro_. + +W.E.B. DuBois: "The Future of the Negro Race in America" (_East and West_, +Vol. II, No. 5). + +---- _Souls of Black Folk_, 1913. + +---- _Quest of the Silver Fleece_. + +Alexander Crummell: _The Future of Africa_, 2d ed., 1862. + +*Casely Hayford: _Ethiopia Unbound_, 1911. + +Kelly Miller: _Out of the House of Bondage_, 1914. + +---- _Race Adjustment_, 1908. + +*J. Royce: _Race Questions_, etc., 1908. + +*R.S. Baker: _Following the Color Line_, 1908. + +N.S. Shaler: _The Neighbor_. + +E.D. Morel: "Free Labor in Tropical Africa" (_Nineteenth Century and +After_, 1914). + +(See also Finot, Boas, _Inter-Racial Problems_, and White's _Development +of Africa_.) + + + +THE QUEST OF THE SILVER FLEECE + +_A Novel_ + +W.E.B. DU BOIS + +1911 + +A.C. McClurg & Co. + + + + +_Contents_ + +THE QUEST OF THE SILVER FLEECE + +_Note from the Author_ 3 + +_One_: DREAMS 5 + +_Two_: THE SCHOOL 12 + +_Three_: MISS MARY TAYLOR 16 + +_Four_: TOWN 23 + +_Five_: ZORA 33 + +_Six_: COTTON 42 + +_Seven_: THE PLACE OF DREAMS 53 + +_Eight_: MR. HARRY CRESSWELL 66 + +_Nine_: THE PLANTING 74 + +_Ten_: MR. TAYLOR CALLS 84 + +_Eleven_: THE FLOWERING OF THE FLEECE 99 + +_Twelve_: THE PROMISE 108 + +_Thirteen_: MRS. GREY GIVES A DINNER 122 + +_Fourteen_: LOVE 128 + +_Fifteen_: REVELATION 134 + +_Sixteen_: THE GREAT REFUSAL 146 + +_Seventeen_: THE RAPE OF THE FLEECE 154 + +_Eighteen_: THE COTTON CORNER 162 + +_Nineteen_: THE DYING OF ELSPETH 171 + +_Twenty_: THE WEAVING OF THE SILVER FLEECE 182 + +_Twenty-one_: THE MARRIAGE MORNING 191 + +_Twenty-two_: MISS CAROLINE WYNN 199 + +_Twenty-three_: THE TRAINING OF ZORA 210 + +_Twenty-four_: THE EDUCATION OF ALWYN 218 + +_Twenty-five_: THE CAMPAIGN 230 + +_Twenty-six_: CONGRESSMAN CRESSWELL 244 + +_Twenty-seven_: THE VISION OF ZORA 254 + +_Twenty-eight_: THE ANNUNCIATION 263 + +_Twenty-nine_: A MASTER OF FATE 271 + +_Thirty_: THE RETURN OF ZORA 283 + +_Thirty-one_: A PARTING OF WAYS 293 + +_Thirty-two_: ZORA'S WAY 309 + +_Thirty-three_: THE BUYING OF THE SWAMP 316 + +_Thirty-four_: THE RETURN OF ALWYN 328 + +_Thirty-five_: THE COTTON MILL 339 + +_Thirty-six_: THE LAND 350 + +_Thirty-seven_: THE MOB 364 + +_Thirty-eight_: ATONEMENT 371 + + + + + + +THE QUEST OF THE SILVER FLEECE + + + + + TO ONE + +whose name may not be written but to whose tireless +faith the shaping of these cruder thoughts to forms + more fitly perfect is doubtless due, this + finished work is herewith dedicated + + + + + + +_Note_ + +He who would tell a tale must look toward three ideals: to tell it well, +to tell it beautifully, and to tell the truth. + +The first is the Gift of God, the second is the Vision of Genius, but +the third is the Reward of Honesty. + +In _The Quest of the Silver Fleece_ there is little, I ween, divine or +ingenious; but, at least, I have been honest. In no fact or picture have +I consciously set down aught the counterpart of which I have not seen or +known; and whatever the finished picture may lack of completeness, this +lack is due now to the story-teller, now to the artist, but never to the +herald of the Truth. + +NEW YORK CITY + +_August 15, 1911_ + +THE AUTHOR + + + + +_One_ + +DREAMS + + +Night fell. The red waters of the swamp grew sinister and sullen. The +tall pines lost their slimness and stood in wide blurred blotches all +across the way, and a great shadowy bird arose, wheeled and melted, +murmuring, into the black-green sky. + +The boy wearily dropped his heavy bundle and stood still, listening as +the voice of crickets split the shadows and made the silence audible. A +tear wandered down his brown cheek. They were at supper now, he +whispered--the father and old mother, away back yonder beyond the night. +They were far away; they would never be as near as once they had been, +for he had stepped into the world. And the cat and Old Billy--ah, but +the world was a lonely thing, so wide and tall and empty! And so bare, +so bitter bare! Somehow he had never dreamed of the world as lonely +before; he had fared forth to beckoning hands and luring, and to the +eager hum of human voices, as of some great, swelling music. + +Yet now he was alone; the empty night was closing all about him here in +a strange land, and he was afraid. The bundle with his earthly treasure +had hung heavy and heavier on his shoulder; his little horde of money +was tightly wadded in his sock, and the school lay hidden somewhere far +away in the shadows. He wondered how far it was; he looked and harkened, +starting at his own heartbeats, and fearing more and more the long dark +fingers of the night. + +Then of a sudden up from the darkness came music. It was human music, +but of a wildness and a weirdness that startled the boy as it fluttered +and danced across the dull red waters of the swamp. He hesitated, then +impelled by some strange power, left the highway and slipped into the +forest of the swamp, shrinking, yet following the song hungrily and half +forgetting his fear. A harsher, shriller note struck in as of many and +ruder voices; but above it flew the first sweet music, birdlike, +abandoned, and the boy crept closer. + +The cabin crouched ragged and black at the edge of black waters. An old +chimney leaned drunkenly against it, raging with fire and smoke, while +through the chinks winked red gleams of warmth and wild cheer. With a +revel of shouting and noise, the music suddenly ceased. Hoarse staccato +cries and peals of laughter shook the old hut, and as the boy stood +there peering through the black trees, abruptly the door flew open and a +flood of light illumined the wood. + +Amid this mighty halo, as on clouds of flame, a girl was dancing. She +was black, and lithe, and tall, and willowy. Her garments twined and +flew around the delicate moulding of her dark, young, half-naked limbs. +A heavy mass of hair clung motionless to her wide forehead. Her arms +twirled and flickered, and body and soul seemed quivering and whirring +in the poetry of her motion. + +As she danced she sang. He heard her voice as before, fluttering like a +bird's in the full sweetness of her utter music. It was no tune nor +melody, it was just formless, boundless music. The boy forgot himself +and all the world besides. All his darkness was sudden light; dazzled he +crept forward, bewildered, fascinated, until with one last wild whirl +the elf-girl paused. The crimson light fell full upon the warm and +velvet bronze of her face--her midnight eyes were aglow, her full purple +lips apart, her half hid bosom panting, and all the music dead. +Involuntarily the boy gave a gasping cry and awoke to swamp and night +and fire, while a white face, drawn, red-eyed, peered outward from some +hidden throng within the cabin. + +"Who's that?" a harsh voice cried. + +"Where?" "Who is it?" and pale crowding faces blurred the light. + +The boy wheeled blindly and fled in terror stumbling through the swamp, +hearing strange sounds and feeling stealthy creeping hands and arms and +whispering voices. On he toiled in mad haste, struggling toward the road +and losing it until finally beneath the shadows of a mighty oak he sank +exhausted. There he lay a while trembling and at last drifted into +dreamless sleep. + +It was morning when he awoke and threw a startled glance upward to the +twisted branches of the oak that bent above, sifting down sunshine on +his brown face and close curled hair. Slowly he remembered the +loneliness, the fear and wild running through the dark. He laughed in +the bold courage of day and stretched himself. + +Then suddenly he bethought him again of that vision of the night--the +waving arms and flying limbs of the girl, and her great black eyes +looking into the night and calling him. He could hear her now, and hear +that wondrous savage music. Had it been real? Had he dreamed? Or had it +been some witch-vision of the night, come to tempt and lure him to his +undoing? Where was that black and flaming cabin? Where was the girl--the +soul that had called him? _She_ must have been real; she had to live and +dance and sing; he must again look into the mystery of her great eyes. +And he sat up in sudden determination, and, lo! gazed straight into the +very eyes of his dreaming. + +She sat not four feet from him, leaning against the great tree, her +eyes now languorously abstracted, now alert and quizzical with mischief. +She seemed but half-clothed, and her warm, dark flesh peeped furtively +through the rent gown; her thick, crisp hair was frowsy and rumpled, and +the long curves of her bare young arms gleamed in the morning sunshine, +glowing with vigor and life. A little mocking smile came and sat upon +her lips. + +"What you run for?" she asked, with dancing mischief in her eyes. + +"Because--" he hesitated, and his cheeks grew hot. + +"I knows," she said, with impish glee, laughing low music. + +"Why?" he challenged, sturdily. + +"You was a-feared." + +He bridled. "Well, I reckon you'd be a-feared if you was caught out in +the black dark all alone." + +"Pooh!" she scoffed and hugged her knees. "Pooh! I've stayed out all +alone heaps o' nights." + +He looked at her with a curious awe. + +"I don't believe you," he asserted; but she tossed her head and her eyes +grew scornful. + +"Who's a-feared of the dark? I love night." Her eyes grew soft. + +He watched her silently, till, waking from her daydream, she abruptly +asked: + +"Where you from?" + +"Georgia." + +"Where's that?" + +He looked at her in surprise, but she seemed matter-of-fact. + +"It's away over yonder," he answered. + +"Behind where the sun comes up?" + +"Oh, no!" + +"Then it ain't so far," she declared. "I knows where the sun rises, and +I knows where it sets." She looked up at its gleaming splendor glinting +through the leaves, and, noting its height, announced abruptly: + +"I'se hungry." + +"So'm I," answered the boy, fumbling at his bundle; and then, timidly: +"Will you eat with me?" + +"Yes," she said, and watched him with eager eyes. + +Untying the strips of cloth, he opened his box, and disclosed chicken +and biscuits, ham and corn-bread. She clapped her hands in glee. + +"Is there any water near?" he asked. + +Without a word, she bounded up and flitted off like a brown bird, +gleaming dull-golden in the sun, glancing in and out among the trees, +till she paused above a tiny black pool, and then came tripping and +swaying back with hands held cupwise and dripping with cool water. + +"Drink," she cried. Obediently he bent over the little hands that seemed +so soft and thin. He took a deep draught; and then to drain the last +drop, his hands touched hers and the shock of flesh first meeting flesh +startled them both, while the water rained through. A moment their eyes +looked deep into each other's--a timid, startled gleam in hers; a wonder +in his. Then she said dreamily: + +"We'se known us all our lives, and--before, ain't we?" + +He hesitated. + +"Ye--es--I reckon," he slowly returned. And then, brightening, he asked +gayly: "And we'll be friends always, won't we?" + +"Yes," she said at last, slowly and solemnly, and another brief moment +they stood still. + +Then the mischief danced in her eyes, and a song bubbled on her lips. +She hopped to the tree. + +"Come--eat!" she cried. And they nestled together amid the big black +roots of the oak, laughing and talking while they ate. + +"What's over there?" he asked pointing northward. + +"Cresswell's big house." + +"And yonder to the west?" + +"The school." + +He started joyfully. + +"The school! What school?" + +"Old Miss' School." + +"Miss Smith's school?" + +"Yes." The tone was disdainful. + +"Why, that's where I'm going. I was a-feared it was a long way off; I +must have passed it in the night." + +"I hate it!" cried the girl, her lips tense. + +"But I'll be so near," he explained. "And why do you hate it?" + +"Yes--you'll be near," she admitted; "that'll be nice; but--" she +glanced westward, and the fierce look faded. Soft joy crept to her face +again, and she sat once more dreaming. + +"Yon way's nicest," she said. + +"Why, what's there?" + +"The swamp," she said mysteriously. + +"And what's beyond the swamp?" + +She crouched beside him and whispered in eager, tense tones: "Dreams!" + +He looked at her, puzzled. + +"Dreams?" vaguely--"dreams? Why, dreams ain't--nothing." + +"Oh, yes they is!" she insisted, her eyes flaming in misty radiance as +she sat staring beyond the shadows of the swamp. "Yes they is! There +ain't nothing but dreams--that is, nothing much. + +"And over yonder behind the swamps is great fields full of dreams, piled +high and burning; and right amongst them the sun, when he's tired o' +night, whispers and drops red things, 'cept when devils make 'em black." + +The boy stared at her; he knew not whether to jeer or wonder. + +"How you know?" he asked at last, skeptically. + +"Promise you won't tell?" + +"Yes," he answered. + +She cuddled into a little heap, nursing her knees, and answered slowly. + +"I goes there sometimes. I creeps in 'mongst the dreams; they hangs +there like big flowers, dripping dew and sugar and blood--red, red +blood. And there's little fairies there that hop about and sing, and +devils--great, ugly devils that grabs at you and roasts and eats you if +they gits you; but they don't git me. Some devils is big and white, like +ha'nts; some is long and shiny, like creepy, slippery snakes; and some +is little and broad and black, and they yells--" + +The boy was listening in incredulous curiosity, half minded to laugh, +half minded to edge away from the black-red radiance of yonder dusky +swamp. He glanced furtively backward, and his heart gave a great bound. + +"Some is little and broad and black, and they yells--" chanted the girl. +And as she chanted, deep, harsh tones came booming through the forest: + +"_Zo-ra! Zo-ra!_ O--o--oh, Zora!" + +He saw far behind him, toward the shadows of the swamp, an old +woman--short, broad, black and wrinkled, with fangs and pendulous lips +and red, wicked eyes. His heart bounded in sudden fear; he wheeled +toward the girl, and caught only the uncertain flash of her +garments--the wood was silent, and he was alone. + +He arose, startled, quickly gathered his bundle, and looked around him. +The sun was strong and high, the morning fresh and vigorous. Stamping +one foot angrily, he strode jauntily out of the wood toward the big +road. + +But ever and anon he glanced curiously back. Had he seen a haunt? Or was +the elf-girl real? And then he thought of her words: + +"We'se known us all our lives." + + + + +_Two_ + +THE SCHOOL + + +Day was breaking above the white buildings of the Negro school and +throwing long, low lines of gold in at Miss Sarah Smith's front window. +She lay in the stupor of her last morning nap, after a night of +harrowing worry. Then, even as she partially awoke, she lay still with +closed eyes, feeling the shadow of some great burden, yet daring not to +rouse herself and recall its exact form; slowly again she drifted toward +unconsciousness. + +"_Bang! bang! bang!_" hard knuckles were beating upon the door below. + +She heard drowsily, and dreamed that it was the nailing up of all her +doors; but she did not care much, and but feebly warded the blows away, +for she was very tired. + +"_Bang! bang! bang!_" persisted the hard knuckles. + +She started up, and her eye fell upon a letter lying on her bureau. Back +she sank with a sigh, and lay staring at the ceiling--a gaunt, flat, +sad-eyed creature, with wisps of gray hair half-covering her baldness, +and a face furrowed with care and gathering years. + +It was thirty years ago this day, she recalled, since she first came to +this broad land of shade and shine in Alabama to teach black folks. + +It had been a hard beginning with suspicion and squalor around; with +poverty within and without the first white walls of the new school home. +Yet somehow the struggle then with all its helplessness and +disappointment had not seemed so bitter as today: then failure meant but +little, now it seemed to mean everything; then it meant disappointment +to a score of ragged urchins, now it meant two hundred boys and girls, +the spirits of a thousand gone before and the hopes of thousands to +come. In her imagination the significance of these half dozen gleaming +buildings perched aloft seemed portentous--big with the destiny not +simply of a county and a State, but of a race--a nation--a world. It was +God's own cause, and yet-- + +"_Bang! bang! bang!_" again went the hard knuckles down there at the +front. + +Miss Smith slowly arose, shivering a bit and wondering who could +possibly be rapping at that time in the morning. She sniffed the +chilling air and was sure she caught some lingering perfume from Mrs. +Vanderpool's gown. She had brought this rich and rare-apparelled lady up +here yesterday, because it was more private, and here she had poured +forth her needs. She had talked long and in deadly earnest. She had not +spoken of the endowment for which she had hoped so desperately during a +quarter of a century--no, only for the five thousand dollars to buy the +long needed new land. It was so little--so little beside what this woman +squandered-- + +The insistent knocking was repeated louder than before. + +"Sakes alive," cried Miss Smith, throwing a shawl about her and leaning +out the window. "Who is it, and what do you want?" + +"Please, ma'am. I've come to school," answered a tall black boy with a +bundle. + +"Well, why don't you go to the office?" Then she saw his face and +hesitated. She felt again the old motherly instinct to be the first to +welcome the new pupil; a luxury which, in later years, the endless push +of details had denied her. + +"Wait!" she cried shortly, and began to dress. + +A new boy, she mused. Yes, every day they straggled in; every day came +the call for more, more--this great, growing thirst to know--to do--to +be. And yet that woman had sat right here, aloof, imperturbable, +listening only courteously. When Miss Smith finished, she had paused +and, flicking her glove,-- + +"My dear Miss Smith," she said softly, with a tone that just escaped a +drawl--"My dear Miss Smith, your work is interesting and your +faith--marvellous; but, frankly, I cannot make myself believe in it. You +are trying to treat these funny little monkeys just as you would your +own children--or even mine. It's quite heroic, of course, but it's sheer +madness, and I do not feel I ought to encourage it. I would not mind a +thousand or so to train a good cook for the Cresswells, or a clean and +faithful maid for myself--for Helene has faults--or indeed deft and +tractable laboring-folk for any one; but I'm quite through trying to +turn natural servants into masters of me and mine. I--hope I'm not too +blunt; I hope I make myself clear. You know, statistics show--" + +"Drat statistics!" Miss Smith had flashed impatiently. "These are +folks." + +Mrs. Vanderpool smiled indulgently. "To be sure," she murmured, "but +what sort of folks?" + +"God's sort." + +"Oh, well--" + +But Miss Smith had the bit in her teeth and could not have stopped. She +was paying high for the privilege of talking, but it had to be said. + +"God's sort, Mrs. Vanderpool--not the sort that think of the world as +arranged for their exclusive benefit and comfort." + +"Well, I do want to count--" + +Miss Smith bent forward--not a beautiful pose, but earnest. + +"I want you to count, and I want to count, too; but I don't want us to +be the only ones that count. I want to live in a world where every soul +counts--white, black, and yellow--all. _That's_ what I'm teaching these +children here--to count, and not to be like dumb, driven cattle. If you +don't believe in this, of course you cannot help us." + +"Your spirit is admirable, Miss Smith," she had said very softly; "I +only wish I could feel as you do. Good-afternoon," and she had rustled +gently down the narrow stairs, leaving an all but imperceptible +suggestion of perfume. Miss Smith could smell it yet as she went down +this morning. + +The breakfast bell jangled. "Five thousand dollars," she kept repeating +to herself, greeting the teachers absently--"five thousand dollars." And +then on the porch she was suddenly aware of the awaiting boy. She eyed +him critically: black, fifteen, country-bred, strong, clear-eyed. + +"Well?" she asked in that brusque manner wherewith her natural timidity +was wont to mask her kindness. "Well, sir?" + +"I've come to school." + +"Humph--we can't teach boys for nothing." + +The boy straightened. "I can pay my way," he returned. + +"You mean you can pay what we ask?" + +"Why, yes. Ain't that all?" + +"No. The rest is gathered from the crumbs of Dives' table." + +Then he saw the twinkle in her eyes. She laid her hand gently upon his +shoulder. + +"If you don't hurry you'll be late to breakfast," she said with an air +of confidence. "See those boys over there? Follow them, and at noon come +to the office--wait! What's your name?" + +"Blessed Alwyn," he answered, and the passing teachers smiled. + + + + +_Three_ + +MISS MARY TAYLOR + + +Miss Mary Taylor did not take a college course for the purpose of +teaching Negroes. Not that she objected to Negroes as human +beings--quite the contrary. In the debate between the senior societies +her defence of the Fifteenth Amendment had been not only a notable bit +of reasoning, but delivered with real enthusiasm. Nevertheless, when the +end of the summer came and the only opening facing her was the teaching +of children at Miss Smith's experiment in the Alabama swamps, it must be +frankly confessed that Miss Taylor was disappointed. + +Her dream had been a post-graduate course at Bryn Mawr; but that was out +of the question until money was earned. She had pictured herself earning +this by teaching one or two of her "specialties" in some private school +near New York or Boston, or even in a Western college. The South she had +not thought of seriously; and yet, knowing of its delightful +hospitality and mild climate, she was not averse to Charleston or New +Orleans. But from the offer that came to teach Negroes--country Negroes, +and little ones at that--she shrank, and, indeed, probably would have +refused it out of hand had it not been for her queer brother, John. John +Taylor, who had supported her through college, was interested in cotton. +Having certain schemes in mind, he had been struck by the fact that the +Smith School was in the midst of the Alabama cotton-belt. + +"Better go," he had counselled, sententiously. "Might learn something +useful down there." + +She had been not a little dismayed by the outlook, and had protested +against his blunt insistence. + +"But, John, there's no society--just elementary work--" + +John had met this objection with, "Humph!" as he left for his office. +Next day he had returned to the subject. + +"Been looking up Tooms County. Find some Cresswells there--big +plantations--rated at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Some +others, too; big cotton county." + +"You ought to know, John, if I teach Negroes I'll scarcely see much of +people in my own class." + +"Nonsense! Butt in. Show off. Give 'em your Greek--and study Cotton. At +any rate, I say go." + +And so, howsoever reluctantly, she had gone. + +The trial was all she had anticipated, and possibly a bit more. She was +a pretty young woman of twenty-three, fair and rather daintily moulded. +In favorable surroundings, she would have been an aristocrat and an +epicure. Here she was teaching dirty children, and the smell of confused +odors and bodily perspiration was to her at times unbearable. + +Then there was the fact of their color: it was a fact so insistent, so +fatal she almost said at times, that she could not escape it. +Theoretically she had always treated it with disdainful ease. + +"What's the mere color of a human soul's skin," she had cried to a +Wellesley audience and the audience had applauded with enthusiasm. But +here in Alabama, brought closely and intimately in touch with these dark +skinned children, their color struck her at first with a sort of +terror--it seemed ominous and forbidding. She found herself shrinking +away and gripping herself lest they should perceive. She could not help +but think that in most other things they were as different from her as +in color. She groped for new ways to teach colored brains and marshal +colored thoughts and the result was puzzling both to teacher and +student. With the other teachers she had little commerce. They were in +no sense her sort of folk. Miss Smith represented the older New England +of her parents--honest, inscrutable, determined, with a conscience which +she worshipped, and utterly unselfish. She appealed to Miss Taylor's +ruddier and daintier vision but dimly and distantly as some memory of +the past. The other teachers were indistinct personalities, always very +busy and very tired, and talking "school-room" with their meals. Miss +Taylor was soon starving for human companionship, for the lighter +touches of life and some of its warmth and laughter. She wanted a glance +of the new books and periodicals and talk of great philanthropies and +reforms. She felt out of the world, shut in and mentally anaemic; great +as the "Negro Problem" might be as a world problem, it looked sordid and +small at close range. So for the hundredth time she was thinking today, +as she walked alone up the lane back of the barn, and then slowly down +through the bottoms. She paused a moment and nodded to the two boys at +work in a young cotton field. + +"Cotton!" + +She paused. She remembered with what interest she had always read of +this little thread of the world. She had almost forgotten that it was +here within touch and sight. For a moment something of the vision of +Cotton was mirrored in her mind. The glimmering sea of delicate leaves +whispered and murmured before her, stretching away to the Northward. +She remembered that beyond this little world it stretched on and on--how +far she did not know--but on and on in a great trembling sea, and the +foam of its mighty waters would one time flood the ends of the earth. + +She glimpsed all this with parted lips, and then sighed impatiently. +There might be a bit of poetry here and there, but most of this place +was such desperate prose. + +She glanced absently at the boys. + +One was Bles Alwyn, a tall black lad. (Bles, she mused,--now who would +think of naming a boy "Blessed," save these incomprehensible creatures!) +Her regard shifted to the green stalks and leaves again, and she started +to move away. Then her New England conscience stepped in. She ought not +to pass these students without a word of encouragement or instruction. + +"Cotton is a wonderful thing, is it not, boys?" she said rather primly. +The boys touched their hats and murmured something indistinctly. Miss +Taylor did not know much about cotton, but at least one more remark +seemed called for. + +"How long before the stalks will be ready to cut?" she asked carelessly. +The farther boy coughed and Bles raised his eyes and looked at her; then +after a pause he answered slowly. (Oh! these people were so slow--now a +New England boy would have answered and asked a half-dozen questions in +the time.) + +"I--I don't know," he faltered. + +"Don't know! Well, of all things!" inwardly commented Miss +Taylor--"literally born in cotton, and--Oh, well," as much as to ask, +"What's the use?" She turned again to go. + +"What is planted over there?" she asked, although she really didn't +care. + +"Goobers," answered the smaller boy. + +"Goobers?" uncomprehendingly. + +"Peanuts," Bles specified. + +"Oh!" murmured Miss Taylor. "I see there are none on the vines yet. I +suppose, though, it's too early for them." + +Then came the explosion. The smaller boy just snorted with irrepressible +laughter and bolted across the fields. And Bles--was Miss Taylor +deceived?--or was he chuckling? She reddened, drew herself up, and then, +dropping her primness, rippled with laughter. + +"What is the matter, Bles?" she asked. + +He looked at her with twinkling eyes. + +"Well, you see, Miss Taylor, it's like this: farming don't seem to be +your specialty." + +The word was often on Miss Taylor's lips, and she recognized it. Despite +herself she smiled again. + +"Of course, it isn't--I don't know anything about farming. But what did +I say so funny?" + +Bles was now laughing outright. + +"Why, Miss Taylor! I declare! Goobers don't grow on the tops of vines, +but underground on the roots--like yams." + +"Is that so?" + +"Yes, and we--we don't pick cotton stalks except for kindling." + +"I must have been thinking of hemp. But tell me more about cotton." + +His eyes lighted, for cotton was to him a very real and beautiful thing, +and a life-long companion, yet not one whose friendship had been +coarsened and killed by heavy toil. He leaned against his hoe and talked +half dreamily--where had he learned so well that dream-talk? + +"We turn up the earth and sow it soon after Christmas. Then pretty soon +there comes a sort of greenness on the black land and it swells and +grows and, and--shivers. Then stalks shoot up with three or four leaves. +That's the way it is now, see? After that we chop out the weak stalks, +and the strong ones grow tall and dark, till I think it must be like the +ocean--all green and billowy; then come little flecks here and there +and the sea is all filled with flowers--flowers like little bells, blue +and purple and white." + +"Ah! that must be beautiful," sighed Miss Taylor, wistfully, sinking to +the ground and clasping her hands about her knees. + +"Yes, ma'am. But it's prettiest when the bolls come and swell and burst, +and the cotton covers the field like foam, all misty--" + +She bent wondering over the pale plants. The poetry of the thing began +to sing within her, awakening her unpoetic imagination, and she +murmured: + +"The Golden Fleece--it's the Silver Fleece!" + +He harkened. + +"What's that?" he asked. + +"Have you never heard of the Golden Fleece, Bles?" + +"No, ma'am," he said eagerly; then glancing up toward the Cresswell +fields, he saw two white men watching them. He grasped his hoe and +started briskly to work. + +"Some time you'll tell me, please, won't you?" + +She glanced at her watch in surprise and arose hastily. + +"Yes, with pleasure," she said moving away--at first very fast, and then +more and more slowly up the lane, with a puzzled look on her face. + +She began to realize that in this pleasant little chat the fact of the +boy's color had quite escaped her; and what especially puzzled her was +that this had not happened before. She had been here four months, and +yet every moment up to now she seemed to have been vividly, almost +painfully conscious, that she was a white woman talking to black folk. +Now, for one little half-hour she had been a woman talking to a boy--no, +not even that: she had been talking--just talking; there were no persons +in the conversation, just things--one thing: Cotton. + +She started thinking of cotton--but at once she pulled herself back to +the other aspect. Always before she had been veiled from these folk: who +had put the veil there? Had she herself hung it before her soul, or had +they hidden timidly behind its other side? Or was it simply a brute +fact, regardless of both of them? + +The longer she thought, the more bewildered she grew. There seemed no +analogy that she knew. Here was a unique thing, and she climbed to her +bedroom and stared at the stars. + + + + +_Four_ + +TOWN + + +John Taylor had written to his sister. He wanted information, very +definite information, about Tooms County cotton; about its stores, its +people--especially its people. He propounded a dozen questions, sharp, +searching questions, and he wanted the answers tomorrow. Impossible! +thought Miss Taylor. He had calculated on her getting this letter +yesterday, forgetting that their mail was fetched once a day from the +town, four miles away. Then, too, she did not know all these matters and +knew no one who did. Did John think she had nothing else to do? And +sighing at the thought of to-morrow's drudgery, she determined to +consult Miss Smith in the morning. + +Miss Smith suggested a drive to town--Bles could take her in the +top-buggy after school--and she could consult some of the merchants and +business men. She could then write her letter and mail it there; it +would be but a day or so late getting to New York. + +"Of course," said Miss Smith drily, slowly folding her napkin, "of +course, the only people here are the Cresswells." + +"Oh, yes," said Miss Taylor invitingly. There was an allurement about +this all-pervasive name; it held her by a growing fascination and she +was anxious for the older woman to amplify. Miss Smith, however, +remained provokingly silent, so Miss Taylor essayed further. + +"What sort of people are the Cresswells?" she asked. + +"The old man's a fool; the young one a rascal; the girl a ninny," was +Miss Smith's succinct and acid classification of the county's first +family; adding, as she rose, "but they own us body and soul." She +hurried out of the dining-room without further remark. Miss Smith was +more patient with black folk than with white. + +The sun was hanging just above the tallest trees of the swamp when Miss +Taylor, weary with the day's work, climbed into the buggy beside Bles. +They wheeled comfortably down the road, leaving the sombre swamp, with +its black-green, to the right, and heading toward the golden-green of +waving cotton fields. Miss Taylor lay back, listlessly, and drank the +soft warm air of the languorous Spring. She thought of the golden sheen +of the cotton, and the cold March winds of New England; of her brother +who apparently noted nothing of leaves and winds and seasons; and of the +mighty Cresswells whom Miss Smith so evidently disliked. Suddenly she +became aware of her long silence and the silence of the boy. + +"Bles," she began didactically, "where are you from?" + +He glanced across at her and answered shortly: + +"Georgia, ma'am," and was silent. + +The girl tried again. + +"Georgia is a large State,"--tentatively. + +"Yes, ma'am." + +"Are you going back there when you finish?" + +"I don't know." + +"I think you ought to--and work for your people." + +"Yes, ma'am." + +She stopped, puzzled, and looked about. The old horse jogged lazily on, +and Bles switched him unavailingly. Somehow she had missed the way +today. The Veil hung thick, sombre, impenetrable. Well, she had done her +duty, and slowly she nestled back and watched the far-off green and +golden radiance of the cotton. + +"Bles," she said impulsively, "shall I tell you of the Golden Fleece?" + +He glanced at her again. + +"Yes'm, please," he said. + +She settled herself almost luxuriously, and began the story of Jason and +the Argonauts. + +The boy remained silent. And when she had finished, he still sat silent, +elbow on knee, absently flicking the jogging horse and staring ahead at +the horizon. She looked at him doubtfully with some disappointment that +his hearing had apparently shared so little of the joy of her telling; +and, too, there was mingled a vague sense of having lowered herself to +too familiar fellowship with this--this boy. She straightened herself +instinctively and thought of some remark that would restore proper +relations. She had not found it before he said, slowly: + +"All yon is Jason's." + +"What?" she asked, puzzled. + +He pointed with one sweep of his long arm to the quivering mass of +green-gold foliage that swept from swamp to horizon. + +"All yon golden fleece is Jason's now," he repeated. + +"I thought it was--Cresswell's," she said. + +"That's what I mean." + +She suddenly understood that the story had sunk deeply. + +"I am glad to hear you say that," she said methodically, "for Jason was +a brave adventurer--" + +"I thought he was a thief." + +"Oh, well--those were other times." + +"The Cresswells are thieves now." + +Miss Taylor answered sharply. + +"Bles, I am ashamed to hear you talk so of your neighbors simply because +they are white." + +But Bles continued. + +"This is the Black Sea," he said, pointing to the dull cabins that +crouched here and there upon the earth, with the dark twinkling of their +black folk darting out to see the strangers ride by. + +Despite herself Miss Taylor caught the allegory and half whispered, "Lo! +the King himself!" as a black man almost rose from the tangled earth at +their side. He was tall and thin and sombre-hued, with a carven face and +thick gray hair. + +"Your servant, mistress," he said, with a sweeping bow as he strode +toward the swamp. Miss Taylor stopped him, for he looked interesting, +and might answer some of her brother's questions. He turned back and +stood regarding her with sorrowful eyes and ugly mouth. + +"Do you live about here?" she asked. + +"I'se lived here a hundred years," he answered. She did not believe it; +he might be seventy, eighty, or even ninety--indeed, there was about him +that indefinable sense of age--some shadow of endless living; but a +hundred seemed absurd. + +"You know the people pretty well, then?" + +"I knows dem all. I knows most of 'em better dan dey knows demselves. I +knows a heap of tings in dis world and in de next." + +"This is a great cotton country?" + +"Dey don't raise no cotton now to what dey used to when old Gen'rel +Cresswell fust come from Carolina; den it was a bale and a half to the +acre on stalks dat looked like young brushwood. Dat was cotton." + +"You know the Cresswells, then?" + +"Know dem? I knowed dem afore dey was born." + +"They are--wealthy people?" + +"Dey rolls in money and dey'se quality, too. No shoddy upstarts dem, +but born to purple, lady, born to purple. Old Gen'ral Cresswell had +niggers and acres no end back dere in Carolina. He brung a part of dem +here and here his son, de father of dis Colonel Cresswell, was born. De +son--I knowed him well--he had a tousand niggers and ten tousand acres +afore de war." + +"Were they kind to their slaves?" + +"Oh, yaas, yaas, ma'am, dey was careful of de're niggers and wouldn't +let de drivers whip 'em much." + +"And these Cresswells today?" + +"Oh, dey're quality--high-blooded folks--dey'se lost some land and +niggers, but, lordy, nuttin' can buy de Cresswells, dey naturally owns +de world." + +"Are they honest and kind?" + +"Oh, yaas, ma'am--dey'se good white folks." + +"Good white folk?" + +"Oh, yaas, ma'am--course you knows white folks will be white +folks--white folks will be white folks. Your servant, ma'am." And the +swamp swallowed him. + +The boy's eyes followed him as he whipped up the horse. + +"He's going to Elspeth's," he said. + +"Who is he?" + +"We just call him Old Pappy--he's a preacher, and some folks say a +conjure man, too." + +"And who is Elspeth?" + +"She lives in the swamp--she's a kind of witch, I reckon, like--like--" + +"Like Medea?" + +"Yes--only--I don't know--" and he grew thoughtful. + +The road turned now and far away to the eastward rose the first +straggling cabins of the town. Creeping toward them down the road rolled +a dark squat figure. It grew and spread slowly on the horizon until it +became a fat old black woman, hooded and aproned, with great round hips +and massive bosom. Her face was heavy and homely until she looked up and +lifted the drooping cheeks, and then kindly old eyes beamed on the young +teacher, as she curtsied and cried: + +"Good-evening, honey! Good-evening! You sure is pretty dis evening." + +"Why, Aunt Rachel, how are you?" There was genuine pleasure in the +girl's tone. + +"Just tolerable, honey, bless de Lord! Rumatiz is kind o' bad and Aunt +Rachel ain't so young as she use ter be." + +"And what brings you to town afoot this time of day?" + +The face fell again to dull care and the old eyes crept away. She +fumbled with her cane. + +"It's de boys again, honey," she returned solemnly; "dey'se good boys, +dey is good to de're old mammy, but dey'se high strung and dey gits +fighting and drinking and--and--last Saturday night dey got took up +again. I'se been to Jedge Grey--I use to tote him on my knee, +honey--I'se been to him to plead him not to let 'em go on de gang, +'cause you see, honey," and she stroked the girl's sleeve as if pleading +with her, too, "you see it done ruins boys to put 'em on de gang." + +Miss Taylor tried hard to think of something comforting to say, but +words seemed inadequate to cheer the old soul; but after a few moments +they rode on, leaving the kind face again beaming and dimpling. + +And now the country town of Toomsville lifted itself above the cotton +and corn, fringed with dirty straggling cabins of black folk. The road +swung past the iron watering trough, turned sharply and, after passing +two or three pert cottages and a stately house, old and faded, opened +into the wide square. Here pulsed the very life and being of the land. +Yonder great bales of cotton, yellow-white in its soiled sacking, piled +in lofty, dusty mountains, lay listening for the train that, twice a +day, ran out to the greater world. Round about, tied to the well-gnawed +hitching rails, were rows of mules--mules with back cloths; mules with +saddles; mules hitched to long wagons, buggies, and rickety gigs; mules +munching golden ears of corn, and mules drooping their heads in +sorrowful memory of better days. + +Beyond the cotton warehouse smoked the chimneys of the seed-mill and the +cotton-gin; a red livery-stable faced them and all about three sides of +the square ran stores; big stores and small wide-windowed, narrow +stores. Some had old steps above the worn clay side-walks, and some were +flush with the ground. All had a general sense of dilapidation--save +one, the largest and most imposing, a three-story brick. This was +Caldwell's "Emporium"; and here Bles stopped and Miss Taylor entered. + +Mr. Caldwell himself hurried forward; and the whole store, clerks and +customers, stood at attention, for Miss Taylor was yet new to the +county. + +She bought a few trifles and then approached her main business. + +"My brother wants some information about the county, Mr. Caldwell, and I +am only a teacher, and do not know much about conditions here." + +"Ah! where do you teach?" asked Mr. Caldwell. He was certain he knew the +teachers of all the white schools in the county. Miss Taylor told him. +He stiffened slightly but perceptibly, like a man clicking the buckles +of his ready armor, and two townswomen who listened gradually turned +their backs, but remained near. + +"Yes--yes," he said, with uncomfortable haste. "Any--er--information--of +course--" Miss Taylor got out her notes. + +"The leading land-owners," she began, sorting the notes searchingly, "I +should like to know something about them." + +"Well, Colonel Cresswell is, of course, our greatest landlord--a +high-bred gentleman of the old school. He and his son--a worthy +successor to the name--hold some fifty thousand acres. They may be +considered representative types. Then, Mr. Maxwell has ten thousand +acres and Mr. Tolliver a thousand." + +Miss Taylor wrote rapidly. "And cotton?" she asked. + +"We raise considerable cotton, but not nearly what we ought to; nigger +labor is too worthless." + +"Oh! The Negroes are not, then, very efficient?" + +"Efficient!" snorted Mr. Caldwell; at last she had broached a phase of +the problem upon which he could dilate with fervor. "They're the +lowest-down, ornriest--begging your pardon--good-for-nothing loafers you +ever heard of. Why, we just have to carry them and care for them like +children. Look yonder," he pointed across the square to the court-house. +It was an old square brick-and-stucco building, sombre and stilted and +very dirty. Out of it filed a stream of men--some black and shackled; +some white and swaggering and liberal with tobacco-juice; some white and +shaven and stiff. "Court's just out," pursued Mr. Caldwell, "and them +niggers have just been sent to the gang--young ones, too; educated but +good for nothing. They're all that way." + +Miss Taylor looked up a little puzzled, and became aware of a battery of +eyes and ears. Everybody seemed craning and listening, and she felt a +sudden embarrassment and a sense of half-veiled hostility in the air. +With one or two further perfunctory questions, and a hasty expression of +thanks, she escaped into the air. + +The whole square seemed loafing and lolling--the white world perched on +stoops and chairs, in doorways and windows; the black world filtering +down from doorways to side-walk and curb. The hot, dusty quadrangle +stretched in dreary deadness toward the temple of the town, as if doing +obeisance to the court-house. Down the courthouse steps the sheriff, +with Winchester on shoulder, was bringing the last prisoner--a +curly-headed boy with golden face and big brown frightened eyes. + +"It's one of Dunn's boys," said Bles. "He's drunk again, and they say +he's been stealing. I expect he was hungry." And they wheeled out of the +square. + +Miss Taylor was tired, and the hastily scribbled letter which she +dropped into the post in passing was not as clearly expressed as she +could wish. + +A great-voiced giant, brown and bearded, drove past them, roaring a +hymn. He greeted Bles with a comprehensive wave of the hand. + +"I guess Tylor has been paid off," said Bles, but Miss Taylor was too +disgusted to answer. Further on they overtook a tall young yellow boy +walking awkwardly beside a handsome, bold-faced girl. Two white men came +riding by. One leered at the girl, and she laughed back, while the +yellow boy strode sullenly ahead. As the two white riders approached the +buggy one said to the other: + +"Who's that nigger with?" + +"One of them nigger teachers." + +"Well, they'll stop this damn riding around or they'll hear something," +and they rode slowly by. + +Miss Taylor felt rather than heard their words, and she was +uncomfortable. The sun fell fast; the long shadows of the swamp swept +soft coolness on the red road. Then afar in front a curled cloud of +white dust arose and out of it came the sound of galloping horses. + +"Who's this?" asked Miss Taylor. + +"The Cresswells, I think; they usually ride to town about this time." +But already Miss Taylor had descried the brown and tawny sides of the +speeding horses. + +"Good gracious!" she thought. "The Cresswells!" And with it came a +sudden desire not to meet them--just then. She glanced toward the swamp. +The sun was sifting blood-red lances through the trees. A little +wagon-road entered the wood and disappeared. Miss Taylor saw it. + +"Let's see the sunset in the swamp," she said suddenly. On came the +galloping horses. Bles looked up in surprise, then silently turned into +the swamp. The horses flew by, their hoof-beats dying in the distance. A +dark green silence lay about them lit by mighty crimson glories beyond. +Miss Taylor leaned back and watched it dreamily till a sense of +oppression grew on her. The sun was sinking fast. + +"Where does this road come out?" she asked at last. + +"It doesn't come out." + +"Where does it go?" + +"It goes to Elspeth's." + +"Why, we must turn back immediately. I thought--" But Bles was already +turning. They were approaching the main road again when there came a +fluttering as of a great bird beating its wings amid the forest. Then a +girl, lithe, dark brown, and tall, leaped lightly into the path with +greetings on her lips for Bles. At the sight of the lady she drew +suddenly back and stood motionless regarding Miss Taylor, searching her +with wide black liquid eyes. Miss Taylor was a little startled. + +"Good--good-evening," she said, straightening herself. + +The girl was still silent and the horse stopped. One tense moment pulsed +through all the swamp. Then the girl, still motionless--still looking +Miss Taylor through and through--said with slow deliberateness: + +"I hates you." + +The teacher in Miss Taylor strove to rebuke this unconventional greeting +but the woman in her spoke first and asked almost before she knew it-- + +"Why?" + + + + +_Five_ + +ZORA + + +Zora, child of the swamp, was a heathen hoyden of twelve wayward, +untrained years. Slight, straight, strong, full-blooded, she had dreamed +her life away in wilful wandering through her dark and sombre kingdom +until she was one with it in all its moods; mischievous, secretive, +brooding; full of great and awful visions, steeped body and soul in +wood-lore. Her home was out of doors, the cabin of Elspeth her port of +call for talking and eating. She had not known, she had scarcely seen, a +child of her own age until Bles Alwyn had fled from her dancing in the +night, and she had searched and found him sleeping in the misty morning +light. It was to her a strange new thing to see a fellow of like years +with herself, and she gripped him to her soul in wild interest and new +curiosity. Yet this childish friendship was so new and incomprehensible +a thing to her that she did not know how to express it. At first she +pounced upon him in mirthful, almost impish glee, teasing and mocking +and half scaring him, despite his fifteen years of young manhood. + +"Yes, they is devils down yonder behind the swamp," she would whisper, +warningly, when, after the first meeting, he had crept back again and +again, half fascinated, half amused to greet her; "I'se seen 'em, I'se +heard 'em, 'cause my mammy is a witch." + +The boy would sit and watch her wonderingly as she lay curled along the +low branch of the mighty oak, clinging with little curved limbs and +flying fingers. Possessed by the spirit of her vision, she would chant, +low-voiced, tremulous, mischievous: + +"One night a devil come to me on blue fire out of a big red flower that +grows in the south swamp; he was tall and big and strong as anything, +and when he spoke the trees shook and the stars fell. Even mammy was +afeared; and it takes a lot to make mammy afeared, 'cause she's a witch +and can conjure. He said, 'I'll come when you die--I'll come when you +die, and take the conjure off you,' and then he went away on a big +fire." + +"Shucks!" the boy would say, trying to express scornful disbelief when, +in truth, he was awed and doubtful. Always he would glance involuntarily +back along the path behind him. Then her low birdlike laughter would +rise and ring through the trees. + +So passed a year, and there came the time when her wayward teasing and +the almost painful thrill of her tale-telling nettled him and drove him +away. For long months he did not meet her, until one day he saw her deep +eyes fixed longingly upon him from a thicket in the swamp. He went and +greeted her. But she said no word, sitting nested among the greenwood +with passionate, proud silence, until he had sued long for peace; then +in sudden new friendship she had taken his hand and led him through the +swamp, showing him all the beauty of her swamp-world--great shadowy oaks +and limpid pools, lone, naked trees and sweet flowers; the whispering +and flitting of wild things, and the winging of furtive birds. She had +dropped the impish mischief of her way, and up from beneath it rose a +wistful, visionary tenderness; a mighty half-confessed, half-concealed, +striving for unknown things. He seemed to have found a new friend. + +And today, after he had taken Miss Taylor home and supped, he came out +in the twilight under the new moon and whistled the tremulous note that +always brought her. + +"Why did you speak so to Miss Taylor?" he asked, reproachfully. She +considered the matter a moment. + +"You don't understand," she said. "You can't never understand. I can see +right through people. You can't. You never had a witch for a mammy--did +you?" + +"No." + +"Well, then, you see I have to take care of you and see things for you." + +"Zora," he said thoughtfully, "you must learn to read." + +"What for?" + +"So that you can read books and know lots of things." + +"Don't white folks make books?" + +"Yes--most of the books." + +"Pooh! I knows more than they do now--a heap more." + +"In some ways you do; but they know things that give them power and +wealth and make them rule." + +"No, no. They don't really rule; they just thinks they rule. They just +got things--heavy, dead things. We black folks is got the _spirit_. +We'se lighter and cunninger; we fly right through them; we go and come +again just as we wants to. Black folks is wonderful." + +He did not understand what she meant; but he knew what he wanted and he +tried again. + +"Even if white folks don't know everything they know different things +from us, and we ought to know what they know." + +This appealed to her somewhat. + +"I don't believe they know much," she concluded; "but I'll learn to read +and just see." + +"It will be hard work," he warned. But he had come prepared for +acquiescence. He took a primer from his pocket and, lighting a match, +showed her the alphabet. + +"Learn those," he said. + +"What for?" she asked, looking at the letters disdainfully. + +"Because that's the way," he said, as the light flared and went out. + +"I don't believe it," she disputed, disappearing in the wood and +returning with a pine-knot. They lighted it and its smoky flame threw +wavering shadows about. She turned the leaves till she came to a picture +which she studied intently. + +"Is this about this?" she asked, pointing alternately to reading and +picture. + +"Yes. And if you learn--" + +"Read it," she commanded. He read the page. + +"Again," she said, making him point out each word. Then she read it +after him, accurately, with more perfect expression. He stared at her. +She took the book, and with a nod was gone. + +It was Saturday and dark. She never asked Bles to her home--to that +mysterious black cabin in mid-swamp. He thought her ashamed of it, and +delicately refrained from going. So tonight she slipped away, stopped +and listened till she heard his footsteps on the pike, and then flew +homeward. Presently the old black cabin loomed before her with its wide +flapping door. The old woman was bending over the fire, stirring some +savory mess, and a yellow girl with a white baby on one arm was placing +dishes on a rickety wooden table when Zora suddenly and noiselessly +entered the door. + +"Come, is you? I 'lowed victuals would fetch you," grumbled the hag. + +But Zora deigned no answer. She walked placidly to the table, where she +took up a handful of cold corn-bread and meat, and then went over and +curled up by the fire. + +Elspeth and the girl talked and laughed coarsely, and the night wore +on. + +By and by loud laughter and tramping came from the road--a sound of +numerous footsteps. Zora listened, leapt to her feet and started to the +door. The old crone threw an epithet after her; but she flashed through +the lighted doorway and was gone, followed by the oath and shouts from +the approaching men. In the hut night fled with wild song and revel, and +day dawned again. Out from some fastness of the wood crept Zora. She +stopped and bathed in a pool, and combed her close-clung hair, then +entered silently to breakfast. + +Thus began in the dark swamp that primal battle with the Word. She hated +it and despised it, but her pride was in arms and her one great life +friendship in the balance. She fought her way with a dogged persistence +that brought word after word of praise and interest from Bles. Then, +once well begun, her busy, eager mind flew with a rapidity that +startled; the stories especially she devoured--tales of strange things +and countries and men gripped her imagination and clung to her memory. + +"Didn't I tell you there was lots to learn?" he asked once. + +"I knew it all," she retorted; "every bit. I'se thought it all before; +only the little things is different--and I like the little, strange +things." + +Spring ripened to summer. She was reading well and writing some. + +"Zora," he announced one morning under their forest oak, "you must go to +school." + +She eyed him, surprised. + +"Why?" + +"You've found some things worth knowing in this world, haven't you, +Zora?" + +"Yes," she admitted. + +"But there are more--many, many more--worlds on worlds of things--you +have not dreamed of." + +She stared at him, open-eyed, and a wonder crept upon her face battling +with the old assurance. Then she looked down at her bare brown feet and +torn gown. + +"I've got a little money, Zora," he said quickly. + +But she lifted her head. + +"I'll earn mine," she said. + +"How?" he asked doubtfully. + +"I'll pick cotton." + +"Can you?" + +"Course I can." + +"It's hard work." + +She hesitated. + +"I don't like to work," she mused. "You see, mammy's pappy was a king's +son, and kings don't work. I don't work; mostly I dreams. But I can +work, and I will--for the wonder things--and for you." + +So the summer yellowed and silvered into fall. All the vacation days +Bles worked on the farm, and Zora read and dreamed and studied in the +wood, until the land lay white with harvest. Then, without warning, she +appeared in the cotton-field beside Bles, and picked. + +It was hot, sore work. The sun blazed; her bent and untrained back +pained, and the soft little hands bled. But no complaint passed her +lips; her hands never wavered, and her eyes met his steadily and +gravely. She bade him good-night, cheerily, and then stole away to the +wood, crouching beneath the great oak, and biting back the groans that +trembled on her lips. Often, she fell supperless to sleep, with two +great tears creeping down her tired cheeks. + +When school-time came there was not yet money enough, for cotton-picking +was not far advanced. Yet Zora would take no money from Bles, and worked +earnestly away. + +Meantime there occurred to the boy the momentous question of clothes. +Had Zora thought of them? He feared not. She knew little of clothes and +cared less. So one day in town he dropped into Caldwell's "Emporium" +and glanced hesitantly at certain ready-made dresses. One caught his +eye. It came from the great Easterly mills in New England and was red--a +vivid red. The glowing warmth of this cloth of cotton caught the eye of +Bles, and he bought the gown for a dollar and a half. + +He carried it to Zora in the wood, and unrolled it before her eyes that +danced with glad tears. Of course, it was long and wide; but he fetched +needle and thread and scissors, too. It was a full month after school +had begun when they, together back in the swamp, shadowed by the +foliage, began to fashion the wonderful garment. At the same time she +laid ten dollars of her first hard-earned money in his hands. + +"You can finish the first year with this money," Bles assured her, +delighted, "and then next year you must come in to board; because, you +see, when you're educated you won't want to live in the swamp." + +"I wants to live here always." + +"But not at Elspeth's." + +"No-o--not there, not there." And a troubled questioning trembled in her +eyes, but brought no answering thought in his, for he was busy with his +plans. + +"Then, you see, Zora, if you stay here you'll need a new house, and +you'll want to learn how to make it beautiful." + +"Yes, a beautiful, great castle here in the swamp," she dreamed; "but," +and her face fell, "I can't get money enough to board in; and I don't +want to board in--I wants to be free." + +He looked at her, curled down so earnestly at her puzzling task, and a +pity for the more than motherless child swept over him. He bent over +her, nervously, eagerly, and she laid down her sewing and sat silent and +passive with dark, burning eyes. + +"Zora," he said, "I want you to do all this--for me." + +"I will, if you wants me to," she said quietly, but with something in +her voice that made him look half startled into her beautiful eyes and +feel a queer flushing in his face. He stretched his hand out and taking +hers held it lightly till she quivered and drew away, bending again +over her sewing. + +Then a nameless exaltation rose within his heart. + +"Zora," he whispered, "I've got a plan." + +"What is it?" she asked, still with bowed head. + +"Listen, till I tell you of the Golden Fleece." + +Then she too heard the story of Jason. Breathless she listened, dropping +her sewing and leaning forward, eager-eyed. Then her face clouded. + +"Do you s'pose mammy's the witch?" she asked dubiously. + +"No; she wouldn't give her own flesh and blood to help the thieving +Jason." + +She looked at him searchingly. + +"Yes, she would, too," affirmed the girl, and then she paused, still +intently watching him. She was troubled, and again a question eagerly +hovered on her lips. But he continued: + +"Then we must escape her," he said gayly. "See! yonder lies the Silver +Fleece spread across the brown back of the world; let's get a bit of it, +and hide it here in the swamp, and comb it, and tend it, and make it the +beautifullest bit of all. Then we can sell it, and send you to school." + +She sat silently bent forward, turning the picture in her mind. Suddenly +forgetting her trouble, she bubbled with laughter, and leaping up +clapped her hands. + +"And I knows just the place!" she cried eagerly, looking at him with a +flash of the old teasing mischief--"down in the heart of the +swamp--where dreams and devils lives." + + * * * * * + +Up at the school-house Miss Taylor was musing. She had been invited to +spend the summer with Mrs. Grey at Lake George, and such a +summer!--silken clothes and dainty food, motoring and golf, well-groomed +men and elegant women. She would not have put it in just that way, but +the vision came very close to spelling heaven to her mind. Not that she +would come to it vacant-minded, but rather as a trained woman, starved +for companionship and wanting something of the beauty and ease of life. +She sat dreaming of it here with rows of dark faces before her, and the +singsong wail of a little black reader with his head aslant and his +patched kneepants. + +The day was warm and languorous, and the last pale mist of the Silver +Fleece peeped in at the windows. She tried to follow the third-reader +lesson with her finger, but persistently off she went, dreaming, to some +exquisite little parlor with its green and gold, the clink of dainty +china and hum of low voices, and the blue lake in the window; she would +glance up, the door would open softly and-- + +Just here she did glance up, and all the school glanced with her. The +drone of the reader hushed. The door opened softly, and upon the +threshold stood Zora. Her small feet and slender ankles were black and +bare; her dark, round, and broad-browed head and strangely beautiful +face were poised almost defiantly, crowned with a misty mass of waveless +hair, and lit by the velvet radiance of two wonderful eyes. And hanging +from shoulder to ankle, in formless, clinging folds, blazed the scarlet +gown. + + + + +_Six_ + +COTTON + + +The cry of the naked was sweeping the world. From the peasant toiling in +Russia, the lady lolling in London, the chieftain burning in Africa, and +the Esquimaux freezing in Alaska; from long lines of hungry men, from +patient sad-eyed women, from old folk and creeping children went up the +cry, "Clothes, clothes!" Far away the wide black land that belts the +South, where Miss Smith worked and Miss Taylor drudged and Bles and Zora +dreamed, the dense black land sensed the cry and heard the bound of +answering life within the vast dark breast. All that dark earth heaved +in mighty travail with the bursting bolls of the cotton while black +attendant earth spirits swarmed above, sweating and crooning to its +birth pains. + +After the miracle of the bursting bolls, when the land was brightest +with the piled mist of the Fleece, and when the cry of the naked was +loudest in the mouths of men, a sudden cloud of workers swarmed between +the Cotton and the Naked, spinning and weaving and sewing and carrying +the Fleece and mining and minting and bringing the Silver till the Song +of Service filled the world and the poetry of Toil was in the souls of +the laborers. Yet ever and always there were tense silent white-faced +men moving in that swarm who felt no poetry and heard no song, and one +of these was John Taylor. + +He was tall, thin, cold, and tireless and he moved among the Watchers of +this World of Trade. In the rich Wall Street offices of Grey and +Easterly, Brokers, Mr. Taylor, as chief and confidential clerk surveyed +the world's nakedness and the supply of cotton to clothe it. The object +of his watching was frankly stated to himself and to his world. He +purposed going into business neither for his own health nor for the +healing or clothing of the peoples but to apply his knowledge of the +world's nakedness and of black men's toil in such a way as to bring +himself wealth. In this he was but following the teaching of his highest +ideal, lately deceased, Mr. Job Grey. Mr. Grey had so successfully +manipulated the cotton market that while black men who made the cotton +starved in Alabama and white men who bought it froze in Siberia, he +himself sat-- + + _"High on a throne of royal state + That far outshone the wealth + Of Ormuz or of Ind._" + +Notwithstanding this he died eventually, leaving the burden of his +wealth to his bewildered wife, and his business to the astute Mr. +Easterly; not simply to Mr. Easterly, but in a sense to his spiritual +heir, John Taylor. + +To be sure Mr. Taylor had but a modest salary and no financial interest +in the business, but he had knowledge and business daring--effrontery +even--and the determination was fixed in his mind to be a millionaire at +no distant date. Some cautious fliers on the market gave him enough +surplus to send his sister Mary through the high school of his country +home in New Hampshire, and afterward through Wellesley College; although +just why a woman should want to go through college was inexplicable to +John Taylor, and he was still uncertain as to the wisdom of his charity. + +When she had an offer to teach in the South, John Taylor hurried her off +for two reasons: he was profoundly interested in the cotton-belt, and +there she might be of service to him; and secondly, he had spent all the +money on her that he intended to at present, and he wanted her to go to +work. As an investment he did not consider Mary a success. Her letters +intimated very strongly her intention not to return to Miss Smith's +School; but they also brought information--disjointed and incomplete, to +be sure--which mightily interested Mr. Taylor and sent him to atlases, +encyclopaedias, and census-reports. When he went to that little lunch +with old Mrs. Grey he was not sure that he wanted his sister to leave +the cotton-belt just yet. After lunch he was sure that he did not want +her to leave. + +The rich Mrs. Grey was at the crisis of her fortunes. She was an elderly +lady, in those uncertain years beyond fifty, and had been left suddenly +with more millions than she could easily count. Personally she was +inclined to spend her money in bettering the world right off, in such +ways as might from time to time seem attractive. This course, to her +husband's former partner and present executor, Mr. Edward Easterly, was +not only foolish but wicked, and, incidentally, distinctly unprofitable +to him. He had expressed himself strongly to Mrs. Grey last night at +dinner and had reinforced his argument by a pointed letter written this +morning. + +To John Taylor Mrs. Grey's disposal of the income was unbelievable +blasphemy against the memory of a mighty man. He did not put this in +words to Mrs. Grey--he was only head clerk in her late husband's +office--but he became watchful and thoughtful. He ate his soup in +silence when she descanted on various benevolent schemes. + +"Now, what do you know," she asked finally, "about Negroes--about +educating them?" Mr. Taylor over his fish was about to deny all +knowledge of any sort on the subject, but all at once he recollected his +sister, and a sudden gleam of light radiated his mental gloom. + +"Have a sister who is--er--devoting herself to teaching them," he said. + +"Is that so!" cried Mrs. Grey, joyfully. "Where is she?" + +"In Tooms County, Alabama--in--" Mr. Taylor consulted a remote mental +pocket--"in Miss Sara Smith's school." + +"Why, how fortunate! I'm so glad I mentioned the matter. You see, Miss +Smith is a sister of a friend of ours, Congressman Smith of New Jersey, +and she has just written to me for help; a very touching letter, too, +about the poor blacks. My father set great store by blacks and was a +leading abolitionist before he died." + +Mr. Taylor was thinking fast. Yes, the name of Congressman Peter Smith +was quite familiar. Mr. Easterly, as chairman of the Republican State +Committee of New Jersey, had been compelled to discipline Mr. Smith +pretty severely for certain socialistic votes in the House, and +consequently his future career was uncertain. It was important that such +a man should not have too much to do with Mrs. Grey's philanthropies--at +least, in his present position. + +"Should like to have you meet and talk with my sister, Mrs. Grey; she's +a Wellesley graduate," said Taylor, finally. + +Mrs. Grey was delighted. It was a combination which she felt she needed. +Here was a college-girl who could direct her philanthropies and her +etiquette during the summer. Forthwith Mary Taylor received an +intimation from her brother that vast interests depended on her summer +vacation. + +Thus it had happened that Miss Taylor came to Lake George for her +vacation after the first year at the Smith School, and she and Miss +Smith had silently agreed as she left that it would be better for her +not to return. But the gods of lower Broadway thought otherwise. Not +that Mary Taylor did not believe in Miss Smith's work, she was too +honest not to believe in education; but she was sure that this was not +her work, and she had not as yet perfected in her own mind any theory of +the world into which black folk fitted. She was rather taken back, +therefore, to be regarded as an expert on the problem. First her brother +attacked her, not simply on cotton, but, to her great surprise, on Negro +education; and after listening to her halting uncertain remarks, he +suggested to her certain matters which it would be better for her to +believe when Mrs. Grey talked to her. + +"Interested in darkies, you see," he concluded, "and looks to you to +tell things. Better go easy and suggest a waiting-game before she goes +in heavy." + +"But Miss Smith needs money--" the New England conscience prompted. John +Taylor cut in sharply: + +"We all need money, and I know people who need Mrs. Grey's more than +Miss Smith does at present." + +Miss Taylor found the Lake George colony charming. It was not +ultra-fashionable, but it had wealth and leisure and some breeding. +Especially was this true of a circumscribed, rather exclusive, set which +centred around the Vanderpools of New York and Boston. They, or rather +Mr. Vanderpool's connections, were of Old Dutch New York stock; his +father it was who had built the Lake George cottage. + +Mrs. Vanderpool was a Wells of Boston, and endured Lake George now and +then during the summer for her husband's sake, although she regarded it +all as rather a joke. This summer promised to be unusually lonesome for +her, and she was meditating a retreat to the Massachusetts north shore +when she chanced to meet Mary Taylor, at a miscellaneous dinner, and +found her interesting. She discovered that this young woman knew things, +that she could talk books, and that she was rather pretty. To be sure +she knew no people, but Mrs. Vanderpool knew enough to even things. + +"By the bye, I met some charming Alabama people last winter, in +Montgomery--the Cresswells; do you know them?" she asked one day, as +they were lounging in wicker chairs on the Vanderpool porch. Then she +answered the query herself: "No, of course you could not. It is too bad +that your work deprives you of the society of people of your class. Now +my ideal is a set of Negro schools where the white teachers _could_ know +the Cresswells." + +"Why, yes--" faltered Miss Taylor; "but--wouldn't that be difficult?" + +"Why should it be?" + +"I mean, would the Cresswells approve of educating Negroes?" + +"Oh, 'educating'! The word conceals so much. Now, I take it the +Cresswells would object to instructing them in French and in dinner +etiquette and tea-gowns, and so, in fact, would I; but teach them how to +handle a hoe and to sew and cook. I have reason to know that people like +the Cresswells would be delighted." + +"And with the teachers of it?" + +"Why not?--provided, of course, they were--well, gentlefolk and +associated accordingly." + +"But one must associate with one's pupils." + +"Oh, certainly, certainly; just as one must associate with one's maids +and chauffeurs and dressmakers--cordially and kindly, but with a +difference." + +"But--but, dear Mrs. Vanderpool, you wouldn't want your children trained +that way, would you?" + +"Certainly not, my dear. But these are not my children, they are the +children of Negroes; we can't quite forget that, can we?" + +"No, I suppose not," Miss Taylor admitted, a little helplessly. "But--it +seems to me--that's the modern idea of taking culture to the masses." + +"Frankly, then, the modern idea is not my idea; it is too socialistic. +And as for culture applied to the masses, you utter a paradox. The +masses and work is the truth one must face." + +"And culture and work?" + +"Quite incompatible, I assure you, my dear." She stretched her silken +limbs, lazily, while Miss Taylor sat silently staring at the waters. + +Just then Mrs. Grey drove up in her new red motor. + +Up to the time of Mary Taylor's arrival the acquaintance of the +Vanderpools and Mrs. Grey had been a matter chiefly of smiling bows. +After Miss Taylor came there had been calls and casual intercourse, to +Mrs. Grey's great gratification and Mrs. Vanderpool's mingled amusement +and annoyance. Mrs. Grey announced the arrival of the Easterlys and John +Taylor for the week-end. As Mrs. Vanderpool could think of nothing less +boring, she consented to dine. + +The atmosphere of Mrs. Grey's ornate cottage was different from that of +the Vanderpools. The display of wealth and splendor had a touch of the +barbaric. Mary Taylor liked it, although she found the Vanderpool +atmosphere more subtly satisfying. There was a certain grim power +beneath the Greys' mahogany and velvets that thrilled while it appalled. +Precisely that side of the thing appealed to her brother. He would have +seen little or nothing in the plain elegance yonder, while here he saw a +Japanese vase that cost no cent less than a thousand dollars. He meant +to be able to duplicate it some day. He knew that Grey was poor and less +knowing than he sixty years ago. + +The dead millionaire had begun his fortune by buying and selling +cotton--travelling in the South in reconstruction times, and sending his +agents. In this way he made his thousands. Then he took a step forward, +and instead of following the prices induced the prices to follow him. +Two or three small cotton corners brought him his tens of thousands. +About this time Easterly joined him and pointed out a new road--the +buying and selling of stock in various cotton-mills and other industrial +enterprises. Grey hesitated, but Easterly pushed him on and he made his +hundreds of thousands. Then Easterly proposed buying controlling +interests in certain large mills and gradually consolidating them. The +plan grew and succeeded, and Grey made his millions. + +Then Grey stopped; he had money enough, and he would venture no farther. +He "was going to retire and eat peanuts," he said with a chuckle. + +Easterly was disgusted. He, too, had made millions--not as many as Grey, +but a few. It was not, however, simply money that he wanted, but power. +The lust of financial dominion had gripped his soul, and he had a vision +of a vast trust of cotton manufacturing covering the land. He talked +this incessantly into Grey, but Grey continued to shake his head; the +thing was too big for his imagination. He was bent on retiring, and just +as he had set the date a year hence he inadvertently died. On the whole, +Mr. Easterly was glad of his partner's definite withdrawal, since he +left his capital behind him, until he found his vast plans about to be +circumvented by Mrs. Grey withdrawing this capital from his control. "To +give to the niggers and Chinamen," he snorted to John Taylor, and strode +up and down the veranda. John Taylor removed his coat, lighted a black +cigar, and elevated his heels. The ladies were in the parlor, where the +female Easterlys were prostrating themselves before Mrs. Vanderpool. + +"Just what is your plan?" asked Taylor, quite as if he did not know. + +"Why, man, the transfer of a hundred millions of stock would give me +control of the cotton-mills of America. Think of it!--the biggest trust +next to steel." + +"Why not bigger?" asked Taylor, imperturbably puffing away. Mr. Easterly +eyed him. He had regarded Taylor hitherto as a very valuable asset to +the business--had relied on his knowledge of routine, his judgment and +his honesty; but he detected tonight a new tone in his clerk, something +almost authoritative and self-reliant. He paused and smiled at him. + +"Bigger?" + +But John Taylor was dead in earnest. He did not smile. + +"First, there's England--and all Europe; why not bring them into the +trust?" + +"Possibly, later; but first, America. Of course, I've got my eyes on the +European situation and feelers out; but such matters are more difficult +and slower of adjustment over there--so damned much law and gospel." + +"But there's another side." + +"What's that?" + +"You are planning to combine and control the manufacture of cotton--" + +"Yes." + +"But how about your raw material? The steel trust owns its iron mines." + +"Of course--mines could be monopolized and hold the trust up; but our +raw material is perfectly safe--farms growing smaller, farms isolated, +and we fixing the price. It's a cinch." + +"Are you sure?" Taylor surveyed him with a narrowed look. + +"Certain." + +"I'm not. I've been looking up things, and there are three points you'd +better study: First, cotton farms are not getting smaller; they're +getting bigger almighty fast, and there's a big cotton-land monopoly in +sight. Second, the banks and wholesale houses in the South _can_ control +the cotton output if they work together. Third, watch the Southern +'Farmers' League' of big landlords." + +Mr. Easterly threw away his cigar and sat down. Taylor straightened up, +switched on the porch light, and took a bundle of papers from his coat +pocket. + +"Here are census figures," he said, "commercial reports and letters." +They pored over them a half hour. Then Easterly arose. + +"There's something in it," he admitted, "but what can we do? What do you +propose?" + +"Monopolize the growth as well as the manufacture of cotton, and use +the first to club European manufacturers into submission." + +Easterly stared at him. + +"Good Lord!" he ejaculated; "you're crazy!" + +But Taylor smiled a slow, thin smile, and put away his papers. Easterly +continued to stare at his subordinate with a sort of fascination, with +the awe that one feels when genius unexpectedly reveals itself from a +source hitherto regarded as entirely ordinary. At last he drew a long +breath, remarking indefinitely: + +"I'll think it over." + +A stir in the parlor indicated departure. + +"Well, you watch the Farmers' League, and note its success and methods," +counselled John Taylor, his tone and manner unchanged. "Then figure what +it might do in the hands of--let us say, friends." + +"Who's running it?" + +"A Colonel Cresswell is its head, and happens also to be the force +behind it. Aristocratic family--big planter--near where my sister +teaches." + +"H'm--well, we'll watch _him_." + +"And say," as Easterly was turning away, "you know Congressman Smith?" + +"I should say I did." + +"Well, Mrs. Grey seems to be depending on him for advice in distributing +some of her charity funds." + +Easterly appeared startled. + +"She is, is she!" he exclaimed. "But here come the ladies." He went +forward at once, but John Taylor drew back. He noted Mrs. Vanderpool, +and thought her too thin and pale. The dashing young Miss Easterly was +more to his taste. He intended to have a wife like that one of these +days. + +"Mary," said he to his sister as he finally rose to go, "tell me about +the Cresswells." + +Mary explained to him at length the impossibility of her knowing much +about the local white aristocracy of Tooms County, and then told him all +she had heard. + +"Mrs. Grey talked to you much?" + +"Yes." + +"About darky schools?" + +"Yes." + +"What does she intend to do?" + +"I think she will aid Miss Smith first." + +"Did you suggest anything?" + +"Well, I told her what I thought about cooeperating with the local white +people." + +"The Cresswells?" + +"Yes--you see Mrs. Vanderpool knows the Cresswells." + +"Does, eh? Good! Say, that's a good point. You just bear heavy on +it--cooeperate with the Cresswells." + +"Why, yes. But--you see, John, I don't just know whether one _could_ +cooeperate with the Cresswells or not--one hears such contradictory +stories of them. But there must be some other white people--" + +"Stuff! It's the Cresswells we want." + +"Well," Mary was very dubious, "they are--the most important." + + + + +_Seven_ + + +THE PLACE OF DREAMS + +When she went South late in September, Mary Taylor had two definite but +allied objects: she was to get all possible business information +concerning the Cresswells, and she was to induce Miss Smith to prepare +for Mrs. Grey's benevolence by interesting the local whites in her work. +The programme attracted Miss Taylor. She felt in touch, even if dimly +and slightly, with great industrial movements, and she felt, too, like a +discerning pioneer in philanthropy. Both roles she liked. Besides, they +held, each, certain promises of social prestige; and society, Miss +Taylor argued, one must have even in Alabama. + +Bles Alwyn met her at the train. He was growing to be a big fine bronze +giant, and Mary was glad to see him. She especially tried, in the first +few weeks of opening school, to glean as much information as possible +concerning the community, and particularly the Cresswells. She found the +Negro youth quicker, surer, and more intelligent in his answers than +those she questioned elsewhere, and she gained real enjoyment from her +long talks with him. + +"Isn't Bles developing splendidly?" she said to Miss Smith one +afternoon. There was an unmistakable note of enthusiasm in her voice. +Miss Smith slowly closed her letter-file but did not look up. + +"Yes," she said crisply. "He's eighteen now--quite a man." + +"And most interesting to talk with." + +"H'm--very"--drily. Mary was busy with her own thoughts, and she did not +notice the other woman's manner. + +"Do you know," she pursued, "I'm a little afraid of one thing." + +"So am I." + +"Oh, you've noted it, too?--his friendship for that impossible girl, +Zora?" + +Miss Smith gave her a searching look. + +"What of it?" she demanded. + +"She is so far beneath him." + +"How so?" + +"She is a bold, godless thing; I don't understand her." + +"The two are not quite the same." + +"Of course not; but she is unnaturally forward." + +"Too bright," Miss Smith amplified. + +"Yes; she knows quite too much. You surely remember that awful scarlet +dress? Well, all her clothes have arrived, or remained, at a simplicity +and vividness that is--well--immodest." + +"Does she think them immodest?" + +"What she thinks is a problem." + +"_The_ problem, you mean?" + +"Well, yes." + +They paused a moment. Then Miss Smith said slowly: "What I don't +understand, I don't judge." + +"No, but you can't always help seeing and meeting it," laughed Miss +Taylor. + +"Certainly not. I don't try; I court the meeting and seeing. It is the +only way." + +"Well, perhaps, for us--but not for a boy like Bles, and a girl like +Zora." + +"True; men and women must exercise judgment in their intercourse +and"--she glanced sharply at Miss Taylor--"my dear, you yourself must +not forget that Bles Alwyn is a man." + +Far up the road came a low, long, musical shouting; then with creaking +and straining of wagons, four great black mules dashed into sight with +twelve bursting bales of yellowish cotton looming and swaying behind. +The drivers and helpers were lolling and laughing and singing, but Miss +Taylor did not hear nor see. She had sat suddenly upright; her face had +flamed crimson, and then went dead white. + +"Miss--Miss Smith!" she gasped, overwhelmed with dismay, a picture of +wounded pride and consternation. + +Miss Smith turned around very methodically and took her hand; but while +she spoke the girl merely stared at her in stony silence. + +"Now, dear, don't mean more than I do. I'm an old woman, and I've seen +many things. This is but a little corner of the world, and yet many +people pass here in thirty years. The trouble with new teachers who come +is, that like you, they cannot see black folk as human. All to them are +either impossible Zoras, or else lovable Blessings. They forget that +Zora is not to be annihilated, but studied and understood, and that Bles +is a young man of eighteen and not a clod." + +"But that he should dare--" Mary began breathlessly. + +"He hasn't dared," Miss Smith went gently on. "No thought of you but as +a teacher has yet entered his dear, simple head. But, my point is simply +this: he's a man, and a human one, and if you keep on making much over +him, and talking to him and petting him, he'll have the right to +interpret your manner in his own way--the same that any young man +would." + +"But--but, he's a--a--" + +"A Negro. To be sure, he is; and a man in addition. Now, dear, don't +take this too much to heart; this is not a rebuke, but a clumsy warning. +I am simply trying to make clear to you _why_ you should be careful. +Treat poor Zora a little more lovingly, and Bles a little less warmly. +They are just human--but, oh! so human." + +Mary Taylor rose up stiffly and mumbled a brief good-night. She went to +her room, and sat down in the dark. The mere mention of the thing was to +her so preposterous--no, loathsome, she kept repeating. + +She slowly undressed in the dark, and heard the rumbling of the cotton +wagons as they swayed toward town. The cry of the Naked was sweeping the +world, and yonder in the night black men were answering the call. They +knew not what or why they answered, but obeyed the irresistible call, +with hearts light and song upon their lips--the Song of Service. They +lashed their mules and drank their whiskey, and all night the piled +fleece swept by Mary Taylor's window, flying--flying to that far cry. +Miss Taylor turned uneasily in her bed and jerked the bed-clothes about +her ears. + +"Mrs. Vanderpool is right," she confided to the night, with something of +the awe with which one suddenly comprehends a hidden oracle; "there must +be a difference, always, always! That impudent Negro!" + +All night she dreamed, and all day,--especially when trim and immaculate +she sat in her chair and looked down upon fifty dark faces--and upon +Zora. + +Zora sat thinking. She saw neither Miss Taylor nor the long straight +rows of desks and faces. She heard neither the drone of the spellers nor +did she hear Miss Taylor say, "Zora!" She heard and saw none of this. +She only heard the prattle of the birds in the wood, far down where the +Silver Fleece would be planted. + +For the time of cotton-planting was coming; the gray and drizzle of +December was past and the hesitation, of January. Already a certain +warmth and glow had stolen into the air, and the Swamp was calling its +child with low, seductive voice. She knew where the first leaves were +bursting, where tiny flowers nestled, and where young living things +looked upward to the light and cried and crawled. A wistful longing was +stealing into her heart. She wanted to be free. She wanted to run and +dance and sing, but Bles wanted-- + +"Zora!" + +This time she heard the call, but did not heed it. Miss Taylor was very +tiresome, and was forever doing and saying silly things. So Zora paid no +attention, but sat still and thought. Yes, she would show Bles the place +that very night; she had kept it secret from him until now, out of +perverseness, out of her love of mystery and secrets. But tonight, after +school, when he met her on the big road with the clothes, she would take +him and show him the chosen spot. + +Soon she was aware that school had been dismissed, and she leisurely +gathered up her books and rose. Mary Taylor regarded her in perplexed +despair. Oh, these people! Mrs. Vanderpool was right: culture and--some +masses, at least--were not to be linked; and, too, culture and +work--were they incompatible? At any rate, culture and _this_ work were. + +Now, there was Mrs. Vanderpool--she toiled not, neither did she spin, +and yet! If all these folk were like poor, stupid, docile Jennie it +would be simpler, but what earthly sense was there in trying do to +anything with a girl like Zora, so stupid in some matters, so +startlingly bright in others, and so stubborn in everything? Here, she +was doing some work twice as well and twice as fast as the class, and +other work she would not touch because she "didn't like it." Her +classification in school was nearly as difficult as her classification +in the world, and Miss Taylor reached up impatiently and removed the +gold pin from her stock to adjust it more comfortably when Zora +sauntered past unseeing, unheeding, with that curious gliding walk which +Miss Taylor called stealthy. She laid the pin on the desk and on sudden +impulse spoke again to the girl as she arranged her neck trimmings. + +"Zora," she said evenly, "why didn't you come to class when I called?" + +"I didn't hear you," said Zora, looking at her full-eyed and telling the +half-truth easily. + +Miss Taylor was sure Zora was lying, and she knew that she had lied to +her on other occasions. Indeed, she had found lying customary in this +community, and she had a New England horror of it. She looked at Zora +disapprovingly, while Zora looked at her quite impersonally, but +steadily. Then Miss Taylor braced herself, mentally, and took the war +into Africa. + +"Do you ever tell lies, Zora?" + +"Yes." + +"Don't you know that is a wicked, bad habit?" + +"Why?" + +"Because God hates them." + +"How does _you_ know He does?" Zora's tone was still impersonal. + +"He hates all evil." + +"But why is lies evil?" + +"Because they make us deceive each other." + +"Is that wrong?" + +"Yes." + +Zora bent forward and looked squarely into Miss Taylor's blue eyes. Miss +Taylor looked into the velvet blackness of hers and wondered what they +veiled. + +"Is it wrong," asked Zora, "to make believe you likes people when you +don't, when you'se afeared of them and thinks they may rub off and dirty +you?" + +"Why--why--yes, if you--if you, deceive." + +"Then you lies sometimes, don't you?" + +Miss Taylor stared helplessly at the solemn eyes that seemed to look so +deeply into her. + +"Perhaps--I do, Zora; I'm sure I don't mean to, and--I hope God will +forgive me." + +Zora softened. + +"Oh, I reckon He will if He's a good God, because He'd know that lies +like that are heaps better than blabbing the truth right out. Only," she +added severely, "you mustn't keep saying it's wicked to lie 'cause it +ain't. Sometimes I lies," she reflected pensively, "and sometimes I +don't--it depends." + +Miss Taylor forgot her collar, and fingered the pin on the desk. She +felt at once a desperate desire to know this girl better and to +establish her own authority. Yet how should she do it? She kept toying +with the pin, and Zora watched her. Then Miss Taylor said, absently: + +"Zora, what do you propose to do when you grow up?" + +Zora considered. + +"Think and walk--and rest," she concluded. + +"I mean, what work?" + +"Work? Oh, I sha'n't work. I don't like work--do you?" + +Miss Taylor winced, wondering if the girl were lying again. She said +quickly: + +"Why, yes--that is, I like some kinds of work." + +"What kinds?" + +But Miss Taylor refused to have the matter made personal, as Zora had a +disconcerting way of pointing all their discussions. + +"Everybody likes some kinds of work," she insisted. + +"If you likes it, it ain't work," declared Zora; but Mary Taylor +proceeded around her circumscribed circle: + +"You might make a good cook, or a maid." + +"I hate cooking. What's a maid?" + +"Why, a woman who helps others." + +"Helps folks that they love? I'd like that." + +"It is not a question of affection," said Miss Taylor, firmly: "one is +paid for it." + +"I wouldn't work for pay." + +"But you'll have to, child; you'll have to earn a living." + +"Do you work for pay?" + +"I work to earn a living." + +"Same thing, I reckon, and it ain't true. Living just comes free, +like--like sunshine." + +"Stuff! Zora, your people must learn to work and work steadily and work +hard--" She stopped, for she was sure Zora was not listening; the far +away look was in her eyes and they were shining. She was beautiful as +she stood there--strangely, almost uncannily, but startlingly beautiful +with her rich dark skin, softly moulded features, and wonderful eyes. + +"My people?--my people?" she murmured, half to herself. "Do you know my +people? They don't never work; they plays. They is all little, funny +dark people. They flies and creeps and crawls, slippery-like; and they +cries and calls. Ah, my people! my poor little people! they misses me +these days, because they is shadowy things that sing and smell and bloom +in dark and terrible nights--" + +Miss Taylor started up. "Zora, I believe you're crazy!" she cried. But +Zora was looking at her calmly again. + +"We'se both crazy, ain't we?" she returned, with a simplicity that left +the teacher helpless. + +Miss Taylor hurried out, forgetting her pin. Zora looked it over +leisurely, and tried it on. She decided that she liked it, and putting +it in her pocket, went out too. + +School was out but the sun was still high, as Bles hurried from the barn +up the big road beside the soft shadows of the swamp. His head was busy +with new thoughts and his lips were whistling merrily, for today Zora +was to show him the long dreamed of spot for the planting of the Silver +Fleece. He hastened toward the Cresswell mansion, and glanced anxiously +up the road. At last he saw her coming, swinging down the road, lithe +and dark, with the big white basket of clothes poised on her head. + +"Zora," he yodled, and she waved her apron. + +He eased her burden to the ground and they sat down together, he +nervous and eager; she silent, passive, but her eyes restless. Bles was +full of his plans. + +"Zora," he said, "we'll make it the finest bale ever raised in Tooms; +we'll just work it to the inch--just love it into life." + +She considered the matter intently. + +"But,"--presently,--"how can we sell it without the Cresswells knowing?" + +"We won't try; we'll just take it to them and give them half, like the +other tenants." + +"But the swamp is mortal thick and hard to clear." + +"We can do it." + +Zora had sat still, listening; but now, suddenly, she leapt to her feet. + +"Come," she said, "I'll take the clothes home, then we'll go"--she +glanced at him--"down where the dreams are." And laughing, they hurried +on. + +Elspeth stood in the path that wound down to the cottage, and without a +word Zora dropped the basket at her feet. She turned back; but Bles, +struck by a thought, paused. The old woman was short, broad, black and +wrinkled, with yellow fangs, red hanging lips, and wicked eyes. She +leered at them; the boy shrank before it, but stood his ground. + +"Aunt Elspeth," he began, "Zora and I are going to plant and tend some +cotton to pay for her schooling--just the very best cotton we can +find--and I heard"--he hesitated,--"I heard you had some wonderful +seed." + +"Yes," she mumbled, "I'se got the seed--I'se got it--wonder seed, sowed +wid the three spells of Obi in the old land ten tousand moons ago. But +you couldn't plant it," with a sudden shrillness, "it would kill you." + +"But--" Bles tried to object, but she waved him away. + +"Git the ground--git the ground; dig it--pet it, and we'll see what +we'll see." And she disappeared. + +Zora was not sure that it had been wise to tell their secret. + +"I was going to steal the seed," she said. "I knows where it is, and I +don't fear conjure." + +"You mustn't steal, Zora," said Bles, gravely. + +"Why?" Zora quickly asked. + +But before he answered, they both forgot; for their faces were turned +toward the wonder of the swamp. The golden sun was pouring floods of +glory through the slim black trees, and the mystic sombre pools caught +and tossed back the glow in darker, duller crimson. Long echoing cries +leapt to and fro; silent footsteps crept hither and yonder; and the +girl's eyes gleamed with a wild new joy. + +"The dreams!" she cried. "The dreams!" And leaping ahead, she danced +along the shadowed path. He hastened after her, but she flew fast and +faster; he followed, laughing, calling, pleading. He saw her twinkling +limbs a-dancing as once he saw them dance in a halo of firelight; but +now the fire was the fire of the world. Her garments twined and flew in +shadowy drapings about the perfect moulding of her young and dark +half-naked figure. Her heavy hair had burst its fastenings and lay in +stiffened, straggling masses, bending reluctantly to the breeze, like +curled smoke; while all about, the mad, wild singing rose and fell and +trembled, till his head whirled. He paused uncertainly at a parting of +the paths, crying: + +"Zora! Zora!" as for some lost soul. "Zora! Zora!" echoed the cry, +faintly. + +Abruptly the music fell; there came a long slow-growing silence; and +then, with a flutter, she was beside him again, laughing in his ears and +crying with mocking voice: + +"Is you afeared, honey?" + +He saw in her eyes sweet yearnings, but could speak nothing. He could +only clasp her hand tightly, and again down they raced through the wood. + +All at once the swamp changed and chilled to a dull grayness; tall, +dull trees started down upon the murky waters; and long pendent +streamings of moss-like tears dripped from tree to earth. Slowly and +warily they threaded their way. + +"Are you sure of the path, Zora?" he once inquired anxiously. + +"I could find it asleep," she answered, skipping sure-footed onward. He +continued to hold her hand tightly, and his own pace never slackened. +Around them the gray and death-like wilderness darkened. They felt and +saw the cold white mist rising slowly from the ground, and waters +growing blacker and broader. + +At last they came to what seemed the end. Silently and dismally the +half-dead forest, with its ghostly moss, lowered and darkened, and the +black waters spread into a great silent lake of slimy ooze. The dead +trunk of a fallen tree lay straight in front, torn and twisted, its top +hidden yonder and mingled with impenetrable undergrowth. + +"Where now, Zora?" he cried. + +In a moment she had slipped her hand away and was scrambling upon the +tree trunk. The waters yawned murkily below. + +"Careful! careful!" he warned, struggling after her until she +disappeared amid the leaves. He followed eagerly, but cautiously; and +all at once found himself confronting a paradise. + +Before them lay a long island, opening to the south, on the black lake, +but sheltered north and east by the dense undergrowth of the black swamp +and the rampart of dead and living trees. The soil was virgin and black, +thickly covered over with a tangle of bushes, vines, and smaller growth +all brilliant with early leaves and wild flowers. + +"A pretty tough proposition for clearing and ploughing," said Bles, with +practised eye. But Zora eagerly surveyed the prospect. + +"It's where the Dreams lives," she whispered. + +Meantime Miss Taylor had missed her brooch and searched for it in vain. +In the midst of this pursuit the truth occurred to her--Zora had stolen +it. Negroes would steal, everybody said. Well, she must and would have +the pin, and she started for Elspeth's cabin. + +On the way she met the old woman in the path, but got little +satisfaction. Elspeth merely grunted ungraciously while eyeing the white +woman with suspicion. + +Mary Taylor, again alone, sat down at a turn in the path, just out of +sight of the house, and waited. Soon she saw, with a certain grim +satisfaction, Zora and Bles emerging from the swamp engaged in earnest +conversation. Here was an opportunity to overwhelm both with an +unforgettable reprimand. She rose before them like a spectral vengeance. + +"Zora, I want my pin." + +Bles started and stared; but Zora eyed her calmly with something like +disdain. + +"What pin?" she returned, unmoved. + +"Zora, don't deny that you took my pin from the desk this afternoon," +the teacher commanded severely. + +"I didn't say I didn't take no pin." + +"Persons who will lie and steal will do anything." + +"Why shouldn't people do anything they wants to?" + +"And you knew the pin was mine." + +"I saw you a-wearing of it," admitted Zora easily. + +"Then you have stolen it, and you are a thief." + +Still Zora appeared to be unimpressed with the heinousness of her fault. + +"Did you make that pin?" she asked. + +"No, but it is mine." + +"Why is it yours?" + +"Because it was given to me." + +"But you don't need it; you've got four other prettier ones--I counted." + +"That makes no difference." + +"Yes it does--folks ain't got no right to things they don't need." + +"That makes no difference, Zora, and you know it. The pin is mine. You +stole it. If you had wanted a pin and asked me I might have given you--" + +The girl blazed. + +"I don't want your old gifts," she almost hissed. "You don't own what +you don't need and can't use. God owns it and I'm going to send it back +to Him." + +With a swift motion she whipped the pin from her pocket and raised her +arm to hurl it into the swamp. Bles caught her hand. He caught it +lightly and smiled sorrowfully into her eyes. She wavered a moment, then +the answering light sprang to her face. Dropping the brooch into his +hand, she wheeled and fled toward the cabin. + +Bles handed it silently to Miss Taylor. Mary Taylor was beside herself +with impatient anger--and anger intensified by a conviction of utter +helplessness to cope with any strained or unusual situations between +herself and these two. + +"Alwyn," she said sharply, "I shall report Zora for stealing. And you +may report yourself to Miss Smith tonight for disrespect toward a +teacher." + + + + +_Eight_ + + +MR. HARRY CRESSWELL + + +The Cresswells, father and son, were at breakfast. The daughter was +taking her coffee and rolls up stairs in bed. + +"P'sh! I don't like it!" declared Harry Cresswell, tossing the letter +back to his father. "I tell you, it is a damned Yankee trick." + +He was a man of thirty-five, smooth and white, slight, well-bred and +masterful. His father, St. John Cresswell, was sixty, white-haired, +mustached and goateed; a stately, kindly old man with a temper and much +family pride. + +"Well, well," he said, his air half preoccupied, half unconcerned, "I +suppose so--and yet"--he read the letter again, aloud: "'Approaching you +as one of the most influential landowners of Alabama, on a confidential +matter'--h'm--h'm--'a combination of capital and power, such as this +nation has never seen'--'cotton manufacturers and cotton growers.' ... +Well, well! Of course, I suppose there's nothing in it. And yet, Harry, +my boy, this cotton-growing business is getting in a pretty tight pinch. +Unless relief comes somehow--well, we'll just have to quit. We simply +can't keep the cost of cotton down to a remunerative figure with niggers +getting scarcer and dearer. Every year I have to pinch 'em closer and +closer. I had to pay Maxwell two hundred and fifty to get that old darky +and his boys turned over to me, and one of the young ones has run away +already." + +Harry lighted a cigarette. + +"We must drive them more. You're too easy, father; they understand that. +By the way, what did that letter say about a 'sister'?" + +"Says he's got a sister over at the nigger school whom perhaps we know. +I suppose he thinks we dine there occasionally." The old man chuckled. +"That reminds me, Elspeth is sending her girl there." + +"What's that?" An angry gleam shot into the younger man's eye. + +"Yes. She announced this morning, pert as you please, that she couldn't +tote clothes any more--she had to study." + +"Damn it! This thing is going too far. We can't keep a maid or a +plough-boy on the place because of this devilish school. It's going to +ruin the whole labor system. We've been too mild and decent. I'm going +to put my foot down right here. I'll make Elspeth take that girl out of +school if I have to horse-whip her, and I'll warn the school against +further interference with our tenants. Here, in less than a week, go two +plough-hands--and now this girl." + +The old man smiled. + +"You'll hardly miss any work Zora does," he said. + +"I'll make her work. She's giving herself too many damned airs. I know +who's back of this--it's that nigger we saw talking to the white woman +in the field the other day." + +"Well, don't work yourself up. The wench don't amount to much anyhow. By +the way, though, if you do go to the school it won't hurt to see this +Taylor's sister and size the family up." + +"Pshaw! I'm going to give the Smith woman such a scare that she'll keep +her hands off our niggers." And Harry Cresswell rode away. + +Mary Taylor had charge of the office that morning, while Miss Smith, +shut up in her bedroom, went laboriously over her accounts. Miss Mary +suddenly sat up, threw a hasty glance into the glass and felt the back +of her belt. It was--it couldn't be--surely, it was Mr. Harry Cresswell +riding through the gateway on his beautiful white mare. He kicked the +gate open rather viciously, did not stop to close it, and rode straight +across the lawn. Miss Taylor noticed his riding breeches and leggings, +his white linen and white, clean-cut, high-bred face. Such apparitions +were few about the country lands. She felt inclined to flutter, but +gripped herself. + +"Good-morning," she said, a little stiffly. + +Mr. Cresswell halted and stared; then lifting the hat which he had +neglected to remove in crossing the hall, he bowed in stately grace. +Miss Taylor was no ordinary picture. Her brown hair was almost golden; +her dark eyes shone blue; her skin was clear and healthy, and her white +dress--happy coincidence!--had been laundered that very morning. Her +half-suppressed excitement at the sudden duty of welcoming the great +aristocrat of the county, gave a piquancy to her prettiness. + +"The--devil!" commented Mr. Harry Cresswell to himself. But to Miss +Taylor: + +"I beg pardon--er--Miss Smith?" + +"No--I'm sorry. Miss Smith is engaged this morning. I am Miss Taylor." + +"I cannot share Miss Taylor's sorrow," returned Mr. Cresswell gravely, +"for I believe I have the honor of some correspondence with Miss +Taylor's brother." Mr. Cresswell searched for the letter, but did not +find it. + +"Oh! Has John written you?" She beamed suddenly. "I'm so glad. It's more +than he's done for me this three-month. I beg your pardon--do sit +down--I think you'll find this one easier. Our stock of chairs is +limited." + +It was delightful to have a casual meeting receive this social stamp; +the girl was all at once transfigured--animated, glowing, lovely; all of +which did not escape the caller's appraising inspection. + +"There!" said Mr. Cresswell. "I've left your gate gaping." + +"Oh, don't mind ... I hope John's well?" + +"The truth is," confessed Cresswell, "it was a business matter--cotton, +you know." + +"John is nothing but cotton; I tell him his soul is fibrous." + +"He mentioned your being here and I thought I'd drop over and welcome +you to the South." + +"Thank you," returned Miss Taylor, reddening with pleasure despite +herself. There was a real sincerity in the tone. All this confirmed so +many convictions of hers. + +"Of course, you know how it is in the South," Cresswell pursued, the +opening having been so easily accomplished. + +"I understand perfectly." + +"My sister would be delighted to meet you, but--" + +"Oh I realize the--difficulties." + +"Perhaps you wouldn't mind riding by some day--it's embarrassing to +suggest this, but, you know--" + +Miss Taylor was perfectly self-possessed. + +"Mr. Cresswell," she said seriously, "I know very well that it wouldn't +do for your sister to call here, and I sha'n't mind a bit coming by to +see her first. I don't believe in standing on stupid ceremony." + +Cresswell thanked her with quiet cordiality, and suggested that when he +was driving by he might pick her up in his gig some morning. Miss Taylor +expressed her pleasure at the prospect. Then the talk wandered to +general matters--the rain, the trees, the people round about, and, +inevitably--the Negro. + +"Oh, by the bye," said Mr. Cresswell, frowning and hesitating over the +recollection of his errand's purpose, "there was one matter"--he paused. +Miss Taylor leant forward, all interest. "I hardly know that I ought to +mention it, but your school--" + +This charming young lady disarmed his truculent spirit, and the usually +collected and determined young man was at a loss how to proceed. The +girl, however, was obviously impressed and pleased by his evidence of +interest, whatever its nature; so in a manner vastly different from the +one he had intended to assume, he continued: + +"There is a way in which we may be of service to you, and that is by +enlightening you upon points concerning which the nature of your +position--both as teacher and socially--must keep you in the dark. + +"For instance, all these Negroes are, as you know, of wretchedly low +morals; but there are a few so depraved that it would be suicidal to +take them into this school. We recognize the good you are doing, but we +do not want it more than offset by utter lack of discrimination in +choosing your material." + +"Certainly not--have we--" Miss Mary faltered. This beginning was a bit +ominous, wholly unexpected. + +"There is a girl, Zora, who has just entered, who--I must speak +candidly--who ought not to be here; I thought it but right to let you +know." + +"Thank you, so much. I'll tell Miss Smith." Mary Taylor suddenly felt +herself a judge of character. "I suspected that she was--not what she +ought to be. Believe me, we appreciate your interest." + +A few more words, and Mr. Cresswell, after bending courteously over her +hand with a deference no New Englander had ever shown, was riding away +on his white mare. + +For a while Mary Taylor sat very quietly. It was like a breath of air +from the real world, this hour's chat with a well-bred gentleman. She +wondered how she had done her part--had she been too eager and +school-girlish? Had she met this stately ceremony with enough breeding +to show that she too was somebody? She pounced upon Miss Smith the +minute that lady entered the office. + +"Miss Smith, who do you think has been here?" she burst out +enthusiastically. + +"I saw him on the lawn." There was a suspicious lack of warmth in this +brief affirmation. + +"He was so gracious and kindly, and he knows my brother. And oh, Miss +Smith! we've got to send that Zora right away." + +"Indeed"--the observation was not even interrogatory. The preceptress of +the struggling school for Negro children merely evinced patience for the +younger woman's fervency. + +"Yes; he says she's utterly depraved." + +"Said that, did he?" Miss Smith watched her with tranquil regard. Miss +Taylor paused. + +"Of course, we cannot think of keeping her." + +Miss Smith pursed her lips, offering her first expression of opinion. + +"I guess we'll worry along with her a little while anyhow," she said. + +The girl stared at Miss Smith in honest, if unpardonable, amazement. + +"Do you mean to say that you are going to keep in this school a girl who +not only lies and steals but is positively--_immoral_?" + +Miss Smith smiled, wholly unmoved. + +"No; but I mean that _I_ am here to learn from those whose ideas of +right do not agree with mine, to discover _why_ they differ, and to let +them learn of me--so far as I am worthy." + +Mary Taylor was not unappreciative of Miss Smith's stern +high-mindedness, but her heart hardened at this, to her, misdirected +zeal. Echo of the spirit of an older day, Miss Smith seemed, to her, to +be cramped and paralyzed in an armor of prejudice and sectionalisms. +Plain-speaking was the only course, and Mary, if a little complacent +perhaps in her frankness, was sincere in her purpose. + +"I think, Miss Smith, you are making a very grave mistake. I regard +Zora as a very undesirable person from every point of view. I look upon +Mr. Cresswell's visit today as almost providential. He came offering an +olive branch from the white aristocracy to this work; to bespeak his +appreciation and safeguard the future. Moreover," and Miss Taylor's +voice gathered firmness despite Miss Smith's inscrutable eye, "moreover, +I have reason to know that the disposition--indeed, the plan--in certain +quarters to help this work materially depends very largely on your +willingness to meet the advances of the Southern whites half way." + +She paused for a reply or a question. Receiving neither, she walked with +dignity up the stairs. From her window she could see Cresswell's +straight shoulders, as he rode toward town, and beyond him a black speck +in the road. But she could not see the smile on Mr. Cresswell's lips, +nor did she hear him remark twice, with seeming irrelevance, "The +devil!" + +The rider, being closer to it, recognized in Mary Taylor's "black speck" +Bles Alwyn walking toward him rapidly with axe and hoe on shoulder, +whistling merrily. They saw each other almost at the same moment and +whistle and smile faded. Mr. Cresswell knew the Negro by sight and +disliked him. He belonged in his mind to that younger class of +half-educated blacks who were impudent and disrespectful toward their +superiors, not even touching his hat when he met a white man. Moreover, +he was sure that it was Miss Taylor with whom this boy had been talking +so long and familiarly in the cotton-field last Spring--an offence +doubly heinous now that he had seen Miss Taylor. + +His first impulse was to halt the Negro then and there and tell him a +few plain truths. But he did not feel quarrelsome at the moment, and +there was, after all, nothing very tangible to justify a berating. The +fellow's impudence was sure to increase, and then! So he merely reined +his horse to the better part of the foot-path and rode on. + +Bles, too, was thinking. He knew the well-dressed man with his +milk-white face and overbearing way. He would expect to be greeted with +raised hat but Bles bit his lips and pulled down his cap firmly. The +axe, too, in some indistinct way felt good in his hand. He saw the horse +coming in his pathway and stepping aside in the dust continued on his +way, neither looking nor speaking. + +So they passed each other by, Mr. Cresswell to town, Bles to the swamp, +apparently ignorant of each other's very existence. Yet, as the space +widened between them, each felt a more vindictive anger for the other. + +How dares the black puppy to ignore a Cresswell on the highway? If this +went on, the day would surely come when Negroes felt no respect or fear +whatever for whites? And then--my God! Mr. Cresswell struck his mare a +vicious blow and dashed toward town. + +The black boy, too, went his way in silent, burning rage. Why should he +be elbowed into the roadside dust by an insolent bully? Why had he not +stood his ground? Pshaw! All this fine frenzy was useless, and he knew +it. The sweat oozed on his forehead. It wasn't man against man, or he +would have dragged the pale puppy from his horse and rubbed his face in +the earth. It wasn't even one against many, else how willingly, swinging +his axe, would have stood his ground before a mob. + +No, it was one against a world, a world of power, opinion, wealth, +opportunity; and he, the one, must cringe and bear in silence lest the +world crash about the ears of his people. He slowly plodded on in bitter +silence toward the swamp. But the day was balmy, the way was beautiful; +contempt slowly succeeded anger, and hope soon triumphed over all. For +yonder was Zora, poised, waiting. And behind her lay the Field of +Dreams. + + + + +_Nine_ + + +THE PLANTING + + +Zora looked down upon Bles, where he stood to his knees in mud. The toil +was beyond exhilaration--it was sickening weariness and panting despair. +The great roots, twined in one unbroken snarl, clung frantically to the +black soil. The vines and bushes fought back with thorn and bramble. +Zora stood wiping the blood from her hands and staring at Bles. She saw +the long gnarled fingers of the tough little trees and they looked like +the fingers of Elspeth down there beneath the earth pulling against the +boy. Slowly Zora forgot her blood and pain. Who would win--the witch, or +Jason? + +Bles looked up and saw the bleeding hands. With a bound he was beside +her. + +"Zora!" The cry seemed wrung from his heart by contrition. Why had he +not known--not seen before! "Zora, come right out of this! Sit down here +and rest." + +She looked at him unwaveringly; there was no flinching of her spirit. + +"I sha'n't do it," she said. "You'se working, and I'se going to work." + +"But--Zora--you're not used to such work, and I am. You're tired out." + +"So is you," was her reply. + +He looked himself over ruefully, and dropping his axe, sat down beside +her on a great log. Silently they contemplated the land; it seemed +indeed a hopeless task. Then they looked at each other in sudden, +unspoken fear of failure. + +"If we only had a mule!" he sighed. Immediately her face lighted and her +lips parted, but she said nothing. He presently bounded to his feet. + +"Never mind, Zora. To-morrow is Saturday, and I'll work all day. We just +_will_ get it done--sometime." His mouth closed with determination. + +"We won't work any more today, then?" cried Zora, her eagerness +betraying itself despite her efforts to hide it. + +"_You_ won't," affirmed Bles. "But I've got to do just a little--" + +But Zora was adamant: he was tired; she was tired; they would rest. +To-morrow with the rising sun they would begin again. + +"There'll be a bright moon tonight," ventured Bles. + +"Then I'll come too," Zora announced positively, and he had to promise +for her sake to rest. + +They went up the path together and parted diffidently, he watching her +flit away with sorrowful eyes, a little disturbed and puzzled at the +burden he had voluntarily assumed, but never dreaming of drawing back. + +Zora did not go far. No sooner did she know herself well out of his +sight than she dropped lightly down beside the path, listening intently +until the last echo of his footsteps had died away. Then, leaving the +cabin on her right, and the scene of their toil on her left, she cut +straight through the swamp, skirted the big road, and in a half-hour +was in the lower meadows of the Cresswell plantations, where the tired +stock was being turned out to graze for the night. Here, in the shadow +of the wood, she lingered. Slowly, but with infinite patience, she broke +one strand after another of the barbed-wire fencing, watching, the +while, the sun grow great and crimson, and die at last in mighty +splendor behind the dimmer westward forests. + +The voices of the hands and hostlers grew fainter and thinner in the +distance of purple twilight until the last of them disappeared. Silence +fell, deep and soft; the silence of a day sinking to sleep. Not until +then did Zora steal forth from her hiding-place. + +She had chosen her mule long before--a big, black beast, snorting over +his pile of corn,--and gliding up to him, she gathered his supper into +her skirt, found a stout halter, and fed him sparingly as he followed +her. Quickly she unfastened the pieces of the fence, led the animal +through, and spliced them again; and then, with fox-like caution, she +guided her prize through the labyrinthine windings of the swamp. It was +dark and haunting, and ever and again rose lonely night cries. The girl +trembled a little, but plodded resolutely on until the dim silver disk +of the half-moon began to glimmer through the trees. Then she pressed on +more swiftly, and fed more scantily, until finally, with the moonlight +pouring over them at the black lagoon, Zora attempted to drive the +animal into the still waters; but he gave a loud protesting snort and +balked. By subtle temptings she gave him to understand that plenty lay +beyond the dark waters, and quickly swinging herself to his back she +started to ride him up and down along the edge of the lagoon, petting +and whispering to him of good things beyond. Slowly her eyes grew wide; +she seemed to be riding out of dreamland on some hobgoblin beast. + +Deeper and deeper they penetrated into the dark waters. Now they entered +the slime; now they stumbled on hidden roots; but deeper and deeper they +waded until at last, turning the animal's head with a jerk, and giving +him a sharp stroke of the whip, she headed straight for the island. A +moment the beast snorted and plunged; higher and higher the black still +waters rose round the girl. They crept up her little limbs, swirled +round her breasts and gleamed green and slimy along her shoulders. A +wild terror gripped her. Maybe she was riding the devil's horse, and +these were the yawning gates of hell, black and sombre beneath the cold, +dead radiance of the moon. She saw again the gnarled and black and +claw-like fingers of Elspeth gripping and dragging her down. + +A scream struggled in her breast, her fingers relaxed, and the big +beast, stretching his cramped neck, rose in one mighty plunge and +planted his feet on the sand of the island. + + * * * * * + +Bles, hurrying down in the morning with new tools and new determination, +stopped and stared in blank amazement. Zora was perched in a tree +singing softly and beneath a fat black mule was finishing his breakfast. + +"Zora--" he gasped, "how--how did you do it?" + +She only smiled and sang a happier measure, pausing only to whisper: + +"Dreams--dreams--it's all dreams here, I tells you." + +Bles frowned and stood irresolute. The song proceeded with less +assurance, slower and lower, till it stopped, and the singer dropped to +the ground, watching him with wide eyes. He looked down at her, slight, +tired, scratched, but undaunted, striving blindly toward the light with +stanch, unfaltering faith. A pity surged in his heart. He put his arm +about her shoulders and murmured: + +"You poor, brave child." + +And she shivered with joy. + +All day Saturday and part of Sunday they worked feverishly. The trees +crashed and the stumps groaned and crept up into the air, the brambles +blazed and smoked; little frightened animals fled for shelter; and a +wide black patch of rich loam broadened and broadened till it kissed, +on every side but the sheltered east, the black waters of the lagoon. +Late Sunday night the mule again swam the slimy lagoon, and disappeared +toward the Cresswell fields. Then Bles sat down beside Zora, facing the +fields, and gravely took her hand. She looked at him in quick, +breathless fear. + +"Zora," he said, "sometimes you tell lies, don't you?" + +"Yes," she said slowly; "sometimes." + +"And, Zora, sometimes you steal--you stole the pin from Miss Taylor, and +we stole Mr. Cresswell's mule for two days." + +"Yes," she said faintly, with a perplexed wrinkle in her brows, "I stole +it." + +"Well, Zora, I don't want you ever to tell another lie, or ever to take +anything that doesn't belong to you." + +She looked at him silently with the shadow of something like terror far +back in the depths of her deep eyes. + +"Always--tell--the truth?" she repeated slowly. + +"Yes." + +Her fingers worked nervously. + +"All the truth?" she asked. + +He thought a while. + +"No," said he finally, "it is not necessary always to tell all the +truth; but never tell anything that isn't the truth." + +"Never?" + +"Never." + +"Even if it hurts me?" + +"Even if it hurts. God is good, He will not let it hurt much." + +"He's a fair God, ain't He?" she mused, scanning the evening sky. + +"Yes--He's fair, He wouldn't take advantage of a little girl that did +wrong, when she didn't know it was wrong." + +Her face lightened and she held his hands in both hers, and said +solemnly as though saying a prayer: + +"I won't lie any more, and I won't steal--and--" she looked at him in +startled wistfulness--he remembered it in after years; but he felt he +had preached enough. + +"And now for the seed!" he interrupted joyously. "And then--the Silver +Fleece!" + +That night, for the first time, Bles entered Zora's home. It was a +single low, black room, smoke-shadowed and dirty, with two dingy beds +and a gaping fire-place. On one side of the fire-place sat the yellow +woman, young, with traces of beauty, holding the white child in her +arms; on the other, hugging the blaze, huddled a formless heap, wreathed +in coils of tobacco smoke--Elspeth, Zora's mother. + +Zora said nothing, but glided in and stood in the shadows. + +"Good-evening," said Bles cheerily. The woman with the baby alone +responded. + +"I came for the seed you promised us--the cotton-seed." + +The hag wheeled and approached him swiftly, grasping his shoulders and +twisting her face into his. She was a horrible thing--filthy of breath, +dirty, with dribbling mouth and red eyes. Her few long black teeth hung +loosely like tusks and the folds of fat on her chin curled down on her +great neck. Bles shuddered and stepped back. + +"Is you afeared, honey?" she whispered. + +"No," he said sturdily. + +She chuckled drily. "Yes, you is--everybody's 'feared of old Elspeth; +but she won't hurt you--you's got the spell;" and wheeling again, she +was back at the fire. + +"But the seed?" he ventured. + +She pointed impressively roofward. "The dark of the moon, boy, the dark +of the moon--the first dark--at midnight." Bles could not wring another +word from her; nor did the ancient witch, by word or look, again give +the slightest indication that she was aware of his presence. + +With reluctant farewell, Bles turned home. For a space Zora watched him, +and once she started after him, but came slowly back, and sat by the +fire-place. + +Out of the night came voices and laughter, and the sound of wheels and +galloping horses. It was not the soft, rollicking laughter of black men, +but the keener, more metallic sound of white men's cries, and Bles Alwyn +paused at the edge of the wood, looked back and hesitated, but decided +after a moment to go home and to bed. + +Zora, however, leapt to her feet and fled into the night, while the hag +screamed after her and cursed. There was tramping of feet on the cabin +floor, and loud voices and singing and cursing. + +"Where's Zora?" some one yelled, with an oath. "Damn it! where is she? I +haven't seen her for a year, you old devil." + +The hag whimpered and snarled. Far down in the field of the Fleece, Zora +lay curled beneath a tall dark tree asleep. All night there was coming +and going in the cabin; the talk and laughter grew loud and boisterous, +and the red fire glared in the night. + + * * * * * + +The days flew by and the moon darkened. In the swamp, the hidden island +lay spaded and bedded, and Bles was throwing up a dyke around the edge; +Zora helped him until he came to the black oak at the western edge. It +was a large twisted thing with one low flying limb that curled out +across another tree and made a mighty seat above the waters. + +"Don't throw the dirt too high there," she begged; "it'll bring my seat +too near the earth." + +He looked up. + +"Why, it's a throne," he laughed. + +"It needs a roof," he whimsically told her when his day's work was done. +Deftly twisting and intertwining the branches of tree and bush, he wove +a canopy of living green that shadowed the curious nest and warded it +snugly from wind and water. + +Early next morning Bles slipped down and improved the nest; adding +foot-rests to make the climbing easy, peep-holes east and west, a bit +of carpet over the bark, and on the rough main trunk, a little picture +in blue and gold of Bougereau's Madonna. Zora sat hidden and alone in +silent ecstasy. Bles peeped in--there was not room to enter: the girl +was staring silently at the Madonna. She seemed to feel rather than hear +his presence, and she inquired softly: + +"Who's it, Bles?" + +"The mother of God," he answered reverently. + +"And why does she hold a lily?" + +"It stands for purity--she was a good woman." + +"With a baby," Zora added slowly. + +"Yes--" said Bles, and then more quickly--"It is the Christ Child--God's +baby." + +"God is the father of all the little babies, ain't He, Bles?" + +"Why, yes--yes, of course; only this little baby didn't have any other +father." + +"Yes, I know one like that," she said,--and then she added softly: "Poor +little Christ-baby." + +Bles hesitated, and before he found words Zora was saying: + +"How white she is; she's as white as the lily, Bles; but--I'm sorry +she's white--Bles, what's purity--just whiteness?" + +Bles glanced at her awkwardly but she was still staring wide-eyed at the +picture, and her voice was earnest. She was now so old and again so much +a child, an eager questioning child, that there seemed about her +innocence something holy. + +"It means," he stammered, groping for meanings--"it means being +good--just as good as a woman knows how." + +She wheeled quickly toward him and asked him eagerly: + +"Not better--not better than she knows, but just as good, in--lying and +stealing and--and everything?" + +Bles smiled. + +"No--not better than she knows, but just as good." + +She trembled happily. + +"I'm--pure," she said, with a strange little breaking voice and +gesture. A sob struggled in his throat. + +"Of course you are," he whispered tenderly, hiding her little hands in +his. + +"I--I was so afraid--sometimes--that I wasn't," she whispered, lifting +up to him her eyes streaming with tears. Silently he kissed her lips. + +From that day on they walked together in a new world. No revealing word +was spoken; no vows were given, none asked for; but a new bond held +them. She grew older, quieter, taller, he humbler, more tender and +reverent, as they toiled together. + +So the days passed. The sun burned in the heavens; but the silvered +glory of the moon grew fainter and fainter and each night it rose later +than the night before. Then one day Zora whispered: + +"Tonight!" + +Bles came to the cabin, and he and Zora and Elspeth sat silently around +the fire-place with its meagre embers. The night was balmy and still; +only occasionally a wandering breeze searching the hidden places of the +swamp, or the call and song of night birds, jarred the stillness. Long +they sat, until the silence crept into Bles's flesh, and stretching out +his hand, he touched Zora's, clasping it. + +After a time the old woman rose and hobbled to a big black chest. Out of +it she brought an old bag of cotton seed--not the white-green seed which +Bles had always known, but small, smooth black seeds, which she handled +carefully, dipping her hands deep down and letting them drop through her +gnarled fingers. And so again they sat and waited and waited, saying no +word. + +Not until the stars of midnight had swung to the zenith did they start +down through the swamp. Bles sought to guide the old woman, but he found +she knew the way better than he did. Her shadowy figure darting in and +out among the trunks till they crossed the tree bridge, moved ever +noiselessly ahead. + +She motioned the boy and girl away to the thicket at the edge, and +stood still and black in the midst of the cleared island. Bles slipped +his arm protectingly around Zora, glancing fearfully about in the +darkness. Slowly a great cry rose and swept the island. It struck madly +and sharply, and then died away to uneasy murmuring. From afar there +seemed to come the echo or the answer to the call. The form of Elspeth +blurred the night dimly far off, almost disappearing, and then growing +blacker and larger. They heard the whispering "_swish-swish_" of falling +seed; they felt the heavy tread of a great coming body. The form of the +old woman suddenly loomed black above them, hovering a moment formless +and vast then fading again away, and the "_swish-swish_" of the falling +seed alone rose in the silence of the night. + +At last all was still. A long silence. Then again the air seemed +suddenly filled with that great and awful cry; its echoing answer +screamed afar and they heard the raucous voice of Elspeth beating in +their ears: + +_"De seed done sowed! De seed done sowed!"_ + + + + +_Ten_ + +MR. TAYLOR CALLS + + +"Thinking the matter over," said Harry Cresswell to his father, "I'm +inclined to advise drawing this Taylor out a little further." + +The Colonel puffed his cigar and one eye twinkled, the lid of the other +being at the moment suggestively lowered. + +"Was she pretty?" he asked; but his son ignored the remark, and the +father continued: + +"I had a telegram from Taylor this morning, after you left. He'll be +passing through Montgomery the first of next month, and proposes +calling." + +"I'll wire him to come," said Harry, promptly. + +At this juncture the door opened and a young lady entered. Helen +Cresswell was twenty, small and pretty, with a slightly languid air. +Outside herself there was little in which she took very great interest, +and her interest in herself was not absorbing. Yet she had a curiously +sweet way. Her servants liked her and the tenants could count on her +spasmodic attentions in time of sickness and trouble. + +"Good-morning," she said, with a soft drawl. She sauntered over to her +father, kissed him, and hung over the back of his chair. + +"Did you get that novel for me, Harry?"--expectantly regarding her +brother. + +"I forgot it, Sis. But I'll be going to town again soon." + +The young lady showed that she was annoyed. + +"By the bye, Sis, there's a young lady over at the Negro school whom I +think you'd like." + +"Black or white?" + +"A young lady, I said. Don't be sarcastic." + +"I heard you. I did not know whether you were using our language or +others'." + +"She's really unusual, and seems to understand things. She's planning to +call some day--shall you be at home?" + +"Certainly not, Harry; you're crazy." And she strolled out to the porch, +exchanged some remarks with a passing servant, and then nestled +comfortably into a hammock. She helped herself to a chocolate and called +out musically: + +"Pa, are you going to town today?" + +"Yes, honey." + +"Can I go?" + +"I'm going in an hour or so, and business at the bank will keep me until +after lunch." + +"I don't care, I just must go. I'm clean out of anything to read. And I +want to shop and call on Dolly's friend--she's going soon." + +"All right. Can you be ready by eleven?" + +She considered. + +"Yes--I reckon," she drawled, prettily swinging her foot and watching +the tree-tops above the distant swamp. + +Harry Cresswell, left alone, rang the bell for the butler. + +"Still thinking of going, are you, Sam?" asked Cresswell, carelessly, +when the servant appeared. He was a young, light-brown boy, his manner +obsequious. + +"Why, yes, sir--if you can spare me." + +"Spare you, you black rascal! You're going anyhow. Well, you'll repent +it; the North is no place for niggers. See here, I want lunch for two at +one o'clock." The directions that followed were explicit and given with +a particularity that made Sam wonder. "Order my trap," he finally +directed. + +Cresswell went out on the high-pillared porch until the trap appeared. + +"Oh, Harry! I wanted to go in the trap--take me?" coaxed his sister. + +"Sorry, Sis, but I'm going the other way." + +"I don't believe it," said Miss Cresswell, easily, as she settled down +to another chocolate. Cresswell did not take the trouble to reply. + +Miss Taylor was on her morning walk when she saw him spinning down the +road, and both expressed surprise and pleasure at the meeting. + +"What a delightful morning!" said the school-teacher, and the glow on +her face said even more. + +"I'm driving round through the old plantation," he explained; "won't you +join me?" + +"The invitation is tempting," she hesitated; "but I've got just oodles +of work." + +"What! on Saturday?" + +"Saturday is my really busy day, don't you know. I guess I could get +off; really, though, I suspect I ought to tell Miss Smith." + +He looked a little perplexed; but the direction in which her +inclinations lay was quite clear to him. + +"It--it would be decidedly the proper thing," he murmured, "and we +could, of course, invite Miss--" + +She saw the difficulty and interrupted him: + +"It's quite unnecessary; she'll think I have simply gone for a long +walk." And soon they were speeding down the silent road, breathing the +perfume of the pines. + +Now a ride of an early spring morning, in Alabama, over a leisurely old +plantation road and behind a spirited horse, is an event to be enjoyed. +Add to this a man bred to be agreeable and outdoing his training, and a +pretty girl gay with new-found companionship--all this is apt to make a +morning worth remembering. + +They turned off the highway and passed through long stretches of +ploughed and tumbled fields, and other fields brown with the dead ghosts +of past years' cotton standing straggling and weather-worn. Long, +straight, or curling rows of ploughers passed by with steaming, +struggling mules, with whips snapping and the yodle of workers or the +sharp guttural growl of overseers as a constant accompaniment. + +"They're beginning to plough up the land for the cotton-crop," he +explained. + +"What a wonderful crop it is!" Mary had fallen pensive. + +"Yes, indeed--if only we could get decent returns for it." + +"Why, I thought it was a most valuable crop." She turned to him +inquiringly. + +"It is--to Negroes and manufacturers, but not to planters." + +"But why don't the planters do something?" + +"What can be done with Negroes?" His tone was bitter. "We tried to +combine against manufacturers in the Farmers' League of last winter. My +father was president. The pastime cost him fifty thousand dollars." + +Miss Taylor was perplexed, but eager. "You must correspond with my +brother, Mr. Cresswell," she gravely observed. "I'm sure he--" Before +she could finish, an overseer rode up. He began talking abruptly, with a +quick side-glance at Mary, in which she might have caught a gleam of +surprised curiosity. + +"That old nigger, Jim Sykes, over on the lower place, sir, ain't showed +up again this morning." + +Cresswell nodded. "I'll drive by and see," he said carelessly. + +The old man was discovered sitting before his cabin with his head in +his hands. He was tall, black, and gaunt, partly bald, with tufted hair. +One leg was swathed in rags, and his eyes, as he raised them, wore a +cowed and furtive look. + +"Well, Uncle Jim, why aren't you at work?" called Cresswell from the +roadside. The old man rose painfully to his feet, swayed against the +cabin, and clutched off his cap. + +"It's my leg again, Master Harry--the leg what I hurt in the gin last +fall," he answered, uneasily. + +Cresswell frowned. "It's probably whiskey," he assured his companion, in +an undertone; then to the man: + +"You must get to the field to-morrow,"--his habitually calm, unfeeling +positiveness left no ground for objection; "I cannot support you in +idleness, you know." + +"Yes, Master Harry," the other returned, with conciliatory eagerness; "I +knows that--I knows it and I ain't shirking. But, Master Harry, they +ain't doing me right 'bout my cabin--I just wants to show you." He got +out some dirty papers, and started to hobble forward, wincing with pain. +Mary Taylor stirred in her seat under an involuntary impulse to help, +but Cresswell touched the horse. + +"All right, Uncle Jim," he said; "we'll look it over to-morrow." + +They turned presently to where they could see the Cresswell oaks waving +lazily in the sunlight and the white gleam of the pillared "Big House." + +A pause at the Cresswell store, where Mr. Cresswell entered, afforded +Mary Taylor an opportunity further to extend her fund of information. + +"Do you go to school?" she inquired of the black boy who held the horse, +her mien sympathetic and interested. + +"No, ma'am," he mumbled. + +"What's your name?" + +"Buddy--I'se one of Aunt Rachel's chilluns." + +"And where do you live, Buddy?" + +"I lives with granny, on de upper place." + +"Well, I'll see Aunt Rachel and ask her to send you to school." + +"Won't do no good--she done ast, and Mr. Cresswell, he say he ain't +going to have no more of his niggers--" + +But Mr. Cresswell came out just then, and with him a big, fat, and +greasy black man, with little eyes and soft wheedling voice. He was +following Cresswell at the side but just a little behind, hat in hand, +head aslant, and talking deferentially. Cresswell strode carelessly on, +answering him with good-natured tolerance. + +The black man stopped with humility before the trap and swept a profound +obeisance. Cresswell glanced up quizzically at Miss Taylor. + +"This," he announced, "is Jones, the Baptist preacher--begging." + +"Ah, lady,"--in mellow, unctuous tones--"I don't know what we poor black +folks would do without Mr. Cresswell--the Lord bless him," said the +minister, shoving his hand far down into his pocket. + +Shortly afterward they were approaching the Cresswell Mansion, when the +young man reined in the horse. + +"If you wouldn't mind," he suggested, "I could introduce my sister to +you." + +"I should be delighted," answered Miss Taylor, readily. + +When they rolled up to the homestead under its famous oaks the hour was +past one. The house was a white oblong building of two stories. In front +was the high pillared porch, semi-circular, extending to the roof with a +balcony in the second story. On the right was a broad verandah looking +toward a wide lawn, with the main road and the red swamp in the +distance. + +The butler met them, all obeisance. + +"Ask Miss Helen to come down," said Mr. Cresswell. + +Sam glanced at him. + +"Miss Helen will be dreadful sorry, but she and the Colonel have just +gone to town--I believe her Aunty ain't well." + +Mr. Cresswell looked annoyed. + +"Well, well! that's too bad," he said. "But at any rate, have a seat a +moment out here on the verandah, Miss Taylor. And, Sam, can't you find +us a sandwich and something cool? I could not be so inhospitable as to +send you away hungry at this time of day." + +Miss Taylor sat down in a comfortable low chair facing the refreshing +breeze, and feasted her eyes on the scene. Oh, this was life: a smooth +green lawn, and beds of flowers, a vista of brown fields, and the dark +line of wood beyond. The deft, quiet butler brought out a little table, +spread with the whitest of cloths and laid with the brightest of silver, +and "found" a dainty lunch. There was a bit of fried chicken breast, +some crisp bacon, browned potatoes, little round beaten biscuit, and +rose-colored sherbet with a whiff of wine in it. Miss Taylor wondered a +little at the bounty of Southern hospitality; but she was hungry, and +she ate heartily, then leaned back dreamily and listened to Mr. +Cresswell's smooth Southern _r_'s, adding a word here and there that +kept the conversation going and brought a grave smile to his pale lips. +At last with a sigh she arose to her feet. + +"I must go! What shall I tell Miss Smith! No, no--no carriage; I must +walk." Of course, however, she could not refuse to let him go at least +half-way, ostensibly to tell her of the coming of her brother. He +expressed again his disappointment at his sister's absence. + +Somewhat to Miss Taylor's surprise Miss Smith said nothing until they +were parting for the night, then she asked: + +"Was Miss Cresswell at home?" + +Mary reddened. + +"She had been called suddenly to town." + +"Well, my dear, I wouldn't do it again." + +The girl was angry. + +"I'm not a school-girl, but a grown woman, and capable of caring for +myself. Moreover, in matter of propriety I do not think you have usually +found my ideas too lax--rather the opposite." + +"There, there, dear; don't be angry. Only I think if your brother +knew--" + +"He will know in a very few weeks; he is coming to visit the +Cresswells." And Miss Taylor sailed triumphantly up the stairs. + +But John Taylor was not the man to wait weeks when a purpose could be +accomplished in days or hours. No sooner was Harry Cresswell's telegram +at hand than he hastened back from Savannah, struck across country, and +the week after his sister's ride found him striding up the carriage-way +of the Cresswell home. + +John Taylor had prospered since summer. The cotton manufacturers' +combine was all but a fact; Mr. Easterly had discovered that his chief +clerk's sense and executive ability were invaluable, and John Taylor was +slated for a salary in five figures when things should be finally +settled, not to mention a generous slice of stock--watery at present, +but warranted to ripen early. + +While Mr. Easterly still regarded Taylor's larger trust as chimerical, +some occurrences of the fall made him take a respectful attitude toward +it. Just as the final clauses of the combine agreement were to be +signed, there appeared a shortage in the cotton-crop, and prices began +to soar. The cause was obviously the unexpected success of the new +Farmers' League among the cotton-growers. Mr. Easterly found it +comparatively easy to overthrow the corner, but the flurry made some of +the manufacturers timid, and the trust agreement was postponed until a +year later. This experience and the persistence of Mr. Taylor induced +Mr. Easterly to take a step toward the larger project: he let in some +eager outside capital to the safer manufacturing scheme, and withdrew a +corresponding amount of Mrs. Grey's money. This he put into John +Taylor's hands to invest in the South in bank stock and industries with +the idea of playing a part in the financial situation there. + +"It's a risk, Taylor, of course, and we'll let the old lady take the +risk. At the worst it's safer than the damned foolishness she has in +mind." + +So it happened that John Taylor went South to look after large +investments and, as Mr. Easterly expressed it, "to bring back facts, +not dreams." His investment matters went quickly and well, and now he +turned to his wider and bigger scheme. He wrote the Cresswells +tentatively, expecting no reply, or an evasive one; planning to circle +around them, drawing his nets closer, and trying them again later. To +his surprise they responded quickly. + +"Humph! Hard pressed," he decided, and hurried to them. + +So it was the week after Mary Taylor's ride that found him at +Cresswell's front door, thin, eagle-eyed, fairly well dressed and +radiating confidence. + +"John Taylor," he announced to Sam, jerkily, thrusting out a card. "Want +to see Mr. Cresswell; soon as possible." + +Sam made him wait a half-hour, for the sake of discipline, and then +brought father and son. + +"Good-morning, Mr. Cresswell, and Mr. Cresswell again," said Mr. Taylor, +helping himself to a straight-backed chair. "Hope you'll pardon this +unexpected visit. Found myself called through Montgomery, just after I +got your wire; thought I'd better drop over." + +At Harry's suggestion they moved to the verandah and sat down over +whiskey and soda, which Taylor refused, and plunged into the subject +without preliminaries. + +"I'm assuming that you gentlemen are in the cotton business for making +money. So am I. I see a way in which you and your friends can help me +and mine, and clear up more millions than all of us can spend; for this +reason I've hunted you up. This is my scheme. + +"See here; there are a thousand cotton-mills in this country, half of +them in the South, one-fourth in New England, and one-fourth in the +Middle States. They are capitalized at six hundred million dollars. Now +let me tell you: we control three hundred and fifty millions of that +capitalization. The trust is going through capitalization at a billion. +The only thing that threatens it is child-labor legislation in the +South, the tariff, and the control of the supply of cotton. Pretty big +hindrances, you say. That's so, but look here: we've got the stock so +placed that nothing short of a popular upheaval can send any Child Labor +bill through Congress in six years. See? After that we don't care. Same +thing applies to the tariff. The last bill ran ten years. The present +bill will last longer, or I lose my guess--'specially if Smith is in the +Senate. + +"Well, then, there remains raw cotton. The connection of cotton-raising +and its raw material is too close to risk a manufacturing trust that +does not include practical control of the raw material. For that reason +we're planning a trust to include the raising and manufacturing of +cotton in America. Then, too, cornering the cotton market here means the +whip-hand of the industrial world. Gentlemen, it's the biggest idea of +the century. It beats steel." + +Colonel Cresswell chuckled. + +"How do you spell that?" he asked. + +But John Taylor was not to be diverted; his thin face was pale, but his +gray eyes burned with the fire of a zealot. Harry Cresswell only smiled +dimly and looked interested. + +"Now, again," continued John Taylor. "There are a million cotton farms +in the South, half run by colored people and half by whites. Leave the +colored out of account as long as they are disfranchised. The half +million white farms are owned or controlled by five thousand wholesale +merchants and three thousand big landowners, of whom you, Colonel +Cresswell, are among the biggest with your fifty thousand acres. Ten +banks control these eight thousand people--one of these is the Jefferson +National of Montgomery, of which you are a silent director." + +Colonel Cresswell started; this man evidently had inside information. +Did he know of the mortgage, too? + +"Don't be alarmed. I'm safe," Taylor assured him. "Now, then, if we can +get the banks, wholesale merchants, and biggest planters into line we +can control the cotton crop." + +"But," objected Harry Cresswell, "while the banks and the large +merchants may be possibilities, do you know what it means to try to get +planters into line?" + +"Yes, I do. And what I don't know you and your father do. Colonel +Cresswell is president of the Farmers' League. That's the reason I'm +here. Your success last year made you indispensable to our plans." + +"Our success?" laughed Colonel Cresswell, ruefully, thinking of the +fifty thousand dollars lost and the mortgage to cover it. + +"Yes, sir--success! You didn't know it; we were too careful to allow +that; and I say frankly you wouldn't know it now if we weren't convinced +you were too far involved and the League too discouraged to repeat the +dose." + +"Now, look here, sir," began Colonel Cresswell, flushing and drawing +himself erect. + +"There, there, Colonel Cresswell, don't misunderstand me. I'm a plain +man. I'm playing a big game--a tremendous one. I need you, and I know +you need me. I find out about you, and my sources of knowledge are wide +and unerring. But the knowledge is safe, sir; it's buried. Last year +when you people curtailed cotton acreage and warehoused a big chunk of +the crop you gave the mill men the scare of their lives. We had a hasty +conference and the result was that the bottom fell out of your credit." + +Colonel Cresswell grew pale. There was a disquieting, relentless element +in this unimpassioned man's tone. + +"You failed," pursued John Taylor, "because you couldn't get the banks +and the big merchants behind you. We've got 'em behind us--with big +chunks of stock and a signed iron-clad agreement. You can wheel the +planters into line--will you do it?" John Taylor bent forward tense but +cool and steel-like. Harry Cresswell laid his hand on his father's arm +and said quietly: + +"And where do we come in?" + +"That's business," affirmed John Taylor. "You and two hundred and fifty +of the biggest planters come in on the ground-floor of the +two-billion-dollar All-Cotton combine. It can easily mean two million +to you in five years." + +"And the other planters?" + +"They come in for high-priced cotton until we get our grip." + +"And then?" + +The quiet question seemed to invoke a vision for John Taylor; the gray +eyes took on the faraway look of a seer; the thin, bloodless lips formed +a smile in which there was nothing pleasant. + +"They keep their mouths shut or we squeeze 'em and buy the land. We +propose to own the cotton belt of the South." + +Colonel Cresswell started indignantly from his seat. + +"Do you think--by God, sir!--that I'd betray Southern gentlemen to--" + +But Harry's hand and impassive manner restrained him; he cooled as +suddenly as he had flared up. + +"Thank you very much, Mr. Taylor," he concluded; "we'll consider this +matter carefully. You'll spend the night, of course." + +"Can't possibly--must catch that next train back." + +"But we must talk further," the Colonel insisted. "And then, there's +your sister." + +"By Jove! Forgot all about Mary." John Taylor after a little desultory +talk, followed his host up-stairs. + +The next afternoon John Taylor was sitting beside Helen Cresswell on the +porch which overlooked the terrace, and was, on the whole, thinking less +of cotton than he had for several years. To be sure, he was talking +cotton; but he was doing it mechanically and from long habit, and was +really thinking how charming a girl Helen Cresswell was. She fascinated +him. For his sister Taylor had a feeling of superiority that was almost +contempt. The idea of a woman trying to understand and argue about +things men knew! He admired the dashing and handsome Miss Easterly, but +she scared him and made him angrily awkward. This girl, on the other +hand, just lounged and listened with an amused smile, or asked the most +child-like questions. She required him to wait on her quite as a matter +of course--to adjust her pillows, hand her the bon-bons, and hunt for +her lost fan. Mr. Taylor, who had not waited on anybody since his mother +died, and not much before, found a quite inexplicable pleasure in these +little domesticities. Several times he took out his watch and frowned; +yet he managed to stay with her quite happily. + +On her part Miss Cresswell was vastly amused. Her acquaintance with men +was not wide, but it was thorough so far as her own class was concerned. +They were all well-dressed and leisurely, fairly good looking, and they +said the same words and did the same things in the same way. They paid +her compliments which she did not believe, and they did not expect her +to believe. They were charmingly deferential in the matter of dropped +handkerchiefs, but tyrannical of opinion. They were thoughtful about +candy and flowers, but thoughtless about feelings and income. Altogether +they were delightful, but cloying. This man was startlingly different; +ungainly and always in a desperate, unaccountable hurry. He knew no +pretty speeches, he certainly did not measure up to her standard of +breeding, and yet somehow he was a gentleman. All this was new to Helen +Cresswell, and she liked it. + +Meanwhile the men above-stairs lingered in the Colonel's office--the +older one perturbed and sputtering, the younger insistent and +imperturbable. + +"The fact is, father," he was saying, "as you yourself have said, one +bad crop of cotton would almost ruin us." + +"But the prospects are good." + +"What are prospects in March? No, father, this is the situation--three +good crops in succession will wipe off our indebtedness and leave us +facing only low prices and a scarcity of niggers; on the other hand--" +The father interrupted impatiently. + +"Yes, on the other hand, if we plunge deeper in debt and betray our +friends we may come out millionaires or--paupers." + +"Precisely," said Harry Cresswell, calmly. "Now, our plan is to take no +chances; I propose going North and looking into this matter thoroughly. +If he represents money and has money, and if the trust has really got +the grip he says it has, why, it's a case of crush or get crushed, and +we'll have to join them on their own terms. If he's bluffing, or the +thing looks weak, we'll wait." + +It all ended as matters usually did end, in Harry's having his way. He +came downstairs, expecting, indeed, rather hoping, to find Taylor +impatiently striding to and fro, watch in hand; but here he was, +ungainly, it might be, but quite docile, drawing the picture of a +power-loom for Miss Cresswell, who seemed really interested. Harry +silently surveyed them from the door, and his face lighted with a new +thought. + +Taylor, espying him, leapt to his feet and hauled out his watch. + +"Well--I--" he began lamely. + +"No, you weren't either," interrupted Harry, with a laugh that was +unmistakably cordial and friendly. "You had quite forgotten what you +were waiting for--isn't that so, Sis?" + +Helen regarded her brother through her veiling lashes: what meant this +sudden assumption of warmth and amiability? + +"No, indeed; he was raging with impatience," she returned. + +"Why, Miss Cresswell, I--I--" John Taylor forsook social amenities and +pulled himself together. "Well," shortly, "now for that talk--ready?" +And quite forgetting Miss Cresswell, he bolted into the parlor. + +"The decision we have come to is this," said Harry Cresswell. "We are in +debt, as you know." + +"Forty-nine thousand, seven hundred and forty-two dollars and twelve +cents," responded Taylor; "in three notes, due in twelve, twenty-four, +and thirty-six months, interest at eight per cent, held by--" + +The Colonel snorted his amazement, and Harry Cresswell cut in: + +"Yes," he calmly admitted; "and with good crops for three years we'd be +all right; good crops even for two years would leave us fairly well +off." + +"You mean it would relieve you of the present stringency and put you +face to face with the falling price of cotton and rising wages," was +John Taylor's dry addendum. + +"Rising price of cotton, you mean," Harry corrected. + +"Oh, temporarily," John Taylor admitted. + +"Precisely, and thus postpone the decision." + +"No, Mr. Cresswell. I'm offering to let you in on the ground +floor--_now_--not next year, or year after." + +"Mr. Taylor, have you any money in this?" + +"Everything I've got." + +"Well, the thing is this way: if you can prove to us that conditions are +as you say, we're in for it." + +"Good! Meet me in New York, say--let's see, this is March tenth--well, +May third." + +Young Cresswell was thinking rapidly. This man without doubt represented +money. He was anxious for an alliance. Why? Was it all straight, or did +the whole move conceal a trick? + +His eyes strayed to the porch where his pretty sister sat languidly, and +then toward the school where the other sister lived. John Taylor looked +out on the porch, too. They glanced quickly at each other, and each +wondered if the other had shared his thought. Harry Cresswell did not +voice his mind for he was not wholly disposed to welcome what was there; +but he could not refrain from saying in tones almost confidential: + +"You could recommend this deal, then, could you--to your own friends?" + +"To my own family," asserted John Taylor, looking at Harry Cresswell +with sudden interest. But Mr. Cresswell was staring at the end of his +cigar. + + + + +_Eleven_ + +THE FLOWERING OF THE FLEECE + + +"Zora," observed Miss Smith, "it's a great blessing not to need +spectacles, isn't it?" + +Zora thought that it was; but she was wondering just what spectacles had +to do with the complaint she had brought to the office from Miss Taylor. + +"I'm always losing my glasses and they get dirty and--Oh, dear! now +where is that paper?" + +Zora pointed silently to the complaint. + +"No, not that--another paper. It must be in my room. Don't you want to +come up and help me look?" + +They went up to the clean, bare room, with its white iron bed, its cool, +spotless shades and shining windows. Zora walked about softly and +looked, while Miss Smith quietly searched on desk and bureau, paying no +attention to the girl. For the time being she was silent. + +"I sometimes wish," she began at length, "I had a bright-eyed girl like +you to help me find and place things." + +Zora made no comment. + +"Sometimes Bles helps me," added Miss Smith, guilefully. + +Zora looked sharply at her. "Could I help?" she asked, almost timidly. + +"Why, I don't know,"--the answer was deliberate. "There are one or two +little things perhaps--" + +Placing a hand gently upon Zora's shoulder, she pointed out a few odd +tasks, and left the girl busily doing them; then she returned to the +office, and threw Miss Taylor's complaint into the waste-basket. + +For a week or more Zora slipped in every day and performed the little +tasks that Miss Smith laid out: she sorted papers, dusted the bureau, +hung a curtain; she did not do the things very well, and she broke some +china, but she worked earnestly and quickly, and there was no thought of +pay. Then, too, did not Bles praise her with a happy smile, as together, +day after day, they stood and watched the black dirt where the Silver +Fleece lay planted? She dreamed and sang over that dark field, and again +and again appealed to him: "S'pose it shouldn't come up after all?" And +he would laugh and say that of course it would come up. + +One day, when Zora was helping Miss Smith in the bedroom, she paused +with her arms full of clothes fresh from the laundry. + +"Where shall I put these?" + +Miss Smith looked around. "They might go in there," she said, pointing +to a door. Zora opened it. A tiny bedroom was disclosed, with one broad +window looking toward the swamp; white curtains adorned it, and white +hangings draped the plain bureau and wash-stand and the little bed. +There was a study table, and a small bookshelf holding a few books, all +simple and clean. Zora paused uncertainly, and surveyed the room. + +"Sometimes when you're tired and want to be alone you can come up here, +Zora," said Miss Smith carelessly. "No one uses this room." + +Zora caught her breath sharply, but said nothing. The next day Miss +Smith said to her when she came in: + +"I'm busy now, dear, but you go up to your little room and read and I'll +call." + +Zora quietly obeyed. An hour later Miss Smith looked in, then she closed +the door lightly and left. Another hour flew by before Zora hurried +down. + +"I was reading, and I forgot," she said. + +"It's all right," returned Miss Smith. "I didn't need you. And any day, +after you get all your lessons, I think Miss Taylor will excuse you and +let you go to your room and read." Miss Taylor, it transpired, was more +than glad. + +Day after day Bles and Zora visited the field; but ever the ground lay +an unrelieved black beneath the bright sun, and they would go +reluctantly home again, today there was much work to be done, and Zora +labored steadily and eagerly, never pausing, and gaining in deftness and +care. + +In the afternoon Bles went to town with the school wagon. A light shower +flew up from the south, lingered a while and fled, leaving a fragrance +in the air. For a moment Zora paused, and her nostrils quivered; then +without a word she slipped down-stairs, glided into the swamp, and sped +away to the island. She swung across the tree and a low, delighted cry +bubbled on her lips. All the rich, black ground was sprinkled with +tender green. She bent above the verdant tenderness and kissed it; then +she rushed back, bursting into the room. + +"_It's come! It's come!--the Silver Fleece!_" + +Miss Smith was startled. + +"The Silver Fleece!" she echoed in bewilderment. + +Zora hesitated. It came over her all at once that this one great +all-absorbing thing meant nothing to the gaunt tired-look woman before +her. + +"Would Bles care if I told?" she asked doubtfully. + +"No," Miss Smith ventured. + +And then the girl crouched at her feet and told the dream and the +story. Many factors were involved that were quite foreign to the older +woman's nature and training. The recital brought to her New England mind +many questions of policy and propriety. And yet, as she looked down upon +the dark face, hot with enthusiasm, it all seemed somehow more than +right. Slowly and lightly Miss Smith slipped her arm about Zora, and +nodded and smiled a perfect understanding. They looked out together into +the darkening twilight. + +"It is so late and wet and you're tired tonight--don't you think you'd +better sleep in your little room?" + +Zora sat still. She thought of the noisy flaming cabin and the dark +swamp; but a contrasting thought of the white bed made her timid, and +slowly she shook her head. Nevertheless Miss Smith led her to the room. + +"Here are things for you to wear," she pointed out, opening the bureau, +"and here is the bath-room." She left the girl standing in the middle of +the floor. + +In time Zora came to stay often at Miss Smith's cottage, and to learn +new and unknown ways of living and dressing. She still refused to board, +for that would cost more than she could pay yet, and she would accept no +charity. Gradually an undemonstrative friendship sprang up between the +pale old gray-haired teacher and the dark young black-haired girl. +Delicately, too, but gradually, the companionship of Bles and Zora was +guided and regulated. Of mornings Zora would hurry through her lessons +and get excused to fly to the swamp, to work and dream alone. At noon +Bles would run down, and they would linger until he must hurry back to +dinner. After school he would go again, working while she was busy in +Miss Smith's office, and returning later, would linger awhile to tell +Zora of his day while she busied herself with her little tasks. Saturday +mornings they would go to the swamp and work together, and sometimes +Miss Smith, stealing away from curious eyes, would come and sit and talk +with them as they toiled. + +In those days, for these two souls, earth came very near to heaven. +Both were in the midst of that mighty change from youth to womanhood and +manhood. Their manner toward each other by degrees grew shyer and more +thoughtful. There was less of comradeship, but the little meant more. +The rough good fellowship was silently put aside; they no longer lightly +clasped hands; and each at times wondered, in painful +self-consciousness, if the other cared. + +Then began, too, that long and subtle change wherein a soul, until now +unmindful of its wrappings, comes suddenly to consciousness of body and +clothes; when it gropes and tries to adjust one with the other, and +through them to give to the inner deeper self, finer and fuller +expression. One saw it easily, almost suddenly, in Alwyn's Sunday suit, +vivid neckties, and awkward fads. + +Slower, subtler, but more striking was the change in Zora, as she began +to earn bits of pin money in the office and to learn to sew. Dresses +hung straighter; belts served a better purpose; stockings were smoother; +underwear was daintier. Then her hair--that great dark mass of immovable +infinitely curled hair--began to be subdued and twisted and combed +until, with steady pains and study, it lay in thick twisted braids about +her velvet forehead, like some shadowed halo. All this came much more +slowly and spasmodically than one tells it. Few noticed the change much; +none noticed all; and yet there came a night--a student's social--when +with a certain suddenness the whole school, teachers and pupils, +realized the newness of the girl, and even Bles was startled. + +He had bought her in town, at Christmas time, a pair of white satin +slippers, partly to test the smallness of her feet on which in younger +days he had rallied her, and partly because she had mentioned a possible +white dress. They were a cheap, plain pair but dainty, and they fitted +well. + +When the evening came and the students were marching and the teachers, +save Miss Smith, were sitting rather primly apart and commenting, she +entered the room. She was a little late, and a hush greeted her. One +boy, with the inimitable drawl of the race, pushed back his ice-cream +and addressed it with a mournful head-shake: + +"Go way, honey, yo' los' yo' tas'e!" + +The dress was plain and fitted every curving of a healthy girlish form. +She paused a moment white-bodied and white-limbed but dark and +velvet-armed, her full neck and oval head rising rich and almost black +above, with its deep-lighted eyes and crown of silent darkling hair. + +To some, such a revelation of grace and womanliness in this hoyden, the +gentle swelling of lankness to beauty, of lowliness to shy self-poise, +was a sudden joy, to others a mere blindness. Mary Taylor was perplexed +and in some indefinite way amazed; and many of the other teachers saw no +beauty, only a strangeness that brought a smile. They were such as know +beauty by convention only, and find it lip-ringed, hoop-skirted, +tattooed, or corsetted, as time and place decree. + +The change in Zora, however, had been neither cataclysmic nor +revolutionary and it was yet far--very far--from complete. She still ran +and romped in the woods, and dreamed her dreams; she still was +passionately independent and "queer." Tendencies merely had become +manifest, some dominant. She would, unhindered, develop to a brilliant, +sumptuous womanhood; proud, conquering, full-blooded, and deep +bosomed--a passionate mother of men. Herein lay all her early wildness +and strangeness. Herein lay, as yet half hidden, dimly sensed and all +unspoken, the power of a mighty all-compelling love for one human soul, +and, through it, for all the souls of men. All this lay growing and +developing; but as yet she was still a girl, with a new shyness and +comeliness and a bold, searching heart. + +In the field of the Silver Fleece all her possibilities were beginning +to find expression. These new-born green things hidden far down in the +swamp, begotten in want and mystery, were to her a living wonderful +fairy tale come true. All the latent mother in her brooded over them; +all her brilliant fancy wove itself about them. They were her +dream-children, and she tended them jealously; they were her Hope, and +she worshipped them. When the rabbits tried the tender plants she +watched hours to drive them off, and catching now and then a pulsing +pink-eyed invader, she talked to it earnestly: + +"Brer Rabbit--poor little Brer Rabbit, don't you know you mustn't eat +Zora's cotton? Naughty, naughty Brer Rabbit." And then she would show it +where she had gathered piles of fragrant weeds for it and its fellows. + +The golden green of the first leaves darkened, and the plants sprang +forward steadily. Never before was such a magnificent beginning, a full +month ahead of other cotton. The rain swept down in laughing, bubbling +showers, and laved their thirsty souls, and Zora held her beating breast +day by day lest it rain too long or too heavily. The sun burned fiercely +upon the young cotton plants as the spring hastened, and they lifted +their heads in darker, wilder luxuriance; for the time of hoeing was at +hand. + +These days were days of alternate hope and doubt with Bles Alwyn. +Strength and ambition and inarticulate love were fighting within him. He +felt, in the dark thousands of his kind about him, a mighty calling to +deeds. He was becoming conscious of the narrowness and straightness of +his black world, and red anger flashed in him ever and again as he felt +his bonds. His mental horizon was broadening as he prepared for the +college of next year; he was faintly grasping the wider, fuller world, +and its thoughts and aspirations. + +But beside and around and above all this, like subtle, permeating ether, +was--Zora. His feelings for her were not as yet definite, expressed, or +grasped; they were rather the atmosphere in which all things occurred +and were felt and judged. From an amusing pastime she had come to be a +companion and thought-mate; and now, beyond this, insensibly they were +drifting to a silenter, mightier mingling of souls. But drifting, +merely--not arrived; going gently, irresistibly, but not yet at the +realized goal. + +He felt all this as the stirring of a mighty force, but knew not what +he felt. The teasing of his fellows, the common love-gossip of the +school yard, seemed far different from his plight. He laughed at it and +indignantly denied it. Yet he was uncomfortable, restless, unhappy. He +fancied Zora cared less for his company, and he gave her less, and then +was puzzled to find time hanging so empty, so wretchedly empty, on his +hands. When they were together in these days they found less to talk +about, and had it not been for the Silver Fleece which in magic +wilfulness opened both their mouths, they would have found their +companionship little more than a series of awkward silences. Yet in +their silences, their walks, and their sittings there was a +companionship, a glow, a satisfaction, as came to them nowhere else on +earth, and they wondered at it. + +They were both wondering at it this morning as they watched their +cotton. It had seemingly bounded forward in a night and it must be hoed +forthwith. Yet, hoeing was murder--the ruthless cutting away of tenderer +plants that the sturdier might thrive the more and grow. + +"I hate it, Bles, don't you?" + +"Hate what?" + +"Killing any of it; it's all so pretty." + +"But it must be, so that what's left will be prettier, or at least more +useful." + +"But it shouldn't be so; everything ought to have a chance to be +beautiful and useful." + +"Perhaps it ought to be so," admitted Bles, "but it isn't." + +"Isn't it so--anywhere?" + +"I reckon not. Death and pain pay for all good things." + +She hoed away silently, hesitating over the choice of the plants, +pondering this world-old truth, saddened by its ruthless cruelty. + +"Death and pain," she murmured; "what a price!" + +Bles leaned on his hoe and considered. It had not occurred to him till +now that Zora was speaking better and better English: the idioms and +errors were dropping away; they had not utterly departed, however, but +came crowding back in moments of excitement. At other times she clothed +Miss Smith's clear-cut, correct speech in softer Southern accents. She +was drifting away from him in some intangible way to an upper world of +dress and language and deportment, and the new thought was pain to him. + +So it was that the Fleece rose and spread and grew to its wonderful +flowering; and so these two children grew with it into theirs. Zora +never forgot how they found the first white flower in that green and +billowing sea, nor her low cry of pleasure and his gay shout of joy. +Slowly, wonderfully the flowers spread--white, blue, and purple bells, +hiding timidly, blazing luxuriantly amid the velvet leaves; until one +day--it was after a southern rain and the sunlight was twinkling through +the morning--all the Fleece was in flower--a mighty swaying sea, +darkling rich and waving, and upon it flecks and stars of white and +purple foam. The joy of the two so madly craved expression that they +burst into singing; not the wild light song of dancing feet, but a low, +sweet melody of her fathers' fathers, whereunto Alwyn's own deep voice +fell fitly in minor cadence. + +Miss Smith and Miss Taylor, who were sorting the mail, heard them +singing as they came up out of the swamp. Miss Taylor looked at them, +then at Miss Smith. + +But Miss Smith sat white and rigid with the first opened letter in her +hand. + + + + +_Twelve_ + +THE PROMISE + + +Miss Smith sat with her face buried in her hands while the tears +trickled silently through her thin fingers. Before her lay the letter, +read a dozen times: + +"Old Mrs. Grey has been to see me, and she has announced her intention +of endowing five colored schools, yours being one. She asked if $500,000 +would do it. She has plenty of money, so I told her $750,000 would be +better--$150,000 apiece. She's arranging for a Board of Trust, etc. +You'll probably hear from her soon. You've been so worried about +expenses that I thought I'd send this word on; I knew you'd be glad." + +Glad? Dear God, how flat the word fell! For thirty years she had sown +the seed, planting her life-blood in this work, that had become the +marrow of her soul. + +Successful? No, it had not been successful; but it had been human. +Through yonder doorway had trooped an army of hundreds upon hundreds of +bright and dull, light and dark, eager and sullen faces. There had been +good and bad, honest and deceptive, frank and furtive. Some had caught, +kindled and flashed to ambition and achievement; some, glowing dimly, +had plodded on in a slow, dumb faithful work worth while; and yet others +had suddenly exploded, hurtling human fragments to heaven and to hell. +Around this school home, as around the centre of some little universe, +had whirled the sorrowful, sordid, laughing, pulsing drama of a world: +birth pains, and the stupor of death; hunger and pale murder; the riot +of thirst and the orgies of such red and black cabins as Elspeth's, +crouching in the swamp. + +She groaned as she read of the extravagances of the world and saw her +own vanishing revenues; but the funds continued to dwindle until Sarah +Smith asked herself: "What will become of this school when I die?" With +trembling fingers she had sat down to figure how many teachers must be +dropped next year, when her brother's letter came, and she slipped to +her knees and prayed. + +Mrs. Grey's decision was due in no little way to Mary Taylor's reports. +Slowly but surely the girl had begun to think that she had found herself +in this new world. She would never be attuned to it thoroughly, for she +was set for different music. The veil of color and race still hung +thickly between her and her pupils; and yet she seemed to see some +points of penetration. No one could meet daily a hundred or more of +these light-hearted, good-natured children without feeling drawn to +them. No one could cross the thresholds of the cabins and not see the +old and well-known problems of life and striving. More and more, +therefore, the work met Miss Taylor's approval and she told Mrs. Grey +so. + +At the same time Mary Taylor had come to some other definite +conclusions: she believed it wrong to encourage the ambitions of these +children to any great extent; she believed they should be servants and +farmers, content to work under present conditions until those conditions +could be changed; and she believed that the local white aristocracy, +helped by Northern philanthropy, should take charge of such gradual +changes. + +These conclusions she did not pretend to have originated; but she +adopted them from reading and conversation, after hesitating for a year +before such puzzling contradictions as Bles Alwyn and Harry Cresswell. +For her to conclude to treat Bles Alwyn as a man despite his color was +as impossible as to think Mr. Cresswell a criminal. Some compromise was +imperative which would save her the pleasure of Mr. Cresswell's company +and at the same time leave open a way of fulfilling the world's duty to +this black boy. She thought she had found this compromise and she wrote +Mrs. Grey suggesting a chain of endowed Negro schools under the +management of trustees composed of Northern business men and local +Southern whites. Mrs. Grey acquiesced gladly and announced her plan, +eventually writing Miss Smith of her decision "to second her noble +efforts in helping the poor colored people," and she hoped to have the +plan under way before next fall. + +The sharpness of Miss Smith's joy did not let her dwell on the proposed +"Board of Trust"; of course, it would be a board of friends of the +school. + +She sat in her office looking out across the land. School had closed for +the year and Bles with the carryall was just taking Miss Taylor to the +train with her trunk and bags. Far up the road she could see dotted here +and there the little dirty cabins of Cresswell's tenants--the Cresswell +domain that lay like a mighty hand around the school, ready at a word to +squeeze its life out. Only yonder, to the eastward, lay the way out; the +five hundred acres of the Tolliver plantation, which the school needed +so sadly for its farm and community. But the owner was a hard and +ignorant white man, hating "niggers" only a shade more than he hated +white aristocrats of the Cresswell type. He had sold the school its +first land to pique the Cresswells; but he would not sell any more, she +was sure, even now when the promise of wealth faced the school. + +She lay back and closed her eyes and fell lightly asleep. As she slept +an old woman came toiling up the hill northward from the school, and +out of the eastward spur of the Cresswell barony. She was fat and black, +hooded and aproned, with great round head and massive bosom. Her face +was dull and heavy and homely, her old eyes sorrowful. She moved +swiftly, carrying a basket on her arm. Opposite her, to the southward, +but too far for sight, an old man came out of the lower Cresswell place, +skirting the swamp. He was tall, black, and gaunt, part bald with tufted +hair, and a cowed and furtive look was in his eyes. One leg was +crippled, and he hobbled painfully. + +Up the road to the eastward that ran past the school, with the morning +sun at his back, strode a young man, yellow, crisp-haired, strong-faced, +with darkly knit brows. He greeted Bles and the teacher coldly, and +moved on in nervous haste. A woman, hurrying out of the westward swamp +up the path that led from Elspeth's, saw him and shrank back hastily. +She turned quickly into the swamp and waited, looking toward the school. +The old woman hurried into the back gate just as the old man appeared to +the southward on the road. The young man greeted him cordially and they +stopped a moment to talk, while the hiding woman watched. + +"Howdy, Uncle Jim." + +"Howdy, son. Hit's hot, ain't it? How is you?" + +"Tolerable, how are you?" + +"Poorly, son, poorly--and worser in mind. I'se goin' up to talk to old +Miss." + +"So am I, but I just see Aunt Rachel going in. We'd better wait." + +Miss Smith started up at the timid knocking, and rubbed her eyes. It was +long since she had slept in the daytime and she was annoyed at such +laziness. She opened the back door and led the old woman to the office. + +"Now, what have you got there?" she demanded, eyeing the basket. + +"Just a little chicken fo' you and a few aigs." + +"Oh, you are so thoughtful!" Sarah Smith's was a grateful heart. + +"Go 'long now--hit ain't a thing." + +Then came a pause, the old woman sliding into the proffered seat, while +over her genial, dimpled smile there dropped a dull veil of care. Her +eyes shifted uneasily. Miss Smith tried not to notice the change. + +"Well, are you all moved, Aunt Rachel?" she inquired cheerfully. + +"No'm, and we ain't gwine to move." + +"But I thought it was all arranged." + +"It was," gloomily, "but de ole Cunnel, he won't let us go." + +The listener was instantly sympathetic. "Why not?" she asked. + +"He says we owes him." + +"But didn't you settle at Christmas?" + +"Yas'm; but when he found we was goin' away, he looked up some more +debts." + +"How much?" + +"I don't know 'zactly--more'n a hundred dollars. Den de boys done got in +dat trouble, and he paid their fines." + +"What was the trouble?" + +"Well, one was a-gambling, and the other struck the overseer what was +a-whippin' him." + +"Whipping him!"--in horrified exclamation, quite as much at Aunt +Rachel's matter-of-fact way of regarding the matter as at the deed +itself. + +"Yas'm. He didn't do his work right and he whipped him. I speck he +needed it." + +"But he's a grown man," Miss Smith urged earnestly. + +"Yas'm; he's twenty now, and big." + +"Whipped him!" Miss Smith repeated. "And so you can't leave?" + +"No'm, he say he'll sell us out and put us in de chain-gang if we go. +The boys is plumb mad, but I'se a-pleadin' with 'em not to do nothin' +rash." + +"But--but I thought they had already started to work a crop on the +Tolliver place?" + +"Yes'm, dey had; but, you see, dey were arrested, and then Cunnel +Cresswell took 'em and 'lowed they couldn't leave his place. Ol' man +Tolliver was powerful mad." + +"Why, Aunt Rachel, it's slavery!" cried the lady in dismay. Aunt Rachel +did not offer to dispute her declaration. + +"Yas'm, hit's slavery," she agreed. "I hates it mighty bad, too, 'cause +I wanted de little chillens in school; but--" The old woman broke down +and sobbed. + +A knocking came at the door; hastily wiping her eyes Aunt Rachel rose. + +"I'll--I'll see what I can do, Aunt Rachel--I must do something," +murmured Miss Smith hastily, as the woman departed, and an old black man +came limping in. Miss Smith looked up in surprise. + +"I begs pardon, Mistress--I begs pardon. Good-morning." + +"Good-morning--" she hesitated. + +"Sykes--Jim Sykes--that's me." + +"Yes, I've heard of you, Mr. Sykes; you live over south of the swamp." + +"Yes, ma'am, that's me; and I'se got a little shack dar and a bit of +land what I'se trying to buy." + +"Of Colonel Cresswell?" + +"Yas'm, of de Cunnel." + +"And how long have you been buying it?" + +"Going on ten year now; and dat's what I comes to ask you about." + +"Goodness me! And how much have you paid a year?" + +"I gen'rally pays 'bout three bales of cotton a year." + +"Does he furnish you rations?" + +"Only sugar and coffee and a little meat now and then." + +"What does it amount to a year?" + +"I doesn't rightly know--but I'se got some papers here." + +Miss Smith looked them over and sighed. It was the same old tale of +blind receipts for money "on account"--no items, no balancing. By his +help she made out that last year his total bill at Cresswell's store was +perhaps forty dollars. + +"An' last year's bill was bigger'n common 'cause I hurt my leg working +at the gin and had to have some medicine." + +"Why, as far as I can see, Mr. Sykes, you've paid Cresswell about a +thousand dollars in the last ten years. How large is your place?" + +"About twenty acres." + +"And what were you to pay for it?" + +"Four hundred." + +"Have you got the deed?" + +"Yes'm, but I ain't finished paying yet; de Cunnel say as how I owes him +two hundred dollars still, and I can't see it. Dat's why I come over +here to talk wid you." + +"Where is the deed?" + +He handed it to her and her heart sank. It was no deed, but a +complicated contract binding the tenant hand and foot to the landlord. +She sighed, he watching her eagerly. + +"I'se getting old," he explained, "and I ain't got nobody to take care +of me. I can't work as I once could, and de overseers dey drives me too +hard. I wants a little home to die in." + +Miss Smith's throat swelled. She couldn't tell him that he would never +get one at the present rate; she only said: + +"I'll--look this up. You come again next Saturday." + +Then sadly she watched the ragged old slave hobble away with his +cherished "papers." He greeted the young man at the gate and passed out, +while the latter walked briskly up to the door and knocked. + +"Why, how do you do, Robert?" + +"How do you do, Miss Smith?" + +"Well, are you getting things in shape so as to enter school early next +year?" + +Robert looked embarrassed. + +"That's what I came to tell you, Miss Smith. Mr. Cresswell has offered +me forty acres of good land." + +Miss Smith looked disheartened. + +"Robert, here you are almost finished, and my heart is set on your going +to Atlanta University and finishing college. With your fine voice and +talent for drawing--" + +A dogged look settled on Robert's young bright face, and the speaker +paused. + +"What's the use, Miss Smith--what opening is there for a--a nigger with +an education?" + +Miss Smith was shocked. + +"Why--why, every chance," she protested, "and where there's none _make_ +a chance!" + +"Miss Taylor says"--Miss Smith's heart sank; how often had she heard +that deadening phrase in the last year!--"that there's no use. That +farming is the only thing we ought to try to do, and I reckon she thinks +there ain't much chance even there." + +"Robert, farming is a noble calling. Whether you're suited to it or not, +I don't yet know, but I'd like nothing better than to see you settled +here in a decent home with a family, running a farm. But, Robert, +farming doesn't call for less intelligence than other things; it calls +for more. It is because the world thinks any training good enough for a +farmer that the Southern farmer is today practically at the mercy of his +keener and more intelligent fellows. And of all people, Robert, your +people need trained intelligence to cope with this problem of farming +here. Without intelligence and training and some capital it is the +wildest nonsense to think you can lead your people out of slavery. Look +round you." She told him of the visitors. "Are they not hard working +honest people?" + +"Yes, ma'am." + +"Yet they are slaves--dumb driven cattle." + +"But they have no education." + +"And you have a smattering; therefore are ready to pit yourself against +the organized plantation system without capital or experience. Robert, +you may succeed; you may find your landlord honest and the way clear; +but my advice to you is--finish your education, develop your talents, +and then come to your life work a full-fledged man and not a +half-ignorant boy." + +"I'll think of it," returned the boy soberly. "I reckon you're right. I +know Miss Taylor don't think much of us. But I'm tired of waiting; I +want to get to work." + +Miss Smith laid a kindly hand upon his shoulder. + +"I've been waiting thirty years, Robert," she said, with feeling, and he +hung his head. + +"I wanted to talk about it," he awkwardly responded, turning slowly +away. But Miss Smith stopped him. + +"Robert, where is the land Cresswell offers you?" + +"It's on the Tolliver place." + +"The Tolliver place?" + +"Yes, he is going to buy it." + +Miss Smith dismissed the boy absently and sat down. The crisis seemed +drawing near. She had not dreamed the Tolliver place was for sale. The +old man must be hard pressed to sell to the Cresswells. + +She started up. Why not go see him? Perhaps a mortgage on the strength +of the endowment? It was dangerous--but-- + +She threw a veil over her hair, and opened the door. A woman stood +there, who shrank and cowered, as if used to blows. Miss Smith eyed her +grimly, then slowly stepped back. + +"Come in," she commanded briefly, motioning the woman to a chair. + +But she stood, a pathetic figure, faded, worn, yet with unmistakable +traces of beauty in her golden face and soft brown hair. Miss Smith +contemplated her sadly. Here was her most haunting failure, this girl +whom she first had seen twelve years ago in her wonderful girlish +comeliness. She had struggled and fought for her, but the forces of the +devil had triumphed. She caught glimpses of her now and then, but today +was the first time she had spoken to her for ten years. She saw the +tears that gathered but did not fall; then her hands quivered. + +"Bertie," she began brokenly. The girl shivered, but stood aloof. + +"Miss Smith," she said. "No--don't talk--I'm bad--but I've got a little +girl, Miss Smith, ten years old, and--and--I'm afraid for her; I want +you to take her." + +"I have no place for one so young. And why are you afraid for her?" + +"The men there are beginning to notice her." + +"Where?" + +"At Elspeth's." + +"Do you stay there now?" + +"Yes." + +"Why?" + +"_He_ wants me to." + +"Must you do as he wants?" + +"Yes. But I want the child--different." + +"Don't _you_ want to be different?" + +The woman quivered again but she answered steadily: "No." + +Miss Smith sank into a chair and moistened her dry lips. + +"Elspeth's is an awful place," she affirmed solemnly. + +"Yes." + +"And Zora?" + +"She is not there much now, she stays away." + +"But if she escapes, why not you?" + +"She wants to escape." + +"And you?" + +"I don't want to." + +This stubborn depravity was so distressing that Sarah Smith was at an +utter loss what to say or do. + +"I can do nothing--" she began. + +"For me," the woman quickly replied; "I don't ask anything; but for the +child,--she isn't to blame." + +The older woman wavered. + +"Won't you try?" pleaded the younger. + +"Yes--I'll try, I'll try; I am trying all the time, but there are more +things than my weak strength can do. Good-bye." + +Miss Smith stood a long time in the doorway, watching the fading figure +and vaguely trying to remember what it was that she had started to do, +when the sharp staccato step of a mule drew her attention to a rider who +stopped at the gate. It was her neighbor, Tolliver--a gaunt, +yellow-faced white man, ragged, rough, and unkempt; one of the poor +whites who had struggled up and failed. He spent no courtesy on the +"nigger" teacher, but sat in his saddle and called her to the gate, and +she went. + +"Say," he roughly opened up, "I've got to sell some land and them damn +Cresswells are after it. You can have it for five thousand dollars if +you git the cash in a week." With a muttered oath he rode abruptly off; +but not before she had seen the tears in his eyes. + +All night Sarah Smith lay thinking, and all day she thought and dreamed. +Toward dark she walked slowly out the gate and up the highway toward the +Cresswell oaks. She had never been within the gates before, and she +looked about thoughtfully. The great trees in their regular curving rows +must have been planted more than half a century ago. The lawn was well +tended and the flowers. Yes, there were signs of taste and wealth. "But +it was built on a moan," cried Miss Smith to herself, passionately, and +she would not look round any more, but stared straight ahead where she +saw old Colonel Cresswell smoking and reading on the verandah. + +The Colonel saw her, too, and was uneasy, for he knew that Miss Smith +had a sharp tongue and a most disconcerting method of argument, which +he, as a Southern gentleman, courteous to all white females, even if +they did eat with "niggers," could not properly answer. He received her +with courtesy, offered a chair, laid aside his cigar, and essayed some +general remarks on cotton weather. But Miss Smith plunged into her +subject: + +"Colonel Cresswell, I'm thinking of raising some money from a mortgage +on our school property." + +The Colonel's face involuntarily lighted up. He thought he saw the +beginning of the end of an institution which had been a thorn in his +flesh ever since Tolliver, in a fit of rage, had sold land for a Negro +school. + +"H'm," he reflected deprecatingly, wiping his brow. + +"I need some ready money," she continued, "to keep from curtailing our +work." + +"Indeed?" + +"I have good prospects in a year or so"--the Colonel looked up sharply, +but said nothing--"and so I thought of a mortgage." + +"Money is pretty tight," was the Colonel's first objection. + +"The land is worth, you know, at least fifty dollars an acre." + +"Not more than twenty-five dollars, I fear." + +"Why, you wanted seventy-five dollars for poorer land last year! We have +two hundred acres." It was not for nothing that this lady had been born +in New England. + +"I wouldn't reckon it as worth more than five thousand dollars," +insisted the Colonel. + +"And ten thousand dollars for improvements." + +But the Colonel arose. "You had better talk to the directors of the +Jefferson Bank," he said politely. "They may accommodate you--how much +would you want?" + +"Five thousand dollars," Miss Smith replied. Then she hesitated. That +would buy the land, to be sure; but money was needed to develop and run +it; to install tenants; and then, too, for new teachers. But she said +nothing more, and, nodding to his polite bow, departed. Colonel +Cresswell had noticed her hesitation, and thought of it as he settled to +his cigar again. + +Bles Alwyn arose next morning and examined the sky critically. He +feared rain. The season had been quite wet enough, particularly down on +the swamp land, and but yesterday Bles had viewed his dykes with +apprehension for the black pool scowled about them. He dared not think +what a long heavy rain might do to the wonderful island of cotton which +now stood fully five feet high, with flowers and squares and budding +bolls. It might not rain, but the safest thing would be to work at those +dykes, so he started for spade and hoe. He heard Miss Smith calling, +however. + +"Bles--hitch up!" + +He was vexed. "Are you--in a hurry, Miss Smith?" he asked. + +"Yes, I am," she replied, with unmistakable positiveness. + +He started off, and hesitated. "Miss Smith, would Jim do to drive?" + +"No," sharply. "I want you particularly." At another time she might have +observed his anxiety, but today she was agitated. She knew she was +taking a critical step. + +Slowly Bles hitched up. After all it might not rain, he argued as they +jogged toward town. In silence they rode on. Bles kept looking at the +skies. The south was getting darker and darker. It might rain. It might +rain only an hour or so, but, suppose it should rain a day--two days--a +week? + +Miss Smith was looking at her own skies and despite the promised sunrise +they loomed darkly. Five thousand was needed for the land and at least +another thousand for repairs. Two thousand would "buy" a half dozen +desirable tenants by paying their debts to their present landlords. Then +two thousand would be wanted for new teachers and a carpenter shop--ten +thousand dollars! + +It was a great temptation. And yet, once in the hands of these +past-masters of debt-manipulation, would her school be safe? Suppose, +after all, this Grey gift--but she caught her breath sharply just as a +wet splash of rain struck upon her forehead. No. God could not be so +cruel. She pushed her bonnet back: how good and cool the water felt! But +on Bles as he raised the buggy top it felt hot and fiery. + +He felt the coming of some great calamity, the end of a dream. This +rain might stay for days; it looked like such a downpour; and that would +mean the end of the Silver Fleece; the end of Zora's hopes; the end of +everything. He gulped in despairing anger and hit the staid old horse +the smartest tap she had known all summer. + +"Why, Bles, what's the matter?" called Miss Smith, as the horse started +forward. He murmured something about getting wet and drew up at the +Toomsville bank. + +Miss Smith was invited politely into the private parlor. She explained +her business. The President was there and Colonel Cresswell and one +other local director. + +"I have come for a mortgage. Our land is, as you know, gentlemen, worth +at least ten thousand dollars; the buildings cost fifteen thousand +dollars; our property is, therefore, conservatively valued at +twenty-five thousand dollars. Now I want to mortgage it for"--she +hesitated--"five thousand dollars." + +Colonel Cresswell was silent, but the president said: + +"Money is rather scarce just now, Miss Smith; but it happens that I have +ten thousand dollars on hand, which we prefer, however, to loan in one +lump sum. Now, if the security were ample, I think perhaps you might get +this ten thousand dollars." + +Miss Smith grew white; it was the sum she wanted. She tried to escape +the temptation, yet the larger amount was more than twice as desirable +to her as the smaller, and she knew that they knew it. They were trying +to tempt her; they wanted as firm a hold on the school property as +possible. And yet, why should she hesitate? It was a risk, but the +returns would be enormous--she must do it. Besides, there was the +endowment; it was certain; yes--she felt forced to close the bargain. + +"Very well," she declared her decision, and they handed her the +preliminary papers. She took the pen and glanced at Mr. Cresswell; he +was smiling slightly, but nevertheless she signed her name grimly, in a +large round hand, "Sarah Smith." + + + + +_Thirteen_ + +MRS. GREY GIVES A DINNER + + +The Hon. Charles Smith, Miss Sarah's brother, was walking swiftly uptown +from Mr. Easterly's Wall Street office and his face was pale. At last +the Cotton Combine was to all appearances an assured fact and he was +slated for the Senate. The price he had paid was high: he was to +represent the interests of the new trust and sundry favorable measures +were already drafted and reposing in the safe of the combine's legal +department. Among others was one relating to child labor, another that +would effect certain changes in the tariff, and a proposed law providing +for a cotton bale of a shape and dimensions different from the +customary--the last constituting a particularly clever artifice which, +under the guise of convenience in handling, would necessitate the +installation of entirely new gin and compress machinery, to be supplied, +of course, by the trust. + +As Mr. Smith drew near Mrs. Grey's Murray Hill residence his face had +melted to a cynical smile. After all why should he care? He had tried +independence and philanthropy and failed. Why should he not be as other +men? He had seen many others that very day swallow the golden bait and +promise everything. They were gentlemen. Why should he pose as better +than his fellows? There was young Cresswell. Did his aristocratic air +prevent his succumbing to the lure of millions and promising the +influence of his father and the whole Farmer's League to the new +project? Mr. Smith snapped his fingers and rang the bell. The door +opened softly. The dark woodwork of the old English wainscoting glowed +with the crimson flaming of logs in the wide fireplace. There was just +the touch of early autumn chill in the air without, that made both the +fire and the table with its soft linen, gold and silver plate, and +twinkling glasses a warming, satisfying sight. + +Mrs. Grey was a portly woman, inclined to think much of her dinner and +her clothes, both of which were always rich and costly. She was not +herself a notably intelligent woman; she greatly admired intelligence or +whatever looked to her like intelligence in others. Her money, too, was +to her an ever worrying mystery and surprise, which she found herself +always scheming to husband shrewdly and spend philanthropically--a +difficult combination. + +As she awaited her guests she surveyed the table with both satisfaction +and disquietude, for her social functions were few, tonight there +were--she checked them off on her fingers--Sir James Creighton, the rich +English manufacturer, and Lady Creighton, Mr. and Mrs. Vanderpool, Mr. +Harry Cresswell and his sister, John Taylor and his sister, and Mr. +Charles Smith, whom the evening papers mentioned as likely to be United +States Senator from New Jersey--a selection of guests that had been +determined, unknown to the hostess, by the meeting of cotton interests +earlier in the day. + +Mrs. Grey's chef was high-priced and efficient, and her butler was the +envy of many; consequently, she knew the dinner would be good. To her +intense satisfaction, it was far more than this. It was a most agreeable +couple of hours; all save perhaps Mr. Smith unbent, the Englishman +especially, and the Vanderpools were most gracious; but if the general +pleasure was owing to any one person particularly it was to Mr. Harry +Cresswell. Mrs. Grey had met Southerners before, but not intimately, and +she always had in mind vividly their cruelty to "poor Negroes," a +subject she made a point of introducing forthwith. She was therefore +most agreeably surprised to hear Mr. Cresswell express himself so +cordially as approving of Negro education. + +"Why, I thought," said Mrs. Grey, "that you Southerners rather +disapproved--or at least--" + +Mr. Cresswell inclined his head courteously. + +"We Southerners, my dear Mrs. Grey, are responsible for a variety of +reputations." And he told an anecdote that set the table laughing. +"Seriously, though," he continued, "we are not as black as the blacks +paint us, although on the whole I _prefer_ that Helen should marry--a +white man." + +They all glanced at Miss Cresswell, who lay softly back in her chair +like a white lily, gleaming and bejewelled, her pale face flushing under +the scrutiny; Mrs. Grey was horrified. + +"Why--why the idea!" she sputtered. "Why, Mr. Cresswell, how can you +conceive of anything else--no Northerner dreams--" + +Mr. Cresswell sipped his wine slowly. + +"No--no--I do not think you do _mean_ that--" He paused and the +Englishman bent forward. + +"Really, now, you do not mean to say that there is a danger of--of +amalgamation, do you?" he sang. + +Mr. Cresswell explained. No, of course there was no immediate danger; +but when people were suddenly thrust beyond their natural station, +filled with wild ideas and impossible ambitions, it meant terrible +danger to Southern white women. + +"But you believe in some education?" asked Mary Taylor. + +"I believe in the training of people to their highest capacity." The +Englishman here heartily seconded him. + +"But," Cresswell added significantly, "capacity differs enormously +between races." + +The Vanderpools were sure of this and the Englishman, instancing India, +became quite eloquent. Mrs. Grey was mystified, but hardly dared admit +it. The general trend of the conversation seemed to be that most +individuals needed to be submitted to the sharpest scrutiny before being +allowed much education, and as for the "lower races" it was simply +criminal to open such useless opportunities to them. + +"Why, I had a colored servant-girl once," laughed Mrs. Vanderpool by way +of climax, "who spent half her wages in piano lessons." + +Then Mary Taylor, whose conscience was uncomfortable, said: + +"But, Mr. Cresswell, you surely believe in schools like Miss Smith's?" + +"Decidedly," returned Mr. Cresswell, with enthusiasm, "it has done great +good." + +Mrs. Grey was gratified and murmured something of Miss Smith's +"sacrifice." + +"Positively heroic," added Cresswell, avoiding his sister's eyes. + +"Of course," Mary Taylor hastened to encourage this turn of the +conversation, "there are many points on which Miss Smith and I disagree, +but I think everybody admires her work." + +Mrs. Grey wanted particulars. "What did you disagree about?" she asked +bluntly. + +"I may be responsible for some of the disagreement," interrupted Mr. +Cresswell, hesitatingly; "I'm afraid Miss Smith does not approve of us +white Southerners." + +"But you mean to say you can't even advise her?" + +"Oh, no; we can. But--we're not--er--exactly welcomed. In fact," said +Cresswell gravely, "the chief criticism I have against your Northerners' +schools for Negroes is, that they not only fail to enlist the sympathy +and aid of the _best_ Southerners, but even repel it." + +"That is very wrong--very wrong," commented the Englishman warmly, a +sentiment in which Mrs. Grey hastened to agree. + +"Of course," continued Cresswell, "I am free to confess that I have no +personal desire to dabble in philanthropy, or conduct schools of any +kind; my hands are full of other matters." + +"But it's precisely the advice of such disinterested men that +philanthropic work needs," Mr. Vanderpool urged. + +"Well, I volunteered advice once in this case and I sha'n't repeat the +experiment soon," said Cresswell laughing. Mrs. Grey wanted to hear the +incident, but the young man was politely reluctant. Mary Taylor, +however, related the tale of Zora to Mrs. Grey's private ear later. + +"Fortunately," said Mr. Vanderpool, "Northerners and Southerners are +arriving at a better mutual understanding on most of these matters." + +"Yes, indeed," Cresswell agreed. "After all, they never were far apart, +even in slavery days; both sides were honest and sincere." + +All through the dinner Mr. Smith had been preoccupied and taciturn. Now +he abruptly shot a glance at Cresswell. + +"I suppose that one was right and one was wrong." + +"No," said Cresswell, "both were right." + +"I thought the only excuse for fighting was a great Right; if Right is +on neither side or simultaneously on both, then War is not only Hell but +Damnation." + +Mrs. Grey looked shocked and Mrs. Vanderpool smiled. + +"How about fighting for exercise?" she suggested. + +"At any rate," said Cresswell, "we can all agree on helping these poor +victims of our quarrel as far as their limited capacity will allow--and +no farther, for that is impossible." + +Very soon after dinner Charles Smith excused himself. He was not yet +inured to the ways of high finance, and the programme of the cotton +barons, as unfolded that day, lay heavy on his mind, despite all his +philosophy. + +"I have had a--full day," he explained to Mrs. Grey. + + + + +_Fourteen_ + +LOVE + + +The rain was sweeping down in great thick winding sheets. The wind +screamed in the ancient Cresswell oaks and swirled across the swamp in +loud, wild gusts. The waters roared and gurgled in the streams, and +along the roadside. Then, when the wind fell murmuring away, the clouds +grew blacker and blacker and rain in long slim columns fell straight +from Heaven to earth digging itself into the land and throwing back the +red mud in angry flashes. + +So it rained for one long week, and so for seven endless days Bles +watched it with leaden heart. He knew the Silver Fleece--his and +Zora's--must be ruined. It was the first great sorrow of his life; it +was not so much the loss of the cotton itself--but the fantasy, the +hopes, the dreams built around it. If it failed, would not they fail? +Was not this angry beating rain, this dull spiritless drizzle, this wild +war of air and earth, but foretaste and prophecy of ruin and +discouragement, of the utter futility of striving? But if his own +despair was great his pain at the plight of Zora made it almost +unbearable. He did not see her in these seven days. He pictured her +huddled there in the swamp in the cheerless leaky cabin with worse than +no companions. Ah! the swamp, the cruel swamp! It was a fearful place in +the rain. Its oozing mud and fetid vapors, its clinging slimy +draperies,--how they twined about the bones of its victims and chilled +their hearts. Yet here his Zora,--his poor disappointed child--was +imprisoned. + +Child? He had always called her child--but now in the inward +illumination of these dark days he knew her as neither child nor sister +nor friend, but as the One Woman. The revelation of his love lighted and +brightened slowly till it flamed like a sunrise over him and left him in +burning wonder. He panted to know if she, too, knew, or knew and cared +not, or cared and knew not. She was so strange and human a creature. To +her all things meant something--nothing was aimless, nothing merely +happened. Was this rain beating down and back her love for him, or had +she never loved? He walked his room, gripping his hands, peering through +the misty windows toward the swamp--rain, rain, rain, nothing but rain. +The world was water veiled in mists. + +Then of a sudden, at midday, the sun shot out, hot and still; no breath +of air stirred; the sky was like blue steel; the earth steamed. Bles +rushed to the edge of the swamp and stood there irresolute. Perhaps--if +the water had but drained from the cotton!--it was so strong and tall! +But, pshaw! Where was the use of imagining? The lagoon had been level +with the dykes a week ago; and now? He could almost see the beautiful +Silver Fleece, bedraggled, drowned, and rolling beneath the black lake +of slime. He went back to his work, but early in the morning the thought +of it lured him again. He must at least see the grave of his hope and +Zora's, and out of it resurrect new love and strength. + +Perhaps she, too, might be there, waiting, weeping. He started at the +thought. He hurried forth sadly. The rain-drops were still dripping and +gleaming from the trees, flashing back the heavy yellow sunlight. He +splashed and stamped along, farther and farther onward until he neared +the rampart of the clearing, and put foot upon the tree-bridge. Then he +looked down. The lagoon was dry. He stood a moment bewildered, then +turned and rushed upon the island. A great sheet of dazzling sunlight +swept the place, and beneath lay a mighty mass of olive green, thick, +tall, wet, and willowy. The squares of cotton, sharp-edged, heavy, were +just about to burst to bolls! And underneath, the land lay carefully +drained and black! For one long moment he paused, stupid, agape with +utter amazement, then leaned dizzily against a tree. + +The swamp, the eternal swamp, had been drained in its deepest fastness; +but, how?--how? He gazed about, perplexed, astonished. What a field of +cotton! what a marvellous field! But how had it been saved? + +He skirted the island slowly, stopping near Zora's oak. Here lay the +reading of the riddle: with infinite work and pain, some one had dug a +canal from the lagoon to the creek, into which the former had drained by +a long and crooked way, thus allowing it to empty directly. The canal +went straight, a hundred yards through stubborn soil, and it was oozing +now with slimy waters. + +He sat down weak, bewildered, and one thought was uppermost--Zora! And +with the thought came a low moan of pain. He wheeled and leapt toward +the dripping shelter in the tree. There she lay--wet, bedraggled, +motionless, gray-pallid beneath her dark-drawn skin, her burning eyes +searching restlessly for some lost thing, her lips a-moaning. + +In dumb despair he dropped beside her and gathered her in his arms. The +earth staggered beneath him as he stumbled on; the mud splashed and +sunlight glistened; he saw long snakes slithering across his path and +fear-struck beasts fleeing before his coming. He paused for neither path +nor way but went straight for the school, running in mighty strides, yet +gently, listening to the moans that struck death upon his heart. Once he +fell headlong, but with a great wrench held her from harm, and minded +not the pain that shot through his ribs. The yellow sunshine beat +fiercely around and upon him, as he stumbled into the highway, lurched +across the mud-strewn road, and panted up the porch. + +"Miss Smith--!" he gasped, and then--darkness. + +The years of the days of her dying were ten. The boy that entered the +darkness and the shadow of death emerged a man, a silent man and grave, +working furiously and haunting, day and night, the little window above +the door. At last, of one gray morning when the earth was stillest, they +came and told him, "She will live!" And he went out under the stars, +lifted his long arms and sobbed: "Curse me, O God, if I let me lose her +again!" And God remembered this in after years. + +The hope and dream of harvest was upon the land. The cotton crop was +short and poor because of the great rain; but the sun had saved the +best, and the price had soared. So the world was happy, and the face of +the black-belt green and luxuriant with thickening flecks of the coming +foam of the cotton. + +Up in the sick room Zora lay on the little white bed. The net and web of +endless things had been crawling and creeping around her; she had +struggled in dumb, speechless terror against some mighty grasping that +strove for her life, with gnarled and creeping fingers; but now at last, +weakly, she opened her eyes and questioned. + +Bles, where was he? The Silver Fleece, how was it? The Sun, the Swamp? +Then finding all well, she closed her eyes and slept. After some days +they let her sit by the window, and she saw Bles pass, but drew back +timidly when he looked; and he saw only the flutter of her gown, and +waved. + +At last there came a day when they let her walk down to the porch, and +she felt the flickering of her strength again. Yet she looked different; +her buxom comeliness was spiritualized; her face looked smaller, and her +masses of hair, brought low about her ears, heightened her ghostly +beauty; her skin was darkly transparent, and her eyes looked out from +velvet veils of gloom. For a while she lay in her chair, in happy, +dreamy pleasure at sun and bird and tree. Bles did not know yet that she +was down; but soon he would come searching, for he came each hour, and +she pressed her little hands against her breast to still the beating of +her heart and the bursting wonder of her love. + +Then suddenly a panic seized her. He must not find her here--not here; +there was but one place in all the earth for them to meet, and that was +yonder in the Silver Fleece. She rose with a fleeting glance, gathered +the shawl round her, then gliding forward, wavering, tremulous, slipped +across the road and into the swamp. The dark mystery of the Swamp swept +over her; the place was hers. She had been born within its borders; +within its borders she had lived and grown, and within its borders she +had met her love. On she hurried until, sweeping down to the lagoon and +the island, lo! the cotton lay before her! A great white foam was spread +upon its brown and green; the whole field was waving and shivering in +the sunlight. A low cry of pleasure burst from her lips; she forgot her +weakness, and picking her way across the bridge, stood still amid the +cotton that nestled about her shoulders, clasping it lovingly in her +hands. + +He heard that she was down-stairs and ran to meet her with beating +heart. The chair was empty; but he knew. There was but one place then +for these two souls to meet. Yet it was far, and he feared, and ran with +startled eyes. + +She stood on the island, ethereal, splendid, like some tall, dark, and +gorgeous flower of the storied East. The green and white of the cotton +billowed and foamed about her breasts; the red scarf burned upon her +neck; the dark brown velvet of her skin pulsed warm and tremulous with +the uprushing blood, and in the midnight depths of her great eyes flamed +the mighty fires of long-concealed and new-born love. + +He darted through the trees and paused, a tall man strongly but slimly +made. He threw up his hands in the old way and hallooed; happily she +crooned back a low mother-melody, and waited. He came down to her +slowly, with fixed, hungry eyes, threading his way amid the Fleece. She +did not move, but lifted both her dark hands, white with cotton; and +then, as he came, casting it suddenly to the winds, in tears and +laughter she swayed and dropped quivering in his arms. And all the world +was sunshine and peace. + + + + +_Fifteen_ + +REVELATION + + +Harry Cresswell was scowling over his breakfast. It was not because his +apartment in the New York hotel was not satisfactory, or his breakfast +unpalatable; possibly a rather bewildering night in Broadway was +expressing its influence; but he was satisfied that his ill-temper was +due to a paragraph in the morning paper: + +"It is stated on good authority that the widow of the late +multimillionaire, Job Grey, will announce a large and carefully planned +scheme of Negro education in the South, and will richly endow schools in +South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas." + +Cresswell finally thrust his food away. He knew that Mrs. Grey helped +Miss Smith's school, and supposed she would continue to do so; with that +in mind he had striven to impress her, hoping that she might trust his +judgment in later years. He had no idea, however, that she meant to +endow the school, or entertained wholesale plans for Negro education. +The knowledge made him suspicious. Why had neither Mary nor John Taylor +mentioned this? Was there, after all, some "nigger-loving" conspiracy +back of the cotton combine? He took his hat and started down-town. + +Once in John Taylor's Broadway office, he opened the subject +abruptly--the more so perhaps because he felt a resentment against +Taylor for certain unnamed or partially voiced assumptions. Here was a +place, however, for speech, and he spoke almost roughly. + +"Taylor, what does this mean?" He thrust the clipping at him. + +"Mean? That Mrs. Grey is going to get rid of some of her surplus +cash--is going to endow some nigger schools," Taylor drily retorted. + +"It must be stopped," declared Cresswell. + +The other's brows drew up. + +"Why?" in a surprised tone. + +"Why? Why? Do you think the plantation system can be maintained without +laborers? Do you think there's the slightest chance of cornering cotton +and buying the Black Belt if the niggers are unwilling to work under +present conditions? Do you know the man that stands ready to gobble up +every inch of cotton land in this country at a price which no trust can +hope to rival?" + +John Taylor's interest quickened. + +"Why, no," he returned sharply. "Who?" + +"The Black Man, whose woolly head is filled with ideas of rising. We're +striving by main force to prevent this, and here come your damned +Northern philanthropists to plant schools. Why, Taylor, it'll knock the +cotton trust to hell." + +"Don't get excited," said Taylor, judicially. "We've got things in our +hands; it's the Grey money, you know, that is back of us." + +"That's just what confounds me," declared the perplexed young man. "Are +you men fools, or rascals? Don't you see the two schemes can't mix? +They're dead opposite, mutually contradictory, absolutely--" Taylor +checked him; it was odd to behold Harry Cresswell so disturbed. + +"Well, wait a moment. Let's see. Sit down. Wish I had a cigar for you, +but I don't smoke." + +"Do you happen to have any whiskey handy?" + +"No, I don't drink." + +"Well, what the devil--Oh, well, fire away." + +"Now, see here. We control the Grey millions. Of course, we've got to +let her play with her income, and that's considerable. Her favorite game +just now is Negro education, and she's planning to go in heavy. Her +adviser in this line, however, is Smith, and he belongs to us." + +"What Smith?" + +"Why, the man who's going to be Senator from New Jersey. He has a sister +teaching in the South--you know, of course; it's at your home where my +sister Mary taught." + +"Great Scott! Is that woman's brother going to spend this money? Why, +are you daft? See here! American cotton-spinning supremacy is built on +cheap cotton; cheap cotton is built on cheap niggers. Educating, or +rather _trying_ to educate niggers, will make them restless and +discontented--that is, scarce and dear as workers. Don't you see you're +planning to cut off your noses? This Smith School, particularly, has +nearly ruined our plantation. It's stuck almost in our front yard; _you_ +are planning to put our plough-hands all to studying Greek, and at the +same time to corner the cotton crop--rot!" + +John Taylor caressed his lean jaw. + +"New point of view to me; I sort of thought education would improve +things in the South," he commented, unmoved. + +"It would if we ran it." + +"We?" + +"Yes--we Southerners." + +"Um!--I see--there's light. See here, let's talk to Easterly about +this." They went into the next office, and after a while got audience +with the trust magnate. Mr. Easterly heard the matter carefully and +waved it aside. + +"Oh, that doesn't concern us, Taylor; let Cresswell take care of the +whole thing. We'll see that Smith does what Cresswell wants." + +But Taylor shook his head. + +"Smith would kick. Mrs. Grey would get suspicious, and the devil be to +pay. This is better. Form a big committee of Northern business men like +yourself--philanthropists like Vanderpool, and Southerners like +Cresswell; let them be a sort of Negro Education steering-committee. +We'll see that on such committee you Southerners get what you +want--control of Negro education." + +"That sounds fair. But how about the Smith School? My father writes me +that they are showing signs of expecting money right off--is that true? +If it is, I want it stopped; it will ruin our campaign for the Farmers' +League." + +John Taylor looked at Cresswell. He thought he saw something more than +general policy, or even racial prejudice--something personal--in his +vehemence. The Smith School was evidently a severe thorn in the flesh of +this man. All the more reason for mollifying him. Then, too, there was +something in his argument. It was not wise to start educating these +Negroes and getting them discontented just now. Ignorant labor was not +ideal, but it was worth too much to employers to lose it now. Educated +Negro labor might be worth more to Negroes, but not to the cotton +combine. "H'm--well, then--" and John Taylor went into a brown study, +while Cresswell puffed impatiently at a cigarette. + +"I have it," said Taylor. Cresswell sat up. "First, let Mr. Easterly get +Smith." Easterly turned to the telephone. + +"Is that you, Smith?" + +"Well, this is Easterly.... Yes--how about Mrs. Grey's education +schemes?... Yes.... h'm--well,--see here Smith, we must go a little easy +there.... Oh, no, no,--but to advertise just now a big scheme of Negro +Education would drive the Cresswells, the Farmers' League, and the whole +business South dead against us.... Yes, yes indeed; they believe in +education all right, but they ain't in for training lawyers and +professors just yet.... No, I don't suppose her school is.... Well, +then; see here. She'll be reasonable, won't she, and placate the +Cresswells?... No, I mean run the school to suit their ideas.... No, no, +but in general along the lines which they could approve.... Yes, I +thought so ... of course ... good-bye." + +"Inclined to be a little nasty?" asked Taylor. + +"A little sharp--but tractable. Now, Mr. Cresswell, the thing is in your +hands. We'll get this committee which Taylor suggests appointed, and +send it on a junket to Alabama; you do the rest--see?" + +"Who'll be the committee?" asked Cresswell. + +"Name it." + +Mr. Cresswell smiled and left. + +The winter started in severely, and it was easy to fill two private cars +with members of the new Negro Education Board right after Thanksgiving. +Cresswell had worked carefully and with caution. There was Mrs. Grey, +comfortable and beaming, Mr. Easterly, who thought this a good business +opportunity, and his family. Mrs. Vanderpool liked the South and was +amused at the trip, and had induced Mr. Vanderpool to come by stories of +shooting. + +"Ah!" said Mr. Vanderpool. + +Mr. Charles Smith and John Taylor were both too busy to go, but +bronchial trouble induced the Rev. Dr. Boldish of St. Faith's rich +parish to be one of the party, and at the last moment Temple Bocombe, +the sociologist, consented to join. + +"Awfully busy," he said, "but I've been reading up on the Negro problem +since you mentioned the matter to me last week, Mr. Cresswell, and I +think I understand it thoroughly. I may be able to help out." + +The necessary spice of young womanhood was added to the party by Miss +Taylor and Miss Cresswell, together with the silent Miss Boldish. They +were a comfortable and sometimes merry party. Dr. Boldish pointed out +the loafers at the stations, especially the black ones; Mr. Bocombe +counted them and estimated the number of hours of work lost at ten cents +an hour. + +"Do they get that--ten cents an hour?" asked Miss Taylor. + +"Oh, I don't know," replied Mr. Bocombe; "but suppose they do, for +instance. That is an average wage today." + +"They look lazy," said Mrs. Grey. + +"They are lazy," said Mr. Cresswell. + +"So am I," added Mrs. Vanderpool, suppressing a yawn. + +"It is uninteresting," murmured her husband, preparing for a nap. + +On the whole the members of the party enjoyed themselves from the moment +they drew out of Jersey City to the afternoon when, in four carriages, +they rolled beneath the curious eyes of all Toomsville and swept under +the shadowed rampart of the swamp. + +"The Christmas" was coming and all the Southern world was busy. Few +people were busier than Bles and Zora. Slowly, wonderfully for them, +heaven bent in these dying days of the year and kissed the earth, and +the tremor thrilled all lands and seas. Everything was good, all things +were happy, and these two were happiest of all. Out of the shadows and +hesitations of childhood they had stepped suddenly into manhood and +womanhood, with firm feet and uplifted heads. All the day that was +theirs they worked, picking the Silver Fleece--picking it tenderly and +lovingly from off the brown and spent bodies which had so utterly +yielded life and beauty to the full fruition of this long and silken +tendril, this white beauty of the cotton. November came and flew, and +still the unexhausted field yielded its frothing fruit. + +Today seemed doubly glorious, for Bles had spoken of their marriage; +with twined hands and arms, and lips ever and again seeking their mates, +they walked the leafy way. + +Unconscious, rapt, they stepped out into the Big Road skirting the edge +of the swamp. Why not? Was it not the King's Highway? And Love was King. +So they talked on, unknowing that far up the road the Cresswell coaches +were wheeling along with precious burdens. In the first carriage were +Mrs. Grey and Mrs. Vanderpool, Mr. Cresswell and Miss Taylor. Mrs. +Vanderpool was lolling luxuriously, but Mrs. Grey was a little stiff +from long travel and sat upright. Mr. Cresswell looked clean-cut and +handsome, and Miss Taylor seemed complacent and responsible. The dying +of the day soothed them all insensibly. Groups of dark little children +passed them as they neared the school, staring with wide eyes and +greeting timidly. + +"There seems to be marrying and giving in marriage," laughed Mrs. +Vanderpool. + +"Not very much," said Mr. Cresswell drily. + +"Well, at least plenty of children." + +"Plenty." + +"But where are the houses?" asked Mrs. Grey. + +"Perhaps in the swamp," said Mrs. Vanderpool lightly, looking up at the +sombre trees that lined the left. + +"They live where they please and do as they please," Cresswell +explained; to which Mrs. Vanderpool added: "Like other animals." + +Mary Taylor opened her lips to rebuke this levity when suddenly the +coachman called out and the horses swerved, and the carriage's four +occupants faced a young man and a young woman embracing heartily. + +Out through the wood Bles and Zora had come to the broad red road; +playfully he celebrated all her beauty unconscious of time and place. + +"You are tall and bend like grasses on the swamp," he said. + +"And yet look up to you," she murmured. + +"Your eyes are darkness dressed in night." + +"To see you brighter, dear," she said. + +"Your little hands are much too frail for work." + +"They must grow larger, then, and soon." + +"Your feet are far too small to travel on." + +"They'll travel on to you--that's far enough." + +"Your lips--your full and purple lips--were made alone for kissing, not +for words." + +"They'll do for both." + +He laughed in utter joy and touched her hair with light caressing hands. + +"It does not fly with sunlight," she said quickly, with an upward +glance. + +"No," he answered. "It sits and listens to the night." + +But even as she nestled to him happily there came the harsh thunder of +horses' hoofs, beating on their ears. He drew her quickly to him in +fear, and the coach lurched and turned, and left them facing four pairs +of eyes. Miss Taylor reddened; Mrs. Grey looked surprised; Mrs. +Vanderpool smiled; but Mr. Cresswell darkened with anger. The couple +unclasped shamefacedly, and the young man, lifting his hat, started to +stammer an apology; but Cresswell interrupted him: + +"Keep your--your philandering to the woods, or I shall have you +arrested," he said slowly, his face colorless, his lips twitching with +anger. "Drive on, John." + +Miss Taylor felt that her worst suspicions had been confirmed; but Mrs. +Vanderpool was curious as to the cause of Cresswell's anger. It was so +genuine that it needed explanation. + +"Are kisses illegal here?" she asked before the horses started, turning +the battery of her eyes full upon him. But Cresswell had himself well in +hand. + +"No," he said. "But the girl is--notorious." + +On the lovers the words fell like a blow. Zora shivered, and a grayish +horror mottled the dark burning of her face. Bles started in anger, then +paused in shivering doubt. What had happened? They knew not; yet +involuntarily their hands fell apart; they avoided each other's eyes. + +"I--I must go now," gasped Zora, as the carriage swept away. + +He did not hold her, he did not offer the farewell kiss, but stood +staring at the road as she walked into the swamp. A moment she paused +and looked back; then slowly, almost painfully, she took the path back +to the field of the Fleece, and reaching it after long, long minutes, +began mechanically to pick the cotton. But the cotton glowed crimson in +the failing sun. + +Bles walked toward the school. What had happened? he kept asking. And +yet he dared not question the awful shape that sat somewhere, cold and +still, behind his soul. He heard the hoofs of horses again. It was Miss +Taylor being brought back to the school to greet Miss Smith and break +the news of the coming of the party. He raised his hat. She did not +return the greeting, but he found her pausing at the gate. It seemed to +her too awful for this foolish fellow thus to throw himself away. She +faced him and he flinched as from some descending blow. + +"Bles," she said primly, "have you absolutely no shame?" + +He braced himself and raised his head proudly. + +"I am going to marry her; it is no crime." Then he noted the expression +on her face, and paused. + +She stepped back, scandalized. + +"Can it be, Bles Alwyn," she said, "that you don't know the sort of girl +she is?" + +He raised his hands and warded off her words, dumbly, as she turned to +go, almost frightened at the havoc she saw. The heavens flamed scarlet +in his eyes and he screamed. + +"It's a lie! It's a damned lie!" He wheeled about and tore into the +swamp. + +"It's a damned lie!" he shouted to the trees. "Is it?--is it?" chirped +the birds. "It's a cruel falsehood!" he moaned. "Is it?--is it?" +whispered the devils within. + +It seemed to him as though suddenly the world was staggering and +faltering about him. The trees bent curiously and strange breathings +were upon the breezes. He unbuttoned his collar that he might get more +air. A thousand things he had forgotten surged suddenly to life. Slower +and slower he ran, more and more the thoughts crowded his head. He +thought of that first red night and the yelling and singing and wild +dancing; he thought of Cresswell's bitter words; he thought of Zora +telling how she stayed out nights; he thought of the little bower that +he had built her in the cotton field. A wild fear struggled with his +anger, but he kept repeating, "No, no," and then, "At any rate, she will +tell me the truth." She had never lied to him; she would not dare; he +clenched his hands, murder in his heart. + +Slowly and more slowly he ran. He knew where she was--where she must be, +waiting. And yet as he drew near huge hands held him back, and heavy +weights clogged his feet. His heart said: "On! quick! She will tell the +truth, and all will be well." His mind said: "Slow, slow; this is the +end." He hurled the thought aside, and crashed through the barrier. + +She was standing still and listening, with a huge basket of the piled +froth of the field upon her head. One long brown arm, tender with +curvings, balanced the cotton; the other, poised, balanced the slim +swaying body. Bending she listened, her eyes shining, her lips apart, +her bosom fluttering at the well-known step. + +He burst into her view with the fury of a beast, rending the wood away +and trampling the underbrush, reeling and muttering until he saw her. +She looked at him. Her hands dropped, she stood very still with drawn +face, grayish-brown, both hands unconsciously out-stretched, and the +cotton swaying, while deep down in her eyes, dimly, slowly, a horror lit +and grew. He paused a moment, then came slowly onward doggedly, +drunkenly, with torn clothes, flying collar, and red eyes. Then he +paused again, still beyond arm's-length, looking at her with fear-struck +eyes. The cotton on her head shivered and dropped in a pure mass of +white and silvery snow about her limbs. Her hands fell limply and the +horror flamed in her wet eyes. He struggled with his voice but it grated +and came hoarse and hard from his quivering throat. + +"Zora!" + +"Yes, Bles." + +"You--you told me--you were--pure." + +She was silent, but her body went all a-tremble. He stepped forward +until she could almost touch him; there standing straight and tall he +glared down upon her. + +"Answer me," he whispered in a voice hard with its tight held sobs. A +misery darkened her face and the light died from her eyes, yet she +looked at him bravely and her voice came low and full as from afar. + +"I asked you what it meant to be pure, Bles, and--and you told--and I +told you the truth." + +"What it meant!--what it meant!" he repeated in the low, tense anguish. + + +"But--but, Bles--" She faltered; there came an awful pleading in her +eyes; her hand groped toward him; but he stepped slowly back--"But, +Bles--you said--willingly--you said--if--if she knew--" + +He thundered back in livid anger: + +"Knew! All women know! You should have _died_!" + +Sobs were rising and shaking her from head to foot, but she drove them +back and gripped her breasts with her hands. + +"No, Bles--no--all girls do not know. I was a child. Not since I knew +you, Bles--never, never since I saw you." + +"Since--since," he groaned--"Christ! But before?" + +"Yes, before." + +"My God!" + +She knew the end had come. Yet she babbled on tremblingly: + +"He was our master, and all the other girls that gathered there did his +will; I--I--" she choked and faltered, and he drew farther away--"I +began running away, and they hunted me through the swamps. And +then--then I reckon I'd have gone back and been--as they all are--but +you came, Bles--you came, and you--you were a new great thing in my +life, and--and--yet, I was afraid I was not worthy until you--you said +the words. I thought you knew, and I thought that--that purity was just +wanting to be pure." + +He ground his teeth in fury. Oh, he was an innocent--a blind baby--the +joke and laughing-stock of the country around, with yokels grinning at +him and pale-faced devils laughing aloud. The teachers knew; the girls +knew; God knew; everybody but he knew--poor blind, deaf mole, stupid +jackass that he was. He must run--run away from this world, and far off +in some free land beat back this pain. + +Then in sheer weariness the anger died within his soul, leaving but +ashes and despair. Slowly he turned away, but with a quick motion she +stood in his path. + +"Bles," she cried, "how can I grow pure?" + +He looked at her listlessly. + +"Never--never again," he slowly answered her. + +Dark fear swept her drawn face. + +"Never?" she gasped. + +Pity surged and fought in his breast; but one thought held and burned +him. He bent to her fiercely: + +"Who?" he demanded. + +She pointed toward the Cresswell Oaks, and he turned away. She did not +attempt to stop him again, but dropped her hands and stared drearily up +into the clear sky with its shining worlds. + +"Good-bye, Bles," she said slowly. "I thank God he gave you to me--just +a little time." She hesitated and waited. There came no word as the man +moved slowly away. She stood motionless. Then slowly he turned and came +back. He laid his hand a moment, lightly, upon her head. + +"Good-bye--Zora," he sobbed, and was gone. + +She did not look up, but knelt there silent, dry-eyed, till the last +rustle of his going died in the night. And then, like a waiting storm, +the torrent of her grief swept down upon her; she stretched herself upon +the black and fleece-strewn earth, and writhed. + + + + +_Sixteen_ + +THE GREAT REFUSAL + + +All night Miss Smith lay holding the quivering form of Zora close to her +breast, staring wide-eyed into the darkness--thinking, thinking. In the +morning the party would come. There would be Mrs. Grey and Mary Taylor, +Mrs. Vanderpool, who had left her so coldly in the lurch before, and +some of the Cresswells. They would come well fed and impressed with the +charming hospitality of their hosts, and rather more than willing to see +through those host's eyes. They would be in a hurry to return to some +social function, and would give her work but casual attention. + +It seemed so dark an ending to so bright a dream. Never for her had a +fall opened as gloriously. The love of this boy and girl, blossoming as +it had beneath her tender care, had been a sacred, wonderful history +that revived within her memories of long-forgotten days. But above lay +the vision of her school, redeemed and enlarged, its future safe, its +usefulness broadened--small wonder that to Sarah Smith the future had +seemed in November almost golden. + +Then things began to go wrong. The transfer of the Tolliver land had not +yet been effected; the money was ready, but Mr. Tolliver seemed busy or +hesitating. Next came this news of Mrs. Grey's probable conditions. So +here it was Christmas time, and Sarah Smith's castles lay almost in +ruins about her. + +The girl moaned in her fitful sleep and Miss Smith soothed her. Poor +child! here too was work--a strange strong soul cruelly stricken in her +youth. Could she be brought back to a useful life? How she needed such a +strong, clear-eyed helper in this crisis of her work! Would Zora make +one or would this blow send her to perdition? Not if Sarah Smith could +save her, she resolved, and stared out the window where the pale red +dawn was sending its first rays on the white-pillared mansion of the +Cresswells. + +Mrs. Grey saw the light on the columns, too, as she lay lazily in her +soft white bed. There was a certain delicious languor in the late +lingering fall of Alabama that suited her perfectly. Then, too, she +liked the house and its appointments; there was not, to be sure, all the +luxury that she was used to in her New York mansion, but there was a +certain finish about it, an elegance and staid old-fashioned hospitality +that appealed to her tremendously. Mrs. Grey's heart warmed to the sight +of Helen in her moments of spasmodic caring for the sick and afflicted +on the estate. No better guardian of her philanthropies could be found +than these same Cresswells. She must, of course, go over and see dear +Sarah Smith; but really there was not much to say or to look at. + +The prospects seemed most alluring. Later, Mr. Easterly talked a while +on routine business, saying, as he turned away: + +"I am more and more impressed, Mrs. Grey, with your wisdom in placing +large investments in the South. With peaceful social conditions the +returns will be large." + +Mrs. Grey heard this delicate flattery complacently. She had her streak +of thrift, and wanted her business capacity recognized. She listened +attentively. + +"For this reason, I trust you will handle your Negro philanthropies +judicially, as I know you will. There's dynamite in this race problem +for amateur reformers, but fortunately you have at hand wise and +sympathetic advisers in the Cresswells." + +Mrs. Grey agreed entirely. + +Mary Taylor, alone of the committee, took her commission so seriously as +to be anxious to begin work. + +"We are to visit the school this morning, you know," she reminded the +others, looking at her watch; "I'm afraid we're late already." + +The remark created mild consternation. It seemed that Mr. Vanderpool had +gone hunting and his wife had not yet arisen. Dr. Boldish was very +hoarse, Mr. Easterly was going to look over some plantations with +Colonel Cresswell, and Mr. Bocombe was engrossed in a novel. + +"Clever, but not true to life," he said. + +Finally the clergyman and Mr. Bocombe, Mrs. Grey and Mrs. Vanderpool and +Miss Taylor started for the school, with Harry Cresswell, about an hour +after lunch. The delay and suppressed excitement among the little folks +had upset things considerably there, but at the sight of the visitors at +the gate Miss Smith rang the bell. + +The party came in, laughing and chatting. They greeted Miss Smith +cordially. Dr. Boldish was beginning to tell a good story when a silence +fell. + +The children had gathered, quietly, almost timidly, and before the +distinguished company realized it, they turned to meet that battery of +four hundred eyes. A human eye is a wonderful thing when it simply waits +and watches. Not one of these little things alone would have been worth +more than a glance, but together, they became mighty, portentous. Mr. +Bocombe got out his note-book and wrote furiously therein. Dr. Boldish, +naturally the appointed spokesman, looked helplessly about and whispered +to Mrs. Vanderpool: + +"What on earth shall I talk about?" + +"The brotherhood of man?" suggested the lady. + +"Hardly advisable," returned Dr. Boldish, seriously, "in our friend's +presence,"--with a glance toward Cresswell. Then he arose. + +"My friends," he said, touching his finger-tips and using blank verse in +A minor. "This is an auspicious day. You should be thankful for the +gifts of the Lord. His bounty surrounds you--the trees, the fields, the +glorious sun. He gives cotton to clothe you, corn to eat, devoted +friends to teach you. Be joyful. Be good. Above all, be thrifty and save +your money, and do not complain and whine at your apparent +disadvantages. Remember that God did not create men equal but unequal, +and set metes and bounds. It is not for us to question the wisdom of the +Almighty, but to bow humbly to His will. + +"Remember that the slavery of your people was not necessarily a crime. +It was a school of work and love. It gave you noble friends, like Mr. +Cresswell here." A restless stirring, and the battery of eyes was turned +upon that imperturbable gentleman, as if he were some strange animal. +"Love and serve them. Remember that we get, after all, little education +from books; rather in the fields, at the plough and in the kitchen. Let +your ambition be to serve rather than rule, to be humble followers of +the lowly Jesus." + +With an upward glance the Rev. Dr. Boldish sat down amid a silence a +shade more intense than that which had greeted him. Then slowly from the +far corner rose a thin voice, tremulously. It wavered on the air and +almost broke, then swelled in sweet, low music. Other and stronger +voices gathered themselves to it, until two hundred were singing a soft +minor wail that gripped the hearts and tingled in the ears of the +hearers. Mr. Bocombe groped with a puzzled expression to find the pocket +for his note-book; Harry Cresswell dropped his eyes, and on Mrs. +Vanderpool's lips the smile died. Mary Taylor flushed, and Mrs. Grey +cried frankly: + +"Poor things!" she whispered. + +"Now," said Mrs. Grey, turning about, "we haven't but just a moment and +we want to take a little look at your work." She smiled graciously upon +Miss Smith. + +Mrs. Grey thought the cooking-school very nice. + +"I suppose," she said, "that you furnish cooks for the county." + +"Largely," said Miss Smith. Mrs. Vanderpool looked surprised, but Miss +Smith added: "This county, you know, is mostly black." Mrs. Grey did not +catch the point. + +The dormitories were neat and the ladies expressed great pleasure in +them. + +"It is certainly nice for them to know what a clean place is," commented +Mrs. Grey. Mr. Cresswell, however, looked at a bath-room and smiled. + +"How practical!" he said. + +"Can you not stop and see some of the classes?" Sarah Smith knew in her +heart that the visit was a failure, still she would do her part to the +end. + +"I doubt if we shall have time," Mrs. Grey returned, as they walked on. +"Mr. Cresswell expects friends to dinner." + +"What a magnificent intelligence office," remarked Mr. Bocombe, "for +furnishing servants to the nation. I saw splendid material for cooks and +maids." + +"And plough-boys," added Cresswell. + +"And singers," said Mary Taylor. + +"Well, now that's just my idea," said Mrs. Grey, "that these schools +should furnish trained servants and laborers for the South. Isn't that +your idea, Miss Smith?" + +"Not exactly," the lady replied, "or at least I shouldn't put it just +that way. My idea is that this school should furnish men and women who +can work and earn an honest living, train up families aright, and +perform their duties as fathers, mothers, and citizens." + +"Yes--yes, precisely," said Mrs. Grey, "that's what I meant." + +"I think the whites can attend to the duties of citizenship without +help," observed Mr. Cresswell. + +"Don't let the blacks meddle in politics," said Dr. Boldish. + +"I want to make these children full-fledged men and women, strong, +self-reliant, honest, without any 'ifs' and 'ands' to their +development," insisted Miss Smith. + +"Of course, and that is just what Mr. Cresswell wants. Isn't it, Mr. +Cresswell?" asked Mrs. Grey. + +"I think I may say yes," Mr. Cresswell agreed. "I certainly want these +people to develop as far as they can, although Miss Smith and I would +differ as to their possibilities. But it is not so much in the general +theory of Negro education as in its particular applications where our +chief differences would lie. I may agree that a boy should learn higher +arithmetic, yet object to his loafing in plough-time. I might want to +educate some girls but not girls like Zora." + +Mrs. Vanderpool glanced at Mr. Cresswell, smiling to herself. + +Mrs. Grey broke in, beaming: + +"That's just it, dear Miss Smith,--just it. Your heart is good, but you +need strong practical advice. You know we weak women are so impractical, +as my poor Job so often said. Now, I'm going to arrange to endow this +school with at least--at least a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. One +condition is that my friend, Mr. Cresswell here, and these other +gentlemen, including sound Northern business men like Mr. Easterly, +shall hold this money in trust, and expend it for your school as they +think best." + +"Mr. Cresswell would be their local representative?" asked Miss Smith +slowly with white face. + +"Why yes--yes, of course." + +There was a long, tense silence. Then the firm reply, + +"Mrs. Grey, I thank you, but I cannot accept your offer." + +Sarah Smith's voice was strong, the tremor had left her hands. She had +expected something like this, of course; yet when it came--somehow it +failed to stun. She would not turn over the direction of the school, or +the direction of the education of these people, to those who were most +opposed to their education. Therefore, there was no need to hesitate; +there was no need to think the thing over--she had thought it over--and +she looked into Mrs. Grey's eyes and with gathering tears in her own +said: + +"Again, I thank you very much, Mrs. Grey." + +Mrs. Grey was a picture of the most emphatic surprise, and Mr. Cresswell +moved to the window. Mrs. Grey looked helplessly at her companions. + +"But--I don't understand, Miss Smith--why can't you accept my offer?" + +"Because you ask me to put my school in control of those who do not wish +for the best interests of black folk, and in particular I object to Mr. +Cresswell," said Miss Smith, slowly but very distinctly, "because his +relation to the forces of evil in this community has been such that he +can direct no school of mine." Mrs. Vanderpool moved toward the door and +Mr. Cresswell bowing slightly followed. Dr. Boldish looked indignant and +Mr. Bocombe dove after his note-book. Mary Taylor, her head in a whirl, +came forward. She felt that in some way she was responsible for this +dreadful situation and she wanted desperately to save matters from final +disaster. + +"Come," she said, "Mrs. Grey, we'll talk this matter over again later. I +am sure Miss Smith does not mean quite all she says--she is tired and +nervous. You join the others and don't wait for me and I will be along +directly." + +Mrs. Grey was only too glad to escape and Mr. Bocombe got a chance to +talk. He drew out his note-book. + +"Awfully interesting," he said, "awfully. Now--er--let's see--oh, yes. +Did you notice how unhealthy the children looked? Race is undoubtedly +dying out; fact. No hope. Weak. No spontaneity either--rather languid, +did you notice? Yes, and their heads--small and narrow--no brain +capacity. They can't concentrate; notice how some slept when Dr. Boldish +was speaking? Mr. Cresswell says they own almost no land here; think of +it? This land was worth only ten dollars an acre a decade ago, he says. +Negroes might have bought all and been rich. Very shiftless--and that +singing. Now, I wonder where they got the music? Imitation, of course." +And so he rattled on, noting not the silence of the others. + +As the carriage drove off Mary turned to Miss Smith. + +"Now, Miss Smith," she began--but Miss Smith looked at her, and said +sternly, "Sit down." + +Mary Taylor sat down. She had been so used to lecturing the older woman +that the sudden summoning of her well known sternness against herself +took her breath, and she sat awkwardly like the school girl that she was +waiting for Miss Smith to speak. She felt suddenly very young and very +helpless--she who had so jauntily set out to solve this mighty problem +by a waving of her wand. She saw with a swelling of pity the drawn and +stricken face of her old friend and she started up. + +"Sit down," repeated Miss Smith harshly. "Mary Taylor, you are a fool. +You are not foolish, for the foolish learn; you are simply a fool. You +will never learn; you have blundered into this life work of mine and +well nigh ruined it. Whether I can yet save it God alone knows. You have +blundered into the lives of two loving children, and sent one wandering +aimless on the face of the earth and the other moaning in yonder chamber +with death in her heart. You are going to marry the man that sought +Zora's ruin when she was yet a child because you think of his +aristocratic pose and pretensions built on the poverty, crime, and +exploitation of six generations of serfs. You'll marry him and--" + +But Miss Taylor leapt to her feet with blazing cheeks. + +"How dare you?" she screamed, beside herself. + +"But God in heaven help you if you do," finished Miss Smith, calmly. + + + + +_Seventeen_ + +THE RAPE OF THE FLEECE + + +When slowly from the torpor of ether, one wakens to the misty sense of +eternal loss, and there comes the exquisite prick of pain, then one +feels in part the horror of the ache when Zora wakened to the world +again. The awakening was the work of days and weeks. At first in sheer +exhaustion, physical and mental, she lay and moaned. The sense of +loss--of utter loss--lay heavy upon her. Something of herself, something +dearer than self, was gone from her forever, and an infinite loneliness +and silence, as of endless years, settled on her soul. She wished +neither food nor words, only to be alone. Then gradually the pain of +injury stung her when the blood flowed fuller. As Miss Smith knelt +beside her one night to make her simple prayer Zora sat suddenly +upright, white-swathed, dishevelled, with fury in her midnight eyes. + +"I want no prayers!" she cried, "I will not pray! He is no God of mine. +He isn't fair. He knows and won't tell. He takes advantage of us--He +works and fools us." All night Miss Smith heard mutterings of this +bitterness, and the next day the girl walked her room like a +tigress,--to and fro, to and fro, all the long day. Toward night a dumb +despair settled upon her. Miss Smith found her sitting by the window +gazing blankly toward the swamp. She came to Miss Smith, slowly, and put +her hands upon her shoulders with almost a caress. + +"You must forgive me," she pleaded plaintively. "I reckon I've been +mighty bad with you, and you always so good to me; but--but, you see--it +hurts so." + +"I know it hurts, dear; I know it does. But men and women must learn to +bear hurts in this world." + +"Not hurts like this; they couldn't." + +"Yes, even hurts like this. Bear and stand straight; be brave. After +all, Zora, no man is quite worth a woman's soul; no love is worth a +whole life." + +Zora turned away with a gesture of impatience. + +"You were born in ice," she retorted, adding a bit more tenderly, "in +clear strong ice; but I was born in fire. I live--I love; that's all." +And she sat down again, despairingly, and stared at the dull swamp. Miss +Smith stood for a moment and closed her eyes upon a vision. + +"Ice!" she whispered. "My God!" + +Then, at length, she said to Zora: + +"Zora, there's only one way: do something; if you sit thus brooding +you'll go crazy." + +"Do crazy folks forget?" + +"Nonsense, Zora!" Miss Smith ridiculed the girl's fantastic vagaries; +her sound common sense rallied to her aid. "They are the people who +remember; sane folk forget. Work is the only cure for such pain." + +"But there's nothing to do--nothing I want to do--nothing worth +doing--now." + +"The Silver Fleece?" + +The girl sat upright. + +"The Silver Fleece," she murmured. Without further word, slowly she +arose and walked down the stairs, and out into the swamp. Miss Smith +watched her go; she knew that every step must be the keen prickle of +awakening flesh. Yet the girl walked steadily on. + + * * * * * + +It was the Christmas--not Christmas-tide of the North and West, but +Christmas of the Southern South. It was not the festival of the Christ +Child, but a time of noise and frolic and license, the great Pay-Day of +the year when black men lifted their heads from a year's toiling in the +earth, and, hat in hand, asked anxiously: "Master, what have I earned? +Have I paid my old debts to you? Have I made my clothes and food? Have I +got a little of the year's wage coming to me?" Or, more carelessly and +cringingly: "Master, gimme a Christmas gift." + +The lords of the soil stood round, gauging their cotton, measuring their +men. Their stores were crowded, their scales groaned, their gins sang. +In the long run public opinion determines all wage, but in more +primitive times and places, private opinion, personal judgment of some +man in power, determines. The Black Belt is primitive and the landlord +wields the power. + +"What about Johnson?" calls the head clerk. + +"Well, he's a faithful nigger and needs encouragement; cancel his debt +and give him ten dollars for Christmas." Colonel Cresswell glowed, as if +he were full of the season's spirit. + +"And Sanders?" + +"How's his cotton?" + +"Good, and a lot of it." + +"He's trying to get away. Keep him in debt, but let him draw what he +wants." + +"Aunt Rachel?" + +"H'm, they're way behind, aren't they? Give her a couple of dollars--not +a cent more." + +"Jim Sykes?" + +"Say, Harry, how about that darky, Sykes?" called out the Colonel. + +Excusing himself from his guests, Harry Cresswell came into the office. + +To them this peculiar spectacle of the market place was of unusual +interest. They saw its humor and its crowding, its bizarre effects and +unwonted pageantry. Black giants and pigmies were there; kerchiefed +aunties, giggling black girls, saffron beauties, and loafing white men. +There were mules and horses and oxen, wagons and buggies and carts; but +above all and in all, rushing through, piled and flying, bound and +baled--was cotton. Cotton was currency; cotton was merchandise; cotton +was conversation. + +All this was "beautiful" to Mrs. Grey and "unusually interesting" to +Mrs. Vanderpool. To Mary Taylor it had the fascination of a puzzle whose +other side she had already been partially studying. She was particularly +impressed with the joy and abandon of the scene--light laughter, huge +guffaws, handshakes, and gossipings. + +"At all events," she concluded, "this is no oppressed people." And +sauntering away from the rest she noted the smiles of an undersized +smirking yellow man who hurried by with a handful of dollar bills. At a +side entrance liquor was evidently on sale--men were drinking and women, +too; some were staggering, others cursing, and yet others singing. Then +suddenly a man swung around the corner swearing in bitter rage: + +"The damned thieves, they'se stole a year's work--the white--" But some +one called, "Hush up, Sanders! There's a white woman." And he threw a +startled look at Mary and hurried by. She was perplexed and upset and +stood hesitating a moment when she heard a well-known voice: + +"Why, Miss Taylor, I was alarmed for you; you really must be careful +about trusting yourself with these half drunken Negroes." + +"Wouldn't it be better not to give them drink, Mr. Cresswell?" + +"And let your neighbor sell them poison at all hours? No, Miss Taylor." +They joined the others, and all were turning toward the carriage when a +figure coming down the road attracted them. + +"Quite picturesque," observed Mrs. Vanderpool, looking at the tall, slim +girl swaying toward them with a piled basket of white cotton poised +lightly on her head. "Why," in abrupt recognition, "it is our Venus of +the Roadside, is it not?" + +Mary saw it was Zora. Just then, too, Zora caught sight of them, and for +a moment hesitated, then came on; the carriage was in front of the +store, and she was bound for the store. A moment Mary hesitated, too, +and then turned resolutely to greet her. But Zora's eyes did not see +her. After one look at that sorrow-stricken face, Mary turned away. + +Colonel Cresswell stood by the door, his hat on, his hands in his +pockets. + +"Well, Zora, what have you there?" he asked. + +"Cotton, sir." + +Harry Cresswell bent over it. + +"Great heavens! Look at this cotton!" he ejaculated. His father +approached. The cotton lay in silken handfuls, clean and shimmering, +with threads full two inches long. The idlers, black and white, +clustered round, gazing at it, and fingering it with repeated +exclamations of astonishment. + +"Where did this come from?" asked the Colonel sharply. He and Harry were +both eying the girl intently. + +"I raised it in the swamp," Zora replied quietly, in a dead voice. There +was no pride of achievement in her manner, no gladness; all that had +flown. + +"Is that all?" + +"No, sir; I think there's two bales." + +"Two bales! Where is it? How the devil--" The Colonel was forgetting his +guests, but Harry intervened. + +"You'll need to get it picked right off," he suggested. + +"It's all picked, sir." + +"But where is it?" + +"If you'll send a wagon, sir--" + +But the Colonel hardly waited. + +"Here you, Jim, take the big mules and drive like--Where's that wench?" + +But Zora was already striding on ahead, and was far up the red road when +the great mules galloped into sight and the long whip snapped above +their backs. The Colonel was still excited. + +"That cotton must be ours, Harry--all of it. And see that none is +stolen. We've got no contract with the wench, so don't dally with her." +But Harry said firmly, quietly: + +"It's fine cotton, and she raised it; she must be paid well for it." +Colonel Cresswell glanced at him with something between contempt and +astonishment on his face. + +"You go along with the ladies," Harry added; "I'll see to this cotton." +Mary Taylor's smile had rewarded him; now he must get rid of his +company--before Zora returned. + +It was dark when the cotton came; such a load as Cresswell's store had +never seen before. Zora watched it weighed, received the cotton checks, +and entered the store. Only the clerk was there, and he was closing. He +pointed her carelessly to the office in the back part. She went into the +small dim room, and laying the cotton-check on the desk, stood waiting. +Slowly the hopelessness and bitterness of it all came back in a great +whelming flood. What was the use of trying for anything? She was lost +forever. The world was against her, and again she saw the fingers of +Elspeth--the long black claw-like talons that clutched and dragged her +down--down. She did not struggle--she dropped her hands listlessly, +wearily, and stood but half conscious as the door opened and Mr. Harry +Cresswell entered the dimly lighted room. She opened her eyes. She had +expected his father. Somewhere way down in the depths of her nature the +primal tiger awoke and snarled. She was suddenly alive from hair to +finger tip. Harry Cresswell paused a second and swept her full length +with his eye--her profile, the long supple line of bosom and hip, the +little foot. Then he closed the door softly and walked slowly toward +her. She stood like stone, without a quiver; only her eye followed the +crooked line of the Cresswell blue blood on his marble forehead as she +looked down from her greater height; her hand closed almost caressingly +on a rusty poker lying on the stove nearby; and as she sensed the hot +breath of him she felt herself purring in a half heard whisper. + +"I should not like--to kill you." + +He looked at her long and steadily as he passed to his desk. Slowly he +lighted a cigarette, opened the great ledger, and compared the +cotton-check with it. + +"Three thousand pounds," he announced in a careless tone. "Yes, that +will make about two bales of lint. It's extra cotton--say fifteen cents +a pound--one hundred fifty dollars--seventy-five dollars to you--h'm." +He took a note-book out of his pocket, pushed his hat back on his head, +and paused to relight his cigarette. + +"Let's see--your rent and rations--" + +"Elspeth pays no rent," she said slowly, but he did not seem to hear. + +"Your rent and rations with the five years' back debt,"--he made a hasty +calculation--"will be one hundred dollars. That leaves you twenty-five +in our debt. Here's your receipt." + +The blow had fallen. She did not wince nor cry out. She took the +receipt, calmly, and walked out into the darkness. + +They had stolen the Silver Fleece. + +What should she do? She never thought of appeal to courts, for Colonel +Cresswell was Justice of the Peace and his son was bailiff. Why had they +stolen from her? She knew. She was now penniless, and in a sense +helpless. She was now a peon bound to a master's bidding. If Elspeth +chose to sign a contract of work for her to-morrow, it would mean +slavery, jail, or hounded running away. What would Elspeth do? One never +knew. Zora walked on. An hour ago it seemed that this last blow must +have killed her. But now it was different. Into her first despair had +crept, in one fierce moment, grim determination. Somewhere in the world +sat a great dim Injustice which had veiled the light before her young +eyes, just as she raised them to the morning. With the veiling, death +had come into her heart. + +And yet, they should not kill her; they should not enslave her. A +desperate resolve to find some way up toward the light, if not to it, +formed itself within her. She would not fall into the pit opening before +her. Somehow, somewhere lay The Way. She must never fall lower; never be +utterly despicable in the eyes of the man she had loved. There was no +dream of forgiveness, of purification, of re-kindled love; all these she +placed sadly and gently into the dead past. But in awful earnestness, +she turned toward the future; struggling blindly, groping in half formed +plans for a way. + +She came thus into the room where sat Miss Smith, strangely pallid +beneath her dusky skin. But there lay a light in her eyes. + + + + +_Eighteen_ + +THE COTTON CORNER + + +All over the land the cotton had foamed in great white flakes under the +winter sun. The Silver Fleece lay like a mighty mantle across the earth. +Black men and mules had staggered beneath its burden, while deep songs +welled in the hearts of men; for the Fleece was goodly and gleaming and +soft, and men dreamed of the gold it would buy. All the roads in the +country had been lined with wagons--a million wagons speeding to and fro +with straining mules and laughing black men, bearing bubbling masses of +piled white Fleece. The gins were still roaring and spitting flames and +smoke--fifty thousand of them in town and vale. Then hoarse iron throats +were filled with fifteen billion pounds of white-fleeced, black-specked +cotton, for the whirling saws to tear out the seed and fling five +thousand million pounds of the silken fibre to the press. + +And there again the black men sang, like dark earth-spirits flitting in +twilight; the presses creaked and groaned; closer and closer they +pressed the silken fleece. It quivered, trembled, and then lay cramped, +dead, and still, in massive, hard, square bundles, tied with iron +strings. Out fell the heavy bales, thousand upon thousand, million upon +million, until they settled over the South like some vast dull-white +swarm of birds. Colonel Cresswell and his son, in these days, had a long +and earnest conversation perforated here and there by explosions of the +Colonel's wrath. The Colonel could not understand some things. + +"They want us to revive the Farmers' League?" he fiercely demanded. + + +"Yes," Harry calmly replied. + +"And throw the rest of our capital after the fifty thousand dollars +we've already lost?" + +"Yes." + +"And you were fool enough to consent--" + +"Wait, Father--and don't get excited. Listen. Cotton is going up--" + +"Of course it's going up! Short crop and big demand--" + +"Cotton is going up, and then it's going to fall." + +"I don't believe it." + +"I know it; the trust has got money and credit enough to force it down." + +"Well, what then?" The Colonel glared. + +"Then somebody will corner it." + +"The Farmers' League won't stand--" + +"Precisely. The Farmers' League can do the cornering and hold it for +higher prices." + +"Lord, son! if we only could!" groaned the Colonel. + +"We can; we'll have unlimited credit." + +"But--but--" stuttered the bewildered Colonel, "I don't understand. Why +should the trust--" + +"Nonsense, Father--what's the use of understanding. Our advantage is +plain, and John Taylor guarantees the thing." + +"Who's John Taylor?" snorted the Colonel. "Why should we trust him?" + +"Well," said Harry slowly, "he wants to marry Helen--" + +His father grew apopletic. + +"I'm not saying he will, Father; I'm only saying that he wants to," +Harry made haste to placate the rising tide of wrath. + +"No Southern gentleman--" began the Colonel. But Harry shrugged his +shoulders. + +"Which is better, to be crushed by the trust or to escape at their +expense, even if that escape involves unwarranted assumptions on the +part of one of them? I tell you, Father, the code of the Southern +gentleman won't work in Wall Street." + +"And I'll tell you why--there _are_ no Southern gentlemen," growled his +father. + +The Silver Fleece was golden, for its prices were flying aloft. Mr. +Caldwell told Colonel Cresswell that he confidently expected twelve-cent +cotton. + +"The crop is excellent and small, scarcely ten million bales," he +declared. "The price is bound to go up." + +Colonel Cresswell was hesitant, even doubtful; the demand for cotton at +high prices usually fell off rapidly and he had heard rumors of +curtailed mill production. While, then, he hoped for high prices he +advised the Farmers' League to be on guard. + +Mr. Caldwell seemed to be right, for cotton rose to ten cents a +pound--ten and a half--eleven--and then the South began to see visions +and to dream dreams. + +"Yes, my dear," said Mr. Maxwell, whose lands lay next to the +Cresswells' on the northwest, "yes, if cotton goes to twelve or thirteen +cents as seems probable, I think we can begin the New House"--for Mrs. +Maxwell's cherished dream was a pillared mansion like the Cresswells'. + +Mr. Tolliver looked at his house and barns. "Well, daughter, if this +crop sells at twelve cents, I'll be on my feet again, and I won't have +to sell that land to the nigger school after all. Once out of the +clutch of the Cresswells--well, I think we can have a coat of paint." +And he laughed as he had not laughed in ten years. + +Down in the bottoms west of the swamp a man and woman were figuring +painfully on an old slate. He was light brown and she was yellow. + +"Honey," he said tremblingly, "I b'lieve we can do it--if cotton goes to +twelve cents, we can pay the mortgage." + +Two miles north of the school an old black woman was shouting and waving +her arms. "If cotton goes to twelve cents we can pay out and be free!" +and she threw her apron over her head and wept, gathering her children +in her arms. + +But even as she cried a flash and tremor shook the South. Far away to +the north a great spider sat weaving his web. The office looked down +from the clouds on lower Broadway, and was soft with velvet and leather. +Swift, silent messengers hurried in and out, and Mr. Easterly, deciding +the time was ripe, called his henchman to him. + +"Taylor, we're ready--go South." + +And John Taylor rose, shook hands silently, and went. + +As he entered Cresswell's plantation store three days later, a colored +woman with a little boy turned sadly away from the counter. + +"No, aunty," the clerk was telling her, "calico is too high; can't let +you have any till we see how your cotton comes out." + +"I just wanted a bit; I promised the boy--" + +"Go on, go on--Why, Mr. Taylor!" And the little boy burst into tears +while he was hurried out. + +"Tightening up on the tenants?" asked Taylor. + +"Yes; these niggers are mighty extravagant. Besides, cotton fell a +little today--eleven to ten and three-fourths; just a flurry, I reckon. +Had you heard?" + +Mr. Taylor said he had heard, and he hurried on. Next morning the long +shining wires of that great Broadway web trembled and flashed again and +cotton went to ten cents. + +"No house this year, I fear," quoth Mr. Maxwell, bitterly. + +The next day nine and a half was the quotation, and men began to look at +each other and asked questions. + +"Paper says the crop is larger than the government estimate," said +Tolliver, and added, "There'll be no painting this year." He looked +toward the Smith School and thought of the five thousand dollars +waiting; but he hesitated. John Taylor had carefully mentioned seven +thousand dollars as a price he was willing to pay and "perhaps more." +Was Cresswell back of Taylor? Tolliver was suspicious and moved to delay +matters. + +"It's manipulation and speculation in New York," said Colonel Cresswell, +"and the Farmers' League must begin operations." + +The local paper soon had an editorial on "our distinguished fellow +citizen, Colonel Cresswell," and his efforts to revive the Farmers' +League. It was understood that Colonel Cresswell was risking his whole +private fortune to hold the price of cotton, and some effort seemed to +be needed, for cotton dropped to nine cents within a week. Swift +negotiations ensued, and a meeting of the executive committee of the +Farmers' League was held in Montgomery. A system of warehouses and +warehouse certificates was proposed. + +"But that will cost money," responded each of the dozen big landlords +who composed the committee; whereupon Harry Cresswell introduced John +Taylor, who represented thirty millions of Southern bank stock. + +"I promise you credit to any reasonable amount," said Mr. Taylor, "I +believe in cotton--the present price is abnormal." And Mr. Taylor knew +whereof he spoke, for when he sent a cipher despatch North, cotton +dropped to eight and a half. The Farmers' League leased three warehouses +at Savannah, Montgomery, and New Orleans. + +Then silently the South gripped itself and prepared for battle. Men +stopped spending, business grew dull, and millions of eyes were glued +to the blackboards of the cotton-exchange. Tighter and tighter the +reins grew on the backs of the black tenants. + +"Miss Smith, is yo' got just a drap of coffee to lend me? Mr. Cresswell +won't give me none at the store and I'se just starving for some," said +Aunt Rachel from over the hill. "We won't git free this year, Miss +Smith, not this year," she concluded plaintively. + +Cotton fell to seven and a half cents and the muttered protest became +angry denunciation. Why was it? Who was doing it? + +Harry Cresswell went to Montgomery. He was getting nervous. The thing +was too vast. He could not grasp it. It set his head in a whirl. Harry +Cresswell was not a bad man--are there any bad men? He was a man who +from the day he first wheedled his black mammy into submission, down to +his thirty-sixth year, had seldom known what it was voluntarily to deny +himself or curb a desire. To rise when he would, eat what he craved, and +do what the passing fancy suggested had long been his day's programme. +Such emptiness of life and aim had to be filled, and it was filled; he +helped his father sometimes with the plantations, but he helped +spasmodically and played at work. + +The unregulated fire of energy and delicacy of nervous poise within him +continually hounded him to the verge of excess and sometimes beyond. +Cool, quiet, and gentlemanly as he was by rule of his clan, the ice was +thin and underneath raged unappeased fires. He craved the madness of +alcohol in his veins till his delicate hands trembled of mornings. The +women whom he bent above in languid, veiled-eyed homage, feared lest +they love him, and what work was to others gambling was to him. + +The Cotton Combine, then, appealed to him overpoweringly--to his passion +for wealth, to his passion for gambling. But once entered upon the game +it drove him to fear and frenzy: first, it was a long game and Harry +Cresswell was not trained to waiting, and, secondly, it was a game whose +intricacies he did not know. In vain did he try to study the matter +through. He ordered books from the North, he subscribed for financial +journals, he received special telegraphic reports only to toss them +away, curse his valet, and call for another brandy. After all, he kept +saying to himself, what guarantee, what knowledge had he that this was +not a "damned Yankee trick"? + +Now that the web was weaving its last mesh in early January he haunted +Montgomery, and on this day when it seemed that things must culminate or +he would go mad, he hastened again down to the Planters' Hotel and was +quickly ushered to John Taylor's room. The place was filled with tobacco +smoke. An electric ticker was drumming away in one corner, a telephone +ringing on the desk, and messenger boys hovered outside the door and +raced to and fro. + +"Well," asked Cresswell, maintaining his composure by an effort, "how +are things?" + +"Great!" returned Taylor. "League holds three million bales and controls +five. It's the biggest corner in years." + +"But how's cotton?" + +"Ticker says six and three-fourths." + +Cresswell sat down abruptly opposite Taylor, looking at him fixedly. + +"That last drop means liabilities of a hundred thousand to us," he said +slowly. + +"Exactly," Taylor blandly admitted. + +Beads of sweat gathered on Cresswell's forehead. He looked at the +scrawny iron man opposite, who had already forgotten his presence. He +ordered whiskey, and taking paper and pencil began to figure, drinking +as he figured. Slowly the blood crept out of his white face leaving it +whiter, and went surging and pounding in his heart. Poverty--that was +what those figures spelled. Poverty--unclothed, wineless poverty, to dig +and toil like a "nigger" from morning until night, and to give up horses +and carriages and women; that was what they spelled. + +"How much--farther will it drop?" he asked harshly. + +Taylor did not look up. + +"Can't tell," he said, "'fraid not much though." He glanced through a +telegram. "No--damn it!--outside mills are low; they'll stampede soon. +Meantime we'll buy." + +"But, Taylor--" + +"Here are one hundred thousand offered at six and three-fourths." + +"I tell you, Taylor--" Cresswell half arose. + +"Done!" cried Taylor. "Six and one-half," clicked the machine. + +Cresswell arose from his chair by the window and came slowly to the wide +flat desk where Taylor was working feverishly. He sat down heavily in +the chair opposite and tried quietly to regain his self-control. The +liabilities of the Cresswells already amounted to half the value of +their property, at a fair market valuation. The cotton for which they +had made debts was still falling in value. Every fourth of a cent fall +meant--he figured it again tremblingly--meant one hundred thousand more +of liabilities. If cotton fell to six he hadn't a cent on earth. If it +stayed there--"My God!" He felt a faintness stealing over him but he +beat it back and gulped down another glass of fiery liquor. + +Then the one protecting instinct of his clan gripped him. Slowly, +quietly his hand moved back until it grasped the hilt of the big Colt's +revolver that was ever with him--his thin white hand became suddenly +steady as it slipped the weapon beneath the shadow of the desk. + +"If it goes to six," he kept murmuring, "we're ruined--if it goes to +six--if--" + +"Tick," sounded the wheel and the sound reverberated like sudden thunder +in his ears. His hand was iron, and he raised it slightly. "Six," said +the wheel--his finger quivered--"and a half." + +"Hell!" yelled Taylor. "She's turned--there'll be the devil to pay now." +A messenger burst in and Taylor scowled. + +"She's loose in New York--a regular mob in New Orleans--and--hark!--By +God! there's something doing here. Damn it--I wish we'd got another +million bales. Let's see, we've got--" He figured while the wheel +whirred--"7--7-1/2--8--8-1/2." + +Cresswell listened, staggered to his feet, his face crimson and his hair +wild. + +"My God, Taylor," he gasped. "I'm--I'm a half a million ahead--great +heavens!" + +The ticker whirred, "8-3/4--9--9-1/2--10." Then it stopped dead. + +"Exchange closed," said Taylor. "We've cornered the market all +right--cornered it--d'ye hear, Cresswell? We got over half the crop and +we can send prices to the North Star--you--why, I figure it you +Cresswells are worth at least seven hundred and fifty thousand above +liabilities this minute," and John Taylor leaned back and lighted a big +black cigar. + +"I've made a million or so myself," he added reflectively. + +Cresswell leaned back in his chair, his face had gone white again, and +he spoke slowly to still the tremor in his voice. + +"I've gambled--before; I've gambled on cards and on horses; I've +gambled--for money--and--women--but--" + +"But not on cotton, hey? Well, I don't know about cards and such; but +they can't beat cotton." + +"And say, John Taylor, you're my friend." Cresswell stretched his hand +across the desk, and as he bent forward the pistol crashed to the floor. + + + + +_Nineteen_ + +THE DYING OF ELSPETH + + +Rich! This was the thought that awakened Harry Cresswell to a sense of +endless well-being. Rich! No longer the mirage and semblance of wealth, +the memory of opulence, the shadow of homage without the substance of +power--no; now the wealth was real, cold hard dollars, and in piles. How +much? He laughed aloud as he turned on his pillow. What did he care? +Enough--enough. Not less than half a million; perhaps three-quarters of +a million; perhaps--was not cotton still rising?--a whole round million! +That would mean from twenty-five to fifty thousand a year. Great +heavens! and he'd been starving on a bare couple of thousand and trying +to keep up appearances! today the Cresswells were almost millionaires; +aye, and he might be married to more millions. + +He sat up with a start. Today Mary was going North. He had quite +forgotten it in the wild excitement of the cotton corner. He had +neglected her. Of course, there was always the hovering doubt as to +whether he really wanted her or not. She had the form and carriage; her +beauty, while not startling, was young and fresh and firm. On the other +hand there was about her a certain independence that he did not like to +associate with women. She had thoughts and notions of the world which +were, to his Southern training, hardly feminine. And yet even they +piqued him and spurred him like the sight of an untrained colt. He had +not seen her falter yet beneath his glances or tremble at his touch. All +this he desired--ardently desired. But did he desire her as a wife? He +rather thought that he did. And if so he must speak today. + +There was his father, too, to reckon with. Colonel Cresswell, with the +perversity of the simple-minded, had taken the sudden bettering of their +fortunes as his own doing. He had foreseen; he had stuck it out; his +credit had pulled the thing through; and the trust had learned a thing +or two about Southern gentlemen. + +Toward John Taylor he perceptibly warmed. His business methods were such +as a Cresswell could never stoop to; but he was a man of his word, and +Colonel Cresswell's correspondence with Mr. Easterly opened his eyes to +the beneficent ideals of Northern capital. At the same time he could not +consider the Easterlys and the Taylors and such folk as the social +equals of the Cresswells, and his prejudice on this score must still be +reckoned with. + +Below, Mary Taylor lingered on the porch in strange uncertainty. Harry +Cresswell would soon be coming downstairs. Did she want him to find her? +She liked him frankly, undisguisedly; but from the love she knew to be +so near her heart she recoiled in perturbation. He wooed her--whether +consciously or not, she was always uncertain--with every quiet +attention and subtle deference, with a devotion seemingly quite too +delicate for words; he not only fetched her flowers, but flowers that +chimed with day and gown and season--almost with mood. He had a woman's +premonitions in fulfilling her wishes. His hands, if they touched her, +were soft and tender, and yet he gave a curious impression of strength +and poise and will. + +Indeed, in all things he was in her eyes a gentleman in the fine +old-fashioned aristocracy of the term; her own heart voiced all he did +not say, and pleaded for him to her own confusion. + +And yet, in her heart, lay the awful doubt--and the words kept ringing +in her ears! "You will marry this man--but heaven help you if you do!" + +So it was that on this day when she somehow felt he would speak, his +footsteps on the stairs filled her with sudden panic. Without a word she +slipped behind the pillars and ran down among the oaks and sauntered out +upon the big road. He caught the white flutter of her dress, and smiled +indulgently as he watched and waited and lightly puffed his cigarette. + +The morning was splendid with that first delicious languor of the spring +which breathes over the Southland in February. Mary Taylor filled her +lungs, lifted her arms aloft, and turning, stepped into the deep shadow +of the swamp. + +Abruptly the air, the day, the scene about her subtly changed. She felt +a closeness and a tremor, a certain brooding terror in the languid +sombre winds. The gold of the sunlight faded to a sickly green, and the +earth was black and burned. A moment she paused and looked back; she +caught the man's silhouette against the tall white pillars of the +mansion and she fled deeper into the forest with the hush of death about +her, and the silence which is one great Voice. Slowly, and mysteriously +it loomed before her--that squat and darksome cabin which seemed to +fitly set in the centre of the wilderness, beside its crawling slime. + +She paused in sudden certainty that there lay the answer to her doubts +and mistrust. She felt impelled to go forward and ask--what? She did not +know, but something to still this war in her bosom. She had seldom seen +Elspeth; she had never been in her cabin. She had felt an inconquerable +aversion for the evil hag; she felt it now, and shivered in the warm +breeze. + +As she came in full view of the door, she paused. On the step of the +cabin, framed in the black doorway, stood Zora. Measured by the squat +cabin she seemed in height colossal; slim, straight as a pine, +motionless, with one long outstretched arm pointing to where the path +swept onward toward the town. + +It was too far for words but the scene lay strangely clear and sharp-cut +in the green mystery of the sunlight. Before that motionless, fateful +figure crouched a slighter, smaller woman, dishevelled, clutching her +breast; she bent and rose--hesitated--seemed to plead; then turning, +clasped in passionate embrace the child whose head was hid in Zora's +gown. Next instant she was staggering along the path whither Zora +pointed. + +Slowly the sun was darkened, and plaintive murmurings pulsed through the +wood. The oppression and fear of the swamp redoubled in Mary Taylor. + +Zora gave no sign of having seen her. She stood tall and still, and the +little golden-haired girl still sobbed in her gown. Mary Taylor looked +up into Zora's face, then paused in awe. It was a face she did not know; +it was neither the beautifully mischievous face of the girl, nor the +pain-stricken face of the woman. It was a face cold and mask-like, +regular and comely; clothed in a mighty calm, yet subtly, masterfully +veiling behind itself depths of unfathomed misery and wild revolt. All +this lay in its darkness. + +"Good-morning, Miss Taylor." + +Mary, who was wont to teach this woman--so lately a child--searched in +vain for words to address her now. She stood bare-haired and hesitating +in the pale green light of the darkened morning. It seemed fit that a +deep groan of pain should gather itself from the mysterious depths of +the swamp, and drop like a pall on the black portal of the cabin. But +it brought Mary Taylor back to a sense of things, and under a sudden +impulse she spoke. + +"Is--is anything the matter?" she asked nervously. + +"Elspeth is sick," replied Zora. + +"Is she very sick?" + +"Yes--she has been called," solemnly returned the dark young woman. + +Mary was puzzled. "Called?" she repeated vaguely. + +"We heard the great cry in the night, and Elspeth says it is the End." + +It did not occur to Mary Taylor to question this mysticism; she all at +once understood--perhaps read the riddle in the dark, melancholy eyes +that so steadily regarded her. + +"Then you can leave the place, Zora?" she exclaimed gladly. + +"Yes, I could leave." + +"And you will." + +"I don't know." + +"But the place looks--evil." + +"It is evil." + +"And yet you will stay?" + +Zora's eyes were now fixed far above the woman's head, and she saw a +human face forming itself in the vast rafters of the forest. Its eyes +were wet with pain and anger. + +"Perhaps," she answered. + +The child furtively uncovered her face and looked at the stranger. She +was blue-eyed and golden-haired. + +"Whose child is this?" queried Mary, curiously. + +Zora looked coldly down upon the child. + +"It is Bertie's. Her mother is bad. She is gone. I sent her. She and the +others like her." + +"But where have you sent them?" + +"To Hell!" + +Mary Taylor started under the shock. Impulsively she moved forward with +hands that wanted to stretch themselves in appeal. + +"Zora! Zora! _You_ mustn't go, too!" + +But the black girl drew proudly back. + +"I _am_ there," she returned, with unmistakable simplicity of absolute +conviction. + +The white woman shrank back. Her heart was wrung; she wanted to say +more--to explain, to ask to help; there came welling to her lips a flood +of things that she would know. But Zora's face again was masked. + +"I must go," she said, before Mary could speak. "Good-bye." And the dark +groaning depths of the cabin swallowed her. + +With a satisfied smile, Harry Cresswell had seen the Northern girl +disappear toward the swamp; for it is significant when maidens run from +lovers. But maidens should also come back, and when, after the lapse of +many minutes, Mary did not reappear, he followed her footsteps to the +swamp. + +He frowned as he noted the footprints pointing to Elspeth's--what did +Mary Taylor want there? A fear started within him, and something else. +He was suddenly aware that he wanted this woman, intensely; at the +moment he would have turned Heaven and earth to get her. He strode +forward and the wood rose darkly green above him. A long, low, distant +moan seemed to sound upon the breeze, and after it came Mary Taylor. + +He met her with tender solicitude, and she was glad to feel his arm +beneath hers. + +"I've been searching for you," he said after a silence. "You should not +wander here alone--it is dangerous." + +"Why, dangerous?" she asked. + +"Wandering Negroes, and even wild beasts, in the forest depths--and +malaria--see, you tremble now." + +"But not from malaria," she slowly returned. + +He caught an unfamiliar note in his voice, and a wild desire to justify +himself before this woman clamored in his heart. With it, too, came a +cooler calculating intuition that frankness alone would win her now. At +all hazards he must win, and he cast the die. + +"Miss Taylor," he said, "I want to talk to you--I have wanted to for--a +year." He glanced at her: she was white and silent, but she did not +tremble. He went on: + +"I have hesitated because I do not know that I have a right to speak or +explain to--to--a good woman." + +He felt her arm tighten on his and he continued: + +"You have been to Elspeth's cabin; it is an evil place, and has meant +evil for this community, and for me. Elspeth was my mother's favorite +servant and my own mammy. My mother died when I was ten and left me to +her tender mercies. She let me have my way and encouraged the bad in me. +It's a wonder I escaped total ruin. Her cabin became a rendezvous for +drinking and carousing. I told my father, but he, in lazy indifference, +declared the place no worse than all Negro cabins, and did nothing. I +ceased my visits. Still she tried every lure and set false stories going +among the Negroes, even when I sought to rescue Zora. I tell you this +because I know you have heard evil rumors. I have not been a good +man--Mary; but I love you, and you can make me good." + +Perhaps no other appeal would have stirred Mary Taylor. She was in many +respects an inexperienced girl. But she thought she knew the world; she +knew that Harry Cresswell was not all he should be, and she knew too +that many other men were not. Moreover, she argued he had not had a fair +chance. All the school-ma'am in her leaped to his teaching. What he +needed was a superior person like herself. She loved him, and she +deliberately put her arms about his neck and lifted her face to be +kissed. + +Back by the place of the Silver Fleece they wandered, across the Big +Road, up to the mansion. On the steps stood John Taylor and Helen +Cresswell hand in hand and they all smiled at each other. The Colonel +came out, smiling too, with the paper in his hands. + +"Easterly's right," he beamed, "the stock of the Cotton Combine--" he +paused at the silence and looked up. The smile faded slowly and the red +blood mounted to his forehead. Anger struggled back of surprise, but +before it burst forth silently the Colonel turned, and muttering some +unintelligible word, went slowly into the house and slammed the door. + +So for Harry Cresswell the day burst, flamed, and waned, and then +suddenly went out, leaving him dull and gray; for Mary and her brother +had gone North, Helen had gone to bed, and the Colonel was in town. +Outside the weather was gusty and lowering with a chill in the air. He +paced the room fitfully. + +Well, he was happy. Or, was he happy? + +He gnawed his mustache, for already his quick, changeable nature was +feeling the rebound from glory to misery. He was a little ashamed of his +exaltation; a bit doubtful and uncertain. He had stooped low to this +Yankee school-ma'am, lower than he had ever stooped to a woman. Usually, +while he played at loving, women grovelled; for was he not a Cresswell? +Would this woman recognize that fact and respect him accordingly? + +Then there was Zora; what had she said and hinted to Mary? The wench was +always eluding and mocking him, the black devil! But, pshaw!--he poured +himself a glass of brandy--was he not rich and young? The world was his. + +His valet knocked. + +"Gentleman is asking if you forgits it's Saturday night, sir?" said Sam. + +Cresswell walked thoughtfully to the window, swept back the curtain, and +looked toward the darkness and the swamp. It lowered threateningly; +behind it the night sky was tinged with blood. + +"No," he said; "I'm not going." And he shut out the glow. + +Yet he grew more and more restless. The devil danced in his veins and +burned in his forehead. His hands shook. He heard a rustle of departing +feet beneath his window, then a pause and a faint halloo. + +"All right," he called, and in a moment went downstairs and out into +the night. As he closed the front door there seemed to come faintly up +from the swamp a low ululation, like the prolonged cry of some wild +bird, or the wail of one's mourning for his dead. + +Within the cabin, Elspeth heard. Tremblingly, she swayed to her feet, a +haggard, awful sight. She motioned Zora away, and stretching her hands +palms upward to the sky, cried with dry and fear-struck gasp: + +"I'se called! I'se called!" + +On the bed the child smiled in its dreaming; the red flame of the +firelight set the gold to dancing in her hair. Zora shrank back into the +shadows and listened. Then it came. She heard the heavy footsteps +crashing through the underbrush--coming, coming, as from the end of the +world. She shrank still farther back, and a shadow swept the door. + +He was a mighty man, black and white-haired, and his eyes were the eyes +of death. He bent to enter the door, and then uplifting himself and +stretching his great arms, his palms touched the blackened rafters. + +Zora started forward. Thick memories of some forgotten past came piling +in upon her. Where had she known him? What was he to her? + +Slowly Elspeth, with quivering hands, unwound the black and snake-like +object that always guarded her breast. Without a word, he took it, and +again his hands flew heavenward. With a low and fearful moan the old +woman lurched sideways, then crashed, like a fallen pine, upon the +hearthstone. She lay still--dead. + +Three times the man passed his hands, wave-like, above the dead. Three +times he murmured, and his eyes burned into the shadows, where the girl +trembled. Then he turned and went as he had come, his heavy feet +crashing through the underbrush, on and on, fainter and fainter, as to +the end of the world. + +Zora shook herself from the trance-like horror and passed her hands +across her eyes to drive out the nightmare. But, no! there lay the dead +upon the hearth with the firelight flashing over her, a bloated, +hideous, twisted thing, distorted in the rigor of death. A moment Zora +looked down upon her mother. She felt the cold body whence the +wandering, wrecked soul had passed. She sat down and stared death in the +face for the first time. A mighty questioning arose within, a +questioning and a yearning. + +Was Elspeth now at peace? Was Death the Way--the wide, dark Way? She had +never thought of it before, and as she thought she crept forward and +looked into the fearful face pityingly. + +"Mammy!" she whispered--with bated breath--"Mammy Elspeth!" Out of the +night came a whispered answer: "_Elspeth! Elspeth!_" + +Zora sprang to her feet, alert, fearful. With a swing of her arm, she +pulled the great oaken door to and dropped the bar into its place. Over +the dead she spread a clean white sheet. Into the fire she thrust +pine-knots. They glared in vague red, and shadowy brilliance, waving and +quivering and throwing up thin swirling columns of black smoke. Then +standing beside the fireplace with the white, still corpse between her +and the door, she took up her awful vigil. + +There came a low knocking at the door; then silence and footsteps +wandering furtively about. The night seemed all footsteps and whispers. +There came a louder knocking, and a voice: + +"_Elspeth! Elspeth! Open the door; it's me._" + +Then muttering and wandering noises, and silence again. + +The child on the bed turned itself, murmuring uneasily in its dreams. +And then _they_ came. Zora froze, watching the door, wide-eyed, while +the fire flamed redder. A loud quick knock at the door--a pause--an oath +and a cry. + +"_Elspeth! Open this door, damn you!_" + +A moment of waiting and then the knocking came again, furious and long +continued. Outside there was much trampling and swearing. Zora did not +move; the child slept on. A tugging and dragging, a dull blow that set +the cabin quivering; then,-- + +"_Bang! Crack! Crash!_"--the door wavered, splintered, and dropped upon +the floor. + +With a snarl, a crowd of some half-dozen white faces rushed forward, +wavered and stopped. The awakened child sat up and stared with wide blue +eyes. Slowly, with no word, the intruders turned and went silently away, +leaving but one late comer who pressed forward. + +"What damned mummery is this?" he cried, and snatching at the sheet, +dragged it from the black distorted countenance of the corpse. He +shuddered but for a moment he could not stir. He felt the midnight eyes +of the girl--he saw the twisted, oozing mouth of the hag, blue-black and +hideous. + +Suddenly back behind there in the darkness a shriek split the night like +a sudden flash of flame--a great ringing scream that cracked and swelled +and stopped. With one wild effort the man hurled himself out the door +and plunged through the darkness. Panting and cursing, he flashed his +huge revolver--"_bang! bang! bang!_" it cracked into the night. The +sweat poured from his forehead; the terror of the swamp was upon him. +With a struggling and tearing in his throat, he tripped and fell +fainting under the silent oaks. + + + + +_Twenty_ + +THE WEAVING OF THE SILVER FLEECE + + +The Silver Fleece, darkly cloaked and girded, lay in the cotton +warehouse of the Cresswells, near the store. Its silken fibres, cramped +and close, shone yellow-white in the sunlight; sadly soiled, yet +beautiful. Many came to see Zora's twin bales, as they lay, handling +them and questioning, while Colonel Cresswell grew proud of his +possession. + + +The world was going well with the Colonel. Freed from money cares, +praised for his generalship in the cotton corner, able to entertain +sumptuously, he was again a Southern gentleman of the older school, and +so in his envied element. Yet today he frowned as he stood poking +absently with his cane at the baled Fleece. + +This marriage--or, rather, these marriages--were not to his liking. It +was a _mesalliance_ of a sort that pricked him tenderly; it savored +grossly of bargain and sale. His neighbors regarded it with +disconcerting equanimity. They seemed to think an alliance with +Northern millions an honor for Cresswell blood, and the Colonel thumped +the nearer bale vigorously. His cane slipped along the iron bands +suddenly, and the old man lurching forward, clutched in space to save +himself and touched a human hand. + +Zora, sitting shadowed on the farther bale, drew back her hand quickly +at the contact, and started to move away. + +"Who's that?" thundered the Colonel, more angry at his involuntary +fright than at the intrusion. "Here, boys!" + +But Zora had come forward into the space where the sunlight of the wide +front doors poured in upon the cotton bales. + +"It's me, Colonel," she said. + +He glared at her. She was taller and thinner than formerly, darkly +transparent of skin, and her dark eyes shone in strange and dusky +brilliance. Still indignant and surprised, the Colonel lifted his voice +sharply. + +"What the devil are you doing here?--sleeping when you ought to be at +work! Get out! And see here, next week cotton chopping begins--you'll go +to the fields or to the chain-gang. I'll have no more of your loafing +about my place." + +Awaiting no reply, the Colonel, already half ashamed of his vehemence, +stormed out into the sunlight and climbed upon his bay mare. + +But Zora still stood silent in the shadow of the Silver Fleece, hearing +and yet not hearing. She was searching for the Way, groping for the +threads of life, seeking almost wildly to understand the foundations of +understanding, piteously asking for answer to the puzzle of life. All +the while the walls rose straight about her and narrow. To continue in +school meant charity, yet she had nowhere to go and nothing to go with. +To refuse to work for the Cresswells meant trouble for the school and +perhaps arrest for herself. To work in the fields meant endless toil and +a vista that opened upon death. + +Like a hunted thing the girl turned and twisted in thought and faced +everywhere the blank Impossible. Cold and dreamlike without, her shut +teeth held back seething fires within, and a spirit of revolt that +gathered wildness as it grew. Above all flew the dream, the phantasy, +the memory of the past, the vision of the future. Over and over she +whispered to herself: "This is not the End; this can not be the End." + +Somehow, somewhere, would come salvation. Yet what it would be and what +she expected she did not know. She sought the Way, but what way and +whither she did not know, she dared not dream. + +One thing alone lay in her wild fancy like a great and wonderful fact +dragging the dream to earth and anchoring it there. That was the Silver +Fleece. Like a brooding mother, Zora had watched it. She knew how the +gin had been cleaned for its pressing and how it had been baled apart +and carefully covered. She knew how proud Colonel Cresswell was of it +and how daily he had visitors to see it and finger the wide white wound +in its side. + +"Yes, sir, grown on my place, by my niggers, sir!" he assured them; and +they marvelled. + +To Zora's mind, this beautiful baled fibre was hers; it typified +happiness; it was an holy thing which profane hands had stolen. When it +came back to her (as come it must, she cried with clenched hands) it +would bring happiness; not the great Happiness--that was gone +forever--but illumination, atonement, and something of the power and the +glory. So, involuntarily almost, she haunted the cotton storehouse, +flitting like a dark and silent ghost in among the workmen, greeting +them with her low musical voice, warding them with the cold majesty of +her eyes; each day afraid of some last parting, each night +triumphant--it was still there! + +The Colonel--Zora already forgotten--rode up to the Cresswell Oaks, +pondering darkly. It was bad enough to contemplate Helen's marriage in +distant prospect, but the sudden, almost peremptory desire for marrying +at Eastertide, a little less than two months away, was absurd. There +were "business reasons arising from the presidential campaign in the +fall," John Taylor had telegraphed; but there was already too much +business in the arrangement to suit the Colonel. With Harry it was +different. Indeed it was his own quiet suggestion that made John Taylor +hurry matters. + +Harry trusted to the novelty of his father's new wealth to make the +latter complacent; he himself felt an impatient longing for the haven of +a home. He had been too long untethered. He distrusted himself. The +devil within was too fond of taking the bit in his teeth. He would +remember to his dying day one awful shriek in the night, as of a soul +tormenting and tormented. He wanted the protection of a good woman, and +sometimes against the clear whiteness of her letters so joyous and +generous, even if a bit prim and didactic, he saw a vision of himself +reflected as he was, and he feared. + +It was distinctively disconcerting to Colonel Cresswell to find Harry +quite in favor of early nuptials, and to learn that the sole objection +even in Helen's mind was the improbability of getting a wedding-gown in +time. Helen had all a child's naive love for beautiful and dainty +things, and a wedding-gown from Paris had been her life dream. On this +point, therefore, there ensued spirited arguments and much +correspondence, and both her brother and her lover evinced +characteristic interest in the planning. + +Said Harry: "Sis, I'll cable to Paris today. They can easily hurry the +thing along." + +Helen was delighted; she handed over a telegram just received from John +Taylor. "Send me, express, two bales best cotton you can get." + +The Colonel read the message. "I don't see the connection between this +and hurrying up a wedding-gown," he growled. None of them discerned the +handwriting of Destiny. + +"Neither do I," said Harry, who detected yielding in his father's tone. +"But we'd better send him the two prize bales; it will be a fine +advertisement of our plantation, and evidently he has a surprise in +store for us." + +The Colonel affected to hesitate, but next morning the Silver Fleece +went to town. + +Zora watched it go, and her heart swelled and died within her. She +walked to town, to the station. She did not see Mrs. Vanderpool arriving +from New Orleans; but Mrs. Vanderpool saw her, and looked curiously at +the tall, tragic figure that leaned so dolorously beside the freight +car. The bales were loaded into the express car; the train pulled away, +its hoarse snorting waking vague echoes in the forest beyond. But to the +girl who stood at the End, looking outward to darkness, those echoes +roared like the crack of doom. A passing band of contract hands called +to her mockingly, and one black giant, laughing loudly, gripped her +hand. + +"Come, honey," he shouted, "you'se a'dreaming! Come on, honey!" + +She turned abruptly and gripped his hand, as one drowning grips anything +offered--gripped till he winced. She laughed a loud mirthless laugh, +that came pouring like a sob from her deep lungs. + +"Come on!" she mocked, and joined them. + +They were a motley crowd, ragged, swaggering, jolly. There were husky, +big-limbed youths, and bold-faced, loud-tongued girls. To-morrow they +would start up-country to some backwoods barony in the kingdom of +cotton, and work till Christmas time. Today was the last in town; there +was craftily advanced money in their pockets and riot in their hearts. +In the gathering twilight they marched noisily through the streets; in +their midst, wide-eyed and laughing almost hysterically, marched Zora. + +Mrs. Vanderpool meantime rode thoughtfully out of town toward Cresswell +Oaks. She was returning from witnessing the Mardi Gras festivities at +New Orleans and at the urgent invitation of the Cresswells had stopped +off. She might even stay to the wedding if the new plans matured. + +Mrs. Vanderpool was quite upset. Her French maid, on whom she had +depended absolutely for five years or more, had left her. + +"I think I want to try a colored maid," she told the Cresswells, +laughingly, as they drove home. "They have sweet voices and they can't +doff their uniform. Helene without her cap and apron was often mistaken +for a lady, and while I was in New Orleans a French confectioner married +her under some such delusion. Now, haven't you a girl about here who +would do?" + +"No," declared Harry decisively, but his sister suggested that she might +ask Miss Smith at the colored school. + +Again Mrs. Vanderpool laughed, but after tea she wandered idly down the +road. The sun behind the swamp was crimsoning the world. Mrs. Vanderpool +strolled alone to the school, and saw Sarah Smith. There was no +cordiality in the latter's greeting, but when she heard the caller's +errand her attention was at once arrested and held. The interests of her +charges were always uppermost in her mind. + +"Can't I have the girl Zora?" Mrs. Vanderpool at last inquired. + +Miss Smith started, for she was thinking of Zora at that very instant. +The girl was later than usual, and she was momentarily expecting to see +her tall form moving languidly up the walk. + +She gave Mrs. Vanderpool a searching look. Mrs. Vanderpool glanced +involuntarily at her gown and smiled as she did it. + +"Could I trust you with a human soul?" asked Miss Smith abruptly. + +Mrs. Vanderpool looked up quickly. The half mocking answer that rose +involuntarily to her lips was checked. Within, Mrs. Vanderpool was a +little puzzled at herself. Why had she asked for this girl? She had felt +a strange interest in her--a peculiar human interest since she first saw +her and as she saw her again this afternoon. But would she make a +satisfactory maid? Was it not a rather dangerous experiment? Why had she +asked for her? She certainly had not intended to when she entered the +house. + +In the silence Miss Smith continued: "Here is a child in whom the +fountains of the great deep are suddenly broken up. With peace and care +she would find herself, for she is strong. But here there is no peace. +Slavery of soul and body awaits her and I am powerless to protect her. +She must go away. That going away may make or ruin her. She knows +nothing of working for wages and she has not the servant's humility; but +she has loyalty and pluck. For one she loves there is nothing she would +not do; but she cannot be driven. Or rather, if she is driven, it may +rouse in her the devil incarnate. She needs not exactly affection--she +would almost resent that--but intelligent interest and care. In return +for this she will gradually learn to serve and serve loyally. Frankly, +Mrs. Vanderpool, I would not have chosen you for this task of human +education. Indeed, you would have been my last thought--you seem to +me--I speak plainly--a worldly woman. Yet, perhaps--who can tell?--God +has especially set you to this task. At any rate, I have little choice. +I am at my wits' end. Elspeth, the mother of this child, is not long +dead; and here is the girl, beautiful, unprotected; and here am I, +almost helpless. She is in debt to the Cresswells, and they are pressing +the claim to her service. Take her if you can get her--it is, I fear, +her only chance. Mind you--if you can persuade her; and that may be +impossible." + +"Where is she now?" + +Miss Smith glanced out at the darkening landscape, and then at her +watch. + +"I do not know; she's very late. She's given to wandering, but usually +she is here before this time." + +"I saw her in town this afternoon," said Mrs. Vanderpool. + +"Zora? In town?" Miss Smith rose. "I'll send her to you tomorrow," she +said quietly. Mrs. Vanderpool had hardly reached the Oaks before Miss +Smith was driving toward town. + +A small cabin on the town's ragged fringe was crowded to suffocation. +Within arose noisy shouts, loud songs, and raucous laughter; the +scraping of a fiddle and whine of an accordion. Liquor began to appear +and happy faces grew red-eyed and sodden as the dances whirled. At the +edge of the orgy stood Zora, wild-eyed and bewildered, mad with the pain +that gripped her heart and hammered in her head, crying in tune with the +frenzied music--"the End--the End!" + +Abruptly she recognized a face despite the wreck and ruin of its beauty. + +"Bertie!" she cried as she seized the mother of little Emma by the arm. + +The woman staggered and offered her glass. + +"Drink," she cried, "drink and forget." + +In a moment Zora sprang forward and seized the burning liquid in both +hands. A dozen hands clapped a devil's tattoo. A score of voices yelled +and laughed. The shriek of the music was drowned beneath the thunder of +stamping feet. Men reeled to singing women's arms, but above the roar +rose the song of the voice of Zora--she glided to the middle of the +room, standing tip-toed with skirts that curled and turned; she threw +back her head, raised the liquor to her lips, paused and looked into the +face of Miss Smith. + +A silence fell like a lightning flash on the room as that white face +peered in at the door. Slowly Zora's hands fell and her eyes blinked as +though waking from some awful dream. She staggered toward the woman's +outstretched arms.... + +Late that night the girl lay close in Miss Smith's motherly embrace. + +"I was going to hell!" she whispered, trembling. + +"Why, Zora?" asked Miss Smith calmly. + +"I couldn't find the Way--and I wanted to forget." + +"People in hell don't forget," was the matter-of-fact comment. "And, +Zora, what way do you seek? The way where?" + +Zora sat up in bed, and lifted a gray and stricken face. + +"It's a lie," she cried, with hoarse earnedstness, "the way nowhere. +There is no Way! You know--I want _him_--I want nothing on earth but +him--and him I can't ever have." + +The older woman drew her down tenderly. + +"No, Zora," she said, "there's something you want more than him and +something you can have!" + +"What?" asked the wondering girl. + +"His respect," said Sarah Smith, "and I know the Way." + + + + +_Twenty-one_ + +THE MARRIAGE MORNING + + +Mrs. Vanderpool watched Zora as she came up the path beneath the oaks. +"She walks well," she observed. And laying aside her book, she waited +with a marked curiosity. + +The girl's greeting was brief, almost curt, but unintentionally so, as +one could easily see, for back in her eyes lurked an impatient hunger; +she was not thinking of greetings. She murmured a quick word, and stood +straight and tall with her eyes squarely on the lady. + +In the depths of Mrs. Vanderpool's heart something strange--not new, but +very old--stirred. Before her stood this tall black girl, quietly +returning her look. Mrs. Vanderpool had a most uncomfortable sense of +being judged, of being weighed,--and there arose within her an impulse +to self-justification. + +She smiled and said sweetly, "Won't you sit?" But despite all this, her +mind seemed leaping backward a thousand years; back to a simpler, +primal day when she herself, white, frail, and fettered, stood before +the dusky magnificence of some bejewelled barbarian queen and sought to +justify herself. She shook off the phantasy,--and yet how well the girl +stood. It was not every one that could stand still and well. + +"Please sit down," she repeated with her softest charm, not dreaming +that outside the school white persons did not ask this girl to sit in +their presence. But even this did not move Zora. She sat down. There was +in her, walking, standing, sitting, a simple directness which Mrs. +Vanderpool sensed and met. + +"Zora, I need some one to help me--to do my hair and serve my coffee, +and dress and take care of me. The work will not be hard, and you can +travel and see the world and live well. Would you like it?" + +"But I do not know how to do all these things," returned Zora, slowly. +She was thinking rapidly--Was this the Way? It sounded wonderful. The +World, the great mysterious World, that stretched beyond the swamp and +into which Bles and the Silver Fleece had gone--did it lead to the Way? +But if she went there what would she see and do, and would it be +possible to become such a woman as Miss Smith pictured? + +"What is the world like?" asked Zora. + +Mrs. Vanderpool smiled. "Oh, I meant great active cities and buildings, +myriads of people and wonderful sights." + +"Yes--but back of it all, what is it really? What does it look like?" + +"Heavens, child! Don't ask. Really, it isn't worth while peering back of +things. One is sure to be disappointed." + +"Then what's the use of seeing the world?" + +"Why, one must live; and why not be happy?" answered Mrs. Vanderpool, +amused, baffled, spurred for the time being from her chronic _ennui_. + +"Are you happy?" retorted Zora, looking her over carefully, from silken +stockings to garden hat. Mrs. Vanderpool laid aside her little mockery +and met the situation bravely. + +"No," she replied simply. Her eyes grew old and tired. + +Involuntarily Zora's hand crept out protectingly and lay a moment over +the white jewelled fingers. Then quickly recovering herself, she started +hastily to withdraw it, but the woman's fingers closed around the darker +ones, and Mrs. Vanderpool's eyes became dim. + +"I need you, Zora," she said; and then, seeing the half-formed question, +"Yes, and you need me; we need each other. In the world lies +opportunity, and I will help you." + +Zora rose abruptly, and Mrs. Vanderpool feared, with a tightening of +heart, that she had lost this strangely alluring girl. + +"I will come to-morrow," said Zora. + +As Mrs. Vanderpool went in to lunch, reaction and lingering doubts came +trouping back. To replace the daintiest of trained experts with the most +baffling semi-barbarian, well! + +"Have you hired a maid?" asked Helen. + +"I've engaged Zora," laughed Mrs. Vanderpool, lightly; "and now I'm +wondering whether I have a jewel or--a white elephant." + +"Probably neither," remarked Harry Cresswell, drily; but he avoided the +lady's inquiring eyes. + +Next morning Zora came easily into Mrs. Vanderpool's life. There was +little she knew of her duties, but little, too, that she could not learn +with a deftness and divination almost startling. Her quietness, her +quickness, her young strength, were like a soothing balm to the tired +woman of fashion, and within a week she had sunk back contentedly into +Zora's strong arms. + +"It's a jewel," she decided. + +With this verdict, the house agreed. The servants waited on "Miss Zora" +gladly; the men scarcely saw her, and the ladies ran to her for help in +all sorts. Harry Cresswell looked upon this transformation with an +amused smile, but the Colonel saw in it simply evidence of dangerous +obstinacy in a black girl who hitherto had refused to work. + +Zora had been in the house but a week when a large express package was +received from John Taylor. Its unwrapping brought a cry of pleasure +from the ladies. There lay a bolt of silken-like cambric of wondrous +fineness and lustre, marked: "For the wedding-dress." The explanation +accompanied the package, that Mary Taylor had a similar piece in the +North. + +Helen and Harry said nothing of the cablegram to the Paris tailor, and +Helen took no steps toward having the cambric dress made, not even when +the wedding invitations appeared. + +"A Cresswell married in cotton!" Helen was almost in tears lest the +Paris gown be delayed, and sure enough a cablegram came at last saying +that there was little likelihood of the gown being ready by Easter. It +would be shipped at the earliest convenience, but it could hardly catch +the necessary boat. Helen had a good cry, and then came a wild rush to +get John Taylor's cloth ready. Still, Helen was querulous. She decided +that silk embroidery must embellish the skirt. The dressmaker was in +despair. + +"I haven't a single spare worker," she declared. + +Helen was appealing to Mrs. Vanderpool. + +"I can do it," said Zora, who was in the room. + +"Do you know how?" asked the dressmaker. + +"No, but I want to know." + +Mrs. Vanderpool gave a satisfied nod. "Show her," she said. The +dressmaker was on the edge of rebellion. "Zora sews beautifully," added +Mrs. Vanderpool. + +Thus the beautiful cloth came to Zora's room, and was spread in a glossy +cloud over her bed. She trembled at its beauty and felt a vague inner +yearning, as if some subtle magic of the woven web were trying to tell +her its story. + +She worked over it faithfully and lovingly in every spare hour and in +long nights of dreaming. Wilfully she departed from the set pattern and +sewed into the cloth something of the beauty in her heart. In new and +intricate ways, with soft shadowings and coverings, she wove in that +white veil her own strange soul, and Mrs. Vanderpool watched her +curiously, but in silence. + +Meantime all things were arranged for a double wedding at Cresswell +Oaks. As John and Mary Taylor had no suitable home, they were to come +down and the two brides to go forth from the Cresswell mansion. +Accordingly the Taylors arrived a week before the wedding and the home +took on a festive air. Even Colonel Cresswell expanded under the genial +influences, and while his head still protested his heart was glad. He +had to respect John Taylor's undoubted ability; and Mary Taylor was +certainly lovely, in spite of that assumption of cleverness of which the +Colonel could not approve. + +Mary returned to the old scenes with mingled feelings. Especially was +she startled at seeing Zora a member of the household and apparently +high in favor. It brought back something of the old uneasiness and +suspicion. + +All this she soon forgot under the cadence of Harry Cresswell's pleasant +voice and the caressing touch of his arm. He seemed handsomer than ever; +and he was, for sleep and temperance and the wooing of a woman had put a +tinge in his marble face, smoothed the puffs beneath his eyes, and given +him a more distinguished bearing and a firmer hand. And Mary Taylor was +very happy. So was her brother, only differently; he was making money; +he was planning to make more, and he had something to pet which seemed +to him extraordinarily precious and valuable. + +Taylor eagerly inquired after the cloth, and followed the ladies to +Zora's room, adjoining Mrs. Vanderpool's, to see it. It lay uncut and +shimmering, covered with dim silken tracery of a delicacy and beauty +which brought an exclamation to all lips. + +"That's what we can do with Alabama cotton," cried John Taylor in +triumph. + +They turned to him incredulously. + +"But--" + +"No 'buts' about it; these are the two bales you sent me, woven with a +silk woof." No one particularly noticed that Zora had hastily left the +room. "I had it done in Easterly's New Jersey mills according to an old +plan of mine. I'm going to make cloth like that right in this county +some day," and he chuckled gayly. + +But Zora was striding up and down the halls, the blood surging in her +ears. After they were gone she came back and closed the doors. She +dropped on her knees and buried her face in the filmy folds of the +Silver Fleece. + +"I knew it! I knew it!" she whispered in mingled tears and joy. "It +called and I did not understand." + +It was her talisman new-found; her love come back, her stolen dream come +true. Now she could face the world; God had turned it straight again. +She would go into the world and find--not Love, but the thing greater +than Love. Outside the door came voices--the dressmaker's tones, Helen's +soft drawl, and Mrs. Vanderpool's finished accents. Her face went +suddenly gray. The Silver Fleece was not hers! It belonged--She rose +hastily. The door opened and they came in. The cutting must begin at +once, they all agreed. + +"Is it ready, Zora?" inquired Helen. + +"No," Zora quietly answered, "not quite, but tomorrow morning, early." +As soon as she was alone again, she sat down and considered. By and by, +while the family was at lunch, she folded the Silver Fleece carefully +and locked it in her new trunk. She would hide it in the swamp. During +the afternoon she sent to town for oil-cloth, and bade the black +carpenter at Miss Smith's make a cedar box, tight and tarred. In the +morning she prepared Mrs. Vanderpool's breakfast with unusual care. She +was sorry for Mrs. Vanderpool, and sorry for Miss Smith. They would not, +they could not, understand. What would happen to her? She did not know; +she did not care. The Silver Fleece had returned to her. Soon it would +be buried in the swamp whence it came. She had no alternative; she must +keep it and wait. + +She heard the dressmaker's voice, and then her step upon the stair. She +heard the sound of Harry Cresswell's buggy, and a scurrying at the front +door. On came the dressmaker's footsteps--then her door was +unceremoniously burst open. + +Helen Cresswell stood there radiant; the dressmaker, too, was wreathed +in smiles. She carried a big red-sealed bundle. + +"Zora!" cried Helen in ecstasy. "It's come!" Zora regarded her coldly, +and stood at bay. The dressmaker was ripping and snipping, and soon +there lay revealed before them--the Paris gown! + +Helen was in raptures, but her conscience pricked her. She appealed to +them. "Ought I to tell? You see, Mary's gown will look miserably common +beside it." + +The dressmaker was voluble. There was really nothing to tell; and +besides, Helen was a Cresswell and it was to be expected, and so forth. +Helen pursed her lips and petulantly tapped the floor with her foot. + +"But the other gown?" + +"Where is it?" asked the dressmaker, looking about. "It would make a +pretty morning-dress--" + +But Helen had taken a sudden dislike to the thought of it. + +"I don't want it," she declared. "And besides, I haven't room for it in +my trunks." + +Of a sudden she leaned down and whispered to Zora: "Zora, hide it and +keep it if you want it. Come," to the dressmaker, "I'm dying to try this +on--now.... Remember, Zora--not a word." And all this to Zora seemed no +surprise; it was the Way, and it was opening before her because the +talisman lay in her trunk. + +So at last it came to Easter morning. The world was golden with jasmine, +and crimson with azalea; down in the darker places gleamed the misty +glory of the dogwood; new cotton shook, glimmered, and blossomed in the +black fields, and over all the soft Southern sun poured its awakening +light of life. There was happiness and hope again in the cabins, and +hope and--if not happiness, ambition, in the mansions. + +Zora, almost forgetting the wedding, stood before the mirror. Laying +aside her dress, she draped her shimmering cloth about her, dragging her +hair down in a heavy mass over ears and neck until she seemed herself a +bride. And as she stood there, awed with the mystical union of a dead +love and a living new born self, there came drifting in at the window, +faintly, the soft sound of far-off marriage music. + +"'Tis thy marriage morning, shining in the sun!" + +Two white and white-swathed brides were coming slowly down the great +staircase of Cresswell Oaks, and two white and black-clothed bridegrooms +awaited them. Either bridegroom looked gladly at the flow of his +sister's garments and almost darkly at his bride's. For Helen was decked +in Parisian splendor, while Mary was gowned in the Fleece. + +"'Tis thy marriage morning, shining in the sun!" + +Up floated the song of the little dark-faced children, and Zora +listened. + + + + +_Twenty-two_ + +MISS CAROLINE WYNN + + +Bles Alwyn was seated in the anteroom of Senator Smith's office in +Washington. The Senator had not come in yet, and there were others +waiting, too. + +The young man sat in a corner, dreaming. Washington was his first great +city, and it seemed a never-ending delight--the streets, the buildings, +the crowds; the shops, and lights, and noise; the kaleidoscopic panorama +of a world's doing, the myriad forms and faces, the talk and laughter of +men. It was all wonderful magic to the country boy, and he stretched his +arms and filled his lungs and cried: "Here I shall live!" + +Especially was he attracted by his own people. They seemed transformed, +revivified, changed. Some might be mistaken for field hands on a +holiday--but not many. Others he did not recognize--they seemed strange +and alien--sharper, quicker, and at once more overbearing and more +unscrupulous. + +There were yet others--and at the sight of these Bles stood straighter +and breathed like a man. They were well dressed, and well appearing men +and women, who walked upright and looked one in the eye, and seemed like +persons of affairs and money. They had arrived--they were men--they +filled his mind's ideal--he felt like going up to them and grasping +their hands and saying, "At last, brother!" Ah, it was good to find +one's dreams, walking in the light, in flesh and blood. Continually such +thoughts were surging through his brain, and they were rioting through +it again as he sat waiting in Senator Smith's office. + +The Senator was late this morning; when he came in he glanced at the +morning paper before looking over his mail and the list of his callers. +"Do fools like the American people deserve salvation?" he sneered, +holding off the headlines and glancing at them. + +"'League Beats Trust.' ... 'Farmers of South Smash Effort to Bear Market +... Send Cotton to Twelve Cents ... Common People Triumph.' + +"A man is induced to bite off his own nose and then to sing a paean of +victory. It's nauseating--senseless. There is no earthly use striving +for such blockheads; they'd crucify any Saviour." Thus half consciously +Senator Smith salved his conscience, while he extracted a certificate of +deposit for fifty thousand dollars from his New York mail. He thrust it +aside from his secretary's view and looked at his list as he rang the +bell: there was Representative Todd, and somebody named Alwyn--nobody of +importance. Easterly was due in a half-hour. He would get rid of Todd +meantime. + +"Poor Todd," he mused; "a lamb for the slaughter." + +But he patiently listened to him plead for party support and influence +for his bill to prohibit gambling in futures. + +"I was warned that it was useless to see you, Senator Smith, but I would +come. I believe in you. Frankly, there is a strong group of your old +friends and followers forming against you; they met only last night, but +I did not go. Won't you take a stand on some of these progressive +matters--this bill, or the Child Labor movement, or Low Tariff +legislation?" + +Mr. Smith listened but shook his head. + +"When the time comes," he announced deliberately, "I shall have +something to say on several of these matters. At present I can only say +that I cannot support this bill," and Mr. Todd was ushered out. He met +Mr. Easterly coming in and greeted him effusively. He knew him only as a +rich philanthropist, who had helped the Neighborhood Guild in +Washington--one of Todd's hobbies. + +Easterly greeted Smith quietly. + +"Got my letter?" + +"Yes." + +"Here are the three bills. You will go on the Finance Committee +tomorrow; Sumdrich is chairman by courtesy, but you'll have the real +power. Put the Child Labor Bill first, and we'll work the press. The +Tariff will take most of the session, of course. We'll put the cotton +inspection bill through in the last days of the session--see? I'm +manoeuvring to get the Southern Congressmen into line.... Oh, one thing. +Thompson says he's a little worried about the Negroes; says there's +something more than froth in the talk of a bolt in the Northern Negro +vote. We may have to give them a little extra money and a few more minor +offices than usual. Talk with Thompson; the Negroes are sweet on you and +he's going to be the new chairman of the campaign, you know. Ever met +him?" + +"Yes." + +"Well--so long." + +"Just a moment," the statesman stayed the financier. + +"Todd just let fall something of a combination against us in +Congress--know anything of it?" + +"Not definitely; I heard some rumors. Better see if you can run it down. +Well, I must hurry--good day." + +While Bles Alwyn in the outer office was waiting and musing, a lady +came in. Out of the corner of his eye he caught the curve of her gown, +and as she seated herself beside him, the suggestion of a faint perfume. +A vague resentment rose in him. Colored women would look as well as +that, he argued, with the clothes and wealth and training. He paused, +however, in his thought: he did not want them like the whites--so cold +and formal and precise, without heart or marrow. He started up, for the +secretary was speaking to him. + +"Are you the--er--the man who had a letter to the Senator?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Let me see it. Oh, yes--he will see you in a moment." + +Bles was returning the letter to his pocket when he heard a voice almost +at his ear. + +"I beg your pardon--" + +He turned and started. It was the lady next to him, and she was colored! +Not extremely colored, but undoubtedly colored, with waving black hair, +light brown skin, and the fuller facial curving of the darker world. And +yet Bles was surprised, for everything else about her--her voice, her +bearing, the set of her gown, her gloves and shoes, the whole impression +was--Bles hesitated for a word--well, "white." + +"Yes--yes, ma'am," he stammered, becoming suddenly conscious that the +lady had now a second time asked him if he was acquainted with Senator +Smith. "That is, ma'am,"--why was he saying "ma'am," like a child or a +servant?--"I know his sister and have a letter for him." + +"Do you live in Washington?" she inquired. + +"No--but I want to. I've been trying to get in as a clerk, and I haven't +succeeded yet. That's what I'm going to see Senator Smith about." + +"Have you had the civil-service examinations?" + +"Yes. I made ninety-three in the examination for a treasury clerkship." + +"And no appointment? I see--they are not partial to us there." + +Bles was glad to hear her say "us." + +She continued after a pause: + +"May I venture to ask a favor of you?" + +"Certainly," he responded. + +"My name is Wynn," lowering her voice slightly and leaning toward him. +"There are so many ahead of me and I am in a hurry to get to my school; +but I must see the Senator--couldn't I go in with you? I think I might +be of service in this matter of the examination, and then perhaps I'd +get a chance to say a word for myself." + +"I'd be very glad to have you come," said Bles, cordially. + +The secretary hesitated a little when the two started in, but Miss +Wynn's air was so quietly assured that he yielded. + +Senator Smith looked at the tall, straight black man with his smooth +skin and frank eyes. And for a second time that morning a vision of his +own youth dimmed his eyes. But he spoke coldly: + +"Mr. Alwyn, I believe." + +"Yes, sir." + +"And--" + +"My friend, Miss Wynn." + +The Senator glanced at Miss Wynn and she bowed demurely. Then he turned +to Alwyn. + +"Well, Mr. Alwyn, Washington is a bad place to start in the world." + +Bles looked surprised and incredulous. He could conceive of no finer +starting-place, but he said nothing. + +"It is a grave," continued the Senator, "of ambitions and ideals. You +would far better go back to Alabama"--pausing and looking at the young +man keenly--"but you won't--you won't--not yet, at any rate." And Bles +shook his head slowly. + +"No--well, what can I do for you?" + +"I want work--I'll do anything." + +"No, you'll do one thing--be a clerk, and then if you have the right +stuff in you you will throw up that job in a year and start again." + +"I'd like at least to try it, sir." + +"Well, I can't help you much there; that's in civil-service, and you +must take the examination." + +"I have, sir." + +"So? Where, and what mark?" + +"In the Treasury Department; I got a mark of ninety-three." + +"What!--and no appointment?" The Senator was incredulous. + +"No, sir; not yet." + +Here Miss Wynn interposed. + +"You see, Senator," she said, "civil-service rules are not always +impervious to race prejudice." + +The Senator frowned. + +"Do you mean to intimate that Mr. Alwyn's appointment is held up because +he is colored?" + +"I do." + +"Well--well!" The Senator rang for a clerk. + +"Get me the Treasury on the telephone." + +In a moment the bell rang. + +"I want Mr. Cole. Is that you, Mr. Cole? Good-morning. Have you a young +man named Alwyn on your eligible list? What? Yes?" A pause. "Indeed? +Well, why has he no appointment? Of course, I know, he's a Negro. Yes, I +desire it very much--thank you." + +"You'll get an appointment to-morrow morning," and the Senator rose. +"How is my sister?" he asked absently. + +"She was looking worried, but hopeful of the new endowment when I left." +The Senator held out his hand; Bles took it and then remembered. + + +"Oh, I beg pardon, but Miss Wynn wanted a word on another matter." + +The Senator turned to Miss Wynn. + +"I am a school-teacher, Senator Smith, and like all the rest of us I am +deeply interested in the appointment of the new school-board." + +"But you know the district committee attends to those things," said the +Senator hastily. "And then, too, I believe there is talk of abolishing +the school-board and concentrating power in the hands of the +superintendent." + +"Precisely," said Miss Wynn. "And I came to tell you, Senator Smith, +that the interests which are back of this attack upon the schools are no +friends of yours." Miss Wynn extracted from her reticule a typewritten +paper. + +He took the paper and read it intently. Then he keenly scrutinized the +young woman, and she steadily returned his regard. + +"How am I to know this is true?" + +"Follow it up and see." + +He mused. + +"Where did you get these facts?" he asked suddenly. + +She smiled. + +"It is hardly necessary to say." + +"And yet," he persisted, "if I were sure of its source I would know my +ground better and--my obligation to you would be greater." + +She laughed and glanced toward Alwyn. He had moved out of earshot and +was waiting by the window. + +"I am a teacher in the M Street High School," she said, "and we have +some intelligent boys there who work their way through." + +"Yes," said the Senator. + +"Some," continued Miss Wynn, tapping her boot on the carpet, "some--wait +on table." + +The Senator slowly put the paper in his pocket. + +"And now," he said, "Miss Wynn, what can I do for you?" + +She looked at him. + +"If Judge Haynes is reappointed to the school-board I shall probably +continue to teach in the M Street High School," she said slowly. + +The Senator made a memorandum and said: + +"I shall not forget Miss Wynn--nor her friends." And he bowed, glancing +at Alwyn. + +The woman contemplated Bles in momentary perplexity, then bowing in +turn, left. Bles followed, debating just what he ought to say, how far +he might venture to accompany her, what--but she easily settled it all. + +"I thank you--good-bye," she said briefly at the door, and was gone. +Bles did not know whether to feel relieved or provoked, or disappointed, +and by way of compromise felt something of all three. + +The next morning he received notice of his appointment to a clerkship in +the Treasury Department, at a salary of nine hundred dollars. The sum +seemed fabulous and he was in the seventh heaven. For many days the +consciousness of wealth, the new duties, the street scenes, and the city +life kept him more than busy. He planned to study, and arranged with a +professor at Howard University to guide him. He bought an armful of +books and a desk, and plunged desperately to work. + +Gradually as he became used to the office routine, and in the hours when +he was weary of study, he began to find time hanging a little heavily on +his hands; indeed--although he would not acknowledge it--he was getting +lonesome, homesick, amid the myriad men of a busy city. He argued to +himself that this was absurd, and yet he knew that he was longing for +human companionship. When he looked about him for fellowship he found +himself in a strange dilemma: those black folk in whom he recognized the +old sweet-tempered Negro traits, had also looser, uglier manners than he +was accustomed to, from which he shrank. The upper classes of Negroes, +on the other hand, he still observed from afar; they were strangers not +only in acquaintance but because of a curious coldness and aloofness +that made them cease to seem his own kind; they seemed almost at times +like black white people--strangers in way and thought. + +He tried to shake off this feeling but it clung, and at last in sheer +desperation, he promised to go out of a night with a fellow clerk who +rather boasted of the "people" he knew. He was soon tired of the +strange company, and had turned to go home, when he met a newcomer in +the doorway. + +"Why, hello, Sam! Sam Stillings!" he exclaimed delightedly, and was soon +grasping the hand of a slim, well-dressed man of perhaps thirty, with +yellow face, curling hair, and shifting eyes. + +"Well, of all things, Bles--er--ah--Mr. Alwyn! Thought you were hoeing +cotton." + +Bles laughed and continued shaking his head. He was foolishly glad to +see the former Cresswell butler, whom he had known but slightly. His +face brought back unuttered things that made his heart beat faster and a +yearning surge within him. + +"I thought you went to Chicago," cried Bles. + +"I did, but goin' into politics--having entered the political field, I +came here. And you graduated, I suppose, and all that?" + +"No," Bless admitted a little sadly, as he told of his coming north, and +of Senator Smith's influence. "But--but how are--all?" + +Abruptly Sam hooked his arm into Alwyn's and pulled him with him down +the street. Stillings was a type. Up from servility and menial service +he was struggling to climb to money and power. He was shrewd, willing to +stoop to anything in order to win. The very slights and humiliations of +prejudice he turned to his advantage. When he learned all the +particulars of Alwyn's visit to Senator Smith and his cordial reception +he judged it best to keep in touch with this young man, and he forthwith +invited Bles to accompany him the next night to the Fifteenth Street +Presbyterian Church. + +"You'll find the best people there," he said; "the aristocracy. The +Treble Clef gives a concert, and everybody that's anybody will be +there." + +They met again the following evening and proceeded to the church. It was +a simple but pleasant auditorium, nearly filled with well-dressed +people. During the programme Bles applauded vociferously every number +that pleased him, which is to say, every one--and stamped his feet, +until he realized that he was attracting considerable attention to +himself. Then the entertainment straightway lost all its charm; he grew +painfully embarrassed, and for the remainder of the evening was +awkwardly self-conscious. When all was over, the audience rose leisurely +and stood in little knots and eddies, laughing and talking; many moved +forward to say a word to the singers and players, Stillings stepped +aside to a group of men, and Bles was left miserably alone. A man came +to him, a white-faced man, with slightly curling close gray hair, and +high-bred ascetic countenance. + +"You are a stranger?" he asked pleasantly, and Bles liked him. + +"Yes, sir," he answered, and they fell to talking. He discovered that +this was the pastor of the church. + +"Do you know no one in town?" + +"One or two of my fellow clerks and Mr. Stillings. Oh, yes, I've met +Miss Wynn." + +"Why, here is Miss Wynn now." + +Bles turned. She was right behind him, the centre of a group. She +turned, slowly, and smiled. + +"Oh!" she uttered twice, but with difference cadence. Then something +like amusement lurked a moment in her eye, and she quietly presented +Bles to her friends, while Stillings hovered unnoticed in the offing: + +"Miss Jones--Mr. Alwyn of--" she paused a second--"Alabama. Miss +Taylor--Mr. Alwyn--and," with a backward curving of her neck, "Mr. +Teerswell," and so on. Mr. Teerswell was handsome and indolent, with +indecision in his face and a cynical voice. In a moment Bles felt the +subtle antagonism of the group. He was an intruder. Mr. Teerswell nodded +easily and turned away, continuing his conversation with the ladies. + +But Miss Wynn was perverse and interrupted. "I saw you enjoyed the +concert, Mr. Alwyn," she said, and one of the young ladies rippled +audibly. Bles darkened painfully, realizing that these people must have +been just behind him. But he answered frankly: + +"Yes, I did immensely--I hope I didn't disturb you; you see, I'm not +used to hearing such singing." + +Mr. Teerswell, compelled to listen, laughed drily. + +"Plantation melodies, I suppose, are more your specialty," he said with +a slight cadence. + +"Yes," said Bles simply. A slight pause ensued. + +Then came the surprise of the evening for Bles Alwyn. Even his +inexperienced eye could discern that Miss Wynn was very popular, and +that most of the men were rivals for her attentions. + +"Mr. Alwyn," she said graciously, rising. "I'm going to trouble you to +see me to my door; it's only a block. Good-night, all!" she called, but +she bowed to Mr. Teerswell. + +Miss Wynn placed her hand lightly on Bles's arm, and for a moment he +paused. A thrill ran through him as he felt again the weight of a little +hand and saw beside him the dark beautiful eyes of a girl. He felt again +the warm quiver of her body. Then he awoke to the lighted church and the +moving, well-dressed throng. The hand on his arm was not so small; but +it was well-gloved, and somehow the fancy struck him that it was a cold +hand and not always sympathetic in its touch. + + + + +_Twenty-three_ + +THE TRAINING OF ZORA + + +"I did not know the world was so large," remarked Zora as she and Mrs. +Vanderpool flew east and northward on the New York-New Orleans limited. +For a long time the girl had given herself up to the sheer delight of +motion. Gazing from the window, she compared the lands she passed with +the lands she knew: noting the formation of the cotton; the kind and +growth of the trees; the state of the roads. Then the comparisons became +infinite, endless; the world stretched on and on until it seemed mere +distance, and she suddenly realized how vast a thing it was and spoke. + +Mrs. Vanderpool was amused. "It's much smaller than one would think," +she responded. + +When they came to Atlanta Zora stared and wrinkled her brows. It was her +first large city. The other towns were replicas of Toomsville; strange +in number, not in kind; but this was different, and she could not +understand it. It seemed senseless and unreasonable, and yet so +strangely so that she was at a loss to ask questions. She was very +solemn as they rode on and night came down with dreams. + +She awoke in Washington to new fairylands and wonders; the endless going +and coming of men; great piles that challenged heaven, and homes crowded +on homes till one could not believe that they were full of living +things. They rolled by Baltimore and Philadelphia, and she talked of +every-day matters: of the sky which alone stood steadfast amid whirling +change; of bits of empty earth that shook themselves here and there +loose from their burden of men, and lay naked in the cold shining +sunlight. + +All the while the greater questions were beating and curling and +building themselves back in her brain, and above all she was wondering +why no one had told her before of all this mighty world. Mrs. +Vanderpool, to whom it seemed too familiar for comment, had said no +word; or, if she had spoken, Zora's ears had not been tuned to +understand; and as they flew toward the towering ramparts of New York, +she sat up big with the terror of a new thought: suppose this world were +full yet of things she did not know nor dream of? How could she find +out? She must know. + +When finally they were settled in New York and sat high up on the Fifth +Avenue front of the hotel, gradually the inarticulate questioning found +words, albeit strange ones. + +"It reminds me of the swamp," she said. + +Mrs. Vanderpool, just returned from a shopping tour, burst into +laughter. + +"It is--but I marvel at your penetration." + +"I mean, it is moving--always moving." + +"The swamp seemed to me unearthly still." + +"Yes--yes," cried Zora, eagerly, brushing back the rumpled hair; "and so +did the city, at first, to me." + +"Still! New York?" + +"Yes. You see, I saw the buildings and forgot the men; and the +buildings were so tall and silent against Heaven. And then I came to see +the people, and suddenly I knew the city was like the swamp, always +restless and changing." + +"And more beautiful?" suggested Mrs. Vanderpool, slipping her arms into +her lounging-robe. + +"Oh, no; not nearly so beautiful. And yet--more interesting." Then with +a puzzled look: "I wonder why?" + +"Perhaps because it's people and not things." + +"It's people in the swamp," asserted Zora, dreamily, smoothing out the +pillows of the couch, "'little people,' I call them. The difference is, +I think, that there I know how the story will come out; everything is +changing, but I know how and why and from what and to what. Now here, +_every_thing seems to be happening; but what is it that is happening?" + +"You must know what has happened, to know what may happen," said Mrs. +Vanderpool. + +"But how can I know?" + +"I'll get you some books to-morrow." + +"I'd like to know what it means," wistfully. + +"It is meaningless." The woman's cynicism was lost upon Zora, of course, +but it possessed the salutary effect of stimulating the girl's thoughts, +encouraging her to discover for herself. + +"I think not; so much must mean something," she protested. + +Zora gathered up the clothes and things and shaded the windows, glancing +the while down on the street. + +"Everybody is going, going," she murmured. "I wonder where. Don't they +ever get there?" + +"Few arrive," said Mrs. Vanderpool. Zora softly bent and passed her cool +soft hand over her forehead. + +"Then why do they go?" + +"The zest of the search, perhaps." + +"No," said Zora as she noiselessly left the room and closed the door; +"no, they are searching for something they have lost. Perhaps they, too, +are searching for the Way," and the tears blinded her eyes. + +Mrs. Vanderpool lay in the quiet darkened room with a puzzled smile on +her lips. A month ago she had not dreamed that human interest in anybody +would take so strong a hold upon her as her liking for Zora had done. +She was a woman of unusual personal charm, but her own interest and +affections were seldom stirred. Had she been compelled to earn a living +she would have made a successful teacher or manipulator of men. As it +was, she viewed the human scene with detached and cynical interest. She +had no children, few near relations, a husband who went his way and +still was a gentleman. + +Essentially Mrs. Vanderpool was unmoral. She held the code of her social +set with sportsmanlike honor; but even beyond this she stooped to no +intrigue, because none interested her. She had all the elements of power +save the motive for doing anything in particular. For the first time, +perhaps, Zora gave her life a peculiar human interest. She did not love +the girl, but she was intensely interested in her; some of the interest +was selfish, for Zora was going to be a perfect maid. The girl's +language came to be more and more like Mrs. Vanderpool's; her dress and +taste in adornment had been Mrs. Vanderpool's first care, and it led to +a curious training in art and sense of beauty until the lady now and +then found herself learner before the quick suggestiveness of Zora's +mind. + +When Mrs. Harry Cresswell called a month or so later the talk naturally +included mention of Zora. Mary was happy and vivacious, and noted the +girl's rapid development. + +"I wonder what I shall make out of her?" queried Mrs. Vanderpool. "Do +you know, I believe I could mould her into a lady if she were not +black." + +Mary Cresswell laughed. "With that hair?" + +"It has artistic possibilities. You should have seen my hair-dresser's +face when I told her to do it up. Her face and Zora's were a pantomime +for the gods. Yet it was done. It lay in some great twisted cloud and in +that black net gown of mine Zora was simply magnificent. Her form is +perfect, her height is regal, her skin is satin, and my jewels found a +resting place at last. Jewels, you know, dear, were never meant for +white folk. I was tempted to take her to the box at the opera and let +New York break its impudent neck." + +Mary was shocked. + +"But, Mrs. Vanderpool," she protested, "is it right? Is it fair? Why +should you spoil this black girl and put impossible ideas into her head? +You can make her a perfect maid, but she can never be much more in +America." + +"She is a perfect maid now; that's the miracle of it--she's that deft +and quick and quiet and thoughtful! The hotel employees think her +perfect; my friends rave--really, I'm the most blessed of women. But do +you know I like the girl? I--well, I think of her future." + +"It's wrong to treat her as you do. You make her an equal. Her room is +one of the best and filled with books and bric-a-brac. She sometimes +eats with you--is your companion, in fact." + +"What of it? She loves to read, and I guide her while she keeps me up on +the latest stuff. She can talk much better than many of my friends and +then she piques my curiosity: she's a sort of intellectual sauce that +stirs my rapidly failing mental appetite. I think that as soon as I can +make up my mind to spare her, I'll take her to France and marry her off +in the colonies." + +"Well, that's possible; but one doesn't easily give up good servants. By +the way, I learn from Miss Smith that the boy, Bles Alwyn, in whom Zora +was so interested, is a clerk in the Treasury Department at Washington." + +"Indeed! I'm going to Washington this winter; I'll look him over and see +if he's worth Zora--which I greatly doubt." + +Mrs. Cresswell pursed her lips and changed the subject. + +"Have you seen the Easterlys?" + +"The ladies left their cards--they are quite impossible. Mr. Easterly +calls this afternoon. I can't imagine why, but he asked for an +appointment. Will you go South with Mr. Cresswell? I'm glad to hear he's +entering politics." + +"No, I shall do some early house hunting in Washington," said Mrs. +Cresswell, rising as Mr. Easterly was announced. + +Mr. Easterly was not at home in Mrs. Vanderpool's presence. She spoke a +language different from his, and she had shown a disconcerting way, in +the few times when he had spoken with her, of letting the weight of the +conversation rest on him. He felt very distinctly that Mrs. Vanderpool +was not particularly desirous of his company, nor that of his family. +Nevertheless, he needed Mrs. Vanderpool's influence just now, and he was +willing to pay considerable for it. Once under obligation to him her +services would be very valuable. He was glad to find Mrs. Cresswell +there. It showed that the Cresswells were still intimate, and the +Cresswells were bound to him and his interests by strong ties. He bowed +as Mrs. Cresswell left, and then did not beat around the bush because, +in this case, he did not know how. + +"Mrs. Vanderpool, I need your aid." + +Mrs. Vanderpool smiled politely, and murmured something. + +"We are, you know, in the midst of a rather warm presidential campaign," +continued Mr. Easterly. + +"Yes?" with polite interest. + +"We are going to win easily, but our majority in Congress for certain +matters will depend on the attitude of Southerners and you usually spend +the winters in Washington. If, now, you could drop a word here and +there--" + +"But why should I?" asked Mrs. Vanderpool. + +"Mrs. Vanderpool, to be frank, I know some excellent investments that +your influence in this line would help. I take it you're not so rich but +that--" + +Mrs. Vanderpool smiled faintly. + +"Really, Mr. Easterly, I know little about such matters and care less. I +have food and clothes. Why worry with more?" + +Mr. Easterly half expected this and he determined to deliver his last +shot on the run. He arose with a disappointed air. + +"Of course, Mrs. Vanderpool, I see how it is: you have plenty and one +can't expect your services or influence for nothing. It had occurred to +me that your husband might like something political; but I presume not." + +"Something political?" + +"Yes. You see, it's barely possible, for instance, that there will be a +change in the French ambassadorship. The present ambassador is old +and--well, I don't know, but as I say, it's possible. Of course though, +that may not appeal to you, and I can only beg your good offices in +charity if--if you see your way to help us. Well, I must be going." + +"What is--I thought the President appointed ambassadors." + +"To be sure, but we appoint Presidents," laughed Mr. Easterly. +"Good-day. I shall hope to see you in Washington." + +"Good-day," Mrs. Vanderpool returned absently. + +After he had gone she walked slowly to Zora's room and opened the door. +For a long time she stood quietly looking in. Zora was curled in a chair +with a book. She was in dreamland; in a world of books builded +thoughtfully for her by Mrs. Vanderpool, and before that by Miss Smith. +Her work took but little of her time and left hours for reading and +thinking. In that thought-life, more and more her real living centred. + +Hour after hour, day after day, she lay buried, deaf and dumb to all +else. Her heart cried, up on the World's four corners of the Way, and to +it came the Vision Splendid. She gossiped with old Herodotus across the +earth to the black and blameless Ethiopians; she saw the sculptured +glories of Phidias marbled amid the splendor of the swamp; she listened +to Demosthenes and walked the Appian Way with Cornelia--while all New +York streamed beneath her window. + +She saw the drunken Goths reel upon Rome and heard the careless Negroes +yodle as they galloped to Toomsville. Paris, she knew,--wonderful, +haunting Paris: the Paris of Clovis, and St. Louis; of Louis the Great, +and Napoleon III; of Balzac, and her own Dumas. She tasted the mud and +comfort of thick old London, and the while wept with Jeremiah and sang +with Deborah, Semiramis, and Atala. Mary of Scotland and Joan of Arc +held her dark hands in theirs, and Kings lifted up their sceptres. + +She walked on worlds, and worlds of worlds, and heard there in her +little room the tread of armies, the paeans of victory, the breaking of +hearts, and the music of the spheres. + +Mrs. Vanderpool watched her a while. + +"Zora," she presently broke into the girl's absorption, "how would you +like to be Ambassador to France?" + + + + +_Twenty-four_ + +THE EDUCATION OF ALWYN + + +Miss Caroline Wynn of Washington had little faith in the world and its +people. Nor was this wholly her fault. The world had dealt cruelly with +the young dreams and youthful ambitions of the girl; partly with its +usual heartlessness, partly with that cynical and deadening reserve fund +which it has today for its darker peoples. The girl had bitterly +resented her experiences at first: she was brilliant and well-trained; +she had a real talent for sculpture, and had studied considerably; she +was sprung from at least three generations of respectable mulattoes, who +had left a little competence which yielded her three or four hundred +dollars a year. Furthermore, while not precisely pretty, she was +good-looking and interesting, and she had acquired the marks and +insignia of good breeding. Perhaps she wore her manners just a trifle +consciously; perhaps she was a little morbid that she would fail of +recognition as a lady. Nor was this unnatural: her brown skin invited a +different assumption. Despite this almost unconscious mental +aggressiveness, she was unusually presentable and always well-groomed +and pleasant of speech. Yet she found nearly all careers closed to her. +At first it seemed accidental, the luck of life. Then she attributed it +to her sex; but at last she was sure that, beyond chance and womanhood, +it was the colorline that was hemming her in. Once convinced of this, +she let her imagination play and saw the line even where it did not +exist. + +With her bit of property and brilliant parts she had had many suitors +but they had been refused one after another for reasons she could hardly +have explained. For years now Tom Teerswell had been her escort. Whether +or not Caroline Wynn would every marry him was a perennial subject of +speculation among their friends and it usually ended in the verdict that +she could not afford it--that it was financially impossible. + +Nevertheless, the two were usually seen in public together, and although +she often showed her quiet mastery of the situation, seldom had she +snubbed him so openly as at the Treble Clef concert. + +Teerswell was furious and began to plot vengeance; but Miss Wynn was +attracted by the personality of Bles Alwyn. Southern country Negroes +were rare in her set, but here was a man of intelligence and keenness +coupled with an amazing frankness and modesty, and perceptibly shadowed +by sorrow. The combination was, so far as she had observed, both rare +and temporary and she was disposed to watch it in this case purely as a +matter of intellectual curiosity. At the door of her home, therefore, +after a walk of unusual interest, she said: + +"I'm going to have a few friends in next Tuesday night; won't you come, +Mr. Alwyn?" And Mr. Alwyn said that he would. + +Next morning Miss Wynn rather repented her hasty invitation, but of +course nothing could be done now. Nothing? Well, there was one thing; +and she went to the telephone. A suggestion to Bles that he might +profitably extend his acquaintance sent him to a certain tailor shop +kept by a friend of hers; a word to the tailor guarded against the least +suspicion of intrigue entering Bles's head. + +It turned out quite as Miss Wynn had designed; Mr. Grey, the tailor, +gave Bles some points on dressing, and made him, Southern fashion, a +frock-coat for dress wear that set off his fine figure. On the night of +the gathering at Miss Wynn's Bles dressed with care, hesitating long +over a necktie, but at last choosing one which he had recently purchased +and which pleased him particularly. He was prompt to the minute and was +consequently the first guest; but Miss Wynn's greeting was so quietly +cordial that his embarrassment soon fled. She looked him over at leisure +and sighed at his tie; otherwise he was thoroughly presentable according +to the strictest Washington standard. + +They sat down and talked of generalities. Then an idea occurring to her, +she conducted the conversation by devious paths to ties and asked Alwyn +if he had heard of the fad of collecting ties. He had not, and she +showed him a sofa pillow. + +"Your tie quite attracted me," she said; "it would make just the dash of +color I need in my new pillow." + +"You may have it and welcome. I'll send--" + +"Oh, no! A bird in the hand, you know. I'll trade with you now for +another I have." + +"Done!" + +The exchange was soon made, Miss Wynn tying the new one herself and +sticking a small carved pin in it. Bles slowly sat down again, and after +a pause said, "Thank you." + +She looked up quickly, but he seemed quite serious and good-natured. + +"You see," he explained, "in the country we don't know much about ties." + +The well-balanced Miss Wynn for a moment lost her aplomb, but only for a +moment. + +"We must all learn," she replied with penetration, and so their +friendship was established. + +The company now began to gather, and soon the double parlor held an +assemblage of twenty-five or thirty persons. They formed a picturesque +group: conventional but graceful in dress; animated in movement; full of +good-natured laughter, but quite un-American in the beautiful modulation +of their speaking tones; chiefly noticeable, however, to a stranger, in +the vast variety of color in skin, which imparted to the throng a +piquant and unusual interest. Every color was here; from the dark brown +of Alwyn, who was customarily accounted black, to the pale pink-white of +Miss Jones, who could "pass for white" when she would, and found her +greatest difficulties when she was trying to "pass" for black. Midway +between these two extremes lay the sallow pastor of the church, the +creamy Miss Williams, the golden yellow of Mr. Teerswell, the golden +brown of Miss Johnson, and the velvet brown of Mr. Grey. The guest +themselves did not notice this; they were used to asking one's color as +one asks of height and weight; it was simply an extra dimension in their +world whereby to classify men. + +Beyond this and their hair, there was little to distinguish them from a +modern group of men and women. The speech was a softened English, purely +and, on the whole, correctly spoken--so much so that it seemed at first +almost unfamiliar to Bles, and he experienced again the uncomfortable +feeling of being among strangers. Then, too, he missed the loud but +hearty good-nature of what he had always called "his people." To be +sure, a more experienced observer might have noted a lively, excitable +tropical temperament set and cast in a cold Northern mould, and yet +flashing fire now and then in a sudden anomalous out-bursting. But Bles +missed this; he seemed to have slipped and lost his bearings, and the +characteristics of his simple world were rolling curiously about. Here +stood a black man with a white man's voice, and yonder a white woman +with a Negro's musical cadences; and yet again, a brown girl with +exactly Miss Cresswell's air, and yonder, Miss Williams, with Zora's +wistful willfulness. + +Bles was bewildered and silent, and his great undying sorrow sank on his +heart with sickening hopeless weight. His hands got in the way and he +found no natural nook in all those wide and tastefully furnished rooms. +Once he discovered himself standing by a marble statue of a nude woman, +and he edged away; then he stumbled over a rug and saved himself only to +step on Miss Jones's silken train. Miss Jones's smile of pardon was +wintry. When he did approach a group and listen, they seemed speaking of +things foreign to him--usually of people he did not know, their homes, +their doings, their daughters and their fathers. They seemed to know +people intimately who lived far away. + +"You mean the Smiths of Boston?" asked Miss Jones. + +"No, of Cleveland. They're not related." + +"I heard that McGhee of St. Paul will be in the city next week with his +daughter." + +"Yes, and the Bentleys of Chicago." + +Bles passed on. He was disappointed. He was full of things to say, of +mighty matters to discuss; he felt like stopping these people and +crying: "Ho! What of the morning? How goes the great battle for black +men's rights? I have came with messages from the host, to you who guard +the mountain tops." + +Apparently they were not discussing or caring about "the Problem." He +grew disgusted and was edging toward the door when he encountered his +hostess. + +"Is all well with you, Mr. Alwyn?" she asked lightly. + +"No, I'm not enjoying myself," said Bles, truthfully. + +"Delicious! And why not?" + +He regarded her earnestly. + +"There are so many things to talk about," he said; "earnest things; +things of importance. I--I think when our people--" he hesitated. +Our?--was _our_ right? But he went on: "When our people meet we ought +to talk of our situation, and what to do and--" + +Miss Wynn continued to smile. + +"We're all talking of it all the time," she said. + +He looked incredulous. + +"Yes, we are," she insisted. "We veil it a little, and laugh as lightly +as we can; but there is only one thought in this room, and that's grave +and serious enough to suit even you, and quite your daily topic." + +"But I don't understand." + +"Ah, there's the rub. You haven't learned our language yet. We don't +just blurt into the Negro Problem; that's voted bad form. We leave that +to our white friends. We saunter to it sideways, touch it delicately +because"--her face became a little graver--"because, you see, it hurts." + +Bles stood thoughtful and abashed. + +"I--I think I understand," he gravely said at last. + +"Come here," she said with a sudden turn, and they joined an absorbed +group in the midst of a conversation. + +"--Thinking of sending Jessie to Bryn Mawr," Bles heard Miss Jones +saying. + +"Could she pass?" + +"Oh, they might think her Spanish." + +"But it's a snobbish place and she would have to give up all her +friends." + +"Yes, Freddie could scarcely visit--" the rest was lost. + +"Which, being interpreted," whispered Miss Wynn, "means that Bryn Mawr +draws the color line while we at times surmount it." + +They moved on to another group. + +"--Splendid draughtsman," a man was saying, "and passed at the head of +the crowd; but, of course, he has no chance." + +"Why, it's civil-service, isn't it?" + +"It is. But what of that? There was Watson--" + +Miss Wynn did not pause. She whispered: "This is the tale of Civil +Service Reform, and how this mighty government gets rid of black men +who know too much." + +"But--" Bles tried to protest. + +"Hush," Miss Wynn commanded and they joined the group about the piano. +Teerswell, who was speaking, affected not to notice them, and continued: + +"--I tell you, it's got to come. We must act independently and not be +bought by a few offices." + +"That's all well enough for you to talk, Teerswell; you have no wife and +babies dependant on you. Why should we who have sacrifice the substance +for the shadow?" + +"You see, the Judge has got the substance," laughed Teerswell. "Still I +insist: divide and conquer." + +"Nonsense! Unite, and keep." + +Bles was puzzled. + +"They're talking of the coming campaign," said Miss Wynn. + +"What!" exclaimed Bles aloud. "You don't mean that any one can advise a +black man to vote the Democratic ticket?" + +An elderly man turned to them. + +"Thank you, sir," he said; "that is just my attitude; I fought for my +freedom. I know what slavery is; may I forget God when I vote for +traitors and slave-holders." + +The discussion waxed warm and Miss Wynn turned away and sought Miss +Jones. + +"Come, my dear," she said, "it's 'The Problem' again." They sauntered +away toward a ring of laughter. + +The discussion thus begun at Miss Wynn's did not end there. It was on +the eve of the great party conventions, and the next night Sam Stillings +came around to get some crumbs from this assembly of the inner circle, +into which Alwyn had been so unaccountably snatched, and outside of +which, despite his endeavors, Stillings lingered and seemed destined to +linger. But Stillings was a patient, resolute man beneath his +deferential exterior, and he saw in Bles a stepping stone. So he began +to drop in at his lodgings and tonight invited him to the Bethel +Literary. + +"What's that?" asked Bles. + +"A debating club--oldest in the city; the best people all attend." + +Bles hesitated. He had half made up his mind that this was the proper +time to call on Miss Wynn. He told Stillings so, and told him also of +the evening and the discussion. + +"Why, that's the subject up tonight," Stillings declared, "and Miss Wynn +will be sure to be there. You can make your call later. Perhaps you +wouldn't mind taking me when you call." Alwyn reached for his hat. + +When they arrived, the basement of the great church was filling with a +throng of men and women. Soon the officers and the speaker of the +evening appeared. The president was a brown woman who spoke easily and +well, and introduced the main speaker. He was a tall, thin, +hatchet-faced black man, clean shaven and well dressed, a lawyer by +profession. His theme was "The Democratic Party and the Negro." His +argument was cool, carefully reasoned, and plausible. He was evidently +feeling for the sympathy of his audience, and while they were not +enthusiastic, they warmed to him gradually and he certainly was strongly +impressing them. + +Bles was thinking. He sat in the back of the hall, tense, alert, +nervous. As the speaker progressed a white man came in and sat down +beside him. He was spectacled, with bushy eyebrows and a sleepy look. +But he did not sleep. He was very observant. + +"Who's speaking?" he asked Bles, and Bles told him. Then he inquired +about one or two other persons. Bles could not inform him, but Stillings +could and did. Stillings seemed willing to devote considerable time to +him. + +Bles forgot the man. He was almost crouching for a spring, and no sooner +had the speaker, with a really fine apostrophe to independence and +reason in voting, sat down, than Bles was on his feet, walking forward. +His form was commanding, his voice deep and musical, and his +earnestness terribly evident. He hardly waited for recognition from the +slightly astonished president, but fairly burst into speech. + +"I am from Alabama," he began earnestly, "and I know the Democratic +Party." Then he told of government and conditions in the Black Belt, of +the lying, oppression, and helplessness of the sodden black masses; +then, turning, he reminded them of the history of slavery. Finally, he +pointed to Lincoln's picture and to Sumner's and mentioned other white +friends. + +"And, my brothers, they are not all dead yet. The gentleman spoke of +Senator Smith and blamed and ridiculed him. I know Senator Smith but +slightly, but I do know his sister well." + +Dropping to simple narrative, he told of Miss Smith and of his coming to +school; and if his audience felt that great depth of emotion that welled +beneath his quiet, almost hesitating, address, it was not simply because +of what he did say, but because, too, of the unspoken story that lay too +deep for words. He spoke for nearly an hour, and when he stopped, for a +moment his hearers sighed and then sprang into a whirlwind of applause. +They shouted, clapped, and waved while he sat in blank amazement, and +was with difficulty forced to the rostrum to bow again and again. The +spectacled white man leaned over to Stillings. + +"Who is he?" he asked. Stillings told him. The man noted the name and +went quietly out. + +Miss Wynn sat lost in thought, and Teerswell beside her fumed. She was +not easily moved, but that speech had moved her. If he could thus stir +men and not be himself swayed, she mused, he would be--invincible. But +tonight he was moved as greatly as his hearers had been, and that was +dangerous. If his intense belief happened to be popular, all right; but +if not? She frowned. He was worth watching, she concluded; quite worth +watching, and perhaps worth guiding. + +When Alwyn accompanied her home that night, Miss Wynn set herself to +know him better for she suspected that he might be a coming man. The +best preliminary to her purpose was, she knew, to speak frankly of +herself, and that she did. She told him of her youth and training, her +ambitions, her disappointments. Quite unconsciously her cynicism crept +to the fore, until in word and tone she had almost scoffed at many +things that Alwyn held true and dear. The touch was too light, the +meaning too elusive, for Alwyn to grasp always the point of attack; but +somehow he got the distant impression that Miss Wynn had little faith in +Truth and Goodness and Love. Vaguely shocked he grew so silent that she +noticed it and concluded she had said too much. But he pursued the +subject. + +"Surely there must be many friends of our race willing to stand for the +right and sacrifice for it?" + +She laughed unpleasantly, almost mockingly. + +"Where?" + +"Well--there's Miss Smith." + +"She gets a salary, doesn't she?" + +"A very small one." + +"About as large as she could earn. North, I don't doubt." + +"But the unselfish work she does--the utter sacrifice?" + +"Oh, well, we'll omit Alabama, and admit the exception." + +"Well, here, in Washington--there's your friend, the Judge, who has +befriended you so, as you admit." + +She laughed again. + +"You remember our visit to Senator Smith?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, it got the Judge his reappointment to the school board." + +"He deserved it, didn't he?" + +"I deserved it," she said luxuriously, hugging her knee and smiling; +"you see, his appointment meant mine." + +"Well, what of it--didn't--" + +"Listen," she cut in a little sharply. "Once a young brown girl, with +boundless faith in white folks, went to a Judge's office to ask for an +appointment which she deserved. There was no one there. The benign old +Judge with his saintly face and white hair suggested that she lay aside +her wraps and spend the afternoon." + +Bles arose to his feet. + +"What--what did you do?" he asked. + +"Sit down--there's a good boy." I said: "'Judge, a friend is expecting +me at two,' it was then half-past one, 'would I not best telephone?'" + +"'Step right into the booth,' said the Judge, quite indulgently." Miss +Wynn leaned back, and Bles felt his heart sinking; but he said nothing. +"And then," she continued, "I telephoned the Judge's wife that he was +anxious to see her on a matter of urgent business; namely, my +appointment." She gazed reflectively out of the window. "You should have +seen his face when I told him," she concluded. "I was appointed." + +But Bles asked coldly: + +"Why didn't you have him arrested?" + +"For what? And suppose I had?" + +Bles threw out his arms helplessly. + +"Oh! it isn't as bad as that all over the world, is it?" + +"It's worse," affirmed Miss Wynn, quietly positive. + +"And you are still friendly with him?" + +"What would you have? I use the world; I did not make it; I did not +choose it. He is the world. Through him I earn my bread and butter. I +have shown him his place. Shall I try in addition to reform? Shall I +make him an enemy? I have neither time nor inclination. Shall I resign +and beg, or go tilting at windmills? If he were the only one it would be +different; but they're all alike." Her face grew hard. "Have I shocked +you?" she said as they went toward the door. + +"No," he answered slowly. "But I still--believe in the world." + +"You are young yet, my friend," she lightly replied. "And besides, that +good Miss Smith has gone and grafted a New England conscience on a +tropical heart, and--dear me!--but it's a gorgeous misfit. +Good-bye--come again." She bowed him graciously out, and paused to take +the mail from the box. There was, among many others, a letter from +Senator Smith. + + + + +_Twenty-five_ + +THE CAMPAIGN + + +Mr. Easterly sat in Mrs. Vanderpool's apartments in the New Willard, +Washington, drinking tea. His hostess was saying rather carelessly: + +"Do you know, Mr. Vanderpool has developed a quite unaccountable liking +for the idea of being Ambassador to France?" + +"Dear me!" mildly exclaimed Mr. Easterly, helping himself liberally to +cakes. "I do hope the thing can be managed, but--" + +"What are the difficulties?" Mrs. Vanderpool interrupted. + +"Well, first and foremost, the difficulty of electing our man." + +"I thought that a foregone conclusion." + +"It was. But do you know that we're encountering opposition from the +most unexpected source?" + +The lady was receptive, and the speaker concluded: + +"The Negroes." + +"The Negroes!" + +"Yes. There are five hundred thousand or more black voters in pivotal +Northern States, you know, and they're in revolt. In a close election +the Negroes of New York, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois choose the +President." + +"What's the matter?" + +"Well, business interests have driven our party to make friends with the +South. The South has disfranchised Negroes and lynched a few. The +darkies say we've deserted them." + +Mrs. Vanderpool laughed. + +"What extraordinary penetration," she cried. + +"At any rate," said Mr. Easterly, drily, "Mr. Vanderpool's first step +toward Paris lies in getting the Northern Negroes to vote the Republican +ticket. After that the way is clear." + +Mrs. Vanderpool mused. + +"I don't suppose you know any one who is acquainted with any number of +these Northern darkies?" continued Mr. Easterly. + +"Not on my calling-list," said Mrs. Vanderpool, and then she added more +thoughtfully: + +"There's a young clerk in the Treasury Department named Alwyn who has +brains. He's just from the South, and I happened to read of him this +morning--see here." + +Mr. Easterly read an account of the speech at the Bethel Literary. + +"We'll look this young man up," he decided; "he may help. Of course, +Mrs. Vanderpool, we'll probably win; we can buy these Negroes off with a +little money and a few small offices; then if you will use your +influence for the part with the Southerners, I can confidently predict +from four to eight years' sojourn in Paris." + +Mrs. Vanderpool smiled and called her maid as Mr. Easterly went. + +"Zora!" She had to call twice, for Zora, with widened eyes, was reading +the Washington Post. + +Meantime in the office of Senator Smith, toward which Mr. Easterly was +making his way, several members of the National Republican campaign +committee had been closeted the day before. + +"Now, about the niggers," the chairman had asked; "how much more boodle +do they want?" + +"That's what's bothering us," announced a member; "it isn't the boodle +crowd that's hollering, but a new set, and I don't understand them; I +don't know what they represent, nor just how influential they are." + +"What can I do to help you?" asked Senator Smith. + +"This. You are here at Washington with these Negro office-holders at +your back. Find out for us just what this revolt is, how far it goes, +and what good men we can get to swing the darkies into line--see?" + +"Very good," the Senator acquiesced. He called in a spectacled man with +bushy eyebrows and a sleepy look. + +"I want you to work the Negro political situation," directed the +Senator, "and bring me all the data you can get. Personally, I'm at sea. +I don't understand the Negro of today at all; he puzzles me; he doesn't +fit any of my categories, and I suspect that I don't fit his. See what +you can find out." + +The man went out, and the Senator turned to his desk, then paused and +smiled. One day, not long since, he had met a colored person who +personified his perplexity concerning Negroes; she was a lady, yet she +was black--that is, brown; she was educated, even cultured, yet she +taught Negroes; she was quiet, astute, quick and diplomatic--everything, +in fact, that "Negroes" were not supposed to be; and yet she was a +"Negro." She had given him valuable information which he had sought in +vain elsewhere, and the event proved it correct. Suppose he asked +Caroline Wynn to help him in this case? It would certainly do no harm +and it might elect a Republican president. He wrote a short letter with +his own hand and sent it to post. + +Miss Wynn read the letter after Alwyn's departure with a distinct thrill +which was something of a luxury for her. Evidently she was coming to +her kingdom. The Republican boss was turning to her for confidential +information. + +"What do the colored people want, and who can best influence them in +this campaign?" + +She curled up on the ottoman and considered. The first part of the query +did not bother her. + +"Whatever they want they won't get," she said decisively. + +But as to the man or men who could influence them to believe that they +were getting, or about to get, what they wanted--there was a question. +One by one she considered the men she knew, and, by a process of +elimination, finally arrived at Bles Alwyn. + +Why not take this young man in hand and make a Negro leader of him--a +protagonist of ten millions? It would not be unpleasant. But could she +do it? Would he be amenable to her training and become worldly wise? She +flattered herself that he would, and yet--there was a certain steadfast +look in the depths of his eyes that might prove to be sheer +stubbornness. At any rate, who was better? There was a fellow, +Stillings, whom Alwyn had introduced and whom she had heard of. Now he +was a politician--but nothing else. She dismissed him. Of course, +there was the older set of office-holders and rounders. But she was +determined to pick a new man. He was worth trying, at any rate; she knew +none other with the same build, the brains, the gifts, the adorable +youth. Very good. She wrote two letters, and then curled up to her novel +and candy. + +Next day Senator Smith held Miss Wynn's letter unopened in his hand when +Mr. Easterly entered. They talked of the campaign and various matters, +until at last Easterly said: + +"Say, there's a Negro clerk in the Treasury named Alwyn." + +"I know him--I had him appointed." + +"Good. He may help us. Have you seen this?" + +The Senator read the clipping. + +"I hadn't noticed it--but here's my agent." + +The spectacled man entered with a mass of documents. He had papers, +posters, programmes, and letters. + +"The situation is this," he said. "A small group of educated Negroes are +trying to induce the rest to punish the Republican Party for not +protecting them. These men are not politicians, nor popular leaders, but +they have influence and are using it. The old-style Negro politicians +are no match for them, and the crowd of office-holders are rather +bewildered. Strong measures are needed. Educated men of earnestness and +ability might stem the tide. And I believe I know one such man. He spoke +at a big meeting last night at the Metropolitan church. His name is +Alwyn." + +Senator Smith listened as he opened the letter from Caroline Wynn. Then +he started. + +"Well!" he ejaculated, looking quickly up at Easterly. "This is +positively uncanny. From three separate sources the name of Alwyn pops +up. Looks like a mascot. Call up the Treasury. Let's have him up when +the sub-committee meets to-morrow." + +Bles Alwyn hurried up to Senator Smith's office, hoping to hear +something about the school; perhaps even about--but he stopped with a +sigh, and sat down in the ante-room. He was kept waiting a few moments +while Senator Smith, the chairman, and one other member of the +sub-committee had a word. + +"Now, I don't know the young man, mind you," said the Senator; "but he's +strongly recommended." + +"What shall we offer him?" asked the chairman. + +"Try him at twenty-five dollars a speech. If he balks, raise to fifty +dollars, but no more." + +They summoned the young man. The chairman produced cigars. + +"I don't smoke," said Bles apologetically. + +"Well, we haven't anything to drink," said the chairman. But Senator +Smith broke in, taking up at once the paramount interest. + +"Mr. Alwyn, as you know, the Democrats are making an effort to get the +Negro vote in this campaign. Now, I know the disadvantages and wrongs +which black men in this land are suffering. I believe the Republicans +ought to do more to defend them, and I'm satisfied they will; but I +doubt if the way to get Negro rights is to vote for those who took them +away." + +"I agree with you perfectly," said Bles. + +"I understand you do, and that you made an unusually fine speech on the +subject the other night." + +"Thank you, sir." This was a good deal more than Bles had expected, and +he was embarrassed. + +"Well, now, we think you're just the man to take the stump during +September and October and convince the colored people of their real +interests." + +"I doubt if I could, sir; I'm not a speaker. In fact, that was my first +public speech." + +"So much the better. Are you willing to try?" + +"Why, yes, sir; but I could hardly afford to give up my position." + +"We'll arrange for a leave of absence." + +"Then I'll try, sir." + +"What would you expect as pay?" + +"I suppose my salary would stop?" + +"I mean in addition to that." + +"Oh, nothing, sir; I'd be glad to do the work." + +The chairman nearly choked; sitting back, he eyed the young man. Either +they were dealing with a fool, or else a very astute politician. If the +former, how far could they trust him; if the latter, what was his game? + +"Of course, there'll be considerable travelling," the chairman ventured, +looking reflectively out of the window. + +"Yes, sir, I suppose so." + +"We might pay the railroad fare." + +"Thank you, sir. When shall I begin?" + +The chairman consulted his calendar. + +"Suppose you hold yourself in readiness for one week from today." + +"All right," and Bles rose. "Good-day, gentlemen." + +But the chairman was still puzzled. + +"Now, what's his game?" he asked helplessly. + +"He may be honest," offered Senator Smith, contemplating the door almost +wistfully. + +The campaign progressed. The National Republican Committee said little +about the Negro revolt and affected to ignore it. The papers were +silent. Underneath this calm, however, the activity was redoubled. The +prominent Negroes were carefully catalogued, written to, and put under +personal influence. The Negro papers were quietly subsidized, and they +began to ridicule and reproach the new leaders. + +As the Fall progressed, mass-meetings were held in Washington and the +small towns. Larger and larger ones were projected, and more and more +Alwyn was pushed to the front. He was developing into a most effective +speaker. He had the voice, the presence, the ideas, and above all he was +intensely in earnest. There were other colored orators with voice, +presence, and eloquence; but their people knew their record and +discounted them. Alwyn was new, clear, and sincere, and the black folk +hung on his words. Large and larger crowds greeted him until he was the +central figure in a half dozen great negro mass-meetings in the chief +cities of the country, culminating in New York the night before +election. Perhaps the secret newspaper work, the personal advice of +employers and friends, and the liberal distribution of cash, would have +delivered a large part of the Negro vote to the Republican candidate. +Perhaps--but there was a doubt. With the work of Alwyn, however, all +doubt disappeared, and there was little reason for denying that the new +President walked into the White House through the instrumentality of an +unknown Georgia Negro, little past his majority. This is what Senator +Smith said to Mr. Easterly; what Miss Wynn said to herself; and it was +what Mrs. Vanderpool remarked to Zora as Zora was combing her hair on +the Wednesday after election. + +Zora murmured an indistinct response. As already something of the beauty +of the world had found question and answer in her soul, and as she began +to realize how the world had waxed old in thought and stature, so now in +their last days a sense of the power of men, as set over against the +immensity and force of their surroundings, became real to her. She had +begun to read of the lives and doing of those called great, and in her +mind a plan was forming. She saw herself standing dim within the +shadows, directing the growing power of a man: a man who would be great +as the world counted greatness, rich, high in position, +powerful--wonderful because his face was black. He would never see her; +never know how she worked and planned, save perhaps at last, in that +supreme moment as she passed, her soul would cry to his, "Redeemed!" And +he would understand. + +All this she was thinking and weaving; not clearly and definitely, but +in great blurred clouds of thought of things as she said slowly: + +"He should have a great position for this." + +"Why, certainly," Mrs. Vanderpool agreed, and then curiously: "What?" + +Zora considered. "Negroes," she said, "have been Registers of the +Treasury, and Recorders of Deeds here in Washington, and Douglas was +Marshal; but I want Bles--" she paused and started again. "Those are not +great enough for Mr. Alwyn; he should have an office so important that +Negroes would not think of leaving their party again." + +Mrs. Vanderpool took pains to repeat Zora's words to Mr. Easterly. He +considered the matter. + +"In one sense, it's good advice," he admitted; "but there's the South to +reckon with. I'll think it over and speak to the President. Oh, yes; I'm +going to mention France at the same time." + +Mrs. Vanderpool smiled and leaned back in her carriage. She noted with +considerable interest the young colored woman who was watching her from +the sidewalk: a brown, well-appearing young woman of notable +self-possession. Caroline Wynn scrutinized Mrs. Vanderpool because she +had been speaking with Mr. Easterly, and Mr. Easterly was a figure of +political importance. That very morning Miss Wynn had telegraphed Bles +Alwyn. Alwyn arrived at Washington just as the morning papers heralded +the sweeping Republican victory. All about he met new deference and new +friends; strangers greeted him familiarly on the street; Sam Stillings +became his shadow; and when he reported for work his chief and fellow +clerks took unusual interest in him. + +"Have you seen Senator Smith yet?" Miss Wynn asked after a few words of +congratulation. + +"No. What for?" + +"What for?" she answered. "Go to him today; don't fail. I shall be at +home at eight tonight." + +It seemed to Bles an exceedingly silly thing to do--calling on a busy +man with no errand; but he went. He decided that he would just thank the +Senator for his interest, and get out; or, if the Senator was busy, he +would merely send in his card. Evidently the Senator was busy, for his +waiting-room was full. Bles handed the card to the secretary with a word +of apology, but the secretary detained him. + +"Ah, Mr. Alwyn," he said affably; "glad to see you. The Senator will +want to see you, I know. Wait just a minute." And soon Bles was shaking +Senator Smith's hand. + +"Well, Mr. Alwyn," said the Senator heartily, "you delivered the goods." + +"Thank you, sir. I tried to." + +Senator Smith thoughtfully looked him over and drew out the letters. + +"Your friends, Mr. Alwyn," he said, adjusting his glasses, "have a +rather high opinion of you. Here now is Stillings, who helped on the +campaign. He suggests an eighteen-hundred-dollar clerkship for you." The +Senator glanced up keenly and omitted to state what Stillings suggested +for himself. Alwyn was visibly grateful as well as surprised. + +"I--I hoped," he began hesitatingly, "that perhaps I might get a +promotion, but I had not thought of a first-class clerkship." + +"H'm." Senator Smith leaned back and twiddled his thumbs, staring at +Alwyn until the hot blood darkened his cheeks. Then Bles sat up and +stared politely but steadily back. The Senator's eyes dropped and he put +out his hand for the second note. + +"Now, your friend, Miss Wynn"--Alwyn started--"is even more ambitious." +He handed her letter to the young man, and pointed out the words. + +"Of course, Senator," Bles read, "we expect Mr. Alwyn to be the next +Register of the Treasury." + +Bles looked up in amazement, but the Senator reached for a third letter. +The room was very still. At last he found it. "This," he announced +quietly, "is from a man of great power and influence, who has the ear of +the new President." He smoothed out the letter, paused briefly, then +read aloud: + +"'It has been suggested to me by'"--the Senator did not read the name; +if he had "Mrs. Vanderpool" would have meant little to Alwyn--"'It has +been suggested to me by blank that the future allegiance of the Negro +vote to the Republican Party might be insured by giving to some +prominent Negro a high political position--for instance, Treasurer of +the United States'--salary, six thousand dollars," interpolated Senator +Smith--"'and that Alwyn would be a popular and safe appointment for that +position.'" + +The Senator did not read the concluding sentence, which ran: "Think this +over; we can't touch political conditions in the South; perhaps this sop +will do." + +For a long time Alwyn sat motionless, while the Senator said nothing. +Then the young man rose unsteadily. + +"I don't think I quite grasp all this," he said as he shook hands. +"I'll think it over," and he went out. + +When Caroline Wynn heard of that extraordinary conversation her +amazement knew no bounds. Yet Alwyn ventured to voice doubts: + +"I'm not fitted for either of those high offices; there are many others +who deserve more, and I don't somehow like the idea of seeming to have +worked hard in the campaign simply for money or fortune. You see, I +talked against that very thing." + +Miss Wynn's eyes widened. + +"Well, what else--" she began and then changed. "Mr. Alwyn, the line +between virtue and foolishness is dim and wavering, and I should hate to +see you lost in that marshy borderland. By a streak of extraordinary +luck you have gained the political leadership of Negroes in America. +Here's your chance to lead your people, and here you stand blinking and +hesitating. Be a man!" + +Alwyn straightened up and felt his doubts going. The evening passed very +pleasantly. + +"I'm going to have a little dinner for you," said Miss Wynn finally, and +Alwyn grew hot with pleasure. He turned to her suddenly and said: + +"Why, I'm rather--black." She expressed no surprise but said +reflectively: + +"You _are_ dark." + +"And I've been given to understand that Miss Wynn and her set +rather--well, preferred the lighter shades of colored folk." + +Miss Wynn laughed lightly. + +"My parents did," she said simply. "No dark man ever entered their +house; they were simply copying the white world. Now I, as a matter of +aesthetic beauty, prefer your brown-velvet color to a jaundiced yellow, +or even an uncertain cream; but the world doesn't." + +"The world?" + +"Yes, the world; and especially America. One may be Chinese, Spaniard, +even Indian--anything white or dirty white in this land, and demand +decent treatment; but to be Negro or darkening toward it unmistakably +means perpetual handicap and crucifixion." + +"Why not, then, admit that you draw the color-line?" + +"Because I don't; but the world does. I am not prejudiced as my parents +were, but I am foresighted. Indeed, it is a deep ethical query, is it +not, how far one has the right to bear black children to the world in +the Land of the Free and the home of the brave. Is it fair--to the +children?" + +"Yes, it is!" he cried vehemently. "The more to take up the fight, the +surer the victory." + +She laughed at his earnestness. + +"You are refreshing," she said. "Well, we'll dine next Tuesday, and +we'll have the cream of our world to meet you." + +He knew that this was a great triumph. It flattered his vanity. After +all, he was entering this higher dark world whose existence had piqued +and puzzled him so long. He glanced at Miss Wynn beside him there in the +dimly lighted parlor: she looked so aloof and unapproachable, so +handsome and so elegant. He thought how she would complete a house--such +a home as his prospective four or six thousand dollars a year could +easily purchase. She saw him surveying her, and she smiled at him. + +"I find but one fault with you," she said. + +He stammered for a pretty speech, but did not find it before she +continued: + +"Yes--you are so delightfully primitive; you will not use the world as +it is but insist on acting as if it were something else." + +"I am not sure I understand." + +"Well, there is the wife of my Judge: she is a fact in my world; in +yours she is a problem to be stated, straightened, and solved. If she +had come to you, as she did to me yesterday, with her theory that all +that Southern Negroes needed was to learn how to make good servants and +lay brick--" + +"I should have shown her--" Bles tried to interject. + +"Nothing of the sort. You would have tried to show her and would have +failed miserably. She hasn't learned anything in twenty years." + +"But surely you didn't join her in advocating that ten million people be +menials?" + +"Oh, no; I simply listened." + +"Well, there was no harm in that; I believe in silence at times." + +"Ah! but I did not listen like a log, but positively and eloquently; +with a nod, a half-formed word, a comment begun, which she finished." + +Bles frowned. + +"As a result," continued Miss Wynn, "I have a check for five hundred +dollars to finish our cooking-school and buy a cast of Minerva for the +assembly-room. More than that, I have now a wealthy friend. She thinks +me an unusually clever person who, by a process of thought not unlike +her own, has arrived at very similar conclusions." + +"But--but," objected Bles, "if the time spent cajoling fools were used +in convincing the honest and upright, think how much we would gain." + +"Very little. The honest and upright are a sad minority. Most of these +white folk--believe me, boy," she said caressingly,--"are fools and +knaves: they don't want truth or progress; they want to keep niggers +down." + +"I don't believe it; there are scores, thousands, perhaps millions such, +I admit; but the average American loves justice and right, and he is the +one to whom I appeal with frankness and truth. Great heavens! don't you +love to be frank and open?" + +She narrowed her eyelids. + +"Yes, sometimes I do; once I was; but it's a luxury few of us Negroes +can afford. Then, too, I insist that it's jolly to fool them." + +"Don't you hate the deception?" + +She chuckled and put her head to one side. + +"At first I did; but, do you know, now I believe I prefer it." + +He looked so horrified that she burst out laughing. He laughed too. She +was a puzzle to him. He kept thinking what a mistress of a mansion she +would make. + +"Why do you say these things?" he asked suddenly. + +"Because I want you to do well here in Washington." + +"General philanthropy?" + +"No, special." Her eyes were bright with meaning. + +"Then you care--for me?" + +"Yes." + +He bent forward and cast the die. + +"Enough to marry me?" + +She answered very calmly and certainly: + +"Yes." + +He leaned toward her. And then between him and her lips a dark and +shadowy face; two great storm-swept eyes looked into his out of a world +of infinite pain, and he dropped his head in hesitation and shame, and +kissed her hand. Miss Wynn thought him delightfully bashful. + + + + +_Twenty-six_ + +CONGRESSMAN CRESSWELL + + +The election of Harry Cresswell to Congress was a very simple matter. +The Colonel and his son drove to town and consulted the Judge; together +they summoned the sheriff and the local member of the State legislature. + +"I think it's about time that we Cresswells asked for a little of the +political pie," the Colonel smilingly opened. + +"Well, what do you want?" asked the Judge. + +"Harry wants to go to Congress." + +The Judge hesitated. "We'd half promised that to Caldwell," he objected. + + +"It will be a little costly this year, too," suggested the sheriff, +tentatively. + +"About how much?" asked the Colonel. + +"At least five thousand," said the Legislator. + +The Colonel said nothing. He simply wrote a check and the matter was +settled. In the Fall Harry Cresswell was declared elected. There were +four hundred and seventy-two votes cast but the sheriff added a cipher. +He said it would look better. + +Early December found the Cresswells domiciled in a small house in Du +Pont Circle, Washington. They had an automobile and four servants, and +the house was furnished luxuriously. Mary Taylor Cresswell, standing in +her morning room and looking out on the flowers of the square, told +herself that few people in the world had cause to be as happy as she. +She was tastefully gowned, in a way to set off her blonde beauty and her +delicate rounded figure. She was surrounded with wealth, and above all, +she was in that atmosphere of aristocracy for which she had always +yearned; and already she was acquiring that poise of the head, and a +manner of directing the servants, which showed her born to the purple. + +She had cause to be extremely happy, she told herself this morning, and +yet she was puzzled to understand why she was not. Why was she restless +and vaguely ill at ease so often these days? + +One matter, indeed, did worry her; but that would right itself in time, +she was sure. She had always pictured herself as directing her husband's +work. She did not plan to step in and demand a share; she knew from +experience with her brother that a woman must prove her usefulness to a +man before he will admit it, and even then he may be silent. She +intended gradually and tactfully to relieve her husband of care +connected with his public life so that, before he realized it, she would +be his guiding spirit and his inspiration. She had dreamed the details +of doing this so long that it seemed already done, and she could imagine +no obstacle to its realization. And yet she found herself today no +nearer her goal than when first she married. Not because Mr. Cresswell +did not share his work, but because, apparently, he had no work, no +duties, no cares. At first, in the dim glories of the honeymoon, this +seemed but part of his delicate courtesy toward her, and it pleased her +despite her thrifty New England nature; but now that they were settled +in Washington, the election over and Congress in session, it really +seemed time for Work and Life to begin in dead earnest, and New England +Mary was dreaming mighty dreams and golden futures. + +But Harry apparently was as content as ever with doing nothing. He arose +at ten, dined at seven, and went to bed between midnight and sunrise. +There was some committee meetings and much mail, but Mary was admitted +to knowledge of none of these. The obvious step, of course, would be to +set him at work; but from this undertaking Mary unconsciously recoiled. +She had already recognized that while her tastes and her husband's were +mostly alike, they were also strikingly different in many respects. They +agreed in the daintiness of things, the elegance of detail; but they did +not agree always as to the things themselves. Given the picture, they +would choose the same frame--but they would not choose the same picture. +They liked the same voice, but not the same song; the same company, but +not the same conversation. Of course, Mary reflected, frowning at the +flowers--of course, this must always be so when two human beings are +thrown into new and intimate association. In time they would grow to +sweet communion; only, she hoped the communion would be on tastes nearer +hers than those he sometimes manifested. + +She turned impatiently from the window with a feeling of loneliness. But +why lonely? She idly fingered a new book on the table and then put it +down sharply. There had been several attempts at reading aloud between +them some evenings ago, and this book reminded her of them. She had +bought Jane Addams' "Newer Ideals of Peace," and he had yawned over it +undisguisedly. Then he had brought this novel, and--well, she had balked +at the second chapter, and he had kissed her and called her his "little +prude." She did not want to be a prude; she hated to seem so, and had +for some time prided herself on emancipation from narrow New England +prejudices. For example, she had not objected to wine at dinner; it had +seemed indeed rather fine, imparting, as it did, an old-fashioned +flavor; but she did not like the whiskey, and Harry at times appeared to +become just a bit too lively--nothing excessive, of course, but his eyes +and the smell and the color were a little too suggestive. And yet he was +so kind and good, and when he came in at evening he bent so gallantly +for his kiss, and laid fresh flowers before her: could anything have +been more thoughtful and knightly? + +Just here again she was puzzled; with her folk, hard work and inflexible +duty were of prime importance; they were the rock foundation; and she +somehow had always counted on the courtesies of life as added to them, +making them sweet and beautiful. But in this world, not perhaps so much +with Harry as with others of his set, the depths beneath the gravely +inclined head, the deferential smile and ceremonious action, the light +clever converse, had sounded strangely hollow once or twice when she had +essayed to sound them, and a certain fear to look and see possessed her. + +The bell rang, and she was a little startled at the fright that struck +her heart. She did not analyze it. In reality--pride forbade her to +admit it--she feared it was a call of some of Harry's friends: some +languid, assured Southern ladies, perilously gowned, with veiled disdain +for this interloping Northerner and her strong mind. Especially was +there one from New Orleans, tall and dark-- + +But it was no caller. It was simply some one named Stillings to see Mr. +Cresswell. She went down to see him--he might be a constituent--and +found a smirky brown man, very apologetic. + +"You don't know me--does you, Mrs. Cresswell?" said Stillings. He knew +when it was diplomatic to forget his grammar and assume his dialect. + +"Why--no." + +"You remember I worked for Mr. Harry and served you-all lunch one day." + +"Oh, yes--why, yes! I remember now very well." + +"Well, I wants to see Mr. Harry very much; could I wait in the back +hall?" + +Mary started to have him wait in the front hall, but she thought better +of it and had him shown back. Less than an hour later her husband +entered and she went quickly to him. He looked worn and white and tired, +but he laughed her concern lightly off. + +"I'll be in earlier tonight," he declared. + +"Is the Congressional business very heavy?" + +He laughed so hilariously that she felt uncomfortable, which he +observed. + +"Oh, no," he answered deftly; "not very." And as they moved toward the +dining-room Mary changed the subject. + +"Oh," she exclaimed, suddenly remembering. "There is a man--a colored +man--waiting to see you in the back hall, but I guess he can wait until +after lunch." + +They ate leisurely. + +"There's going to be racing out at the park this evening," said Harry. +"Want to go?" + +"I was going to hear an art lecture at the Club," Mary returned, and +grew thoughtful; for here walked her ghost again. Of course, the Club +was an affair with more of gossip than of intellectual effort, but +today, largely through her own suggestion, an art teacher of European +reputation was going to lecture, and Mary preferred it to the company of +the race track. And--just as certainly--her husband didn't. + +"Don't forget the man, dear," she reminded him; but he was buried in his +paper, frowning. + +"Look at that," he said finally. She glanced at the +head-lines--"Prominent Negro Politician Candidate for High Office at +Hands of New Administration. B. Alwyn of Alabama." + +"Why, it's Bles!" she said, her face lighting as his darkened. + +"An impudent Negro," he voiced his disgust. "If they must appoint +darkies why can't they get tractable ones like my nigger Stillings." + +"Stillings?" she repeated. "Why, he's the man that's waiting." + +"Sam, is it? Used to be one of our servants--you remember? Wants to +borrow more money, I presume." He went down-stairs, after first helping +himself to a glass of whiskey, and then gallantly kissing his wife. Mrs. +Cresswell was more unsatisfied than usual. She could not help feeling +that Mr. Cresswell was treating her about as he treated his wine--as an +indulgence; a loved one, a regular one, but somehow not as the reality +and prose of life, unless--she started at the thought--his life was all +indulgence. Having nothing else to do, she went out and paraded the +streets, watching the people who were happy enough to be busy. + +Cresswell and Stillings had a long conference, and when Stillings +hastened away he could not forbear cutting a discreet pigeon-wing as he +rounded the corner. He had been promised the backing of the whole +Southern delegation in his schemes. + +That night Teerswell called on him in his modest lodgings, where over +hot whiskey and water they talked. + +"The damned Southern upstart," growled Teerswell, forgetting Stillings' +birth-place. "Do you mean to say he's actually slated for the place?" + +"He's sure of it, unless something turns up." + +"Well, who'd have dreamed it?" Teerswell mixed another stiff dram. + +"And that isn't all," came Sam Stillings' unctuous voice. + +Teerswell glanced at him. "What else?" he asked, pausing with the +steaming drink poised aloft. + +"If I'm not mistaken, Alwyn intends to marry Miss Wynn." + +"You lie!" the other suddenly yelled with an oath, overturning his +tumbler and striding across the floor. "Do you suppose she'd look at +that black--" + +"Well, see here," said the astute Stillings, checking the details upon +his fingers. "They visit Senator Smith's together; he takes her home +from the Treble Clef; they say he talked to nobody else at her party; +she recommends him for the campaign--" + +"What!" Teerswell again exploded. But Stillings continued smoothly: + +"Oh, I have ways of finding things out. She corresponds with him during +the campaign; she asks Smith to make him Register; and he calls on her +every night." + +Teerswell sat down limply. + +"I see," he groaned. "It's all up. She's jilted me--and I--and I--" + +"I don't see as it's all up yet," Stillings tried to reassure him. + +"But didn't you say they were engaged?" + +"I think they are; but--well, you know Carrie Wynn better than I do: +suppose, now--suppose he should lose the appointment?" + +"But you say that's sure." + +"Unless something turns up." + +"But what _can_ turn up?" + +"We might turn something." + +"What--what--I tell you man, I'd--I'd do anything to down that nigger. I +hate him. If you'll help me I'll do anything for you." + +Stillings arose and carefully opening the hall door peered out. Then he +came back and, seating himself close to Teerswell, pushed aside the +whiskey. + +"Teerswell," he whispered, "you know I was working to be Register of the +Treasury. Well, now, when the scheme of making Alwyn Treasurer came up +they determined to appoint a Southern white Republican and give me a +place under Alwyn. Now, if Alwyn fails to land I've got no chance for +the bigger place, but I've got a good chance to be Register according to +the first plan. I helped in the campaign; I've got the Negro secret +societies backing me and--I don't mind telling you--the solid Southern +Congressional delegation. I'm trying now ostensibly for a +chief-clerkship under Bles, and I'm pretty sure of it: it pays +twenty-five hundred. See here: if we can make Bles do some fool talking +and get it into the papers, he'll be ditched, and I'll be Register." + +"Great!" shouted Teerswell. + +"Wait--wait. Now, if I get the job, how would you like to be my +assistant?" + +"Like it? Why, great Jehoshaphat! I'd marry Carrie--but how can I help +you?" + +"This way. I want to be better known among influential Negroes. You +introduce me and let me make myself solid. Especially I must get in Miss +Wynn's set so that both of us can watch her and Alwyn, and make her +friends ours." + +"I'll do it--shake!" And Stillings put his oily hand into Teerswell's +nervous grip. + +"Now, here," Stillings went on, "you stow all that jealousy and heavy +tragedy. Treat Alwyn well and call on Miss Wynn as usual--see?" + +"It's a hard pill--but all right." + +"Leave the rest to me; I'm hand in glove with Alwyn. I'll put stuff into +him that'll make him wave the bloody shirt at the next meeting of the +Bethel Literary--see? Then I'll go to Cresswell and say, 'Dangerous +nigger--, just as I told you.' He'll begin to move things. You see? +Cresswell is in with Smith--both directors in the big Cotton +Combine--and Smith will call Alwyn down. Then we'll think further." + +"Stillings, you look like a fool, but you're a genius." And Teerswell +fairly hugged him. A few more details settled, and some more whiskey +consumed, and Teerswell went home at midnight in high spirits. Stillings +looked into the glass and scowled. + +"Look like a fool, do I?" he mused. "Well, I ain't!" + +Congressman Cresswell was stirred to his first political activity by the +hint given him through Stillings. He not only had a strong personal +dislike for Alwyn, but he regarded the promise to him of a high office +as a menace to the South. + +The second speech which Alwyn made at the Bethel Literary was, as +Stillings foresaw, a reply to the stinging criticisms of certain colored +papers engineered by Teerswell, who said that Alwyn had been bribed to +remain loyal to the Republicans by a six thousand dollar office. Alwyn +had been cut to the quick, and his reply was a straight out defence of +Negro rights and a call to the Republican Party to redeem its pledges. + +Caroline Wynn, seeing the rocks for which her political craft was +headed, adroitly steered several newspaper reports into the waste +basket, but Stillings saw to it that a circumstantial account was in the +_Colored American_, and that a copy of this paper was in Congressman +Cresswell's hands. Cresswell lost no time in calling on Senator Smith +and pointing out to him that Bles Alwyn was a dangerous Negro: seeking +social equality, hating white people, and scheming to make trouble. He +was too young and heady. It would be fatal to give such a man office and +influence; fatal for the development of the South, and bad for the +Cotton Combine. + +Senator Smith was unconvinced. Alwyn struck him as a well-balanced +fellow, and he thought he deserved the office. He would, however, warn +him to make no further speeches like that of last night. Cresswell +mentioned Stillings as a good, inoffensive Negro who knew his place and +could be kept track of. + +"Stillings is a good man," admitted Smith; "but Alwyn is better. +However, I'll bear what you say in mind." + +Cresswell found Mr. Easterly in Mrs. Vanderpool's parlor, and that +gentleman was annoyed at the news. + +"I especially picked out this Alwyn because he was Southern and +tractable, and seemed to have sense enough to know how to say well what +we wanted to say." + +"When, as a matter of fact," drawled Mrs. Vanderpool, "he was simply +honest." + +"The South won't stand it," Cresswell decisively affirmed. + +"Well--" began Mr. Easterly. + +"See here," interrupted Mrs. Vanderpool. "I'm interested in Alwyn; in +fact, an honest man in politics, even if he is black, piques my +curiosity. Give him a chance and I'll warrant he'll develop all the +desirable traits of a first class office-holder." + +Easterly hesitated. "We must not offend the South, and we must placate +the Negroes," he said. + +"The right sort of Negro--one like Stillings--appointed to a reasonable +position, would do both," opined Cresswell. + +"It evidently didn't," Mrs. Vanderpool interjected. + +Cresswell arose. "I tell you, Mr. Easterly, I object--it mustn't go +through." He took his leave. + +Mrs. Vanderpool did not readily give up her plea for Alwyn, and bade +Zora get Mr. Smith on the telephone for discussion. + +"Well," reported Easterly, hanging up the receiver, "we may land him. It +seems that he is engaged to a Washington school-teacher, and Smith says +she has him well in hand. She's a pretty shrewd proposition, and +understands that Alwyn's only chance now lies in keeping his mouth shut. +We may land him," he repeated. + +"Engaged!" gasped Mrs. Vanderpool. + +Zora quietly closed the door. + + + + +_Twenty-seven_ + +THE VISION OF ZORA + + +How Zora found the little church she never knew; but somehow, in the +long dark wanderings which she had fallen into the habit of taking at +nightfall, she stood one evening before it. It looked warm, and she was +cold. It was full of her people, and she was very, very lonely. She sat +in a back seat, and saw with unseeing eyes. She said again, as she had +said to herself a hundred times, that it was all right and just what she +had expected. What else could she have dreamed? That he should ever +marry her was beyond possibility; that had been settled long +since--there where the tall, dark pines, wan with the shades of evening, +cast their haunting shadows across the Silver Fleece and half hid the +blood-washed west. After _that_ he would marry some one else, of course; +some good and pure woman who would help and uplift and serve him. + +She had dreamed that she would help--unknown, unseen--and perhaps she +had helped a little through Mrs. Vanderpool. It was all right, and yet +why so suddenly had the threads of life let go? Why was she drifting in +vast waters; in uncharted wastes of sea? Why was the puzzle of life +suddenly so intricate when but a little week ago she was reading it, and +its beauty and wisdom and power were thrilling her delighted hands? +Could it be possible that all unconsciously she had dared dream a +forbidden dream? No, she had always rejected it. When no one else had +the right; when no one thought; when no one cared, she had hovered over +his soul as some dark guardian angel; but now, now somebody else was +receiving his gratitude. It was all right, she supposed; but she, the +outcast child of the swamp, what was there for her to do in the great +world--her, the burden of whose sin-- + +But then came the voice of the preacher: _"Behold the Lamb of God, that +taketh away the sin of the world_." + +She found herself all at once intently listening. She had been to church +many times before, but under the sermons and ceremonies she had always +sat coldly inert. In the South the cries, contortions, and religious +frenzy left her mind untouched; she did not laugh or mock, she simply +sat and watched and wondered. At the North, in the white churches, she +enjoyed the beauty of wall, windows, and hymn, liked the voice and +surplice of the preacher; but his words had no reference to anything in +which she was interested. Here suddenly came an earnest voice addressed, +by singular chance, to her of all the world. + +She listened, bending forward, her eyes glued to the speaker's lips and +letting no word drop. He had the build and look of the fanatic: thin to +emancipation; brown; brilliant-eyed; his words snapped in nervous energy +and rang in awful earnestness. + +"Life is sin, and sin is sorrow. Sorrow is born of selfishness and +self-seeking--our own good, our own happiness, our own glory. As if any +one of us were worth a life! No, never. A single self as an end is, and +ought to be, disappointment; it is too low; it is nothing. Only in a +whole world of selves, infinite, endless, eternal world on worlds of +selves--only in their vast good is true salvation. The good of others +is our true good; work for others; not for your salvation, but the +salvation of the world." The audience gave a low uneasy groan and the +minister in whose pulpit the stranger preached stirred uneasily. But he +went on tensely, with flying words: + +"Unselfishness is sacrifice--Jesus was supreme sacrifice." ("Amen," +screamed a voice.) "In your dark lives," he cried, "_who_ is the King of +Glory? Sacrifice. Lift up your heads, then, ye gates of prejudice and +hate, and let the King of Glory come in. Forget yourselves and your +petty wants, and behold your starving people. The wail of black millions +sweeps the air--east and west they cry, Help! Help! Are you dumb? Are +you blind? Do you dance and laugh, and hear and see not? The cry of +death is in the air; they murder, burn, and maim us!" ("Oh--oh--" moaned +the people swaying in their seats.) "When we cry they mock us; they ruin +our women and debauch our children--what shall we do? + +"Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away sin. Behold the Supreme +Sacrifice that makes us clean. Give up your pleasures; give up your +wants; give up all to the weak and wretched of our people. Go down to +Pharaoh and smite him in God's name. Go down to the South where we +writhe. Strive--work--build--hew--lead--inspire! God calls. Will you +hear? Come to Jesus. The harvest is waiting. Who will cry: 'Here am I, +send me!'" + +Zora rose and walked up the aisle; she knelt before the altar and +answered the call: "Here am I--send me." + +And then she walked out. Above her sailed the same great stars; around +her hummed the same hoarse city; but within her soul sang some new song +of peace. + +"What is the matter, Zora?" Mrs. Vanderpool inquired, for she seemed to +see in the girl's face and carriage some subtle change; something that +seemed to tell how out of the dream had stepped the dreamer into the +realness of things; how suddenly the seeker saw; how to the wanderer, +the Way was opened. + +Just how she sensed this Mrs. Vanderpool could not have explained, nor +could Zora. Was there a change, sudden, cataclysmic? No. There were to +come in future days all the old doubts and shiverings, the old restless +cry: "It is all right--all right!" But more and more, above the doubt +and beyond the unrest, rose the great end, the mighty ideal, that +flickered and wavered, but ever grew and waxed strong, until it became +possible, and through it all things else were possible. Thus from the +grave of youth and love, amid the soft, low singing of dark and bowed +worshippers, the Angel of the Resurrection rolled away the stone. + +"What is the matter, Zora?" Mrs. Vanderpool repeated. + +Zora looked up, almost happily--standing poised on her feet as if to +tell of strength and purpose. + +"I have found the Way," she cried joyously. + +Mrs. Vanderpool gave her a long searching look. + +"Where have you been?" she asked. "I've been waiting." + +"I'm sorry--but I've been--converted." And she told her story. + +"Pshaw, Zora!" Mrs. Vanderpool uttered impatiently. "He's a fakir." + +"Maybe," said Zora serenely and quietly; "but he brought the Word." + +"Zora, don't talk cant; it isn't worthy of your intelligence." + +"It was more than intelligent--it was true." + +"Zora--listen, child! You were wrought up tonight, nervous--wild. You +were happy to meet your people, and where he said one word you supplied +two. What you attribute to him is the voice of your own soul." + +But Zora merely smiled. "All you say may be true. But what does it +matter? I know one thing, like the man in the Bible: 'Whereas I was +blind now I see.'" + +Mrs. Vanderpool gave a little helpless gesture. "And what shall you do?" +she asked. + +"I'm going back South to work for my people." + +"When?" The old careworn look stole across Mrs. Vanderpool's features. + +Zora came gently forward and slipped her arms lovingly about the other +woman's neck. + +"Not right off," she said gently; "not until I learn more. I hate to +leave you, but--it calls!" + +Mrs. Vanderpool held the dark girl close and began craftily: + +"You see, Zora, the more you know the more you can do." + +"Yes." + +"And if you are determined I will see that you are taught. You must know +settlement-work and reform movements; not simply here but--" she +hesitated--"in England--in France." + +"Will it take long?" Zora asked, smoothing the lady's hair. + +Mrs. Vanderpool considered. "No--five years is not long; it is all too +short." + +"Five years: it is very long; but there is a great deal to learn. Must I +study five years?" + +Mrs. Vanderpool threw back her head. + +"Zora, I am selfish I know, but five years truly is none too long. Then, +too, Zora, we have work to do in that time." + +"What?" + +"There is Alwyn's career," and Mrs. Vanderpool looked into Zora's eyes. + +The girl did not shrink, but she paused. + +"Yes," she said slowly, "we must help him." + +"And after he rises--" + +"He will marry." + +"Whom?" + +"The woman he loves," returned Zora, quietly. + +"Yes--that is best," sighed Mrs. Vanderpool. "But how shall we help +him?" + +"Make him Treasurer of the United States without sacrificing his +manhood or betraying his people." + +"I can do that," said Mrs. Vanderpool slowly. + +"It will cost something," said Zora. + +"I will do it," was the lady's firm assurance. Zora kissed her. + +The next afternoon Mrs. Cresswell went down to a white social settlement +of which Congressman Todd had spoken, where a meeting of the Civic Club +was to be held. She had come painfully to realize that if she was to +have a career she must make it for herself. The plain, unwelcome truth +was that her husband had no great interests in life in which she could +find permanent pleasure. Companionship and love there was and, she told +herself, always would be; but in some respects their lives must flow in +two streams. Last night, for the second time, she had irritated him; he +had spoken almost harshly to her, and she knew she must brood or work +today. And so she hunted work, eagerly. + +She felt the atmosphere the moment she entered. There were carelessly +gowned women and men smart and shabby, but none of them were thinking of +clothes nor even of one another. They had great deeds in mind; they were +scanning the earth; they were toiling for men. The same grim excitement +that sends smaller souls hunting for birds and rabbits and lions, had +sent them hunting the enemies of mankind: they were bent to the chase, +scenting the game, knowing the infinite meaning of their hunt and the +glory of victory. Mary Cresswell had listened but a half hour before her +world seemed so small and sordid and narrow, so trivial, that a sense of +shame spread over her. These people were not only earnest, but expert. +They acknowledged the need of Mr. Todd's educational bill. + +"But the Republicans are going to side-track it; I have that on the best +authority," said one. + +"True; but can't we force them to it?" + +"Only by political power, and they've just won a campaign." + +"They won it by Negro votes, and the Negro who secured the votes is +eager for this bill; he's a fine, honest fellow." + +"Very well; work with him; and when we can be of real service let us +know. Meantime, this Child Labor bill is different. It's bound to pass. +Both parties are back of it, and public opinion is aroused. Now our work +is to force amendments enough to make the bill effective." + +Discussion followed; not flamboyant and declamatory, but tense, +staccato, pointed. Mrs. Cresswell found herself taking part. Someone +mentioned her name, and one or two glances of interest and even +curiosity were thrown her way. Congressmen's wives were rare at the +Civic Club. + +Congressmen Todd urged Mrs. Cresswell to stay after the discussion and +attend a meeting of the managers and workers of the Washington social +settlements. + +"Have you many settlements?" she inquired. + +"Three in all--two white and one colored." + +"And will they all be represented?" + +"Yes, of course, Mrs. Cresswell. If you object to meeting the colored +people--" + +Mrs. Cresswell blushed. + +"No, indeed," she answered; "I used to teach colored people." + +She watched this new group gather: a business man, two fashionable +ladies, three college girls, a gray-haired colored woman, and a young +spectacled brown man, and then, to her surprise, Mrs. Vanderpool and +Zora. + +Zora was scarcely seated when that strange sixth sense of hers told her +that something had happened, and it needed but a side-glance from Mrs. +Vanderpool to indicate what it was. She sat with folded hands and the +old dreamy look in her eyes. In one moment she lived it all again--the +red cabin, the moving oak, the sowing of the Fleece, and its fearful +reaping. And now, when she turned her head, she would see the woman who +was to marry Bles Alwyn. She had often dreamed of her, and had set a +high ideal. She wanted her to be handsome, well dressed, earnest and +good. She felt a sort of person proprietorship in her, and when at last +the quickened pulse died to its regular healthy beat, she turned and +looked and knew. + +Caroline Wynn deemed it a part of the white world's education to +participate in meetings like this; doing so was not pleasant, but it +appealed to her cynicism and mocking sense of pleasure. She always +roused hostility as she entered: her gown was too handsome, her gloves +too spotless, her air had hauteur enough to be almost impudent in the +opinion of most white people. Then gradually her intelligence, her cool +wit and self-possession, would conquer and she would go gracefully out +leaving a rather bewildered audience behind. She sat today with her dark +gold profile toward Zora, and the girl looked and was glad. She was such +a woman she would have Bles marry. She was glad, and she choked back the +sob that struggled and fought in her throat. + +The meeting never got beyond a certain constraint. The Congressman made +an excellent speech; there were various sets of figures read by the +workers; and Miss Wynn added a touch of spice by several pertinent +questions and comments. Then, as the meeting broke up and Mrs. Cresswell +came forward to speak to Zora, Mrs. Vanderpool managed to find herself +near Miss Wynn and to be introduced. They exchanged a few polite +phrases, fencing delicately to test the other's wrist and interest. They +touched on the weather, and settlement work; but Miss Wynn did not +propose to be stranded on the Negro problem. + +"I suppose the next bit of excitement will be in the inauguration," she +said to Mrs. Vanderpool. + +"I understand it will be unusually elaborate," returned Mrs. Vanderpool, +a little surprised at the turn. Then she added pleasantly: "I think I +shall see it through, from speech to ball." + +"Yes, I do usually," Miss Wynn asserted, adjusting her furs. + +Mrs. Vanderpool was further surprised. Did colored people attend the +ball? + +"We sorely need a national ball-room," she said. "Isn't the census +building wretched?" + +"I do not know," smiled Miss Wynn. + +"Oh, I thought you said--" + +"I meant _our_ ball." + +"Oh!" said Mrs. Vanderpool in turn. "Oh!" Here a thought came. Of +course, the colored people had their own ball; she remembered having +heard about it. Why not send Zora? She plunged in: + +"Miss Wynn, I have a maid--such an intelligent girl; I do wish she could +attend your ball--" seeing her blunder, she paused. Miss Wynn was coolly +buttoning her glove. + +"Yes," she acknowledged politely, "few of us can afford maids, and +therefore we do not usually arrange for them; but I think we can have +your _protegee_ look on from the gallery. Good-afternoon." + +As Mrs. Vanderpool drove home she related the talk to Zora. Zora was +silent at first. Then she said deliberately: + +"Miss Wynn was right." + +"Why, Zora!" + +"Did Helene attend the ball four years ago?" + +"But, Zora, must you folk ape our nonsense as well as our sense?" + +"You force us to," said Zora. + + + + +_Twenty-eight_ + +THE ANNUNCIATION + + +The new President had been inaugurated. Beneath the creamy pile of the +old Capitol, and facing the new library, he had stood aloft and looked +down on a waving sea of faces--black-coated, jostling, eager-eyed fellow +creatures. They had watched his lips move, had scanned eagerly his dress +and the gowned and decorated dignitaries beside him; and then, with +blare of band and prancing of horses, he had been whirled down the dip +and curve of that long avenue, with its medley of meanness and thrift +and hurry and wealth, until, swinging sharply, the dim walls of the +White House rose before him. He entered with a sigh. + +Then the vast welter of humanity dissolved and streamed hither and +thither, gaping and laughing until night, when thousands poured into the +red barn of the census shack and entered the artificial fairyland +within. The President walked through, smiling; the senators protected +their friends in the crush; and Harry Cresswell led his wife to a +little oasis of Southern ladies and gentlemen. + +"This is democracy for you," said he, wiping his brow. + +From a whirling eddy Mrs. Vanderpool waved at them, and they rescued +her. + +"I think I am ready to go," she gasped. "Did you ever!" + +"Come," Cresswell invited. But just then the crowd pushed them apart and +shot them along, and Mrs. Cresswell found herself clinging to her +husband amid two great whirling variegated throngs of driving, +white-faced people. The band crashed and blared; the people laughed and +pushed; and with rhythmic sound and swing the mighty throng was dancing. + +It took much effort, but at last the Cresswell party escaped and rolled +off in their carriages. They swept into the avenue and out again, then +up 14th Street, where, turning for some street obstruction, they passed +a throng of carriages on a cross street. + +"It's the other ball," cried Mrs. Vanderpool, and amid laughter she +added, "Let's go!" + +It was--the other ball. For Washington is itself, and something else +besides. Along beside it ever runs that dark and haunting echo; that +shadowy world-in-world with its accusing silence, its emphatic +self-sufficiency. Mrs. Cresswell at first demurred. She thought of +Elspeth's cabin: the dirt, the smell, the squalor: of course, this would +be different; but--well, Mrs. Cresswell had little inclination for +slumming. She was interested in the under-world, but intellectually, not +by personal contact. She did not know that this was a side-world, not an +under-world. Yet the imposing building did not look sordid. + +"Hired?" asked some one. + +"No, owned." + +"Indeed!" + +Then there was a hitch. + +"Tickets?" + +"Where can we buy them?" + +"Not on sale," was the curt reply. + +"Actually exclusive!" sneered Cresswell, for he could not imagine any +one unwelcome at a Negro ball. Then he bethought himself of Sam +Stillings and sent for him. In a few minutes he had a dozen +complimentary tickets in his hand. + +They entered the balcony and sat down. Mary Cresswell leaned forward. It +was interesting. Beneath her was an ordinary pretty ball--flowered, +silked, and ribboned; with swaying whirling figures, music, and +laughter, and all the human fun of gayety and converse. + +And then she was impressed with the fact that this was no ordinary +scene; it was, on the contrary, most extraordinary. + +There was a black man waltzing with a white woman--no, she was not +white, for Mary caught the cream and curl of the girl as she swept past: +but there was a white man (was he white?) and a black woman. The color +of the scene was wonderful. The hard human white seemed to glow and live +and run a mad gamut of the spectrum, from morn till night, from white to +black; through red and sombre browns, pale and brilliant yellows, dead +and living blacks. Through her opera-glasses Mary scanned their hair; +she noted everything from the infinitely twisted, crackled, dead, and +grayish-black to the piled mass of red golden sunlight. Her eyes went +dreaming; there below was the gathering of the worlds. She saw types of +all nations and all lands swirling beneath her in human brotherhood, and +a great wonder shook her. They seemed so happy. Surely, this was no +nether world; it was upper earth, and--her husband beckoned; he had been +laughing incontinently. He saw nothing but a crowd of queer looking +people doing things they were not made to do and appearing absurdly +happy over it. It irritated him unreasonably. + +"See the washer-woman in red," he whispered. "Look at the monkey. Come, +let's go." + +They trooped noisily down-stairs, and Cresswell walked unceremoniously +between a black man and his partner. Mrs. Vanderpool recognized and +greeted the girl as Miss Wynn. Mrs. Cresswell did not notice her, but +she paused with a start of recognition at the sight of the man. + +"Why, Bles!" she exclaimed impetuously, starting to hold out her hand. +She was sincerely pleased at seeing him. Then she remembered. She bowed +and smiled, looking at him with interest and surprise. He was correctly +dressed, and the white shirt set off the comeliness of his black face in +compelling contrast. He carried himself like a man, and bowed with +gravity and dignity. She passed on and heard her husband's petulant +voice in her ear. + +"Mary--Mary! for Heaven's sake, come on; don't shake hands with +niggers." + +It was recurring flashes of temper like this, together with evidences of +dubious company and a growing fondness for liquor, that drove Mary +Cresswell more and more to find solace in the work of Congressman Todd's +Civic Club. She collected statistics for several of the Committee, wrote +letters, interviewed a few persons, and felt herself growing in +usefulness and importance. She did not mention these things to her +husband; she knew he would not object, but she shrank from his ridicule. + +The various causes advocated by the Civic Club felt the impetus of the +aggressive work of the organization. This was especially the case with +the National Education Bill and the amendment to the Child Labor Bill. +The movement became strong enough to call Mr. Easterly down from New +York. He and the inner circle went over matters carefully. + +"We need the political strength of the South," said Easterly; "not only +in framing national legislation in our own interests, but always in +State laws. Particularly, we must get them into line to offset Todd's +foolishness. The Child Labor Bill must either go through unamended or be +killed. The Cotton Inspection Bill--our chief measure--must be slipped +through quietly by Southern votes, while in the Tariff mix-up we must +take good care of cotton. + +"Now, on the other hand, we are offending the Southerners in three ways: +Todd's revived Blair Bill is too good a thing for niggers; the South is +clamoring for a first classy embassy appointment; and the President's +nomination of Alwyn as Treasurer will raise a howl from Virginia to +Texas." + +"There is some strong influence back of Alwyn," said Senator Smith; "not +only are the Negroes enthused, but the President has daily letters from +prominent whites." + +"The strong influence is named Vanderpool," Easterly drily remarked. +"She's playing a bigger political game than I laid out for her. That's +the devil with women: they can't concentrate: they get too damned many +side issues. Now, I offered her husband the French ambassadorship +provided she'd keep the Southerners feeling good toward us. She's hand +in glove with the Southerners, all right; but she wants not only her +husband's appointment but this darkey's too." + +"But that's been decided, hasn't it?" put in Smith. + +"Yes," grumbled Easterly; "but it makes it hard already. At any rate, +the Educational Bill must be killed right off. No more talk; no more +consideration--kill it, and kill it now. Now about this Child Labor +Bill: Todd's Civic Club is raising the mischief. Who's responsible?" + +The silent Jackson spoke up. "Congressman Cresswell's wife has been very +active, and Todd thinks they've got the South with them." + +"Congressman Cresswell's wife!" Easterly's face was one great +exclamation point. "Now what the devil does this mean?" + +"I'm afraid," said Senator Smith, "that it may mean an attempt on the +part of Cresswell's friends to boost him for the French ambassadorship. +He's the only Southerner with money enough to support the position, and +there's been a good deal of quiet talk, I understand, in Southern +circles." + +"But it's treason!" Easterly shouted. "It will ruin the plans of the +Combine to put this amended Child Labor Bill through. John Taylor has +just written me that he's starting mills at Toomsville, and that he +depends on unrestricted labor conditions, as we must throughout the +South. Doesn't Cresswell know this?" + +"Of course. I think it's just a bluff. If he gets the appointment he'll +let the bill drop." + +"I see--everybody is raising his price, is he? Pretty soon the darky +will be holding us up. Well, see Cresswell, and put it to him strong. I +must go. Wire me." + +Senator Smith presented the matter bluntly to Cresswell as soon as he +saw him. "Which would the South prefer--Todd's Education Bill, or +Alwyn's appointment?" + +It was characteristic of Cresswell that the smaller matter of Stillings' +intrigue should interest him more than Todd's measure, of which he knew +nothing. + +"What is Todd's bill?" asked Harry Cresswell, darkening. + +Smith, surprised, got out a copy and explained. Cresswell interrupted +before he was half through. + +"Don't you see," he said angrily, "that that will ruin our plans for the +Cotton Combine?" + +"Yes, I do," replied Smith; "but it will not do the immediate harm that +the amended Child Labor Bill will do." + +"What's that?" demanded Cresswell, frowning again. + +Senator Smith regarded him again: was Cresswell playing a shrewd game? + +"Why," he said at length, "aren't you promoting it?" + +"No," was the reply. "Never heard of it." + +"But," Senator Smith began, and paused. He turned and took up a circular +issued by the Civic Club, giving a careful account of their endeavors to +amend and pass the Child Labor Bill. Cresswell read it, then threw it +aside. + +"Nonsense!" he indignantly repudiated the measure. "That will never do; +it's as bad as the Education Bill." + +"But your wife is encouraging it and we thought you were back of it." + +Cresswell stared in blank amazement. + +"My wife!" he gasped. Then he bethought himself. "It's a mistake," he +supplemented; "Mrs. Cresswell gave them no authority to sign her name." + +"She's been very active," Smith persisted, "and naturally we were all +anxious." + +Cresswell bit his lip. "I shall speak to her; she does not realize what +use they are making of her passing interest." + +He hurried away, and Senator Smith felt a bit sorry for Mrs. Cresswell +when he recalled the expression on her husband's face. + +Mary Cresswell did not get home until nearly dinner time; then she came +in glowing with enthusiasm. Her work had received special commendation +that afternoon, and she had been asked to take the chairmanship of the +committee on publicity. Finding that her husband was at home, she +determined to tell him--it was so good to be doing something worth +while. Perhaps, too, he might be made to show some interest. She thought +of Mr. and Mrs. Todd and the old dream glowed faintly again. + +Cresswell looked at her as she entered the library where he was waiting +and smoking. She was rumpled and muddy, with flying hair and thick +walking shoes and the air of bustle and vigor which had crept into her +blood this last month. Truly, her cheeks were glowing and her eyes +bright, but he disapproved. Softness and daintiness, silk and lace and +glimmering flesh, belonged to women in his mind, and he despised Amazons +and "business" women. He received her kiss coldly, and Mary's heart +sank. She essayed some gay greeting, but he interrupted her. + +"What's this stuff about the Civic Club?" he began sharply. + +"Stuff?" she queried, blankly. + +"That's what I said." + +"I'm sure I don't know," she answered stiffly. "I belong to the Civic +Club, and have been working with it." + +"Why didn't you tell me?" His resentment grew as he proceeded. + +"I did not think you were interested." + +"Didn't you know that this Child Labor business was opposed to my +interests?" + +"Dear, I did not dream it. It's a Republican bill, to be sure; but you +seemed very friendly with Senator Smith, who introduced it. We were +simply trying to improve it." + +"Suppose we didn't want it improved." + +"That's what some said; but I did not believe such--deception." + +The blood rushed to Cresswell's face. + +"Well, you will drop this bill and the Civic Club from now on." + +"Why?" + +"Because I say so," he retorted explosively, too angry to explain +further. + + +She looked at him--a long, fixed, penetrating look which revealed more +than she had ever seen before, then turned away and went slowly +up-stairs. She did not come down to dinner, and in the evening the +doctor was called. + +Cresswell drooped a bit after eating, hesitated, and reflected. He had +acted too cavalierly in this Civic Club mess, he concluded, and yet he +would not back down. He'd go see her and pet her a bit, but be firm. + +He opened her boudoir door gently, and she stood before him radiant, +clothed in silk and lace, her hair loosened. He paused, astonished. But +she threw herself upon his neck, with a joyful, half hysterical cry. + +"I will give it all up--everything! Willingly, willingly!" Her voice +dropped abruptly to a tremulous whisper. "Oh, Harry! I--I am to be the +mother of a child!" + + + + +_Twenty-nine_ + +A MASTER OF FATE + + +"There is not the slightest doubt, Miss Wynn," Senator Smith was saying, +"but that the schools of the District will be reorganized." + +"And the Board of Education abolished?" she added. + +"Yes. The power will be delegated to a single white superintendent." + +The vertical line in Caroline Wynn's forehead became pronounced. + +"Whose work is this, Senator?" she asked. + +"Well, there are, of course, various parties back of the change: the +'outs,' the reformers, the whole tendency to concentrate responsibility, +and so on. But, frankly, the deciding factor was the demand of the +South." + +"Is there anything in Washington that the South does not already own?" + +Senator Smith smiled thinly. + +"Not much," drily; "but we own the South." + +"And part of the price is putting the colored schools of the District in +the hands of a Southern man and depriving us of all voice in their +control?" + +"Precisely, Miss Wynn. But you'd be surprised to know that it was the +Negroes themselves who stirred the South to this demand." + +"Not at all; you mean the colored newspapers, I presume." + +"The same, with Teerswell's clever articles; then his partner Stillings +worked the 'impudent Negro teacher' argument on Cresswell until +Cresswell was wild to get the South in control of the schools." + +"But what do Teerswell and Stillings want?" + +"They want Bles Alwyn to make a fool of himself." + +"That is a trifle cryptic," Miss Wynn mused. The Senator amplified. + +"We are giving the South the Washington schools and killing the +Education Bill in return for this support of some of our measures and +their assent to Alwyn's appointment. You see I speak frankly." + +"I can stand it, Senator." + +"I believe you can. Well, now, if Alwyn should act unwisely and offend +the South, somebody else stands in line for the appointment." + +"As Treasurer?" she asked in surprise. + +"Oh, no, they are too shrewd to ask that; it would offend their backers, +or shall I say their tools, the Southerners. No, they ask only to be +Register and Assistant Register of the Treasury. This is an office +colored men have held for years, and it is quite ambitious enough for +them; so Stillings assures Cresswell and his friends." + +"I see," Miss Wynn slowly acknowledged. "But how do they hope to make +Mr. Alwyn blunder?" + +"Too easily, I fear--unless _you_ are very careful. Alwyn has been +working like a beaver for the National Education Bill. He's been in to +see me several times, as you probably know. His heart is set on it. He +regards its passage as a sort of vindication of his defence of the +party." + +"Yes." + +"Now, the party has dropped the bill for good, and Alwyn doesn't like +it. If he should attack the party--" + +"But he wouldn't," cried Miss Wynn with a start that belied her +conviction. + +"Did you know that he is to be invited to make the principal address to +the graduates of the colored high-school?" + +"But," she objected. "They have selected Bishop Johnson; I--" + +"I know you did," laughed the Senator, "but the Judge got orders from +higher up." + +"Shrewd Mr. Teerswell," remarked Miss Wynn, sagely. + +"Shrewd Mr. Stillings," the Senator corrected; "but perhaps too shrewd. +Suppose Mr. Alwyn should take this occasion to make a thorough defence +of the party?" + +"But--will he?" + +"That's where you come in," Senator Smith pointed out, rising, "and the +real reason of this interview. We're depending on you to pull the party +out of an awkward hole," and he shook hands with his caller. + +Miss Wynn walked slowly up Pennsylvania Avenue with a smile on her face. + +"I did not give him the credit," she declared, repeating it; "I did not +give him the credit. Here I was, playing an alluring game on the side, +and my dear Tom transforms it into a struggle for bread and butter; for +of course, if the Board of Education goes, I lose my place." She lifted +her head and stared along the avenue. + +A bitterness dawned in her eyes. The whole street was a living insult to +her. Here she was, an American girl by birth and breeding, a daughter of +citizens who had fought and bled and worked for a dozen generations on +this soil; yet if she stepped into this hotel to rest, even with full +purse, she would be politely refused accommodation. Should she attempt +to go into this picture show she would be denied entrance. She was +thirsty with the walk; but at yonder fountain the clerk would roughly +refuse to serve her. It was lunch time; there was no place within a mile +where she was allowed to eat. The revolt deepened within her. Beyond +these known and definite discriminations lay the unknown and hovering. +In yonder store nothing hindered the clerk from being exceptionally +pert; on yonder street-car the conductor might reserve his politeness +for white folk; this policeman's business was to keep black and brown +people in their places. All this Caroline Wynn thought of, and then +smiled. + +This was the thing poor blind Bles was trying to attack by "appeals" for +"justice." Nonsense! Does one "appeal" to the red-eyed beast that +throttles him? No. He composes himself, looks death in the eye, and +speaks softly, on the chance. Whereupon Miss Wynn composed herself, +waved gayly at a passing acquaintance, and matched some ribbons in a +department store. The clerk was new and anxious to sell. + +Meantime her brain was busy. She had a hard task before her. Alwyn's +absurd conscience and Quixotic ideas were difficult to cope with. After +his last indiscreet talk she had ventured deftly to remonstrate, and she +well remembered the conversation. + +"Wasn't what I said true?" he had asked. + +"Perfectly. Is that an excuse for saying it?" + +"The facts ought to be known." + +"Yes, but ought you to tell them?" + +"If not I, who?" + +"Some one who is less useful elsewhere, and whom I like less." + +"Carrie," he had been intensely earnest. "I want to do the best thing, +but I'm puzzled. I wonder if I'm selling my birthright for six thousand +dollars?" + +"In case of doubt, do it." + +"But there's the doubt: I may convert; I may open the eyes of the blind; +I may start a crusade for Negro rights." + +"Don't believe it; it's useless; we'll never get our rights in this +land." + +"You don't believe that!" he had ejaculated, shocked. + +Well, she must begin again. As she had hoped, he was waiting for her +when she reached home. She welcomed him cordially, made a little music +for him, and served tea. + +"Bles," she said, "the Opposition has been laying a pretty shrewd trap +for you." + +"What?" he asked absently. + +"They are going to have you chosen as High School commencement orator." + +"Me? Stuff!" + +"You--and not stuff, but 'Education' will be your natural theme. Indeed, +they have so engineered it that the party chiefs expect from you a +defence of their dropping of the Educational Bill." + +"What!" + +"Yes, and probably your nomination will come before the speech and +confirmation after." + +Bles walked the floor excitedly for a while and then sat down and +smiled. + +"It was a shrewd move," he said; "but I think I thank them for it." + +"I don't. But still, + + _"''T is the sport to see the engineer hoist + by his own petar.'"_ + +Bles mused and she watched him covertly. Suddenly she leaned over. + +"Moreover," she said, "about that same date I'm liable to lose my +position as teacher." + +He looked at her quickly, and she explained the coming revolution in +school management. + +He did not discuss the matter, and she was equally reticent; but when he +entered the doors of his lodging-place and, gathering his mail, slowly +mounted the stairs, there came the battle of his life. + +He knew it and he tried to wage it coolly and with method. He arrayed +the arguments side by side: on this side lay success; the greatest +office ever held by a Negro in America--greater than Douglass or Bruce +or Lynch had held--a landmark, a living example and inspiration. A man +owed the world success; there were plenty who could fail and stumble and +give multiple excuses. Should he be one? He viewed the other side. What +must he pay for success? Aye, face it boldly--what? Mechanically he +searched for his mail and undid the latest number of the _Colored +American_. He was sure the answer stood there in Teerswell's biting +vulgar English. And there it was, with a cartoon: + + HIS MASTER'S VOICE + + Alwyn is Ordered to Eat His Words or Get Out + Watch Him Do It Gracefully + The Republican Leaders, etc. + +He threw down his paper, and the hot blood sang in his ears. The +sickening thought was that it was true. If he did make the speech +demanded it would be like a dog obedient to his master's voice. + +The cold sweat oozed on his face; throwing up the window, he drank in +the Spring breeze, and stared at the city he once had thought so +alluring. Somehow it looked like the swamp, only less beautiful; he +stretched his arms and his lips breathed--"Zora!" + +He turned hastily to his desk and looked at the other piece of mail--a +single sealed note carefully written on heavy paper. He did not +recognize the handwriting. Then his mind flew off again. What would they +say if he failed to get the office? How they would silently hoot and +jeer at the upstart who suddenly climbed so high and fell. And Carrie +Wynn--poor Carrie, with her pride and position dragged down in his ruin: +how would she take it? He writhed in soul. And yet, to be a man; to say +calmly, "No"; to stand in that great audience and say, "My people first +and last"; to take Carrie's hand and together face the world and +struggle again to newer finer triumphs--all this would be very close to +attainment of the ideal. He found himself staring at the little letter. +Would she go? Would she, could she, lay aside her pride and cynicism, +her dainty ways and little extravagances? An odd fancy came to him: +perhaps the answer to the riddle lay sealed within the envelope he +fingered. + +He opened it. Within lay four lines of writing--no more--no address, no +signature; simply the words: + + _"It matters now how strait the gate, + How charged with punishment the scroll; + I am the master of my fate, + I am the captain of my soul."_ + +He stared at the lines. Eleven o'clock--twelve--one--chimed the +deep-voiced clock without, before Alwyn went to bed. + +Miss Wynn had kept a vigil almost as long. She knew that Bles had +influential friends who had urged his preferment; it might be wise to +enlist them. Before she fell asleep she had determined to have a talk +with Mrs. Vanderpool. She had learned from Senator Smith that the lady +took special interest in Alwyn. + +Mrs. Vanderpool heard Miss Wynn's story next day with some inward +dismay. Really the breadth and depth of intrigue in this city almost +frightened her as she walked deeper into the mire. She had promised Zora +that Bles should receive his reward on terms which would not wound his +manhood. It seemed an easy, almost an obvious thing, to promise at the +time. Yet here was this rather unusual young woman asking Mrs. +Vanderpool to use her influence in making Alwyn bow to the yoke. She +fenced for time. + +"But I do not know Mr. Alwyn." + +"I thought you did; you recommended him highly." + +"I knew of him slightly in the South and I have watched his career +here." + +"It would be too bad to have that career spoiled now." + +"But is it necessary? Suppose he should defend the Education Bill." + +"And criticise the party?" asked Miss Wynn. "It would take strong +influence to pull him through." + +"And if that strong influence were found?" said Mrs. Vanderpool +thoughtfully. + +"It would surely involve some other important concession to the South." + +Mrs. Vanderpool looked up, and an interjection hovered on her lips. Was +it possible that the price of Alwyn's manhood would be her husband's +appointment to Paris? And if it were? + +"I'll do what I can," she said graciously; "but I am afraid that will +not be much." + +Miss Wynn hesitated. She had not succeeded even in guessing the source +of Mrs. Vanderpool's interest in Alwyn, and without that her appeal was +but blind groping. She stopped on her way to the door to admire a bronze +statuette and find time to think. + +"You are interested in bronzes?" asked Mrs. Vanderpool. + +"Oh, no; I'm far too poor. But I've dabbled a bit in sculpture." + +"Indeed?" Mrs. Vanderpool revealed a mild interest, and Miss Wynn was +compelled to depart with little enlightenment. + +On the way up town she concluded that there was but one chance of +success: she must write Alwyn's speech. With characteristic decision she +began her plans at once. + +"What will you say in your speech?" she asked him that night as he rose +to go. + +He looked at her and she wavered slightly under his black eyes. The +fight was becoming a little too desperate even for her steady nerves. + +"You would not like me to act dishonestly, would you?" he asked. + +"No," she involuntarily replied, regretting the word the moment she had +uttered it. He gave her one of his rare sweet smiles, and, rising, +before she realized his intent, he had kissed her hands and was gone. + +She asked herself why she had been so foolish; and yet, somehow, sitting +there alone in the firelight, she felt glad for once that she had risen +above intrigue. Then she sighed and smiled, and began to plot anew. +Teerswell dropped in later and brought his friend, Stillings. They found +their hostess gay and entertaining. + +Miss Wynn gathered books about her, and in the days of April and May she +and Alwyn read up on education. He marvelled at the subtlety of her +mind, and she at the relentlessness of his. They were very near each +other during these days, and yet there was ever something between them: +a vision to him of dark and pleading eyes that he constantly saw beside +her cool, keen glance. And he to her was always two men: one man above +men, whom she could respect but would not marry, and one man like all +men, whom she would marry but could not respect. His devotion to an +ideal which she thought so utterly unpractical, aroused keen curiosity +and admiration. She was sure he would fail in the end, and she wanted +him to fail; and somehow, somewhere back beyond herself, her better self +longed to find herself defeated; to see this mind stand firm on +principle, under circumstances where she believed men never stood. Deep +within her she discovered at times a passionate longing to believe in +somebody; yet she found herself bending every energy to pull this man +down to the level of time-servers, and even as she failed, feeling +something like contempt for his stubbornness. + +The great day came. He had her notes, her suggestions, her hints, but +she had no intimation of what he would finally say. + +"Will you come to hear me?" he asked. + +"No," she murmured. + +"That is best," he said, and then he added slowly, "I would not like you +ever to despise me." + +She answered sharply: "I want to despise you!" + +Did he understand? She was not sure. She was sorry she had said it; but +she meant it fiercely. Then he left her, for it was already four in the +afternoon and he spoke at eight. + +In the morning she came down early, despite some dawdling over her +toilet. She brought the morning paper into the dining-room and sat down +with it, sipping her coffee. She leaned back and looked leisurely at the +headings. There was nothing on the front page but a divorce, a +revolution, and a new Trust. She took another sip of her coffee, and +turned the page. There it was, "Colored High Schools Close--Vicious +Attack on Republican Party by Negro Orator." + +She laid the paper aside and slowly finished her coffee. A few minutes +later she went to her desk and sat there so long that she started at +hearing the clock strike nine. + +The day passed. When she came home from school she bought an evening +paper. She was not surprised to learn that the Senate had rejected +Alwyn's nomination; that Samuel Stillings had been nominated and +confirmed as Register of the Treasury, and that Mr. Tom Teerswell was to +be his assistant. Also the bill reorganizing the school board had +passed. She wrote two notes and posted them as she went out to walk. + +When she reached home Stillings was there, and they talked earnestly. +The bell rang violently. Teerswell rushed in. + +"Well, Carrie!" he cried eagerly. + +"Well, Tom," she responded, giving him a languid hand. Stillings rose +and departed. Teerswell nodded and said: + +"Well, what do you think of last night?" + +"A great speech, I hear." + +"A fool speech--that speech cost him, I calculate, between twenty-four +and forty-eight thousand dollars." + +"Possibly he's satisfied with his bargain." + +"Possibly. Are you?" + +"With his bargain?" quickly. "Yes." + +"No," he pressed her, "with your bargain?" + +"What bargain?" she parried. + +"To marry him." + +"Oh, no; that's off." + +"Is it off?" cried Teerswell delightedly. "Good! It was foolish from the +first--that black country--" + +"Gently," Miss Wynn checked him. "I'm not yet over the habit." + +"Come. See what I've bought. You know I have a salary now." He produced +a ring with a small diamond cluster. + +"How pretty!" she said, taking it and looking at it. Then she handed it +back. + +He laughed gayly. "It's yours, Carrie. You're going to marry me." + +She looked at him queerly. + +"Am I? But I've got another ring already," she said. + +"Oh, send Alwyn's back." + +"I have. This is still another." And uncovering her hand she showed a +ring with a large and beautiful diamond. + +He rose. "Whose is that?" he demanded apprehensively. + +"Mine--" her eyes met his. + +"But who gave it to you?" + +"Mr. Stillings," was the soft reply. + +He stared at her helplessly. "I--I--don't understand!" he stammered. + +"Well, to be brief, I'm engaged to Mr. Stillings." + +"What! To that flat-headed--" + +"No," she coolly interrupted, "to the Register of the Treasury." + +The man was too dumbfounded, too overwhelmed for coherent speech. + +"But--but--come; why in God's name--will you throw yourself away on--on +such a--you're joking--you--" + +She motioned him to a chair. He obeyed like one in a trance. + +"Now, Tom, be calm. When I was a baby I loved you, but that is long +ago. Today, Tom, you're an insufferable cad and I--well, I'm too much +like you to have two of us in the same family." + +"But, Stillings!" he burst forth, almost in tears. "The snake--what is +he?" + +"Nearly as bad as you, I'll admit; but he has four thousand a year and +sense enough to keep it. In truth, I need it; for, thanks to your +political activity, my own position is gone." + +"But he's a--a damned rascal!" Wounded self-conceit was now getting the +upper hand. + +She laughed. + +"I think he is. But he's such an exceptional rascal; he appeals to me. +You know, Tom, we're all more or less rascally--except one." + +"Except who?" he asked quickly. + +"Bles Alwyn." + +"The fool!" + +"Yes," she slowly agreed. "Bles Alwyn, the Fool--and the Man. But by +grace of the Negro Problem, I cannot afford to marry a man--Hark! Some +one is on the steps. I'm sure it's Bles. You'd better go now. Don't +attempt to fight with him; he's very strong. Good-night." + +Alwyn entered. He didn't notice Teerswell as he passed out. He went +straight to Miss Wynn holding a crumpled note, and his voice faltered a +little. + +"Do you mean it?" + +"Yes, Bles." + +"Why?" + +"Because I am selfish and--small." + +"No, you are not. You want to be; but give it up, Carrie; it isn't worth +the cost. Come, let's be honest and poor--and free." + +She regarded him a moment, searchingly, then a look half quizzical, half +sorrowful came into her eyes. She put both her hands on his shoulders +and said as she kissed his lips: + +"Bles, almost thou persuadest me--to be a fool. Now go." + + + + +_Thirty_ + +THE RETURN OF ZORA + + +"I never realized before just what a lie meant," said Zora. + +The paper in Mrs. Vanderpool's hands fell quickly to her lap, and she +gazed across the toilet-table. + +As she gazed that odd mirage of other days haunted her again. She did +not seem to see her maid, nor the white and satin morning-room. She saw, +with some long inner sight, a vast hall with mighty pillars; a smooth, +marbled floor and a great throng whose silent eyes looked curiously upon +her. Strange carven beasts gazed on from a setting of rich, barbaric +splendor and she herself--the Liar--lay in rags before the gold and +ivory of that lofty throne whereon sat Zora. + +The foolish phantasy passed with the second of time that brought it, and +Mrs. Vanderpool's eyes dropped again to her paper, to those lines,-- + +"The President has sent the following nominations to the Senate ... To +be ambassador to France, John Vanderpool, Esq." + +The first feeling of triumph thrilled faintly again until the low voice +of Zora startled her. It was so low and calm, it came as though +journeying from great distances and weary with travel. + +"I used to think a lie a little thing, a convenience; but now I see. It +is a great No and it kills things. You remember that day when Mr. +Easterly called?" + +"Yes," replied Mrs. Vanderpool, faintly. + +"I heard all he said. I could not help it; my transom was open. And +then, too, after he mentioned--Mr. Alwyn's name, I wanted to hear. I +knew that his appointment would cost you the embassy--unless Bles was +tempted and should fall. So I came to you to say--to say you mustn't pay +the price." + +"And I lied," said Mrs. Vanderpool. "I told you that he should be +appointed and remain a man. I meant to make him see that he could yield +without great cost. But I let you think I was giving up the embassy when +I never intended to." + +She spoke coldly, yet Zora knew. She reached out and took the white, +still hands in hers, and over the lady's face again flitted that +stricken look of age. + +"I do not blame you," said Zora gently. "I blame the world." + +"I am the world," Mrs. Vanderpool uttered harshly, then suddenly +laughed. But Zora went on: + +"It bewildered me when I first read the news early this morning; the +world--everything--seemed wrong. You see, my plan was all so splendid. +Just as I turned away from him, back to my people, I was to help him to +the highest. I was so afraid he would miss it and think that Right +didn't win in Life, that I wrote him--" + +"You wrote him? So did I." + +Zora glanced at her quickly. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Vanderpool. "I thought I knew him. He seemed an +ordinary, rather priggish, opinionated country boy, and I wrote and +said--Oh, I said that the world is the world; take it as it is. You +wrote differently, and he obeyed you." + +"No; he did not know it was I. I was just a Voice from nowhere calling +to him. I thought I was right. I wrote each day, sometimes twice, +sending bits of verse, quotations, references, all saying the same +thing: Right always triumphs. But it doesn't, does it?" + +"No. It never does save by accident." + +"I do not think that is quite so," Zora pondered aloud, "and I am a +little puzzled. I do not belong in this world where Right and Wrong get +so mixed. With us yonder there is wrong, but we call it wrong--mostly. +Oh, I don't know; even there things are mixed." She looked sadly at Mrs. +Vanderpool, and the fear that had been hovering behind her mistress's +eyes became visible. + +"It was so beautiful," said Zora. "I expected a great thing of you--a +sacrifice. I do not blame you because you could not do it; and yet--yet, +after this,--don't you see?--I cannot stay here." + +Mrs. Vanderpool arose and walked over to her. She stood above her, in +her silken morning-gown, her brown and gray sprinkled hair rising above +the pale, strong-lined face. + +"Zora," she faltered, "will you leave me?" + +Zora answered, "Yes." It was a soft "yes," a "yes" full of pity and +regret, but a "yes" that Mrs. Vanderpool knew in her soul to be final. + +She sat down again on the lounge and her fingers crept along the +cushions. + +"Ambassadorships come--high," she said with a catch in her voice. Then +after a pause: "When will you go, Zora?" + +"When you leave for the summer." + +Mrs. Vanderpool looked out upon the beautiful city. She was a little +surprised at herself. She had found herself willing to sacrifice almost +anything for Zora. No living soul had ever raised in her so deep an +affection, and yet she knew now that, although the cost was great, she +was willing to sacrifice Zora for Paris. After all, it was not too +late; a rapid ride even now might secure high office for Alwyn and make +Cresswell ambassador. It would be difficult but possible. But she had +not the slightest inclination to attempt it, and she said aloud, half +mockingly: + +"You are right, Zora. I promised--and--I lied. Liars have no place in +heaven and heaven is doubtless a beautiful place--but oh, Zora! you +haven't seen Paris!" + +Two months later they parted simply, knowing well it was forever. Mrs. +Vanderpool wrote a check. + +"Use this in your work," she said. "Miss Smith asked for it long ago. It +is--my campaign contribution." + +Zora smiled and thanked her. As she put the sealed envelope in her trunk +her hand came in contact with a long untouched package. Zora took it out +silently and opened it and the beauty of it lightened the room. + +"It is the Silver Fleece," said Zora, and Mrs. Vanderpool kissed her and +went. + +Zora walked alone to the vaulted station. She did not try to buy a +Pullman ticket, although the journey was thirty-six hours. She knew it +would be difficult if not impossible and she preferred to share the lot +of her people. Once on the foremost car, she leaned back and looked. The +car seemed clean and comfortable but strangely short. Then she realized +that half of it was cut off for the white smokers and as the door swung +whiffs of the smoke came in. But she was content for she was almost +alone. + +It was eighteen little months ago that she had ridden up to the world +with widening eyes. In that time what had happened? Everything. How well +she remembered her coming, the first reflection of yonder gilded dome +and the soaring of the capitol; the swelling of her heart, with +inarticulate wonder; the pain of the thirst to know and understand. She +did not know much now but she had learned how to find things out. She +did not understand all, but some things she-- + +"Ticket"--the tone was harsh and abrupt. Zora started. She had always +noted how polite conductors were to her and Mrs. Vanderpool--was it +simply because Mrs. Vanderpool was evidently a great and rich lady? She +held up her ticket and he snatched it from her muttering some direction. + +"I beg your pardon?" she said. + +"Change at Charlotte," he snapped as he went on. + +It seemed to Zora that his discourtesy was almost forced: that he was +afraid he might be betrayed into some show of consideration for a black +woman. She felt no anger, she simply wondered what he feared. The +increasing smell of tobacco smoke started her coughing. She turned. To +be sure. Not only was the door to the smoker standing open, but a white +passenger was in her car, sitting by the conductor and puffing heartily. +As the black porter passed her she said gently: + +"Is smoking allowed in here?" + +"It ain't non o' my business," he flung back at her and moved away. All +day white men passed back and forward through the car as through a +thoroughfare. They talked loudly and laughed and joked, and if they did +not smoke they carried their lighted cigars. At her they stared and made +comments, and one of them came and lounged almost over her seat, +inquiring where she was going. + +She did not reply; she neither looked nor stirred, but kept whispering +to herself with something like awe: "This is what they must endure--my +poor people!" + +At Lynchburg a newsboy boarded the train with his wares. The conductor +had already appropriated two seats for himself, and the newsboy routed +out two colored passengers, and usurped two other seats. Then he began +to be especially annoying. He joked and wrestled with the porter, and on +every occasion pushed his wares at Zora, insisting on her buying. + +"Ain't you got no money?" he asked. "Where you going?" + +"Say," he whispered another time, "don't you want to buy these gold +spectacles? I found 'em and I dassen't sell 'em open, see? They're +worth ten dollars--take 'em for a dollar." + +Zora sat still, keeping her eyes on the window; but her hands worked +nervously, and when he threw a book with a picture of a man and +half-dressed woman directly under her eyes, she took it and dropped it +out the window. + +The boy started to storm and demanded pay, while the conductor glared at +her; but a white man in the conductor's seat whispered something, and +the row suddenly stopped. + +A gang of colored section hands got on, dirty and loud. They sprawled +about and smoked, drank, and bought candy and cheap gewgaws. They eyed +her respectfully, and with one of them she talked a little as he +awkwardly fingered his cap. + +As the day wore on Zora found herself strangely weary. It was not simply +the unpleasant things that kept happening, but the continued +apprehension of unknown possibilities. Then, too, she began to realize +that she had had nothing to eat. Travelling with Mrs. Vanderpool there +was always a dainty lunch to be had at call. She did not expect this, +but she asked the porter: + +"Do you know where I can get a lunch?" + +"Search me," he answered, lounging into a seat. "Ain't no chance betwixt +here and Danville as I knows on." + +Zora viewed her plight with a certain dismay--twelve hours without food! +How foolish of her not to have thought of this. The hours passed. She +turned desperately to the gruff conductor. + +"Could I buy a lunch from the dining-car?" she inquired. + +"No," was the curt reply. + +She made herself as comfortable as she could, and tried to put the +matter from her mind. She remembered how, forgotten years ago, she had +often gone a day without eating and thought little of it. Night came +slowly, and she fell to dreaming until the cry came, "Charlotte! Change +cars!" She scrambled out. There was no step to the platform, her bag +was heavy, and the porter was busy helping the white folks to alight. +She saw a dingy lunchroom marked "Colored," but she had no time to go to +it for her train was ready. + +There was another colored porter on this, and he was very polite and +affable. + +"Yes, Miss; certainly I'll fetch you a lunch--plenty of time." And he +did. It did not look clean but Zora was ravenous. + +The white smoker now had few occupants, but the white train crew +proceeded to use the colored coach as a lounging-room and sleeping-car. +There was no passenger except Zora. They took off their coats, stretched +themselves on the seats, and exchanged jokes; but Zora was too tired to +notice much, and she was dozing wearily when she felt a touch on the arm +and found the porter in the seat beside her with his arm thrown +familiarly behind her along the top of the back. She rose abruptly to +her feet and he started up. + +"I beg pardon," he said, grinning. + +Zora sat slowly down as he got up and left. She determined to sleep no +more. Yet a vast vision sank on her weary spirit--the vision of a dark +cloud that dropped and dropped upon her, and lay as lead along her +straining shoulders. She must lift it, she knew, though it were big as a +world, and she put her strength to it and groaned as the porter cried in +the ghostly morning light: + +"Atlanta! All change!" + +Away yonder at the school near Toomsville, Miss Smith sat waiting for +the coming of Zora, absently attending the duties of the office. Dark +little heads and hands bobbed by and soft voices called: + +"Miss Smith, I wants a penny pencil." + +"Miss Smith, is yo' got a speller fo' ten cents?" + +"Miss Smith, mammy say please lemme come to school this week and she'll +sho' pay Sata'day." + +Yet the little voices that summoned her back to earth were less +clamorous than in other years, for the school was far from full, and +Miss Smith observed the falling off with grave eyes. This condition was +patently the result of the cotton corner and the subsequent +manipulation. When cotton rose, the tenants had already sold their +cotton; when cotton fell the landlords squeezed the rations and lowered +the wages. When cotton rose again, up went the new Spring rent +contracts. So it was that the bewildered black serf dawdled in listless +inability to understand. The Cresswells in their new wealth, the +Maxwells and Tollivers in the new pinch of poverty, stretched long arms +to gather in the tenants and their children. Excuse after excuse came to +the school. + +"I can't send the chilluns dis term, Miss Smith; dey has to work." + +"Mr. Cresswell won't allow Will to go to school this term." + +"Mr. Tolliver done put Sam in the field." + +And so Miss Smith contemplated many empty desks. + +Slowly a sort of fatal inaction seized her. The school went on; daily +the dark little cloud of scholars rose up from hill and vale and settled +in the white buildings; the hum of voices and the busy movements of +industrious teachers filled the day; the office work went on +methodically; but back of it all Miss Smith sat half hopeless. It cost +five thousand a year to run the school, and this sum she raised with +increasingly greater difficulty. Extra and heart-straining effort had +been needed to raise the eight hundred dollars additional for interest +money on the mortgage last year. Next year it might have to come out of +the regular income and thus cut off two teachers. Beyond all this the +raising of ten thousand dollars to satisfy the mortgage seemed simply +impossible, and Miss Smith sat in fatal resignation, awaiting the coming +day. + +"It's the Lord's work. I've done what I could. I guess if He wants it to +go on, He'll find a way. And if He doesn't--" She looked off across the +swamp and was silent. + +Then came Zora's letter, simple and brief, but breathing youth and +strength of purpose. Miss Smith seized upon it as an omen of salvation. +In vain her shrewd New England reason asked: "What can a half-taught +black girl do in this wilderness?" Her heart answered back: "What is +impossible to youth and resolution?" Let the shabbiness increase; let +the debts pile up; let the boarders complain and the teachers +gossip--Zora was coming. And somehow she and Zora would find a way. + +And Zora came just as the sun threw its last crimson through the black +swamp; came and gathered the frail and white-haired woman in her arms; +and they wept together. Long and low they talked, far into the soft +Southern night; sitting shaded beneath the stars, while nearby blinked +the drowsy lights of the girls' dormitory. At last Miss Smith said, +rising stiffly: + +"I forgot to ask about Mrs. Vanderpool. How is she, and where?" + +Zora murmured some answer; but as she went to bed in her little white +room she sat wondering sadly. Where was the poor spoiled woman? Who was +putting her to bed and smoothing the pillow? Who was caring for her, and +what was she doing? And Zora strained her eyes Northward through the +night. + +At this moment, Mrs. Vanderpool, rising from a gala dinner in the +brilliant drawing-room of her Lake George mansion, was reading the +evening paper which her husband had put into her hands. With startled +eyes she caught the impudent headlines: + + VANDERPOOL DROPPED + + Senate Refuses to Confirm + + Todd Insurgents Muster Enough Votes to Defeat + + Confirmation of President's Nominee + +Rumored Revenge for Machine's Defeat of Child Labor + + Bill Amendment. + + +The paper trembled in her jewelled hands. She glanced down the column. + +"Todd asks: Who is Vanderpool, anyhow? What did he ever do? He is known +only as a selfish millionaire who thinks more of horses than of men." + +Carelessly Mrs. Vanderpool threw the paper to the floor and bit her lips +as the angry blood dyed her face. + +"They _shall_ confirm him," she whispered, "if I have to mortgage my +immortal soul!" And she rang up long distance on the telephone. + + + + +_Thirty-one_ + +A PARTING OF WAYS + + +"Was the child born dead?" + +"Worse than dead!" + +Somehow, somewhere, Mary Cresswell had heard these words; long, long, +ago, down there in the great pain-swept shadows of utter agony, where +Earth seemed slipping its moorings; and now, today, she lay repeating +them mechanically, grasping vaguely at their meaning. Long she had +wrestled with them as they twisted and turned and knotted themselves, +and she worked and toiled so hard as she lay there to make the thing +clear--to understand. + +"Was the child born dead?" + +"Worse than dead!" + +Then faint and fainter whisperings: what could be worse than death? She +had tried to ask the grey old doctor, but he soothed her like a child +each day and left her lying there. Today she was stronger, and for the +first time sitting up, looking listlessly out across the world--a queer +world. Why had they not let her see the child--just one look at its +little dead face? That would have been something. And again, as the +doctor cheerily turned to go, she sought to repeat the old question. He +looked at her sharply, then interrupted, saying kindly: + +"There, now; you've been dreaming. You must rest quietly now." And with +a nod he passed into the other room to talk with her husband. + +She was not satisfied. She had not been dreaming. She would tell Harry +to ask him--she did not often see her husband, but she must ask him now +and she arose unsteadily and swayed noiselessly across the floor. A +moment she leaned against the door, then opened it slightly. From the +other side the words came distinctly and clearly: + +"--other children, doctor?" + +"You must have no other children, Mr. Cresswell." + +"Why?" + +"Because the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the +third and fourth generation." + +Slowly, softly, she crept away. Her mind seemed very clear. And she +began a long journey to reach her window and chair--a long, long +journey; but at last she sank into the chair again and sat dry-eyed, +wondering who had conceived this world and made it, and why. + +A long time afterward she found herself lying in bed, awake, conscious, +clear-minded. Yet she thought as little as possible, for that was pain; +but she listened gladly, for without she heard the solemn beating of the +sea, the mighty rhythmic beating of the sea. Long days she lay, and sat +and walked beside those vast and speaking waters, till at last she knew +their voice and they spoke to her and the sea-calm soothed her soul. + +For one brief moment of her life she saw herself clearly: a well-meaning +woman, ambitious, but curiously narrow; not willing to work long for +the Vision, but leaping at it rashly, blindly, with a deep-seated sense +of duty which she made a source of offence by preening and parading it, +and forcing it to ill-timed notice. She saw that she had looked on her +husband as a means not an end. She had wished to absorb him and his work +for her own glory. She had idealized for her own uses a very human man +whose life had been full of sin and fault. She must atone. + +No sooner, in this brief moment, did she see herself honestly than her +old habits swept her on tumultuously. No ordinary atonement would do. +The sacrifice must be vast; the world must stand in wonder before this +clever woman sinking her soul in another and raising him by sheer will +to the highest. + +So after six endless months Mary Cresswell walked into her Washington +home again. She knew she had changed in appearance, but she had +forgotten to note how much until she saw the stare--almost the +recoil--of her husband, the muttered exclamation, the studied, almost +overdone welcome. Then she went up to her mirror and looked long, and +knew. + +She was strong; she felt well; but she was slight, almost scrawny, and +her beauty was gone forever. It had been of that blonde white-and-pink +type that fades in a flash, and its going left her body flattened and +angular, her skin drawn and dead white, her eyes sunken. From the +radiant girl whom Cresswell had met three years earlier the change was +startling, and yet the contrast seemed even greater than it was, for her +glory then had been her abundant and almost golden hair. Now that hair +was faded, and falling so fast that at last the doctor advised her to +cut it short. This left her ill-shaped head exposed and emphasized the +sunken hollows of her face. She knew that she was changed but she did +not quite realize how changed, until now as she stood and gazed. + +Yet she did not hesitate but from that moment set herself to her new +life task. Characteristically, she started dramatically and largely. She +was to make her life an endless sacrifice; she was to revivify the +manhood in Harry Cresswell, and all this for no return, no partnership +of soul--all was to be complete sacrifice and sinking soul in soul. + +If Mary Cresswell had attempted less she would have accomplished more. +As it was, she began well; she went to work tactfully, seeming to note +no change in his manner toward her; but his manner had changed. He was +studiously, scrupulously polite in private, and in public devoted; but +there was no feeling, no passion, no love. The polished shell of his +clan reflected conventional light even more carefully than formerly +because the shell was cold and empty. There were no little flashes of +anger now, no poutings nor sweet reconciliations. Life ran very smoothly +and courteously; and while she did not try to regain the affection, she +strove to enthrall his intellect. She supplied a sub-committee upon +which he was serving--not directly, but through him--with figures, with +reports, books, and papers, so that he received special commendations; a +praise that piqued as well as pleased him, because it implied a certain +surprise that he was able to do it. + +"The damned Yankees!" he sneered. "They think they've got the brains of +the nation." + +"Why not make a speech on the subject?" she suggested. + +He laughed. The matter under discussion was the cotton-goods schedule of +the new tariff bill, about which really he knew a little; his wife +placed every temptation to knowledge before him, even inspiring Senator +Smith to ask him to defend that schedule against the low-tariff +advocate. Mary Cresswell worked with redoubled energy, and for nearly a +week Harry staid at home nights and studied. Thanks to his wife the +speech was unusually informing and well put, and the fact that a +prominent free-trader spoke the same afternoon gave it publicity, while +Mr. Easterly saw to the press despatches. + +Cresswell subscribed to a clipping-bureau and tasted the sweets of +dawning notoriety, and Mrs. Cresswell arranged a select dinner-party +which included a cabinet officer, a foreign ambassador, two +millionaires, and the leading Southern Congressmen. The talk came +around to the failure of the Senate to confirm Mr. Vanderpool, and it +was generally assumed that the President would not force the issue. + +Who, then, should be nominated? There were several suggestions, but the +knot of Southern Congressmen about Mrs. Cresswell declared emphatically +that it must be a Southerner. Not since the war had a prominent +Southerner represented America at a first-class foreign court; it was +shameful; the time was ripe for change. But who? Here opinions differed +widely. Nearly every one mentioned a candidate, and those who did not +seemed to refrain from motives of personal modesty. + +Mary Cresswell sped her departing guests with a distinct purpose in +mind. She must make herself leader of the Southern set in Washington and +concentrate its whole force on the appointment of Harry Cresswell as +ambassador to France. Quick reward and promotion were essential to +Harry's success. He was not one to keep up the strain of effort a long +time. Unless, then, tangible results came and came quickly, he was +liable to relapse into old habits. Therefore he must succeed and succeed +at once. She would have preferred a less ornamental position than the +ambassadorship, but there were no other openings. The Alabama senators +were firmly seated for at least four years and the Governorship had been +carefully arranged for. A term of four years abroad, however, might +bring Harry Cresswell back in time for greater advancement. At any rate, +it was the only tangible offering, and Mary Cresswell silently +determined to work for it. + +Here it was that she made her mistake. It was one thing for her to be a +tactful hostess, pleasing her husband and his guests; it was another for +her to aim openly at social leadership and political influence. She had +at first all the insignia of success. Her dinners became of real +political significance and her husband figured more and more as a +leading Southerner. The result was two-fold. Cresswell, on the one hand, +with his usual selfishness, took his rising popularity as a matter of +course and as the fruits of his own work; he was rising, he was making +valuable speeches, he was becoming a social power, and his only handicap +was his plain and over-ambitious wife. But on the other hand Mrs. +Cresswell forgot two pitfalls: the cleft between the old Southern +aristocracy and the pushing new Southerners; and above all, her own +Northern birth and presumably pro-Negro sympathies. + +What Mrs. Cresswell forgot Mrs. Vanderpool sensed unerringly. She had +heard with uneasiness of Cresswell's renewed candidacy for the Paris +ambassadorship, and she set herself to block it. She had worked hard. +The President stood ready to send her husband's appointment again to the +Senate whenever Easterly could assure him of favorable action. Easterly +had long and satisfactory interviews with several senators, while the +Todd insurgents were losing heart at the prospect of choosing between +Vanderpool and Cresswell. At present four Southern votes were needed to +confirm Vanderpool; but if they could not be had, Easterly declared it +would be good politics to nominate Cresswell and give him Republican +support. Manifestly, then, Mrs. Vanderpool's task was to discredit the +Cresswells with the Southerners. It was not a work to her liking, but +the die was cast and she refused to contemplate defeat. + +The result was that while Mrs. Cresswell was giving large and brilliant +parties to the whole Southern contingent, Mrs. Vanderpool was +engineering exclusive dinners where old New York met stately Charleston +and gossiped interestingly. On such occasions it was hinted not once, +but many times, that the Cresswells were well enough, but who was that +upstart wife who presumed to take social precedence? + +It was not, however, until Mrs. Cresswell's plan for an all-Southern art +exhibit in Washington that Mrs. Vanderpool, in a flash of inspiration, +saw her chance. In the annual exhibit of the Corcoran Art Gallery, a +Southern girl had nearly won first prize over a Western man. The +concensus of Southern opinion was that the judgment had been unfair, and +Mrs. Cresswell was convinced of this. With quick intuition she +suggested a Southern exhibit with such social prestige back of it as to +impress the country. + +The proposal caught the imagination of the Southern set. None suspected +a possible intrusion of the eternal race issue for no Negroes were +allowed in the Corcoran exhibit or school. This Mrs. Vanderpool easily +ascertained and a certain sense of justice combined in a curious way +with her political intrigue to bring about the undoing of Mary +Cresswell. + +Mrs. Vanderpool's very first cautious inquiries by way of the back +stairs brought gratifying response--for did not all black Washington +know well of the work in sculpture done by Mrs. Samuel Stillings, _nee_ +Wynn? Mrs. Vanderpool remembered Mrs. Stillings perfectly, and she +walked, that evening, through unobtrusive thoroughfares and called on +Mrs. Stillings. Had Mrs. Stillings heard of the new art movement? Did +she intend to exhibit? Mrs. Stillings did not intend to exhibit as she +was sure she would not be welcome. She had had a bust accepted by the +Corcoran Art Gallery once, and when they found she was colored they +returned it. But if she were especially invited? That would make a +difference, although even then the line would be drawn somehow. + +"Would it not be worth a fight?" suggested Mrs. Vanderpool with a little +heightening of color in her pale cheek. + +"Perhaps," said Mrs. Stillings, as she brought out some specimens of her +work. + +Mrs. Vanderpool was both ashamed and grateful. With money and leisure +Mrs. Stillings had been able to get in New York and Boston the training +she had been denied in Washington on account of her color. The things +she exhibited really had merit and one curiously original group appealed +to Mrs. Vanderpool tremendously. + +"Send it," she counseled with strangely contradictory feelings of +enthusiasm, and added: "Enter it under the name of Wynn." + +In addition to the general invitations to the art exhibit numbers of +special ones were issued to promising Southern amateurs who had never +exhibited. For these a prize of a long-term scholarship and other +smaller prizes were offered. When Mrs. Vanderpool suggested the name of +"Miss Wynn" to Mrs. Cresswell among a dozen others, for special +invitation, there was nothing in its sound to distinguish it from the +rest of the names, and the invitation went duly. As a result there came +to the exhibit a little group called "The Outcasts," which was really a +masterly thing and sent the director, Signor Alberni, into hysterical +commendation. + +In the private view and award of prizes which preceded the larger social +function the jury hesitated long between "The Outcasts" and a painting +from Georgia. Mrs. Cresswell was enthusiastic and voluble for the bit of +sculpture, and it finally won the vote for the first prize. + +All was ready for the great day. The President was coming and most of +the diplomatic corps, high officers of the army, and all the social +leaders. Congress would be well represented, and the boom for Cresswell +as ambassador to France was almost visible in the air. + +Mary Cresswell paused a moment in triumph looking back at the darkened +hall, when a little woman fluttered up to her and whispered: + +"Mrs. Cresswell, have you heard the gossip?" + +"No--what?" + +"That Wynn woman they say is a nigger. Some are whispering that you +brought her in purposely to force social equality. They say you used to +teach darkies. Of course, I don't believe all their talk, but I thought +you ought to know." She talked a while longer, then fluttered furtively +away. + +Mrs. Cresswell sat down limply. She saw ruin ahead--to think of a black +girl taking a prize at an all-Southern art exhibit! But there was still +a chance, and she leaped to action. This colored woman was doubtless +some poor deserving creature. She would call on her immediately, and by +an offer of abundant help induce her to withdraw quietly. + +Entering her motor, she drove near the address and then proceeded on +foot. The street was a prominent one, the block one of the best, the +house almost pretentious. She glanced at her memorandum again to see if +she was mistaken. Perhaps the woman was a domestic; probably she was, +for the name on the door was Stillings. It occurred to her that she had +heard that name before--but where? She looked again at her memorandum +and at the house. + +She rang the bell, asking the trim black maid: "Is there a person named +Caroline Wynn living in this house?" + +The girl smiled and hesitated. + +"Yes, ma'am," she finally replied. "Won't you come in?" She was shown +into the parlor, where she sat down. The room was most interesting, +furnished in unimpeachable taste. A few good pictures were on the walls, +and Mrs. Cresswell was examining one when she heard the swish of silken +skirts. A lady with gold brown face and straight hair stood before her +with pleasant smile. Where had Mrs. Cresswell seen her before? She tried +to remember, but could not. + +"You wished to see--Caroline Wynn?" + +"Yes." + +"What can I do for you?" + +Mrs. Cresswell groped for her proper cue, but the brown lady merely +offered a chair and sat down silently. Mrs. Cresswell's perplexity +increased. She had been planning to descend graciously but +authoritatively upon some shrinking girl, but this woman not only seemed +to assume equality but actually looked it. From a rapid survey, Mrs. +Cresswell saw a black silk stocking, a bit of lace, a tailor-made gown, +and a head with two full black eyes that waited in calmly polite +expectancy. + +Something had to be said. + +"I--er--came; that is, I believe you sent a group to the art exhibit?" + +"Yes." + +"It was good--very good." + +Miss Wynn said nothing, but sat calmly looking at her visitor. Mrs. +Cresswell felt irritated. + +"Of course," she managed to continue, "we are very sorry that we cannot +receive it." + +"Indeed? I understood it had taken the first prize." + +Mrs. Cresswell was aghast. Who had rushed the news to this woman? She +realized that there were depths to this matter that she did not +understand and her irritation increased. + +"You know that we could not give the prize to a--Negro." + +"Why not?" + +"That is quite immaterial. Social equality cannot be forced. At the same +time I recognize the injustice, and I have come to say that if you will +withdraw your exhibit you will be given a scholarship in a Boston +school." + +"I do not wish it." + +"Well, what do you want?" + +"I was not aware that I had asked for anything." + +Mrs. Cresswell felt herself getting angry. + +"Why did you send your exhibit when you knew it was not wanted?" + +"Because you asked me to." + +"We did not ask for colored people." + +"You asked all Southern-born persons. I am a person and I am Southern +born. Moreover, you sent me a personal letter." + +Mrs. Cresswell was sure that this was a lie and was thoroughly incensed. + +"You cannot have the prize," she almost snapped. "If you will withdraw I +will pay you any reasonable sum." + +"Thank you. I do not want money; I want justice." + +Mrs. Cresswell arose and her face was white. + +"That is the trouble with you Negroes: you wish to get above your places +and force yourselves where you are not wanted. It does no good, it only +makes trouble and enemies." Mrs. Cresswell stopped, for the colored +woman had gone quietly out of the room and in a moment the maid entered +and stood ready. Mrs. Cresswell walked slowly to the door and stepped +out. Then she turned. + +"What does Miss Wynn do for a living?" + +The girl tittered. + +"She used to teach school but she don't do nothing now. She's just +married; her husband is Mr. Stillings, Register of the Treasury." + +Mrs. Cresswell saw light as she turned to go down the steps. There was +but one resource--she must keep the matter out of the newspapers, and +see Stillings, whom she now remembered well. + +"I beg pardon, does the Miss Wynn live here who got the prize in the art +exhibition?" + +Mrs. Cresswell turned in amazement. It was evidently a reporter, and the +maid was admitting him. The news would reach the papers and be blazoned +to-morrow. Slowly she caught her motor and fell wearily back on its +cushions. + +"Where to, Madame?" asked the chauffeur. + +"I don't care," returned Madame; so the chauffeur took her home. + +She walked slowly up the stairs. All her carefully laid plans seemed +about to be thwarted and her castles were leaning toward ruin. + +Yet all was not lost, if her husband continued to believe in her. If, as +she feared, he should suspect her on account of this Negro woman, and +quarrel with her-- + +But he must not. This very night, before the morning papers came out, +she must explain. He must see; he must appreciate her efforts. + +She rushed into her dressing-room and called her maid. Contrary to her +Puritan notions, she frankly sought to beautify herself. She remembered +that it was the anniversary of her coming to this house. She got out her +wedding-dress, and although it hung loosely, the maid draped the Silver +Fleece beautifully about her. + +She heard her husband enter and come up-stairs. Quickly finishing her +toilet, she hurried down to arrange the flowers, for they were alone +that night. The telephone rang. She knew it would ring up-stairs in his +room, but she usually answered it for he disliked to. She raised the +receiver and started to speak when she realized that she had broken into +the midst of a conversation. + +"--committee won't meet tonight, Harry." + +"So? All right. Anything on?" + +"Yes--big spree at Nell's. Will you go?" + +"Sure thing; you know me! What time?" + +"Meet us at the Willard by nine. S'long." + +"Good-bye." + +She slowly, half guiltily, replaced the receiver. She had not meant to +listen, but now to her desperate longing to keep him home was added a +new motive. Where was "Nell's"? What was "Nell's"? What was--and there +was fear in her heart. At dinner she tried all her powers on him. She +had his favorite dishes; she mixed his salad and selected his wine; she +talked interestingly, and listened sympathetically, to him. He looked at +her with more attention. Her cheeks were more brilliant, for she had +touched them with rouge. Her eyes flashed; but he glanced furtively at +her short hair. She saw the act; but still she strove until he was +content and laughing; then coming round back of his chair, she placed +her arms about his neck. + +"Harry, will you do me a favor?" + +"Why, yes--if--" + +"It is something I want very, very much." + +"Well, all right, if--" + +"Harry, I feel a little--hysterical, tonight, and--you will not refuse +me, will you, Harry?" + +Standing there, she saw the tableau in her own mind, and it looked +strange. She was afraid of herself. She knew that she would do something +foolish if she did not win this battle. She felt that overpowering +fanaticism back within her raging restlessly. If she was not careful-- + +"But what is it you want?" asked her husband. + +"I don't want you to go out tonight." + +He laughed awkwardly. + +"Nonsense, girl! The sub-committee on the cotton schedule meets +tonight--very important; otherwise--" + +She shuddered at the smooth lie and clasped him closer, putting her +cheek to his. + +"Harry," she pleaded, "just this once--for me." + +He disengaged himself, half impatiently, and rose, glancing at the +clock. It was nearly nine. A feeling of desperation came over her. + +"Harry," she asked again as he slipped on his coat. + +"Don't be foolish," he growled. + +"Just this once--Harry--I--" But the door banged to, and he was gone. + +She stood looking at the closed door a moment. Something in her head was +ready to snap. She went to the rack and taking his long heavy overcoat +slipped it on. It nearly touched the floor. She seized a soft +broad-brimmed hat and umbrella and walked out. Just what she meant to do +she did not know, but somehow she must save her husband and herself from +evil. She hurried to the Willard Hotel and watched, walking up and down +the opposite sidewalk. A woman brushed by her and looked her in the +face. + +"Hell! I thought you was a man," she said. "Is this a new gag?" + +Mrs. Cresswell looked down at herself involuntarily and smiled wanly. +She did look like a man, with her hat and coat and short hair. The woman +peered at her doubtingly. She was, as Mrs. Cresswell noticed, a young +woman, once pretty, perhaps, and a little over-dressed. + +"Are you walking?" she asked. + +"What do you mean?" asked Mrs. Cresswell, and then in a moment it +flashed upon her. She took the woman's arm and walked with her. Suddenly +she stopped. + +"Where's--Nell's?" + +The woman frowned. "Oh, that's a swell place," she said. "Senators and +millionaires. Too high for us to fly." + +Mrs. Cresswell winced. "But where is it?" she asked. + +"We'll walk by it if you want to." + +And Mary Cresswell walked in another world. Up from the ground of the +drowsy city rose pale gray forms; pale, flushed, and brilliant, in +silken rags. Up and down they passed, to and fro, looking and gliding +like sheeted ghosts; now dodging policemen, now accosting them +familiarly. + +"Hello, Elise," growled one big blue-coat. + +"Hello, Jack." + +"What's this?" and he peered at Mrs. Cresswell, who shrank back. + +"Friend of mine. All right." + +A horror crept over Mary Cresswell: where had she lived that she had +seen so little before? What was Washington, and what was this fine, +tall, quiet residence? Was this--"Nell's"? + +"Yes, this is it--good-bye--I must--" + +"Wait--what is your name?" + +"I haven't any name," answered the woman suspiciously. + +"Well--pardon me! Here!" and she thrust a bill into the woman's hand. + +The girl stared. "Well, you're a queer one! Thanks. Guess I'll turn in." + +Mary Cresswell turned to see her husband and his companions ascending +the steps of the quiet mansion. She stood uncertainly and looked at the +opening and closing door. Then a policeman came by and looked at her. + +"Come, move on," he brusquely ordered. Her vacillation promptly +vanished, and she resolutely mounted the steps. She put out her hand to +ring, but the door flew silently open and a man-servant stood looking at +her. + +"I have some friends here," she said, speaking coarsely. + +"You will have to be introduced," said the man. She hesitated and +started to turn away. Thrusting her hand in her pocket it closed upon +her husband's card-case. She presented a card. It worked a rapid +transformation in the servant's manner, which did not escape her. + +"Come in," he invited her. + +She did not stop at the outstretched arm of the cloakman, but glided +quickly up the stairs toward a vision of handsome women and strains of +music. Harry Cresswell was sitting opposite and bending over an impudent +blue-and-blonde beauty. Mary slipped straight across to him and leaned +across the table. The hat fell off, but she let it go. + +"Harry!" she tried to say as he looked up. + +Then the table swayed gently to and fro; the room bowed and whirled +about; the voices grew fainter and fainter--all the world receded +suddenly far away. She extended her hands languidly, then, feeling so +utterly tired, let her eyelids drop and fell asleep. + +She awoke with a start, in her own bed. She was physically exhausted but +her mind was clear. She must go down and meet him at breakfast and talk +frankly with him. She would let bygones be bygones. She would explain +that she had followed him to save him, not to betray him. She would +point out the greater career before him if only he would be a man; she +would show him that they had not failed. For herself she asked nothing, +only his word, his confidence, his promise to try. + +After his first start of surprise at seeing her at the table, Cresswell +uttered nothing immediately save the commonplaces of greeting. He +mentioned one or two bits of news from the paper, upon which she +commented while dawdling over her egg. When the servant went out and +closed the door, she paused a moment considering whether to open by +appeal or explanation. His smooth tones startled her: + +"Of course, after your art exhibit and the scene of last night, Mary, it +will be impossible for us to live longer together." + +She stared at him, utterly aghast--voiceless and numb. + +"I have seen the crisis approaching for some time, and the Negro +business settles it," he continued. "I have now decided to send you to +my home in Alabama, to my father or your brother. I am sure you will be +happier there." + +He rose. Bowing courteously, he waited, coldly and calmly, for her to +go. + +All at once she hated him and hated his aristocratic repression; this +cold calm that hid hell and its fires. She looked at him, wide-eyed, and +said in a voice hoarse with horror and loathing: + +"You brute! You nasty brute!" + + + + +_Thirty-two_ + +ZORA'S WAY + + +Zora was looking on her world with the keener vision of one who, blind +from very seeing, closes the eyes a space and looks again with wider +clearer vision. Out of a nebulous cloudland she seemed to step; a land +where all things floated in strange confusion, but where one thing stood +steadfast, and that was love. When love was shaken all things moved, but +now, at last, for the first time she seemed to know the real and mighty +world that stood behind that old and shaken dream. + +So she looked on the world about her with new eyes. These men and women +of her childhood had hitherto walked by her like shadows; today they +lived for her in flesh and blood. She saw hundreds and thousands of +black men and women: crushed, half-spirited, and blind. She saw how high +and clear a light Sarah Smith, for thirty years and more, had carried +before them. She saw, too, how that the light had not simply shone in +darkness, but had lighted answering beacons here and there in these dull +souls. + +There were thoughts and vague stirrings of unrest in this mass of black +folk. They talked long about their firesides, and here Zora began to sit +and listen, often speaking a word herself. All through the countryside +she flitted, till gradually the black folk came to know her and, in +silent deference to some subtle difference, they gave her the title of +white folk, calling her "Miss" Zora. + +Today, more than ever before, Zora sensed the vast unorganized power in +this mass, and her mind was leaping here and there, scheming and +testing, when voices arrested her. + +It was a desolate bit of the Cresswell manor, a tiny cabin, new-boarded +and bare, in front of it a blazing bonfire. A white man was tossing into +the flames different household articles--a feather bed, a bedstead, two +rickety chairs. A young, boyish fellow, golden-faced and curly, stood +with clenched fists, while a woman with tear-stained eyes clung to him. +The white man raised a cradle to dash it into the flames; the woman +cried, and the yellow man raised his arm threateningly. But Zora's hand +was on his shoulder. + +"What's the matter, Rob?" she asked. + +"They're selling us out," he muttered savagely. "Millie's been sick +since the last baby died, and I had to neglect my crop to tend her and +the other little ones--I didn't make much. They've took my mule, now +they're burning my things to make me sign a contract and be a slave. But +by--" + +"There, Rob, let Millie come with me--we'll see Miss Smith. We must get +land to rent and arrange somehow." + +The mother sobbed, "The cradle--was baby's!" + +With an oath the white man dashed the cradle into the fire, and the red +flame spurted aloft. + +The crimson fire flashed in Zora's eyes as she passed the overseer. + +"Well, nigger, what are you going to do about it?" he growled +insolently. + +Zora's eyelids drooped, her upper lip quivered. + +"Nothing," she answered softly. "But I hope your soul will burn in hell +forever and forever." + +They proceeded down the plantation road, but Zora could not speak. She +pushed them slowly on, and turned aside to let the anger, the impotent, +futile anger, rage itself out. Alone in the great broad spaces, she knew +she could fight it down, and come back again, cool and in calm and +deadly earnest, to lead these children to the light. + +The sorrow in her heart was new and strange; not sorrow for herself, for +of that she had tasted the uttermost; but the vast vicarious suffering +for the evil of the world. The tumult and war within her fled, and a +sense of helplessness sent the hot tears streaming down her cheeks. She +longed for rest; but the last plantation was yet to be passed. Far off +she heard the yodle of the gangs of peons. She hesitated, looking for +some way of escape: if she passed them she would see something--she +always saw something--that would send the red blood whirling madly. + +"Here, you!--loafing again, damn you!" She saw the black whip writhe and +curl across the shoulders of the plough-boy. The boy crouched and +snarled, and again the whip hissed and cracked. + +Zora stood rigid and gray. + +"My God!" her silent soul was shrieking within, "why doesn't the +coward--" + +And then the "coward" did. The whip was whirring in the air again; but +it never fell. A jagged stone in the boy's hand struck true, and the +overseer plunged with a grunt into the black furrow. In blank dismay, +Zora came back to her senses. + +"Poor child!" she gasped, as she saw the boy flying in wild terror over +the fields, with hue and cry behind him. + +"Poor child!--running to the penitentiary--to shame and hunger and +damnation!" + +She remembered the rector in Mrs. Vanderpool's library, and his +question that revealed unfathomable depths of ignorance: "Really, now, +how do you account for the distressing increase in crime among your +people?" + +She swung into the great road trembling with the woe of the world in her +eyes. Cruelty, poverty, and crime she had looked in the face that +morning, and the hurt of it held her heart pinched and quivering. A +moment the mists in her eyes shut out the shadows of the swamp, and the +roaring in her ears made a silence of the world. + +Before she found herself again she dimly saw a couple sauntering along +the road, but she hardly noticed their white faces until the little +voice of the girl, raised timidly, greeted her. + +"Howdy, Zora." + +Zora looked. The girl was Emma, and beside her, smiling, stood a +half-grown white man. It was Emma, Bertie's child; and yet it was not, +for in the child of other days Zora saw for the first time the dawning +woman. + +And she saw, too, the white man. Suddenly the horror of the swamp was +upon her. She swept between the couple like a gust, gripping the child's +arm till she paled and almost whimpered. + +"I--I was just going on an errand for Miss Smith!" she cried. + +Looking down into her soul, Zora discerned its innocence and the fright +shining in the child's eyes. Her own eyes softened, her grip became a +caress, but her heart was hard. + +The young man laughed awkwardly and strolled away. Zora looked back at +him and the paramount mission of her life formed itself in her mind. She +would protect this girl; she would protect all black girls. She would +make it possible for these poor beasts of burden to be decent in their +toil. Out of protection of womanhood as the central thought, she must +build ramparts against cruelty, poverty, and crime. All this in +turn--but now and first, the innocent girlhood of this daughter of shame +must be rescued from the devil. It was her duty, her heritage. She must +offer this unsullied soul up unto God in mighty atonement--but how? Here +now was no protection. Already lustful eyes were in wait, and the child +was too ignorant to protect herself. She must be sent to +boarding-school, somewhere far away; but the money? God! it was money, +money, always money. Then she stopped suddenly, thrilled with the +recollection of Mrs. Vanderpool's check. + +She dismissed the girl with a kiss, and stood still a moment +considering. Money to send Emma off to school; money to buy a school +farm; money to "buy" tenants to live on it; money to furnish them +rations; money-- + +She went straight to Miss Smith. + +"Miss Smith, how much money have you?" Miss Smith's hand trembled a bit. +Ah, that splendid strength of young womanhood--if only she herself had +it! But perhaps Zora was the chosen one. She reached up and took down a +well-worn book. + +"Zora," she said slowly, "I've been going to tell you ever since you +came, but I hadn't the courage. Zora," Miss Smith hesitated and gripped +the book with thin white fingers, "I'm afraid--I almost know that this +school is doomed." + +There lay a silence in the room while the two women stared into each +other's souls with startled eyes. Swallowing hard, Miss Smith spoke. + +"When I thought the endowment sure, I mortgaged the school in order to +buy Tolliver's land. The endowment failed, as you know, because--perhaps +I was too stubborn." + +But Zora's eyes snapped "No!" and Miss Smith continued: + +"I borrowed ten thousand dollars. Then I tried to get the land, but +Tolliver kept putting me off, and finally I learned that Colonel +Cresswell had bought it. It seems that Tolliver got caught tight in the +cotton corner, and that Cresswell, through John Taylor, offered him +twice what he had agreed to sell to me for, and he took it. I don't +suppose Taylor knew what he was doing; I hope he didn't. + +"Well, there I was with ten thousand dollars idle on my hands, paying +ten per cent on it and getting less than three per cent. I tried to get +the bank to take the money back, but they refused. Then I was +tempted--and fell." She paused, and Zora took both her hands in her own. + +"You see," continued Miss Smith, "just as soon as the announcement of +the prospective endowment was sent broadcast by the press, the donations +from the North fell off. Letter after letter came from old friends of +the school full of congratulations, but no money. I ought to have cut +down the teaching force to the barest minimum, and gone North +begging--but I couldn't. I guess my courage was gone. I knew how I'd +have to explain and plead, and I just could not. So I used the ten +thousand dollars to pay its own interest and help run the school. +Already it's half gone, and when the rest goes then will come the end." + +Without, the great red sun paused a moment over the edge of the swamp, +and the long, low cry of night birds broke sadly on the twilight +silence. Zora sat stroking the lined hands. + +"Not the end," she spoke confidently. "It cannot end like this. I've got +a little money that Mrs. Vanderpool gave me, and somehow we must get +more. Perhaps I might go North and--beg." She shivered. Then she sat up +resolutely and turned to the book. + +"Let's go over matters carefully," she proposed. + +Together they counted and calculated. + +"The balance is four thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight dollars," +said Miss Smith. + +"Yes, and then there's Mrs. Vanderpool's check." + +"How much is that?" + +Zora paused; she did not know. In her world there was little calculation +of money. Credit and not cash is the currency of the Black Belt. She had +been pleased to receive the check, but she had not examined it. + +"I really don't know," she presently confessed. "I think it was one +thousand dollars; but I was so hurried in leaving that I didn't look +carefully," and the wild thought surged in her, suppose it was more! + +She ran into the other room and plunged into her trunk; beneath the +clothes, beneath the beauty of the Silver Fleece, till her fingers +clutched and tore the envelope. A little choking cry burst from her +throat, her knees trembled so that she was obliged to sit down. + +In her fingers fluttered a check for--_ten thousand dollars!_ + +It was not until the next day that the two women were sufficiently +composed to talk matters over sanely. + +"What is your plan?" asked Zora. + +"To put the money in a Northern savings bank at three per cent interest; +to supply the rest of the interest, and the deficit in the running +expenses, from our balance, and to send you North to beg." + +Zora shook her head. "It won't do," she objected. "I'd make a poor +beggar; I don't know human nature well enough, and I can't talk to rich +white folks the way they expect us to talk." + +"It wouldn't be hypocrisy, Zora; you would be serving in a great cause. +If you don't go, I--" + +"Wait! You sha'n't go. If any one goes it must be me. But let's think it +out: we pay off the mortgage, we get enough to run the school as it has +been run. Then what? There will still be slavery and oppression all +around us. The children will be kept in the cotton fields; the men will +be cheated, and the women--" Zora paused and her eyes grew hard. + +She began again rapidly: "We must have land--our own farm with our own +tenants--to be the beginning of a free community." + +Miss Smith threw up her hands impatiently. + +"But sakes alive! Where, Zora? Where can we get land, with Cresswell +owning every inch and bound to destroy us?" + +Zora sat hugging her knees and staring out the window toward the sombre +ramparts of the swamp. In her eyes lay slumbering the madness of long +ago; in her brain danced all the dreams and visions of childhood. + +"I'm thinking," she murmured, "of buying the swamp." + + + + +_Thirty-three_ + +THE BUYING OF THE SWAMP + + +"It's a shame," asserted John Taylor with something like real feeling. +He was spending Sunday with his father-in-law, and both, over their +after-dinner cigars, were gazing thoughtfully at the swamp. + +"What's a shame?" asked Colonel Cresswell. + +"To see all that timber and prime cotton-land going to waste. Don't you +remember those fine bales of cotton that came out of there several +seasons ago?" + +The Colonel smoked placidly. "You can't get it cleared," he said. + +"But couldn't you hire some good workers?" + +"Niggers won't work. Now if we had Italians we might do it." + +"Yes, and in a few years they'd own the country." + +"That's right; so there we are. There's only one way to get that swamp +cleared." + +"How?" + +"Sell it to some fool darkey." + +"Sell it? It's too valuable to sell." + +"That's just it. You don't understand. The only way to get decent work +out of some niggers is to let them believe they're buying land. In nine +cases out of ten he works hard a while and then throws up the job. We +get back our land and he makes good wages for his work." + +"But in the tenth case--suppose he should stick to it?" + +"Oh,"--easily, "we could get rid of him when we want to. White people +rule here." + +John Taylor frowned and looked a little puzzled. He was no moralist, but +he had his code and he did not understand Colonel Cresswell. As a matter +of fact, Colonel Cresswell was an honest man. In most matters of +commerce between men he was punctilious to a degree almost annoying to +Taylor. But there was one part of the world which his code of honor did +not cover, and he saw no incongruity in the omission. The uninitiated +cannot easily picture to himself the mental attitude of a former +slaveholder toward property in the hands of a Negro. Such property +belonged of right to the master, if the master needed it; and since +ridiculous laws safeguarded the property, it was perfectly permissible +to circumvent such laws. No Negro starved on the Cresswell place, +neither did any accumulate property. Colonel Cresswell saw to both +matters. + +As the Colonel and John Taylor were thus conferring, Zora appeared, +coming up the walk. + +"Who's that?" asked the Colonel shading his eyes. + +"It's Zora--the girl who went North with Mrs. Vanderpool," Taylor +enlightened him. + +"Back, is she? Too trifling to stick to a job, and full of Northern +nonsense," growled the Colonel. "Even got a Northern walk--I thought for +a moment she was a lady." + +Neither of the gentlemen ever dreamed how long, how hard, how +heart-wringing was that walk from the gate up the winding way beneath +their careless gaze. It was not the coming of the thoughtless, careless +girl of five years ago who had marched a dozen times unthinking before +the faces of white men. It was the approach of a woman who knew how the +world treated women whom it respected; who knew that no such treatment +would be thought of in her case: neither the bow, the lifted hat, nor +even the conventional title of decency. Yet she must go on naturally and +easily, boldly but circumspectly, and play a daring game with two +powerful men. + +"Can I speak with you a moment, Colonel?" she asked. + +The Colonel did not stir or remove his cigar; he even injected a little +gruffness into his tone. + +"Well, what is it?" + +Of course, she was not asked to sit, but she stood with her hands +clasped loosely before her and her eyes half veiled. + +"Colonel, I've got a thousand dollars." She did not mention the other +nine. + +The Colonel sat up. + +"Where did you get it?" he asked. + +"Mrs. Vanderpool gave it to me to use in helping the colored people." + +"What are you going to do with it?" + +"Well, that's just what I came to see you about. You see, I might give +it to the school, but I've been thinking that I'd like to buy some land +for some of the tenants." + +"I've got no land to sell," said the Colonel. + +"I was thinking you might sell a bit of the swamp." + +Cresswell and Taylor glanced at each other and the Colonel re-lit his +cigar. + +"How much of it?" he asked finally. + +"I don't know; I thought perhaps two hundred acres." + +"Two hundred acres? Do you expect to buy that land for five dollars an +acre?" + +"Oh, no, sir. I thought it might cost as much as twenty-five dollars." + +"But you've only got a thousand dollars." + +"Yes, sir; I thought I might pay that down and then pay the rest from +the crops." + +"Who's going to work on the place?" + +Zora named a number of the steadiest tenants to whom she had spoken. + +"They owe me a lot of money," said the Colonel. + +"We'd try to pay that, too." + +Colonel Cresswell considered. There was absolutely no risk. The cost of +the land, the back debts of the tenants--no possible crops could pay for +them. Then there was the chance of getting the swamp cleared for almost +nothing. + +"How's the school getting on?" he asked suddenly. + +"Very poorly," answered Zora sadly. "You know it's mortgaged, and Miss +Smith has had to use the mortgage money for yearly expenses." + +The Colonel smiled grimly. + +"It will cost you fifty dollars an acre," he said finally. Zora looked +disappointed and figured out the matter slowly. + +"That would be one thousand down and nine thousand to pay--" + +"With interest," said Cresswell. + +Zora shook her head doubtfully. + +"What would the interest be?" she asked. + +"Ten per cent." + +She stood silent a moment and Colonel Cresswell spoke up: + +"It's the best land about here and about the only land you can buy--I +wouldn't sell it to anybody else." + +She still hesitated. + +"The trouble is, you see, Colonel Cresswell, the price is high and the +interest heavy. And after all I may not be able to get as many tenants +as I'd need. I think though, I'd try it if--if I could be sure you'd +treat me fairly, and that I'd get the land if I paid for it." + +Colonel Cresswell reddened a little, and John Taylor looked away. + +"Well, if you don't want to undertake it, all right." + +Zora looked thoughtfully across the field-- + +"Mr. Maxwell has a bit of land," she began meditatively. + +"Worked out, and not worth five dollars an acre!" snapped the Colonel. +But he did not propose to hand Maxwell a thousand dollars. "Now, see +here, I'll treat you as well as anybody, and you know it." + +"I believe so, sir," acknowledged Zora in a tone that brought a sudden +keen glance from Taylor; but her face was a mask. "I reckon I'll make +the bargain." + +"All right. Bring the money and we'll fix the thing up." + +"The money is here," said Zora, taking an envelope out of her bosom. + +"Well, leave it here, and I'll see to it." + +"But you see, sir, Miss Smith is so methodical; she expects some papers +or receipts." + +"Well, it's too late tonight." + +"Possibly you could sign a sort of receipt and later--" + +Cresswell laughed. "Well, write one," he indulgently assented. And Zora +wrote. + +When Zora left Colonel Cresswell's about noon that Sunday she knew her +work had just begun, and she walked swiftly along the country roads, +calling here and there. Would Uncle Isaac help her build a log home? +Would the boys help her some time to clear some swamp land? Would Rob +become a tenant when she asked? For this was the idle time of the year. +Crops were laid by and planting had not yet begun. + +This too was the time of big church meetings. She knew that in her part +of the country on that day the black population, man, woman, and child, +were gathered in great groups; all day they had been gathering, +streaming in snake-like lines along the country roads, in well-brushed, +brilliant attire, half fantastic, half crude. Down where the +Toomsville-Montgomery highway dipped to the stream that fed the +Cresswell swamp squatted a square barn that slept through day and weeks +in dull indifference. But on the First Sunday it woke to sudden mighty +life. The voices of men and children mingled with the snorting of +animals and the cracking of whips. Then came the long drone and +sing-song of the preacher with its sharp wilder climaxes and the +answering "amens" and screams of the worshippers. This was the shrine of +the Baptists--shrine and oracle, centre and source of inspiration--and +hither Zora hurried. + +The preacher was Jones, a big man, fat, black, and greasy, with little +eyes, unctuous voice, and three manners: his white folks manner, soft, +humble, wheedling; his black folks manner, voluble, important, +condescending; and above all, his pulpit manner, loud, wild, and strong. +He was about to don this latter cloak when Zora approached with a +request briefly to address the congregation. Remembering some former +snubs, his manner was lordly. + +"I doesn't see," he returned reflectively, wiping his brows, "as how I +can rightly spare you any time; the brethren is a-gettin' mighty +onpatient to hear me." He pulled down his cuffs, regarding her +doubtfully. + +"I might speak after you're through," she suggested. But he objected +that there was the regular collection and two or three other +collections, a baptism, a meeting of the trustees; there was no time, in +short; but--he eyed her again. + +"Does you want--a collection?" he questioned suspiciously, for he could +imagine few other reasons for talking. Then, too, he did not want to be +too inflexible, for all of his people knew Zora and liked her. + +"Oh, no, I want no collection at all. I only want a little voluntary +work on their part." He looked relieved, frowned through the door at the +audience, and looked at his bright gold watch. The whole crowd was not +there yet--perhaps-- + +"You kin say just a word before the sermont," he finally yielded; "but +not long--not long. They'se just a-dying to hear me." + +So Zora spoke simply but clearly: of neglect and suffering, of the sins +of others that bowed young shoulders, of the great hope of the +children's future. Then she told something of what she had seen and read +of the world's newer ways of helping men and women. She talked of +cooperation and refuges and other efforts; she praised their way of +adopting children into their own homes; and then finally she told them +of the land she was buying for new tenants and the helping hands she +needed. The preacher fidgeted and coughed but dared not actually +interrupt, for the people were listening breathless to a kind of +straightforward talk which they seldom heard and for which they were +hungering. + +And Zora forgot time and occasion. The moments flew; the crowd increased +until the wonderful spell of those dark and upturned faces pulsed in her +blood. She felt the wild yearning to help them beating in her ears and +blinding her eyes. + +"Oh, my people!" she almost sobbed. "My own people, I am not asking you +to help others; I am pleading with you to help yourselves. Rescue your +own flesh and blood--free yourselves--free yourselves!" And from the +swaying sobbing hundreds burst a great "Amen!" The minister's dusky face +grew more and more sombre, and the angry sweat started on his brow. He +felt himself hoaxed and cheated, and he meant to have his revenge. Two +hundred men and women rose and pledged themselves to help Zora; and when +she turned with overflowing heart to thank the preacher he had left the +platform, and she found him in the yard whispering darkly with two +deacons. She realized her mistake, and promised to retrieve it during +the week; but the week was full of planning and journeying and talking. + +Saturday dawned cool and clear. She had dinner prepared for cooking in +the yard: sweet potatoes, hoe-cake, and buttermilk, and a hog to be +barbecued. Everything was ready by eight o'clock in the morning. Emma +and two other girl helpers were on the tip-toe of expectancy. Nine +o'clock came and no one with it. Ten o'clock came, and eleven. High +noon found Zora peering down the highway under her shading hand, but no +soul in sight. She tried to think it out: what could have happened? Her +people were slow, tardy, but they would not thus forget her and +disappoint her without some great cause. She sent the girls home at dusk +and then seated herself miserably under the great oak; then at last one +half-grown boy hurried by. + +"I wanted to come, Miss Zora, but I was afeared. Preacher Jones has been +talking everywhere against you. He says that your mother was a voodoo +woman and that you don't believe in God, and the deacons voted that the +members mustn't help you." + +"And do the people believe that?" she asked in consternation. + +"They just don't know what to say. They don't 'zactly believe it, but +they has to 'low that you didn't say much 'bout religion when you +talked. You ain't been near Big Meetin'--and--and--you ain't saved." He +hurried on. + +Zora leaned her head back wearily, watching the laced black branches +where the star-light flickered through--as coldly still and immovable as +she had watched them from those gnarled roots all her life--and she +murmured bitterly the world-old question of despair: "What's the use?" +It seemed to her that every breeze and branch was instinct with +sympathy, and murmuring, "What's the use?" She wondered vaguely why, and +as she wondered, she knew. + +For yonder where the black earth of the swamp heaved in a formless mound +she felt the black arms of Elspeth rising from the sod--gigantic, +mighty. They stole toward her with stealthy hands and claw-like talons. +They clutched at her skirts. She froze and could not move. Down, down +she slipped toward the black slime of the swamp, and the air about was +horror--down, down, till the chilly waters stung her knees; and then +with one grip she seized the oak, while the great hand of Elspeth +twisted and tore her soul. Faint, afar, nearer and nearer and ever +mightier, rose a song of mystic melody. She heard its human voice and +sought to cry aloud. She strove again and again with that gripping, +twisting pain--that awful hand--until the shriek came and she awoke. + +She lay panting and sweating across the bent and broken roots of the +oak. The hand of Elspeth was gone but the song was still there. She rose +trembling and listened. It was the singing of the Big Meeting in the +church far away. She had forgotten this religious revival in her days of +hurried preparation, and the preacher had used her absence and apparent +indifference against her and her work. The hand of Elspeth was reaching +from the grave to pull her back; but she was no longer dreaming now. +Drawing her shawl about her, she hurried down the highway. + +The meeting had overflowed the church and spread to the edge of the +swamp. The tops of young trees had been bent down and interlaced to form +a covering and benches twined to their trunks. Thus a low and wide +cathedral, all green and silver in the star-light, lay packed with a +living mass of black folk. Flaming pine torches burned above the +devotees; the rhythm of their stamping, the shout of their voices, and +the wild music of their singing shook the night. Four hundred people +fell upon their knees when the huge black preacher, uncoated, red-eyed, +frenzied, stretched his long arms to heaven. Zora saw the throng from +afar, and hesitated. After all, she knew little of this strange faith of +theirs--had little belief in its mummery. She herself had been brought +up almost without religion save some few mystic remnants of a +half-forgotten heathen cult. The little she had seen of religious +observance had not moved her greatly, save once yonder in Washington. +There she found God after a searching that had seared her soul; but He +had simply pointed the Way, and the way was human. + +Humanity was near and real. She loved it. But if she talked again of +mere men would these devotees listen? Already the minister had spied her +tall form and feared her power. He set his powerful voice and the frenzy +of his hearers to crush her. + +"Who is dis what talks of doing the Lord's work for Him? What does de +good Book say? Take no thought 'bout de morrow. Why is you trying to +make dis ole world better? I spits on the world! Come out from it. Seek +Jesus. Heaven is my home! Is it yo's?" "Yes," groaned the multitude. His +arm shot out and he pointed straight at Zora. + +"Beware the ebil one!" he shouted, and the multitude moaned. "Beware of +dem dat calls ebil good. Beware of dem dat worships debbils; the debbils +dat crawl; de debbils what forgits God." + +"Help him, Lord!" cried the multitude. + +Zora stepped into the circle of light. A hush fell on the throng; the +preacher paused a moment, then started boldly forward with upraised +hands. Then a curious thing happened. A sharp cry arose far off down +toward the swamp and the sound of great footsteps coming, coming as from +the end of the world; there swelled a rhythmical chanting, wilder and +more primitive than song. On, on it came, until it swung into sight. An +old man led the band--tall, massive, with tufted gray hair and wrinkled +leathery skin, and his eyes were the eyes of death. He reached the +circle of light, and Zora started: once before she had seen that old +man. The singing stopped but he came straight on till he reached Zora's +side and then he whirled and spoke. + +The words leaped and flew from his lips as he lashed the throng with +bitter fury. He said what Zora wanted to say with two great differences: +first, he spoke their religious language and spoke it with absolute +confidence and authority; and secondly, he seemed to know each one there +personally and intimately so that he spoke to no inchoate throng--he +spoke to them individually, and they listened awestruck and fearsome. + +"God is done sent me," he declared in passionate tones, "to preach His +acceptable time. Faith without works is dead; who is you that dares to +set and wait for the Lord to do your work?" Then in sudden fury, "Ye +generation of vipers--who kin save you?" He bent forward and pointed his +long finger. "Yes," he cried, "pray, Sam Collins, you black devil; pray, +for the corn you stole Thursday." The black figure moved. "Moan, Sister +Maxwell, for the backbiting you did today. Yell, Jack Tolliver, you +sneaking scamp, t'wil the Lord tell Uncle Bill who ruined his daughter. +Weep, May Haynes, for that baby--" + +But the woman's shriek drowned his words, and he whirled full on the +preacher, stamping his feet and waving his hands. His anger choked him; +the fat preacher cowered gray and trembling. The gaunt fanatic towered +over him. + +"You--you--ornery hound of Hell! God never knowed you and the devil owns +your soul!" There leapt from his lips a denunciation so livid, specific, +and impassioned that the preacher squatted and bowed, then finally fell +upon his face and moaned. + +The gaunt speaker turned again to the people. He talked of little +children; he pictured their sin and neglect. "God is done sent me to +offer you all salvation," he cried, while the people wept and wailed; +"not in praying, but in works. Follow me!" The hour was halfway between +midnight and dawn, but nevertheless the people leapt frenziedly to their +feet. + +"Follow me!" he shouted. + +And, singing and chanting, the throng poured out upon the black highway, +waving their torches. Zora knew his intention. With a half-dozen of +younger onlookers she unhitched teams and rode across the land, calling +at the cabins. Before sunrise, tools were in the swamp, axes and saws +and hammers. The noise of prayer and singing filled the Sabbath dawn. +The news of the great revival spread, and men and women came pouring in. +Then of a sudden the uproar stopped, and the ringing of axes and grating +of saws and tugging of mules was heard. The forest trembled as by some +mighty magic, swaying and falling with crash on crash. Huge bonfires +blazed and crackled, until at last a wide black scar appeared in the +thick south side of the swamp, which widened and widened to full twenty +acres. + +The sun rose higher and higher till it blazed at high noon. The workers +dropped their tools. The aroma of coffee and roasting meat rose in the +dim cool shade. With ravenous appetites the dark, half-famished throng +fell upon the food, and then in utter weariness stretched themselves and +slept: lying along the earth like huge bronze earth-spirits, sitting +against trees, curled in dense bushes. + +And Zora sat above them on a high rich-scented pile of logs. Her senses +slept save her sleepless eyes. Amid a silence she saw in the little +grove that still stood, the cabin of Elspeth tremble, sigh, and +disappear, and with it flew some spirit of evil. + +Then she looked down to the new edge of the swamp, by the old lagoon, +and saw Bles Alwyn standing there. It seemed very natural; and closing +her eyes, she fell asleep. + + + + +_Thirty-four_ + +THE RETURN OF ALWYN + + +Bles Alwyn stared at Mrs. Harry Cresswell in surprise. He had not seen +her since that moment at the ball, and he was startled at the change. +Her abundant hair was gone; her face was pale and drawn, and there were +little wrinkles below her sunken eyes. In those eyes lurked the tired +look of the bewildered and the disappointed. It was in the lofty +waiting-room of the Washington station where Alwyn had come to meet a +friend. Mrs. Cresswell turned and recognized him with genuine pleasure. +He seemed somehow a part of the few things in the world--little and +unimportant perhaps--that counted and stood firm, and she shook his hand +cordially, not minding the staring of the people about. He took her bag +and carried it towards the gate, which made the observers breathe +easier, seeing him in servile duty. Someway, she knew not just how, she +found herself telling him of the crisis in her life before she realized; +not everything, of course, but a great deal. It was much as though she +were talking to some one from another world--an outsider; but one she +had known long, one who understood. Both from what she recounted and +what she could not tell he gathered the substance of the story, and it +bewildered him. He had not thought that white people had such troubles; +yet, he reflected, why not? They, too, were human. + +"I suppose you hear from the school?" he ventured after a pause. + +"Why, yes--not directly--but Zora used to speak of it." + +Bles looked up quickly. + +"Zora?" + +"Yes. Didn't you see her while she was here? She has gone back now." + +Then the gate opened, the crowd surged through, sweeping them apart, and +next moment he was alone. + +Alwyn turned slowly away. He forgot the friend he was to meet. He forgot +everything but the field of the Silver Fleece. It rose shadowy there in +the pale concourse, swaying in ghostly breezes. The purple of its +flowers mingled with the silver radiance of tendrils that trembled +across the hurrying throng, like threads of mists along low hills. In +its midst rose a dark, slim, and quivering form. She had been here--here +in Washington! Why had he not known? What was she doing? "She has gone +back now"--back to the Sun and the Swamp, back to the Burden. + +Why should not he go back, too? He walked on thinking. He had failed. +His apparent success had been too sudden, too overwhelming, and when he +had faced the crisis his hand had trembled. He had chosen the Right--but +the Right was ineffective, impotent, almost ludicrous. It left him +shorn, powerless, and in moral revolt. The world had suddenly left him, +as the vision of Carrie Wynn had left him, alone, a mere clerk, an +insignificant cog in the great grinding wheel of humdrum drudgery. His +chance to do and thereby to be had not come. + +He thought of Zora again. Why not go back to the South where she had +gone? He shuddered as one who sees before him a cold black pool whither +his path leads. To face the proscription, the insult, the lawless hate +of the South again--never! And yet he went home and sat down and wrote a +long letter to Miss Smith. + +The reply that came after some delay was almost curt. It answered few of +his questions, argued with none of his doubts, and made no mention of +Zora. Yes, there was need of a manager for the new farm and settlement. +She was not sure whether Alwyn could do the work or not. The salary was +meagre and the work hard. If he wished it, he must decide immediately. + +Two weeks later found Alwyn on the train facing Southward in the Jim +Crow car. How he had decided to go back South he did not know. In fact, +he had not decided. He had sat helpless and inactive in the grip of +great and shadowed hands, and the thing was as yet incomprehensible. And +so it was that the vision Zora saw in the swamp had been real enough, +and Alwyn felt strangely disappointed that she had given no sign of +greeting on recognition. + +In other ways, too, Zora, when he met her, was to him a new creature. +She came to him frankly and greeted him, her gladness shining in her +eyes, yet looking nothing more than gladness and saying nothing more. +Just what he had expected was hard to say; but he had left her on her +knees in the dirt with outstretched hands, and somehow he had expected +to return to some corresponding mental attitude. The physical change of +these three years was marvellous. The girl was a woman, well-rounded and +poised, tall, straight, and quick. And with this went mental change: a +self-mastery; a veiling of the self even in intimate talk; a subtle air +as of one looking from great and unreachable heights down on the dawn of +the world. Perhaps no one who had not known the child and the girl as he +had would have noted all this; but he saw and realized the +transformation with a pang--something had gone; the innocence and wonder +of the child, and in their place had grown up something to him +incomprehensible and occult. + +Miss Smith was not to be easily questioned on the subject. She took no +hints and gave no information, and when once he hazarded some pointed +questions she turned on him abruptly, observing acidly: "If I were you +I'd think less of Zora and more of her work." + +Gradually, in his spiritual perplexity, Alwyn turned to Mary Cresswell. +She was staying with the Colonel at Cresswell Oaks. Her coming South was +supposed to be solely for reasons of health, and her appearance made +this excuse plausible. She was lonely and restless, and naturally drawn +toward the school. Her intercourse with Miss Smith was only formal, but +her interest in Zora's work grew. Down in the swamp, at the edge of the +cleared space, had risen a log cabin; long, low, spacious, overhung with +oak and pine. It was Zora's centre for her settlement-work. There she +lived, and with her a half-dozen orphan girls and children too young for +the boarding department of the school. Mrs. Cresswell easily fell into +the habit of walking by here each day, coming down the avenue of oaks +across the road and into the swamp. She saw little of Zora personally +but she saw her girls and learned much of her plans. + +The rooms of the cottage were clean and light, supplied with books and +pictures, simple toys, and a phonograph. The yard was one wide green and +golden play-ground, and all day the music of children's glad crooning +and the singing of girls went echoing and trembling through the trees, +as they played and sewed and washed and worked. + +From the Cresswells and the Maxwells and others came loads of clothes +for washing and mending. The Tolliver girls had simple dresses made, +embroidery was ordered from town, and soon there would be the gardens +and cotton fields. Mrs. Cresswell would saunter down of mornings. +Sometimes she would talk to the big girls and play with the children; +sometimes she would sit hidden in the forest, listening and glimpsing +and thinking, thinking, till her head whirled and the world danced red +before her eyes, today she rose wearily, for it was near noon, and +started home. She saw Alwyn swing along the road to the school +dining-room where he had charge of the students at the noonday meal. + +Alwyn wanted Mrs. Cresswell's judgment and advice. He was growing +doubtful of his own estimate of women. Evidently something about his +standards was wrong; consequently he made opportunities to talk with +Mrs. Cresswell when she was about, hoping she would bring up the subject +of Zora of her own accord. But she did not. She was too full of her own +cares and troubles, and she was only too glad of willing and sympathetic +ears into which to pour her thoughts. Miss Smith soon began to look on +these conversations with some uneasiness. Black men and white women +cannot talk together casually in the South and she did not know how far +the North had put notions in Alwyn's head. + +Today both met each other almost eagerly. + +Mrs. Cresswell had just had a bit of news which only he would fully +appreciate. + +"Have you heard of the Vanderpools?" she asked. + +"No--except that he was appointed and confirmed at last." + +"Well, they had only arrived in France when he died of apoplexy. I do +not know," added Mrs. Cresswell, "I may be wrong and--I hope I'm not +glad." Then there leapt to her mind a hypothetical question which had to +do with her own curious situation. It was characteristic of her to brood +and then restlessly to seek relief in consulting the one person near who +knew her story. She started to open the subject again today. + +But Alwyn, his own mind full, spoke first and rapidly. He, too, had +turned to her as he saw her come from Zora's home. He must know more +about the girl. He could no longer endure this silence. Zora beneath her +apparent frankness was impenetrable, and he felt that she carefully +avoided him, although she did it so deftly that he felt rather than +observed it. Miss Smith still systematically snubbed him when he +broached the subject of Zora. With others he did not speak; the matter +seemed too delicate and sacred, and he always had an awful dread lest +sometime, somewhere, a chance and fatal word would be dropped, a breath +of evil gossip which would shatter all. He had hated to obtrude his +troubles on Mrs. Cresswell, who seemed so torn in soul. But today he +must speak, although time pressed. + +"Mrs. Cresswell," he began hurriedly, "there's a matter--a personal +matter of which I have wanted to speak--a long time--I--" The +dinner-bell rang, and he stopped, vexed. + +"Come up to the house this afternoon," she said; "Colonel Cresswell will +be away--" Then she paused abruptly. A strange startling thought flashed +through her brain. Alwyn noticed nothing. He thanked her cordially and +hurried toward the dining-hall, meeting Colonel Cresswell on horseback +just as he turned into the school gate. + +Mary Cresswell walked slowly on, flushing and paling by turns. Could it +be that this Negro had dared to misunderstand her--had presumed? She +reviewed her conduct. Perhaps she had been indiscreet in thus making a +confidant of him in her trouble. She had thought of him as a boy--an old +student, a sort of confidential servant; but what had he thought? She +remembered Miss Smith's warning of years before--and he had been North +since and acquired Northern notions of freedom and equality. She bit her +lip cruelly. + +Yet, she mused, she was herself to blame. She had unwittingly made the +intimacy and he was but a Negro, looking on every white woman as a +goddess and ready to fawn at the slightest encouragement. There had been +no one else here to confide in. She could not tell Miss Smith her +troubles, although she knew Miss Smith must suspect. Harry Cresswell, +apparently, had written nothing home of their quarrel. All the neighbors +behaved as if her excuse of ill-health were sufficient to account for +her return South to escape the rigors of a Northern winter. Alwyn, and +Alwyn alone, really knew. Well, it was her blindness, and she must right +it quietly and quickly with hard ruthless plainness. She blushed again +at the shame of it; then she began to excuse. + +After all, which was worse--a Cresswell or an Alwyn? It was no sin that +Alwyn had done; it was simply ignorant presumption, and she must correct +him firmly, but gently, like a child. What a crazy muddle the world was! +She thought of Harry Cresswell and the tale he told her in the swamp. +She thought of the flitting ghosts that awful night in Washington. She +thought of Miss Wynn who had jilted Alwyn and given her herself a very +bad quarter of an hour. What a world it was, and after all how far was +this black boy wrong? Just then Colonel Cresswell rode up behind and +greeted her. + +She started almost guiltily, and again a sense of the awkwardness of her +position reddened her face and neck. The Colonel dismounted, despite her +protest, and walked beside her. They chatted along indifferently, of the +crops, her brother's new baby, the proposed mill. + +"Mary," his voice abruptly struck a new note. "I don't like the way you +talk with that Alwyn nigger." + +She was silent. + +"Of course," he continued, "you're Northern born and you have been a +teacher in this school and feel differently from us in some ways; but +mark what I say, a nigger will presume on the slightest pretext, and you +must keep them in their place. Then, too, you are a Cresswell now--" + +She smiled bitterly; he noticed it, but went on: + +"You are a Cresswell, even if you have caught Harry up to some of his +deviltry,"--she started,--"and got miffed about it. It'll all come out +right. You're a Cresswell, and you must hold yourself too high to +'Mister' a nigger or let him dream of any sort of equality." + +He spoke pleasantly, but with a certain sharp insistence that struck a +note of fear in Mary's heart. For a moment she thought of writing Alwyn +not to call. But, no; a note would be unwise. She and Colonel Cresswell +lunched rather silently. + +"Well, I must get to town," he finally announced. "The mill directors +meet today. If Maxwell calls by about that lumber tell him I'll see him +in town." And away he went. + +He had scarcely reached the highway and ridden a quarter of a mile or +so when he spied Bles Alwyn hurrying across the field toward the +Cresswell Oaks. He frowned and rode on. Then reining in his horse, he +stopped in the shadow of the trees and watched Alwyn. + +It was here that Zora saw him as she came up from her house. She, too, +stopped, and soon saw whom he was watching. She had been planning to see +Mr. Cresswell about the cut timber on her land. By legal right it was +hers but she knew he would claim half, treating her like a mere tenant. +Seeing him watching Alwyn she paused in the shadow and waited, fearing +trouble. She, too, had felt that the continued conversations of Alwyn +and Mrs. Cresswell were indiscreet, but she hoped that they had +attracted no one else's attention. Now she feared the Colonel was +suspicious and her heart sank. Alwyn went straight toward the house and +disappeared in the oak avenue. Still Colonel Cresswell waited but Zora +waited no longer. Alwyn must be warned. She must reach Cresswell's +mansion before Cresswell did and without him seeing her. This meant a +long detour of the swamp to approach the Oaks from the west. She +silently gathered up her skirts and walked quickly and carefully away. + +She was a strong woman, lithe and vigorous, living in the open air and +used to walking. Once out of hearing she threw away her hat and bending +forward ran through the swamp. For a while she ran easily and swiftly. +Then for a moment she grew dizzy and it seemed as though she was +standing still and the swamp in solemn grandeur marching past--in solemn +mocking grandeur. She loosened her dress at the neck and flew on. + +She sped at last through the oaks, up the terraces, and slowing down to +an unsteady walk, staggered into the house. No one would wonder at her +being there. She came up now and then and sorted the linen and piled the +baskets for her girls. She entered a side door and listened. The +Colonel's voice sounded impatiently in the front hall. + +"Mary! Mary?" + +A pause, then an answer: + +"Yes, father!" + +He started up the front stairway and Zora hurried up the narrow back +stairs, almost overturning a servant. + +"I'm after the clothes," she explained. She reached the back landing +just in time to see Colonel Cresswell's head rising up the front +staircase. With a quick bound she almost fell into the first room at the +top of the stairs. + +Bles Alwyn had hurried through his dinner duties and hastened to the +Oaks. The questions, the doubts, the uncertainty within him were +clamoring for utterance. How much had Mrs. Cresswell ever known of Zora? +What kind of a woman was Zora now? Mrs. Cresswell had seen her and had +talked to her and watched her. What did she think? Thus he formulated +his questions as he went, half timid, and fearful in putting them and +yet determined to know. + +Mrs. Cresswell, waiting for him, was almost panic-stricken. Probably he +would beat round the bush seeking further encouragement; but at the +slightest indication she must crush him ruthlessly and at the same time +point the path of duty. He ought to marry some good girl--not Zora, but +some one. Somehow Zora seemed too unusual and strange for him--too +inhuman, as Mary Cresswell judged humanity. She glanced out from her +seat on the upper verandah over the front porch and saw Alwyn coming. +Where should she receive him? On the porch and have Mr. Maxwell ride up? +In the parlor and have the servants astounded and talking? If she took +him up to her own sitting-room the servants would think he was doing +some work or fetching something for the school. She greeted him briefly +and asked him in. + +"Good-afternoon, Bles"--using his first name to show him his place, and +then inwardly recoiling at its note of familiarity. She preceded him +up-stairs to the sitting-room, where, leaving the door ajar, she seated +herself on the opposite side of the room and waited. + +He fidgeted, then spoke rapidly. + +"Mrs. Cresswell--this is a personal affair." She reddened angrily. "A +love affair"--she paled with something like fear--"and I"--she started +to speak, but could not--"I want to know what you think about Zora?" + +"About Zora!" she gasped weakly. The sudden reaction, the revulsion of +her agitated feelings, left her breathless. + +"About Zora. You know I loved her dearly as a boy--how dearly I have +only just begun to realize: I've been wondering if I understood--if I +wasn't--" + +Mrs. Cresswell got angrily to her feet. + +"You have come here to speak to me of that--that--" she choked, and Bles +thought his worst fears realized. + +"Mary, Mary!" Colonel Cresswell's voice broke suddenly in upon them. +With a start of fear Mrs. Cresswell rushed out into the hall and closed +the door. + +"Mary, has that Alwyn nigger been here this afternoon?" Mr. Cresswell +was coming up-stairs, carrying his riding whip. + +"Why, no!" she answered, lying instinctively before she quite realized +what her lie meant. She hesitated. "That is, I haven't seen him. I must +have nodded over my book,"--looking toward the little verandah at the +front of the upper hall, where her easy chair stood with her book. Then +with an awful flash of enlightenment she realized what her lie might +mean, and her heart paused. + +Cresswell strode up. + +"I saw him come up--he must have entered. He's nowhere downstairs," he +wavered and scowled. "Have you been in your sitting-room?" And then, not +waiting for a reply, he strode to the door. + +"But the damned scoundrel wouldn't dare!" + +He deliberately placed his hand in his right-hand hip-pocket and threw +open the door. + +Mary Cresswell stood frozen. The full horror of the thing burst upon +her. Her own silly misapprehension, the infatuation of Alwyn for Zora, +her thoughtless--no, vindictive--betrayal of him to something worse than +death. She listened for the crack of doom. She heard a bird singing far +down in the swamp; she heard the soft raising of a window and the +closing of a door. And then--great God in heaven! must she live forever +in this agony?--and then, she heard the door bang and Mr. Cresswell's +gruff voice-- + +"Well, where is he?--he isn't in there!" + +Mary Cresswell felt that something was giving way within. She swayed and +would have crashed to the bottom of the staircase if just then she had +not seen at the opposite end of the hall, near the back stairs, Zora and +Alwyn emerge calmly from a room, carrying a basket full of clothes. +Colonel Cresswell stared at them, and Zora instinctively put up her hand +and fastened her dress at the throat. The Colonel scowled, for it was +all clear to him now. + +"Look here," he angrily opened upon them, "if you niggers want to meet +around keep out of this house; hereafter I'll send the clothes down. By +God, if you want to make love go to the swamp!" He stamped down the +stairs while an ashy paleness stole beneath the dark-red bronze of +Zora's face. + +They walked silently down the road together--the old familiar road. +Alwyn was staring moodily ahead. + +"We must get married--before Christmas, Zora," he presently avowed, not +looking at her. He felt the basket pause and he glanced up. Her dark +eyes were full upon him and he saw something in their depths that +brought him to himself and made him realize his blunder. + +"Zora!" he stammered, "forgive me! Will you marry me?" + +She looked at him calmly with infinite compassion. But her reply was +uttered unhesitantly; distinct, direct. + +"No, Bles." + + + + +_Thirty-five_ + +THE COTTON MILL + + +The people of Toomsville started in their beds and listened. A new song +was rising on the air: a harsh, low, murmuring croon that shook the +village ranged around its old square of dilapadated stores. It was not a +song of joy; it was not a song of sorrow; it was not a song at all, +perhaps, but a confused whizzing and murmuring, as of a thousand +ill-tuned, busy voices. Some of the listeners wondered; but most of the +town cried joyfully, "It's the new cotton-mill!" + +John Taylor's head teemed with new schemes. The mill trust of the North +was at last a fact. The small mills had not been able to buy cotton when +it was low because Cresswell was cornering it in the name of the +Farmers' League; now that it was high they could not afford to, and many +surrendered to the trust. + +"Next thing," wrote Taylor to Easterly, "is to reduce cost of +production. Too much goes in wages. Gradually transfer mills South." + +Easterly argued that the labor was too unskilled in the South and that +to send Northern spinners down would spread labor troubles. Taylor +replied briefly: "Never fear; we'll scare them with a vision of niggers +in the mills!" + +Colonel Cresswell was not so easily won over to the new scheme. In the +first place he was angry because the school, which he had come to regard +as on its last legs, somehow still continued to flourish. The +ten-thousand-dollar mortgage had but three more years, and that would +end all; but he had hoped for a crash even earlier. Instead of this, +Miss Smith was cheerfully expanding the work, hiring new teachers, and +especially she had brought to help her two young Negroes whom he +suspected. Colonel Cresswell had prevented the Tolliver land sale, only +to be inveigled himself into Zora's scheme which now began to worry him. +He must evict Zora's tenants as soon as the crops were planted and +harvested. There was nothing unjust about such a course, he argued, for +Negroes anyway were too lazy and shiftless to buy the land. They would +not, they could not, work without driving. All this he imparted to John +Taylor, to which that gentleman listened carefully. + +"H'm, I see," he owned. "And I know the way out." + +"How?" + +"A cotton mill in Toomsville." + +"What's that got to do with it?" + +"Bring in whites." + +"But I don't want poor white trash; I'd sooner have niggers." + +"Now, see here," argued Taylor, "you can't have everything you +want--day's gone by for aristocracy of old kind. You must have +neighbors: choose, then, white or black. I say white." + +"But they'll rule us--out-vote us--marry our daughters," warmly objected +the Colonel. + +"Some of them may--most of them won't. A few of them with brains will +help us rule the rest with money. We'll plant cotton mills beside the +cotton fields, use whites to keep niggers in their place, and the fear +of niggers to keep the poorer whites in theirs." + +The Colonel looked thoughtful. + +"There's something in that," he confessed after a while; "but it's a +mighty big experiment, and it may go awry." + +"Not with brains and money to guide it. And at any rate, we've got to +try it; it's the next logical step, and we must take it." + +"But in the meantime, I'm not going to give up good old methods; I'm +going to set the sheriff behind these lazy niggers," said the Colonel; +"and I'm going to stop that school putting notions into their heads." + +In three short months the mill at Toomsville was open and its wheels +whizzing to the boundless pride of the citizens. + +"Our enterprise, sir!" they said to the strangers on the strength of the +five thousand dollars locally invested. + +Once it had vigor to sing, the song of the mill knew no resting; morning +and evening, day and night it crooned its rhythmic tune; only during the +daylight Sundays did its murmur die to a sibilant hiss. All the week its +doors were filled with the coming and going of men and women and +children: many men, more women, and greater and greater throngs of +children. It seemed to devour children, sitting with its myriad eyes +gleaming and its black maw open, drawing in the pale white mites, +sucking their blood and spewing them out paler and ever paler. The face +of the town began to change, showing a ragged tuberculous looking side +with dingy homes in short and homely rows. + +There came gradually a new consciousness to the town. Hitherto town and +country had been ruled by a few great landlords but at the very first +election, Colton, an unknown outsider, had beaten the regular candidate +for sheriff by such a majority that the big property owners dared not +count him out. They had, however, an earnest consultation with John +Taylor. + +"It's just as I said," growled Colonel Cresswell, "if you don't watch +out our whole plantation system will be ruined and we'll be governed by +this white trash from the hills." + +"There's only one way," sighed Caldwell, the merchant; "we've got to +vote the niggers." + +John Taylor laughed. "Nonsense!" he spurned the suggestion. "You're +old-fashioned. Let the mill-hands have the offices. What good will it +do?" + +"What good! Why, they'll do as they please with us." + +"Bosh! Don't we own the mill? Can't we keep wages where we like by +threatening to bring in nigger labor?" + +"No, you can't, permanently," Maxwell disputed, "for they sometime will +call your bluff." + +"Let 'em call," said Taylor, "and we'll put niggers in the mills." + +"What!" ejaculated the landlords in chorus. Only Maxwell was silent. +"And kill the plantation system?" + +"Oh, maybe some time, of course. But not for years; not until you've +made your pile. You don't really expect to keep the darkies down +forever, do you?" + +"No, I don't," Maxwell slowly admitted. "This system can't last +always--sometimes I think it can't last long. It's wrong, through and +through. It's built on ignorance, theft, and force, and I wish to God we +had courage enough to overthrow it and take the consequences. I wish it +was possible to be a Southerner and a Christian and an honest man, to +treat niggers and dagoes and white trash like men, and be big enough to +say, 'To Hell with consequences!'" + +Colonel Cresswell stared at his neighbor, speechless with bewilderment +and outraged traditions. Such unbelievable heresy from a Northerner or a +Negro would have been natural; but from a Southerner whose father had +owned five hundred slaves--it was incredible! The other landlords +scarcely listened; they were dogged and impatient and they could suggest +no remedy. They could only blame the mill for their troubles. + +John Taylor left the conference blithely. "No," he said to the +committee from the new mill-workers' union. "Can't raise wages, +gentlemen, and can't lessen hours. Mill is just started and not yet +paying expenses. You're getting better wages than you ever got. If you +don't want to work, quit. There are plenty of others, white and black, +who want your jobs." + +The mention of black people as competitors for wages was like a red rag +to a bull. The laborers got together and at the next election they made +a clean sweep, judge, sheriff, two members of the legislature, and the +registrars of votes. Undoubtedly the following year they would capture +Harry Cresswell's seat in Congress. + +The result was curious. From two sides, from landlord and white laborer, +came renewed oppression of black men. The laborers found that their +political power gave them little economic advantage as long as the +threatening cloud of Negro competition loomed ahead. There was some talk +of a strike, but Colton, the new sheriff, discouraged it. + +"I tell you, boys, where the trouble lies: it's the niggers. They live +on nothing and take any kind of treatment, and they keep wages down. If +you strike, they'll get your jobs, sure. We'll just have to grin and +bear it a while, but get back at the darkies whenever you can. I'll +stick 'em into the chain-gang every chance I get." + +On the other hand, inspired by fright, the grip of the landlords on the +black serfs closed with steadily increasing firmness. They saw one class +rising from beneath them to power, and they tightened the chains on the +other. Matters simmered on in this way, and the only party wholly +satisfied with conditions was John Taylor and the few young Southerners +who saw through his eyes. He was making money. The landlords, on the +contrary, were losing power and prestige, and their farm labor, despite +strenuous efforts, was drifting to town attracted by new and incidental +work and higher wages. The mill-hands were more and more overworked and +underpaid, and hated the Negroes for it in accordance with their +leaders' directions. + +At the same time the oppressed blacks and scowling mill-hands could not +help recurring again and again to the same inarticulate thought which no +one was brave enough to voice. Once, however, it came out flatly. It was +when Zora, crowding into the village courthouse to see if she could not +help Aunt Rachel's accused boy, found herself beside a gaunt, overworked +white woman. The woman was struggling with a crippled child and Zora, +turning, lifted him carefully for the weak mother, who thanked her half +timidly. "That mill's about killed him," she said. + +At this juncture the manacled boy was led into court, and the woman +suddenly turned again to Zora. + +"Durned if I don't think these white slaves and black slaves had ought +ter git together," she declared. + +"I think so, too," Zora agreed. + +Colonel Cresswell himself caught the conversation and it struck him with +a certain dismay. Suppose such a conjunction should come to pass? He +edged over to John Taylor and spoke to him; but Taylor, who had just +successfully stopped a suit for damages to the injured boy, merely +shrugged his shoulders. + +"What's this nigger charged with?" demanded the Judge when the first +black boy was brought up before him. + +"Breaking his labor contract." + +"Any witnesses?" + +"I have the contract here," announced the sheriff. "He refuses to work." + +"A year, or one hundred dollars." + +Colonel Cresswell paid his fine, and took him in charge. + +"What's the charge here?" said the Judge, pointing to Aunt Rachel's boy. + +"Attempt to kill a white man." + +"Any witnesses?" + +"None except the victim." + +"And I," said Zora, coming forward. + +Both the sheriff and Colonel Cresswell stared at her. Of course, she was +simply a black girl but she was an educated woman, who knew things about +the Cresswell plantations that it was unnecessary to air in court. The +newly elected Judge had not yet taken his seat, and Cresswell's word was +still law in the court. He whispered to the Judge. + +"Case postponed," said the Court. + +The sheriff scowled. + +"Wait till Jim gets on the bench," he growled. + +The white bystanders, however, did not seem enthusiastic and one man--he +was a Northern spinner--spoke out plainly. + +"It's none o' my business, of course. I've been fired and I'm damned +glad of it. But see here: if you mutts think you're going to beat these +big blokes at their own game of cheating niggers you're daffy. You take +this from me: get together with the niggers and hold up this whole +capitalist gang. If you don't get the niggers first, they'll use 'em as +a club to throw you down. You hear me," and he departed for the train. + +Colton was suspicious. The sentiment of joining with the Negroes did not +seem to arouse the bitter resentment he expected. There even came +whispers to his ears that he had sold out to the landlords, and there +was enough truth in the report to scare him. Thus to both parties came +the uncomfortable spectre of the black men, and both sides went to work +to lay the ghost. + +Particularly was Colonel Cresswell stirred to action. He realized that +in Bles and Zora he was dealing with a younger class of educated black +folk, who were learning to fight with new weapons. They were, he was +sure, as dissolute and weak as their parents, but they were shrewder and +more aspiring. They must be crushed, and crushed quickly. To this end he +had recourse to two sources of help--Johnson and the whites in town. + +Johnson was what Colonel Cresswell repeatedly called "a faithful +nigger." He was one of those constitutionally timid creatures into whom +the servility of his fathers had sunk so deep that it had become +second-nature. To him a white man was an archangel, while the +Cresswells, his father's masters, stood for God. He served them with +dog-like faith, asking no reward, and for what he gave in reverence to +them, he took back in contempt for his fellows--"niggers!" He applied +the epithet with more contempt than the Colonel himself could express. +To the Negroes he was a "white folk's nigger," to be despised and +feared. + +To him Colonel Cresswell gave a few pregnant directions. Then he rode to +town, and told Taylor again of his fears of a labor movement which would +include whites and blacks. Taylor could not see any great danger. + +"Of course," he conceded, "they'll eventually get together; their +interests are identical. I'll admit it's our game to delay this as long +possible." + +"It must be delayed forever, sir." + +"Can't be," was the terse response. "But even if they do ally +themselves, our way is easy: separate the leaders, the talented, the +pushers, of both races from their masses, and through them rule the rest +by money." + +But Colonel Cresswell shook his head. "It's precisely these leaders of +the Negroes that we mush crush," he insisted. Taylor looked puzzled. + +"I thought it was the lazy, shiftless, and criminal Negroes, you +feared?" + +"Hang it, no! We can deal with them; we've got whips, chain-gangs, +and--mobs, if need be--no, it's the Negro who wants to climb up that +we've got to beat to his knees." + +Taylor could not follow this reasoning. He believed in an aristocracy of +talent alone, and secretly despised Colonel Cresswell's pretensions of +birth. If a man had ability and push Taylor was willing and anxious to +open the way for him, even though he were black. The caste way of +thinking in the South, both as applied to poor whites and to Negroes, +he simply could not understand. The weak and the ignorant of all races +he despised and had no patience with them. "But others--a man's a man, +isn't he?" he persisted. But Colonel Cresswell replied: + +"No, never, if he's black, and not always when he's white," and he +stalked away. + +Zora sensed fully the situation. She did not anticipate any immediate +understanding with the laboring whites, but she knew that eventually it +would be inevitable. Meantime the Negro must strengthen himself and +bring to the alliance as much independent economic strength as possible. +For the development of her plans she needed Bles Alwyn's constant +cooperation. He was business manager of the school and was doing well, +but she wanted to point out to him the larger field. So long as she was +uncertain of his attitude toward her, it was difficult to act; but now, +since the flash of the imminent tragedy at Cresswell Oaks had cleared +the air, with all its hurt a frank understanding had been made possible. +The very next day Zora chose to show Bles over her new home and grounds, +and to speak frankly to him. They looked at the land, examined the +proposed farm sites, and viewed the living-room and dormitory in the +house. + +"You haven't seen my den," said Zora. + +"No." + +"Miss Smith is in there now; she often hides there. Come." + +He went into the large central house and into the living-room, then out +on the porch, beyond which lay the kitchen. But to the left, and at the +end of the porch, was a small building. It was ceiled in dark yellow +pine, with figured denim on the walls. A straight desk of rough hewn +wood stood in the corner by the white-curtained window, and a couch and +two large easy-chairs faced a tall narrow fireplace of uneven stone. A +thick green rag-carpet covered the floor; a few pictures were on the +walls--a Madonna, a scene of mad careering horses, and some sad baby +faces. The room was a unity; things fitted together as if they belonged +together. It was restful and beautiful, from the cheerful pine blaze +before which Miss Smith was sitting, to the square-paned window that let +in the crimson rays of gathering night. All round the room, stopping +only at the fireplace, ran low shelves of the same yellow pine, filled +with books and magazines. He scanned curiously Plato's Republic, Gorky's +"Comrades," a Cyclopaedia of Agriculture, Balzac's novels, Spencer's +"First Principles," Tennyson's Poems. + +"This is my university," Zora explained, smiling at his interested +survey. They went out again and wandered down near the old lagoon. + +"Now, Bles," she began, "since we understand each other, can we not work +together as good friends?" She spoke simply and frankly, without +apparent effort, and talked on at length of her work and vision. + +Somehow he could not understand. His mental attitude toward Zora had +always been one of guidance, guardianship, and instruction. He had been +judging and weighing her from on high, looking down upon her with +thoughts of uplift and development. Always he had been holding her dark +little hands to lead her out of the swamp of life, and always, when in +senseless anger he had half forgotten and deserted her, this vision of +elder brotherhood had still remained. Now this attitude was being +revolutionized. She was proposing to him a plan of wide scope--a bold +regeneration of the land. It was a plan carefully studied out, long +thought of and read about. He was asked to be co-worker--nay, in a sense +to be a follower, for he was ignorant of much. + +He hesitated. Then all at once a sense of his utter unworthiness +overwhelmed him. Who was he to stand and judge this unselfish woman? Who +was he to falter when she called? A sense of his smallness and +narrowness, of his priggish blindness, rose like a mockery in his soul. +One thing alone held him back: he was not unwilling to be simply human, +a learner and a follower; but would he as such ever command the love and +respect of this new and inexplicable woman? Would not comradeship on the +basis of the new friendship which she insisted on, be the death of love +and thoughts of love? + +Thus he hesitated, knowing that his duty lay clear. In her direst need +he had deserted her. He had left her to go to destruction and expected +that she would. By a superhuman miracle she had risen and seated herself +above him. She was working; here was work to be done. He was asked to +help; he would help. If it killed his old and new-born dream of love, +well and good; it was his punishment. + +Yet the sacrifice, the readjustment was hard; he grew to it gradually, +inwardly revolting, feeling always a great longing to take this woman +and make her nestle in his arms as she used to; catching himself again +and again on the point of speaking to her and urging, yet ever again +holding himself back and bowing in silent respect to the dignity of her +life. Only now and then, when their eyes met suddenly or unthinkingly, a +great kindling flash of flame seemed struggling behind showers of tears, +until in a moment she smiled or spoke, and then the dropping veil left +only the frank open glance, unwavering, soft, kind, but nothing more. +Then Alwyn would go wearily away, vexed or disappointed, or merely sad, +and both would turn to their work again. + + + + +_Thirty-six_ + +THE LAND + + +Colonel Cresswell started all the more grimly to overthrow the new work +at the school because somewhere down beneath his heart a pity and a +wonder were stirring; pity at the perfectly useless struggle to raise +the unraisable, a wonder at certain signs of rising. But it was +impossible--and unthinkable, even if possible. So he squared his jaw and +cheated Zora deliberately in the matter of the cut timber. He placed +every obstacle in the way of getting tenants for the school land. Here +Johnson, the "faithful nigger," was of incalculable assistance. He was +among the first to hear the call for prospective tenants. + +The meeting was in the big room of Zora's house, and Aunt Rachel came +early with her cheery voice and smile which faded so quickly to lines of +sorrow and despair, and then twinkled back again. After her hobbled old +Sykes. Fully a half-hour later Rob hurried in. + +"Johnson," he informed the others, "has sneaked over to Cresswell's to +tell of this meeting. We ought to beat that nigger up." But Zora asked +him about the new baby, and he was soon deep in child-lore. Higgins and +Sanders came together--dirty, apologetic, and furtive. Then came +Johnson. + +"How do, Miss Zora--Mr. Alwyn, I sure is glad to see you, sir. Well, if +there ain't Aunt Rachel! looking as young as ever. And Higgins, you +scamp--Ah, Mr. Sanders--well, gentlemen and ladies, this sure is gwine +to be a good cotton season. I remember--" And he ran on endlessly, now +to this one, now to that, now to all, his little eyes all the while +dancing insinuatingly here and there. About nine o'clock a buggy drove +up and Carter and Simpson came in--Carter, a silent, strong-faced, brown +laborer, who listened and looked, and Simpson, a worried nervous man, +who sat still with difficulty and commenced many sentences but did not +finish them. Alwyn looked at his watch and at Zora, but she gave no sign +until they heard a rollicking song outside and Tylor burst into the +room. He was nearly seven feet high and broad-shouldered, yellow, with +curling hair and laughing brown eyes. He was chewing an enormous quid of +tobacco, the juice of which he distributed generously, and had had just +liquor enough to make him jolly. His entrance was a breeze and a roar. + +Alwyn then undertook to explain the land scheme. + +"It is the best land in the county--" + +"When it's cl'ared," interrupted Johnson, and Simpson looked alarmed. + +"It is partially cleared," continued Alwyn, "and our plan is to sell off +small twenty-acre farms--" + +"You can't do nothing on twenty acres--" began Johnson, but Tylor laid +his huge hand right over his mouth and said briefly: + +"Shut up!" + +Alwyn started again: "We shall sell a few twenty-acre farms but keep one +central plantation of one hundred acres for the school. Here Miss Zora +will carry on her work and the school will run a model farm with your +help. We want to centre here agencies to make life better. We want all +sorts of industries; we want a little hospital with a resident physician +and two or three nurses; we want a cooperative store for buying +supplies; we want a cotton-gin and saw-mill, and in the future other +things. This land here, as I have said, is the richest around. We want +to keep this hundred acres for the public good, and not sell it. We are +going to deed it to a board of trustees, and those trustees are to be +chosen from the ones who buy the small farms." + +"Who's going to get what's made on this land?" asked Sanders. + +"All of us. It is going first to pay for the land, then to support the +Home and the School, and then to furnish capital for industries." + +Johnson snickered. "You mean youse gwine to git yo' livin' off it?" + +"Yes," answered Alwyn; "but I'm going to work for it." + +"Who's gwine--" began Simpson, but stopped helplessly. + +"Who's going to tend this land?" asked the practical Carter. + +"All of us. Each man is going to promise us so many days' work a year, +and we're going to ask others to help--the women and girls and school +children--they will all help." + +"Can you put trust in that sort of help?" + +"We can when once the community learns that it pays." + +"Does you own the land?" asked Johnson suddenly. + +"No; we're buying it, and it's part paid for already." + +The discussion became general. Zora moved about among the men whispering +and explaining; while Johnson moved, too, objecting and hinting. At last +he arose. + +"Brethren," he began, "the plan's good enough for talkin' but you can't +work it; who ever heer'd tell of such a thing? First place, the land +ain't yours; second place, you can't get it worked; third place, white +folks won't 'low it. Who ever heer'd of such working land on shares?" + +"You do it for white folks each day, why not for yourselves," Alwyn +pointed out. + +"'Cause we ain't white, and we can't do nothin' like that." + +Tylor was asleep and snoring and the others looked doubtfully at each +other. It was a proposal a little too daring for them, a bit too far +beyond their experience. One consideration alone kept them from +shrinking away and that was Zora's influence. Not a man was there whom +she had not helped and encouraged nor who had not perfect faith in her; +in her impetuous hope, her deep enthusiasm, and her strong will. Even +her defects--the hard-held temper, the deeply rooted dislikes--caught +their imagination. + +Finally, after several other meetings five men took courage--three of +the best and two of the weakest. During the Spring long negotiations +were entered into by Miss Smith to "buy" the five men. Colonel Cresswell +and Mr. Tolliver had them all charged with large sums of indebtedness +and these sums had to be assumed by the school. As Colonel Cresswell +counted over two thousand dollars of school notes and deposited them +beside the mortgage he smiled grimly for he saw the end. Yet, even then +his hand trembled and that curious doubt came creeping back. He put it +aside angrily and glanced up. + +"Nigger wants to talk with you," announced his clerk. + +The Colonel sauntered out and found Bles Alwyn waiting. + +"Colonel Cresswell," he said, "I have charge of the buying for the +school and our tenants this year and I naturally want to do the best +possible. I thought I'd come over and see about getting my supplies at +your store." + +"That's all right; you can get anything you want," said Colonel +Cresswell cheerily, for this to his mind was evidence of sense on the +part of the Negroes. Bles showed his list of needed supplies--seeds, +meat, corn-meal, coffee, sugar, etc. The Colonel glanced over it +carelessly, then moved away. + +"All right. Come and get what you want--any time," he called back. + +"But about the prices," said Alwyn, following him. + +"Oh, they'll be all right." + +"Of course. But what I want is an estimate of your lowest cash prices." + +"Cash?" + +"Yes, sir." + +Cresswell thought a while; such a business-like proposition from Negroes +surprised him. + +"Well, I'll let you know," he said. + +It was nearly a week later before Alwyn approached him again. + +"Now, see here," said Colonel Cresswell, "there's practically no +difference between cash and time prices. We buy our stock on time and +you can just as well take advantage of this as not. I have figured out +about what these things will cost. The best thing for you to do is to +make a deposit here and get things when you want them. If you make a +good deposit I'll throw off ten per cent, which is all of my profit." + +"Thank you," said Alwyn, but he looked over the account and found the +whole bill at least twice as large as he expected. Without further +parley, he made some excuse and started to town while Mr. Cresswell went +to the telephone. + +In town Alwyn went to all the chief merchants one after another and +received to his great surprise practically the same estimate. He could +not understand it. He had estimated the current market prices according +to the Montgomery paper, yet the prices in Toomsville were fifty to a +hundred and fifty per cent higher. The merchant to whom he went last, +laughed. + +"Don't you know we're not going to interfere with Colonel Cresswell's +tenants?" He stated the dealers' attitude, and Alwyn saw light. He went +home and told Zora, and she listened without surprise. + +"Now to business," she said briskly. "Miss Smith," turning to the +teacher, "as I told you, they're combined against us in town and we must +buy in Montgomery. I was sure it was coming, but I wanted to give +Colonel Cresswell every chance. Bles starts for Montgomery--" + +Alwyn looked up. "Does he?" he asked, smiling. + +"Yes," said Zora, smiling in turn. "We must lose no further time." + +"But there's no train from Toomsville tonight." + +"But there's one from Barton in the morning and Barton is only twenty +miles away." + +"It is a long walk." Alwyn thought a while, silently. Then he rose. "I'm +going," he said. "Good-bye." + +In less than a week the storehouse was full, and tenants were at work. +The twenty acres of cleared swamp land, attended to by the voluntary +labor of all the tenants, was soon bearing a magnificent crop. Colonel +Cresswell inspected all the crops daily with a proprietary air that +would have been natural had these folk been simply tenants, and as such +he persisted in regarding them. + +The cotton now growing was perhaps not so uniformly fine as the first +acre of Silver Fleece, but it was of unusual height and thickness. + +"At least a bale to the acre," Alwyn estimated, and the Colonel mentally +determined to take two-thirds of the crop. After that he decided that he +would evict Zora immediately; since sufficient land was cleared already +for his purposes and moreover, he had seen with consternation a herd of +cattle grazing in one field on some early green stuff, and heard a drove +of hogs in the swamp. Such an example before the tenants of the Black +Belt would be fatal. He must wait a few weeks for them to pick the +cotton--then, the end. He was fighting the battle of his color and +caste. + +The children sang merrily in the brown-white field. The wide baskets, +poised aloft, foamed on the erect and swaying bodies of the dark +carriers. The crop throughout the land was short that year, for prices +had ruled low last season in accordance with the policy of the Combine. +This year they started high again. Would they fall? Many thought so and +hastened to sell. + +Zora and Alwyn gathered their tenants' crops, ginned them at the +Cresswells' gin, and carried their cotton to town, where it was +deposited in the warehouse of the Farmers' League. + +"Now," said Alwyn, "we would best sell while prices are high." + +Zora laughed at him frankly. + +"We can't," she said. "Don't you know that Colonel Cresswell will attach +our cotton for rent as soon as it touches the warehouse?" + +"But it's ours." + +"Nothing is ours. No black man ordinarily can sell his crop without a +white creditor's consent." + +Alwyn fumed. + +"The best way," he declared, "is to go to Montgomery and get a +first-class lawyer and just fight the thing through. The land is legally +ours, and he has no right to our cotton." + +"Yes, but you must remember that no man like Colonel Cresswell regards a +business bargain with a colored man as binding. No white man under +ordinary circumstances will help enforce such a bargain against +prevailing public opinion." + +"But if we cannot trust to the justice of the case, and if you knew we +couldn't, why did you try?" + +"Because I had to try; and moreover the circumstances are not altogether +ordinary: the men in power in Toomsville now are not the landlords of +this county; they are poor whites. The Judge and sheriff were both +elected by mill-hands who hate Cresswell and Taylor. Then there's a new +young lawyer who wants Harry Cresswell's seat in Congress; he don't know +much law, I'm afraid; but what he don't know of this case I think I do. +I'll get his advice and then--I mean to conduct the case myself," Zora +calmly concluded. + +"Without a lawyer!" Bles Alwyn stared his amazement. + +"Without a lawyer in court." + +"Zora! That would be foolish!" + +"Is it? Let's think. For over a year now I've been studying the law of +the case," and she pointed to her law books; "I know the law and most of +the decisions. Moreover, as a black woman fighting a hopeless battle +with landlords, I'll gain the one thing lacking." + +"What's that?" + +"The sympathy of the court and the bystanders." + +"Pshaw! From these Southerners?" + +"Yes, from them. They are very human, these men, especially the +laborers. Their prejudices are cruel enough, but there are joints in +their armor. They are used to seeing us either scared or blindly angry, +and they understand how to handle us then, but at other times it is hard +for them to do anything but meet us in a human way." + +"But, Zora, think of the contact of the court, the humiliation, the +coarse talk--" + +Zora put up her hand and lightly touched his arm. Looking at him, she +said: + +"Mud doesn't hurt much. This is my duty. Let me do it." + +His eyes fell before the shadow of a deeper rebuke. He arose heavily. + +"Very well," he acquiesced as he passed slowly out. + +The young lawyer started to refuse to touch the case until he saw--or +did Zora adroitly make him see?--a chance for eventual political +capital. They went over the matter carefully, and the lawyer acquired a +respect for the young woman's knowledge. + +"First," he said, "get an injunction on the cotton--then go to court." +And to insure the matter he slipped over and saw the Judge. + +Colonel Cresswell next day stalked angrily into his lawyers' office. + +"See here," he thundered, handing the lawyer the notice of the +injunction. + +"See the Judge," began the lawyer, and then remembered, as he was often +forced to do these days, who was Judge. + +He inquired carefully into the case and examined the papers. Then he +said: + +"Colonel Cresswell, who drew this contract of sale?" + +"The black girl did." + +"Impossible!" + +"She certainly did--wrote it in my presence." + +"Well, it's mighty well done." + +"You mean it will stand in law?" + +"It certainly will. There's but one way to break it, and that's to +allege misunderstanding on your part." + +Cresswell winced. It was not pleasant to go into open court and +acknowledge himself over-reached by a Negro; but several thousand +dollars in cotton and land were at stake. + +"Go ahead," he concurred. + +"You can depend on Taylor, of course?" added the lawyer. + +"Of course," answered Cresswell. "But why prolong the thing?" + +"You see, she's got your cotton tied by injunction." + +"I don't see how she did it." + +"Easy enough: this Judge is the poor white you opposed in the last +primary." + +Within a week the case was called, and they filed into the courtroom. +Cresswell's lawyer saw only this black woman--no other lawyer or sign of +one appeared to represent her. The place soon filled with a lazy, +tobacco-chewing throng of white men. A few blacks whispered in one +corner. The dirty stove was glowing with pine-wood and the Judge sat at +a desk. + +"Where's your lawyer?" he asked sharply of Zora. + +"I have none," returned Zora, rising. + +There came a silence in the court. Her voice was low, and the men leaned +forward to listen. The Judge felt impelled to be over-gruff. + +"Get a lawyer," he ordered. + +"Your honor, my case is simple, and with your honor's permission I wish +to conduct it myself. I cannot afford a lawyer, and I do not think I +need one." + +Cresswell's lawyer smiled and leaned back. It was going to be easier +than he supposed. Evidently the woman believed she had no case, and was +weakening. + +The trial proceeded, and Zora stated her contention. She told how long +her mother and grandmother had served the Cresswells and showed her +receipt for rent paid. + +"A friend sent me some money. I went to Mr. Cresswell and asked him to +sell me two hundred acres of land. He consented to do so and signed this +contract in the presence of his son-in-law." + +Just then John Taylor came into the court, and Cresswell beckoned to +him. + +"I want you to help me out, John." + +"All right," whispered Taylor. "What can I do?" + +"Swear that Cresswell didn't mean to sign this," said the lawyer +quickly, as he arose to address the court. + +Taylor looked at the paper blankly and then at Cresswell and some +inkling of the irreconcilable difference in the two natures leapt in +both their hearts. Cresswell might gamble and drink and lie "like a +gentleman," but he would never willingly cheat or take advantage of a +white man's financial necessities. Taylor, on the other hand, had a +horror of a lie, never drank nor played games of chance, but his whole +life was speculation and in the business game he was utterly ruthless +and respected no one. Such men could never thoroughly understand each +other. To Cresswell a man who had cheated the whole South out of +millions by a series of misrepresentations ought to regard this little +falsehood as nothing. + +Meantime Colonel Cresswell's lawyer was on his feet, and he adopted his +most irritating and contemptuous manner. + +"This nigger wench wrote out some illegible stuff and Colonel Cresswell +signed it to get rid of her. We are not going to question the legality +of the form--that's neither here nor there. The point is, Mr. Cresswell +never intended--never dreamed of selling this wench land right in front +of his door. He meant to rent her the land and sign a receipt for rent +paid in advance. I will not worry your honor by a long argument to +prove this, but just call one of the witnesses well known to you--Mr. +John Taylor of the Toomsville mills." + +Taylor looked toward the door and then slowly took the stand. + +"Mr. Taylor," said the lawyer carelessly, "were you present at this +transaction?" + +"Yes." + +"Did you see Colonel Cresswell sign this paper?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, did he intend so far as you know to sign such a paper?" + +"I do not know his intentions." + +"Did he say he meant to sign such a contract?" + +Taylor hesitated. + +"Yes," he finally answered. Colonel Cresswell looked up in amazement and +the lawyer dropped his glasses. + +"I--I don't think you perhaps understood me, Mr. Taylor," he gasped. +"I--er--meant to ask if Colonel Cresswell, in signing this paper, meant +to sign a contract to sell this wench two hundred acres of land?" + +"He said he did," reiterated Taylor. "Although I ought to add that he +did not think the girl would ever be able to pay. If he had thought she +would pay, I don't think he would have signed the paper." + +Colonel Cresswell went red, than pale, and leaning forward before the +whole court, he hurled: + +"You damned scoundrel!" + +The Judge rapped for order and fidgeted in his seat. There was some +confusion and snickering in the courtroom. Finally the Judge plucked up +courage: + +"The defendant is ordered to deliver this cotton to Zora Cresswell," he +directed. + +The raging of Colonel Cresswell's anger now turned against John Taylor +as well as the Negroes. Wind of the estrangement flew over town quickly. +The poor whites saw a chance to win Taylor's influence and the sheriff +approached him cautiously. Taylor paid him slight courtesy. He was +irritated with this devilish Negro problem; he was making money; his +wife and babies were enjoying life, and here was this fool trial to +upset matters. But the sheriff talked. + +"The thing I'm afraid of," he said, "is that Cresswell and his gang will +swing in the niggers on us." + +"How do you mean?" + +"Let 'em vote." + +"But they'd have to read and write." + +"Sure!" + +"Well, then," said Taylor, "it might be a good thing." + +Colton eyed him suspiciously. + +"You'd let a nigger vote?" + +"Why, yes, if he had sense enough." + +"There ain't no nigger got sense." + +"Oh, pshaw!" Taylor ejaculated, walking away. + +The sheriff was angry and mistrustful. He believed he had discovered a +deep-laid scheme of the aristocrats to cultivate friendliness between +whites and blacks, and then use black voters to crush the whites. Such a +course was, in Colton's mind, dangerous, monstrous, and unnatural; it +must be stopped at all hazards. He began to whisper among his friends. +One or two meetings were held, and the flame of racial prejudice was +studiously fanned. + +The atmosphere of the town and country quickly began to change. Whatever +little beginnings of friendship and understanding had arisen now quickly +disappeared. The town of a Saturday no longer belonged to a happy, +careless crowd of black peasants, but the black folk found themselves +elbowed to the gutter, while ugly quarrels flashed here and there with a +quick arrest of the Negroes. + +Colonel Cresswell made a sudden resolve. He sent for the sheriff and +received him at the Oaks, in his most respectable style, filling him +with good food, and warming him with good liquor. + +"Colton," he asked, "are you sending any of your white children to the +nigger school yet?" + +"What!" yelled Colton. + +The Colonel laughed, frankly telling Colton John Taylor's philosophy on +the race problem,--his willingness to let Negroes vote; his threat to +let blacks and whites work together; his contempt for the officials +elected by the people. + +"Candidly, Colton," he concluded, "I believe in aristocracy. I can't +think it right or wise to replace the old aristocracy by new and untried +blood." And in a sudden outburst--"But, by God, sir! I'm a white man, +and I place the lowest white man ever created above the highest darkey +ever thought of. This Yankee, Taylor, is a nigger-lover. He's secretly +encouraging and helping them. You saw what he did to me, and I'm warning +you in time." + +Colton's glass dropped. + +"I thought it was you that was corralling the niggers against us," he +exclaimed. + +The Colonel reddened. "I don't count all white men my equals, I admit," +he returned with dignity, "but I know the difference between a white man +and a nigger." + +Colton stretched out his massive hand. "Put it there, sir," said he; "I +misjudged you, Colonel Cresswell. I'm a Southerner, and I honor the old +aristocracy you represent. I'm going to join with you to crush this +Yankee and put the niggers in their places. They are getting impudent +around here; they need a lesson and, by gad! they'll get one they'll +remember." + +"Now, see here, Colton,--nothing rash," the Colonel charged him, +warningly. "Don't stir up needless trouble; but--well, things must +change." + +Colton rose and shook his head. + +"The niggers need a lesson," he muttered as he unsteadily bade his host +good-bye. Cresswell watched him uncomfortably as he rode away, and +again a feeling of doubt stirred within him. What new force was he +loosening against his black folk--his own black folk, who had lived +about him and his fathers nigh three hundred years? He saw the huge form +of the sheriff loom like an evil spirit a moment on the rise of the road +and sink into the night. He turned slowly to his cheerless house +shuddering as he entered the uninviting portals. + + + + +_Thirty-seven_ + +THE MOB + + +When Emma, Bertie's child, came home after a two years' course of study, +she had passed from girlhood to young womanhood. She was white, and +sandy-haired. She was not beautiful, and she appeared to be fragile; but +she also looked sweet and good, with that peculiar innocence which peers +out upon the world with calm, round eyes and sees no evil, but does +methodically its simple, everyday work. Zora mothered her, Miss Smith +found her plenty to do, and Bles thought her a good girl. But Mrs. +Cresswell found her perfect, and began to scheme to marry her off. For +Mary Cresswell, with the restlessness and unhappiness of an unemployed +woman, was trying to atone for her former blunders. + +Her humiliation after the episode at Cresswell Oaks had been complete. +It seemed to her that the original cause of her whole life punishment +lay in her persistent misunderstanding of the black people and their +problem. Zora appeared to her in a new and glorified light--a vigorous, +self-sacrificing woman. She knew that Zora had refused to marry Bles, +and this again seemed fitting. Zora was not meant for marrying; she was +a born leader, wedded to a great cause; she had long outgrown the boy +and girl affection. She was the sort of woman she herself might have +been if she had not married. + +Alwyn, on the other hand, needed a wife; he was a great, virile boy, +requiring a simple, affectionate mate. No sooner did she see Emma than +she was sure that this was the ideal wife. She compared herself with +Helen Cresswell. Helen was a contented wife and mother because she was +fitted for the position, and happy in it; while she who had aimed so +high had fallen piteously. From such a fate she would save Zora and +Bles. + +Emma's course in nurse-training had been simple and short and there was +no resident physician; but Emma, in her unemotional way, was a born +nurse and did much good among the sick in the neighborhood. Zora had a +small log hospital erected with four white beds, a private room, and an +office which was also Emma's bedroom. The new white physician in town, +just fresh from school in Atlanta, became interested and helped with +advice and suggestions. + +Meantime John Taylor's troubles began to increase. Under the old +political regime it had been an easy matter to avoid serious +damage-suits for the accidents in the mill. Much child labor and the +lack of protective devices made accidents painfully frequent. Taylor +insisted that the chief cause was carelessness, while the mill hands +alleged criminal neglect on his part. When the new labor officials took +charge of the court and the break occurred between Colonel Cresswell and +his son-in-law, Taylor found that several damage-suits were likely to +cost him a considerable sum. + +He determined not to let the bad feelings go too far, and when a +particularly distressing accident to a little girl took place, he showed +more than his usual interest and offered to care for her. The new young +physician recommended Zora's infirmary as the only near place that +offered a chance for the child's recovery. + +"Take her out," Taylor promptly directed. + +Zora was troubled when the child came. She knew the suspicious temper of +the town whites. The very next day Taylor sent out a second case, a +child who had been hurt some time before and was not recovering as she +should. Under the care of the little hospital and the gentle nurse the +children improved rapidly, and in two weeks were outdoors, playing with +the little black children and even creeping into classrooms and +listening. The grateful mothers came out twice a week at least; at first +with suspicious aloofness, but gradually melting under Zora's tact until +they sat and talked with her and told their troubles and struggles. Zora +realized how human they were, and how like their problems were to hers. +They and their children grew to love this busy, thoughtful woman, and +Zora's fears were quieted. + +The catastrophe came suddenly. The sheriff rode by, scowling and hunting +for some poor black runaway, when he saw white children in the Negro +school and white women, whom he knew were mill-hands, looking on. He was +black with anger; turning he galloped back to town. A few hours later +the young physician arrived hastily in a cab to take the women and +children to town. He said something in a low tone to Zora and drove +away, frowning. + +Zora came quickly to the school and asked for Alwyn. He was in the barn +and she hurried there. + +"Bles," she said quietly, "it is reported that a Toomsville mob will +burn the school tonight." + +Bles stood motionless. + +"I've been fearing it. The sheriff has been stirring up the worst +elements in the town lately and the mills pay off tonight." + +"Well," she said quietly, "we must prepare." + +He looked at her, his face aglow with admiration. + +"You wonder-woman!" he exclaimed softly. + +A moment they regarded each other. She saw the love in his eyes, and he +saw rising in hers something that made his heart bound. But she turned +quickly away. + +"You must hurry, Bles; lives are at stake." And in another moment he +thundered out of the barn on the black mare. + +Along the pike he flew and up the plantation roads. Across broad fields +and back again, over to the Barton pike and along the swamp. At every +cabin he whispered a word, and left behind him grey faces and whispering +children. + +His horse was reeking with sweat as he staggered again into the +school-yard; but already the people were gathering, with frightened, +anxious, desperate faces. Women with bundles and children, men with +guns, tottering old folks, wide-eyed boys and girls. Up from the swamp +land came the children crying and moaning. The sun was setting. The +women and children hurried into the school building, closing the doors +and windows. A moment Alwyn stood without and looked back. The world was +peaceful. He could hear the whistle of birds and the sobbing of the +breeze in the shadowing oaks. The sky was flashing to dull and purplish +blue, and over all lay the twilight hush as though God did not care. + +He threw back his head and clenched his hands. His soul groaned within +him. "Heavenly Father, was man ever before set to such a task?" Fight? +God! if he could but fight! If he could but let go the elemental +passions that were leaping and gathering and burning in the eyes of +yonder caged and desperate black men. But his hands were tied--manacled. +One desperate struggle, a whirl of blood, and the whole world would rise +to crush him and his people. The white operatore in yonder town had but +to flash the news, "Negroes killing whites," to bring all the country, +all the State, all the nation, to red vengeance. It mattered not what +the provocation, what the desperate cause. + +The door suddenly opened behind him and he wheeled around. + +"Zora!" he whispered. + +"Bles," she answered softly, and they went silently in to their people. + +All at once, from floor to roof, the whole school-house was lighted up, +save a dark window here and there. Then some one slipped out into the +darkness and soon watch-fire after watch-fire flickered and flamed in +the night, and then burned vividly, sending up sparks and black smoke. +Thus ringed with flaming silence, the school lay at the edge of the +great, black swamp and waited. Owls hooted in the forest. Afar the +shriek of the Montgomery train was heard across the night, mingling with +the wail of a wakeful babe; and then redoubled silence. The men became +restless, and Johnson began to edge away toward the lower hall. Alwyn +was watching him when a faint noise came to him on the eastern breeze--a +low, rumbling murmur. It died away, and rose again; then a distant +gun-shot woke the echoes. + +"They're coming!" he cried. Standing back in the shadow of a front +window, he waited. Slowly, intermittently, the murmuring swelled, till +it grew distinguishable as yelling, cursing, and singing, intermingled +with the crash of pistol-shots. Far away a flame, as of a burning cabin, +arose, and a wilder, louder yell greeted it. Now the tramp of footsteps +could be heard, and clearer and thicker the grating and booming of +voices, until suddenly, far up the pike, a black moving mass, with +glitter and shout, swept into view. They came headlong, guided by +pine-torches, which threw their white and haggard faces into wild +distortion. Then as bonfire after bonfire met their gaze, they moved +slowly and more slowly, and at last sent a volley of bullets at the +fires. One bullet flew high and sang through a lighted window. Without a +word, Uncle Isaac sank upon the floor and lay still. Silence and renewed +murmuring ensued, and the sound of high voices in dispute. Then the mass +divided into two wings and slowly encircled the fence of fire; starting +noisily and confidently, and then going more slowly, quietly, warily, as +the silence of the flame began to tell on their heated nerves. + +Strained whispers arose. + +"Careful there!" + +"Go on, damn ye!" + +"There's some one by yon fire." + +"No, there ain't." + +"See the bushes move." + +_Bang! bang! bang!_ + +"Who's that?" + +"It's me." + +"Let's rush through and fire the house." + +"And leave a pa'cel of niggers behind to shoot your lights out? Not me." + +"What the hell are you going to do?" + +"I don't know yet." + +"I wish I could see a nigger." + +_"Hark!"_ + +Stealthy steps were approaching, a glint of steel flashed behind the +fire lights. Each band mistook the other for the armed Negroes, and the +leaders yelled in vain; human power can not stay the dashing torrent of +fear-inspired human panic. Whirling, the mob fled till it struck the +road in two confused, surging masses. Then in quick frenzy, shots flew; +three men threw up their hands and tumbled limply in the dust, while the +main body rushed pellmell toward town. + +At early dawn, when the men relaxed from the strain of the night's +vigil, Alwyn briefly counselled them: "Hide your guns." + +"Why?" blustered Rob. "Haven't I a right to have a gun?" + +"Yes, you have, Rob; but don't be foolish--hide it. We've not heard the +last of this." + +But Rob tossed his head belligerently. + +In town, rumor spread like wildfire. A body of peaceful whites passing +through the black settlement had been fired on from ambush, and six +killed--no, three killed--no, one killed and two severely wounded. + +"The thing mustn't stop here," shouted Sheriff Colton; "these niggers +must have a lesson." And before nine next morning fully half the grown +members of the same mob, now sworn in as deputies, rode with him to +search the settlement. They tramped insolently through the school +grounds, but there was no shred of evidence until they came to Rob's +cabin and found his gun. They tied his hands behind him and marched him +toward town. + +But before the mob arrived the night before, Johnson feeling that his +safety lay in informing the white folks, had crawled with his gun into +the swamp. In the morning he peered out as the cavalcade approached, and +not knowing what had happened, he recognized Colton, the sheriff, and +signalled to him cautiously. In a moment a dozen men were on him, and he +appealed and explained in vain--the gun was damning evidence. The voices +of Rob's wife and children could be heard behind the two men as they +were hurried along at a dog trot. + +The town poured out to greet them--"The murderers! the murderers! Kill +the niggers!" and they came on with a rush. The sheriff turned and +disappeared in the rear. There was a great cloud of dust, a cry and a +wild scramble, as the white and angry faces of men and boys gleamed a +moment and faded. + +A hundred or more shots rang out; then slowly and silently, the mass of +women and men were sucked into the streets of the town, leaving but +black eddies on the corners to throw backward glances toward the bare, +towering pine where swung two red and awful things. The pale boy-face of +one, with soft brown eyes glared up sightless to the sun; the dead, +leathered bronze of the other was carved in piteous terror. + + + + +_Thirty-eight_ + +ATONEMENT + + +Three months had flown. It was Spring again, and Zora sat in the +transformed swamp--now a swamp in name only--beneath the great oak, +dreaming. And what she dreamed there in the golden day she dared not +formulate even to her own soul. She rose with a start, for there was +work to do. Aunt Rachel was ill, and Emma went daily to attend her; +today, as she came back, she brought news that Colonel Cresswell, who +had been unwell for several days, was worse. She must send Emma up to +help, and as she started toward the school she glanced toward the +Cresswell Oaks and saw the arm-chair of its master on the pillared +porch. + +Colonel Cresswell sat in his chair on the porch, alone. As far as he +could see, there was no human soul. His eyes were blood-shot, his cheeks +sunken, and his breath came in painful gasps. A sort of terror shook +him until he heard the distant songs of black folk in the fields. He +sighed, and lying back, closed his eyes and the breath came easier. When +he opened them again a white figure was coming up the avenue of the +Oaks. He watched it greedily. It was Mary Cresswell, and she started +when she saw him. + +"You are worse, father?" she asked. + +"Worse and better," he replied, smiling cynically. Then suddenly he +announced: "I've made my will." + +"Why--why--" she stammered. + +"Why?" sharply. "Because I'm going to die." + +She said nothing. He smiled and continued: + +"I've got it all fixed. Harry was in a tight place--gambling as +usual--and I gave him a lump sum in lieu of all claims. Then I gave John +Taylor--you needn't look. I sent for him. He's a damned scoundrel; but +he won't lie, and I needed him. I willed his children all the rest +except two or three legacies. One was one hundred thousand dollars for +you--" + +"Oh, father!" she cried. "I don't deserve it." + +"I reckon two years with Harry was worth about that much," he returned +grimly. "Then there's another gift of two hundred thousand dollars and +this house and plantation. Whom do you think that's for?" + +"Helen?" + +"Helen!" he raised his hand in threatening anger. "I might rot here for +all she cares. No--no--but then--I'll not tell you--I--ah--" A spasm of +pain shot across his face, and he lay back white and still. Abruptly he +sat up again and peered down the oaks. "Hush!" he gasped. "Who's that?" + +"I don't know--it's a girl--I--" + +He gripped her till she winced. + +"My God--it walks--like my wife--I tell you--she held her head so--who +is it?" He half rose. + +"Oh, father, it's nobody but Emma--little Emma--Bertie's child--the +mulatto girl. She's a nurse now, and I asked to have her come and attend +you." + +"Oh," he said, "oh--" He looked at the girl curiously. "Come here." He +peered into her white young face. "Do you know me?" + +The girl shrank away from him. + +"Yes, sir." + +"What do you do?" + +"I teach and nurse at the school." + +"Good! Well, I'm going to give you some money--do you know why?" + +A flash of self-consciousness passed over the girl's face; she looked at +him with her wide blue eyes. + +"Yes, Grandfather," she faltered. + +Mrs. Cresswell rose to her feet; but the old man slowly dropped the +girl's hand and lay back in his chair, with lips half smiling. +"Grandfather," he repeated softly. He closed his eyes a space and then +opened them. A tremor shivered in his limbs as he stared darkly at the +swamp. + +"Hark!" he cried harshly. "Do you hear the bodies creaking on the limbs? +It's Rob and Johnson. I did it--I--" + +Suddenly he rose and stood erect and his wild eyes stricken with death +stared full upon Emma. Slowly and thickly he spoke, working his +trembling hands. + +"Nell--Nell! Is it you, little wife, come back to accuse me? Ah, Nell, +don't shrink! I know--I have sinned against the light and the blood of +your poor black people is red on these old hands. No, don't put your +clean white hands upon me, Nell, till I wash mine. I'll do it, Nell; +I'll atone. I'm a Cresswell yet, Nell, a Cresswell and a gen--" He +swayed. Vainly he struggled for the word. The shudder of death shook his +soul, and he passed. + +A week after the funeral of Colonel Cresswell, John Taylor drove out to +the school and was closeted with Miss Smith. His sister, installed once +again for a few days in her old room at the school, understood that he +was conferring about Emma's legacy, and she was glad. She was more and +more convinced that the marriage of Emma and Bles was the best possible +solution of many difficulties. She had asked Emma once if she liked +Bles, and Emma had replied in her innocent way, + +"Oh, so much." + +As for Bles, he was often saying what a dear child Emma was. Neither +perhaps realized yet that this was love, but it needed, Mrs. Cresswell +was sure, only the lightning-flash, and they would know. And who could +furnish that illumination better than Zora, the calm, methodical Zora, +who knew them so well? + +As for herself, once she had accomplished the marriage and paid the +mortgage on the school out of her legacy, she would go abroad and in +travel seek forgetfulness and healing. There had been no formal divorce, +and so far as she was concerned there never would be; but the separation +from her husband and America would be forever. + +Her brother came out of the office, nodded casually, for they had little +intercourse these days, and rode away. She rushed in to Miss Smith and +found her sitting there--straight, upright, composed in all save that +the tears were streaming down her face and she was making no effort to +stop them. + +"Why--Miss Smith!" she faltered. + +Miss Smith pointed to a paper. Mrs. Cresswell picked it up curiously. It +was an official notification to the trustees of the Smith School of a +legacy of two hundred thousand dollars together with the Cresswell house +and plantation. Mrs. Gresswell sat down in open-mouthed astonishment. +Twice she tried to speak, but there were so many things to say that she +could not choose. + +"Tell Zora," Miss Smith at last managed to say. + +Zora was dreaming again. Somehow, the old dream-life, with its glorious +phantasies, had come silently back, richer and sweeter than ever. There +was no tangible reason why, and yet today she had shut herself in her +den. Searching down in the depths of her trunk, she drew forth that +filmy cloud of white--silk-bordered and half finished to a gown. Why +were her eyes wet today and her mind on the Silver Fleece? It was an +anniversary, and perhaps she still remembered that moment, that supreme +moment before the mob. She half slipped on, half wound about her, the +white cloud of cloth, standing with parted lips, looking into the long +mirror and gleaming in the fading day like midnight gowned in mists and +stars. Abruptly there came a peremptory knocking at the door. + +"Zora! Zora!" sounded Mrs. Cresswell's voice. Forgetting her informal +attire, she opened the door, fearing some mishap. Mrs. Cresswell poured +out the news. Zora received it in such motionless silence that Mary +wondered at her want of feeling. At last, however, she said happily to +Zora: + +"Well, the battle's over, isn't it?" + +"No, it's just begun." + +"Just begun?" echoed Mary in amazement. + +"Think of the servile black folk, the half awakened restless whites, the +fat land waiting for the harvest, the masses panting to know--why, the +battle is scarcely even begun." + +"Yes, I guess that's so," Mary began to comprehend. "We'll thank God it +has begun, though." + +"Thank God!" Zora reverently repeated. + +"Come, let's go back to poor, dear Miss Smith," suggested Mary. + +"I can't come just now--but pretty soon." + +"Why? Oh, I see; you're trying on something--how pretty and becoming! +Well, hurry." + +As they stood together, the white woman deemed the moment opportune; she +slipped her arm about the black woman's waist and began: + +"Zora, I've had something on my mind for a long time, and I shouldn't +wonder if you had thought of the same thing." + +"What is it?" + +"Bles and Emma." + +"What of them?" + +"Their liking for each other." + +Zora bent a moment and caught up the folds of the Fleece. + +"I hadn't noticed it," she said in a low voice. + +"Well, you're busy, you see. They've been very much together--his taking +her to her charges, bringing her back, and all that. I know they love +each other; yet something holds them apart, afraid to show their love. +Do you know--I've wondered if--quite unconciously, it is you? You know +Bles used to imagine himself in love with you, just as he did afterward +with Miss Wynn." + +"Miss--Wynn?" + +"Yes, the Washington girl. But he got over that and you straightened him +out finally. Still, Emma probably thinks yours is the prior claim, +knowing, of course, nothing of facts. And Bles knows she thinks of him +and you, and I'm convinced if you say the word, they'd love and marry." + +Zora walked silently with her to the door, where, looking out, she saw +Bles and Emma coming from Aunt Rachel's. He was helping her from the +carriage with smiling eyes, and her innocent blue eyes were fastened on +him. + +Zora looked long and searchingly. + +"Please run and tell them of the legacy," she begged. "I--I will +come--in a moment." And Mrs. Cresswell hurried out. + +Zora turned back steadily to her room, and locked herself in. After all, +why shouldn't it be? Why had it not occurred to her before in her +blindness? If she had wanted him--and ah, God! was not all her life +simply the want of him?--why had she not bound him to her when he had +offered himself? Why had she not bound him to her? She knew as she +asked--because she had wanted all, not a part--everything, love, respect +and perfect faith--not one thing could she spare then--not one thing. +And now, oh, God! she had dreamed that it was all hers, since that night +of death and circling flame when they looked at each other soul to soul. +But he had not meant anything. It was pity she had seen there, not love; +and she rose and walked the room slowly, fast and faster. + +With trembling hands she drew the Silver Fleece round her. Her head swam +again and the blood flashed in her eyes. She heard a calling in the +swamp, and the shadow of Elspeth seemed to hover over her, claiming her +for her own, dragging her down, down.... She rushed through the swamp. +The lagoon lay there before her presently, gleaming in the +darkness--cold and still, and in it swam an awful shape. + +She held her burning head--was not everything plain? Was not everything +clear? This was Sacrifice! This was the Atonement for the unforgiven +sin. Emma's was the pure soul which she must offer up to God; for it was +God, a cold and mighty God, who had given it to Bles--her Bles. It was +well; God willed it. But could she live? Must she live? Did God ask +that, too? + +All at once she stood straight; her whole body grew tense, alert. She +heard no sound behind her, but knew he was there, and braced herself. +She must be true. She must be just. She must pay the uttermost farthing. + +"Bles," she called faintly, but did not turn her head. + +"Zora!" + +"Bles," she choked, but her voice came stronger, "I know--all. Emma is a +good girl. I helped bring her up myself and did all I could for her and +she--she is pure; marry her." + +His voice came slow and firm: + +"Emma? But I don't love Emma. I love--some one else." + +Her heart bounded and again was still. It was that Washington girl then. +She answered dully, groping for words, for she was tired: + +"Who is it?" + +"The best woman in all the world, Zora." + +"And is"--she struggled at the word madly--"is she pure?" + +"She is more than pure." + +"Then you must marry her, Bles." + +"I am not worthy of her," he answered, sinking before her. + +Then at last illumination dawned upon her blindness. She stood very +still and lifted up her eyes. The swamp was living, vibrant, tremulous. +There where the first long note of night lay shot with burning crimson, +burst in sudden radiance the wide beauty of the moon. There pulsed a +glory in the air. Her little hands groped and wandered over his +close-curled hair, and she sobbed, deep voiced: + +"Will you--marry me, Bles?" + + + L'ENVOI + + Lend me thine ears, O God the Reader, whose Fathers aforetime sent + mine down into the land of Egypt, into this House of Bondage. Lay + not these words aside for a moment's phantasy, but lift up thine + eyes upon the Horror in this land;--the maiming and mocking and + murdering of my people, and the prisonment of their souls. Let my + people go, O Infinite One, lest the world shudder at + + + The End + + + + + THE SUPPRESSION OF THE + AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE + TO THE + UNITED STATES + OF AMERICA + 1638-1870 + + Volume I + Harvard Historical Studies + + 1896 + + Longmans, Green, and Co. + New York + + * * * * * + + + + +Preface + + +This monograph was begun during my residence as Rogers Memorial Fellow +at Harvard University, and is based mainly upon a study of the sources, +i.e., national, State, and colonial statutes, Congressional documents, +reports of societies, personal narratives, etc. The collection of laws +available for this research was, I think, nearly complete; on the other +hand, facts and statistics bearing on the economic side of the study +have been difficult to find, and my conclusions are consequently liable +to modification from this source. + +The question of the suppression of the slave-trade is so intimately +connected with the questions as to its rise, the system of American +slavery, and the whole colonial policy of the eighteenth century, that +it is difficult to isolate it, and at the same time to avoid +superficiality on the one hand, and unscientific narrowness of view on +the other. While I could not hope entirely to overcome such a +difficulty, I nevertheless trust that I have succeeded in rendering this +monograph a small contribution to the scientific study of slavery and +the American Negro. + +I desire to express my obligation to Dr. Albert Bushnell Hart, of +Harvard University, at whose suggestion I began this work and by whose +kind aid and encouragement I have brought it to a close; also I have to +thank the trustees of the John F. Slater Fund, whose appointment made it +possible to test the conclusions of this study by the general principles +laid down in German universities. + + W.E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS. + +WILBERFORCE UNIVERSITY, + March, 1896. + + * * * * * + + + + +Contents + + +CHAPTER I +INTRODUCTORY + + 1. _Plan of the Monograph_ 9 + 2. _The Rise of the English Slave-Trade_ 9 + + +CHAPTER II +THE PLANTING COLONIES + + 3. _Character of these Colonies_ 15 + 4. _Restrictions in Georgia_ 15 + 5. _Restrictions in South Carolina_ 16 + 6. _Restrictions in North Carolina_ 19 + 7. _Restrictions in Virginia_ 19 + 8. _Restrictions in Maryland_ 22 + 9. _General Character of these Restrictions_ 23 + + +CHAPTER III +THE FARMING COLONIES + + 10. _Character of these Colonies_ 24 + 11. _The Dutch Slave-Trade_ 24 + 12. _Restrictions in New York_ 25 + 13. _Restrictions in Pennsylvania and Delaware_ 28 + 14. _Restrictions in New Jersey_ 32 + 15. _General Character of these Restrictions_ 33 + + +CHAPTER IV +THE TRADING COLONIES + + 16. _Character of these Colonies_ 34 + 17. _New England and the Slave-Trade_ 34 + 18. _Restrictions in New Hampshire_ 36 + 19. _Restrictions in Massachusetts_ 37 + 20. _Restrictions in Rhode Island_ 40 + 21. _Restrictions in Connecticut_ 43 + 22. _General Character of these Restrictions_ 44 + + +CHAPTER V +THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION, 1774-1787 + + 23. _The Situation in 1774_ 45 + 24. _The Condition of the Slave-Trade_ 46 + 25. _The Slave-Trade and the "Association"_ 47 + 26. _The Action of the Colonies_ 48 + 27. _The Action of the Continental Congress_ 49 + 28. _Reception of the Slave-Trade Resolution_ 51 + 29. _Results of the Resolution_ 52 + 30. _The Slave-Trade and Public Opinion after the War_ 53 + 31. _The Action of the Confederation_ 56 + + +CHAPTER VI +THE FEDERAL CONVENTION, 1787 + + 32. _The First Proposition_ 58 + 33. _The General Debate_ 59 + 34. _The Special Committee and the "Bargain"_ 62 + 35. _The Appeal to the Convention_ 64 + 36. _Settlement by the Convention_ 66 + 37. _Reception of the Clause by the Nation_ 67 + 38. _Attitude of the State Conventions_ 70 + 39. _Acceptance of the Policy_ 72 + + +CHAPTER VII +TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE AND ANTI-SLAVERY EFFORT, 1787-1807 + + 40. _Influence of the Haytian Revolution_ 74 + 41. _Legislation of the Southern States_ 75 + 42. _Legislation of the Border States_ 76 + 43. _Legislation of the Eastern States_ 76 + 44. _First Debate in Congress, 1789_ 77 + 45. _Second Debate in Congress, 1790_ 79 + 46. _The Declaration of Powers, 1790_ 82 + 47. _The Act of 1794_ 83 + 48. _The Act of 1800_ 85 + 49. _The Act of 1803_ 87 + 50. _State of the Slave-Trade from 1789 to 1803_ 88 + 51. _The South Carolina Repeal of 1803_ 89 + 52. _The Louisiana Slave-Trade, 1803-1805_ 91 + 53. _Last Attempts at Taxation, 1805-1806_ 94 + 54. _Key-Note of the Period_ 96 + + +CHAPTER VIII +THE PERIOD OF ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION, 1807-1825 + + 55. _The Act of 1807_ 97 + 56. _The First Question: How shall illegally imported Africans + be disposed of?_ 99 + 57. _The Second Question: How shall Violations be punished?_ 104 + 58. _The Third Question: How shall the Interstate Coastwise + Slave-Trade be protected?_ 106 + 59. _Legislative History of the Bill_ 107 + 60. _Enforcement of the Act_ 111 + 61. _Evidence of the Continuance of the Trade_ 112 + 62. _Apathy of the Federal Government_ 115 + 63. _Typical Cases_ 120 + 64. _The Supplementary Acts, 1818-1820_ 121 + 65. _Enforcement of the Supplementary Acts, 1818-1825_ 126 + + +CHAPTER IX +THE INTERNATIONAL STATUS OF THE SLAVE-TRADE, 1783-1862 + + 66. _The Rise of the Movement against the Slave-Trade, + 1788-1807_ 133 + 67. _Concerted Action of the Powers, 1783-1814_ 134 + 68. _Action of the Powers from 1814 to 1820_ 136 + 69. _The Struggle for an International Right of Search, + 1820-1840_ 137 + 70. _Negotiations of 1823-1825_ 140 + 71. _The Attitude of the United States and the State of the + Slave-Trade_ 142 + 72. _The Quintuple Treaty, 1839-1842_ 145 + 73. _Final Concerted Measures, 1842-1862_ 148 + + +CHAPTER X +THE RISE OF THE COTTON KINGDOM, 1820-1850 + + 74. _The Economic Revolution_ 152 + 75. _The Attitude of the South_ 154 + 76. _The Attitude of the North and Congress_ 156 + 77. _Imperfect Application of the Laws_ 159 + 78. _Responsibility of the Government_ 161 + 79. _Activity of the Slave-Trade, 1820-1850_ 163 + + +CHAPTER XI +THE FINAL CRISIS, 1850-1870 + + 80. _The Movement against the Slave-Trade Laws_ 168 + 81. _Commercial Conventions of 1855-1856_ 169 + 82. _Commercial Conventions of 1857-1858_ 170 + 83. _Commercial Convention of 1859_ 172 + 84. _Public Opinion in the South_ 173 + 85. _The Question in Congress_ 174 + 86. _Southern Policy in 1860_ 176 + 87. _Increase of the Slave-Trade from 1850 to 1860_ 178 + 88. _Notorious Infractions of the Laws_ 179 + 89. _Apathy of the Federal Government_ 182 + 90. _Attitude of the Southern Confederacy_ 187 + 91. _Attitude of the United States_ 190 + + +CHAPTER XII +THE ESSENTIALS IN THE STRUGGLE + + 92. _How the Question Arose_ 193 + 93. _The Moral Movement_ 194 + 94. _The Political Movement_ 195 + 95. _The Economic Movement_ 195 + 96. _The Lesson for Americans_ 196 + + +APPENDICES + + A. _A Chronological Conspectus of Colonial and State Legislation + restricting the African Slave-Trade, 1641-1787_ 199 + + B. _A Chronological Conspectus of State, National, and + International Legislation, 1788-1871_ 234 + + C. _Typical Cases of Vessels engaged in the American Slave-Trade, + 1619-1864_ 306 + + D. _Bibliography_ 316 + + +INDEX 347 + + * * * * * + + + + +_Chapter I_ + +INTRODUCTORY. + + 1. Plan of the Monograph. + 2. The Rise of the English Slave-Trade. + + +1. ~Plan of the Monograph.~ This monograph proposes to set forth the +efforts made in the United States of America, from early colonial times +until the present, to limit and suppress the trade in slaves between +Africa and these shores. + +The study begins with the colonial period, setting forth in brief the +attitude of England and, more in detail, the attitude of the planting, +farming, and trading groups of colonies toward the slave-trade. It deals +next with the first concerted effort against the trade and with the +further action of the individual States. The important work of the +Constitutional Convention follows, together with the history of the +trade in that critical period which preceded the Act of 1807. The +attempt to suppress the trade from 1807 to 1830 is next recounted. A +chapter then deals with the slave-trade as an international problem. +Finally the development of the crises up to the Civil War is studied, +together with the steps leading to the final suppression; and a +concluding chapter seeks to sum up the results of the investigation. +Throughout the monograph the institution of slavery and the interstate +slave-trade are considered only incidentally. + + +2. ~The Rise of the English Slave-Trade.~ Any attempt to consider the +attitude of the English colonies toward the African slave-trade must be +prefaced by a word as to the attitude of England herself and the +development of the trade in her hands.[1] + +Sir John Hawkins's celebrated voyage took place in 1562, but probably +not until 1631[2] did a regular chartered company undertake to carry on +the trade.[3] This company was unsuccessful,[4] and was eventually +succeeded by the "Company of Royal Adventurers trading to Africa," +chartered by Charles II. in 1662, and including the Queen Dowager and +the Duke of York.[5] The company contracted to supply the West Indies +with three thousand slaves annually; but contraband trade, misconduct, +and war so reduced it that in 1672 it surrendered its charter to another +company for £34,000.[6] This new corporation, chartered by Charles II. +as the "Royal African Company," proved more successful than its +predecessors, and carried on a growing trade for a quarter of a century. + +In 1698 Parliamentary interference with the trade began. By the Statute +9 and 10 William and Mary, chapter 26, private traders, on payment of a +duty of 10% on English goods exported to Africa, were allowed to +participate in the trade. This was brought about by the clamor of the +merchants, especially the "American Merchants," who "in their Petition +suggest, that it would be a great Benefit to the Kingdom to secure the +Trade by maintaining Forts and Castles there, with an equal Duty upon +all Goods exported."[7] This plan, being a compromise between +maintaining the monopoly intact and entirely abolishing it, was adopted, +and the statute declared the trade "highly Beneficial and Advantageous +to this Kingdom, and to the Plantations and Colonies thereunto +belonging." + +Having thus gained practically free admittance to the field, English +merchants sought to exclude other nations by securing a monopoly of the +lucrative Spanish colonial slave-trade. Their object was finally +accomplished by the signing of the Assiento in 1713.[8] + +The Assiento was a treaty between England and Spain by which the latter +granted the former a monopoly of the Spanish colonial slave-trade for +thirty years, and England engaged to supply the colonies within that +time with at least 144,000 slaves, at the rate of 4,800 per year. +England was also to advance Spain 200,000 crowns, and to pay a duty of +33½ crowns for each slave imported. The kings of Spain and England were +each to receive one-fourth of the profits of the trade, and the Royal +African Company were authorized to import as many slaves as they wished +above the specified number in the first twenty-five years, and to sell +them, except in three ports, at any price they could get. + +It is stated that, in the twenty years from 1713 to 1733, fifteen +thousand slaves were annually imported into America by the English, of +whom from one-third to one-half went to the Spanish colonies.[9] To the +company itself the venture proved a financial failure; for during the +years 1729-1750 Parliament assisted the Royal Company by annual grants +which amounted to £90,000,[10] and by 1739 Spain was a creditor to the +extent of £68,000, and threatened to suspend the treaty. The war +interrupted the carrying out of the contract, but the Peace of +Aix-la-Chapelle extended the limit by four years. Finally, October 5, +1750, this privilege was waived for a money consideration paid to +England; the Assiento was ended, and the Royal Company was bankrupt. + +By the Statute 23 George II., chapter 31, the old company was dissolved +and a new "Company of Merchants trading to Africa" erected in its +stead.[11] Any merchant so desiring was allowed to engage in the trade +on payment of certain small duties, and such merchants formed a company +headed by nine directors. This marked the total abolition of monopoly in +the slave-trade, and was the form under which the trade was carried on +until after the American Revolution. + +That the slave-trade was the very life of the colonies had, by 1700, +become an almost unquestioned axiom in British practical economics. The +colonists themselves declared slaves "the strength and sinews of this +western world,"[12] and the lack of them "the grand obstruction"[13] +here, as the settlements "cannot subsist without supplies of them."[14] +Thus, with merchants clamoring at home and planters abroad, it easily +became the settled policy of England to encourage the slave-trade. Then, +too, she readily argued that what was an economic necessity in Jamaica +and the Barbadoes could scarcely be disadvantageous to Carolina, +Virginia, or even New York. Consequently, the colonial governors were +generally instructed to "give all due encouragement and invitation to +merchants and others, ... and in particular to the royal African company +of England."[15] Duties laid on the importer, and all acts in any way +restricting the trade, were frowned upon and very often disallowed. +"Whereas," ran Governor Dobbs's instructions, "Acts have been passed in +some of our Plantations in America for laying duties on the importation +and exportation of Negroes to the great discouragement of the Merchants +trading thither from the coast of Africa.... It is our Will and Pleasure +that you do not give your assent to or pass any Law imposing duties upon +Negroes imported into our Province of North Carolina."[16] + +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 rose after the Assiento to perhaps 30,000. The proportion, too, 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.[17] + +In colonies like those in the West Indies and in South Carolina and +Georgia, the rapid importation into America of a multitude of savages +gave rise to a system of slavery far different from that which the late +Civil War abolished. The strikingly harsh and even inhuman slave codes +in these colonies show this. Crucifixion, burning, and starvation were +legal modes of punishment.[18] The rough and brutal character of the +time and place was partly responsible for this, but a more decisive +reason lay in the fierce and turbulent character of the imported +Negroes. The docility to which long years of bondage and strict +discipline gave rise was absent, and insurrections and acts of violence +were of frequent occurrence.[19] Again and again the danger of planters +being "cut off by their own negroes"[20] is mentioned, both in the +islands and on the continent. This condition of vague dread and unrest +not only increased the severity of laws and strengthened the police +system, but was the prime motive back of all the earlier efforts to +check the further importation of slaves. + +On the other hand, in New England and New York the Negroes were merely +house servants or farm hands, and were treated neither better nor worse +than servants in general in those days. Between these two extremes, the +system of slavery varied from a mild serfdom in Pennsylvania and New +Jersey to an aristocratic caste system in Maryland and Virginia. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] This account is based largely on the _Report of the Lords + of the Committee of Council_, etc. (London, 1789). + + [2] African trading-companies had previously been erected + (e.g. by Elizabeth in 1585 and 1588, and by James I. in 1618); + but slaves are not specifically mentioned in their charters, + and they probably did not trade in slaves. Cf. Bandinel, + _Account of the Slave Trade_ (1842), pp. 38-44. + + [3] Chartered by Charles I. Cf. Sainsbury, _Cal. State Papers, + Col. Ser., America and W. Indies, 1574-1660_, p. 135. + + [4] In 1651, during the Protectorate, the privileges of the + African trade were granted anew to this same company for + fourteen years. Cf. Sainsbury, _Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., + America and W. Indies, 1574-1660_, pp. 342, 355. + + [5] Sainsbury, _Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. + Indies, 1661-1668_, § 408. + + [6] Sainsbury, _Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. + Indies, 1669-1674_, §§ 934, 1095. + + [7] Quoted in the above _Report_, under "Most Material + Proceedings in the House of Commons," Vol. I. Part I. An import + duty of 10% on all goods, except Negroes, imported from Africa + to England and the colonies was also laid. The proceeds of + these duties went to the Royal African Company. + + [8] Cf. Appendix A. + + [9] Bandinel, _Account of the Slave Trade_, p. 59. Cf. Bryan + Edwards, _History of the British Colonies in the W. Indies_ + (London, 1798), Book VI. + + [10] From 1729 to 1788, including compensation to the old + company, Parliament expended £705,255 on African companies. Cf. + _Report_, etc., as above. + + [11] Various amendatory statutes were passed: e.g., 24 George + II. ch. 49, 25 George II. ch. 40, 4 George III. ch. 20, 5 + George III. ch. 44, 23 George III. ch. 65. + + [12] Renatus Enys from Surinam, in 1663: Sainsbury, _Cal. + State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies, 1661-68_, § + 577. + + [13] Thomas Lynch from Jamaica, in 1665: Sainsbury, _Cal. + State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies, 1661-68_, § + 934. + + [14] Lieutenant-Governor Willoughby of Barbadoes, in 1666: + Sainsbury, _Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. + Indies, 1661-68_, § 1281. + + [15] Smith, _History of New Jersey_ (1765), p. 254; Sainsbury, + _Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies, + 1669-74_., §§ 367, 398, 812. + + [16] _N.C. Col. Rec._, V. 1118. For similar instructions, cf. + _Penn. Archives_, I. 306; _Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York_, VI. + 34; Gordon, _History of the American Revolution_, I. letter 2; + _Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll._, 4th Ser. X. 642. + + [17] These figures are from the above-mentioned _Report_, Vol. + II. Part IV. Nos. 1, 5. See also Bancroft, _History of the + United States_ (1883), II. 274 ff; Bandinel, _Account of the + Slave Trade_, p. 63; Benezet, _Caution to Great Britain_, etc., + pp. 39-40, and _Historical Account of Guinea_, ch. xiii. + + [18] Compare earlier slave codes in South Carolina, Georgia, + Jamaica, etc.; also cf. Benezet, _Historical Account of + Guinea_, p. 75; _Report_, etc., as above. + + [19] Sainsbury, _Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. + Indies, 1574-1660_, pp. 229, 271, 295; _1661-68_, §§ 61, 412, + 826, 1270, 1274, 1788; _1669-74_., §§ 508, 1244; Bolzius and + Von Reck, _Journals_ (in Force, _Tracts_, Vol. IV. No. 5, pp. + 9, 18); _Proceedings of Governor and Assembly of Jamaica in + regard to the Maroon Negroes_ (London, 1796). + + [20] Sainsbury, _Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. + Indies, 1661-68_, § 1679. + + * * * * * + + + + +_Chapter II_ + +THE PLANTING COLONIES. + + 3. Character of these Colonies. + 4. Restrictions in Georgia. + 5. Restrictions in South Carolina. + 6. Restrictions in North Carolina. + 7. Restrictions in Virginia. + 8. Restrictions in Maryland. + 9. General Character of these Restrictions. + + +3. ~Character of these Colonies.~ The planting colonies are those +Southern settlements whose climate and character destined them to be the +chief theatre of North American slavery. The early attitude of these +communities toward the slave-trade is therefore of peculiar interest; +for their action was of necessity largely decisive for the future of the +trade and for the institution in North America. Theirs was the only +soil, climate, and society suited to slavery; in the other colonies, +with few exceptions, the institution was by these same factors doomed +from the beginning. Hence, only strong moral and political motives could +in the planting colonies overthrow or check a traffic so favored by the +mother country. + + +4. ~Restrictions in Georgia.~ In Georgia we have an example of a +community whose philanthropic founders sought to impose upon it a code +of morals higher than the colonists wished. The settlers of Georgia were +of even worse moral fibre than their slave-trading and whiskey-using +neighbors in Carolina and Virginia; yet Oglethorpe and the London +proprietors prohibited from the beginning both the rum and the slave +traffic, refusing to "suffer slavery (which is against the Gospel as +well as the fundamental law of England) to be authorised under our +authority."[1] The trustees sought to win the colonists over to their +belief by telling them that money could be better expended in +transporting white men than Negroes; that slaves would be a source of +weakness to the colony; and that the "Produces designed to be raised in +the Colony would not require such Labour as to make Negroes necessary +for carrying them on."[2] + +This policy greatly displeased the colonists, who from 1735, the date of +the first law, to 1749, did not cease to clamor for the repeal of the +restrictions.[3] As their English agent said, they insisted that "In +Spight of all Endeavours to disguise this Point, it is as clear as Light +itself, that Negroes are as essentially necessary to the Cultivation of +_Georgia_, as Axes, Hoes, or any other Utensil of Agriculture."[4] +Meantime, evasions and infractions of the laws became frequent and +notorious. Negroes were brought across from Carolina and "hired" for +life.[5] "Finally, purchases were openly made in Savannah from African +traders: some seizures were made by those who opposed the principle, but +as a majority of the magistrates were favorable to the introduction of +slaves into the province, legal decisions were suspended from time to +time, and a strong disposition evidenced by the courts to evade the +operation of the law."[6] At last, in 1749, the colonists prevailed on +the trustees and the government, and the trade was thrown open under +careful restrictions, which limited importation, required a registry and +quarantine on all slaves brought in, and laid a duty.[7] It is probable, +however, that these restrictions were never enforced, and that the trade +thus established continued unchecked until the Revolution. + + +5. ~Restrictions in South Carolina.~[8] South Carolina had the largest +and most widely developed slave-trade of any of the continental +colonies. This was owing to the character of her settlers, her nearness +to the West Indian slave marts, and the early development of certain +staple crops, such as rice, which were adapted to slave labor.[9] +Moreover, this colony suffered much less interference from the home +government than many other colonies; thus it is possible here to trace +the untrammeled development of slave-trade restrictions in a typical +planting community. + +As early as 1698 the slave-trade to South Carolina had reached such +proportions that it was thought that "the great number of negroes which +of late have been imported into this Collony may endanger the safety +thereof." The immigration of white servants was therefore encouraged by +a special law.[10] Increase of immigration reduced this disproportion, +but Negroes continued to be imported in such numbers as to afford +considerable revenue from a moderate duty on them. About the time when +the Assiento was signed, the slave-trade so increased that, scarcely a +year after the consummation of that momentous agreement, two heavy duty +acts were passed, because "the number of Negroes do extremely increase +in this Province, and through the afflicting providence of God, the +white persons do not proportionately multiply, by reason whereof, the +safety of the said Province is greatly endangered."[11] The trade, +however, by reason of the encouragement abroad and of increased business +activity in exporting naval stores at home, suffered scarcely any check, +although repeated acts, reciting the danger incident to a "great +importation of Negroes," were passed, laying high duties.[12] Finally, +in 1717, an additional duty of £40,[13] although due in depreciated +currency, succeeded so nearly in stopping the trade that, two years +later, all existing duties were repealed and one of £10 substituted.[14] +This continued during the time of resistance to the proprietary +government, but by 1734 the importation had again reached large +proportions. "We must therefore beg leave," the colonists write in that +year, "to inform your Majesty, that, amidst our other perilous +circumstances, we are subject to many intestine dangers from the great +number of negroes that are now among us, who amount at least to +twenty-two thousand persons, and are three to one of all your Majesty's +white subjects in this province. Insurrections against us have been +often attempted."[15] In 1740 an insurrection under a slave, Cato, at +Stono, caused such widespread alarm that a prohibitory duty of £100 was +immediately laid.[16] Importation was again checked; but in 1751 the +colony sought to devise a plan whereby the slightly restricted +immigration of Negroes should provide a fund to encourage the +importation of white servants, "to prevent the mischiefs that may be +attended by the great importation of negroes into this Province."[17] +Many white servants were thus encouraged to settle in the colony; but so +much larger was the influx of black slaves that the colony, in 1760, +totally prohibited the slave-trade. This act was promptly disallowed by +the Privy Council and the governor reprimanded;[18] but the colony +declared that "an importation of negroes, equal in number to what have +been imported of late years, may prove of the most dangerous consequence +in many respects to this Province, and the best way to obviate such +danger will be by imposing such an additional duty upon them as may +totally prevent the evils."[19] A prohibitive duty of £100 was +accordingly imposed in 1764.[20] This duty probably continued until the +Revolution. + +The war made a great change in the situation. It has been computed by +good judges that, between the years 1775 and 1783, the State of South +Carolina lost twenty-five thousand Negroes, by actual hostilities, +plunder of the British, runaways, etc. After the war the trade quickly +revived, and considerable revenue was raised from duty acts until 1787, +when by act and ordinance the slave-trade was totally prohibited.[21] +This prohibition, by renewals from time to time, lasted until 1803. + + +6. ~Restrictions in North Carolina.~ In early times there were few +slaves in North Carolina;[22] this fact, together with the troubled and +turbulent state of affairs during the early colonial period, did not +necessitate the adoption of any settled policy toward slavery or the +slave-trade. Later the slave-trade to the colony increased; but there is +no evidence of any effort to restrict or in any way regulate it before +1786, when it was declared that "the importation of slaves into this +State is productive of evil consequences and highly impolitic,"[23] and +a prohibitive duty was laid on them. + + +7. ~Restrictions in Virginia.~[24] Next to South Carolina, Virginia had +probably the largest slave-trade. Her situation, however, differed +considerably from that of her Southern neighbor. The climate, the staple +tobacco crop, and the society of Virginia were favorable to a system of +domestic slavery, but one which tended to develop into a patriarchal +serfdom rather than into a slave-consuming industrial hierarchy. The +labor required by the tobacco crop was less unhealthy than that +connected with the rice crop, and the Virginians were, perhaps, on a +somewhat higher moral plane than the Carolinians. There was consequently +no such insatiable demand for slaves in the larger colony. On the other +hand, the power of the Virginia executive was peculiarly strong, and it +was not possible here to thwart the slave-trade policy of the home +government as easily as elsewhere. + +Considering all these circumstances, it is somewhat difficult to +determine just what was the attitude of the early Virginians toward the +slave-trade. There is evidence, however, to show that although they +desired the slave-trade, the rate at which the Negroes were brought in +soon alarmed them. In 1710 a duty of £5 was laid on Negroes, but +Governor Spotswood "soon perceived that the laying so high a Duty on +Negros was intended to discourage the importation," and vetoed the +measure.[25] No further restrictive legislation was attempted for some +years, but whether on account of the attitude of the governor or the +desire of the inhabitants, is not clear. With 1723 begins a series of +acts extending down to the Revolution, which, so far as their contents +can be ascertained, seem to have been designed effectually to check the +slave-trade. Some of these acts, like those of 1723 and 1727, were +almost immediately disallowed.[26] The Act of 1732 laid a duty of 5%, +which was continued until 1769,[27] and all other duties were in +addition to this; so that by such cumulative duties the rate on slaves +reached 25% in 1755,[28] and 35% at the time of Braddock's +expedition.[29] These acts were found "very burthensome," "introductive +of many frauds," and "very inconvenient,"[30] and were so far repealed +that by 1761 the duty was only 15%. As now the Burgesses became more +powerful, two or more bills proposing restrictive duties were passed, +but disallowed.[31] By 1772 the anti-slave-trade feeling had become +considerably developed, and the Burgesses petitioned the king, declaring +that "The importation of slaves into the colonies from the coast of +Africa hath long been considered as a trade of great inhumanity, and +under its present encouragement, we have too much reason to fear _will +endanger the very existence_ of your Majesty's American dominions.... +Deeply impressed with these sentiments, we most humbly beseech your +Majesty to remove _all those restraints_ on your Majesty's governors of +this colony, _which inhibit their assenting to such laws as might check +so very pernicious a commerce_."[32] + +Nothing further appears to have been done before the war. When, in 1776, +the delegates adopted a Frame of Government, it was charged in this +document that the king had perverted his high office into a "detestable +and insupportable tyranny, by ... prompting our negroes to rise in arms +among us, those very negroes whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he +hath refused us permission to exclude by law."[33] Two years later, in +1778, an "Act to prevent the further importation of Slaves" stopped +definitively the legal slave-trade to Virginia.[34] + + +8. ~Restrictions in Maryland.~[35] Not until the impulse of the Assiento +had been felt in America, did Maryland make any attempt to restrain a +trade from which she had long enjoyed a comfortable revenue. The Act of +1717, laying a duty of 40_s._,[36] may have been a mild restrictive +measure. The duties were slowly increased to 50_s._ in 1754,[37] and £4. +in 1763.[38] In 1771 a prohibitive duty of £9 was laid;[39] and in 1783, +after the war, all importation by sea was stopped and illegally imported +Negroes were freed.[40] + +Compared with the trade to Virginia and the Carolinas, the slave-trade +to Maryland was small, and seems at no time to have reached proportions +which alarmed the inhabitants. It was regulated to the economic demand +by a slowly increasing tariff, and finally, after 1769, had nearly +ceased of its own accord before the restrictive legislation of +Revolutionary times.[41] Probably the proximity of Maryland to Virginia +made an independent slave-trade less necessary to her. + + +9. ~General Character of these Restrictions.~ We find in the planting +colonies all degrees of advocacy of the trade, from the passiveness of +Maryland to the clamor of Georgia. Opposition to the trade did not +appear in Georgia, was based almost solely on political fear of +insurrection in Carolina, and sprang largely from the same motive in +Virginia, mingled with some moral repugnance. As a whole, it may be said +that whatever opposition to the slave-trade there was in the planting +colonies was based principally on the political fear of insurrection. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Hoare, _Memoirs of Granville Sharp_ (1820), p. 157. For + the act of prohibition, see W.B. Stevens, _History of Georgia_ + (1847), I. 311. + + [2] [B. Martyn, _Account of the Progress of Georgia_ (1741), + pp. 9-10.] + + [3] Cf. Stevens, _History of Georgia_, I. 290 ff. + + [4] Stephens, _Account of the Causes_, etc., p. 8. Cf. also + _Journal of Trustees_, II. 210; cited by Stevens, _History of + Georgia_, I. 306. + + [5] McCall, _History of Georgia_ (1811), I. 206-7. + + [6] _Ibid._ + + [7] _Pub. Rec. Office, Board of Trade_, Vol. X.; cited by C.C. + Jones, _History of Georgia_ (1883), I. 422-5. + + [8] The following is a summary of the legislation of the + colony of South Carolina; details will be found in Appendix + A:-- + + 1698, Act to encourage the immigration of white servants. + 1703, Duty Act: 10_s._ on Africans, 20_s._ on other Negroes. + 1714, " " additional duty. + 1714, " " £2. + 1714-15, Duty Act: additional duty. + 1716, " " £3 on Africans, £30 on colonial Negroes. + 1717, " " £40 in addition to existing duties. + 1719, " " £10 on Africans, £30 on colonial Negroes. + The Act of 1717, etc., was repealed. + 1721, " " £10 on Africans, £50 on colonial Negroes. + 1722, " " " " " " " + 1740, " " £100 on Africans, £150 on colonial Negroes. + 1751, " " £10 " " £50 " " + 1760, Act prohibiting importation (Disallowed). + 1764, Duty Act: additional duty of £100. + 1783, " " £3 on Africans, £20 on colonial Negroes. + 1784, " " " " £5 " " + 1787, Art and Ordinance prohibiting importation. + + [9] Cf. Hewatt, _Historical Account of S. Carolina and + Georgia_ (1779), I. 120 ff.; reprinted in _S.C. Hist. Coll._ + (1836), I. 108 ff. + + [10] Cooper, _Statutes at Large of S. Carolina_, II. 153. + + [11] The text of the first act is not extant: cf. Cooper, + _Statutes_, III. 56. For the second, see Cooper, VII. 365, + 367. + + [12] Cf. Grimké, _Public Laws of S. Carolina_, p. xvi, No. + 362; Cooper, _Statutes_, II. 649. Cf. also _Governor Johnson + to the Board of Trade_, Jan. 12, 1719-20; reprinted in Rivers, + _Early History of S. Carolina_ (1874), App., xii. + + [13] Cooper, _Statutes_, VII. 368. + + [14] _Ibid._, III. 56. + + [15] From a memorial signed by the governor, President of the + Council, and Speaker of the House, dated April 9, 1734, + printed in Hewatt, _Historical Account of S. Carolina and + Georgia_ (1779), II. 39; reprinted in S.C. Hist. Coll. (1836), + I. 305-6. Cf. _N.C. Col. Rec._, II. 421. + + [16] Cooper, _Statutes_, III. 556; Grimké, _Public Laws_, p. + xxxi, No. 694. Cf. Ramsay, _History of S. Carolina_, I. 110. + + [17] Cooper, _Statutes_, III. 739. + + [18] The text of this law has not been found. Cf. Burge, + _Commentaries on Colonial and Foreign Laws_, I. 737, note; + Stevens, _History of Georgia_, I. 286. See instructions of the + governor of New Hampshire, June 30, 1761, in Gordon, _History + of the American Revolution_, I. letter 2. + + [19] Cooper, _Statutes_, IV. 187. + + [20] This duty avoided the letter of the English instructions + by making the duty payable by the first purchasers, and not by + the importers. Cf. Cooper, _Statutes_, IV. 187. + + [21] Grimké, Public Laws, p. lxviii, Nos. 1485, 1486; Cooper, + _Statutes_, VII. 430. + + [22] Cf. _N.C. Col. Rec._, IV. 172. + + [23] Martin, _Iredell's Acts of Assembly_, I. 413, 492. + + [24] The following is a summary of the legislation of the + colony of Virginia; details will be found in Appendix A:-- + + 1710, Duty Act: proposed duty of £5. + 1723, " " prohibitive (?). + 1727, " " " + 1732, " " 5%. + 1736, " " " + 1740, " " additional duty of 5%. + 1754, " " " " 5%. + 1755, " " " " 10% (Repealed, 1760). + 1757, " " " " 10% (Repealed, 1761). + 1759, " " 20% on colonial slaves. + 1766, " " additional duty of 10% (Disallowed?). + 1769, " " " " " " + 1772, " " £5 on colonial slaves. + Petition of Burgesses _vs._ Slave-trade. + 1776, Arraignment of the king in the adopted Frame of Government. + 1778, Importation prohibited. + + [25] _Letters of Governor Spotswood_, in _Va. Hist. Soc. + Coll._, New Ser., I. 52. + + [26] Hening, _Statutes at Large of Virginia_, IV. 118, 182. + + [27] _Ibid._, IV. 317, 394; V. 28, 160, 318; VI. 217, 353; + VII. 281; VIII. 190, 336, 532. + + [28] _Ibid._, V. 92; VI. 417, 419, 461, 466. + + [29] _Ibid._, VII. 69, 81. + + [30] _Ibid._, VII. 363, 383. + + [31] _Ibid._, VIII. 237, 337. + + [32] _Miscellaneous Papers, 1672-1865_, in _Va. Hist. Soc. + Coll._, New Ser., VI. 14; Tucker, _Blackstone's Commentaries_, + I. Part II. App., 51. + + [33] Hening, _Statutes_, IX. 112. + + [34] Importation by sea or by land was prohibited, with a + penalty of £1000 for illegal importation and £500 for buying + or selling. The Negro was freed, if illegally brought in. This + law was revised somewhat in 1785. Cf. Hening, _Statutes_, IX. + 471; XII. 182. + + [35] The following is a summary of the legislation of the + colony of Maryland; details will be found in Appendix A:-- + + 1695, Duty Act: 10_s._ + 1704, " " 20_s._ + 1715, " " " + 1717, " " additional duty of 40_s._ (?). + 1754, " " " " 10_s._, total 50_s._ + 1756, " " " " 20_s._ " 40_s._ (?). + 1763, " " " " £2 " £4. + 1771, " " " " £5 " £9. + 1783, Importation prohibited. + + [36] _Compleat Coll. Laws of Maryland_ (ed. 1727), p. 191; + Bacon, _Laws of Maryland at Large_, 1728, ch. 8. + + [37] Bacon, _Laws_, 1754, ch. 9, 14. + + [38] _Ibid._, 1763, ch. 28. + + [39] _Laws of Maryland since 1763_: 1771, ch. 7. Cf. _Ibid._: + 1777, sess. Feb.-Apr., ch. 18. + + [40] _Ibid._: 1783, sess. Apr.-June, ch. 23. + + [41] "The last importation of slaves into Maryland was, as I + am credibly informed, in the year 1769": William Eddis, + _Letters from America_ (London, 1792), p. 65, note. + + The number of slaves in Maryland has been estimated as follows:-- + + In 1704, 4,475. _Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York_, V. 605. + " 1710, 7,935. _Ibid._ + " 1712, 8,330. Scharf, _History of Maryland_, I. 377. + " 1719, 25,000. _Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York_, V. 605. + " 1748, 36,000. McMahon, _History of Maryland_, I. 313. + " 1755, 46,356. _Gentleman's Magazine_, XXXIV. 261. + " 1756, 46,225. McMahon, _History of Maryland_, I. 313. + " 1761, 49,675. Dexter, _Colonial Population_, p. 21, note. + " 1782, 83,362. _Encyclopædia Britannica_ (9th ed.), XV. 603. + " 1787, 80,000. Dexter, _Colonial Population_, p. 21, note. + + * * * * * + + + + +_Chapter III_ + +THE FARMING COLONIES. + + 10. Character of these Colonies. + 11. The Dutch Slave-Trade. + 12. Restrictions in New York. + 13. Restrictions in Pennsylvania and Delaware. + 14. Restrictions in New Jersey. + 15. General Character of these Restrictions. + + +10. ~Character of these Colonies.~ The colonies of this group, occupying +the central portion of the English possessions, comprise those +communities where, on account of climate, physical characteristics, and +circumstances of settlement, slavery as an institution found but a +narrow field for development. The climate was generally rather cool for +the newly imported slaves, the soil was best suited to crops to which +slave labor was poorly adapted, and the training and habits of the great +body of settlers offered little chance for the growth of a slave system. +These conditions varied, of course, in different colonies; but the +general statement applies to all. These communities of small farmers and +traders derived whatever opposition they had to the slave-trade from +three sorts of motives,--economic, political, and moral. First, the +importation of slaves did not pay, except to supply a moderate demand +for household servants. Secondly, these colonies, as well as those in +the South, had a wholesome political fear of a large servile population. +Thirdly, the settlers of many of these colonies were of sterner moral +fibre than the Southern cavaliers and adventurers, and, in the absence +of great counteracting motives, were more easily led to oppose the +institution and the trade. Finally, it must be noted that these colonies +did not so generally regard themselves as temporary commercial +investments as did Virginia and Carolina. Intending to found permanent +States, these settlers from the first more carefully studied the +ultimate interests of those States. + + +11. ~The Dutch Slave-Trade.~ The Dutch seem to have commenced the +slave-trade to the American continent, the Middle colonies and some of +the Southern receiving supplies from them. John Rolfe relates that the +last of August, 1619, there came to Virginia "a dutch man of warre that +sold us twenty Negars."[1] This was probably one of the ships of the +numerous private Dutch trading-companies which early entered into and +developed the lucrative African slave-trade. Ships sailed from Holland +to Africa, got slaves in exchange for their goods, carried the slaves to +the West Indies or Brazil, and returned home laden with sugar.[2] +Through the enterprise of one of these trading-companies the settlement +of New Amsterdam was begun, in 1614. In 1621 the private companies +trading in the West were all merged into the Dutch West India Company, +and given a monopoly of American trade. This company was very active, +sending in four years 15,430 Negroes to Brazil,[3] carrying on war with +Spain, supplying even the English plantations,[4] and gradually becoming +the great slave carrier of the day. + +The commercial supremacy of the Dutch early excited the envy and +emulation of the English. The Navigation Ordinance of 1651 was aimed at +them, and two wars were necessary to wrest the slave-trade from them and +place it in the hands of the English. The final terms of peace among +other things surrendered New Netherland to England, and opened the way +for England to become henceforth the world's greatest slave-trader. +Although the Dutch had thus commenced the continental slave-trade, they +had not actually furnished a very large number of slaves to the English +colonies outside the West Indies. A small trade had, by 1698, brought a +few thousand to New York, and still fewer to New Jersey.[5] It was left +to the English, with their strong policy in its favor, to develop this +trade. + + +12. ~Restrictions in New York.~[6] The early ordinances of the Dutch, +laying duties, generally of ten per cent, on slaves, probably proved +burdensome to the trade, although this was not intentional.[7] The +Biblical prohibition of slavery and the slave-trade, copied from New +England codes into the Duke of York's Laws, had no practical +application,[8] and the trade continued to be encouraged in the +governors' instructions. In 1709 a duty of £3 was laid on Negroes from +elsewhere than Africa.[9] This was aimed at West India slaves, and was +prohibitive. By 1716 the duty on all slaves was £1 12½_s._, which was +probably a mere revenue figure.[10] In 1728 a duty of 40_s._ was laid, +to be continued until 1737.[11] It proved restrictive, however, and on +the "humble petition of the Merchants and Traders of the City of +Bristol" was disallowed in 1735, as "greatly prejudicial to the Trade +and Navigation of this Kingdom."[12] Governor Cosby was also reminded +that no duties on slaves payable by the importer were to be laid. Later, +in 1753, the 40_s._ duty was restored, but under the increased trade of +those days was not felt.[13] No further restrictions seem to have been +attempted until 1785, when the sale of slaves in the State was +forbidden.[14] + +The chief element of restriction in this colony appears to have been the +shrewd business sense of the traders, who never flooded the slave +market, but kept a supply sufficient for the slowly growing demand. +Between 1701 and 1726 only about 2,375 slaves were imported, and in 1774 +the total slave population amounted to 21,149.[15] No restriction was +ever put by New York on participation in the trade outside the colony, +and in spite of national laws New York merchants continued to be engaged +in this traffic even down to the Civil War.[16] + +Vermont, who withdrew from New York in 1777, in her first +Constitution[17] declared slavery illegal, and in 1786 stopped by law +the sale and transportation of slaves within her boundaries.[18] + + +13. ~Restrictions in Pennsylvania and Delaware.~[19] One of the first +American protests against the slave-trade came from certain German +Friends, in 1688, at a Weekly Meeting held in Germantown, Pennsylvania. +"These are the reasons," wrote "Garret henderich, derick up de graeff, +Francis daniell Pastorius, and Abraham up Den graef," "why we are +against the traffick of men-body, as followeth: Is there any that would +be done or handled at this manner?... Now, tho they are black, we cannot +conceive there is more liberty to have them slaves, as it is to have +other white ones. There is a saying, that we shall doe to all men like +as we will be done ourselves; making no difference of what generation, +descent or colour they are. And those who steal or robb men, and those +who buy or purchase them, are they not all alike?"[20] This little +leaven helped slowly to work a revolution in the attitude of this great +sect toward slavery and the slave-trade. The Yearly Meeting at first +postponed the matter, "It having so General a Relation to many other +Parts."[21] Eventually, however, in 1696, the Yearly Meeting advised +"That Friends be careful not to encourage the bringing in of any more +Negroes."[22] This advice was repeated in stronger terms for a +quarter-century,[23] and by that time Sandiford, Benezet, Lay, and +Woolman had begun their crusade. In 1754 the Friends took a step farther +and made the purchase of slaves a matter of discipline.[24] Four years +later the Yearly Meeting expressed itself clearly as "against every +branch of this practice," and declared that if "any professing with us +should persist to vindicate it, and be concerned in importing, selling +or purchasing slaves, the respective Monthly Meetings to which they +belong should manifest their disunion with such persons."[25] Further, +manumission was recommended, and in 1776 made compulsory.[26] The effect +of this attitude of the Friends was early manifested in the legislation +of all the colonies where the sect was influential, and particularly in +Pennsylvania. + +One of the first duty acts (1710) laid a restrictive duty of 40_s._ on +slaves, and was eventually disallowed.[27] In 1712 William Southeby +petitioned the Assembly totally to abolish slavery. This the Assembly +naturally refused to attempt; but the same year, in response to another +petition "signed by many hands," they passed an "Act to prevent the +Importation of Negroes and Indians,"[28]--the first enactment of its +kind in America. This act was inspired largely by the general fear of +insurrection which succeeded the "Negro-plot" of 1712 in New York. It +declared: "Whereas, divers Plots and Insurrections have frequently +happened, not only in the Islands but on the Main Land of _America_, by +Negroes, which have been carried on so far that several of the +inhabitants have been barbarously Murthered, an Instance whereof we have +lately had in our Neighboring Colony of _New York_,"[29] etc. It then +proceeded to lay a prohibitive duty of £20 on all slaves imported. These +acts were quickly disposed of in England. Three duty acts affecting +Negroes, including the prohibitory act, were in 1713 disallowed, and it +was directed that "the Dep^{ty} Gov^{r} Council and Assembly of +Pensilvania, be & they are hereby Strictly Enjoyned & required not to +permit the said Laws ... to be from henceforward put in Execution."[30] +The Assembly repealed these laws, but in 1715 passed another laying a +duty of £5, which was also eventually disallowed.[31] Other acts, the +provisions of which are not clear, were passed in 1720 and 1722,[32] and +in 1725-1726 the duty on Negroes was raised to the restrictive figure of +£10.[33] This duty, for some reason not apparent, was lowered to £2 in +1729,[34] but restored again in 1761.[35] A struggle occurred over this +last measure, the Friends petitioning for it, and the Philadelphia +merchants against it, declaring that "We, the subscribers, ever desirous +to extend the Trade of this Province, have seen, for some time past, +the many inconveniencys the Inhabitants have suffer'd for want of +Labourers and artificers, ... have for some time encouraged the +importation of Negroes;" they prayed therefore at least for a delay in +passing the measure.[36] The law, nevertheless, after much debate and +altercation with the governor, finally passed. + +These repeated acts nearly stopped the trade, and the manumission or +sale of Negroes by the Friends decreased the number of slaves in the +province. The rising spirit of independence enabled the colony, in 1773, +to restore the prohibitive duty of £20 and make it perpetual.[37] After +the Revolution unpaid duties on slaves were collected and the slaves +registered,[38] and in 1780 an "Act for the gradual Abolition of +Slavery" was passed.[39] As there were probably at no time before the +war more than 11,000 slaves in Pennsylvania,[40] the task thus +accomplished was not so formidable as in many other States. As it was, +participation in the slave-trade outside the colony was not prohibited +until 1788.[41] + +It seems probable that in the original Swedish settlements along the +Delaware slavery was prohibited.[42] This measure had, however, little +practical effect; for as soon as the Dutch got control the slave-trade +was opened, although, as it appears, to no large extent. After the fall +of the Dutch Delaware came into English hands. Not until 1775 do we find +any legislation on the slave-trade. In that year the colony attempted +to prohibit the importation of slaves, but the governor vetoed the +bill.[43] Finally, in 1776 by the Constitution, and in 1787 by law, +importation and exportation were both prohibited.[44] + + +14. ~Restrictions in New Jersey.~[45] Although the freeholders of West +New Jersey declared, in 1676, that "all and every Person and Persons +Inhabiting the said Province, shall, as far as in us lies, be free from +Oppression and Slavery,"[46] yet Negro slaves are early found in the +colony.[47] The first restrictive measure was passed, after considerable +friction between the Council and the House, in 1713; it laid a duty of +£10, currency.[48] Governor Hunter explained to the Board of Trade that +the bill was "calculated to Encourage the Importation of white Servants +for the better Peopeling that Country."[49] How long this act continued +does not appear; probably, not long. No further legislation was enacted +until 1762 or 1763, when a prohibitive duty was laid on account of "the +inconvenience the Province is exposed to in lying open to the free +importation of Negros, when the Provinces on each side have laid duties +on them."[50] The Board of Trade declared that while they did not object +to "the Policy of imposing a reasonable duty," they could not assent to +this, and the act was disallowed.[51] The Act of 1769 evaded the +technical objection of the Board of Trade, and laid a duty of £15 on the +first purchasers of Negroes, because, as the act declared, "Duties on +the Importation of Negroes in several of the neighbouring Colonies +hath, on Experience, been found beneficial in the Introduction of sober, +industrious Foreigners."[52] In 1774 a bill which, according to the +report of the Council to Governor Morris, "plainly intended an entire +Prohibition of all Slaves being imported from foreign Parts," was thrown +out by the Council.[53] Importation was finally prohibited in 1786.[54] + + +15. ~General Character of these Restrictions.~ The main difference in +motive between the restrictions which the planting and the farming +colonies put on the African slave-trade, lay in the fact that the former +limited it mainly from fear of insurrection, the latter mainly because +it did not pay. Naturally, the latter motive worked itself out with much +less legislation than the former; for this reason, and because they held +a smaller number of slaves, most of these colonies have fewer actual +statutes than the Southern colonies. In Pennsylvania alone did this +general economic revolt against the trade acquire a distinct moral +tinge. Although even here the institution was naturally doomed, yet the +clear moral insight of the Quakers checked the trade much earlier than +would otherwise have happened. We may say, then, that the farming +colonies checked the slave-trade primarily from economic motives. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Smith, _Generall Historie of Virginia_ (1626 and 1632), p. 126. + + [2] Cf. Southey, _History of Brazil_. + + [3] De Laet, in O'Callaghan, _Voyages of the Slavers_, etc., p. viii. + + [4] See, e.g., Sainsbury, _Cal. State Papers; Col. Ser., + America and W. Indies, 1574-1660_, p. 279. + + [5] Cf. below, pp. 27, 32, notes; also _Freedoms_, XXX., in + O'Callaghan, _Laws of New Netherland, 1638-74_ (ed. 1868), p. + 10; Brodhead, _History of New York_, I. 312. + + [6] The following is a summary of the legislation of the + colony of New York; details will be found in Appendix A:-- + + 1709, Duty Act: £3 on Negroes not direct from Africa + (Continued by the Acts of 1710, 1711). + 1711, Bill to lay further duty, lost in Council. + 1716, Duty Act: 5 oz. plate on Africans in colony ships. + 10 oz. plate on Africans in other ships. + 1728, " " 40_s._ on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. + 1732, " " 40_s._ on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. + 1734, " " (?) + 1753, " " 40_s._ on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. + (This act was annually continued.) + [1777, Vermont Constitution does not recognize slavery.] + 1785, Sale of slaves in State prohibited. + [1786, " " in Vermont prohibited.] + 1788, " " in State prohibited. + + [7] O'Callaghan, _Laws of New Netherland, 1638-74_, pp. 31, + 348, etc. The colonists themselves were encouraged to trade, + but the terms were not favorable enough: _Doc. rel. Col. Hist. + New York_, I. 246; _Laws of New Netherland_, pp. 81-2, note, + 127. The colonists declared "that they are inclined to a + foreign Trade, and especially to the Coast of _Africa_, ... in + order to fetch thence Slaves": O'Callaghan, _Voyages of the + Slavers_, etc., p. 172. + + [8] _Charter to William Penn_, etc. (1879), p. 12. First + published on Long Island in 1664. Possibly Negro slaves were + explicitly excepted. Cf. _Magazine of American History_, XI. + 411, and _N.Y. Hist. Soc. Coll._, I. 322. + + [9] _Acts of Assembly, 1691-1718_, pp. 97, 125, 134; _Doc. + rel. Col. Hist. New York_, V. 178, 185, 293. + + [10] The Assembly attempted to raise the slave duty in 1711, + but the Council objected (_Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York_, V. + 292 ff.), although, as it seems, not on account of the slave + duty in particular. Another act was passed between 1711 and + 1716, but its contents are not known (cf. title of the Act of + 1716). For the Act of 1716, see _Acts of Assembly, 1691-1718_, + p. 224. + + [11] _Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York_, VI. 37, 38. + + [12] _Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York_, VI. 32-4. + + [13] _Ibid._, VII. 907. This act was annually renewed. The + slave duty remained a chief source of revenue down to 1774. + Cf. _Report of Governor Tryon_, in _Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New + York_, VIII. 452. + + [14] _Laws of New York, 1785-88_ (ed. 1886), ch. 68, p. 121. + Substantially the same act reappears in the revision of the + laws of 1788: _Ibid._, ch. 40, p. 676. + + [15] The slave population of New York has been estimated as + follows:-- + + In 1698, 2,170. _Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York_, IV. 420. + " 1703, 2,258. _N.Y. Col. MSS._, XLVIII.; cited in Hough, + _N.Y. Census, 1855_, Introd. + " 1712, 2,425. _Ibid._, LVII., LIX. (a partial census). + " 1723, 6,171. _Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York_, V. 702. + " 1731, 7,743. _Ibid._, V. 929. + " 1737, 8,941. _Ibid._, VI. 133. + " 1746, 9,107. _Ibid._, VI. 392. + " 1749, 10,692. _Ibid._, VI. 550. + " 1756, 13,548. _London Doc._, XLIV. 123; cited in Hough, + as above. + " 1771, 19,863. _Ibid._, XLIV. 144; cited in Hough, as above. + " 1774, 21,149. _Ibid._, " " " " " + " 1786, 18,889. _Deeds in office Sec. of State_, XXII. 35. + + Total number of Africans imported from 1701 to 1726, 2,375, + of whom 802 were from Africa: O'Callaghan, _Documentary + History of New York_, I. 482. + + [16] Cf. below, Chapter XI. + + [17] _Vermont State Papers, 1779-86_, p. 244. The return of + sixteen slaves in Vermont, by the first census, was an error: + _New England Record_, XXIX. 249. + + [18] _Vermont State Papers_, p. 505. + + [19] The following is a summary of the legislation of the + colony of Pennsylvania and Delaware; details will be found in + Appendix A:-- + + 1705, Duty Act: (?). + 1710, " " 40_s._ (Disallowed). + 1712, " " £20 " + 1712, " " supplementary to the Act of 1710. + 1715, " " £5 (Disallowed). + 1718, " " + 1720, " " (?). + 1722, " " (?). + 1725-6, " " £10. + 1726, " " + 1729, " " £2. + 1761, " " £10. + 1761, " " (?). + 1768, " " re-enactment of the Act of 1761. + 1773, " " perpetual additional duty of £10; total, £20. + 1775, Bill to prohibit importation vetoed by the governor (Delaware). + 1775, Bill to prohibit importation vetoed by the governor. + 1778, Back duties on slaves ordered collected. + 1780, Act for the gradual abolition of slavery. + 1787, Act to prevent the exportation of slaves (Delaware). + 1788, Act to prevent the slave-trade. + + [20] From fac-simile copy, published at Germantown in 1880. + Cf. Whittier's poem, "Pennsylvania Hall" (_Poetical Works_, + Riverside ed., III. 62); and Proud, _History of Pennsylvania_ + (1797), I. 219. + + [21] From fac-simile copy, published at Germantown in 1880. + + [22] Bettle, _Notices of Negro Slavery_, in _Penn. Hist. Soc. + Mem._ (1864), I. 383. + + [23] Cf. Bettle, _Notices of Negro Slavery, passim_. + + [24] Janney, _History of the Friends_, III. 315-7. + + [25] _Ibid._, III. 317. + + [26] Bettle, in _Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem._, I. 395. + + [27] _Penn. Col. Rec._ (1852), II. 530; Bettle, in _Penn. + Hist. Soc. Mem._, I. 415. + + [28] _Laws of Pennsylvania, collected_, etc., 1714, p. 165; + Bettle, in _Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem._, I. 387. + + [29] See preamble of the act. + + [30] The Pennsylvanians did not allow their laws to reach + England until long after they were passed: _Penn. Archives_, + I. 161-2; _Col. Rec._, II. 572-3. These acts were disallowed + Feb. 20, 1713. Another duty act was passed in 1712, + supplementary to the Act of 1710 (_Col. Rec._, II. 553). The + contents are unknown. + + [31] _Acts and Laws of Pennsylvania_, 1715, p. 270; Chalmers, + _Opinions_, II. 118. Before the disallowance was known, the + act had been continued by the Act of 1718: Carey and Bioren, + _Laws of Pennsylvania, 1700-1802_, I. 118; _Penn. Col. Rec._, + III. 38. + + [32] Carey and Bioren, _Laws_, I. 165; _Penn. Col. Rec._, III. + 171; Bettle, in _Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem._, I. 389, note. + + [33] Carey and Bioren, _Laws_, I. 214; Bettle, in _Penn. Hist. + Soc. Mem._, I. 388. Possibly there were two acts this year. + + [34] _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (ed. 1742), p. 354, ch. 287. + Possibly some change in the currency made this change appear + greater than it was. + + [35] Carey and Bioren, _Laws_, I. 371; _Acts of Assembly_ (ed. + 1782), p. 149; Dallas, _Laws_, I. 406, ch. 379. This act was + renewed in 1768: Carey and Bioren, _Laws_, I. 451; _Penn. Col. + Rec._, IX. 472, 637, 641. + + [36] _Penn. Col. Rec._, VIII. 576. + + [37] A large petition called for this bill. Much altercation + ensued with the governor: Dallas, _Laws_, I. 671, ch. 692; + _Penn. Col. Rec._, X. 77; Bettle, in _Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem._, + I. 388-9. + + [38] Dallas, _Laws_, I. 782, ch. 810. + + [39] _Ibid._, I. 838, ch. 881. + + [40] There exist but few estimates of the number of slaves in + this colony:-- + + In 1721, 2,500-5,000. _Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York_, V. 604. + " 1754, 11,000. Bancroft, _Hist. of United States_ (1883), + II. 391. + " 1760, very few." Burnaby, _Travels through N. Amer._ (2d ed.), + p. 81. + " 1775, 2,000. _Penn. Archives_, IV 597. + + [41] Dallas, _Laws_, II. 586. + + [42] Cf. _Argonautica Gustaviana_, pp. 21-3; _Del. Hist. Soc. + Papers_, III. 10; _Hazard's Register_, IV. 221, §§ 23, 24; + _Hazard's Annals_, p. 372; Armstrong, _Record of Upland + Court_, pp. 29-30, and notes. + + [43] Force, _American Archives_, 4th Ser., II. 128-9. + + [44] _Ibid._, 5th Ser., I. 1178; _Laws of Delaware, 1797_ + (Newcastle ed.), p. 884, ch. 145 b. + + [45] The following is a summary of the legislation of the + colony of New Jersey; details will be found in Appendix A:-- + + 1713, Duty Act: £10. + 1763 (?), Duty Act. + 1769, " " £15. + 1774, " " £5 on Africans, £10 on colonial Negroes. + 1786, Importation prohibited. + + [46] Leaming and Spicer, _Grants, Concessions_, etc., p. 398. + Probably this did not refer to Negroes at all. + + [47] Cf. Vincent, _History of Delaware_, I. 159, 381. + + [48] _Laws and Acts of New Jersey, 1703-17_ (ed. 1717), p. 43. + + [49] _N.J. Archives_, IV. 196. There was much difficulty in + passing the bill: _Ibid._, XIII. 516-41. + + [50] _Ibid._, IX. 345-6. The exact provisions of the act I + have not found. + + [51] _Ibid._, IX. 383, 447, 458. Chiefly because the duty was + laid on the importer. + + [52] Allinson, _Acts of Assembly_, pp. 315-6. + + [53] _N.J. Archives_, VI. 222. + + [54] _Acts of the 10th General Assembly_, May 2, 1786. There + are two estimates of the number of slaves in this colony:-- + + In 1738, 3,981. _American Annals_, II. 127. + " 1754, 4,606. " " II. 143. + + * * * * * + + + + +_Chapter IV_ + +THE TRADING COLONIES. + + 16. Character of these Colonies. + 17. New England and the Slave-Trade. + 18. Restrictions in New Hampshire. + 19. Restrictions in Massachusetts. + 20. Restrictions in Rhode Island. + 21. Restrictions in Connecticut. + 22. General Character of these Restrictions. + + +16. ~Character of these Colonies.~ The rigorous climate of New England, +the character of her settlers, and their pronounced political views gave +slavery an even slighter basis here than in the Middle colonies. The +significance of New England in the African slave-trade does not +therefore lie in the fact that she early discountenanced the system of +slavery and stopped importation; but rather in the fact that her +citizens, being the traders of the New World, early took part in the +carrying slave-trade and furnished slaves to the other colonies. An +inquiry, therefore, into the efforts of the New England colonies to +suppress the slave-trade would fall naturally into two parts: first, and +chiefly, an investigation of the efforts to stop the participation of +citizens in the carrying slave-trade; secondly, an examination of the +efforts made to banish the slave-trade from New England soil. + + +17. ~New England and the Slave-Trade.~ Vessels from Massachusetts,[1] +Rhode Island,[2] Connecticut,[3] and, to a less extent, from New +Hampshire,[4] 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."[5] Dr. +John Eliot asserted that "it made a considerable branch of our +commerce.... It declined very little till the Revolution."[6] 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.[7] +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.[8] Thus, the rum-distilling industry indicates 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.[9] +In Newport alone twenty-two stills were at one time running +continuously;[10] and Massachusetts annually distilled 15,000 hogsheads +of molasses into this "chief manufacture."[11] + +Turning now to restrictive measures, we must first note the measures of +the slave-consuming colonies which tended to limit the trade. These +measures, however, came comparatively late, were enforced with varying +degrees of efficiency, and did not seriously affect the slave-trade +before the Revolution. The moral sentiment of New England put some check +upon the trade. Although in earlier times the most respectable people +took ventures in slave-trading voyages, yet there gradually arose a +moral sentiment which tended to make the business somewhat +disreputable.[12] In the line, however, of definite legal enactments to +stop New England citizens from carrying slaves from Africa to any place +in the world, there were, before the Revolution, none. Indeed, not until +the years 1787-1788 was slave-trading in itself an indictable offence in +any New England State. + +The particular situation in each colony, and the efforts to restrict the +small importing slave-trade of New England, can best be studied in a +separate view of each community. + + +18. ~Restrictions in New Hampshire.~ The statistics of slavery in New +Hampshire show how weak an institution it always was in that colony.[13] +Consequently, when the usual instructions were sent to Governor +Wentworth as to the encouragement he must give to the slave-trade, the +House replied: "We have considered his Maj^{ties} Instruction relating +to an Impost on Negroes & Felons, to which this House answers, that +there never was any duties laid on either, by this Goverm^{t}, and so +few bro't in that it would not be worth the Publick notice, so as to +make an act concerning them."[14] This remained true for the whole +history of the colony. Importation was never stopped by actual +enactment, but was eventually declared contrary to the Constitution of +1784.[15] The participation of citizens in the trade appears never to +have been forbidden. + + +19. ~Restrictions in Massachusetts.~ The early Biblical codes of +Massachusetts confined slavery to "lawfull Captives taken in iust +warres, & such strangers as willingly selle themselves or are sold to +us."[16] The stern Puritanism of early days endeavored to carry this out +literally, and consequently when a certain Captain Smith, about 1640, +attacked an African village and brought some of the unoffending natives +home, he was promptly arrested. Eventually, the General Court ordered +the Negroes sent home at the colony's expense, "conceiving themselues +bound by y^e first oportunity to bear witnes against y^e haynos & crying +sinn of manstealing, as also to P'scribe such timely redresse for what +is past, & such a law for y^e future as may sufficiently deterr all +oth^{r}s belonging to us to have to do in such vile & most odious +courses, iustly abhored of all good & iust men."[17] + +The temptation of trade slowly forced the colony from this high moral +ground. New England ships were early found in the West Indian +slave-trade, and the more the carrying trade developed, the more did the +profits of this branch of it attract Puritan captains. By the beginning +of the eighteenth century the slave-trade was openly recognized as +legitimate commerce; cargoes came regularly to Boston, and "The +merchants of Boston quoted negroes, like any other merchandise demanded +by their correspondents."[18] At the same time, the Puritan conscience +began to rebel against the growth of actual slavery on New England soil. +It was a much less violent wrenching of moral ideas of right and wrong +to allow Massachusetts men to carry slaves to South Carolina than to +allow cargoes to come into Boston, and become slaves in Massachusetts. +Early in the eighteenth century, therefore, opposition arose to the +further importation of Negroes, and in 1705 an act "for the Better +Preventing of a Spurious and Mixt Issue," laid a restrictive duty of £4 +on all slaves imported.[19] One provision of this act plainly +illustrates the attitude of Massachusetts: like the acts of many of the +New England colonies, it allowed a rebate of the whole duty on +re-exportation. The harbors of New England were thus offered as a free +exchange-mart for slavers. All the duty acts of the Southern and Middle +colonies allowed a rebate of one-half or three-fourths of the duty on +the re-exportation of the slave, thus laying a small tax on even +temporary importation. + +The Act of 1705 was evaded, but it was not amended until 1728, when the +penalty for evasion was raised to £100.[20] The act remained in force, +except possibly for one period of four years, until 1749. Meantime the +movement against importation grew. A bill "for preventing the +Importation of Slaves into this Province" was introduced in the +Legislature in 1767, but after strong opposition and disagreement +between House and Council it was dropped.[21] In 1771 the struggle was +renewed. A similar bill passed, but was vetoed by Governor +Hutchinson.[22] The imminent war and the discussions incident to it had +now more and more aroused public opinion, and there were repeated +attempts to gain executive consent to a prohibitory law. In 1774 such a +bill was twice passed, but never received assent.[23] + +The new Revolutionary government first met the subject in the case of +two Negroes captured on the high seas, who were advertised for sale at +Salem. A resolution was introduced into the Legislature, directing the +release of the Negroes, and declaring "That the selling and enslaving +the human species is a direct violation of the natural rights alike +vested in all men by their Creator, and utterly inconsistent with the +avowed principles on which this, and the other United States, have +carried their struggle for liberty even to the last appeal." To this the +Council would not consent; and the resolution, as finally passed, merely +forbade the sale or ill-treatment of the Negroes.[24] Committees on the +slavery question were appointed in 1776 and 1777,[25] and although a +letter to Congress on the matter, and a bill for the abolition of +slavery were reported, no decisive action was taken. + +All such efforts were finally discontinued, as the system was already +practically extinct in Massachusetts and the custom of importation had +nearly ceased. Slavery was eventually declared by judicial decision to +have been abolished.[26] The first step toward stopping the +participation of Massachusetts citizens in the slave-trade outside the +State was taken in 1785, when a committee of inquiry was appointed by +the Legislature.[27] No act was, however, passed until 1788, when +participation in the trade was prohibited, on pain of £50 forfeit for +every slave and £200 for every ship engaged.[28] + + +20. ~Restrictions in Rhode Island.~ In 1652 Rhode Island passed a law +designed to prohibit life slavery in the colony. It declared that +"Whereas, there is a common course practised amongst English men to buy +negers, to that end they may have them for service or slaves forever; +for the preventinge of such practices among us, let it be ordered, that +no blacke mankind or white being forced by covenant bond, or otherwise, +to serve any man or his assighnes longer than ten yeares, or untill they +come to bee twentie four yeares of age, if they bee taken in under +fourteen, from the time of their cominge within the liberties of this +Collonie. And at the end or terme of ten yeares to sett them free, as +the manner is with the English servants. And that man that will not let +them goe free, or shall sell them away elsewhere, to that end that they +may bee enslaved to others for a long time, hee or they shall forfeit to +the Collonie forty pounds."[29] + +This law was for a time enforced,[30] but by the beginning of the +eighteenth century it had either been repealed or become a dead letter; +for the Act of 1708 recognized perpetual slavery, and laid an impost of +£3 on Negroes imported.[31] This duty was really a tax on the transport +trade, and produced a steady income for twenty years.[32] From the year +1700 on, the citizens of this State engaged more and more in the +carrying trade, until Rhode Island became the greatest slave-trader in +America. Although she did not import many slaves for her own use, she +became the clearing-house for the trade of other colonies. Governor +Cranston, as early as 1708, reported that between 1698 and 1708 one +hundred and three vessels were built in the State, all of which were +trading to the West Indies and the Southern colonies.[33] They took out +lumber and brought back molasses, in most cases making a slave voyage in +between. From this, the trade grew. Samuel Hopkins, about 1770, was +shocked at the state of the trade: more than thirty distilleries were +running in the colony, and one hundred and fifty vessels were in the +slave-trade.[34] "Rhode Island," said he, "has been more deeply +interested in the slave-trade, and has enslaved more Africans than any +other colony in New England." Later, in 1787, he wrote: "The inhabitants +of Rhode Island, especially those of Newport, have had by far the +greater share in this traffic, of all these United States. This trade in +human species has been the first wheel of commerce in Newport, on which +every other movement in business has chiefly depended. That town has +been built up, and flourished in times past, at the expense of the +blood, the liberty, and happiness of the poor Africans; and the +inhabitants have lived on this, and by it have gotten most of their +wealth and riches."[35] + +The Act of 1708 was poorly enforced. The "good intentions" of its +framers "were wholly frustrated" by the clandestine "hiding and +conveying said negroes out of the town [Newport] into the country, where +they lie concealed."[36] The act was accordingly strengthened by the +Acts of 1712 and 1715, and made to apply to importations by land as well +as by sea.[37] The Act of 1715, however, favored the trade by admitting +African Negroes free of duty. The chaotic state of Rhode Island did not +allow England often to review her legislation; but as soon as the Act of +1712 came to notice it was disallowed, and accordingly repealed in +1732.[38] Whether the Act of 1715 remained, or whether any other duty +act was passed, is not clear. + +While the foreign trade was flourishing, the influence of the Friends +and of other causes eventually led to a movement against slavery as a +local institution. Abolition societies multiplied, and in 1770 an +abolition bill was ordered by the Assembly, but it was never passed.[39] +Four years later the city of Providence resolved that "as personal +liberty is an essential part of the natural rights of mankind," the +importation of slaves and the system of slavery should cease in the +colony.[40] This movement finally resulted, in 1774, in an act +"prohibiting the importation of Negroes into this Colony,"--a law which +curiously illustrated the attitude of Rhode Island toward the +slave-trade. The preamble of the act declared: "Whereas, the inhabitants +of America are generally engaged in the preservation of their own rights +and liberties, among which, that of personal freedom must be considered +as the greatest; as those who are desirous of enjoying all the +advantages of liberty themselves, should be willing to extend personal +liberty to others;--Therefore," etc. The statute then proceeded to enact +"that for the future, no negro or mulatto slave shall be brought into +this colony; and in case any slave shall hereafter be brought in, he or +she shall be, and are hereby, rendered immediately free...." The logical +ending of such an act would have been a clause prohibiting the +participation of Rhode Island citizens in the slave-trade. Not only was +such a clause omitted, but the following was inserted instead: +"Provided, also, that nothing in this act shall extend, or be deemed to +extend, to any negro or mulatto slave brought from the coast of Africa, +into the West Indies, on board any vessel belonging to this colony, and +which negro or mulatto slave could not be disposed of in the West +Indies, but shall be brought into this colony. Provided, that the owner +of such negro or mulatto slave give bond ... that such negro or mulatto +slave shall be exported out of the colony, within one year from the date +of such bond; if such negro or mulatto be alive, and in a condition to +be removed."[41] + +In 1779 an act to prevent the sale of slaves out of the State was +passed,[42] and in 1784, an act gradually to abolish slavery.[43] Not +until 1787 did an act pass to forbid participation in the slave-trade. +This law laid a penalty of £100 for every slave transported and £1000 +for every vessel so engaged.[44] + + +21. ~Restrictions in Connecticut.~ Connecticut, in common with the other +colonies of this section, had a trade for many years with the West +Indian slave markets; and though this trade was much smaller than that +of the neighboring colonies, yet many of her citizens were engaged in +it. A map of Middletown at the time of the Revolution gives, among one +hundred families, three slave captains and "three notables" designated +as "slave-dealers."[45] + +The actual importation was small,[46] and almost entirely unrestricted +before the Revolution, save by a few light, general duty acts. In 1774 +the further importation of slaves was prohibited, because "the increase +of slaves in this Colony is injurious to the poor and inconvenient." The +law prohibited importation under any pretext by a penalty of £100 per +slave.[47] This was re-enacted in 1784, and provisions were made for the +abolition of slavery.[48] In 1788 participation in the trade was +forbidden, and the penalty placed at £50 for each slave and £500 for +each ship engaged.[49] + + +22. ~General Character of these Restrictions.~ Enough has already been +said to show, in the main, the character of the opposition to the +slave-trade in New England. The system of slavery had, on this soil and +amid these surroundings, no economic justification, and the small number +of Negroes here furnished no political arguments against them. The +opposition to the importation was therefore from the first based solely +on moral grounds, with some social arguments. As to the carrying trade, +however, the case was different. Here, too, a feeble moral opposition +was early aroused, but it was swept away by the immense economic +advantages of the slave traffic to a thrifty seafaring community of +traders. This trade no moral suasion, not even the strong "Liberty" cry +of the Revolution, was able wholly to suppress, until the closing of the +West Indian and Southern markets cut off the demand for slaves. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Cf. Weeden, _Economic and Social History of New England_, + II. 449-72; G.H. Moore, _Slavery in Massachusetts_; Charles + Deane, _Connection of Massachusetts with Slavery_. + + [2] Cf. _American Historical Record_, I. 311, 338. + + [3] Cf. W.C. Fowler, _Local Law in Massachusetts and + Connecticut_, etc., pp. 122-6. + + [4] _Ibid._, p. 124. + + [5] Deane, _Letters and Documents relating to Slavery in + Massachusetts_, in _Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll._, 5th Ser., III. + 392. + + [6] _Ibid._, III. 382. + + [7] Weeden, _Economic and Social History of New England_, II. + 454. + + [8] A typical voyage is that of the brigantine "Sanderson" of + Newport. She was fitted out in March, 1752, and carried, + beside the captain, two mates and six men, and a cargo of + 8,220 gallons of rum, together with "African" iron, flour, + pots, tar, sugar, and provisions, shackles, shirts, and water. + Proceeding to Africa, the captain after some difficulty sold + his cargo for slaves, and in April, 1753, he is expected in + Barbadoes, as the consignees write. They also state that + slaves are selling at £33 to £56 per head in lots. After a + stormy and dangerous voyage, Captain Lindsay arrived, June 17, + 1753, with fifty-six slaves, "all in helth & fatt." He also + had 40 oz. of gold dust, and 8 or 9 cwt. of pepper. The net + proceeds of the sale of all this was £1,324 3_d._ The captain + then took on board 55 hhd. of molasses and 3 hhd. 27 bbl. of + sugar, amounting to £911 77_s._ 2½_d._, received bills on + Liverpool for the balance, and returned in safety to Rhode + Island. He had done so well that he was immediately given a + new ship and sent to Africa again. _American Historical + Record_, I. 315-9, 338-42. + + [9] _Ibid._, I. 316. + + [10] _American Historical Record_, I. 317. + + [11] _Ibid._, I. 344; cf. Weeden, _Economic and Social History + of New England_, II. 459. + + [12] Cf. _New England Register_, XXXI. 75-6, letter of John + Saffin _et al._ to Welstead. Cf. also Sewall, _Protest_, etc. + + [13] The number of slaves in New Hampshire has been estimated + as follows: + + In 1730, 200. _N.H. Hist. Soc. Coll._, I. 229. + " 1767, 633. _Granite Monthly_, IV. 108. + " 1773, 681. _Ibid._ + " 1773, 674. _N.H. Province Papers_, X. 636. + " 1775, 479. _Granite Monthly_, IV. 108. + " 1790, 158. _Ibid._ + + [14] _N.H. Province Papers_, IV. 617. + + [15] _Granite Monthly_, VI. 377; Poore, _Federal and State + Constitutions_, pp. 1280-1. + + [16] Cf. _The Body of Liberties_, § 91, in Whitmore, + _Bibliographical Sketch of the Laws of the Massachusetts + Colony_, published at Boston in 1890. + + [17] _Mass. Col. Rec._, II. 168, 176; III. 46, 49, 84. + + [18] Weeden, _Economic and Social History of New England_, II. + 456. + + [19] _Mass. Province Laws, 1705-6_, ch. 10. + + [20] _Ibid._, _1728-9_, ch. 16; _1738-9_, ch. 27. + + [21] For petitions of towns, cf. Felt, _Annals of Salem_ + (1849), II. 416; _Boston Town Records, 1758-69_, p. 183. Cf. + also Otis's anti-slavery speech in 1761; John Adams, _Works_, + X. 315. For proceedings, see _House Journal_, 1767, pp. 353, + 358, 387, 390, 393, 408, 409-10, 411, 420. Cf. Samuel Dexter's + answer to Dr. Belknap's inquiry, Feb. 23, 1795, in Deane + (_Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll._, 5th Ser., III. 385). A committee on + slave importation was appointed in 1764. Cf. _House Journal_, + 1763-64, p. 170. + + [22] _House Journal_, 1771, pp. 211, 215, 219, 228, 234, 236, + 240, 242-3; Moore, _Slavery in Massachusetts_, pp. 131-2. + + [23] Felt, _Annals of Salem_ (1849), II. 416-7; Swan, + _Dissuasion to Great Britain_, etc. (1773), p. x; Washburn, + _Historical Sketches of Leicester, Mass._, pp. 442-3; Freeman, + _History of Cape Cod_, II. 114; Deane, in _Mass. Hist. Soc. + Coll._, 5th Ser., III. 432; Moore, _Slavery in Massachusetts_, + pp. 135-40; Williams, _History of the Negro Race in America_, + I. 234-6; _House Journal_, March, 1774, pp. 224, 226, 237, + etc.; June, 1774, pp. 27, 41, etc. For a copy of the bill, see + Moore. + + [24] _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 1855-58_, p. 196; Force, + _American Archives_, 5th Ser., II. 769; _House Journal_, 1776, + pp. 105-9; _General Court Records_, March 13, 1776, etc., pp. + 581-9; Moore, _Slavery in Massachusetts_, pp. 149-54. Cf. + Moore, pp. 163-76. + + [25] Moore, _Slavery in Massachusetts_, pp. 148-9, 181-5. + + [26] Washburn, _Extinction of Slavery in Massachusetts_; + Haynes, _Struggle for the Constitution in Massachusetts_; La + Rochefoucauld, _Travels through the United States_, II. 166. + + [27] Moore, _Slavery in Massachusetts_, p. 225. + + [28] _Perpetual Laws of Massachusetts, 1780-89_, p. 235. The + number of slaves in Massachusetts has been estimated as + follows:-- + + In 1676, 200. Randolph's _Report_, in _Hutchinson's Coll. + of Papers_, p. 485. + " 1680, 120. Deane, _Connection of Mass. with Slavery_, + p. 28 ff. + " 1708, 550. _Ibid._; Moore, _Slavery in Mass._, p. 50. + " 1720, 2,000. _Ibid._ + " 1735, 2,600. Deane, _Connection of Mass. with Slavery_, + p. 28 ff. + " 1749, 3,000. _Ibid._ + " 1754, 4,489. _Ibid._ + " 1763, 5,000. _Ibid._ + " 1764-5, 5,779. _Ibid._ + " 1776, 5,249. _Ibid._ + " 1784, 4,377. Moore, _Slavery in Mass._, p. 51. + " 1786, 4,371. _Ibid._ + " 1790, 6,001. _Ibid._ + + [29] _R.I. Col. Rec._, I. 240. + + [30] Cf. letter written in 1681: _New England Register_, XXXI. + 75-6. Cf. also Arnold, _History of Rhode Island_, I. 240. + + [31] The text of this act is lost (_Col. Rec._, IV. 34; + Arnold, _History of Rhode Island_, II. 31). The Acts of Rhode + Island were not well preserved, the first being published in + Boston in 1719. Perhaps other whole acts are lost. + + [32] E.g., it was expended to pave the streets of Newport, to + build bridges, etc.: _R.I. Col. Rec._, IV. 191-3, 225. + + [33] _Ibid._, IV. 55-60. + + [34] Patten, _Reminiscences of Samuel Hopkins_ (1843), p. 80. + + [35] Hopkins, _Works_ (1854), II. 615. + + [36] Preamble of the Act of 1712. + + [37] _R.I. Col. Rec._, IV. 131-5, 138, 143, 191-3. + + [38] _R.I. Col. Rec._, IV. 471. + + [39] Arnold, _History of Rhode Island_, II. 304, 321, 337. For + a probable copy of the bill, see _Narragansett Historical + Register_, II. 299. + + [40] A man dying intestate left slaves, who became thus the + property of the city; they were freed, and the town made the + above resolve, May 17, 1774, in town meeting: Staples, _Annals + of Providence_ (1843), p. 236. + + [41] _R.I. Col. Rec._, VII. 251-2. + + [42] _Bartlett's Index_, p. 329; Arnold, _History of Rhode + Island_, II. 444; _R.I. Col. Rec._, VIII. 618. + + [43] _R.I. Col. Rec._, X. 7-8; Arnold, _History of Rhode + Island_, II. 506. + + [44] _Bartlett's Index_, p. 333; _Narragansett Historical + Register_, II. 298-9. The number of slaves in Rhode Island has + been estimated as follows:-- + + In 1708, 426. _R.I. Col. Rec._, IV. 59. + " 1730, 1,648. _R.I. Hist. Tracts_, No. 19, pt. 2, p. 99. + " 1749, 3,077. Williams, _History of the Negro Race in America_, + I. 281. + " 1756, 4,697. _Ibid._ + " 1774, 3,761. _R.I. Col. Rec._, VII. 253. + + [45] Fowler, _Local Law_, etc., p. 124. + + [46] The number of slaves in Connecticut has been estimated as + follows:-- + + In 1680, 30. _Conn. Col. Rec._, III. 298. + " 1730, 700. Williams, _History of the Negro Race in America_, + I. 259. + " 1756, 3,636. Fowler, _Local Law_, etc., p. 140. + " 1762, 4,590. Williams, _History of the Negro Race in America_, + I. 260. + " 1774, 6,562. Fowler, _Local Law_, etc., p. 140. + " 1782, 6,281. Fowler, _Local Law_, etc., p. 140. + " 1800, 5,281. _Ibid._, p. 141. + + [47] _Conn. Col. Rec._, XIV 329. Fowler (pp. 125-6) says that + the law was passed in 1769, as does Sanford (p. 252). I find + no proof of this. There was in Connecticut the same Biblical + legislation on the trade as in Massachusetts. Cf. _Laws of + Connecticut_ (repr. 1865), p. 9; also _Col. Rec._, I. 77. For + general duty acts, see _Col. Rec._, V 405; VIII. 22; IX. 283; + XIII. 72, 125. + + [48] _Acts and Laws of Connecticut_ (ed. 1784), pp. 233-4. + + [49] _Ibid._, pp. 368, 369, 388. + + * * * * * + + + + +_Chapter V_ + +THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. 1774-1787. + + 23. The Situation in 1774. + 24. The Condition of the Slave-Trade. + 25. The Slave-Trade and the "Association." + 26. The Action of the Colonies. + 27. The Action of the Continental Congress. + 28. Reception of the Slave-Trade Resolution. + 29. Results of the Resolution. + 30. The Slave-Trade and Public Opinion after the War. + 31. The Action of the Confederation. + + +23. ~The Situation in 1774.~ In the individual efforts of the various +colonies to suppress the African slave-trade there may be traced certain +general movements. First, from 1638 to 1664, there was a tendency to +take a high moral stand against the traffic. This is illustrated in the +laws of New England, in the plans for the settlement of Delaware and, +later, that of Georgia, and in the protest of the German Friends. The +second period, from about 1664 to 1760, has no general unity, but is +marked by statutes laying duties varying in design from encouragement to +absolute prohibition, by some cases of moral opposition, and by the slow +but steady growth of a spirit unfavorable to the long continuance of the +trade. The last colonial period, from about 1760 to 1787, is one of +pronounced effort to regulate, limit, or totally prohibit the traffic. +Beside these general movements, there are many waves of legislation, +easily distinguishable, which rolled over several or all of the colonies +at various times, such as the series of high duties following the +Assiento, and the acts inspired by various Negro "plots." + +Notwithstanding this, the laws of the colonies before 1774 had no +national unity, the peculiar circumstances of each colony determining +its legislation. With the outbreak of the Revolution came unison in +action with regard to the slave-trade, as with regard to other matters, +which may justly be called national. It was, of course, a critical +period,--a period when, in the rapid upheaval of a few years, the +complicated and diverse forces of decades meet, combine, act, and react, +until the resultant seems almost the work of chance. In the settlement +of the fate of slavery and the slave-trade, however, the real crisis +came in the calm that succeeded the storm, in that day when, in the +opinion of most men, the question seemed already settled. And indeed it +needed an exceptionally clear and discerning mind, in 1787, to deny that +slavery and the slave-trade in the United States of America were doomed +to early annihilation. It seemed certainly a legitimate deduction from +the history of the preceding century to conclude that, as the system had +risen, flourished, and fallen in Massachusetts, New York, and +Pennsylvania, and as South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland were +apparently following in the same legislative path, the next generation +would in all probability witness the last throes of the system on our +soil. + +To be sure, the problem had its uncertain quantities. The motives of the +law-makers in South Carolina and Pennsylvania were dangerously +different; the century of industrial expansion was slowly dawning and +awakening that vast economic revolution in which American slavery was to +play so prominent and fatal a rôle; and, finally, there were already in +the South faint signs of a changing moral attitude toward slavery, which +would no longer regard the system as a temporary makeshift, but rather +as a permanent though perhaps unfortunate necessity. With regard to the +slave-trade, however, there appeared to be substantial unity of opinion; +and there were, in 1787, few things to indicate that a cargo of five +hundred African slaves would openly be landed in Georgia in 1860. + + +24. ~The Condition of the Slave-Trade.~ In 1760 England, the chief +slave-trading nation, was sending on an average to Africa 163 ships +annually, with a tonnage of 18,000 tons, carrying exports to the value +of £163,818. Only about twenty of these ships regularly returned to +England. Most of them carried slaves to the West Indies, and returned +laden with sugar and other products. Thus may be formed some idea of the +size and importance of the slave-trade at that time, although for a +complete view we must add to this the trade under the French, +Portuguese, Dutch, and Americans. The trade fell off somewhat toward +1770, but was flourishing again when the Revolution brought a sharp and +serious check upon it, bringing down the number of English slavers, +clearing, from 167 in 1774 to 28 in 1779, and the tonnage from 17,218 to +3,475 tons. After the war the trade gradually recovered, and by 1786 had +reached nearly its former extent. In 1783 the British West Indies +received 16,208 Negroes from Africa, and by 1787 the importation had +increased to 21,023. In this latter year it was estimated that the +British were taking annually from Africa 38,000 slaves; the French, +20,000; the Portuguese, 10,000; the Dutch and Danes, 6,000; a total of +74,000. Manchester alone sent £180,000 annually in goods to Africa in +exchange for Negroes.[1] + + +25. ~The Slave-Trade and the "Association."~ At the outbreak of the +Revolution six main reasons, some of which were old and of slow growth, +others peculiar to the abnormal situation of that time, led to concerted +action against the slave-trade. The first reason was the economic +failure of slavery in the Middle and Eastern colonies; this gave rise to +the presumption that like failure awaited the institution in the South. +Secondly, the new philosophy of "Freedom" and the "Rights of man," which +formed the corner-stone of the Revolution, made the dullest realize +that, at the very least, the slave-trade and a struggle for "liberty" +were not consistent. Thirdly, the old fear of slave insurrections, which +had long played so prominent a part in legislation, now gained new power +from the imminence of war and from the well-founded fear that the +British might incite servile uprisings. Fourthly, nearly all the +American slave markets were, in 1774-1775, overstocked with slaves, and +consequently many of the strongest partisans of the system were "bulls" +on the market, and desired to raise the value of their slaves by at +least a temporary stoppage of the trade. Fifthly, since the vested +interests of the slave-trading merchants were liable to be swept away by +the opening of hostilities, and since the price of slaves was low,[2] +there was from this quarter little active opposition to a cessation of +the trade for a season. Finally, it was long a favorite belief of the +supporters of the Revolution that, as English exploitation of colonial +resources had caused the quarrel, the best weapon to bring England to +terms was the economic expedient of stopping all commercial intercourse +with her. Since, then, the slave-trade had ever formed an important part +of her colonial traffic, it was one of the first branches of commerce +which occurred to the colonists as especially suited to their ends.[3] + +Such were the complicated moral, political, and economic motives which +underlay the first national action against the slave-trade. This action +was taken by the "Association," a union of the colonies entered into to +enforce the policy of stopping commercial intercourse with England. The +movement was not a great moral protest against an iniquitous traffic; +although it had undoubtedly a strong moral backing, it was primarily a +temporary war measure. + + +26. ~The Action of the Colonies.~ The earlier and largely abortive +attempts to form non-intercourse associations generally did not mention +slaves specifically, although the Virginia House of Burgesses, May 11, +1769, recommended to merchants and traders, among other things, to +agree, "That they will not import any slaves, or purchase any imported +after the first day of November next, until the said acts are +repealed."[4] Later, in 1774, when a Faneuil Hall meeting started the +first successful national attempt at non-intercourse, the slave-trade, +being at the time especially flourishing, received more attention. Even +then slaves were specifically mentioned in the resolutions of but three +States. Rhode Island recommended a stoppage of "all trade with Great +Britain, Ireland, Africa and the West Indies."[5] North Carolina, in +August, 1774, resolved in convention "That we will not import any slave +or slaves, or purchase any slave or slaves, imported or brought into +this Province by others, from any part of the world, after the first day +of _November_ next."[6] Virginia gave the slave-trade especial +prominence, and was in reality the leading spirit to force her views on +the Continental Congress. The county conventions of that colony first +took up the subject. Fairfax County thought "that during our present +difficulties and distress, no slaves ought to be imported," and said: +"We take this opportunity of declaring our most earnest wishes to see an +entire stop forever put to such a wicked, cruel, and unnatural +trade."[7] Prince George and Nansemond Counties resolved "That the +_African_ trade is injurious to this Colony, obstructs the population of +it by freemen, prevents manufacturers and other useful emigrants from +_Europe_ from settling amongst us, and occasions an annual increase of +the balance of trade against this Colony."[8] The Virginia colonial +convention, August, 1774, also declared: "We will neither ourselves +import, nor purchase any slave or slaves imported by any other person, +after the first day of _November_ next, either from _Africa_, the _West +Indies_, or any other place."[9] + +In South Carolina, at the convention July 6, 1774, decided opposition to +the non-importation scheme was manifested, though how much this was due +to the slave-trade interest is not certain. Many of the delegates wished +at least to limit the powers of their representatives, and the +Charleston Chamber of Commerce flatly opposed the plan of an +"Association." Finally, however, delegates with full powers were sent to +Congress. The arguments leading to this step were not in all cases on +the score of patriotism; a Charleston manifesto argued: "The planters +are greatly in arrears to the merchants; a stoppage of importation would +give them all an opportunity to extricate themselves from debt. The +merchants would have time to settle their accounts, and be ready with +the return of liberty to renew trade."[10] + + +27. ~The Action of the Continental Congress.~ The first Continental +Congress met September 5, 1774, and on September 22 recommended +merchants to send no more orders for foreign goods.[11] On September 27 +"Mr. Lee made a motion for a non-importation," and it was unanimously +resolved to import no goods from Great Britain after December 1, +1774.[12] Afterward, Ireland and the West Indies were also included, and +a committee consisting of Low of New York, Mifflin of Pennsylvania, Lee +of Virginia, and Johnson of Connecticut were appointed "to bring in a +Plan for carrying into Effect the Non-importation, Non-consumption, and +Non-exportation resolved on."[13] The next move was to instruct this +committee to include in the proscribed articles, among other things, +"Molasses, Coffee or Piemento from the _British_ Plantations or from +_Dominica_,"--a motion which cut deep into the slave-trade circle of +commerce, and aroused some opposition. "Will, can, the people bear a +total interruption of the West India trade?" asked Low of New York; "Can +they live without rum, sugar, and molasses? Will not this impatience and +vexation defeat the measure?"[14] + +The committee finally reported, October 12, 1774, and after three days' +discussion and amendment the proposal passed. This document, after a +recital of grievances, declared that, in the opinion of the colonists, a +non-importation agreement would best secure redress; goods from Great +Britain, Ireland, the East and West Indies, and Dominica were excluded; +and it was resolved that "We will neither import, nor purchase any Slave +imported after the First Day of _December_ next; after which Time, we +will wholly discontinue the Slave Trade, and will neither be concerned +in it ourselves, nor will we hire our Vessels, nor sell our Commodities +or Manufactures to those who are concerned in it."[15] + +Strong and straightforward as this resolution was, time unfortunately +proved that it meant very little. Two years later, in this same +Congress, a decided opposition was manifested to branding the +slave-trade as inhuman, and it was thirteen years before South Carolina +stopped the slave-trade or Massachusetts prohibited her citizens from +engaging in it. The passing of so strong a resolution must be explained +by the motives before given, by the character of the drafting +committee, by the desire of America in this crisis to appear well +before the world, and by the natural moral enthusiasm aroused by the +imminence of a great national struggle. + + +28. ~Reception of the Slave-Trade Resolution.~ The unanimity with which +the colonists received this "Association" is not perhaps as remarkable +as the almost entire absence of comment on the radical slave-trade +clause. A Connecticut town-meeting in December, 1774, noticed "with +singular pleasure ... the second Article of the Association, in which it +is agreed to import no more Negro Slaves."[16] This comment appears to +have been almost the only one. There were in various places some +evidences of disapproval; but only in the State of Georgia was this +widespread and determined, and based mainly on the slave-trade +clause.[17] This opposition delayed the ratification meeting until +January 18, 1775, and then delegates from but five of the twelve +parishes appeared, and many of these had strong instructions against the +approval of the plan. Before this meeting could act, the governor +adjourned it, on the ground that it did not represent the province. Some +of the delegates signed an agreement, one article of which promised to +stop the importation of slaves March 15, 1775, i.e., four months later +than the national "Association" had directed. This was not, of course, +binding on the province; and although a town like Darien might declare +"our disapprobation and abhorrence of the unnatural practice of Slavery +in _America_"[18] yet the powerful influence of Savannah was "not likely +soon to give matters a favourable turn. The importers were mostly +against any interruption, and the consumers very much divided."[19] Thus +the efforts of this Assembly failed, their resolutions being almost +unknown, and, as a gentleman writes, "I hope for the honour of the +Province ever will remain so."[20] The delegates to the Continental +Congress selected by this rump assembly refused to take their seats. +Meantime South Carolina stopped trade with Georgia, because it "hath not +acceded to the Continental Association,"[21] and the single Georgia +parish of St. Johns appealed to the second Continental Congress to +except it from the general boycott of the colony. This county had +already resolved not to "purchase any Slave imported at _Savannah_ +(large Numbers of which we understand are there expected) till the Sense +of Congress shall be made known to us."[22] + +May 17, 1775, Congress resolved unanimously "That all exportations to +_Quebec_, _Nova-Scotia_, the Island of _St. John's_, _Newfoundland_, +_Georgia_, except the Parish of _St. John's_, and to _East_ and _West +Florida_, immediately cease."[23] These measures brought the refractory +colony to terms, and the Provincial Congress, July 4, 1775, finally +adopted the "Association," and resolved, among other things, "That we +will neither import or purchase any Slave imported from Africa, or +elsewhere, after this day."[24] + +The non-importation agreement was in the beginning, at least, well +enforced by the voluntary action of the loosely federated nation. The +slave-trade clause seems in most States to have been observed with the +others. In South Carolina "a cargo of near three hundred slaves was sent +out of the Colony by the consignee, as being interdicted by the second +article of the Association."[25] In Virginia the vigilance committee of +Norfolk "hold up for your just indignation Mr. _John Brown_, Merchant, +of this place," who has several times imported slaves from Jamaica; and +he is thus publicly censured "to the end that all such foes to the +rights of _British America_ may be publickly known ... as the enemies of +_American_ Liberty, and that every person may henceforth break off all +dealings with him."[26] + + +29. ~Results of the Resolution.~ The strain of war at last proved too +much for this voluntary blockade, and after some hesitancy Congress, +April 3, 1776, resolved to allow the importation of articles not the +growth or manufacture of Great Britain, except tea. They also voted +"That no slaves be imported into any of the thirteen United +Colonies."[27] This marks a noticeable change of attitude from the +strong words of two years previous: the former was a definitive promise; +this is a temporary resolve, which probably represented public opinion +much better than the former. On the whole, the conclusion is inevitably +forced on the student of this first national movement against the +slave-trade, that its influence on the trade was but temporary and +insignificant, and that at the end of the experiment the outlook for the +final suppression of the trade was little brighter than before. The +whole movement served as a sort of social test of the power and +importance of the slave-trade, which proved to be far more powerful than +the platitudes of many of the Revolutionists had assumed. + +The effect of the movement on the slave-trade in general was to begin, +possibly a little earlier than otherwise would have been the case, that +temporary breaking up of the trade which the war naturally caused. +"There was a time, during the late war," says Clarkson, "when the slave +trade may be considered as having been nearly abolished."[28] The prices +of slaves rose correspondingly high, so that smugglers made +fortunes.[29] It is stated that in the years 1772-1778 slave merchants +of Liverpool failed for the sum of £710,000.[30] All this, of course, +might have resulted from the war, without the "Association;" but in the +long run the "Association" aided in frustrating the very designs which +the framers of the first resolve had in mind; for the temporary stoppage +in the end created an extraordinary demand for slaves, and led to a +slave-trade after the war nearly as large as that before. + + +30. ~The Slave-Trade and Public Opinion after the War.~ The Declaration +of Independence showed a significant drift of public opinion from the +firm stand taken in the "Association" resolutions. The clique of +political philosophers to which Jefferson belonged never imagined the +continued existence of the country with slavery. It is well known that +the first draft of the Declaration contained a severe arraignment of +Great Britain as the real promoter of slavery and the slave-trade in +America. In it the king was charged with waging "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 a 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 he 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."[31] + +To this radical and not strictly truthful statement, even the large +influence of the Virginia leaders could not gain the assent of the +delegates in Congress. The afflatus of 1774 was rapidly subsiding, and +changing economic conditions had already led many to look forward to a +day when the slave-trade could successfully be reopened. More important +than this, the nation as a whole was even less inclined now than in 1774 +to denounce the slave-trade uncompromisingly. Jefferson himself says +that this clause "was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and +Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, +and who, on the contrary, still wished to continue it. Our northern +brethren also, I believe," said he, "felt a little tender under those +censures; for though their people had very few slaves themselves, yet +they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others."[32] + +As the war slowly dragged itself to a close, it became increasingly +evident that a firm moral stand against slavery and the slave-trade was +not a probability. The reaction which naturally follows a period of +prolonged and exhausting strife for high political principles now set +in. The economic forces of the country, which had suffered most, sought +to recover and rearrange themselves; and all the selfish motives that +impelled a bankrupt nation to seek to gain its daily bread did not long +hesitate to demand a reopening of the profitable African slave-trade. +This demand was especially urgent from the fact that the slaves, by +pillage, flight, and actual fighting, had become so reduced in numbers +during the war that an urgent demand for more laborers was felt in the +South. + +Nevertheless, the revival of the trade was naturally a matter of some +difficulty, as the West India circuit had been cut off, leaving no +resort except to contraband traffic and the direct African trade. The +English slave-trade after the peace "returned to its former state," and +was by 1784 sending 20,000 slaves annually to the West Indies.[33] Just +how large the trade to the continent was at this time there are few +means of ascertaining; it is certain that there was a general reopening +of the trade in the Carolinas and Georgia, and that the New England +traders participated in it. This traffic undoubtedly reached +considerable proportions; and through the direct African trade and the +illicit West India trade many thousands of Negroes came into the United +States during the years 1783-1787.[34] + +Meantime there was slowly arising a significant divergence of opinion on +the subject. Probably the whole country still regarded both slavery and +the slave-trade as temporary; but the Middle States expected to see the +abolition of both within a generation, while the South scarcely thought +it probable to prohibit even the slave-trade in that short time. Such a +difference might, in all probability, have been satisfactorily adjusted, +if both parties had recognized the real gravity of the matter. As it +was, both regarded it as a problem of secondary importance, to be solved +after many other more pressing ones had been disposed of. The +anti-slavery men had seen slavery die in their own communities, and +expected it to die the same way in others, with as little active effort +on their own part. The Southern planters, born and reared in a slave +system, thought that some day the system might change, and possibly +disappear; but active effort to this end on their part was ever farthest +from their thoughts. Here, then, began that fatal policy toward slavery +and the slave-trade that characterized the nation for three-quarters of +a century, the policy of _laissez-faire, laissez-passer_. + + +31. ~The Action of the Confederation.~ The slave-trade was hardly +touched upon in the Congress of the Confederation, except in the +ordinance respecting the capture of slaves, and on the occasion of the +Quaker petition against the trade, although, during the debate on the +Articles of Confederation, the counting of slaves as well as of freemen +in the apportionment of taxes was urged as a measure that would check +further importation of Negroes. "It is our duty," said Wilson of +Pennsylvania, "to lay every discouragement on the importation of slaves; +but this amendment [i.e., to count two slaves as one freeman] would give +the _jus trium liberorum_ to him who would import slaves."[35] The +matter was finally compromised by apportioning requisitions according to +the value of land and buildings. + +After the Articles went into operation, an ordinance in regard to the +recapture of fugitive slaves provided that, if the capture was made on +the sea below high-water mark, and the Negro was not claimed, he should +be freed. Matthews of South Carolina demanded the yeas and nays on this +proposition, with the result that only the vote of his State was +recorded against it.[36] + +On Tuesday, October 3, 1783, a deputation from the Yearly Meeting of the +Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware Friends asked leave to present a +petition. Leave was granted the following day,[37] but no further minute +appears. According to the report of the Friends, the petition was +against the slave-trade; and "though the Christian rectitude of the +concern was by the Delegates generally acknowledged, yet not being +vested with the powers of legislation, they declined promoting any +public remedy against the gross national iniquity of trafficking in the +persons of fellow-men."[38] + +The only legislative activity in regard to the trade during the +Confederation was taken by the individual States.[39] Before 1778 +Connecticut, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia had by law +stopped the further importation of slaves, and importation had +practically ceased in all the New England and Middle States, including +Maryland. In consequence of the revival of the slave-trade after the +War, there was then a lull in State activity until 1786, when North +Carolina laid a prohibitive duty, and South Carolina, a year later, +began her series of temporary prohibitions. In 1787-1788 the New England +States forbade the participation of their citizens in the traffic. It +was this wave of legislation against the traffic which did so much to +blind the nation as to the strong hold which slavery still had on the +country. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] These figures are from the _Report of the Lords of the + Committee of Council_, etc. (London, 1789). + + [2] Sheffield, _Observations on American Commerce_, p. 28; + P.L. Ford, _The Association of the First Congress_, in + _Political Science Quarterly_, VI. 615-7. + + [3] Cf., e.g., Arthur Lee's letter to R.H. Lee, March 18, + 1774, in which non-intercourse is declared "the only advisable + and sure mode of defence": Force, _American Archives_, 4th + Ser., I. 229. Cf. also _Ibid._, p. 240; Ford, in _Political + Science Quarterly_, VI. 614-5. + + [4] Goodloe, _Birth of the Republic_, p. 260. + + [5] Staples, _Annals of Providence_ (1843), p. 235. + + [6] Force, _American Archives_, 4th Ser., I. 735. This was + probably copied from the Virginia resolve. + + [7] Force, _American Archives_, 4th Ser., I. 600. + + [8] _Ibid._, I. 494, 530. Cf. pp. 523, 616, 641, etc. + + [9] _Ibid._, I. 687. + + [10] _Ibid._, I. 511, 526. Cf. also p. 316. + + [11] _Journals of Cong._, I. 20. Cf. Ford, in _Political + Science Quarterly_, VI. 615-7. + + [12] John Adams, _Works_, II. 382. + + [13] _Journals of Cong._, I. 21. + + [14] _Ibid._, I. 24; Drayton; _Memoirs of the American + Revolution_, I. 147; John Adams, _Works_, II. 394. + + [15] _Journals of Cong._, I. 27, 32-8. + + [16] Danbury, Dec. 12, 1774: Force, _American Archives_, 4th + Ser., I. 1038. This case and that of Georgia are the only ones + I have found in which the slave-trade clause was specifically + mentioned. + + [17] Force, _American Archives_, 4th Ser., I. 1033, 1136, + 1160, 1163; II. 279-281, 1544; _Journals of Cong._, May 13, + 15, 17, 1775. + + [18] Force, _American Archives_, 4th Ser., I. 1136. + + [19] _Ibid._, II. 279-81. + + [20] _Ibid._, I. 1160. + + [21] Force, _American Archives_, 4th Ser., I. 1163. + + [22] _Journals of Cong._, May 13, 15, 1775. + + [23] _Ibid._, May 17, 1775. + + [24] Force, _American Archives_, 4th Ser., II. 1545. + + [25] Drayton, _Memoirs of the American Revolution_, I. 182. + Cf. pp. 181-7; Ramsay, _History of S. Carolina_, I. 231. + + [26] Force, _American Archives_, 4th Ser., II. 33-4. + + [27] _Journals of Cong._, II. 122. + + [28] Clarkson, _Impolicy of the Slave-Trade_, pp. 125-8. + + [29] _Ibid._, pp. 25-6. + + [30] _Ibid._ + + [31] Jefferson, _Works_ (Washington, 1853-4), I. 23-4. On the + Declaration as an anti-slavery document, cf. Elliot, _Debates_ + (1861), I. 89. + + [32] Jefferson, _Works_ (Washington, 1853-4), I. 19. + + [33] Clarkson, _Impolicy of the Slave-Trade_, pp. 25-6; + _Report_, etc., as above. + + [34] Witness the many high duty acts on slaves, and the + revenue derived therefrom. Massachusetts had sixty + distilleries running in 1783. Cf. Sheffield, _Observations on + American Commerce_, p. 267. + + [35] Elliot, _Debates_, I. 72-3. Cf. Art. 8 of the Articles of + Confederation. + + [36] _Journals of Cong._, 1781, June 25; July 18; Sept. 21, + 27; Nov. 8, 13, 30; Dec. 4. + + [37] _Ibid._, 1782-3, pp. 418-9, 425. + + [38] _Annals of Cong._, 1 Cong. 2 sess. p. 1183. + + [39] Cf. above, chapters ii., iii., iv. + + * * * * * + + + + +_Chapter VI_ + +THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 1787. + + 32. The First Proposition. + 33. The General Debate. + 34. The Special Committee and the "Bargain." + 35. The Appeal to the Convention. + 36. Settlement by the Convention. + 37. Reception of the Clause by the Nation. + 38. Attitude of the State Conventions. + 39. Acceptance of the Policy. + + +32. ~The First Proposition.~ Slavery occupied no prominent place in the +Convention called to remedy the glaring defects of the Confederation, +for the obvious reason that few of the delegates thought it expedient to +touch a delicate subject which, if let alone, bade fair to settle itself +in a manner satisfactory to all. Consequently, neither slavery nor the +slave-trade is specifically mentioned in the delegates' credentials of +any of the States, nor in Randolph's, Pinckney's, or Hamilton's plans, +nor in Paterson's propositions. Indeed, the debate from May 14 to June +19, when the Committee of the Whole reported, touched the subject only +in the matter of the ratio of representation of slaves. With this same +exception, the report of the Committee of the Whole contained no +reference to slavery or the slave-trade, and the twenty-three +resolutions of the Convention referred to the Committee of Detail, July +23 and 26, maintain the same silence. + +The latter committee, consisting of Rutledge, Randolph, Gorham, +Ellsworth, and Wilson, reported a draft of the Constitution August 6, +1787. The committee had, in its deliberations, probably made use of a +draft of a national Constitution made by Edmund Randolph.[1] One clause +of this provided that "no State shall lay a duty on imports;" and, also, +"1. No duty on exports. 2. No prohibition on such inhabitants as the +United States think proper to admit. 3. No duties by way of such +prohibition." It does not appear that any reference to Negroes was here +intended. In the extant copy, however, notes in Edward Rutledge's +handwriting change the second clause to "No prohibition on such +inhabitants or people as the several States think proper to admit."[2] +In the report, August 6, these clauses take the following form:-- + + "Article VII. Section 4. No tax or duty shall be laid by the + legislature on articles exported from any state; nor on the + migration or importation of such persons as the several states + shall think proper to admit; nor shall such migration or + importation be prohibited."[3] + + +33. ~The General Debate.~ This, of course, referred both to immigrants +("migration") and to slaves ("importation").[4] Debate on this section +began Tuesday, August 22, and lasted two days. Luther Martin of Maryland +precipitated the discussion by a proposition to alter the section so as +to allow a prohibition or tax on the importation of slaves. The debate +immediately became general, being carried on principally by Rutledge, +the Pinckneys, and Williamson from the Carolinas; Baldwin of Georgia; +Mason, Madison, and Randolph of Virginia; Wilson and Gouverneur Morris +of Pennsylvania; Dickinson of Delaware; and Ellsworth, Sherman, Gerry, +King, and Langdon of New England.[5] + +In this debate the moral arguments were prominent. Colonel George Mason +of Virginia denounced the traffic in slaves as "infernal;" Luther Martin +of Maryland regarded it as "inconsistent with the principles of the +revolution, and dishonorable to the American character." "Every +principle of honor and safety," declared John Dickinson of Delaware, +"demands the exclusion of slaves." Indeed, Mason solemnly averred that +the crime of slavery might yet bring the judgment of God on the nation. +On the other side, Rutledge of South Carolina bluntly declared that +religion and humanity had nothing to do with the question, that it was a +matter of "interest" alone. Gerry of Massachusetts wished merely to +refrain from giving direct sanction to the trade, while others contented +themselves with pointing out the inconsistency of condemning the +slave-trade and defending slavery. + +The difficulty of the whole argument, from the moral standpoint, lay in +the fact that it was completely checkmated by the obstinate attitude of +South Carolina and Georgia. Their delegates--Baldwin, the Pinckneys, +Rutledge, and others--asserted flatly, not less than a half-dozen times +during the debate, that these States "can never receive the plan if it +prohibits the slave-trade;" that "if the Convention thought" that these +States would consent to a stoppage of the slave-trade, "the expectation +is vain."[6] By this stand all argument from the moral standpoint was +virtually silenced, for the Convention evidently agreed with Roger +Sherman of Connecticut that "it was better to let the Southern States +import slaves than to part with those States." + +In such a dilemma the Convention listened not unwillingly to the _non +possumus_ arguments of the States' Rights advocates. The "morality and +wisdom" of slavery, declared Ellsworth of Connecticut, "are +considerations belonging to the States themselves;" let every State +"import what it pleases;" the Confederation has not "meddled" with the +question, why should the Union? It is a dangerous symptom of +centralization, cried Baldwin of Georgia; the "central States" wish to +be the "vortex for everything," even matters of "a local nature." The +national government, said Gerry of Massachusetts, had nothing to do with +slavery in the States; it had only to refrain from giving direct +sanction to the system. Others opposed this whole argument, declaring, +with Langdon of New Hampshire, that Congress ought to have this power, +since, as Dickinson tartly remarked, "The true question was, whether the +national happiness would be promoted or impeded by the importation; and +this question ought to be left to the national government, not to the +states particularly interested." + +Beside these arguments as to the right of the trade and the proper seat +of authority over it, many arguments of general expediency were +introduced. From an economic standpoint, for instance, General C.C. +Pinckney of South Carolina "contended, that the importation of slaves +would be for the interest of the whole Union. The more slaves, the more +produce." Rutledge of the same State declared: "If the Northern States +consult their interest, they will not oppose the increase of slaves, +which will increase the commodities of which they will become the +carriers." This sentiment found a more or less conscious echo in the +words of Ellsworth of Connecticut, "What enriches a part enriches the +whole." It was, moreover, broadly hinted that the zeal of Maryland and +Virginia against the trade had an economic rather than a humanitarian +motive, since they had slaves enough and to spare, and wished to sell +them at a high price to South Carolina and Georgia, who needed more. In +such case restrictions would unjustly discriminate against the latter +States. The argument from history was barely touched upon. Only once was +there an allusion to "the example of all the world" "in all ages" to +justify slavery,[7] and once came the counter declaration that "Greece +and Rome were made unhappy by their slaves."[8] On the other hand, the +military weakness of slavery in the late war led to many arguments on +that score. Luther Martin and George Mason dwelt on the danger of a +servile class in war and insurrection; while Rutledge hotly replied that +he "would readily exempt the other states from the obligation to protect +the Southern against them;" and Ellsworth thought that the very danger +would "become a motive to kind treatment." The desirability of keeping +slavery out of the West was once mentioned as an argument against the +trade: to this all seemed tacitly to agree.[9] + +Throughout the debate it is manifest that the Convention had no desire +really to enter upon a general slavery argument. The broader and more +theoretic aspects of the question were but lightly touched upon here and +there. Undoubtedly, most of the members would have much preferred not to +raise the question at all; but, as it was raised, the differences of +opinion were too manifest to be ignored, and the Convention, after its +first perplexity, gradually and perhaps too willingly set itself to work +to find some "middle ground" on which all parties could stand. The way +to this compromise was pointed out by the South. The most radical +pro-slavery arguments always ended with the opinion that "if the +Southern States were let alone, they will probably of themselves stop +importations."[10] To be sure, General Pinckney admitted that, +"candidly, he did not think South Carolina would stop her importations +of slaves in any short time;" nevertheless, the Convention "observed," +with Roger Sherman, "that the abolition of slavery seemed to be going on +in the United States, and that the good sense of the several states +would probably by degrees complete it." Economic forces were evoked to +eke out moral motives: when the South had its full quota of slaves, like +Virginia it too would abolish the trade; free labor was bound finally to +drive out slave labor. Thus the chorus of "_laissez-faire_" increased; +and compromise seemed at least in sight, when Connecticut cried, "Let +the trade alone!" and Georgia denounced it as an "evil." Some few +discordant notes were heard, as, for instance, when Wilson of +Pennsylvania made the uncomforting remark, "If South Carolina and +Georgia were themselves disposed to get rid of the importation of slaves +in a short time, as had been suggested, they would never refuse to unite +because the importation might be prohibited." + +With the spirit of compromise in the air, it was not long before the +general terms were clear. The slavery side was strongly intrenched, and +had a clear and definite demand. The forces of freedom were, on the +contrary, divided by important conflicts of interest, and animated by no +very strong and decided anti-slavery spirit with settled aims. Under +such circumstances, it was easy for the Convention to miss the +opportunity for a really great compromise, and to descend to a scheme +that savored unpleasantly of "log-rolling." The student of the situation +will always have good cause to believe that a more sturdy and definite +anti-slavery stand at this point might have changed history for the +better. + + +34. ~The Special Committee and the "Bargain."~ Since the debate had, in +the first place, arisen from a proposition to tax the importation of +slaves, the yielding of this point by the South was the first move +toward compromise. To all but the doctrinaires, who shrank from taxing +men as property, the argument that the failure to tax slaves was +equivalent to a bounty, was conclusive. With this point settled, +Randolph voiced the general sentiment, when he declared that he "was for +committing, in order that some middle ground might, if possible, be +found." Finally, Gouverneur Morris discovered the "middle ground," in +his suggestion that the whole subject be committed, "including the +clauses relating to taxes on exports and to a navigation act. These +things," said he, "may form a bargain among the Northern and Southern +States." This was quickly assented to; and sections four and five, on +slave-trade and capitation tax, were committed by a vote of 7 to 3,[11] +and section six, on navigation acts, by a vote of 9 to 2.[12] All three +clauses were referred to the following committee: Langdon of New +Hampshire, King of Massachusetts, Johnson of Connecticut, Livingston of +New Jersey, Clymer of Pennsylvania, Dickinson of Delaware, Martin of +Maryland, Madison of Virginia, Williamson of North Carolina, General +Pinckney of South Carolina, and Baldwin of Georgia. + +The fullest account of the proceedings of this committee is given in +Luther Martin's letter to his constituents, and is confirmed in its main +particulars by similar reports of other delegates. Martin writes: "A +committee of _one_ member from each state was chosen by ballot, to take +this part of the system under their consideration, and to endeavor to +agree upon some report which should reconcile those states [i.e., South +Carolina and Georgia]. To this committee also was referred the following +proposition, which had been reported by the committee of detail, viz.: +'No navigation act shall be passed without the assent of two thirds of +the members present in each house'--a proposition which the staple and +commercial states were solicitous to retain, lest their commerce should +be placed too much under the power of the Eastern States, but which +these last States were as anxious to reject. This committee--of which +also I had the honor to be a member--met, and took under their +consideration the subjects committed to them. I found the _Eastern_ +States, notwithstanding their _aversion to slavery_, were very willing +to indulge the Southern States at least with a temporary liberty to +prosecute the slave trade, provided the Southern States would, in their +turn, gratify _them_, by laying no restriction on navigation acts; and +after a very little time, the committee, by a great majority, agreed on +a report, by which the general government was to be prohibited from +preventing the importation of slaves for a limited time, and the +restrictive clause relative to navigation acts was to be omitted."[13] + +That the "bargain" was soon made is proven by the fact that the +committee reported the very next day, Friday, August 24, and that on +Saturday the report was taken up. It was as follows: "Strike out so much +of the fourth section as was referred to the committee, and insert 'The +migration or importation of such persons as the several states, now +existing, shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the +legislature prior to the year 1800; but a tax or duty may be imposed on +such migration or importation, at a rate not exceeding the average of +the duties laid on imports.' The fifth section to remain as in the +report. The sixth section to be stricken out."[14] + + +35. ~The Appeal to the Convention.~ The ensuing debate,[15] which lasted +only a part of the day, was evidently a sort of appeal to the House on +the decisions of the committee. It throws light on the points of +disagreement. General Pinckney first proposed to extend the +slave-trading limit to 1808, and Gorham of Massachusetts seconded the +motion. This brought a spirited protest from Madison: "Twenty years will +produce all the mischief that can be apprehended from the liberty to +import slaves. So long a term will be more dishonorable to the American +character than to say nothing about it in the Constitution."[16] There +was, however, evidently another "bargain" here; for, without farther +debate, the South and the East voted the extension, 7 to 4, only New +Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia objecting. The ambiguous +phraseology of the whole slave-trade section as reported did not pass +without comment; Gouverneur Morris would have it read: "The importation +of slaves into North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, shall not be +prohibited," etc.[17] This emendation was, however, too painfully +truthful for the doctrinaires, and was, amid a score of objections, +withdrawn. The taxation clause also was manifestly too vague for +practical use, and Baldwin of Georgia wished to amend it by inserting +"common impost on articles not enumerated," in lieu of the "average" +duty.[18] This minor point gave rise to considerable argument: Sherman +and Madison deprecated any such recognition of property in man as taxing +would imply; Mason and Gorham argued that the tax restrained the trade; +while King, Langdon, and General Pinckney contented themselves with the +remark that this clause was "the price of the first part." Finally, it +was unanimously agreed to make the duty "not exceeding ten dollars for +each person."[19] + +Southern interests now being safe, some Southern members attempted, a +few days later, to annul the "bargain" by restoring the requirement of a +two-thirds vote in navigation acts. Charles Pinckney made the motion, in +an elaborate speech designed to show the conflicting commercial +interests of the States; he declared that "The power of regulating +commerce was a pure concession on the part of the Southern States."[20] +Martin and Williamson of North Carolina, Butler of South Carolina, and +Mason of Virginia defended the proposition, insisting that it would be a +dangerous concession on the part of the South to leave navigation acts +to a mere majority vote. Sherman of Connecticut, Morris of Pennsylvania, +and Spaight of North Carolina declared that the very diversity of +interest was a security. Finally, by a vote of 7 to 4, Maryland, +Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia being in the minority, the +Convention refused to consider the motion, and the recommendation of the +committee passed.[21] + +When, on September 10, the Convention was discussing the amendment +clause of the Constitution, the ever-alert Rutledge, perceiving that +the results of the laboriously settled "bargain" might be endangered, +declared that he "never could agree to give a power by which the +articles relating to slaves might be altered by the states not +interested in that property."[22] As a result, the clause finally +adopted, September 15, had the proviso: "Provided, that no amendment +which may be made prior to the year 1808 shall in any manner affect the +1st and 4th clauses in the 9th section of the 1st article."[23] + + +36. ~Settlement by the Convention.~ Thus, the slave-trade article of the +Constitution stood finally as follows:-- + + "Article I. Section 9. The Migration or Importation of such + Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to + admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year + one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be + imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each + Person." + +This settlement of the slavery question brought out distinct differences +of moral attitude toward the institution, and yet differences far from +hopeless. To be sure, the South apologized for slavery, the Middle +States denounced it, and the East could only tolerate it from afar; and +yet all three sections united in considering it a temporary institution, +the corner-stone of which was the slave-trade. No one of them had ever +seen a system of slavery without an active slave-trade; and there were +probably few members of the Convention who did not believe that the +foundations of slavery had been sapped merely by putting the abolition +of the slave-trade in the hands of Congress twenty years hence. Here lay +the danger; for when the North called slavery "temporary," she thought +of twenty or thirty years, while the "temporary" period of the South was +scarcely less than a century. Meantime, for at least a score of years, a +policy of strict _laissez-faire_, so far as the general government was +concerned, was to intervene. Instead of calling the whole moral energy +of the people into action, so as gradually to crush this portentous +evil, the Federal Convention lulled the nation to sleep by a "bargain," +and left to the vacillating and unripe judgment of the States one of the +most threatening of the social and political ills which they were so +courageously seeking to remedy. + + +37. ~Reception of the Clause by the Nation.~ When the proposed +Constitution was before the country, the slave-trade article came in for +no small amount of condemnation and apology. In the pamphlets of the day +it was much discussed. One of the points in Mason's "Letter of +Objections" was that "the general legislature is restrained from +prohibiting the further importation of slaves for twenty odd years, +though such importations render the United States weaker, more +vulnerable, and less capable of defence."[24] To this Iredell replied, +through the columns of the _State Gazette_ of North Carolina: "If all +the States had been willing to adopt this regulation [i.e., to prohibit +the slave-trade], I should as an individual most heartily have approved +of it, because even if the importation of slaves in fact rendered us +stronger, less vulnerable and more capable of defence, I should rejoice +in the prohibition of it, as putting an end to a trade which has already +continued too long for the honor and humanity of those concerned in it. +But as it was well known that South Carolina and Georgia thought a +further continuance of such importations useful to them, and would not +perhaps otherwise have agreed to the new constitution, those States +which had been importing till they were satisfied, could not with +decency have insisted upon their relinquishing advantages themselves had +already enjoyed. Our situation makes it necessary to bear the evil as it +is. It will be left to the future legislatures to allow such +importations or not. If any, in violation of their clear conviction of +the injustice of this trade, persist in pursuing it, this is a matter +between God and their own consciences. The interests of humanity will, +however, have gained something by the prohibition of this inhuman trade, +though at a distance of twenty odd years."[25] + +"Centinel," representing the Quaker sentiment of Pennsylvania, attacked +the clause in his third letter, published in the _Independent Gazetteer, +or The Chronicle of Freedom_, November 8, 1787: "We are told that the +objects of this article are slaves, and that it is inserted to secure to +the southern states the right of introducing negroes for twenty-one +years to come, against the declared sense of the other states to put an +end to an odious traffic in the human species, which is especially +scandalous and inconsistent in a people, who have asserted their own +liberty by the sword, and which dangerously enfeebles the districts +wherein the laborers are bondsmen. The words, dark and ambiguous, such +as no plain man of common sense would have used, are evidently chosen to +conceal from Europe, that in this enlightened country, the practice of +slavery has its advocates among men in the highest stations. When it is +recollected that no poll tax can be imposed on _five_ negroes, above +what _three_ whites shall be charged; when it is considered, that the +imposts on the consumption of Carolina field negroes must be trifling, +and the excise nothing, it is plain that the proportion of +contributions, which can be expected from the southern states under the +new constitution, will be unequal, and yet they are to be allowed to +enfeeble themselves by the further importation of negroes till the year +1808. Has not the concurrence of the five southern states (in the +convention) to the new system, been purchased too dearly by the +rest?"[26] + +Noah Webster's "Examination" (1787) addressed itself to such Quaker +scruples: "But, say the enemies of slavery, negroes may be imported for +twenty-one years. This exception is addressed to the quakers, and a very +pitiful exception it is. The truth is, Congress cannot prohibit the +importation of slaves during that period; but the laws against the +importation into particular states, stand unrepealed. An immediate +abolition of slavery would bring ruin upon the whites, and misery upon +the blacks, in the southern states. The constitution has therefore +wisely left each state to pursue its own measures, with respect to this +article of legislation, during the period of twenty-one years."[27] + +The following year the "Examination" of Tench Coxe said: "The temporary +reservation of any particular matter must ever be deemed an admission +that it should be done away. This appears to have been well understood. +In addition to the arguments drawn from liberty, justice and religion, +opinions against this practice [i.e., of slave-trading], founded in +sound policy, have no doubt been urged. Regard was necessarily paid to +the peculiar situation of our southern fellow-citizens; but they, on the +other hand, have not been insensible of the delicate situation of our +national character on this subject."[28] + +From quite different motives Southern men defended this section. For +instance, Dr. David Ramsay, a South Carolina member of the Convention, +wrote in his "Address": "It is farther objected, that they have +stipulated for a right to prohibit the importation of negroes after 21 +years. On this subject observe, as they are bound to protect us from +domestic violence, they think we ought not to increase our exposure to +that evil, by an unlimited importation of slaves. Though Congress may +forbid the importation of negroes after 21 years, it does not follow +that they will. On the other hand, it is probable that they will not. +The more rice we make, the more business will be for their shipping; +their interest will therefore coincide with ours. Besides, we have other +sources of supply--the importation of the ensuing 20 years, added to the +natural increase of those we already have, and the influx from our +northern neighbours who are desirous of getting rid of their slaves, +will afford a sufficient number for cultivating all the lands in this +state."[29] + +Finally, _The Federalist_, No. 41, written by James Madison, commented +as follows: "It were doubtless to be wished, that the power of +prohibiting the importation of slaves had not been postponed until the +year 1808, or rather, that it had been suffered to have immediate +operation. But it is not difficult to account, either for this +restriction on the General Government, or for the manner in which the +whole clause is expressed. It ought to be considered as a great point +gained in favor of humanity, that a period of twenty years may terminate +forever, within these States, a traffic which has so long and so loudly +upbraided the barbarism of modern policy; that within that period, it +will receive a considerable discouragement from the Federal Government, +and may be totally abolished, by a concurrence of the few States which +continue the unnatural traffic, in the prohibitory example which has +been given by so great a majority of the Union. Happy would it be for +the unfortunate Africans, if an equal prospect lay before them of being +redeemed from the oppressions of their European brethren! + +"Attempts have been made to pervert this clause into an objection +against the Constitution, by representing it on one side as a criminal +toleration of an illicit practice, and on another, as calculated to +prevent voluntary and beneficial emigrations from Europe to America. I +mention these misconstructions, not with a view to give them an answer, +for they deserve none; but as specimens of the manner and spirit, in +which some have thought fit to conduct their opposition to the proposed +Government."[30] + + +38. ~Attitude of the State Conventions.~ The records of the proceedings +in the various State conventions are exceedingly meagre. In nearly all +of the few States where records exist there is found some opposition to +the slave-trade clause. The opposition was seldom very pronounced or +bitter; it rather took the form of regret, on the one hand that the +Convention went so far, and on the other hand that it did not go +farther. Probably, however, the Constitution was never in danger of +rejection on account of this clause. + +Extracts from a few of the speeches, _pro_ and _con_, in various States +will best illustrate the character of the arguments. In reply to some +objections expressed in the Pennsylvania convention, Wilson said, +December 3, 1787: "I consider this as laying the foundation for +banishing slavery out of this country; and though the period is more +distant than I could wish, yet it will produce the same kind, gradual +change, which was pursued in Pennsylvania."[31] Robert Barnwell declared +in the South Carolina convention, January 17, 1788, that this clause +"particularly pleased" him. "Congress," he said, "has guarantied this +right for that space of time, and at its expiration may continue it as +long as they please. This question then arises--What will their interest +lead them to do? The Eastern States, as the honorable gentleman says, +will become the carriers of America. It will, therefore, certainly be +their interest to encourage exportation to as great an extent as +possible; and if the quantum of our products will be diminished by the +prohibition of negroes, I appeal to the belief of every man, whether he +thinks those very carriers will themselves dam up the sources from +whence their profit is derived. To think so is so contradictory to the +general conduct of mankind, that I am of opinion, that, without we +ourselves put a stop to them, the traffic for negroes will continue +forever."[32] + +In Massachusetts, January 30, 1788, General Heath said: "The gentlemen +who have spoken have carried the matter rather too far on both sides. I +apprehend that it is not in our power to do anything for or against +those who are in slavery in the southern States.... Two questions +naturally arise, if we ratify the Constitution: Shall we do anything by +our act to hold the blacks in slavery? or shall we become partakers of +other men's sins? I think neither of them. Each State is sovereign and +independent to a certain degree, and they have a right, and will +regulate their own internal affairs, as to themselves appears +proper."[33] Iredell said, in the North Carolina convention, July 26, +1788: "When the entire abolition of slavery takes place, it will be an +event which must be pleasing to every generous mind, and every friend of +human nature.... But as it is, this government is nobly distinguished +above others by that very provision."[34] + +Of the arguments against the clause, two made in the Massachusetts +convention are typical. The Rev. Mr. Neal said, January 25, 1788, that +"unless his objection [to this clause] was removed, he could not put his +hand to the Constitution."[35] General Thompson exclaimed, "Shall it be +said, that after we have established our own independence and freedom, +we make slaves of others?"[36] Mason, in the Virginia convention, June +15, 1788, said: "As much as I value a union of all the states, I would +not admit the Southern States into the Union unless they agree to the +discontinuance of this disgraceful trade.... Yet they have not secured +us the property of the slaves we have already. So that 'they have done +what they ought not to have done, and have left undone what they ought +to have done.'"[37] Joshua Atherton, who led the opposition in the New +Hampshire convention, said: "The idea that strikes those who are opposed +to this clause so disagreeably and so forcibly is,--hereby it is +conceived (if we ratify the Constitution) that we become _consenters to_ +and _partakers in_ the sin and guilt of this abominable traffic, at +least for a certain period, without any positive stipulation that it +shall even then be brought to an end."[38] + +In the South Carolina convention Lowndes, January 16, 1788, attacked the +slave-trade clause. "Negroes," said he, "were our wealth, our only +natural resource; yet behold how our kind friends in the north were +determined soon to tie up our hands, and drain us of what we had! The +Eastern States drew their means of subsistence, in a great measure, from +their shipping; and, on that head, they had been particularly careful +not to allow of any burdens.... Why, then, call this a reciprocal +bargain, which took all from one party, to bestow it on the other!"[39] + +In spite of this discussion in the different States, only one State, +Rhode Island, went so far as to propose an amendment directing Congress +to "promote and establish such laws and regulations as may effectually +prevent the importation of slaves of every description, into the United +States."[40] + + +39. ~Acceptance of the Policy.~ As in the Federal Convention, so in the +State conventions, it is noticeable that the compromise was accepted by +the various States from widely different motives.[41] Nevertheless, +these motives were not fixed and unchangeable, and there was still +discernible a certain underlying agreement in the dislike of slavery. +One cannot help thinking that if the devastation of the late war had not +left an extraordinary demand for slaves in the South,--if, for instance, +there had been in 1787 the same plethora in the slave-market as in +1774,--the future history of the country would have been far different. +As it was, the twenty-one years of _laissez-faire_ were confirmed by the +States, and the nation entered upon the constitutional period with the +slave-trade legal in three States,[42] and with a feeling of quiescence +toward it in the rest of the Union. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Conway, _Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph_, ch. ix. + + [2] Conway, _Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph_, p. 78. + + [3] Elliot, _Debates_, I. 227. + + [4] Cf. Conway, _Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph_, pp. + 78-9. + + [5] For the following debate, Madison's notes (Elliot, + _Debates_, V. 457 ff.) are mainly followed. + + [6] Cf. Elliot, _Debates_, V, _passim_. + + [7] By Charles Pinckney. + + [8] By John Dickinson. + + [9] Mentioned in the speech of George Mason. + + [10] Charles Pinckney. Baldwin of Georgia said that if the + State were left to herself, "she may probably put a stop to + the evil": Elliot, _Debates_, V. 459. + + [11] _Affirmative:_ Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, + Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia,--7. + _Negative:_ New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware,--3. + _Absent:_ Massachusetts,--1. + + [12] _Negative:_ Connecticut and New Jersey. + + [13] Luther Martin's letter, in Elliot, _Debates_, I. 373. Cf. + explanations of delegates in the South Carolina, North + Carolina, and other conventions. + + [14] Elliot, _Debates_, V. 471. + + [15] Saturday, Aug. 25, 1787. + + [16] Elliot, _Debates_, V. 477. + + [17] Elliot, _Debates_, V. 477. Dickinson made a similar + motion, which was disagreed to: _Ibid._ + + [18] _Ibid._, V. 478. + + [19] _Ibid._ + + [20] Aug. 29: _Ibid._, V. 489. + + [21] _Ibid._, V. 492. + + [22] Elliot, _Debates_, V. 532. + + [23] _Ibid._, I. 317. + + [24] P.L. Ford, _Pamphlets on the Constitution_, p. 331. + + [25] _Ibid._, p. 367. + + [26] McMaster and Stone, _Pennsylvania and the Federal + Convention_, pp. 599-600. Cf. also p. 773. + + [27] See Ford, _Pamphlets_, etc., p. 54. + + [28] Ford, _Pamphlets_, etc., p. 146. + + [29] "Address to the Freemen of South Carolina on the Subject + of the Federal Constitution": _Ibid._, p. 378. + + [30] Published in the _New York Packet_, Jan. 22, 1788; + reprinted in Dawson's _Foederalist_, I. 290-1. + + [31] Elliot, _Debates_, II. 452. + + [32] Elliot, _Debates_, IV. 296-7. + + [33] Published in _Debates of the Massachusetts Convention_, + 1788, p. 217 ff. + + [34] Elliot, _Debates_, IV. 100-1. + + [35] Published in _Debates of the Massachusetts Convention_, + 1788, p. 208. + + [36] _Ibid._ + + [37] Elliot, _Debates_, III. 452-3. + + [38] Walker, _Federal Convention of New Hampshire_, App. 113; + Elliot, Debates, II. 203. + + [39] Elliot, _Debates_, IV. 273. + + [40] Updike's _Minutes_, in Staples, _Rhode Island in the + Continental Congress_, pp. 657-8, 674-9. Adopted by a majority + of one in a convention of seventy. + + [41] In five States I have found no mention of the subject + (Delaware, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, and Maryland). In + the Pennsylvania convention there was considerable debate, + partially preserved in Elliot's and Lloyd's _Debates_. In the + Massachusetts convention the debate on this clause occupied a + part of two or three days, reported in published debates. In + South Carolina there were several long speeches, reported in + Elliot's _Debates_. Only three speeches made in the New + Hampshire convention seem to be extant, and two of these are + on the slave-trade: cf. Walker and Elliot. The Virginia + convention discussed the clause to considerable extent: see + Elliot. The clause does not seem to have been a cause of North + Carolina's delay in ratification, although it occasioned some + discussion: see Elliot. In Rhode Island "much debate ensued," + and in this State alone was an amendment proposed: see + Staples, _Rhode Island in the Continental Congress_. In New + York the Committee of the Whole "proceeded through sections 8, + 9 ... with little or no debate": Elliot, _Debates_, II. 406. + + [42] South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina. North + Carolina had, however, a prohibitive duty. + + * * * * * + + + + +_Chapter VII_ + +TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE AND ANTI-SLAVERY EFFORT, 1787-1806. + + 40. Influence of the Haytian Revolution. + 41. Legislation of the Southern States. + 42. Legislation of the Border States. + 43. Legislation of the Eastern States. + 44. First Debate in Congress, 1789. + 45. Second Debate in Congress, 1790. + 46. The Declaration of Powers, 1790. + 47. The Act of 1794. + 48. The Act of 1800. + 49. The Act of 1803. + 50. State of the Slave-Trade from 1789 to 1803. + 51. The South Carolina Repeal of 1803. + 52. The Louisiana Slave-Trade, 1803-1805. + 53. Last Attempts at Taxation, 1805-1806. + 54. Key-Note of the Period. + + +40. ~Influence of the Haytian Revolution.~ The rôle which the great +Negro Toussaint, called L'Ouverture, played in the history of the United +States has seldom been fully appreciated. Representing the age of +revolution in America, he rose to leadership through a bloody terror, +which contrived a Negro "problem" for the Western Hemisphere, +intensified and defined the anti-slavery movement, became one of the +causes, and probably the prime one, which led Napoleon to sell Louisiana +for a song, and finally, through the interworking of all these effects, +rendered more certain the final prohibition of the slave-trade by the +United States in 1807. + +From the time of the reorganization of the Pennsylvania Abolition +Society, in 1787, anti-slavery sentiment became active. New York, New +Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia had strong +organizations, and a national convention was held in 1794. The terrible +upheaval in the West Indies, beginning in 1791, furnished this rising +movement with an irresistible argument. A wave of horror and fear swept +over the South, which even the powerful slave-traders of Georgia did not +dare withstand; the Middle States saw their worst dreams realized, and +the mercenary trade interests of the East lost control of the New +England conscience. + + +41. ~Legislation of the Southern States.~ In a few years the growing +sentiment had crystallized into legislation. The Southern States took +immediate measures to close their ports, first against West India +Negroes, finally against all slaves. Georgia, who had had legal slavery +only from 1755, and had since passed no restrictive legislation, felt +compelled in 1793[1] to stop the entry of free Negroes, and in 1798[2] +to prohibit, under heavy penalties, the importation of all slaves. This +provision was placed in the Constitution of the State, and, although +miserably enforced, was never repealed. + +South Carolina was the first Southern State in which the exigencies of a +great staple crop rendered the rapid consumption of slaves more +profitable than their proper maintenance. Alternating, therefore, +between a plethora and a dearth of Negroes, she prohibited the +slave-trade only for short periods. In 1788[3] she had forbidden the +trade for five years, and in 1792,[4] being peculiarly exposed to the +West Indian insurrection, she quickly found it "inexpedient" to allow +Negroes "from Africa, the West India Islands, or other place beyond sea" +to enter for two years. This act continued to be extended, although with +lessening penalties, until 1803.[5] The home demand in view of the +probable stoppage of the trade in 1808, the speculative chances of the +new Louisiana Territory trade, and the large already existing illicit +traffic combined in that year to cause the passage of an act, December +17, reopening the African slave-trade, although still carefully +excluding "West India" Negroes.[6] This action profoundly stirred the +Union, aroused anti-slavery sentiment, led to a concerted movement for a +constitutional amendment, and, failing in this, to an irresistible +demand for a national prohibitory act at the earliest constitutional +moment. + +North Carolina had repealed her prohibitory duty act in 1790,[7] but in +1794 she passed an "Act to prevent further importation and bringing of +slaves," etc.[8] Even the body-servants of West India immigrants and, +naturally, all free Negroes, were eventually prohibited.[9] + + +42. ~Legislation of the Border States.~ The Border States, Virginia and +Maryland, strengthened their non-importation laws, Virginia freeing +illegally imported Negroes,[10] and Maryland prohibiting even the +interstate trade.[11] The Middle States took action chiefly in the final +abolition of slavery within their borders, and the prevention of the +fitting out of slaving vessels in their ports. Delaware declared, in her +Act of 1789, that "it is inconsistent with that spirit of general +liberty which pervades the constitution of this state, that vessels +should be fitted out, or equipped, in any of the ports thereof, for the +purpose of receiving and transporting the natives of Africa to places +where they are held in slavery,"[12] and forbade such a practice under +penalty of £500 for each person so engaged. The Pennsylvania Act of +1788[13] had similar provisions, with a penalty of £1000; and New Jersey +followed with an act in 1798.[14] + + +43. ~Legislation of the Eastern States.~ In the Eastern States, where +slavery as an institution was already nearly defunct, action was aimed +toward stopping the notorious participation of citizens in the +slave-trade outside the State. The prime movers were the Rhode Island +Quakers. Having early secured a law against the traffic in their own +State, they turned their attention to others. Through their +remonstrances Connecticut, in 1788,[15] prohibited participation in the +trade by a fine of £500 on the vessel, £50 on each slave, and loss of +insurance; this act was strengthened in 1792,[16] the year after the +Haytian revolt. Massachusetts, after many fruitless attempts, finally +took advantage of an unusually bold case of kidnapping, and passed a +similar act in 1788.[17] "This," says Belknap, "was the utmost which +could be done by our legislatures; we still have to regret the +impossibility of making a law _here_, which shall restrain our citizens +from carrying on this trade _in foreign bottoms_, and from committing +the crimes which this act prohibits, _in foreign countries_, as it is +said some of them have done since the enacting of these laws."[18] + +Thus it is seen how, spurred by the tragedy in the West Indies, the +United States succeeded by State action in prohibiting the slave-trade +from 1798 to 1803, in furthering the cause of abolition, and in +preventing the fitting out of slave-trade expeditions in United States +ports. The country had good cause to congratulate itself. The national +government hastened to supplement State action as far as possible, and +the prophecies of the more sanguine Revolutionary fathers seemed about +to be realized, when the ill-considered act of South Carolina showed the +weakness of the constitutional compromise. + + +44. ~First Debate in Congress, 1789.~ The attention of the national +government was early directed to slavery and the trade by the rise, in +the first Congress, of the question of taxing slaves imported. During +the debate on the duty bill introduced by Clymer's committee, Parker of +Virginia moved, May 13, 1789, to lay a tax of ten dollars _per capita_ +on slaves imported. He plainly stated that the tax was designed to check +the trade, and that he was "sorry that the Constitution prevented +Congress from prohibiting the importation altogether." The proposal was +evidently unwelcome, and caused an extended debate.[19] Smith of South +Carolina wanted to postpone a matter so "big with the most serious +consequences to the State he represented." Roger Sherman of Connecticut +"could not reconcile himself to the insertion of human beings as an +article of duty, among goods, wares, and merchandise." Jackson of +Georgia argued against any restriction, and thought such States as +Virginia "ought to let their neighbors get supplied, before they imposed +such a burden upon the importation." Tucker of South Carolina declared +it "unfair to bring in such an important subject at a time when debate +was almost precluded," and denied the right of Congress to "consider +whether the importation of slaves is proper or not." + +Mr. Parker was evidently somewhat abashed by this onslaught of friend +and foe, but he "had ventured to introduce the subject after full +deliberation, and did not like to withdraw it." He desired Congress, "if +possible," to "wipe off the stigma under which America labored." This +brought Jackson of Georgia again to his feet. He believed, in spite of +the "fashion of the day," that the Negroes were better off as slaves +than as freedmen, and that, as the tax was partial, "it would be the +most odious tax Congress could impose." Such sentiments were a distinct +advance in pro-slavery doctrine, and called for a protest from Madison +of Virginia. He thought the discussion proper, denied the partiality of +the tax, and declared that, according to the spirit of the Constitution +and his own desire, it was to be hoped "that, by expressing a national +disapprobation of this trade, we may destroy it, and save ourselves from +reproaches, and our posterity the imbecility ever attendant on a country +filled with slaves." Finally, to Burke of South Carolina, who thought +"the gentlemen were contending for nothing," Madison sharply rejoined, +"If we contend for nothing, the gentlemen who are opposed to us do not +contend for a great deal." + +It now became clear that Congress had been whirled into a discussion of +too delicate and lengthy a nature to allow its further prolongation. +Compromising councils prevailed; and it was agreed that the present +proposition should be withdrawn and a separate bill brought in. This +bill was, however, at the next session dexterously postponed "until the +next session of Congress."[20] + + +45. ~Second Debate in Congress, 1790.~ It is doubtful if Congress of its +own initiative would soon have resurrected the matter, had not a new +anti-slavery weapon appeared in the shape of urgent petitions from +abolition societies. The first petition, presented February 11, +1790,[21] was from the same interstate Yearly Meeting of Friends which +had formerly petitioned the Confederation Congress.[22] They urged +Congress to inquire "whether, notwithstanding such seeming impediments, +it be not in reality within your power to exercise justice and mercy, +which, if adhered to, we cannot doubt, must produce the abolition of the +slave trade," etc. Another Quaker petition from New York was also +presented,[23] and both were about to be referred, when Smith of South +Carolina objected, and precipitated a sharp debate.[24] This debate had +a distinctly different tone from that of the preceding one, and +represents another step in pro-slavery doctrine. The key-note of these +utterances was struck by Stone of Maryland, who "feared that if Congress +took any measures indicative of an intention to interfere with the kind +of property alluded to, it would sink it in value very considerably, and +might be injurious to a great number of the citizens, particularly in +the Southern States. He thought the subject was of general concern, and +that the petitioners had no more right to interfere with it than any +other members of the community. It was an unfortunate circumstance, that +it was the disposition of religious sects to imagine they understood the +rights of human nature better than all the world besides." + +In vain did men like Madison disclaim all thought of unconstitutional +"interference," and express only a desire to see "If anything is within +the Federal authority to restrain such violation of the rights of +nations and of mankind, as is supposed to be practised in some parts of +the United States." A storm of disapproval from Southern members met +such sentiments. "The rights of the Southern States ought not to be +threatened," said Burke of South Carolina. "Any extraordinary attention +of Congress to this petition," averred Jackson of Georgia, would put +slave property "in jeopardy," and "evince to the people a disposition +towards a total emancipation." Smith and Tucker of South Carolina +declared that the request asked for "unconstitutional" measures. Gerry +of Massachusetts, Hartley of Pennsylvania, and Lawrence of New York +rather mildly defended the petitioners; but after considerable further +debate the matter was laid on the table. + +The very next day, however, the laid ghost walked again in the shape of +another petition from the "Pennsylvania Society for promoting the +Abolition of Slavery," signed by its venerable president, Benjamin +Franklin. This petition asked Congress to "step to the very verge of the +power vested in you for discouraging every species of traffic in the +persons of our fellow-men."[25] Hartley of Pennsylvania called up the +memorial of the preceding day, and it was read a second time and a +motion for commitment made. Plain words now came from Tucker of South +Carolina. "The petition," he said, "contained an unconstitutional +request." The commitment would alarm the South. These petitions were +"mischievous" attempts to imbue the slaves with false hopes. The South +would not submit to a general emancipation without "civil war." The +commitment would "blow the trumpet of sedition in the Southern States," +echoed his colleague, Burke. The Pennsylvania men spoke just as boldly. +Scott declared the petition constitutional, and was sorry that the +Constitution did not interdict this "most abominable" traffic. "Perhaps, +in our Legislative capacity," he said, "we can go no further than to +impose a duty of ten dollars, but I do not know how far I might go if I +was one of the Judges of the United States, and those people were to +come before me and claim their emancipation; but I am sure I would go as +far as I could." Jackson of Georgia rejoined in true Southern spirit, +boldly defending slavery in the light of religion and history, and +asking if it was "good policy to bring forward a business at this moment +likely to light up the flame of civil discord; for the people of the +Southern States will resist one tyranny as soon as another. The other +parts of the Continent may bear them down by force of arms, but they +will never suffer themselves to be divested of their property without a +struggle. The gentleman says, if he was a Federal Judge, he does not +know to what length he would go in emancipating these people; but I +believe his judgment would be of short duration in Georgia, perhaps even +the existence of such a Judge might be in danger." Baldwin, his +New-England-born colleague, urged moderation by reciting the difficulty +with which the constitutional compromise was reached, and declaring, +"the moment we go to jostle on that ground, I fear we shall feel it +tremble under our feet." Lawrence of New York wanted to commit the +memorials, in order to see how far Congress might constitutionally +interfere. Smith of South Carolina, in a long speech, said that his +constituents entered the Union "from political, not from moral motives," +and that "we look upon this measure as an attack upon the palladium of +the property of our country." Page of Virginia, although a slave owner, +urged commitment, and Madison again maintained the appropriateness of +the request, and suggested that "regulations might be made in relation +to the introduction of them [i.e., slaves] into the new States to be +formed out of the Western Territory." Even conservative Gerry of +Massachusetts declared, with regard to the whole trade, that the fact +that "we have a right to regulate this business, is as clear as that we +have any rights whatever." + +Finally, by a vote of 43 to 11, the memorials were committed, the South +Carolina and Georgia delegations, Bland and Coles of Virginia, Stone of +Maryland, and Sylvester of New York voting in the negative.[26] A +committee, consisting of Foster of New Hampshire, Huntington of +Connecticut, Gerry of Massachusetts, Lawrence of New York, Sinnickson of +New Jersey, Hartley of Pennsylvania, and Parker of Virginia, was charged +with the matter, and reported Friday, March 5. The absence of Southern +members on this committee compelled it to make this report a sort of +official manifesto on the aims of Northern anti-slavery politics. As +such, it was sure to meet with vehement opposition in the House, even +though conservatively worded. Such proved to be the fact when the +committee reported. The onslaught to "negative the whole report" was +prolonged and bitter, the debate _pro_ and _con_ lasting several +days.[27] + + +46. ~The Declaration of Powers, 1790.~ The result is best seen by +comparing the original report with the report of the Committee of the +Whole, adopted by a vote of 29 to 25 Monday, March 23, 1790:[28]-- + + REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE. + + That, from the nature of the matters contained in these + memorials, they were induced to examine the powers vested in + Congress, under the present Constitution, relating to the + Abolition of Slavery, and are clearly of opinion, + + _First._ That the General Government is expressly restrained + from prohibiting the importation of such persons 'as any of + the States now existing shall think proper to admit, until the + year one thousand eight hundred and eight.' + + _Secondly._ That Congress, by a fair construction of the + Constitution, are equally restrained from interfering in the + emancipation of slaves, who already are, or who may, within + the period mentioned, be imported into, or born within, any of + the said States. + + _Thirdly._ That Congress have no authority to interfere in the + internal regulations of particular States, relative to the + instructions of slaves in the principles of morality and + religion; to their comfortable clothing, accommodations, and + subsistence; to the regulation of their marriages, and the + prevention of the violation of the rights thereof, or to the + separation of children from their parents; to a comfortable + provision in cases of sickness, age, or infirmity; or to the + seizure, transportation, or sale of free negroes; but have the + fullest confidence in the wisdom and humanity of the + Legislatures of the several States, that they will revise + their laws from time to time, when necessary, and promote the + objects mentioned in the memorials, and every other measure + that may tend to the happiness of slaves. + + _Fourthly._ That, nevertheless, Congress have authority, if + they shall think it necessary, to lay at any time a tax or + duty, not exceeding ten dollars for each person of any + description, the importation of whom shall be by any of the + States admitted as aforesaid. + + _Fifthly._ That Congress have authority to interdict,[29] or + (so far as it is or may be carried on by citizens of the + United States, for supplying foreigners), to regulate the + African trade, and to make provision for the humane treatment + of slaves, in all cases while on their passage to the United + States, or to foreign ports, so far as respects the citizens + of the United States. + + _Sixthly._ That Congress have also authority to prohibit + foreigners from fitting out vessels in any port of the United + States, for transporting persons from Africa to any foreign + port. + + _Seventhly._ That the memorialists be informed, that in all + cases to which the authority of Congress extends, they will + exercise it for the humane objects of the memorialists, so far + as they can be promoted on the principles of justice, + humanity, and good policy. + + * * * * * + + REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE. + + _First._ That the migration or importation of such persons as + any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, + cannot be prohibited by Congress, prior to the year one + thousand eight hundred and eight. + + _Secondly._ That Congress have no authority to interfere in + the emancipation of slaves, or in the treatment of them within + any of the States; it remaining with the several States alone + to provide any regulation therein, which humanity and true + policy may require. + + _Thirdly._ That Congress have authority to restrain the + citizens of the United States from carrying on the African + trade, for the purpose of supplying foreigners with slaves, + and of providing, by proper regulations, for the humane + treatment, during their passage, of slaves imported by the + said citizens into the States admitting such importation. + + _Fourthly._ That Congress have authority to prohibit + foreigners from fitting out vessels in any port of the United + States for transporting persons from Africa to any foreign + port. + + +47. ~The Act of 1794.~ This declaration of the powers of the central +government over the slave-trade bore early fruit in the second Congress, +in the shape of a shower of petitions from abolition societies in +Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, +Maryland, and Virginia.[30] In some of these slavery was denounced as +"an outrageous violation of one of the most essential rights of human +nature,"[31] and the slave-trade as a traffic "degrading to the rights +of man" and "repugnant to reason."[32] Others declared the trade +"injurious to the true commercial interest of a nation,"[33] and asked +Congress that, having taken up the matter, they do all in their power to +limit the trade. Congress was, however, determined to avoid as long as +possible so unpleasant a matter, and, save an angry attempt to censure a +Quaker petitioner,[34] nothing was heard of the slave-trade until the +third Congress. + +Meantime, news came from the seas southeast of Carolina and Georgia +which influenced Congress more powerfully than humanitarian arguments +had done. The wild revolt of despised slaves, the rise of a noble black +leader, and the birth of a new nation of Negro freemen frightened the +pro-slavery advocates and armed the anti-slavery agitation. As a result, +a Quaker petition for a law against the transport traffic in slaves was +received without a murmur in 1794,[35] and on March 22 the first +national act against the slave-trade became a law.[36] It was designed +"to prohibit the carrying on the Slave Trade from the United States to +any foreign place or country," or the fitting out of slavers in the +United States for that country. The penalties for violation were +forfeiture of the ship, a fine of $1000 for each person engaged, and of +$200 for each slave transported. If the Quakers thought this a triumph +of anti-slavery sentiment, they were quickly undeceived. Congress might +willingly restrain the country from feeding West Indian turbulence, and +yet be furious at a petition like that of 1797,[37] calling attention to +"the oppressed state of our brethren of the African race" in this +country, and to the interstate slave-trade. "Considering the present +extraordinary state of the West India Islands and of Europe," young John +Rutledge insisted "that 'sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,' +and that they ought to shut their door against any thing which had a +tendency to produce the like confusion in this country." After excited +debate and some investigation by a special committee, the petition was +ordered, in both Senate and House, to be withdrawn. + + +48. ~The Act of 1800.~ In the next Congress, the sixth, another petition +threw the House into paroxysms of slavery debate. Waln of Pennsylvania +presented the petition of certain free colored men of Pennsylvania +praying for a revision of the slave-trade laws and of the fugitive-slave +law, and for prospective emancipation.[38] Waln moved the reference of +this memorial to a committee already appointed on the revision of the +loosely drawn and poorly enforced Act of 1794.[39] Rutledge of South +Carolina immediately arose. He opposed the motion, saying, that these +petitions were continually coming in and stirring up discord; that it +was a good thing the Negroes were in slavery; and that already "too much +of this new-fangled French philosophy of liberty and equality" had found +its way among them. Others defended the right of petition, and declared +that none wished Congress to exceed its powers. Brown of Rhode Island, a +new figure in Congress, a man of distinguished services and from a +well-known family, boldly set forth the commercial philosophy of his +State. "We want money," said he, "we want a navy; we ought therefore to +use the means to obtain it. We ought to go farther than has yet been +proposed, and repeal the bills in question altogether, for why should we +see Great Britain getting all the slave trade to themselves; why may not +our country be enriched by that lucrative traffic? There would not be a +slave the more sold, but we should derive the benefits by importing from +Africa as well as that nation." Waln, in reply, contended that they +should look into "the slave trade, much of which was still carrying on +from Rhode Island, Boston and Pennsylvania." Hill of North Carolina +called the House back from this general discussion to the petition in +question, and, while willing to remedy any existing defect in the Act of +1794, hoped the petition would not be received. Dana of Connecticut +declared that the paper "contained nothing but a farrago of the French +metaphysics of liberty and equality;" and that "it was likely to produce +some of the dreadful scenes of St. Domingo." The next day Rutledge again +warned the House against even discussing the matter, as "very serious, +nay, dreadful effects, must be the inevitable consequence." He held up +the most lurid pictures of the fatuity of the French Convention in +listening to the overtures of the "three emissaries from St. Domingo," +and thus yielding "one of the finest islands in the world" to "scenes +which had never been practised since the destruction of Carthage." "But, +sir," he continued, "we have lived to see these dreadful scenes. These +horrid effects have succeeded what was conceived once to be trifling. +Most important consequences may be the result, although gentlemen little +apprehend it. But we know the situation of things there, although they +do not, and knowing we deprecate it. There have been emissaries amongst +us in the Southern States; they have begun their war upon us; an actual +organization has commenced; we have had them meeting in their club +rooms, and debating on that subject.... Sir, I do believe that persons +have been sent from France to feel the pulse of this country, to know +whether these [i.e., the Negroes] are the proper engines to make use of: +these people have been talked to; they have been tampered with, and this +is going on." + +Finally, after censuring certain parts of this Negro petition, Congress +committed the part on the slave-trade to the committee already +appointed. Meantime, the Senate sent down a bill to amend the Act of +1794, and the House took this bill under consideration.[40] Prolonged +debate ensued. Brown of Rhode Island again made a most elaborate plea +for throwing open the foreign slave-trade. Negroes, he said, bettered +their condition by being enslaved, and thus it was morally wrong and +commercially indefensible to impose "a heavy fine and imprisonment ... +for carrying on a trade so advantageous;" or, if the trade must be +stopped, then equalize the matter and abolish slavery too. Nichols of +Virginia thought that surely the gentlemen would not advise the +importation of more Negroes; for while it "was a fact, to be sure," that +they would thus improve their condition, "would it be policy so to do?" +Bayard of Delaware said that "a more dishonorable item of revenue" than +that derived from the slave-trade "could not be established." Rutledge +opposed the new bill as defective and impracticable: the former act, he +said, was enough; the States had stopped the trade, and in addition the +United States had sought to placate philanthropists by stopping the use +of our ships in the trade. "This was going very far indeed." New England +first began the trade, and why not let them enjoy its profits now as +well as the English? The trade could not be stopped. + +The bill was eventually recommitted and reported again.[41] "On the +question for its passing, a long and warm debate ensued," and several +attempts to postpone it were made; it finally passed, however, only +Brown of Rhode Island, Dent of Maryland, Rutledge and Huger of South +Carolina, and Dickson of North Carolina voting against it, and 67 voting +for it.[42] This Act of May 10, 1800,[43] greatly strengthened the Act +of 1794. The earlier act had prohibited citizens from equipping slavers +for the foreign trade; but this went so far as to forbid them having any +interest, direct or indirect, in such voyages, or serving on board +slave-ships in any capacity. Imprisonment for two years was added to the +former fine of $2000, and United States commissioned ships were directed +to capture such slavers as prizes. The slaves though forfeited by the +owner, were not to go to the captor; and the act omitted to say what +disposition should be made of them. + + +49. ~The Act of 1803.~ The Haytian revolt, having been among the main +causes of two laws, soon was the direct instigation to a third. The +frightened feeling in the South, when freedmen from the West Indies +began to arrive in various ports, may well be imagined. On January 17, +1803, the town of Wilmington, North Carolina, hastily memorialized +Congress, stating the arrival of certain freed Negroes from Guadeloupe, +and apprehending "much danger to the peace and safety of the people of +the Southern States of the Union" from the "admission of persons of that +description into the United States."[44] The House committee which +considered this petition hastened to agree "That the system of policy +stated in the said memorial to exist, and to be now pursued in the +French colonial government, of the West Indies, is fraught with danger +to the peace and safety of the United States. That the fact stated to +have occurred in the prosecution of that system of policy, demands the +prompt interference of the Government of the United States, as well +Legislative as Executive."[45] The result was a bill providing for the +forfeiture of any ship which should bring into States prohibiting the +same "any negro, mulatto, or other person of color;" the captain of the +ship was also to be punished. After some opposition[46] the bill became +a law, February 28, 1803.[47] + + +50. ~State of the Slave-Trade from 1789 to 1803.~ Meantime, in spite of +the prohibitory State laws, the African slave-trade to the United States +continued to flourish. It was notorious that New England traders carried +on a large traffic.[48] Members stated on the floor of the House that +"it was much to be regretted that the severe and pointed statute against +the slave trade had been so little regarded. In defiance of its +forbiddance and its penalties, it was well known that citizens and +vessels of the United States were still engaged in that traffic.... In +various parts of the nation, outfits were made for slave-voyages, +without secrecy, shame, or apprehension.... Countenanced by their +fellow-citizens at home, who were as ready to buy as they themselves +were to collect and to bring to market, they approached our Southern +harbors and inlets, and clandestinely disembarked the sooty offspring of +the Eastern, upon the ill fated soil of the Western hemisphere. In this +way, it had been computed that, during the last twelve months, twenty +thousand enslaved negroes had been transported from Guinea, and, by +smuggling, added to the plantation stock of Georgia and South Carolina. +So little respect seems to have been paid to the existing prohibitory +statute, that it may almost be considered as disregarded by common +consent."[49] + +These voyages were generally made under the flag of a foreign nation, +and often the vessel was sold in a foreign port to escape confiscation. +South Carolina's own Congressman confessed that although the State had +prohibited the trade since 1788, she "was unable to enforce" her laws. +"With navigable rivers running into the heart of it," said he, "it was +impossible, with our means, to prevent our Eastern brethren, who, in +some parts of the Union, in defiance of the authority of the General +Government, have been engaged in this trade, from introducing them into +the country. The law was completely evaded, and, for the last year or +two [1802-3], Africans were introduced into the country in numbers +little short, I believe, of what they would have been had the trade been +a legal one."[50] The same tale undoubtedly might have been told of +Georgia. + + +51. ~The South Carolina Repeal of 1803.~ This vast and apparently +irrepressible illicit traffic was one of three causes which led South +Carolina, December 17, 1803, to throw aside all pretence and legalize +her growing slave-trade; the other two causes were the growing certainty +of total prohibition of the traffic in 1808, and the recent purchase of +Louisiana by the United States, with its vast prospective demand for +slave labor. Such a combination of advantages, which meant fortunes to +planters and Charleston slave-merchants, could not longer be withheld +from them; the prohibition was repealed, and the United States became +again, for the first time in at least five years, a legal slave mart. +This action shocked the nation, frightening Southern States with visions +of an influx of untrained barbarians and servile insurrections, and +arousing and intensifying the anti-slavery feeling of the North, which +had long since come to think of the trade, so far as legal enactment +went, as a thing of the past. + +Scarcely a month after this repeal, Bard of Pennsylvania solemnly +addressed Congress on the matter. "For many reasons," said he, "this +House must have been justly surprised by a recent measure of one of the +Southern States. The impressions, however, which that measure gave my +mind, were deep and painful. Had I been informed that some formidable +foreign Power had invaded our country, I would not, I ought not, be more +alarmed than on hearing that South Carolina had repealed her law +prohibiting the importation of slaves.... Our hands are tied, and we are +obliged to stand confounded, while we see the flood-gate opened, and +pouring incalculable miseries into our country."[51] He then moved, as +the utmost legal measure, a tax of ten dollars per head on slaves +imported. + +Debate on this proposition did not occur until February 14, when Lowndes +explained the circumstances of the repeal, and a long controversy took +place.[52] Those in favor of the tax argued that the trade was wrong, +and that the tax would serve as some slight check; the tax was not +inequitable, for if a State did not wish to bear it she had only to +prohibit the trade; the tax would add to the revenue, and be at the same +time a moral protest against an unjust and dangerous traffic. Against +this it was argued that if the tax furnished a revenue it would defeat +its own object, and make prohibition more difficult in 1808; it was +inequitable, because it was aimed against one State, and would fall +exclusively on agriculture; it would give national sanction to the +trade; it would look "like an attempt in the General Government to +correct a State for the undisputed exercise of its constitutional +powers;" the revenue would be inconsiderable, and the United States had +nothing to do with the moral principle; while a prohibitory tax would be +defensible, a small tax like this would be useless as a protection and +criminal as a revenue measure. + +The whole debate hinged on the expediency of the measure, few defending +South Carolina's action.[53] Finally, a bill was ordered to be brought +in, which was done on the 17th.[54] Another long debate took place, +covering substantially the same ground. It was several times hinted that +if the matter were dropped South Carolina might again prohibit the +trade. This, and the vehement opposition, at last resulted in the +postponement of the bill, and it was not heard from again during the +session. + + +52. ~The Louisiana Slave-Trade, 1803-1805.~ About this time the cession +of Louisiana brought before Congress the question of the status of +slavery and the slave-trade in the Territories. Twice or thrice before +had the subject called for attention. The first time was in the Congress +of the Confederation, when, by the Ordinance of 1787,[55] both slavery +and the slave-trade were excluded from the Northwest Territory. In 1790 +Congress had accepted the cession of North Carolina back lands on the +express condition that slavery there be undisturbed.[56] Nothing had +been said as to slavery in the South Carolina cession (1787),[57] but it +was tacitly understood that the provision of the Northwest Ordinance +would not be applied. In 1798 the bill introduced for the cession of +Mississippi contained a specific declaration that the anti-slavery +clause of 1787 should not be included.[58] The bill passed the Senate, +but caused long and excited debate in the House.[59] It was argued, on +the one hand, that the case in Mississippi was different from that in +the Northwest Territory, because slavery was a legal institution in all +the surrounding country, and to prohibit the institution was virtually +to prohibit the settling of the country. On the other hand, Gallatin +declared that if this amendment should not obtain, "he knew not how +slaves could be prevented from being introduced by way of New Orleans, +by persons who are not citizens of the United States." It was moved to +strike out the excepting clause; but the motion received only twelve +votes,--an apparent indication that Congress either did not appreciate +the great precedent it was establishing, or was reprehensibly careless. +Harper of South Carolina then succeeded in building up the Charleston +slave-trade interest by a section forbidding the slave traffic from +"without the limits of the United States." Thatcher moved to strike out +the last clause of this amendment, and thus to prohibit the interstate +trade, but he failed to get a second.[60] Thus the act passed, punishing +the introduction of slaves from without the country by a fine of $300 +for each slave, and freeing the slave.[61] + +In 1804 President Jefferson communicated papers to Congress on the +status of slavery and the slave-trade in Louisiana.[62] The Spanish had +allowed the traffic by edict in 1793, France had not stopped it, and +Governor Claiborne had refrained from interference. A bill erecting a +territorial government was already pending.[63] The Northern "District +of Louisiana" was placed under the jurisdiction of Indiana Territory, +and was made subject to the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787. Various +attempts were made to amend the part of the bill referring to the +Southern Territory: first, so as completely to prohibit the +slave-trade;[64] then to compel the emancipation at a certain age of all +those imported;[65] next, to confine all importation to that from the +States;[66] and, finally, to limit it further to slaves imported before +South Carolina opened her ports.[67] The last two amendments prevailed, +and the final act also extended to the Territory the Acts of 1794 and +1803. Only slaves imported before May 1, 1798, could be introduced, and +those must be slaves of actual settlers.[68] All slaves illegally +imported were freed. + +This stringent act was limited to one year. The next year, in accordance +with the urgent petition of the inhabitants, a bill was introduced +against these restrictions.[69] By dexterous wording, this bill, which +became a law March 2, 1805,[70] swept away all restrictions upon the +slave-trade except that relating to foreign ports, and left even this +provision so ambiguous that, later, by judicial interpretation of the +law,[71] the foreign slave-trade was allowed, at least for a time. + +Such a stream of slaves now poured into the new Territory that the +following year a committee on the matter was appointed by the House.[72] +The committee reported that they "are in possession of the fact, that +African slaves, lately imported into Charleston, have been thence +conveyed into the territory of Orleans, and, in their opinion, this +practice will be continued to a very great extent, while there is no law +to prevent it."[73] The House ordered a bill checking this to be +prepared; and such a bill was reported, but was soon dropped.[74] +Importations into South Carolina during this time reached enormous +proportions. Senator Smith of that State declared from official returns +that, between 1803 and 1807, 39,075 Negroes were imported into +Charleston, most of whom went to the Territories.[75] + + +53. ~Last Attempts at Taxation, 1805-1806.~ So alarming did the trade +become that North Carolina passed a resolution in December, 1804,[76] +proposing that the States give Congress power to prohibit the trade. +Massachusetts,[77] Vermont,[78] New Hampshire,[79] and Maryland[80] +responded; and a joint resolution was introduced in the House, proposing +as an amendment to the Constitution "That the Congress of the United +States shall have power to prevent the further importation of slaves +into the United States and the Territories thereof."[81] Nothing came +of this effort; but meantime the project of taxation was revived. A +motion to this effect, made in February, 1805, was referred to a +Committee of the Whole, but was not discussed. Early in the first +session of the ninth Congress the motion of 1805 was renewed; and +although again postponed on the assurance that South Carolina was about +to stop the trade,[82] it finally came up for debate January 20, +1806.[83] Then occurred a most stubborn legislative battle, which lasted +during the whole session.[84] Several amendments to the motion were +first introduced, so as to make it apply to all immigrants, and again to +all "persons of color." As in the former debate, it was proposed to +substitute a resolution of censure on South Carolina. All these +amendments were lost. A long debate on the expediency of the measure +followed, on the old grounds. Early of Georgia dwelt especially on the +double taxation it would impose on Georgia; others estimated that a +revenue of one hundred thousand dollars might be derived from the tax, a +sum sufficient to replace the tax on pepper and medicines. Angry charges +and counter-charges were made,--e.g., that Georgia, though ashamed +openly to avow the trade, participated in it as well as South Carolina. +"Some recriminations ensued between several members, on the +participation of the traders of some of the New England States in +carrying on the slave trade." Finally, January 22, by a vote of 90 to +25, a tax bill was ordered to be brought in.[85] One was reported on the +27th.[86] Every sort of opposition was resorted to. On the one hand, +attempts were made to amend it so as to prohibit importation after 1807, +and to prevent importation into the Territories; on the other hand, +attempts were made to recommit and postpone the measure. It finally got +a third reading, but was recommitted to a select committee, and +disappeared until February 14.[87] Being then amended so as to provide +for the forfeiture of smuggled cargoes, but saying nothing as to the +disposition of the slaves, it was again relegated to a committee, after +a vote of 69 to 42 against postponement.[88] On March 4 it appeared +again, and a motion to reject it was lost. Finally, in the midst of the +war scare and the question of non-importation of British goods, the bill +was apparently forgotten, and the last attempt to tax imported slaves +ended, like the others, in failure. + + +54. ~Key-Note of the Period.~ One of the last acts of this period +strikes again the key-note which sounded throughout the whole of it. On +February 20, 1806, after considerable opposition, a bill to prohibit +trade with San Domingo passed the Senate.[89] In the House it was +charged by one side that the measure was dictated by France, and by the +other, that it originated in the fear of countenancing Negro +insurrection. The bill, however, became a law, and by continuations +remained on the statute-books until 1809. Even at that distance the +nightmare of the Haytian insurrection continued to haunt the South, and +a proposal to reopen trade with the island caused wild John Randolph to +point out the "dreadful evil" of a "direct trade betwixt the town of +Charleston and the ports of the island of St. Domingo."[90] + +Of the twenty years from 1787 to 1807 it can only be said that they +were, on the whole, a period of disappointment so far as the suppression +of the slave-trade was concerned. Fear, interest, and philanthropy +united for a time in an effort which bade fair to suppress the trade; +then the real weakness of the constitutional compromise appeared, and +the interests of the few overcame the fears and the humanity of the +many. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Prince, _Digest of the Laws of Georgia_, p. 786; Marbury + and Crawford, _Digest of the Laws of Georgia_, pp. 440, 442. + The exact text of this act appears not to be extant. Section + I. is stated to have been "re-enacted by the constitution." + Possibly this act prohibited slaves also, although this is not + certain. Georgia passed several regulative acts between 1755 + and 1793. Cf. Renne, _Colonial Acts of Georgia_, pp. 73-4, + 164, note. + + [2] Marbury and Crawford, _Digest_, p. 30, § 11. The clause + was penned by Peter J. Carnes of Jefferson. Cf. W.B. Stevens, + _History of Georgia_ (1847), II. 501. + + [3] Grimké, _Public Laws_, p. 466. + + [4] Cooper and McCord, _Statutes_, VII. 431. + + [5] _Ibid._, VII. 433-6, 444, 447. + + [6] _Ibid._, VII. 449. + + [7] Martin, _Iredell's Acts of Assembly_, I. 492. + + [8] _Ibid._, II. 53. + + [9] Cf. _Ibid._, II. 94; _Laws of North Carolina_ (revision of + 1819), I. 786. + + [10] Virginia codified her whole slave legislation in 1792 + (_Va. Statutes at Large_, New Ser., I. 122), and amended her + laws in 1798 and 1806 (_Ibid._, III. 251). + + [11] Dorsey, _Laws of Maryland, 1796_, I. 334. + + [12] _Laws of Delaware, 1797_ (Newcastle ed.), p. 942, ch. 194 b. + + [13] Dallas, _Laws_, II. 586. + + [14] Paterson, _Digest of the Laws of New Jersey_ (1800), pp. + 307-13. In 1804 New Jersey passed an act gradually to abolish + slavery. The legislation of New York at this period was + confined to regulating the exportation of slave criminals + (1790), and to passing an act gradually abolishing slavery + (1799). In 1801 she codified all her acts. + + [15] _Acts and Laws of Connecticut_ (ed. 1784), pp. 368, 369, 388. + + [16] _Ibid._, p. 412. + + [17] _Perpetual Laws of Massachusetts, 1780-89_, pp. 235-6. + + [18] _Queries Respecting Slavery_, etc., in _Mass. Hist. Soc. + Coll._, 1st Ser., IV. 205. + + [19] _Annals of Cong._, 1 Cong, 1 sess. pp. 336-41. + + [20] _Annals of Cong._, 1 Cong. 1 sess. p. 903. + + [21] _Ibid._, 1 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 1182-3. + + [22] _Journals of Cong., 1782-3_, pp. 418-9. Cf. above, pp. + 56-57. + + [23] _Annals of Cong._, 1 Cong. 2 sess. p. 1184. + + [24] _Ibid._, pp. 1182-91. + + [25] _Annals of Cong._, 1 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 1197-1205. + + [26] _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 1 Cong. 2 sess. I. 157-8. + + [27] _Annals of Cong._, I Cong. 2 sess. pp. 1413-7. + + [28] For the reports and debates, cf. _Annals of Cong._, 1 + Cong. 2 sess. pp. 1413-7, 1450-74; _House Journal_ (repr. + 1826), 1 Cong. 2 sess. I. 168-81. + + [29] A clerical error in the original: "interdict" and + "regulate" should be interchanged. + + [30] See _Memorials presented to Congress_, etc. (1792), + published by the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. + + [31] From the Virginia petition. + + [32] From the petition of Baltimore and other Maryland + societies. + + [33] From the Providence Abolition Society's petition. + + [34] _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 2 Cong. 2 sess. I. 627-9; + _Annals of Cong._, 2 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 728-31. + + [35] _Annals of Cong._, 3 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 64, 70, 72; _House + Journal_ (repr. 1826), 3 Cong. 1 sess. II. 76, 84-5, 96-100; + _Senate Journal_ (repr. 1820), 3 Cong. 1 sess. II. 51. + + [36] _Statutes at Large_, I. 347-9. + + [37] _Annals of Cong._, 5 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 656-70, 945-1033. + + [38] _Annals of Cong._, 6 Cong. 1 sess. p. 229. + + [39] Dec. 12, 1799: _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 6 Cong. 1 + sess. III. 535. For the debate, see _Annals of Cong._, 6 Cong. + 1 sess. pp. 230-45. + + [40] _Senate Journal_ (repr. 1821), 6 Cong. 1 sess. III. 72, + 77, 88, 92; see _Ibid._, Index, Bill No. 62; _House Journal_ + (repr. 1826), 6 Cong. 1 sess. III., Index, House Bill No. 247. + For the debate, see _Annals of Cong._, 6 Cong. 1 sess. pp. + 686-700. + + [41] _Annals of Cong._, 6 Cong. 1 sess. p. 697. + + [42] _Ibid._, p. 699-700. + + [43] _Statutes at Large_, II. 70. + + [44] _Annals of Cong._, 7 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 385-6. + + [45] _Ibid._, p. 424. + + [46] See House Bills Nos. 89 and 101; _Annals of Cong._, 7 + Cong. 2 sess. pp. 424, 459-67. For the debate, see _Ibid._, + pp. 459-72. + + [47] _Statutes at Large_, II. 205. + + [48] Cf. Fowler, _Local Law in Massachusetts and Connecticut_, + etc., p. 126. + + [49] Speech of S.L. Mitchell of New York, Feb. 14, 1804: + _Annals of Cong._, 8 Cong. 1 sess. p. 1000. Cf. also speech of + Bedinger: _Ibid._, pp. 997-8. + + [50] Speech of Lowndes in the House, Feb. 14, 1804: _Annals of + Cong._, 8 Cong., 1 sess. p. 992. Cf. Stanton's speech later: + _Ibid._, 9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 240. + + [51] _Annals of Cong._, 8 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 820, 876. + + [52] _Ibid._, pp. 992-1036. + + [53] Huger of South Carolina declared that the whole South + Carolina Congressional delegation opposed the repeal of the + law, although they maintained the State's right to do so if + she chose: _Annals of Cong._, 8 Cong. 1 sess. p. 1005. + + [54] _Ibid._, pp. 1020-36; _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 8 + Cong. 1 sess. IV 523, 578, 580, 581-5. + + [55] On slavery in the Territories, cf. Welling, in _Report + Amer. Hist. Assoc._, 1891, pp. 133-60. + + [56] _Statutes at Large_, I. 108. + + [57] _Journals of Cong._, XII. 137-8. + + [58] _Annals of Cong._, 5 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 511, 515, 532-3. + + [59] _Ibid._, 5 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 1235, 1249, 1277-84, + 1296-1313. + + [60] _Annals of Cong._, 5 Cong. 2 sess. p. 1313. + + [61] _Statutes at Large_, I. 549. + + [62] _Amer. State Papers, Miscellaneous_, I. No. 177. + + [63] _Annals of Cong._, 8 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 106, 211, 223, + 231, 233-4, 238. + + [64] _Ibid._, pp. 240, 1186. + + [65] _Ibid._, p. 241. + + [66] _Ibid._, p. 240. + + [67] _Ibid._, p. 242. + + [68] For further proceedings, see _Annals of Cong._, 8 Cong. 1 + sess. pp. 240-55, 1038-79, 1128-9, 1185-9. For the law, see + _Statutes at Large_, II. 283-9. + + [69] First, a bill was introduced applying the Northwest + Ordinance to the Territory (_Annals of Cong._, 8 Cong. 2 sess. + pp. 45-6); but this was replaced by a Senate bill (_Ibid._, p. + 68; _Senate Journal_, repr. 1821, 8 Cong. 2 sess. III. 464). + For the petition of the inhabitants, see _Annals of Cong._, 8 + Cong. 2 sess. p. 727-8. + + [70] The bill was hurried through, and there are no records of + debate. Cf. _Annals of Cong._, 8 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 28-69, 727, + 871, 957, 1016-20, 1213-5. In _Senate Journal_ (repr. 1821), + III., see Index, Bill No. 8. Importation of slaves was allowed + by a clause erecting a Frame of Government "similar" to that + of the Mississippi Territory. + + [71] _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 1 sess. p. 443. The whole + trade was practically foreign, for the slavers merely entered + the Negroes at Charleston and immediately reshipped them to + New Orleans. Cf. _Annals of Cong._, 16 Cong. 1 sess. p. 264. + + [72] _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 1 sess. V. 264; + _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 445, 878. + + [73] _House Reports_, 9 Cong. 1 sess. Feb. 17, 1806. + + [74] House Bill No. 123. + + [75] _Annals of Cong._, 16 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 73-7. This report + covers the time from Jan. 1, 1804, to Dec. 31, 1807. During + that time the following was the number of ships engaged in the + traffic:-- + + From Charleston, 61 From Connecticut, 1 + " Rhode Island, 59 " Sweden, 1 + " Baltimore, 4 " Great Britain, 70 + " Boston, 1 " France, 3 + " Norfolk, 2 202 + + The consignees of these slave ships were natives of + Charleston 13 + Rhode Island 88 + Great Britain 91 + France 10 + ---- + 202 + + The following slaves were imported:-- + By British vessels 19,949 + " French " 1,078 + ------ + 21,027 + + By American vessels:-- + " Charleston merchants 2,006 + " Rhode Island " 7,958 + " Foreign " 5,717 + " other Northern " 930 + " " Southern " 1,437 18,048 + ------ ------ + + Total number of slaves imported, 1804-7 39,075 + + It is, of course, highly probable that the Custom House + returns were much below the actual figures. + + [76] McMaster, _History of the People of the United States_, + III. p. 517. + + [77] _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 8 Cong. 2 sess. V. 171; + _Mass. Resolves_, May, 1802, to March, 1806, Vol. II. A. + (State House ed., p. 239). + + [78] _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 1 sess. V. 238. + + [79] _Ibid._, V. 266. + + [80] _Senate Journal_ (repr. 1821), 9 Cong. 1 sess. IV. 76, + 77, 79. + + [81] _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 8 Cong. 2 sess. V. 171. + + [82] _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 1 sess. p. 274. + + [83] _Ibid._, pp. 272-4, 323. + + [84] _Ibid._, pp. 346-52, 358-75, etc., to 520. + + [85] _Ibid._, pp. 374-5. + + [86] See House Bill No. 94. + + [87] _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 1 sess. p. 466. + + [88] _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 519-20. + + [89] _Ibid._, pp. 21, 52, 75, etc., to 138, 485-515, 1228. See + House Bill No. 168. Cf. _Statutes at Large_, II. 421-2. + + [90] A few months later, at the expiration of the period, + trade was quietly reopened. _Annals of Cong._, 11 Cong. 1 + sess. pp. 443-6. + + * * * * * + + + + +_Chapter VIII_ + +THE PERIOD OF ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. 1807-1825. + + 55. The Act of 1807. + 56. The First Question: How shall illegally imported Africans be + disposed of? + 57. The Second Question: How shall Violations be punished? + 58. The Third Question: How shall the Interstate Coastwise Slave-Trade + be protected? + 59. Legislative History of the Bill. + 60. Enforcement of the Act. + 61. Evidence of the Continuance of the Trade. + 62. Apathy of the Federal Government. + 63. Typical Cases. + 64. The Supplementary Acts, 1818-1820. + 65. Enforcement of the Supplementary Acts, 1818-1825. + + +55. ~The Act of 1807.~ The first great goal of anti-slavery effort in +the United States had been, since the Revolution, the suppression of the +slave-trade by national law. It would hardly be too much to say that the +Haytian revolution, in addition to its influence in the years from 1791 +to 1806, was one of the main causes that rendered the accomplishment of +this aim possible at the earliest constitutional moment. To the great +influence of the fears of the South was added the failure of the French +designs on Louisiana, of which Toussaint L'Ouverture was the most +probable cause. The cession of Louisiana in 1803 challenged and aroused +the North on the slavery question again; put the Carolina and Georgia +slave-traders in the saddle, to the dismay of the Border States; and +brought the whole slave-trade question vividly before the public +conscience. Another scarcely less potent influence was, naturally, the +great anti-slavery movement in England, which after a mighty struggle of +eighteen years was about to gain its first victory in the British Act of +1807. + +President Jefferson, in his pacificatory message of December 2, 1806, +said: "I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the approach of the +period at which you may interpose your authority constitutionally, to +withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further +participation in those violations of human rights which have been so +long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa, and which the +morality, the reputation, and the best interests of our country, have +long been eager to proscribe. Although no law you may pass can take +prohibitory effect till the first day of the year one thousand eight +hundred and eight, yet the intervening period is not too long to +prevent, by timely notice, expeditions which cannot be completed before +that day."[1] + +In pursuance of this recommendation, the very next day Senator Bradley +of Vermont introduced into the Senate a bill which, after a complicated +legislative history, became the Act of March 2, 1807, prohibiting the +African slave-trade.[2] + +Three main questions were to be settled by this bill: first, and most +prominent, that of the disposal of illegally imported Africans; second, +that of the punishment of those concerned in the importation; third, +that of the proper limitation of the interstate traffic by water. + +The character of the debate on these three questions, as well as the +state of public opinion, is illustrated by the fact that forty of the +sixty pages of officially reported debates are devoted to the first +question, less than twenty to the second, and only two to the third. A +sad commentary on the previous enforcement of State and national laws is +the readiness with which it was admitted that wholesale violations of +the law would take place; indeed, Southern men declared that no strict +law against the slave-trade could be executed in the South, and that it +was only by playing on the motives of personal interest that the trade +could be checked. The question of punishment indicated the slowly +changing moral attitude of the South toward the slave system. Early +boldly said, "A large majority of people in the Southern States do not +consider slavery as even an evil."[3] The South, in fact, insisted on +regarding man-stealing as a minor offence, a "misdemeanor" rather than a +"crime." Finally, in the short and sharp debate on the interstate +coastwise trade, the growing economic side of the slavery question came +to the front, the vested interests' argument was squarely put, and the +future interstate trade almost consciously provided for. + +From these considerations, it is doubtful as to how far it was expected +that the Act of 1807 would check the slave traffic; at any rate, so far +as the South was concerned, there seemed to be an evident desire to +limit the trade, but little thought that this statute would definitively +suppress it. + +56. ~The First Question: How shall illegally imported Africans be +disposed of?~ The dozen or more propositions on the question of the +disposal of illegally imported Africans may be divided into two chief +heads, representing two radically opposed parties: 1. That illegally +imported Africans be free, although they might be indentured for a term +of years or removed from the country. 2. That such Africans be sold as +slaves.[4] The arguments on these two propositions, which were many and +far-reaching, may be roughly divided into three classes, political, +constitutional, and moral. + +The political argument, reduced to its lowest terms, ran thus: those +wishing to free the Negroes illegally imported declared that to enslave +them would be to perpetrate the very evil which the law was designed to +stop. "By the same law," they said, "we condemn the man-stealer and +become the receivers of his stolen goods. We punish the criminal, and +then step into his place, and complete the crime."[5] They said that the +objection to free Negroes was no valid excuse; for if the Southern +people really feared this class, they would consent to the imposing of +such penalties on illicit traffic as would stop the importation of a +single slave.[6] Moreover, "forfeiture" and sale of the Negroes implied +a property right in them which did not exist.[7] Waiving this technical +point, and allowing them to be "forfeited" to the government, then the +government should either immediately set them free, or, at the most, +indenture them for a term of years; otherwise, the law would be an +encouragement to violators. "It certainly will be," said they, "if the +importer can find means to evade the penalty of the act; for there he +has all the advantage of a market enhanced by our ineffectual attempt to +prohibit."[8] They claimed that even the indenturing of the ignorant +barbarian for life was better than slavery; and Sloan declared that the +Northern States would receive the freed Negroes willingly rather than +have them enslaved.[9] + +The argument of those who insisted that the Negroes should be sold was +tersely put by Macon: "In adopting our measures on this subject, we must +pass such a law as can be executed."[10] Early expanded this: "It is a +principle in legislation, as correct as any which has ever prevailed, +that to give effect to laws you must not make them repugnant to the +passions and wishes of the people among whom they are to operate. How +then, in this instance, stands the fact? Do not gentlemen from every +quarter of the Union prove, on the discussion of every question that has +ever arisen in the House, having the most remote bearing on the giving +freedom to the Africans in the bosom of our country, that it has excited +the deepest sensibility in the breasts of those where slavery exists? +And why is this so? It is, because those who, from experience, know the +extent of the evil, believe that the most formidable aspect in which it +can present itself, is by making these people free among them. Yes, sir, +though slavery is an evil, regretted by every man in the country, to +have among us in any considerable quantity persons of this description, +is an evil far greater than slavery itself. Does any gentleman want +proof of this? I answer that all proof is useless; no fact can be more +notorious. With this belief on the minds of the people where slavery +exists, and where the importation will take place, if at all, we are +about to turn loose in a state of freedom all persons brought in after +the passage of this law. I ask gentlemen to reflect and say whether such +a law, opposed to the ideas, the passions, the views, and the affections +of the people of the Southern States, can be executed? I tell them, no; +it is impossible--why? Because no man will inform--why? Because to +inform will be to lead to an evil which will be deemed greater than the +offence of which information is given, because it will be opposed to the +principle of self-preservation, and to the love of family. No, no man +will be disposed to jeopard his life, and the lives of his countrymen. +And if no one dare inform, the whole authority of the Government cannot +carry the law into effect. The whole people will rise up against it. +Why? Because to enforce it would be to turn loose, in the bosom of the +country, firebrands that would consume them."[11] + +This was the more tragic form of the argument; it also had a mercenary +side, which was presented with equal emphasis. It was repeatedly said +that the only way to enforce the law was to play off individual +interests against each other. The profit from the sale of illegally +imported Negroes was declared to be the only sufficient "inducement to +give information of their importation."[12] "Give up the idea of +forfeiture, and I challenge the gentleman to invent fines, penalties, or +punishments of any sort, sufficient to restrain the slave trade."[13] +If such Negroes be freed, "I tell you that slaves will continue to be +imported as heretofore.... You cannot get hold of the ships employed in +this traffic. Besides, slaves will be brought into Georgia from East +Florida. They will be brought into the Mississippi Territory from the +bay of Mobile. You cannot inflict any other penalty, or devise any other +adequate means of prevention, than a forfeiture of the Africans in whose +possession they may be found after importation."[14] Then, too, when +foreigners smuggled in Negroes, "who then ... could be operated on, but +the purchasers? There was the rub--it was their interest alone which, by +being operated on, would produce a check. Snap their purse-strings, +break open their strong box, deprive them of their slaves, and by +destroying the temptation to buy, you put an end to the trade, ... +nothing short of a forfeiture of the slave would afford an effectual +remedy."[15] Again, it was argued that it was impossible to prevent +imported Negroes from becoming slaves, or, what was just as bad, from +being sold as vagabonds or indentured for life.[16] Even our own laws, +it was said, recognize the title of the African slave factor in the +transported Negroes; and if the importer have no title, why do we +legislate? Why not let the African immigrant alone to get on as he may, +just as we do the Irish immigrant?[17] If he should be returned to +Africa, his home could not be found, and he would in all probability be +sold into slavery again.[18] + +The constitutional argument was not urged as seriously as the foregoing; +but it had a considerable place. On the one hand, it was urged that if +the Negroes were forfeited, they were forfeited to the United States +government, which could dispose of them as it saw fit;[19] on the other +hand, it was said that the United States, as owner, was subject to State +laws, and could not free the Negroes contrary to such laws.[20] Some +alleged that the freeing of such Negroes struck at the title to all +slave property;[21] others thought that, as property in slaves was not +recognized in the Constitution, it could not be in a statute.[22] The +question also arose as to the source of the power of Congress over the +slave-trade. Southern men derived it from the clause on commerce, and +declared that it exceeded the power of Congress to declare Negroes +imported into a slave State, free, against the laws of that State; that +Congress could not determine what should or should not be property in a +State.[23] Northern men replied that, according to this principle, +forfeiture and sale in Massachusetts would be illegal; that the power of +Congress over the trade was derived from the restraining clause, as a +non-existent power could not be restrained; and that the United States +could act under her general powers as executor of the Law of +Nations.[24] + +The moral argument as to the disposal of illegally imported Negroes was +interlarded with all the others. On the one side, it began with the +"Rights of Man," and descended to a stickling for the decent appearance +of the statute-book; on the other side, it began with the uplifting of +the heathen, and descended to a denial of the applicability of moral +principles to the question. Said Holland of North Carolina: "It is +admitted that the condition of the slaves in the Southern States is much +superior to that of those in Africa. Who, then, will say that the trade +is immoral?"[25] But, in fact, "morality has nothing to do with this +traffic,"[26] for, as Joseph Clay declared, "it must appear to every man +of common sense, that the question could be considered in a commercial +point of view only."[27] The other side declared that, "by the laws of +God and man," these captured Negroes are "entitled to their freedom as +clearly and absolutely as we are;"[28] nevertheless, some were willing +to leave them to the tender mercies of the slave States, so long as the +statute-book was disgraced by no explicit recognition of slavery.[29] +Such arguments brought some sharp sarcasm on those who seemed anxious +"to legislate for the honor and glory of the statute book;"[30] some +desired "to know what honor you will derive from a law that will be +broken every day of your lives."[31] They would rather boldly sell the +Negroes and turn the proceeds over to charity. + +The final settlement of the question was as follows:-- + + "SECTION 4.... And neither the importer, nor any person + or persons claiming from or under him, shall hold any right or + title whatsoever to any negro, mulatto, or person of color, nor + to the service or labor thereof, who may be imported or brought + within the United States, or territories thereof, in violation + of this law, but the same shall remain subject to any + regulations not contravening the provisions of this act, which + the Legislatures of the several States or Territories at any + time hereafter may make, for disposing of any such negro, + mulatto, or person of color."[32] + + +57. ~The Second Question: How shall Violations be punished?~ The next +point in importance was that of the punishment of offenders. The +half-dozen specific propositions reduce themselves to two: 1. A +violation should be considered a crime or felony, and be punished by +death; 2. A violation should be considered a misdemeanor, and be +punished by fine and imprisonment.[33] + +Advocates of the severer punishment dwelt on the enormity of the +offence. It was "one of the highest crimes man could commit," and "a +captain of a ship engaged in this traffic was guilty of murder."[34] The +law of God punished the crime with death, and any one would rather be +hanged than be enslaved.[35] It was a peculiarly deliberate crime, in +which the offender did not act in sudden passion, but had ample time for +reflection.[36] Then, too, crimes of much less magnitude are punished +with death. Shall we punish the stealer of $50 with death, and the +man-stealer with imprisonment only?[37] Piracy, forgery, and fraudulent +sinking of vessels are punishable with death, "yet these are crimes only +against property; whereas the importation of slaves, a crime committed +against the liberty of man, and inferior only to murder or treason, is +accounted nothing but a misdemeanor."[38] Here, indeed, lies the remedy +for the evil of freeing illegally imported Negroes,--in making the +penalty so severe that none will be brought in; if the South is sincere, +"they will unite to a man to execute the law."[39] To free such Negroes +is dangerous; to enslave them, wrong; to return them, impracticable; to +indenture them, difficult,--therefore, by a death penalty, keep them +from being imported.[40] Here the East had a chance to throw back the +taunts of the South, by urging the South to unite with them in hanging +the New England slave-traders, assuring the South that "so far from +charging their Southern brethren with cruelty or severity in hanging +them, they would acknowledge the favor with gratitude."[41] Finally, if +the Southerners would refuse to execute so severe a law because they did +not consider the offence great, they would probably refuse to execute +any law at all for the same reason.[42] + +The opposition answered that the death penalty was more than +proportionate to the crime, and therefore "immoral."[43] "I cannot +believe," said Stanton of Rhode Island, "that a man ought to be hung for +only stealing a negro."[44] It was argued that the trade was after all +but a "transfer from one master to another;"[45] that slavery was worse +than the slave-trade, and the South did not consider slavery a crime: +how could it then punish the trade so severely and not reflect on the +institution?[46] Severity, it was said, was also inexpedient: severity +often increases crime; if the punishment is too great, people will +sympathize with offenders and will not inform against them. Said Mr. +Mosely: "When the penalty is excessive or disproportioned to the +offence, it will naturally create a repugnance to the law, and render +its execution odious."[47] John Randolph argued against even fine and +imprisonment, "on the ground that such an excessive penalty could not, +in such case, be constitutionally imposed by a Government possessed of +the limited powers of the Government of the United States."[48] + +The bill as passed punished infractions as follows:-- + + For equipping a slaver, a fine of $20,000 and forfeiture of the + ship. + + For transporting Negroes, a fine of $5000 and forfeiture of the + ship and Negroes. + + For transporting and selling Negroes, a fine of $1000 to + $10,000, imprisonment from 5 to 10 years, and forfeiture of the + ship and Negroes. + + For knowingly buying illegally imported Negroes, a fine of $800 + for each Negro, and forfeiture. + + +58. ~The Third Question: How shall the Interstate Coastwise Slave-Trade +be protected?~ The first proposition was to prohibit the coastwise +slave-trade altogether,[49] but an amendment reported to the House +allowed it "in any vessel or species of craft whatever." It is probable +that the first proposition would have prevailed, had it not been for the +vehement opposition of Randolph and Early.[50] They probably foresaw the +value which Virginia would derive from this trade in the future, and +consequently Randolph violently declared that if the amendment did not +prevail, "the Southern people would set the law at defiance. He would +begin the example." He maintained that by the first proposition "the +proprietor of sacred and chartered rights is prevented the +Constitutional use of his property."[51] The Conference Committee +finally arranged a compromise, forbidding the coastwise trade for +purposes of sale in vessels under forty tons.[52] This did not suit +Early, who declared that the law with this provision "would not prevent +the introduction of a single slave."[53] Randolph, too, would "rather +lose the bill, he had rather lose all the bills of the session, he had +rather lose every bill passed since the establishment of the Government, +than agree to the provision contained in this slave bill."[54] He +predicted the severance of the slave and the free States, if disunion +should ever come. Congress was, however, weary with the dragging of the +bill, and it passed both Houses with the compromise provision. Randolph +was so dissatisfied that he had a committee appointed the next day, and +introduced an amendatory bill. Both this bill and another similar one, +introduced at the next session, failed of consideration.[55] + + +59. ~Legislative History of the Bill.~[56] On December 12, 1805, Senator +Stephen R. Bradley of Vermont gave notice of a bill to prohibit the +introduction of slaves after 1808. By a vote of 18 to 9 leave was +given, and the bill read a first time on the 17th. On the 18th, however, +it was postponed until "the first Monday in December, 1806." The +presidential message mentioning the matter, Senator Bradley, December 3, +1806, gave notice of a similar bill, which was brought in on the 8th, +and on the 9th referred to a committee consisting of Bradley, Stone, +Giles, Gaillard, and Baldwin. This bill passed, after some +consideration, January 27. It provided, among other things, that +violations of the act should be felony, punishable with death, and +forbade the interstate coast-trade.[57] + +Meantime, in the House, Mr. Bidwell of Massachusetts had proposed, +February 4, 1806, as an amendment to a bill taxing slaves imported, that +importation after December 31, 1807, be prohibited, on pain of fine and +imprisonment and forfeiture of ship.[58] This was rejected by a vote of +86 to 17. On December 3, 1806, the House, in appointing committees on +the message, "_Ordered_, That Mr. Early, Mr. Thomas M. Randolph, Mr. +John Campbell, Mr. Kenan, Mr. Cook, Mr. Kelly, and Mr. Van Rensselaer be +appointed a committee" on the slave-trade. This committee reported a +bill on the 15th, which was considered, but finally, December 18, +recommitted. It was reported in an amended form on the 19th, and amended +in Committee of the Whole so as to make violation a misdemeanor +punishable by fine and imprisonment, instead of a felony punishable by +death.[59] A struggle over the disposal of the cargo then ensued. A +motion by Bidwell to except the cargo from forfeiture was lost, 77 to +39. Another motion by Bidwell may be considered the crucial vote on the +whole bill: it was an amendment to the forfeiture clause, and read, +_"Provided, that no person shall be sold as a slave by virtue of this +act."_[60] This resulted in a tie vote, 60 to 60; but the casting vote +of the Speaker, Macon of North Carolina, defeated it. New England voted +solidly in favor of it, the Middle States stood 4 for and 2 against it, +and the six Southern States stood solid against it. On January 8 the +bill went again to a select committee of seventeen, by a vote of 76 to +46. The bill was reported back amended January 20, and on the 28th the +Senate bill was also presented to the House. On the 9th, 10th, and 11th +of February both bills were considered in Committee of the Whole, and +the Senate bill finally replaced the House bill, after several +amendments had been made.[61] The bill was then passed, by a vote of 113 +to 5.[62] The Senate agreed to the amendments, including that +substituting fine and imprisonment for the death penalty, but asked for +a conference on the provision which left the interstate coast-trade +free. The six conferees succeeded in bringing the Houses to agree, by +limiting the trade to vessels over forty tons and requiring registry of +the slaves.[63] + +The following diagram shows in graphic form the legislative history of +the act:--[64] + + _Senate._ _1805._ _House._ +Bradley gives notice. + Dec. 12. +Leave given; bill read. + 17. +Postponed one year. + 18. + | _1806._ + Feb. 4. + Bidwell's amendment. +Notice. + Dec. 3. + Committee on +Bill introduced. + 8. | slave trade. +Committed. + 9. | + | 15. + Bill reported. + | 17. | + | 18. | + | 19. | + | 23. | + | 29. | + | 31. | + | _1807._ | + | Jan. 5. | + | 7. | + | 8. + Read third time; +Reported. + 15. | recommitted. + | 16. | + | 20. + Reported +Third reading. + 26. | amended. +PASSED. + 27. | + \ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ | + 28. | | Senate bill + Feb. 9. | | reported. + 10. | | + 11. + | Senate bill + 12. | amended. +Reported from House. 13. + PASSED. + _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ | +Reported to House. | 17. Reported back. + - - - - - - - - - - - + 18. | House insists; + - - - - - - - - - - - asks conference. + \ / + - - _ __ - - - - - - + X +House asks conference. _ _ _/ \_ __ + \ _ + 2|5 - - - -_ Conference report + _ _ _ _ _ _-|- - - - - adopted. +Conference report / 2|6 + adopted. \_ _ _ | +Bill enrolled. - - - -2|8 + March |2. + V + Signed by the President. + +This bill received the approval of President Jefferson, March 2, 1807, +and became thus the "Act to prohibit the importation of Slaves into any +port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States, from and +after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand +eight hundred and eight."[65] The debates in the Senate were not +reported. Those in the House were prolonged and bitter, and hinged +especially on the disposal of the slaves, the punishment of offenders, +and the coast-trade. Men were continually changing their votes, and the +bill see-sawed backward and forward, in committee and out, until the +House was thoroughly worn out. On the whole, the strong anti-slavery +men, like Bidwell and Sloan, were outgeneraled by Southerners, like +Early and Williams; and, considering the immense moral backing of the +anti-slavery party from the Revolutionary fathers down, the bill of 1807 +can hardly be regarded as a great anti-slavery victory. + + +60. ~Enforcement of the Act.~ The period so confidently looked forward +to by the constitutional fathers had at last arrived; the slave-trade +was prohibited, and much oratory and poetry were expended in celebration +of the event. In the face of this, let us see how the Act of 1807 was +enforced and what it really accomplished. It is noticeable, in the first +place, that there was no especial set of machinery provided for the +enforcement of this act. The work fell first to the Secretary of the +Treasury, as head of the customs collection. Then, through the activity +of cruisers, the Secretary of the Navy gradually came to have oversight, +and eventually the whole matter was lodged with him, although the +Departments of State and War were more or less active on different +occasions. Later, at the advent of the Lincoln government, the +Department of the Interior was charged with the enforcement of the +slave-trade laws. It would indeed be surprising if, amid so much +uncertainty and shifting of responsibility, the law were not poorly +enforced. Poor enforcement, moreover, in the years 1808 to 1820 meant +far more than at almost any other period; for these years were, all +over the European world, a time of stirring economic change, and the set +which forces might then take would in a later period be unchangeable +without a cataclysm. Perhaps from 1808 to 1814, in the midst of +agitation and war, there was some excuse for carelessness. From 1814 on, +however, no such palliation existed, and the law was probably enforced +as the people who made it wished it enforced. + +Most of the Southern States rather tardily passed the necessary +supplementary acts disposing of illegally imported Africans. A few +appear not to have passed any. Some of these laws, like the +Alabama-Mississippi Territory Act of 1815,[66] directed such Negroes to +be "sold by the proper officer of the court, to the highest bidder, at +public auction, for ready money." One-half the proceeds went to the +informer or to the collector of customs, the other half to the public +treasury. Other acts, like that of North Carolina in 1816,[67] directed +the Negroes to "be sold and disposed of for the use of the state." +One-fifth of the proceeds went to the informer. The Georgia Act of +1817[68] directed that the slaves be either sold or given to the +Colonization Society for transportation, providing the society reimburse +the State for all expense incurred, and pay for the transportation. In +this manner, machinery of somewhat clumsy build and varying pattern was +provided for the carrying out of the national act. + + +61. ~Evidence of the Continuance of the Trade.~ Undoubtedly, the Act of +1807 came very near being a dead letter. The testimony supporting this +view is voluminous. It consists of presidential messages, reports of +cabinet officers, letters of collectors of revenue, letters of district +attorneys, reports of committees of Congress, reports of naval +commanders, statements made on the floor of Congress, the testimony of +eye-witnesses, and the complaints of home and foreign anti-slavery +societies. + +"When I was young," writes Mr. Fowler of Connecticut, "the slave-trade +was still carried on, by Connecticut shipmasters and Merchant +adventurers, for the supply of southern ports. This trade was carried +on by the consent of the Southern States, under the provisions of the +Federal Constitution, until 1808, and, after that time, clandestinely. +There was a good deal of conversation on the subject, in private +circles." Other States were said to be even more involved than +Connecticut.[69] The African Society of London estimated that, down to +1816, fifteen of the sixty thousand slaves annually taken from Africa +were shipped by Americans. "Notwithstanding the prohibitory act of +America, which was passed in 1807, ships bearing the American flag +continued to trade for slaves until 1809, when, in consequence of a +decision in the English prize appeal courts, which rendered American +slave ships liable to capture and condemnation, that flag suddenly +disappeared from the coast. Its place was almost instantaneously +supplied by the Spanish flag, which, with one or two exceptions, was now +seen for the first time on the African coast, engaged in covering the +slave trade. This sudden substitution of the Spanish for the American +flag seemed to confirm what was established in a variety of instances by +more direct testimony, that the slave trade, which now, for the first +time, assumed a Spanish dress, was in reality only the trade of other +nations in disguise."[70] + +So notorious did the participation of Americans in the traffic become, +that President Madison informed Congress in his message, December 5, +1810, that "it appears that American citizens are instrumental in +carrying on a traffic in enslaved Africans, equally in violation of the +laws of humanity, and in defiance of those of their own country. The +same just and benevolent motives which produced the interdiction in +force against this criminal conduct, will doubtless be felt by Congress, +in devising further means of suppressing the evil."[71] The Secretary of +the Navy wrote the same year to Charleston, South Carolina: "I hear, not +without great concern, that the law prohibiting the importation of +slaves has been violated in frequent instances, near St. Mary's."[72] +Testimony as to violations of the law and suggestions for improving it +also came in from district attorneys.[73] + +The method of introducing Negroes was simple. A slave smuggler says: +"After resting a few days at St. Augustine, ... I agreed to accompany +Diego on a land trip through the United States, where a _kaffle_ of +negroes was to precede us, for whose disposal the shrewd Portuguese had +already made arrangements with my uncle's consignees. I soon learned how +readily, and at what profits, the Florida negroes were sold into the +neighboring American States. The _kaffle_, under charge of negro +drivers, was to strike up the Escambia River, and thence cross the +boundary into Georgia, where some of our wild Africans were mixed with +various squads of native blacks, and driven inland, till sold off, +singly or by couples, on the road. At this period [1812], the United +States had declared the African slave trade illegal, and passed +stringent laws to prevent the importation of negroes; yet the Spanish +possessions were thriving on this inland exchange of negroes and +mulattoes; Florida was a sort of nursery for slave-breeders, and many +American citizens grew rich by trafficking in Guinea negroes, and +smuggling them continually, in small parties, through the southern +United States. At the time I mention, the business was a lively one, +owing to the war then going on between the States and England, and the +unsettled condition of affairs on the border."[74] + +The Spanish flag continued to cover American slave-traders. The rapid +rise of privateering during the war was not caused solely by patriotic +motives; for many armed ships fitted out in the United States obtained a +thin Spanish disguise at Havana, and transported thousands of slaves to +Brazil and the West Indies. Sometimes all disguise was thrown aside, and +the American flag appeared on the slave coast, as in the cases of the +"Paz,"[75] the "Rebecca," the "Rosa"[76] (formerly the privateer +"Commodore Perry"), the "Dorset" of Baltimore,[77] and the "Saucy +Jack."[78] Governor McCarthy of Sierra Leone wrote, in 1817: "The slave +trade is carried on most vigorously by the Spaniards, Portuguese, +Americans and French. I have had it affirmed from several quarters, and +do believe it to be a fact, that there is a greater number of vessels +employed in that traffic than at any former period."[79] + + +62. ~Apathy of the Federal Government.~ The United States cruisers +succeeded now and then in capturing a slaver, like the "Eugene," which +was taken when within four miles of the New Orleans bar.[80] President +Madison again, in 1816, urged Congress to act on account of the +"violations and evasions which, it is suggested, are chargeable on +unworthy citizens, who mingle in the slave trade under foreign flags, +and with foreign ports; and by collusive importations of slaves into the +United States, through adjoining ports and territories."[81] The +executive was continually in receipt of ample evidence of this illicit +trade and of the helplessness of officers of the law. In 1817 it was +reported to the Secretary of the Navy that most of the goods carried to +Galveston were brought into the United States; "the more valuable, and +the slaves are smuggled in through the numerous inlets to the westward, +where the people are but too much disposed to render them every possible +assistance. Several hundred slaves are now at Galveston, and persons +have gone from New-Orleans to purchase them. Every exertion will be +made to intercept them, but I have little hopes of success."[82] Similar +letters from naval officers and collectors showed that a system of slave +piracy had arisen since the war, and that at Galveston there was an +establishment of organized brigands, who did not go to the trouble of +sailing to Africa for their slaves, but simply captured slavers and sold +their cargoes into the United States. This Galveston nest had, in 1817, +eleven armed vessels to prosecute the work, and "the most shameful +violations of the slave act, as well as our revenue laws, continue to be +practised."[83] Cargoes of as many as three hundred slaves were arriving +in Texas. All this took place under Aury, the buccaneer governor; and +when he removed to Amelia Island in 1817 with the McGregor raid, the +illicit traffic in slaves, which had been going on there for years,[84] +took an impulse that brought it even to the somewhat deaf ears of +Collector Bullock. He reported, May 22, 1817: "I have just received +information from a source on which I can implicitly rely, that it has +already become the practice to introduce into the state of Georgia, +across the St. Mary's River, from Amelia Island, East Florida, Africans, +who have been carried into the Port of Fernandina, subsequent to the +capture of it by the Patriot army now in possession of it ...; were the +legislature to pass an act giving compensation in some manner to +informers, it would have a tendency in a great degree to prevent the +practice; as the thing now is, no citizen will take the trouble of +searching for and detecting the slaves. I further understand, that the +evil will not be confined altogether to Africans, but will be extended +to the worst class of West India slaves."[85] + +Undoubtedly, the injury done by these pirates to the regular +slave-trading interests was largely instrumental in exterminating them. +Late in 1817 United States troops seized Amelia Island, and President +Monroe felicitated Congress and the country upon escaping the "annoyance +and injury" of this illicit trade.[86] The trade, however, seems to have +continued, as is shown by such letters as the following, written three +and a half months later:-- + + PORT OF DARIEN, March 14, 1818. + + ... It is a painful duty, sir, to express to you, that I am in + possession of undoubted information, that African and West India + negroes are almost daily illicitly introduced into Georgia, for + sale or settlement, or passing through it to the territories of + the United States for similar purposes; these facts are + notorious; and it is not unusual to see such negroes in the + streets of St. Mary's, and such too, recently captured by our + vessels of war, and ordered to Savannah, were illegally bartered + by hundreds in that city, _for_ this bartering or bonding (as + _it is called_, but in reality _selling_,) actually took place + before any decision had [been] passed by the court respecting + them. I cannot but again express to you, sir, that these + irregularities and mocking of the laws, by men who understand + them, and who, it was presumed, would have respected them, are + such, that it requires the immediate interposition of Congress + to effect a suppression of this traffic; for, as things are, + should a faithful officer of the government apprehend such + negroes, to avoid the penalties imposed by the laws, the + proprietors disclaim them, and some agent of the executive + demands a delivery of the same to him, who may employ them as he + pleases, or effect a sale by way of a bond, for the restoration + of the negroes when legally called on so to do; which bond, it + is _understood_, is to be _forfeited_, as the amount of the bond + is so much less than the value of the property.... There are + many negroes ... recently introduced into this state and the + Alabama territory, and which can be apprehended. The undertaking + would be great; but to be sensible that we shall possess your + approbation, and that we are carrying the views and wishes of + the government into execution, is all we wish, and it shall be + done, independent of every personal consideration. + + I have, etc.[87] + +This "approbation" failed to come to the zealous collector, and on the +5th of July he wrote that, "not being favored with a reply," he has been +obliged to deliver over to the governor's agents ninety-one illegally +imported Negroes.[88] Reports from other districts corroborate this +testimony. The collector at Mobile writes of strange proceedings on the +part of the courts.[89] General D.B. Mitchell, ex-governor of Georgia +and United States Indian agent, after an investigation in 1821 by +Attorney-General Wirt, was found "guilty of having prostituted his +power, as agent for Indian affairs at the Creek agency, to the purpose +of aiding and assisting in a conscious breach of the act of Congress of +1807, in prohibition of the slave trade--and this from mercenary +motives."[90] The indefatigable Collector Chew of New Orleans wrote to +Washington that, "to put a stop to that traffic, a naval force suitable +to those waters is indispensable," and that "vast numbers of slaves will +be introduced to an alarming extent, unless prompt and effectual +measures are adopted by the general government."[91] Other collectors +continually reported infractions, complaining that they could get no +assistance from the citizens,[92] or plaintively asking the services of +"one small cutter."[93] + +Meantime, what was the response of the government to such +representations, and what efforts were made to enforce the act? A few +unsystematic and spasmodic attempts are recorded. In 1811 some special +instructions were sent out,[94] and the President was authorized to +seize Amelia Island.[95] Then came the war; and as late as November 15, +1818, in spite of the complaints of collectors, we find no revenue +cutter on the Gulf coast.[96] During the years 1817 and 1818[97] some +cruisers went there irregularly, but they were too large to be +effective; and the partial suppression of the Amelia Island pirates was +all that was accomplished. On the whole, the efforts of the government +lacked plan, energy, and often sincerity. Some captures of slavers were +made;[98] but, as the collector at Mobile wrote, anent certain cases, +"this was owing rather to accident, than any well-timed arrangement." He +adds: "from the Chandalier Islands to the Perdido river, including the +coast, and numerous other islands, we have only a small boat, with four +men and an inspector, to oppose to the whole confederacy of smugglers +and pirates."[99] + +To cap the climax, the government officials were so negligent that +Secretary Crawford, in 1820, confessed to Congress that "it appears, +from an examination of the records of this office, that no particular +instructions have ever been given, by the Secretary of the Treasury, +under the original or supplementary acts prohibiting the introduction of +slaves into the United States."[100] Beside this inactivity, the +government was criminally negligent in not prosecuting and punishing +offenders when captured. Urgent appeals for instruction from prosecuting +attorneys were too often received in official silence; complaints as to +the violation of law by State officers went unheeded;[101] informers +were unprotected and sometimes driven from home.[102] Indeed, the most +severe comment on the whole period is the report, January 7, 1819, of +the Register of the Treasury, who, after the wholesale and open +violation of the Act of 1807, reported, in response to a request from +the House, "that it doth not appear, from an examination of the records +of this office, and particularly of the accounts (to the date of their +last settlement) of the collectors of the customs, and of the several +marshals of the United States, that any forfeitures had been incurred +under the said act."[103] + +63. ~Typical Cases.~ At this date (January 7, 1819), however, certain +cases were stated to be pending, a history of which will fitly conclude +this discussion. In 1818 three American schooners sailed from the United +States to Havana; on June 2 they started back with cargoes aggregating +one hundred and seven slaves. The schooner "Constitution" was captured +by one of Andrew Jackson's officers under the guns of Fort Barancas. The +"Louisa" and "Marino" were captured by Lieutenant McKeever of the United +States Navy. The three vessels were duly proceeded against at Mobile, +and the case began slowly to drag along. The slaves, instead of being +put under the care of the zealous marshal of the district, were placed +in the hands of three bondsmen, friends of the judge. The marshal +notified the government of this irregularity, but apparently received no +answer. In 1822 the three vessels were condemned as forfeited, but the +court "reserved" for future order the distribution of the slaves. +Nothing whatever either then or later was done to the slave-traders +themselves. The owners of the ships promptly appealed to the Supreme +Court of the United States, and that tribunal, in 1824, condemned the +three vessels and the slaves on two of them.[104] These slaves, +considerably reduced in number "from various causes," were sold at +auction for the benefit of the State, in spite of the Act of 1819. +Meantime, before the decision of the Supreme Court, the judge of the +Supreme Court of West Florida had awarded to certain alleged Spanish +claimants of the slaves indemnity for nearly the whole number seized, at +the price of $650 per head, and the Secretary of the Treasury had +actually paid the claim.[105] In 1826 Lieutenant McKeever urgently +petitions Congress for his prize-money of $4,415.15, which he has not +yet received.[106] The "Constitution" was for some inexplicable reason +released from bond, and the whole case fades in a very thick cloud of +official mist. In 1831 Congress sought to inquire into the final +disposition of the slaves. The information given was never printed; but +as late as 1836 a certain Calvin Mickle petitions Congress for +reimbursement for the slaves sold, for their hire, for their natural +increase, for expenses incurred, and for damages.[107] + + +64. ~The Supplementary Acts, 1818-1820.~ To remedy the obvious defects +of the Act of 1807 two courses were possible: one, to minimize the crime +of transportation, and, by encouraging informers, to concentrate efforts +against the buying of smuggled slaves; the other, to make the crime of +transportation so great that no slaves would be imported. The Act of +1818 tried the first method; that of 1819, the second.[108] The latter +was obviously the more upright and logical, and the only method +deserving thought even in 1807; but the Act of 1818 was the natural +descendant of that series of compromises which began in the +Constitutional Convention, and which, instead of postponing the +settlement of critical questions to more favorable times, rather +aggravated and complicated them. + +The immediate cause of the Act of 1818 was the Amelia Island +scandal.[109] Committees in both Houses reported bills, but that of the +Senate finally passed. There does not appear to have been very much +debate.[110] The sale of Africans for the benefit of the informer and of +the United States was strongly urged "as the only means of executing the +laws against the slave trade as experience had fully demonstrated since +the origin of the prohibition."[111] This proposition was naturally +opposed as "inconsistent with the principles of our Government, and +calculated to throw as wide open the door to the importation of slaves +as it was before the existing prohibition."[112] The act, which became a +law April 20, 1818,[113] was a poorly constructed compromise, which +virtually acknowledged the failure of efforts to control the trade, and +sought to remedy defects by pitting cupidity against cupidity, informer +against thief. One-half of all forfeitures and fines were to go to the +informer, and penalties for violation were changed as follows:-- + + For equipping a slaver, instead of a fine of $20,000, a fine of + $1000 to $5000 and imprisonment from 3 to 7 years. + + For transporting Negroes, instead of a fine of $5000 and + forfeiture of ship and Negroes, a fine of $1000 to $5000 and + imprisonment from 3 to 7 years. + + For actual importation, instead of a fine of $1000 to $10,000 + and imprisonment from 5 to 10 years, a fine of $1000 to + $10,000, and imprisonment from 3 to 7 years. + + For knowingly buying illegally imported Negroes, instead of a + fine of $800 for each Negro and forfeiture, a fine of $1000 for + each Negro. + +The burden of proof was laid on the defendant, to the extent that he +must prove that the slave in question had been imported at least five +years before the prosecution. The slaves were still left to the disposal +of the States. + +This statute was, of course, a failure from the start,[114] and at the +very next session Congress took steps to revise it. A bill was reported +in the House, January 13, 1819, but it was not discussed till +March.[115] It finally passed, after "much debate."[116] The Senate +dropped its own bill, and, after striking out the provision for the +death penalty, passed the bill as it came from the House.[117] The House +acquiesced, and the bill became a law, March 3, 1819,[118] in the midst +of the Missouri trouble. This act directed the President to use armed +cruisers on the coasts of the United States and Africa to suppress the +slave-trade; one-half the proceeds of the condemned ship were to go to +the captors as bounty, provided the Africans were safely lodged with a +United States marshal and the crew with the civil authorities. These +provisions were seriously marred by a proviso which Butler of Louisiana, +had inserted, with a "due regard for the interests of the State which he +represented," viz., that a captured slaver must always be returned to +the port whence she sailed.[119] This, of course, secured decided +advantages to Southern slave-traders. The most radical provision of the +act was that which directed the President to "make such regulations and +arrangements as he may deem expedient for the safe keeping, support, and +removal beyond the limits of the United States, of all such negroes, +mulattoes, or persons of colour, as may be so delivered and brought +within their jurisdiction;" and to appoint an agent in Africa to receive +such Negroes.[120] Finally, an appropriation of $100,000 was made to +enforce the act.[121] This act was in some measure due to the new +colonization movement; and the return of Africans recaptured was a +distinct recognition of its efforts, and the real foundation of Liberia. + +To render this straightforward act effective, it was necessary to add +but one measure, and that was a penalty commensurate with the crime of +slave stealing. This was accomplished by the Act of May 15, 1820,[122] a +law which may be regarded as the last of the Missouri Compromise +measures. The act originated from the various bills on piracy which were +introduced early in the sixteenth Congress. The House bill, in spite of +opposition, was amended so as to include slave-trading under piracy, +and passed. The Senate agreed without a division. This law provided that +direct participation in the slave-trade should be piracy, punishable +with death.[123] + + ----------------------+----------------------+----------------------- + STATUTES AT LARGE. | DATE. | AMOUNT APPROPRIATED. + ----------------------+----------------------+----------------------- + VOL. PAGE | | + III. 533-4 | March 3, 1819 | $100,000 + " 764 | " 3, 1823 | 50,000 + IV. 141 | " 14, 1826 | 32,000 + " 208 | March 2, 1827 | / 36,710 + | | \ 20,000 + " 302 | May 24, 1828 | 30,000 + " 354 | March 2, 1829 | 16,000 + " 462 | " 2, 1831 | 16,000 + " 615 | Feb. 20, 1833 | 5,000 + " 671 | Jan. 24, 1834 | 5,000 + V. 157-8 | March 3, 1837 | 11,413.57 + " 501 | Aug. 4, 1842 | 10,543.42 + " 615 | March 3, 1843 | 5,000 + IX. 96 | Aug. 10, 1846 | 25,000 + XI. 90 | " 18, 1856 | 8,000 + " 227 | March 3, 1857 | 8,000 + " 404 | " 3, 1859 | 75,000 + XII. 21 | May 26, 1860 | 40,000 + " 132 | Feb. 19, 1861 | 900,000 + " 219 | March 2, 1861 | 900,000 + " 639 | Feb. 4, 1863 | 17,000 + XIII. 424 | Jan. 24, 1865 | 17,000 + XIV. 226 | July 25, 1866 | 17,000 + " 415 | Feb. 28, 1867 | 17,000 + XV. 58 | March 30, 1868 | 12,500 + " 321 | March 3, 1869 | 12,500 + ----------------------+----------------------+----------------------- + Total, 50 years $2,386,666.99 + Minus surpluses re-appropriated (approximate) 48,666.99? + -------------- + $2,338,000 + Cost of squadron, 1843-58, @ $384,500 per year + (_House Exec. Doc._, 31 Cong. 1 sess. IX. No. 73) 5,767,500 + Returning slaves on "Wildfire" (_Statutes at Large_, + XII. 41) 250,000 + Approximate cost of squadron, 1858-66, probably not + less than $500,000 per year 4,000,000? + --------------- + Approximate money cost of suppressing the + slave-trade $12,355,500? + +Cf. Kendall's Report: _Senate Doc._, 21 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1, pp. +211-8; _Amer. State Papers, Naval_, III. No. 429 E.; also Reports of +the Secretaries of the Navy from 1819 to 1860. + + +65. ~Enforcement of the Supplementary Acts, 1818-1825.~ A somewhat more +sincere and determined effort to enforce the slave-trade laws now +followed; and yet it is a significant fact that not until Lincoln's +administration did a slave-trader suffer death for violating the laws of +the United States. The participation of Americans in the trade +continued, declining somewhat between 1825 and 1830, and then reviving, +until it reached its highest activity between 1840 and 1860. The +development of a vast internal slave-trade, and the consequent rise in +the South of vested interests strongly opposed to slave smuggling, led +to a falling off in the illicit introduction of Negroes after 1825, +until the fifties; nevertheless, smuggling never entirely ceased, and +large numbers were thus added to the plantations of the Gulf States. + +Monroe had various constitutional scruples as to the execution of the +Act of 1819;[124] but, as Congress took no action, he at last put a fair +interpretation on his powers, and appointed Samuel Bacon as an agent in +Africa to form a settlement for recaptured Africans. Gradually the +agency thus formed became merged with that of the Colonization Society +on Cape Mesurado; and from this union Liberia was finally evolved.[125] + +Meantime, during the years 1818 to 1820, the activity of the +slave-traders was prodigious. General James Tallmadge declared in the +House, February 15, 1819: "Our laws are already highly penal against +their introduction, and yet, it is a well known fact, that about +fourteen thousand slaves have been brought into our country this last +year."[126] In the same year Middleton of South Carolina and Wright of +Virginia estimated illicit introduction at 13,000 and 15,000 +respectively.[127] Judge Story, in charging a jury, took occasion to +say: "We have but too many proofs from unquestionable sources, that it +[the slave-trade] is still carried on with all the implacable rapacity +of former times. Avarice has grown more subtle in its evasions, and +watches and seizes its prey with an appetite quickened rather than +suppressed by its guilty vigils. American citizens are steeped to their +very mouths (I can hardly use too bold a figure) in this stream of +iniquity."[128] The following year, 1820, brought some significant +statements from various members of Congress. Said Smith of South +Carolina: "Pharaoh was, for his temerity, drowned in the Red Sea, in +pursuing them [the Israelites] contrary to God's express will; but our +Northern friends have not been afraid even of that, in their zeal to +furnish the Southern States with Africans. They are better seamen than +Pharaoh, and calculate by that means to elude the vigilance of Heaven; +which they seem to disregard, if they can but elude the violated laws of +their country."[129] As late as May he saw little hope of suppressing +the traffic.[130] Sergeant of Pennsylvania declared: "It is notorious +that, in spite of the utmost vigilance that can be employed, African +negroes are clandestinely brought in and sold as slaves."[131] Plumer of +New Hampshire stated that "of the unhappy beings, thus in violation of +all laws transported to our shores, and thrown by force into the mass of +our black population, scarcely one in a hundred is ever detected by the +officers of the General Government, in a part of the country, where, if +we are to believe the statement of Governor Rabun, 'an officer who would +perform his duty, by attempting to enforce the law [against the slave +trade] is, by many, considered as an officious meddler, and treated with +derision and contempt;' ... I have been told by a gentleman, who has +attended particularly to this subject, that ten thousand slaves were in +one year smuggled into the United States; and that, even for the last +year, we must count the number not by hundreds, but by thousands."[132] +In 1821 a committee of Congress characterized prevailing methods as +those "of the grossest fraud that could be practised to deceive the +officers of government."[133] Another committee, in 1822, after a +careful examination of the subject, declare that they "find it +impossible to measure with precision the effect produced upon the +American branch of the slave trade by the laws above mentioned, and the +seizures under them. They are unable to state, whether those American +merchants, the American capital and seamen which heretofore aided in +this traffic, have abandoned it altogether, or have sought shelter under +the flags of other nations." They then state the suspicious circumstance +that, with the disappearance of the American flag from the traffic, "the +trade, notwithstanding, increases annually, under the flags of other +nations." They complain of the spasmodic efforts of the executive. They +say that the first United States cruiser arrived on the African coast in +March, 1820, and remained a "few weeks;" that since then four others had +in two years made five visits in all; but "since the middle of last +November, the commencement of the healthy season on that coast, no +vessel has been, nor, as your committee is informed, is, under orders +for that service."[134] The United States African agent, Ayres, reported +in 1823: "I was informed by an American officer who had been on the +coast in 1820, that he had boarded 20 American vessels in one morning, +lying in the port of Gallinas, and fitted for the reception of slaves. +It is a lamentable fact, that most of the harbours, between the Senegal +and the line, were visited by an equal number of American vessels, and +for the sole purpose of carrying away slaves. Although for some years +the coast had been occasionally visited by our cruizers, their short +stay and seldom appearance had made but slight impression on those +traders, rendered hardy by repetition of crime, and avaricious by +excessive gain. They were enabled by a regular system to gain +intelligence of any cruizer being on the coast."[135] + +Even such spasmodic efforts bore abundant fruit, and indicated what +vigorous measures might have accomplished. Between May, 1818, and +November, 1821, nearly six hundred Africans were recaptured and eleven +American slavers taken.[136] Such measures gradually changed the +character of the trade, and opened the international phase of the +question. American slavers cleared for foreign ports, there took a +foreign flag and papers, and then sailed boldly past American cruisers, +although their real character was often well known. More stringent +clearance laws and consular instructions might have greatly reduced this +practice; but nothing was ever done, and gradually the laws became in +large measure powerless to deal with the bulk of the illicit trade. In +1820, September 16, a British officer, in his official report, declares +that, in spite of United States laws, "American vessels, American +subjects, and American capital, are unquestionably engaged in the trade, +though under other colours and in disguise."[137] The United States ship +"Cyane" at one time reported ten captures within a few days, adding: +"Although they are evidently owned by Americans, they are so completely +covered by Spanish papers that it is impossible to condemn them."[138] +The governor of Sierra Leone reported the rivers Nunez and Pongas full +of renegade European and American slave-traders;[139] the trade was said +to be carried on "to an extent that almost staggers belief."[140] Down +to 1824 or 1825, reports from all quarters prove this activity in +slave-trading. + +The execution of the laws within the country exhibits grave defects and +even criminal negligence. Attorney-General Wirt finds it necessary to +assure collectors, in 1819, that "it is against public policy to +dispense with prosecutions for violation of the law to prohibit the +Slave trade."[141] One district attorney writes: "It appears to be +almost impossible to enforce the laws of the United States against +offenders after the negroes have been landed in the state."[142] Again, +it is asserted that "when vessels engaged in the slave trade have been +detained by the American cruizers, and sent into the slave-holding +states, there appears at once a difficulty in securing the freedom to +these captives which the laws of the United States have decreed for +them."[143] In some cases, one man would smuggle in the Africans and +hide them in the woods; then his partner would "rob" him, and so all +trace be lost.[144] Perhaps 350 Africans were officially reported as +brought in contrary to law from 1818 to 1820: the absurdity of this +figure is apparent.[145] A circular letter to the marshals, in 1821, +brought reports of only a few well-known cases, like that of the +"General Ramirez;" the marshal of Louisiana had "no information."[146] + +There appears to be little positive evidence of a large illicit +importation into the country for a decade after 1825. It is hardly +possible, however, considering the activity in the trade, that slaves +were not largely imported. Indeed, when we note how the laws were +continually broken in other respects, absence of evidence of petty +smuggling becomes presumptive evidence that collusive or tacit +understanding of officers and citizens allowed the trade to some +extent.[147] Finally, it must be noted that during all this time +scarcely a man suffered for participating in the trade, beyond the loss +of the Africans and, more rarely, of his ship. Red-handed slavers, +caught in the act and convicted, were too often, like La Coste of South +Carolina, the subjects of executive clemency.[148] In certain cases +there were those who even had the effrontery to ask Congress to cancel +their own laws. For instance, in 1819 a Venezuelan privateer, secretly +fitted out and manned by Americans in Baltimore, succeeded in capturing +several American, Portuguese, and Spanish slavers, and appropriating the +slaves; being finally wrecked herself, she transferred her crew and +slaves to one of her prizes, the "Antelope," which was eventually +captured by a United States cruiser and the 280 Africans sent to +Georgia. After much litigation, the United States Supreme Court ordered +those captured from Spaniards to be surrendered, and the others to be +returned to Africa. By some mysterious process, only 139 Africans now +remained, 100 of whom were sent to Africa. The Spanish claimants of the +remaining thirty-nine sold them to a certain Mr. Wilde, who gave bond to +transport them out of the country. Finally, in December, 1827, there +came an innocent petition to Congress to _cancel this bond_.[149] A bill +to that effect passed and was approved, May 2, 1828,[150] and in +consequence these Africans remained as slaves in Georgia. + +On the whole, it is plain that, although in the period from 1807 to 1820 +Congress laid down broad lines of legislation sufficient, save in some +details, to suppress the African slave trade to America, yet the +execution of these laws was criminally lax. Moreover, by the facility +with which slavers could disguise their identity, it was possible for +them to escape even a vigorous enforcement of our laws. This situation +could properly be met only by energetic and sincere international +co-operation. The next chapter will review efforts directed toward this +end.[151] + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 2 sess. V. 468. + + [2] Cf. below, § 59. + + [3] _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 238. + + [4] There were at least twelve distinct propositions as to the + disposal of the Africans imported:-- + + 1. That they be forfeited and sold by the United States at + auction (Early's bill, reported Dec. 15: _Annals of Cong._, 9 + Cong. 2 sess. pp. 167-8). + + 2. That they be forfeited and left to the disposal of the + States (proposed by Bidwell and Early: _Ibid._, pp. 181, 221, + 477. This was the final settlement.) + + 3. That they be forfeited and sold, and that the proceeds go + to charities, education, or internal improvements (Early, + Holland, and Masters: _Ibid._, p. 273). + + 4. That they be forfeited and indentured for life (Alston and + Bidwell: _Ibid._, pp. 170-1). + + 5. That they be forfeited and indentured for 7, 8, or 10 + years (Pitkin: _Ibid._, p. 186). + + 6. That they be forfeited and given into the custody of the + President, and by him indentured in free States for a term of + years (bill reported from the Senate Jan. 28: _House Journal_ + (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 2 sess. V. 575; _Annals of Cong._, 9 + Cong. 2 sess. p. 477. Cf. also _Ibid._, p. 272). + + 7. That the Secretary of the Treasury dispose of them, at his + discretion, in service (Quincy: _Ibid._, p. 183). + + 8. That those imported into slave States be returned to + Africa or bound out in free States (Sloan: _Ibid._, p. 254). + + 9. That all be sent back to Africa (Smilie: _Ibid._, p. 176). + + 10. That those imported into free States be free, those + imported into slave States be returned to Africa or indentured + (Sloan: _Ibid._, p. 226). + + 11. That they be forfeited but not sold (Sloan and others: + _Ibid._, p. 270). + + 12. That they be free (Sloan: _Ibid._, p. 168; Bidwell: + _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 2 sess. V. 515). + + [5] Bidwell, Cook, and others: _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 2 + sess. p. 201. + + [6] Bidwell: _Ibid._, p. 172. + + [7] Fisk: _Ibid._, pp. 224-5; Bidwell: _Ibid._, p. 221. + + [8] Quincy: _Ibid._, p. 184. + + [9] _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 478; Bidwell: + _Ibid._, p. 171. + + [10] _Ibid._, p. 172. + + [11] _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 173-4. + + [12] Alston: _Ibid._, p. 170. + + [13] D.R. Williams: _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 183. + + [14] Early: _Ibid._, pp. 184-5. + + [15] Lloyd, Early, and others: _Ibid._, p. 203. + + [16] Alston: _Ibid._, p. 170. + + [17] Quincy: _Ibid._, p. 222; Macon: _Ibid._, p. 225. + + [18] Macon: _Ibid._, p. 177. + + [19] Barker: _Ibid._, p. 171; Bidwell: _Ibid._, p. 172. + + [20] Clay, Alston, and Early: _Ibid._, p. 266. + + [21] Clay, Alston, and Early: _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 2 + sess. p. 266. + + [22] Bidwell: _Ibid._, p. 221. + + [23] Sloan and others: _Ibid._, p. 271; Early and Alston: + _Ibid._, pp. 168, 171. + + [24] Ely, Bidwell, and others: _Ibid._, pp. 179, 181, 271; + Smilie and Findley: _Ibid._, pp. 225, 226. + + [25] _Ibid._, p. 240. Cf. Lloyd: _Ibid._, p. 236. + + [26] Holland: _Ibid._, p. 241. + + [27] _Ibid._, p. 227; Macon: _Ibid._, p. 225. + + [28] Bidwell, Cook, and others: _Ibid._, p. 201. + + [29] Bidwell: _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 221. Cf. + _Ibid._, p. 202. + + [30] Early: _Ibid._, p. 239. + + [31] _Ibid._ + + [32] _Ibid._, p. 1267. + + [33] There were about six distinct punishments suggested:-- + + 1. Forfeiture, and fine of $5000 to $10,000 (Early's bill: + _Ibid._, p. 167). + + 2. Forfeiture and imprisonment (amendment to Senate bill: + _Ibid._, pp. 231, 477, 483). + + 3. Forfeiture, imprisonment from 5 to 10 years, and fine of + $1000 to $10,000 (amendment to amendment of Senate bill: + _Ibid._, pp. 228, 483). + + 4. Forfeiture, imprisonment from 5 to 40 years, and fine of + $1000 to $10,000 (Chandler's amendment: _Ibid._, p. 228). + + 5. Forfeiture of all property, and imprisonment (Pitkin: + _Ibid._, p. 188). + + 6. Death (Smilie: _Ibid._, pp. 189-90; bill reported to House, + Dec. 19: _Ibid._, p. 190; Senate bill as reported to House, + Jan. 28). + + [34] Smilie: _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 189-90. + + [35] Tallmadge: _Ibid._, p. 233; Olin: _Ibid._, p. 237. + + [36] Ely: _Ibid._, p. 237. + + [37] Smilie: _Ibid._, p. 236. Cf. Sloan: _Ibid._, p. 232. + + [38] Hastings: _Ibid._, p. 228. + + [39] Dwight: _Ibid._, p. 241; Ely: _Ibid._, p. 232. + + [40] Mosely: _Ibid._, pp. 234-5. + + [41] Tallmadge: _Ibid._, pp. 232, 234. Cf. Dwight: _Ibid._, p. 241. + + [42] Varnum: _Ibid._, p. 243. + + [43] Elmer: _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 235. + + [44] _Ibid._, p. 240. + + [45] Holland: _Ibid._, p. 240. + + [46] Early: _Ibid._, pp. 238-9; Holland: _Ibid._, p. 239. + + [47] _Ibid._, p. 233. Cf. Lloyd: _Ibid._, p. 237; Ely: + _Ibid._, p. 232; Early: _Ibid._, pp. 238-9. + + [48] _Ibid._, p. 484. + + [49] This was the provision of the Senate bill as reported to + the House. It was over the House amendment to this that the + Houses disagreed. Cf. _Ibid._, p. 484. + + [50] Cf. _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 527-8. + + [51] _Ibid._, p. 528. + + [52] _Ibid._, p. 626. + + [53] _Ibid._ + + [54] _Ibid._ + + [55] _Ibid._, pp. 636-8; _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. + 2 sess. V. 616, and House Bill No. 219; _Ibid._, 10 Cong. 1 + sess. VI. 27, 50; _Annals of Cong._, 10 Cong. 1 sess. pp. + 854-5, 961. + + [56] On account of the meagre records it is difficult to + follow the course of this bill. I have pieced together + information from various sources, and trust that this account + is approximately correct. + + [57] Cf. _Senate Journal_ (repr. 1821), 9 Cong. 2 sess. IV., + Senate Bill No. 41. + + [58] _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 1 sess. p. 438. Cf. above, § + 53. + + [59] This amendment of the Committee of the Whole was adopted + by a vote of 63 to 53. The New England States stood 3 to 2 for + the death penalty; the Middle States were evenly divided, 3 + and 3; and the South stood 5 to 0 against it, with Kentucky + evenly divided. Cf. _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 2 + sess. V. 504. + + [60] _Ibid._, V. 514-5. + + [61] The substitution of the Senate bill was a victory for the + anti-slavery party, as all battles had to be fought again. The + Southern party, however, succeeded in carrying all its + amendments. + + [62] Messrs. Betton of New Hampshire, Chittenden of Vermont, + Garnett and Trigg of Virginia, and D.R. Williams of South + Carolina voted against the bill: _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), + 9 Cong. 2 sess. V. 585-6. + + [63] _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 626-7. + + [64] The unassigned dates refer to debates, etc. The history + of the amendments and debates on the measure may be traced in + the following references:-- + + _Senate_ (Bill No. 41). + + _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 20-1; 9 Cong. 2 sess. + pp. 16, 19, 23, 33, 36, 45, 47, 68, 69, 70, 71, 79, 87, 93, + etc. + + _Senate Journal_ (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 1-2 sess. IV. 11, 112, + 123, 124, 132, 133, 150, 158, 164, 165, 167, 168, etc. + + * * * * * + + _House_ (Bill No. 148). + + _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 1 sess. p. 438; 9 Cong. 2 sess. pp. + 114, 151, 167-8, 173-4, 180, 183, 189, 200, 202-4, 220, 228, + 231, 240, 254, 264, 266-7, 270, 273, 373, 427, 477, 481, + 484-6, 527, 528, etc. + + _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 1-2 sess. V. 470, 482, + 488, 490, 491, 496, 500, 504, 510, 513-6, 517, 540, 557, 575, + 579, 581, 583-4, 585, 592, 594, 610, 613-5, 623, 638, 640, + etc. + + [65] _Statutes at Large_, II. 426. There were some few + attempts to obtain laws of relief from this bill: see, e.g., + _Annals of Cong._, 10 Cong. 1 sess. p. 1243; 11 Cong. 1 sess. + pp. 34, 36-9, 41, 43, 48, 49, 380, 465, 688, 706, 2209; _House + Journal_ (repr. 1826), II Cong. 1-2 sess. VII. 100, 102, 124, + etc., and Index, Senate Bill No. 8. Cf. _Amer. State Papers, + Miscellaneous_, II. No. 269. There was also one proposed + amendment to make the prohibition perpetual: _Amer. State + Papers, Miscellaneous_, I. No. 244. + + [66] Toulmin, _Digest of the Laws of Alabama_, p. 637. + + [67] _Laws of North Carolina_ (revision of 1819), II. 1350. + + [68] Prince, _Digest_, p. 793. + + [69] Fowler, _Historical Status of the Negro in Connecticut_, + in _Local Law_, etc., pp. 122, 126. + + [70] _House Reports_, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 92, p. 32. + + [71] _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 11 Cong. 3 sess. VII. p. + 435. + + [72] _House Doc._, 15 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 84, p. 5. + + [73] See, e.g., _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 11 Cong. 3 sess. + VII. p. 575. + + [74] Drake, _Revelations of a Slave Smuggler_, p. 51. Parts of + this narrative are highly colored and untrustworthy; this + passage, however, has every earmark of truth, and is confirmed + by many incidental allusions. + + [75] For accounts of these slavers, see _House Reports_, 17 + Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 92, pp. 30-50. The "Paz" was an armed + slaver flying the American flag. + + [76] Said to be owned by an Englishman, but fitted in America + and manned by Americans. It was eventually captured by H.M.S. + "Bann," after a hard fight. + + [77] Also called Spanish schooner "Triumvirate," with American + supercargo, Spanish captain, and American, French, Spanish, + and English crew. It was finally captured by a British vessel. + + [78] An American slaver of 1814, which was boarded by a + British vessel. All the above cases, and many others, were + proven before British courts. + + [79] _House Reports_, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 92, p. 51. + + [80] _House Doc._, 15 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 12, pp. 22, 38. + This slaver was after capture sent to New Orleans,--an + illustration of the irony of the Act of 1807. + + [81] _House Journal_, 14 Cong. 2 sess. p. 15. + + [82] _House Doc._, 16 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 36, p. 5. + + [83] _Ibid._, 15 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 12, pp. 8-14. See + Chew's letter of Oct. 17, 1817: _Ibid._, pp. 14-16. + + [84] By the secret Joint Resolution and Act of 1811 (_Statutes + at Large_, III. 471), Congress gave the President power to + suppress the Amelia Island establishment, which was then + notorious. The capture was not accomplished until 1817. + + [85] _House Doc._, 16 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 42, pp. 10-11. + Cf. Report of the House Committee, Jan. 10, 1818: "It is but + too notorious that numerous infractions of the law prohibiting + the importation of slaves into the United States have been + perpetrated with impunity upon our southern frontier." _Amer. + State Papers, Miscellaneous_, II. No. 441. + + [86] Special message of Jan. 13, 1818: _House Journal_, 15 + Cong. 1 sess. pp. 137-9. + + [87] Collector McIntosh, of the District of Brunswick, Ga., to + the Secretary of the Treasury. _House Doc._, 16 Cong. 1 sess. + III. No. 42, pp. 8-9. + + [88] _House Doc._, 16 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 42, pp. 6-7. + + [89] _Ibid._, pp. 11-12. + + [90] _Amer. State Papers, Miscellaneous_, II. No. 529. + + [91] _House Doc._, 16 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 42, p. 7. + + [92] _Ibid._, p. 6. + + [93] _House Reports_, 21 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 348, p. 82. + + [94] They were not general instructions, but were directed to + Commander Campbell. Cf. _House Doc._, 15 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. + 84, pp. 5-6. + + [95] _Statutes at Large_, III. 471 ff. + + [96] _House Doc._, 15 Cong. 2 sess. VI. No. 107, pp. 8-9. + + [97] _Ibid._, IV. No. 84. Cf. Chew's letters in _House + Reports_, 21 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 348. + + [98] _House Doc._, 15 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 12, pp. 22, 38; 15 + Cong. 2 sess. VI. No. 100, p. 13; 16 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. + 42, p. 9, etc.; _House Reports_, 21 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. + 348, p. 85. + + [99] _House Doc._, 15 Cong. 2 sess. VI. No. 107, pp. 8-9. + +[100] _House Reports_, 21 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 348, p. 77. + +[101] Cf. _House Doc._, 16 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 42, p. 11: + "The Grand Jury found true bills against the owners of the + vessels, masters, and a supercargo--all of whom are + discharged; why or wherefore I cannot say, except that it + could not be for want of proof against them." + +[102] E.g., in July, 1818, one informer "will have to leave + that part of the country to save his life": _Ibid._, 15 Cong. + 2 sess. VI. No. 100, p. 9. + +[103] Joseph Nourse, Register of the Treasury, to Hon. W.H. + Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury: _Ibid._, 15 Cong. 2 sess. + VI. No. 107, p. 5. + +[104] The slaves on the "Constitution" were not condemned, for + the technical reason that she was not captured by a + commissioned officer of the United States navy. + +[105] These proceedings are very obscure, and little was said + about them. The Spanish claimants were, it was alleged with + much probability, but representatives of Americans. The claim + was paid under the provisions of the Treaty of Florida, and + included slaves whom the court afterward declared forfeited. + +[106] An act to relieve him was finally passed, Feb. 8, 1827, + nine years after the capture. See _Statutes at Large_, VI. + 357. + +[107] It is difficult to get at the exact facts in this + complicated case. The above statement is, I think, much milder + than the real facts would warrant, if thoroughly known. Cf. + _House Reports_, 19 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 231; 21 Cong. 1 + sess. III. No. 348, pp. 62-3, etc.; 24 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. + 209; _Amer. State Papers, Naval_, II. No. 308. + +[108] The first method, represented by the Act of 1818, was + favored by the South, the Senate, and the Democrats; the + second method, represented by the Act of 1819, by the North, + the House, and by the as yet undeveloped but growing Whig + party. + +[109] Committees on the slave-trade were appointed by the + House in 1810 and 1813; the committee of 1813 recommended a + revision of the laws, but nothing was done: _Annals of Cong._, + 11 Cong. 3 sess. p. 387; 12 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 1074, 1090. The + presidential message of 1816 led to committees on the trade in + both Houses. The committee of the House of Representatives + reported a joint resolution on abolishing the traffic and + colonizing the Negroes, also looking toward international + action. This never came to a vote: _Senate Journal_, 14 Cong. + 2 sess. pp. 46, 179, 180; _House Journal_, 14 Cong. 2 sess. + pp. 25, 27, 380; _House Doc_, 14 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 77. + Finally, the presidential message of 1817 (_House Journal_, 15 + Cong. 1 sess. p. 11), announcing the issuance of orders to + suppress the Amelia Island establishment, led to two other + committees in both Houses. The House committee under Middleton + made a report with a bill (_Amer. State Papers, + Miscellaneous_, II. No. 441), and the Senate committee also + reported a bill. + +[110] The Senate debates were entirely unreported, and the + report of the House debates is very meagre. For the + proceedings, see _Senate Journal_, 15 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 243, + 304, 315, 333, 338, 340, 348, 377, 386, 388, 391, 403, 406; + _House Journal_, 15 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 19, 20, 29, 51, 92, 131, + 362, 410, 450, 452, 456, 468, 479, 484, 492, 505. + +[111] Simkins of South Carolina, Edwards of North Carolina, + and Pindall: _Annals of Cong._, 15 Cong. 1 sess. p. 1740. + +[112] Hugh Nelson of Virginia: _Annals of Cong._, 15 Cong. 1 + sess. p. 1740. + +[113] _Statutes at Large_, III. 450. By this act the first six + sections of the Act of 1807 were repealed. + +[114] Or, more accurately speaking, every one realized, in + view of the increased activity of the trade, that it would be + a failure. + +[115] Nov. 18, 1818, the part of the presidential message + referring to the slave-trade was given to a committee of the + House, and this committee also took in hand the House bill of + the previous session which the Senate bill had replaced: + _House Journal_, 15 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 9-19, 42, 150, 179, 330, + 334, 341, 343, 352. + +[116] Of which little was reported: _Annals of Cong._, 15 + Cong. 2 sess. pp. 1430-31. Strother opposed, "for various + reasons of expediency," the bounties for captors. Nelson of + Virginia advocated the death penalty, and, aided by Pindall, + had it inserted. The vote on the bill was 57 to 45. + +[117] The Senate had also had a committee at work on a bill + which was reported Feb. 8, and finally postponed: _Senate + Journal_, 15 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 234, 244, 311-2, 347. The House + bill was taken up March 2: _Annals of Cong._, 15 Cong. 2 sess. + p. 280. + +[118] _Statutes at Large_, III. 532. + +[119] _Annals of Cong._, 15 Cong. 2 sess. p. 1430. This + insured the trial of slave-traders in a sympathetic slave + State, and resulted in the "disappearance" of many captured + Negroes. + +[120] _Statutes at Large_, III. 533. + +[121] The first of a long series of appropriations extending + to 1869, of which a list is given on the next page. The totals + are only approximately correct. Some statutes may have escaped + me, and in the reports of moneys the surpluses of previous + years are not always clearly distinguishable. + +[122] In the first session of the sixteenth Congress, two + bills on piracy were introduced into the Senate, one of which + passed, April 26. In the House there was a bill on piracy, and + a slave-trade committee reported recommending that the + slave-trade be piracy. The Senate bill and this bill were + considered in Committee of the Whole, May 11, and a bill was + finally passed declaring, among other things, the traffic + piracy. In the Senate there was "some discussion, rather on + the form than the substance of these amendments," and "they + were agreed to without a division": _Senate Journal_, 16 Cong. + 1 sess. pp. 238, 241, 268, 287, 314, 331, 346, 350, 409, 412, + 417, 420, 422, 424, 425; _House Journal_, 16 Cong. 1 sess. pp. + 113, 280, 453, 454, 494, 518, 520, 522, 537; _Annals of + Cong._, 16 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 693-4, 2231, 2236-7, etc. The + debates were not reported. + +[123] _Statutes at Large_, III. 600-1. This act was in reality + a continuation of the piracy Act of 1819, and was only + temporary. The provision was, however, continued by several + acts, and finally made perpetual by the Act of Jan. 30, 1823: + _Statutes at Large_, III. 510-4, 721. On March 3, 1823, it was + slightly amended so as to give district courts jurisdiction. + +[124] Attorney-General Wirt advised him, October, 1819, that + no part of the appropriation could be used to purchase land in + Africa or tools for the Negroes, or as salary for the agent: + _Opinions of Attorneys-General_, I. 314-7. Monroe laid the + case before Congress in a special message Dec. 20, 1819 + (_House Journal_, 16 Cong. 1 sess. p. 57); but no action was + taken there. + +[125] Cf. Kendall's Report, August, 1830: _Senate Doc._, 21 + Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1, pp. 211-8; also see below, Chapter X. + +[126] Speech in the House of Representatives, Feb. 15, 1819, + p. 18; published in Boston, 1849. + +[127] Jay, _Inquiry into American Colonization_ (1838), p. 59, + note. + +[128] Quoted in Friends' _Facts and Observations on the Slave + Trade_ (ed. 1841), pp. 7-8. + +[129] _Annals of Cong._, 16 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 270-1. + +[130] _Ibid._, p. 698. + +[131] _Ibid._, p. 1207. + +[132] _Annals of Cong._, 16 Cong. 1 sess. p. 1433. + +[133] Referring particularly to the case of the slaver + "Plattsburg." Cf. _House Reports_, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. + 92, p. 10. + +[134] _House Reports_, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 92, p. 2. The + President had in his message spoken in exhilarating tones of + the success of the government in suppressing the trade. The + House Committee appointed in pursuance of this passage made + the above report. Their conclusions are confirmed by British + reports: _Parliamentary Papers_, 1822, Vol. XXII., _Slave + Trade_, Further Papers, III. p. 44. So, too, in 1823, Ashmun, + the African agent, reports that thousands of slaves are being + abducted. + +[135] Ayres to the Secretary of the Navy, Feb. 24, 1823; + reprinted in _Friends' View of the African Slave-Trade_ + (1824), p. 31. + +[136] _House Reports_, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 92, pp. 5-6. + The slavers were the "Ramirez," "Endymion," "Esperanza," + "Plattsburg," "Science," "Alexander," "Eugene," "Mathilde," + "Daphne," "Eliza," and "La Pensée." In these 573 Africans were + taken. The naval officers were greatly handicapped by the size + of the ships, etc. (cf. _Friends' View_, etc., pp. 33-41). + They nevertheless acted with great zeal. + +[137] _Parliamentary Papers_, 1821, Vol. XXIII., _Slave + Trade_, Further Papers, A, p. 76. The names and description of + a dozen or more American slavers are given: _Ibid._, pp. + 18-21. + +[138] _House Reports_, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 92, pp. 15-20. + +[139] _House Doc._, 18 Cong. 1 sess. VI. No. 119, p. 13. + +[140] _Parliamentary Papers_, 1823, Vol. XVIII., _Slave + Trade_, Further Papers, A, pp. 10-11. + +[141] _Opinions of Attorneys-General_, V. 717. + +[142] R.W. Habersham to the Secretary of the Navy, August, + 1821; reprinted in _Friends' View_, etc., p. 47. + +[143] _Ibid._, p. 42. + +[144] _Ibid._, p. 43. + +[145] Cf. above, pp. 126-7. + +[146] _Friends' View_, etc., p. 42. + +[147] A few accounts of captures here and there would make the + matter less suspicious; these, however, do not occur. How + large this suspected illicit traffic was, it is of course + impossible to say; there is no reason why it may not have + reached many hundreds per year. + +[148] Cf. editorial in _Niles's Register_, XXII. 114. Cf. also + the following instances of pardons:-- + + PRESIDENT JEFFERSON: March 1, 1808, Phillip M. Topham, + convicted for "carrying on an illegal slave-trade" (pardoned + twice). _Pardons and Remissions_, I. 146, 148-9. + + PRESIDENT MADISON: July 29, 1809, fifteen vessels arrived at + New Orleans from Cuba, with 666 white persons and 683 negroes. + Every penalty incurred under the Act of 1807 was remitted. + (Note: "Several other pardons of this nature were granted.") + _Ibid._, I. 179. + + Nov. 8, 1809, John Hopkins and Lewis Le Roy, convicted for + importing a slave. _Ibid._, I. 184-5. + + Feb. 12, 1810, William Sewall, convicted for importing slaves. + _Ibid._, I. 194, 235, 240. + + May 5, 1812, William Babbit, convicted for importing slaves. + _Ibid._, I. 248. + + PRESIDENT MONROE: June 11, 1822, Thomas Shields, convicted for + bringing slaves into New Orleans. _Ibid._, IV. 15. + + Aug. 24, 1822, J.F. Smith, sentenced to five years' + imprisonment and $3000 fine; served twenty-five months and was + then pardoned. _Ibid._, IV. 22. + + July 23, 1823, certain parties liable to penalties for + introducing slaves into Alabama. _Ibid._, IV. 63. + + Aug. 15, 1823, owners of schooner "Mary," convicted of + importing slaves. _Ibid._, IV. 66. + + PRESIDENT J.Q. ADAMS: March 4, 1826, Robert Perry; his ship + was forfeited for slave-trading. _Ibid._, IV. 140. + + Jan. 17, 1827, Jesse Perry; forfeited ship, and was convicted + for introducing slaves. _Ibid._, IV. 158. + + Feb. 13, 1827, Zenas Winston; incurred penalties for + slave-trading. _Ibid._, IV. 161. The four following cases are + similar to that of Winston:-- + + Feb. 24, 1827, John Tucker and William Morbon. _Ibid._, IV. + 162. + + March 25, 1828, Joseph Badger. _Ibid._, IV. 192. + + Feb. 19, 1829, L.R. Wallace. _Ibid._, IV. 215. + + PRESIDENT JACKSON: Five cases. _Ibid._, IV. 225, 270, 301, + 393, 440. + + The above cases were taken from manuscript copies of the + Washington records, made by Mr. W.C. Endicott, Jr., and kindly + loaned me. + +[149] See _Senate Journal_, 20 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 60, 66, 340, + 341, 343, 348, 352, 355; _House Journal_, 20 Cong. 1 sess. pp. + 59, 76, 123, 134, 156, 169, 173, 279, 634, 641, 646, 647, 688, + 692. + +[150] _Statutes at Large_, VI. 376. + +[151] Among interesting minor proceedings in this period were + two Senate bills to register slaves so as to prevent illegal + importation. They were both dropped in the House; a House + proposition to the same effect also came to nothing: _Senate + Journal_, 15 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 147, 152, 157, 165, 170, 188, + 201, 203, 232, 237; 15 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 63, 74, 77, 202, 207, + 285, 291, 297; _House Journal_, 15 Cong. 1 sess. p. 332; 15 + Cong. 2 sess. pp. 303, 305, 316; 16 Cong. 1 sess. p. 150. + Another proposition was contained in the Meigs resolution + presented to the House, Feb. 5, 1820, which proposed to devote + the public lands to the suppression of the slave-trade. This + was ruled out of order. It was presented again and laid on the + table in 1821: _House Journal_, 16 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 196, 200, + 227; 16 Cong. 2 sess. p. 238. + + * * * * * + + + + +_Chapter IX_ + +THE INTERNATIONAL STATUS OF THE SLAVE-TRADE. + +1783-1862. + + 66. The Rise of the Movement against the Slave-Trade, 1788-1807. + 67. Concerted Action of the Powers, 1783-1814. + 68. Action of the Powers from 1814 to 1820. + 69. The Struggle for an International Right of Search, 1820-1840. + 70. Negotiations of 1823-1825. + 71. The Attitude of the United States and the State of the Slave-Trade. + 72. The Quintuple Treaty, 1839-1842. + 73. Final Concerted Measures, 1842-1862. + + +66. ~The Rise of the Movement against the Slave-Trade, 1788-1807.~ At +the beginning of the nineteenth century England held 800,000 slaves in +her colonies; France, 250,000; Denmark, 27,000; Spain and Portugal, +600,000; Holland, 50,000; Sweden, 600; there were also about 2,000,000 +slaves in Brazil, and about 900,000 in the United States.[1] This was +the powerful basis of the demand for the slave-trade; and against the +economic forces which these four and a half millions of enforced +laborers represented, the battle for freedom had to be fought. + +Denmark first responded to the denunciatory cries of the eighteenth +century against slavery and the slave-trade. In 1792, by royal order, +this traffic was prohibited in the Danish possessions after 1802. The +principles of the French Revolution logically called for the extinction +of the slave system by France. This was, however, accomplished more +precipitately than the Convention anticipated; and in a whirl of +enthusiasm engendered by the appearance of the Dominican deputies, +slavery and the slave-trade were abolished in all French colonies +February 4, 1794.[2] This abolition was short-lived; for at the command +of the First Consul slavery and the slave-trade was restored in An X +(1799).[3] The trade was finally abolished by Napoleon during the +Hundred Days by a decree, March 29, 1815, which briefly declared: "À +dater de la publication du présent Décret, la Traite des Noirs est +abolie."[4] The Treaty of Paris eventually confirmed this law.[5] + +In England, the united efforts of Sharpe, Clarkson, and Wilberforce +early began to arouse public opinion by means of agitation and pamphlet +literature. May 21, 1788, Sir William Dolben moved a bill regulating the +trade, which passed in July and was the last English measure +countenancing the traffic.[6] The report of the Privy Council on the +subject in 1789[7] precipitated the long struggle. On motion of Pitt, in +1788, the House had resolved to take up at the next session the question +of the abolition of the trade.[8] It was, accordingly, called up by +Wilberforce, and a remarkable parliamentary battle ensued, which lasted +continuously until 1805. The Grenville-Fox ministry now espoused the +cause. This ministry first prohibited the trade with such colonies as +England had acquired by conquest during the Napoleonic wars; then, in +1806, they prohibited the foreign slave-trade; and finally, March 25, +1807, enacted the total abolition of the traffic.[9] + + +67. ~Concerted Action of the Powers, 1783-1814.~ During the peace +negotiations between the United States and Great Britain in 1783, it was +proposed by Jay, in June, that there be a proviso inserted as follows: +"Provided that the subjects of his Britannic Majesty shall not have any +right or claim under the convention, to carry or import, into the said +States any slaves from any part of the world; it being the intention of +the said States entirely to prohibit the importation thereof."[10] Fox +promptly replied: "If that be their policy, it never can be competent to +us to dispute with them their own regulations."[11] No mention of this +was, however, made in the final treaty, probably because it was thought +unnecessary. + +In the proposed treaty of 1806, signed at London December 31, Article 24 +provided that "The high contracting parties engage to communicate to +each other, without delay, all such laws as have been or shall be +hereafter enacted by their respective Legislatures, as also all measures +which shall have been taken for the abolition or limitation of the +African slave trade; and they further agree to use their best endeavors +to procure the co-operation of other Powers for the final and complete +abolition of a trade so repugnant to the principles of justice and +humanity."[12] + +This marks the beginning of a long series of treaties between England +and other powers looking toward the prohibition of the traffic by +international agreement. During the years 1810-1814 she signed treaties +relating to the subject with Portugal, Denmark, and Sweden.[13] May 30, +1814, an additional article to the Treaty of Paris, between France and +Great Britain, engaged these powers to endeavor to induce the +approaching Congress at Vienna "to decree the abolition of the Slave +Trade, so that the said Trade shall cease universally, as it shall cease +definitively, under any circumstances, on the part of the French +Government, in the course of 5 years; and that during the said period no +Slave Merchant shall import or sell Slaves, except in the Colonies of +the State of which he is a Subject."[14] In addition to this, the next +day a circular letter was despatched by Castlereagh to Austria, Russia, +and Prussia, expressing the hope "that the Powers of Europe, when +restoring Peace to Europe, with one common interest, will crown this +great work by interposing their benign offices in favour of those +Regions of the Globe, which yet continue to be desolated by this +unnatural and inhuman traffic."[15] Meantime additional treaties were +secured: in 1814 by royal decree Netherlands agreed to abolish the +trade;[16] Spain was induced by her necessities to restrain her trade to +her own colonies, and to endeavor to prevent the fraudulent use of her +flag by foreigners;[17] and in 1815 Portugal agreed to abolish the +slave-trade north of the equator.[18] + + +68. ~Action of the Powers from 1814 to 1820.~ At the Congress of Vienna, +which assembled late in 1814, Castlereagh was indefatigable in his +endeavors to secure the abolition of the trade. France and Spain, +however, refused to yield farther than they had already done, and the +other powers hesitated to go to the lengths he recommended. +Nevertheless, he secured the institution of annual conferences on the +matter, and a declaration by the Congress strongly condemning the trade +and declaring that "the public voice in all civilized countries was +raised to demand its suppression as soon as possible," and that, while +the definitive period of termination would be left to subsequent +negotiation, the sovereigns would not consider their work done until the +trade was entirely suppressed.[19] + +In the Treaty of Ghent, between Great Britain and the United States, +ratified February 17, 1815, Article 10, proposed by Great Britain, +declared that, "Whereas the traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the +principles of humanity and justice," the two countries agreed to use +their best endeavors in abolishing the trade.[20] The final overthrow of +Napoleon was marked by a second declaration of the powers, who, +"desiring to give effect to the measures on which they deliberated at +the Congress of Vienna, relative to the complete and universal +abolition of the Slave Trade, and having, each in their respective +Dominions, prohibited without restriction their Colonies and Subjects +from taking any part whatever in this Traffic, engage to renew +conjointly their efforts, with the view of securing final success to +those principles which they proclaimed in the Declaration of the 4th +February, 1815, and of concerting, without loss of time, through their +Ministers at the Courts of London and of Paris, the most effectual +measures for the entire and definitive abolition of a Commerce so +odious, and so strongly condemned by the laws of religion and of +nature."[21] + +Treaties further restricting the trade continued to be made by Great +Britain: Spain abolished the trade north of the equator in 1817,[22] and +promised entire abolition in 1820; Spain, Portugal, and Holland also +granted a mutual limited Right of Search to England, and joined in +establishing mixed courts.[23] The effort, however, to secure a general +declaration of the powers urging, if not compelling, the abolition of +the trade in 1820, as well as the attempt to secure a qualified +international Right of Visit, failed, although both propositions were +strongly urged by England at the Conference of 1818.[24] + + +69. ~The Struggle for an International Right of Search, 1820-1840.~ +Whatever England's motives were, it is certain that only a limited +international Right of Visit on the high seas could suppress or greatly +limit the slave-trade. Her diplomacy was therefore henceforth directed +to this end. On the other hand, the maritime supremacy of England, so +successfully asserted during the Napoleonic wars, would, in case a Right +of Search were granted, virtually make England the policeman of the +seas; and if nations like the United States had already, under present +conditions, had just cause to complain of violations by England of their +rights on the seas, might not any extension of rights by international +agreement be dangerous? It was such considerations that for many years +brought the powers to a dead-lock in their efforts to suppress the +slave-trade. + +At first it looked as if England might attempt, by judicial decisions in +her own courts, to seize even foreign slavers.[25] After the war, +however, her courts disavowed such action,[26] and the right was sought +for by treaty stipulation. Castlereagh took early opportunity to +approach the United States on the matter, suggesting to Minister Rush, +June 20, 1818, a mutual but strictly limited Right of Search.[27] Rush +was ordered to give him assurances of the solicitude of the United +States to suppress the traffic, but to state that the concessions asked +for appeared of a character not adaptable to our institutions. +Negotiations were then transferred to Washington; and the new British +minister, Mr. Stratford Canning, approached Adams with full instructions +in December, 1820.[28] + +Meantime, it had become clear to many in the United States that the +individual efforts of States could never suppress or even limit the +trade without systematic co-operation. In 1817 a committee of the House +had urged the opening of negotiations looking toward such international +co-operation,[29] and a Senate motion to the same effect had caused long +debate.[30] In 1820 and 1821 two House committee reports, one of which +recommended the granting of a Right of Search, were adopted by the +House, but failed in the Senate.[31] Adams, notwithstanding this, saw +constitutional objections to the plan proposed by Canning, and wrote to +him, December 30: "A Compact, giving the power to the Naval Officers of +one Nation to search the Merchant Vessels of another for Offenders and +offences against the Laws of the latter, backed by a further power to +seize and carry into a Foreign Port, and there subject to the decision +of a Tribunal composed of at least one half Foreigners, irresponsible to +the Supreme Corrective tribunal of this Union, and not amendable to the +controul of impeachment for official misdemeanors, was an investment of +power, over the persons, property and reputation of the Citizens of this +Country, not only unwarranted by any delegation of Sovereign Power to +the National Government, but so adverse to the elementary principles and +indispensable securities of individual rights, ... that not even the +most unqualified approbation of the ends ... could justify the +transgression." He then suggested co-operation of the fleets on the +coast of Africa, a proposal which was promptly accepted.[32] + +The slave-trade was again a subject of international consideration at +the Congress of Verona in 1822. Austria, France, Great Britain, Russia, +and Prussia were represented. The English delegates declared that, +although only Portugal and Brazil allowed the trade, yet the traffic was +at that moment carried on to a greater extent than ever before. They +said that in seven months of the year 1821 no less than 21,000 slaves +were abducted, and three hundred and fifty-two vessels entered African +ports north of the equator. "It is obvious," said they, "that this crime +is committed in contravention of the Laws of every Country of Europe, +and of America, excepting only of one, and that it requires something +more than the ordinary operation of Law to prevent it." England +therefore recommended:-- + +1. That each country denounce the trade as piracy, with a view of +founding upon the aggregate of such separate declarations a general law +to be incorporated in the Law of Nations. + +2. A withdrawing of the flags of the Powers from persons not natives of +these States, who engage in the traffic under the flags of these States. + +3. A refusal to admit to their domains the produce of the colonies of +States allowing the trade, a measure which would apply to Portugal and +Brazil alone. + +These proposals were not accepted. Austria would agree to the first two +only; France refused to denounce the trade as piracy; and Prussia was +non-committal. The utmost that could be gained was another denunciation +of the trade couched in general terms.[33] + + +70. ~Negotiations of 1823-1825.~ England did not, however, lose hope of +gaining some concession from the United States. Another House committee +had, in 1822, reported that the only method of suppressing the trade was +by granting a Right of Search.[34] The House agreed, February 28, 1823, +to request the President to enter into negotiations with the maritime +powers of Europe to denounce the slave-trade as piracy; an amendment +"that we agree to a qualified right of search" was, however, lost.[35] +Meantime, the English minister was continually pressing the matter upon +Adams, who proposed in turn to denounce the trade as piracy. Canning +agreed to this, but only on condition that it be piracy under the Law of +Nations and not merely by statute law. Such an agreement, he said, would +involve a Right of Search for its enforcement; he proposed strictly to +limit and define this right, to allow captured ships to be tried in +their own courts, and not to commit the United States in any way to the +question of the belligerent Right of Search. Adams finally sent a draft +of a proposed treaty to England, and agreed to recognize the +slave-traffic "as piracy under the law of nations, namely: that, +although seizable by the officers and authorities of every nation, they +should be triable only by the tribunals of the country of the slave +trading vessel."[36] + +Rush presented this _project_ to the government in January, 1824. +England agreed to all the points insisted on by the United States; viz., +that she herself should denounce the trade as piracy; that slavers +should be tried in their own country; that the captor should be laid +under the most effective responsibility for his conduct; and that +vessels under convoy of a ship of war of their own country should be +exempt from search. In addition, England demanded that citizens of +either country captured under the flag of a third power should be sent +home for trial, and that citizens of either country chartering vessels +of a third country should come under these stipulations.[37] + +This convention was laid before the Senate April 30, 1824, but was not +acted upon until May 21, when it was so amended as to make it terminable +at six months' notice. The same day, President Monroe, "apprehending, +from the delay in the decision, that some difficulty exists," sent a +special message to the Senate, giving at length the reasons for signing +the treaty, and saying that "should this Convention be adopted, there is +every reason to believe, that it will be the commencement of a system +destined to accomplish the entire Abolition of the Slave Trade." It was, +however, a time of great political pot-boiling, and consequently an +unfortunate occasion to ask senators to settle any great question. A +systematic attack, led by Johnson of Louisiana, was made on all the +vital provisions of the treaty: the waters of America were excepted from +its application, and those of the West Indies barely escaped exception; +the provision which, perhaps, aimed the deadliest blow at American +slave-trade interests was likewise struck out; namely, the application +of the Right of Search to citizens chartering the vessels of a third +nation.[38] + +The convention thus mutilated was not signed by England, who demanded as +the least concession the application of the Right of Search to American +waters. Meantime the United States had invited nearly all nations to +denounce the trade as piracy; and the President, the Secretary of the +Navy, and a House committee had urgently favored the granting of the +Right of Search. The bad faith of Congress, however, in the matter of +the Colombian treaty broke off for a time further negotiations with +England.[39] + + +71. ~The Attitude of the United States and the State of the +Slave-Trade.~ In 1824 the Right of Search was established between +England and Sweden, and in 1826 Brazil promised to abolish the trade in +three years.[40] In 1831 the cause was greatly advanced by the signing +of a treaty between Great Britain and France, granting mutually a +geographically limited Right of Search.[41] This led, in the next few +years, to similar treaties with Denmark, Sardinia,[42] the Hanse +towns,[43] and Naples.[44] Such measures put the trade more and more in +the hands of Americans, and it began greatly to increase. Mercer sought +repeatedly in the House to have negotiations reopened with England, but +without success.[45] Indeed, the chances of success were now for many +years imperilled by the recurrence of deliberate search of American +vessels by the British.[46] In the majority of cases the vessels proved +to be slavers, and some of them fraudulently flew the American flag; +nevertheless, their molestation by British cruisers created much +feeling, and hindered all steps toward an understanding: the United +States was loath to have her criminal negligence in enforcing her own +laws thus exposed by foreigners. Other international questions connected +with the trade also strained the relations of the two countries: three +different vessels engaged in the domestic slave-trade, driven by stress +of weather, or, in the "Creole" case, captured by Negroes on board, +landed slaves in British possessions; England freed them, and refused to +pay for such as were landed after emancipation had been proclaimed in +the West Indies.[47] The case of the slaver "L'Amistad" also raised +difficulties with Spain. This Spanish vessel, after the Negroes on board +had mutinied and killed their owners, was seized by a United States +vessel and brought into port for adjudication. The court, however, freed +the Negroes, on the ground that under Spanish law they were not legally +slaves; and although the Senate repeatedly tried to indemnify the +owners, the project did not succeed.[48] + +Such proceedings well illustrate the new tendency of the pro-slavery +party to neglect the enforcement of the slave-trade laws, in a frantic +defence of the remotest ramparts of slave property. Consequently, when, +after the treaty of 1831, France and England joined in urging the +accession of the United States to it, the British minister was at last +compelled to inform Palmerston, December, 1833, that "the Executive at +Washington appears to shrink from bringing forward, in any shape, a +question, upon which depends the completion of their former object--the +utter and universal Abolition of the Slave Trade--from an apprehension +of alarming the Southern States."[49] Great Britain now offered to sign +the proposed treaty of 1824 as amended; but even this Forsyth refused, +and stated that the United States had determined not to become "a party +of any Convention on the subject of the Slave Trade."[50] + +Estimates as to the extent of the slave-trade agree that the traffic to +North and South America in 1820 was considerable, certainly not much +less than 40,000 slaves annually. From that time to about 1825 it +declined somewhat, but afterward increased enormously, so that by 1837 +the American importation was estimated as high as 200,000 Negroes +annually. The total abolition of the African trade by American countries +then brought the traffic down to perhaps 30,000 in 1842. A large and +rapid increase of illicit traffic followed; so that by 1847 the +importation amounted to nearly 100,000 annually. One province of Brazil +is said to have received 173,000 in the years 1846-1849. In the decade +1850-1860 this activity in slave-trading continued, and reached very +large proportions. + +The traffic thus carried on floated under the flags of France, Spain, +and Portugal, until about 1830; from 1830 to 1840 it began gradually to +assume the United States flag; by 1845, a large part of the trade was +under the stars and stripes; by 1850 fully one-half the trade, and in +the decade, 1850-1860 nearly all the traffic, found this flag its best +protection.[51] + + +72. ~The Quintuple Treaty, 1839-1842.~ In 1839 Pope Gregory XVI. +stigmatized the slave-trade "as utterly unworthy of the Christian name;" +and at the same time, although proscribed by the laws of every civilized +State, the trade was flourishing with pristine vigor. Great advantage +was given the traffic by the fact that the United States, for two +decades after the abortive attempt of 1824, refused to co-operate with +the rest of the civilized world, and allowed her flag to shelter and +protect the slave-trade. If a fully equipped slaver sailed from New +York, Havana, Rio Janeiro, or Liverpool, she had only to hoist the stars +and stripes in order to proceed unmolested on her piratical voyage; for +there was seldom a United States cruiser to be met with, and there were, +on the other hand, diplomats at Washington so jealous of the honor of +the flag that they would prostitute it to crime rather than allow an +English or a French cruiser in any way to interfere. Without doubt, the +contention of the United States as to England's pretensions to a Right +of Visit was technically correct. Nevertheless, it was clear that if the +slave-trade was to be suppressed, each nation must either zealously keep +her flag from fraudulent use, or, as a labor-saving device, depute to +others this duty for limited places and under special circumstances. A +failure of any one nation to do one of these two things meant that the +efforts of all other nations were to be fruitless. The United States had +invited the world to join her in denouncing the slave-trade as piracy; +yet, when such a pirate was waylaid by an English vessel, the United +States complained or demanded reparation. The only answer which this +country for years returned to the long-continued exposures of American +slave-traders and of the fraudulent use of the American flag, was a +recital of cases where Great Britain had gone beyond her legal powers in +her attempt to suppress the slave-trade.[52] In the face of overwhelming +evidence to the contrary, Secretary of State Forsyth declared, in 1840, +that the duty of the United States in the matter of the slave-trade "has +been faithfully performed, and if the traffic still exists as a disgrace +to humanity, it is to be imputed to nations with whom Her Majesty's +Government has formed and maintained the most intimate connexions, and +to whose Governments Great Britain has paid for the right of active +intervention in order to its complete extirpation."[53] So zealous was +Stevenson, our minister to England, in denying the Right of Search, that +he boldly informed Palmerston, in 1841, "that there is no shadow of +pretence for excusing, much less justifying, the exercise of any such +right. That it is wholly immaterial, whether the vessels be equipped +for, or actually engaged in slave traffic or not, and consequently the +right to search or detain even slave vessels, must be confined to the +ships or vessels of those nations with whom it may have treaties on the +subject."[54] Palmerston courteously replied that he could not think +that the United States seriously intended to make its flag a refuge for +slave-traders;[55] and Aberdeen pertinently declared: "Now, it can +scarcely be maintained by Mr. Stevenson that Great Britain should be +bound to permit her own subjects, with British vessels and British +capital, to carry on, before the eyes of British officers, this +detestable traffic in human beings, which the law has declared to be +piracy, merely because they had the audacity to commit an additional +offence by fraudulently usurping the American flag."[56] Thus the +dispute, even after the advent of Webster, went on for a time, involving +itself in metaphysical subtleties, and apparently leading no nearer to +an understanding.[57] + +In 1838 a fourth conference of the powers for the consideration of the +slave-trade took place at London. It was attended by representatives of +England, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria. England laid the _projet_ +of a treaty before them, to which all but France assented. This +so-called Quintuple Treaty, signed December 20, 1841, denounced the +slave-trade as piracy, and declared that "the High Contracting Parties +agree by common consent, that those of their ships of war which shall be +provided with special warrants and orders ... may search every +merchant-vessel belonging to any one of the High Contracting Parties +which shall, on reasonable grounds, be suspected of being engaged in the +traffic in slaves." All captured slavers were to be sent to their own +countries for trial.[58] + +While the ratification of this treaty was pending, the United States +minister to France, Lewis Cass, addressed an official note to Guizot at +the French foreign office, protesting against the institution of an +international Right of Search, and rather grandiloquently warning the +powers against the use of force to accomplish their ends.[59] This +extraordinary epistle, issued on the minister's own responsibility, +brought a reply denying that the creation of any "new principle of +international law, whereby the vessels even of those powers which have +not participated in the arrangement should be subjected to the right of +search," was ever intended, and affirming that no such extraordinary +interpretation could be deduced from the Convention. Moreover, M. Guizot +hoped that the United States, by agreeing to this treaty, would "aid, by +its most sincere endeavors, in the definitive abolition of the +trade."[60] Cass's theatrical protest was, consciously or unconsciously, +the manifesto of that growing class in the United States who wanted no +further measures taken for the suppression of the slave-trade; toward +that, as toward the institution of slavery, this party favored a policy +of strict _laissez-faire_. + + +73. ~Final Concerted Measures, 1842-1862.~ The Treaty of Washington, in +1842, made the first effective compromise in the matter and broke the +unpleasant dead-lock, by substituting joint cruising by English and +American squadrons for the proposed grant of a Right of Search. In +submitting this treaty, Tyler said: "The treaty which I now submit to +you proposes no alteration, mitigation, or modification of the rules of +the law of nations. It provides simply that each of the two Governments +shall maintain on the coast of Africa a sufficient squadron to enforce +separately and respectively the laws, rights, and obligations of the two +countries for the suppression of the slave trade."[61] This provision +was a part of the treaty to settle the boundary disputes with England. +In the Senate, Benton moved to strike out this article; but the attempt +was defeated by a vote of 37 to 12, and the treaty was ratified.[62] + +This stipulation of the treaty of 1842 was never properly carried out by +the United States for any length of time.[63] Consequently the same +difficulties as to search and visit by English vessels continued to +recur. Cases like the following were frequent. The "Illinois," of +Gloucester, Massachusetts, while lying at Whydah, Africa, was boarded by +a British officer, but having American papers was unmolested. Three days +later she hoisted Spanish colors and sailed away with a cargo of slaves. +Next morning she fell in with another British vessel and hoisted +American colors; the British ship had then no right to molest her; but +the captain of the slaver feared that she would, and therefore ran his +vessel aground, slaves and all. The senior English officer reported that +"had Lieutenant Cumberland brought to and boarded the 'Illinois,' +notwithstanding the American colors which she hoisted,... the American +master of the 'Illinois' ... would have complained to his Government of +the detention of his vessel."[64] Again, a vessel which had been boarded +by British officers and found with American flag and papers was, a +little later, captured under the Spanish flag with four hundred and +thirty slaves. She had in the interim complained to the United States +government of the boarding.[65] + +Meanwhile, England continued to urge the granting of a Right of Search, +claiming that the stand of the United States really amounted to the +wholesale protection of pirates under her flag.[66] The United States +answered by alleging that even the Treaty of 1842 had been misconstrued +by England,[67] whereupon there was much warm debate in Congress, and +several attempts were made to abrogate the slave-trade article of the +treaty.[68] The pro-slavery party had become more and more suspicious of +England's motives, since they had seen her abolition of the slave-trade +blossom into abolition of the system itself, and they seized every +opportunity to prevent co-operation with her. At the same time, European +interest in the question showed some signs of weakening, and no decided +action was taken. In 1845 France changed her Right of Search +stipulations of 1833 to one for joint cruising,[69] while the Germanic +Federation,[70] Portugal,[71] and Chili[72]enounced the trade as piracy. +In 1844 Texas granted the Right of Search to England,[73] and in 1845 +Belgium signed the Quintuple Treaty.[74] + +Discussion between England and the United States was revived when Cass +held the State portfolio, and, strange to say, the author of "Cass's +Protest" went farther than any of his predecessors in acknowledging the +justice of England's demands. Said he, in 1859: "If The United States +maintained that, by carrying their flag at her masthead, any vessel +became thereby entitled to the immunity which belongs to American +vessels, they might well be reproached with assuming a position which +would go far towards shielding crimes upon the ocean from punishment; +but they advance no such pretension, while they concede that, if in the +honest examination of a vessel sailing under American colours, but +accompanied by strongly-marked suspicious circumstances, a mistake is +made, and she is found to be entitled to the flag she bears, but no +injury is committed, and the conduct of the boarding party is +irreproachable, no Government would be likely to make a case thus +exceptional in its character a subject of serious reclamation."[75] +While admitting this and expressing a desire to co-operate in the +suppression of the slave-trade, Cass nevertheless steadily refused all +further overtures toward a mutual Right of Search. + +The increase of the slave-traffic was so great in the decade 1850-1860 +that Lord John Russell proposed to the governments of the United States, +France, Spain, Portugal, and Brazil, that they instruct their ministers +to meet at London in May or June, 1860, to consider measures for the +final abolition of the trade. He stated: "It is ascertained, by +repeated instances, that the practice is for vessels to sail under the +American flag. If the flag is rightly assumed, and the papers correct, +no British cruizer can touch them. If no slaves are on board, even +though the equipment, the fittings, the water-casks, and other +circumstances prove that the ship is on a Slave Trade venture, no +American cruizer can touch them."[76] Continued representations of this +kind were made to the paralyzed United States government; indeed, the +slave-trade of the world seemed now to float securely under her flag. +Nevertheless, Cass refused even to participate in the proposed +conference, and later refused to accede to a proposal for joint cruising +off the coast of Cuba.[77] Great Britain offered to relieve the United +States of any embarrassment by receiving all captured Africans into the +West Indies; but President Buchanan "could not contemplate any such +arrangement," and obstinately refused to increase the suppressing +squadron.[78] + +On the outbreak of the Civil War, the Lincoln administration, through +Secretary Seward, immediately expressed a willingness to do all in its +power to suppress the slave-trade.[79] Accordingly, June 7, 1862, a +treaty was signed with Great Britain granting a mutual limited Right of +Search, and establishing mixed courts for the trial of offenders at the +Cape of Good Hope, Sierra Leone, and New York.[80] The efforts of a +half-century of diplomacy were finally crowned; Seward wrote to Adams, +"Had such a treaty been made in 1808, there would now have been no +sedition here."[81] + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Cf. Augustine Cochin, in Lalor, _Cyclopedia_, III. 723. + + [2] By a law of Aug. 11, 1792, the encouragement formerly + given to the trade was stopped. Cf. _Choix de rapports, + opinions et discours prononcés à la tribune nationale depuis + 1789_ (Paris, 1821), XIV. 425; quoted in Cochin, _The Results + of Emancipation_ (Booth's translation, 1863), pp. 33, 35-8. + + [3] Cochin, _The Results of Emancipation_ (Booth's + translation, 1863), pp. 42-7. + + [4] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1815-6, p. 196. + + [5] _Ibid._, pp. 195-9, 292-3; 1816-7, p. 755. It was + eventually confirmed by royal ordinance, and the law of April + 15, 1818. + + [6] _Statute 28 George III._, ch. 54. Cf. _Statute 29 George + III._, ch. 66. + + [7] Various petitions had come in praying for an abolition of + the slave-trade; and by an order in Council, Feb. 11, 1788, a + committee of the Privy Council was ordered to take evidence on + the subject. This committee presented an elaborate report in + 1739. See published _Report_, London, 1789. + + [8] For the history of the Parliamentary struggle, cf. + Clarkson's and Copley's histories. The movement was checked in + the House of Commons in 1789, 1790, and 1791. In 1792 the + House of Commons resolved to abolish the trade in 1796. The + Lords postponed the matter to take evidence. A bill to + prohibit the foreign slave-trade was lost in 1793, passed the + next session, and was lost in the House of Lords. In 1795, + 1796, 1798, and 1799 repeated attempts to abolish the trade + were defeated. The matter then rested until 1804, when the + battle was renewed with more success. + + [9] _Statute 46 George III._, ch. 52, 119; _47 George III._, + sess. I. ch. 36. + + [10] Sparks, _Diplomatic Correspondence_, X. 154. + + [11] Fox to Hartley, June 10, 1783; quoted in Bancroft, + _History of the Constitution of the United States_, I. 61. + + [12] _Amer. State Papers, Foreign_, III. No. 214, p. 151. + + [13] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1815-6, pp. 886, 937 + (quotation). + + [14] _Ibid._, pp. 890-1. + + [15] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1815-6, p. 887. + Russia, Austria, and Prussia returned favorable replies: + _Ibid._, pp. 887-8. + + [16] _Ibid._, p. 889. + + [17] She desired a loan, which England made on this condition: + _Ibid._, pp. 921-2. + + [18] _Ibid._, pp. 937-9. Certain financial arrangements + secured this concession. + + [19] _Ibid._, pp. 939-75 + + [20] _Amer. State Papers, Foreign_, III. No. 271, pp. 735-48; + _U.S. Treaties and Conventions_ (ed. 1889), p. 405. + + [21] This was inserted in the Treaty of Paris, Nov. 20, 1815: + _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1815-6, p. 292. + + [22] _Ibid._, 1816-7, pp. 33-74 (English version, 1823-4, p. + 702 ff.). + + [23] Cf. _Ibid._, 1817-8, p. 125 ff. + + [24] This was the first meeting of the London ministers of the + powers according to agreement; they assembled Dec. 4, 1817, + and finally called a meeting of plenipotentiaries on the + question of suppression at Aix-la-Chapelle, beginning Oct. 24, + 1818. Among those present were Metternich, Richelieu, + Wellington, Castlereagh, Hardenberg, Bernstorff, Nesselrode, + and Capodistrias. Castlereagh made two propositions: 1. That + the five powers join in urging Portugal and Brazil to abolish + the trade May 20, 1820; 2. That the powers adopt the principle + of a mutual qualified Right of Search. Cf. _British and + Foreign State Papers_, 1818-9, pp. 21-88; _Amer. State Papers, + Foreign_, V. No. 346, pp. 113-122. + + [25] For cases, see _1 Acton_, 240, the "Amedie," and _1 + Dodson_, 81, the "Fortuna;" quoted in U.S. Reports, _10 + Wheaton_, 66. + + [26] Cf. the case of the French ship "Le Louis": _2 Dodson_, + 238; and also the case of the "San Juan Nepomuceno": _1 + Haggard_, 267. + + [27] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1819-20, pp. 375-9; + also pp. 220-2. + + [28] _Ibid._, 1820-21, pp. 395-6. + + [29] _House Doc._, 14 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 77. + + [30] _Annals of Cong._, 15 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 71, 73-78, + 94-109. The motion was opposed largely by Southern members, + and passed by a vote of 17 to 16. + + [31] One was reported, May 9, 1820, by Mercer's committee, and + passed May 12: _House Journal_, 16 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 497, 518, + 520, 526; _Annals of Cong._, 16 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 697-9. A + similar resolution passed the House next session, and a + committee reported in favor of the Right of Search: _Ibid._, + 16 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 1064-71. Cf. _Ibid._, pp. 476, 743, 865, + 1469. + + [32] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1820-21, pp. 397-400. + + [33] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1822-3, pp. 94-110. + + [34] _House Reports_, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 92. + + [35] _House Journal_, 17 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 212, 280; _Annals + of Cong._, 17 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 922, 1147-1155. + + [36] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1823-4, pp. 409-21; + 1824-5, pp. 828-47; _Amer. State Papers, Foreign_, V. No. 371, + pp. 333-7. + + [37] _Ibid._ + + [38] _Ibid._, No. 374, p. 344 ff., No. 379, pp. 360-2. + + [39] _House Reports_, 18 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 70; _Amer. State + Papers, Foreign_, V. No. 379, pp. 364-5, No. 414, p. 783, etc. + Among the nations invited by the United States to co-operate + in suppressing the trade was the United States of Colombia. + Mr. Anderson, our minister, expressed "the certain belief that + the Republic of Colombia will not permit herself to be behind + any Government in the civilized world in the adoption of + energetic measures for the suppression of this disgraceful + traffic": _Ibid._, No. 407, p. 729. The little republic + replied courteously; and, as a _projet_ for a treaty, Mr. + Anderson offered the proposed English treaty of 1824, + including the Senate amendments. Nevertheless, the treaty thus + agreed to was summarily rejected by the Senate, March 9, 1825: + _Ibid._, p. 735. Another result of this general invitation of + the United States was a proposal by Colombia that the + slave-trade and the status of Hayti be among the subjects for + discussion at the Panama Congress. As a result of this, a + Senate committee recommended that the United States take no + part in the Congress. This report was finally disagreed to by + a vote of 19 to 24: _Ibid._, No. 423, pp. 837, 860, 876, 882. + + [40] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1823-4, and 1826-7. + Brazil abolished the trade in 1830. + + [41] This treaty was further defined in 1833: _Ibid._, 1830-1, + p. 641 ff.; 1832-3, p. 286 ff. + + [42] _Ibid._, 1833-4, pp. 218 ff., 1059 ff. + + [43] _Ibid._, 1837-8, p. 268 ff. + + [44] _Ibid._, 1838-9, p. 792 ff. + + [45] Viz., Feb. 28, 1825; April 7, 1830; Feb. 16, 1831; March + 3, 1831. The last resolution passed the House: _House + Journal_, 21 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 426-8. + + [46] Cf. _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 35-6, + etc.; _House Reports_, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283, pp. + 730-55, etc. + + [47] These were the celebrated cases of the "Encomium," + "Enterprize," and "Comet." Cf. _Senate Doc._, 24 Cong. 2 sess. + II. No. 174; 25 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 216. Cf. also case of + the "Creole": _Ibid._, 27 Cong. 2 sess. II.-III. Nos. 51, 137. + + [48] _Ibid._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 179; _Senate Exec. + Doc._, 31 Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 29; 32 Cong. 2 sess. III. No. + 19; _Senate Reports_, 31 Cong. 2 sess. No. 301; 32 Cong. 1 + sess. I. No. 158; 35 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 36; _House Doc._, 26 + Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 185; 27 Cong. 3 sess. V. No. 191; 28 + Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 83; _House Exec. Doc._, 32 Cong. 2 sess. + III. No. 20; _House Reports_, 26 Cong. 2 sess. No. 51; 28 + Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 426; 29 Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 753; also + Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, _15 Peters_, 518. Cf. + Drake, _Revelations of a Slave Smuggler_, p. 98. + + [49] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1834-5, p. 136. + + [50] _Ibid._, pp. 135-47. Great Britain made treaties + meanwhile with Hayti, Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentine + Confederation, Mexico, Texas, etc. Portugal prohibited the + slave-trade in 1836, except between her African colonies. Cf. + _Ibid._, from 1838 to 1841. + + [51] These estimates are from the following sources: _Ibid._, + 1822-3, pp. 94-110; _Parliamentary Papers_, 1823, XVIII., + _Slave Trade_, Further Papers, A., pp. 10-11; 1838-9, XLIX., + _Slave Trade_, Class A, Further Series, pp. 115, 119, 121; + _House Doc._, 19 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 1, p. 93; 20 Cong. 1 + sess. III. No. 99; 26 Cong. 1 sess. VI. No. 211; _House Exec. + Doc._, 31 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1, p. 193; _House Reports_, 21 + Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 348; _Senate Doc._, 28 Cong. 1 sess. + IV. No. 217; 31 Cong. 1 sess. XIV. No. 66; 31 Cong. 2 sess. + II. No. 6; _Amer. State Papers, Naval_, I. No. 249; Buxton, + _The African Slave Trade and its Remedy_, pp. 44-59; Friends' + _Facts and Observations on the Slave Trade_ (ed. 1841); + Friends' _Exposition of the Slave Trade, 1840-50_; _Annual + Reports of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society_. + + The annexed table gives the dates of the abolition of the + slave-trade by the various nations:-- + + -------+-------------------+---------------------------+-------------- + | | |Arrangements + | | Right of Search Treaty | for Joint + Date. |Slave-trade | with Great Britain, | Cruising + | Abolished by | made by | with Great + | | | Britain, + | | | made by + -------+-------------------+---------------------------+-------------- + 1802 | Denmark. | | + 1807 | Great Britain; | | + | United States. | | + 1813 | Sweden. | | + 1814 | Netherlands. | | + 1815 | Portugal (north | | + | of the equator).| | + 1817 | Spain (north of | Portugal; Spain. | + | the equator). | | + 1818 | France. | Netherlands. | + 1820 | Spain. | | + 1824 | | Sweden. | + 1829 | Brazil (?). | | + 1830 | Portugal. | | + 1831-33| | France. | + 1833-39| | Denmark, Hanse Towns, etc.| + 1841 | | Quintuple Treaty (Austria,| + 1842 | | Russia, Prussia). | United States. + 1844 | | Texas. | + 1845 | | Belgium. | France. + 1862 | | United States. | + -------+-------------------+---------------------------+-------------- + + + + [52] Cf. _British and Foreign State Papers_, from 1836 to + 1842. + + [53] _Ibid._, 1839-40, p. 940. + + [54] _House Doc._, 27 Cong. 1 sess. No. 34, pp. 5-6. + + [55] _Senate Doc._, 29 Cong. 1 sess. VIII. No. 377, p. 56. + + [56] _Ibid._, p. 72. + + [57] _Ibid._, pp. 133-40, etc. + + [58] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1841-2, p. 269 ff. + + [59] See below, Appendix B. + + [60] _Senate Doc._, 29 Cong. 1 sess. VIII. No. 377, p. 201. + + [61] _Senate Exec. Journal_, VI. 123. + + [62] _U.S. Treaties and Conventions_ (ed. 1889), pp. 436-7. + For the debates in the Senate, see _Congressional Globe_, 27 + Cong. 3 sess. Appendix. Cass resigned on account of the + acceptance of this treaty without a distinct denial of the + Right of Search, claiming that this compromised his position + in France. Cf. _Senate Doc._, 27 Cong. 3 sess. II., IV. Nos. + 52, 223; 29 Cong. 1 sess. VIII. No. 377. + + [63] Cf. below, Chapter X. + + [64] _Senate Exec. Doc._, 28 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 150, p. 72. + + [65] _Ibid._, p. 77. + + [66] _House Doc._, 27 Cong. 3 sess. V. No. 192, p. 4. Cf. + _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1842-3, p. 708 ff. + + [67] _House Journal_, 27 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 431, 485-8. Cf. + _House Doc._, 27 Cong. 3 sess. V. No. 192. + + [68] Cf. below, Chapter X. + + [69] With a fleet of 26 vessels, reduced to 12 in 1849: + _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1844-5, p. 4 ff.; 1849-50, + p. 480. + + [70] _Ibid._, 1850-1, p. 953. + + [71] Portugal renewed her Right of Search treaty in 1842: + _Ibid._, 1841-2, p. 527 ff.; 1842-3, p. 450. + + [72] _Ibid._, 1843-4, p. 316. + + [73] _Ibid._, 1844-5, p. 592. There already existed some such + privileges between England and Texas. + + [74] _Ibid._, 1847-8, p. 397 ff. + + [75] _Ibid._, 1858-9, pp. 1121, 1129. + + [76] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1859-60, pp. 902-3. + + [77] _House Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 7. + + [78] _Ibid._ + + [79] _Senate Exec. Doc._, 37 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 57. + + [80] _Senate Exec. Journal_, XII. 230-1, 240, 254, 256, 391, + 400, 403; _Diplomatic Correspondence_, 1862, pp. 141, 158; + _U.S. Treaties and Conventions_ (ed. 1889), pp. 454-9. + + [81] _Diplomatic Correspondence_, 1862, pp. 64-5. This treaty + was revised in 1863. The mixed court in the West Indies had, + by February, 1864, liberated 95,206 Africans: _Senate Exec. + Doc._, 38 Cong. 1 sess. No. 56, p. 24. + + * * * * * + + + + +_Chapter X_ + +THE RISE OF THE COTTON KINGDOM. 1820-1850. + + 74. The Economic Revolution. + 75. The Attitude of the South. + 76. The Attitude of the North and Congress. + 77. Imperfect Application of the Laws. + 78. Responsibility of the Government. + 79. Activity of the Slave-Trade. + + +74. ~The Economic Revolution.~ The history of slavery and the +slave-trade after 1820 must be read in the light of the industrial +revolution through which the civilized world passed in the first half of +the nineteenth century. Between the years 1775 and 1825 occurred +economic events and changes of the highest importance and widest +influence. Though all branches of industry felt the impulse of this new +industrial life, yet, "if we consider single industries, cotton +manufacture has, during the nineteenth century, made the most +magnificent and gigantic advances."[1] This fact is easily explained by +the remarkable series of inventions that revolutionized this industry +between 1738 and 1830, including Arkwright's, Watt's, Compton's, and +Cartwright's epoch-making contrivances.[2] The effect which these +inventions had on the manufacture of cotton goods is best illustrated +by the fact that in England, the chief cotton market of the world, the +consumption of raw cotton rose steadily from 13,000 bales in 1781, to +572,000 in 1820, to 871,000 in 1830, and to 3,366,000 in 1860.[3] Very +early, therefore, came the query whence the supply of raw cotton was to +come. Tentative experiments on the rich, broad fields of the Southern +United States, together with the indispensable invention of Whitney's +cotton-gin, soon answered this question: a new economic future was +opened up to this land, and immediately the whole South began to extend +its cotton culture, and more and more to throw its whole energy into +this one staple. + +Here it was that the fatal mistake of compromising with slavery in the +beginning, and of the policy of _laissez-faire_ pursued thereafter, +became painfully manifest; for, instead now of a healthy, normal, +economic development along proper industrial lines, we have the abnormal +and fatal rise of a slave-labor large farming system, which, before it +was realized, had so intertwined itself with and braced itself upon the +economic forces of an industrial age, that a vast and terrible civil war +was necessary to displace it. The tendencies to a patriarchal serfdom, +recognizable in the age of Washington and Jefferson, began slowly but +surely to disappear; and in the second quarter of the century Southern +slavery was irresistibly changing from a family institution to an +industrial system. + +The development of Southern slavery has heretofore been viewed so +exclusively from the ethical and social standpoint that we are apt to +forget its close and indissoluble connection with the world's cotton +market. Beginning with 1820, a little after the close of the Napoleonic +wars, when the industry of cotton manufacture had begun its modern +development and the South had definitely assumed her position as chief +producer of raw cotton, we find the average price of cotton per pound, +8½_d._ From this time until 1845 the price steadily fell, until in the +latter year it reached 4_d._; the only exception to this fall was in the +years 1832-1839, when, among other things, a strong increase in the +English demand, together with an attempt of the young slave power to +"corner" the market, sent the price up as high as 11_d._ The demand for +cotton goods soon outran a crop which McCullough had pronounced +"prodigious," and after 1845 the price started on a steady rise, which, +except for the checks suffered during the continental revolutions and +the Crimean War, continued until 1860.[4] The steady increase in the +production of cotton explains the fall in price down to 1845. In 1822 +the crop was a half-million bales; in 1831, a million; in 1838, a +million and a half; and in 1840-1843, two million. By this time the +world's consumption of cotton goods began to increase so rapidly that, +in spite of the increase in Southern crops, the price kept rising. Three +million bales were gathered in 1852, three and a half million in 1856, +and the remarkable crop of five million bales in 1860.[5] + +Here we have data to explain largely the economic development of the +South. By 1822 the large-plantation slave system had gained footing; in +1838-1839 it was able to show its power in the cotton "corner;" by the +end of the next decade it had not only gained a solid economic +foundation, but it had built a closed oligarchy with a political policy. +The changes in price during the next few years drove out of competition +many survivors of the small-farming free-labor system, and put the slave +_régime_ in position to dictate the policy of the nation. The zenith of +the system and the first inevitable signs of decay came in the years +1850-1860, when the rising price of cotton threw the whole economic +energy of the South into its cultivation, leading to a terrible +consumption of soil and slaves, to a great increase in the size of +plantations, and to increasing power and effrontery on the part of the +slave barons. Finally, when a rising moral crusade conjoined with +threatened economic disaster, the oligarchy, encouraged by the state of +the cotton market, risked all on a political _coup-d'état_, which failed +in the war of 1861-1865.[6] + + +75. ~The Attitude of the South.~ The attitude of the South toward the +slave-trade changed _pari passu_ with this development of the cotton +trade. From 1808 to 1820 the South half wished to get rid of a +troublesome and abnormal institution, and yet saw no way to do so. The +fear of insurrection and of the further spread of the disagreeable +system led her to consent to the partial prohibition of the trade by +severe national enactments. Nevertheless, she had in the matter no +settled policy: she refused to support vigorously the execution of the +laws she had helped to make, and at the same time she acknowledged the +theoretical necessity of these laws. After 1820, however, there came a +gradual change. The South found herself supplied with a body of slave +laborers, whose number had been augmented by large illicit importations, +with an abundance of rich land, and with all other natural facilities +for raising a crop which was in large demand and peculiarly adapted to +slave labor. The increasing crop caused a new demand for slaves, and an +interstate slave-traffic arose between the Border and the Gulf States, +which turned the former into slave-breeding districts, and bound them to +the slave States by ties of strong economic interest. + +As the cotton crop continued to increase, this source of supply became +inadequate, especially as the theory of land and slave consumption broke +down former ethical and prudential bounds. It was, for example, found +cheaper to work a slave to death in a few years, and buy a new one, than +to care for him in sickness and old age; so, too, it was easier to +despoil rich, new land in a few years of intensive culture, and move on +to the Southwest, than to fertilize and conserve the soil.[7] +Consequently, there early came a demand for land and slaves greater than +the country could supply. The demand for land showed itself in the +annexation of Texas, the conquest of Mexico, and the movement toward the +acquisition of Cuba. The demand for slaves was manifested in the illicit +traffic that noticeably increased about 1835, and reached large +proportions by 1860. It was also seen in a disposition to attack the +government for stigmatizing the trade as criminal,[8] then in a +disinclination to take any measures which would have rendered our +repressive laws effective; and finally in such articulate declarations +by prominent men as this: "Experience having settled the point, that +this Trade _cannot be abolished by the use of force_, and that +blockading squadrons serve only to make it more profitable and more +cruel, I am surprised that the attempt is persisted in, unless as it +serves as a cloak to some other purposes. It would be far better than it +now is, for the African, if the trade was free from all restrictions, +and left to the mitigation and decay which time and competition would +surely bring about."[9] + + +76. ~The Attitude of the North and Congress.~ With the North as yet +unawakened to the great changes taking place in the South, and with the +attitude of the South thus in process of development, little or no +constructive legislation could be expected on the subject of the +slave-trade. As the divergence in sentiment became more and more +pronounced, there were various attempts at legislation, all of which +proved abortive. The pro-slavery party attempted, as early as 1826, and +again in 1828, to abolish the African agency and leave the Africans +practically at the mercy of the States;[10] one or two attempts were +made to relax the few provisions which restrained the coastwise +trade;[11] and, after the treaty of 1842, Benton proposed to stop +appropriations for the African squadron until England defined her +position on the Right of Search question.[12] The anti-slavery men +presented several bills to amend and strengthen previous laws;[13] they +sought, for instance, in vain to regulate the Texan trade, through which +numbers of slaves indirectly reached the United States.[14] Presidents +and consuls earnestly recommended legislation to restrict the clearances +of vessels bound on slave-trading voyages, and to hinder the facility +with which slavers obtained fraudulent papers.[15] Only one such bill +succeeded in passing the Senate, and that was dropped in the House.[16] + +The only legislation of this period was confined to a few appropriation +bills. Only one of these acts, that of 1823, appropriating $50,000,[17] +was designed materially to aid in the suppression of the trade, all the +others relating to expenses incurred after violations. After 1823 the +appropriations dwindled, being made at intervals of one, two, and three +years, down to 1834, when the amount was $5,000. No further +appropriations were made until 1842, when a few thousands above an +unexpended surplus were appropriated. In 1843 $5,000 were given, and +finally, in 1846, $25,000 were secured; but this was the last sum +obtainable until 1856.[18] Nearly all of these meagre appropriations +went toward reimbursing Southern plantation owners for the care and +support of illegally imported Africans, and the rest to the maintenance +of the African agency. Suspiciously large sums were paid for the first +purpose, considering the fact that such Africans were always worked hard +by those to whom they were farmed out, and often "disappeared" while in +their hands. In the accounts we nevertheless find many items like that +of $20,286.98 for the maintenance of Negroes imported on the +"Ramirez;"[19] in 1827, $5,442.22 for the "bounty, subsistence, +clothing, medicine," etc., of fifteen Africans;[20] in 1835, $3,613 for +the support of thirty-eight slaves for two months (including a bill of +$1,038 for medical attendance).[21] + +The African agency suffered many vicissitudes. The first agent, Bacon, +who set out early in 1820, was authorized by President Monroe "to form +an establishment on the island of Sherbro, or elsewhere on the coast of +Africa," and to build barracks for three hundred persons. He was, +however, warned "not to connect your agency with the views or plans of +the Colonization Society, with which, under the law, the Government of +the United States has no concern." Bacon soon died, and was followed +during the next four years by Winn and Ayres; they succeeded in +establishing a government agency on Cape Mesurado, in conjunction with +that of the Colonization Society. The agent of that Society, Jehudi +Ashmun, became after 1822, the virtual head of the colony; he fortified +and enlarged it, and laid the foundations of an independent community. +The succeeding government agents came to be merely official +representatives of the United States, and the distribution of free +rations for liberated Africans ceased in 1827. + +Between 1819 and 1830 two hundred and fifty-two recaptured Africans were +sent to the agency, and $264,710 were expended. The property of the +government at the agency was valued at $18,895. From 1830 to 1840, +nearly $20,000 more were expended, chiefly for the agents' salaries. +About 1840 the appointment of an agent ceased, and the colony became +gradually self-supporting and independent. It was proclaimed as the +Republic of Liberia in 1847.[22] + + +77. ~Imperfect Application of the Laws.~ In reviewing efforts toward the +suppression of the slave-trade from 1820 to 1850, it must be remembered +that nearly every cabinet had a strong, if not a predominating, Southern +element, and that consequently the efforts of the executive were +powerfully influenced by the changing attitude of the South. Naturally, +under such circumstances, the government displayed little activity and +no enthusiasm in the work. In 1824 a single vessel of the Gulf squadron +was occasionally sent to the African coast to return by the route +usually followed by the slavers; no wonder that "none of these or any +other of our public ships have found vessels engaged in the slave trade +under the flag of the United States, ... although it is known that the +trade still exists to a most lamentable extent."[23] Indeed, all that an +American slaver need do was to run up a Spanish or a Portuguese flag, to +be absolutely secure from all attack or inquiry on the part of United +States vessels. Even this desultory method of suppression was not +regular: in 1826 "no vessel has been despatched to the coast of Africa +for several months,"[24] and from that time until 1839 this country +probably had no slave-trade police upon the seas, except in the Gulf of +Mexico. In 1839 increasing violations led to the sending of two +fast-sailing vessels to the African coast, and these were kept there +more or less regularly;[25] but even after the signing of the treaty of +1842 the Secretary of the Navy reports: "On the coast of Africa we have +_no_ squadron. The small appropriation of the present year was believed +to be scarcely sufficient."[26] Between 1843 and 1850 the coast squadron +varied from two to six vessels, with from thirty to ninety-eight +guns;[27] "but the force habitually and actively engaged in cruizing on +the ground frequented by slavers has probably been less by one-fourth, +if we consider the size of the ships employed and their withdrawal for +purposes of recreation and health, and the movement of the reliefs, +whose arrival does not correspond exactly with the departure of the +vessels whose term of service has expired."[28] The reports of the navy +show that in only four of the eight years mentioned was the fleet, at +the time of report, at the stipulated size of eighty guns; and at times +it was much below this, even as late as 1848, when only two vessels are +reported on duty along the African coast.[29] As the commanders +themselves acknowledged, the squadron was too small and the +cruising-ground too large to make joint cruising effective.[30] + +The same story comes from the Brazil station: "Nothing effectual can be +done towards stopping the slave trade, as our squadron is at present +organized," wrote the consul at Rio Janeiro in 1847; "when it is +considered that the Brazil station extends from north of the equator to +Cape Horn on this continent, and includes a great part of Africa south +of the equator, on both sides of the Cape of Good Hope, it must be +admitted that one frigate and one brig is a very insufficient force to +protect American commerce, and repress the participation in the slave +trade by our own vessels."[31] In the Gulf of Mexico cruisers were +stationed most of the time, although even here there were at times +urgent representations that the scarcity or the absence of such vessels +gave the illicit trade great license.[32] + +Owing to this general negligence of the government, and also to its +anxiety on the subject of the theoretic Right of Search, many officials +were kept in a state of chronic deception in regard to the trade. The +enthusiasm of commanders was dampened by the lack of latitude allowed +and by the repeated insistence in their orders on the non-existence of a +Right of Search.[33] When one commander, realizing that he could not +cover the trading-track with his fleet, requested English commanders to +detain suspicious American vessels until one of his vessels came up, the +government annulled the agreement as soon as it reached their ears, +rebuked him, and the matter was alluded to in Congress long after with +horror.[34] According to the orders of cruisers, only slavers with +slaves actually on board could be seized. Consequently, fully equipped +slavers would sail past the American fleet, deliberately make all +preparations for shipping a cargo, then, when the English were not near, +"sell" the ship to a Spaniard, hoist the Spanish flag, and again sail +gayly past the American fleet with a cargo of slaves. An English +commander reported: "The officers of the United States' navy are +extremely active and zealous in the cause, and no fault can be +attributed to them, but it is greatly to be lamented that this blemish +should in so great a degree nullify our endeavours."[35] + + +78. ~Responsibility of the Government.~ Not only did the government thus +negatively favor the slave-trade, but also many conscious, positive acts +must be attributed to a spirit hostile to the proper enforcement of the +slave-trade laws. In cases of doubt, when the law needed executive +interpretation, the decision was usually in favor of the looser +construction of the law; the trade from New Orleans to Mobile was, for +instance, declared not to be coastwise trade, and consequently, to the +joy of the Cuban smugglers, was left utterly free and unrestricted.[36] +After the conquest of Mexico, even vessels bound to California, by the +way of Cape Horn, were allowed to clear coastwise, thus giving our flag +to "the slave-pirates of the whole world."[37] Attorney-General Nelson +declared that the selling to a slave-trader of an American vessel, to be +delivered on the coast of Africa, was not aiding or abetting the +slave-trade.[38] So easy was it for slavers to sail that corruption +among officials was hinted at. "There is certainly a want of proper +vigilance at Havana," wrote Commander Perry in 1844, "and perhaps at the +ports of the United States;" and again, in the same year, "I cannot but +think that the custom-house authorities in the United States are not +sufficiently rigid in looking after vessels of suspicious +character."[39] + +In the courts it was still next to impossible to secure the punishment +of the most notorious slave-trader. In 1847 a consul writes: "The slave +power in this city [i.e., Rio Janeiro] is extremely great, and a consul +doing his duty needs to be supported kindly and effectually at home. In +the case of the 'Fame,' where the vessel was diverted from the business +intended by her owners and employed in the slave trade--both of which +offences are punishable with death, if I rightly read the laws--I sent +home the two mates charged with these offences, for trial, the first +mate to Norfolk, the second mate to Philadelphia. What was done with the +first mate I know not. In the case of the man sent to Philadelphia, Mr. +Commissioner Kane states that a clear prima facie case is made out, and +then holds him to bail in the sum of _one thousand dollars_, which would +be paid by any slave trader in Rio, on the _presentation of a draft_. In +all this there is little encouragement for exertion."[40] Again, the +"Perry" in 1850 captured a slaver which was about to ship 1,800 slaves. +The captain admitted his guilt, and was condemned in the United States +District Court at New York. Nevertheless, he was admitted to bail of +$5,000; this being afterward reduced to $3,000, he forfeited it and +escaped. The mate was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary.[41] +Also several slavers sent home to the United States by the British, with +clear evidence of guilt, escaped condemnation through +technicalities.[42] + + +79. ~Activity of the Slave-Trade, 1820-1850.~ The enhanced price of +slaves throughout the American slave market, brought about by the new +industrial development and the laws against the slave-trade, was the +irresistible temptation that drew American capital and enterprise into +that traffic. In the United States, in spite of the large interstate +traffic, the average price of slaves rose from about $325 in 1840, to +$360 in 1850, and to $500 in 1860.[43] Brazil and Cuba offered similar +inducements to smugglers, and the American flag was ready to protect +such pirates. As a result, the American slave-trade finally came to be +carried on principally by United States capital, in United States ships, +officered by United States citizens, and under the United States flag. + +Executive reports repeatedly acknowledged this fact. In 1839 "a careful +revision of these laws" is recommended by the President, in order that +"the integrity and honor of our flag may be carefully preserved."[44] In +June, 1841, the President declares: "There is reason to believe that the +traffic is on the increase," and advocates "vigorous efforts."[45] His +message in December of the same year acknowledges: "That the American +flag is grossly abused by the abandoned and profligate of other nations +is but too probable."[46] The special message of 1845 explains at length +that "it would seem" that a regular policy of evading the laws is +carried on: American vessels with the knowledge of the owners are +chartered by notorious slave dealers in Brazil, aided by English +capitalists, with this intent.[47] The message of 1849 "earnestly" +invites the attention of Congress "to an amendment of our existing laws +relating to the African slave-trade, with a view to the effectual +suppression of that barbarous traffic. It is not to be denied," +continues the message, "that this trade is still, in part, carried on by +means of vessels built in the United States, and owned or navigated by +some of our citizens."[48] Governor Buchanan of Liberia reported in +1839: "The chief obstacle to the success of the very active measures +pursued by the British government for the suppression of the slave-trade +on the coast, is the _American flag_. Never was the proud banner of +freedom so extensively used by those pirates upon liberty and humanity, +as at this season."[49] One well-known American slaver was boarded +fifteen times and twice taken into port, but always escaped by means of +her papers.[50] Even American officers report that the English are doing +all they can, but that the American flag protects the trade.[51] The +evidence which literally poured in from our consuls and ministers at +Brazil adds to the story of the guilt of the United States.[52] It was +proven that the participation of United States citizens in the trade was +large and systematic. One of the most notorious slave merchants of +Brazil said: "I am worried by the Americans, who insist upon my hiring +their vessels for slave-trade."[53] Minister Proffit stated, in 1844, +that the "slave-trade is almost entirely carried on under our flag, in +American-built vessels."[54] So, too, in Cuba: the British commissioners +affirm that American citizens were openly engaged in the traffic; +vessels arrived undisguised at Havana from the United States, and +cleared for Africa as slavers after an alleged sale.[55] The American +consul, Trist, was proven to have consciously or unconsciously aided +this trade by the issuance of blank clearance papers.[56] + +The presence of American capital in these enterprises, and the +connivance of the authorities, were proven in many cases and known in +scores. In 1837 the English government informed the United States that +from the papers of a captured slaver it appeared that the notorious +slave-trading firm, Blanco and Carballo of Havana, who owned the vessel, +had correspondents in the United States: "at Baltimore, Messrs. Peter +Harmony and Co., in New York, Robert Barry, Esq."[57] The slaver +"Martha" of New York, captured by the "Perry," contained among her +papers curious revelations of the guilt of persons in America who were +little suspected.[58] The slaver "Prova," which was allowed to lie in +the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, and refit, was afterwards +captured with two hundred and twenty-five slaves on board.[59] The real +reason that prevented many belligerent Congressmen from pressing certain +search claims against England lay in the fact that the unjustifiable +detentions had unfortunately revealed so much American guilt that it was +deemed wiser to let the matter end in talk. For instance, in 1850 +Congress demanded information as to illegal searches, and President +Fillmore's report showed the uncomfortable fact that, of the ten +American ships wrongly detained by English men-of-war, nine were proven +red-handed slavers.[60] + +The consul at Havana reported, in 1836, that whole cargoes of slaves +fresh from Africa were being daily shipped to Texas in American vessels, +that 1,000 had been sent within a few months, that the rate was +increasing, and that many of these slaves "can scarcely fail to find +their way into the United States." Moreover, the consul acknowledged +that ships frequently cleared for the United States in ballast, taking +on a cargo at some secret point.[61] When with these facts we consider +the law facilitating "recovery" of slaves from Texas,[62] the repeated +refusals to regulate the Texan trade, and the shelving of a proposed +congressional investigation into these matters,[63] conjecture becomes a +practical certainty. It was estimated in 1838 that 15,000 Africans were +annually taken to Texas, and "there are even grounds for suspicion that +there are other places ... where slaves are introduced."[64] Between +1847 and 1853 the slave smuggler Drake had a slave depot in the Gulf, +where sometimes as many as 1,600 Negroes were on hand, and the owners +were continually importing and shipping. "The joint-stock company," +writes this smuggler, "was a very extensive one, and connected with +leading American and Spanish mercantile houses. Our island[65] was +visited almost weekly, by agents from Cuba, New York, Baltimore, +Philadelphia, Boston, and New Orleans.... The seasoned and instructed +slaves were taken to Texas, or Florida, overland, and to Cuba, in +sailing-boats. As no squad contained more than half a dozen, no +difficulty was found in posting them to the United States, without +discovery, and generally without suspicion.... The Bay Island plantation +sent ventures weekly to the Florida Keys. Slaves were taken into the +great American swamps, and there kept till wanted for the market. +Hundreds were sold as captured runaways from the Florida wilderness. We +had agents in every slave State; and our coasters were built in Maine, +and came out with lumber. I could tell curious stories ... of this +business of smuggling Bozal negroes into the United States. It is +growing more profitable every year, and if you should hang all the +Yankee merchants engaged in it, hundreds would fill their places."[66] +Inherent probability and concurrent testimony confirm the substantial +truth of such confessions. For instance, one traveller discovers on a +Southern plantation Negroes who can speak no English.[67] The careful +reports of the Quakers "apprehend that many [slaves] are also introduced +into the United States."[68] Governor Mathew of the Bahama Islands +reports that "in more than one instance, Bahama vessels with coloured +crews have been purposely wrecked on the coast of Florida, and the crews +forcibly sold." This was brought to the notice of the United States +authorities, but the district attorney of Florida could furnish no +information.[69] + +Such was the state of the slave-trade in 1850, on the threshold of the +critical decade which by a herculean effort was destined finally to +suppress it. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Beer, _Geschichte des Welthandels im 19^{ten} + Jahrhundert_, II. 67. + + [2] A list of these inventions most graphically illustrates + this advance:-- + + 1738, John Jay, fly-shuttle. + John Wyatt, spinning by rollers. + 1748, Lewis Paul, carding-machine. + 1760, Robert Kay, drop-box. + 1769, Richard Arkwright, water-frame and throstle. + James Watt, steam-engine. + 1772, James Lees, improvements on carding-machine. + 1775, Richard Arkwright, series of combinations. + 1779, Samuel Compton, mule. + 1785, Edmund Cartwright, power-loom. + 1803-4, Radcliffe and Johnson, dressing-machine. + 1817, Roberts, fly-frame. + 1818, William Eaton, self-acting frame. + 1825-30, Roberts, improvements on mule. + + Cf. Baines, _History of the Cotton Manufacture_, pp. 116-231; + _Encyclopædia Britannica_, 9th ed., article "Cotton." + + [3] Baines, _History of the Cotton Manufacture_, p. 215. A + bale weighed from 375 lbs. to 400 lbs. + + [4] The prices cited are from Newmarch and Tooke, and refer to + the London market. The average price in 1855-60 was about + 7_d._ + + [5] From United States census reports. + + [6] Cf. United States census reports; and Olmsted, _The Cotton + Kingdom_. + + [7] Cf. United States census reports; and Olmsted, _The Cotton + Kingdom_. + + [8] As early as 1836 Calhoun declared that he should ever + regret that the term "piracy" had been applied to the + slave-trade in our laws: Benton, _Abridgment of Debates_, XII. + 718. + + [9] Governor J.H. Hammond of South Carolina, in _Letters to + Clarkson_, No. 1, p. 2. + + [10] In 1826 Forsyth of Georgia attempted to have a bill + passed abolishing the African agency, and providing that the + Africans imported be disposed of in some way that would entail + no expense on the public treasury: _Home Journal_, 19 Cong. 1 + sess. p. 258. In 1828 a bill was reported to the House to + abolish the agency and make the Colonization Society the + agents, if they would agree to the terms. The bill was so + amended as merely to appropriate money for suppressing the + slave-trade: _Ibid._, 20 Cong. 1 sess., House Bill No. 190. + + [11] _Ibid._, pp. 121, 135; 20 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 58-9, 84, + 215. + + [12] _Congressional Globe_, 27 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 328, 331-6. + + [13] Cf. Mercer's bill, _House Journal_, 21 Cong. 1 sess. p. + 512; also Strange's two bills, _Senate Journal_, 25 Cong. 3 + sess. pp. 200, 313; 26 Cong. 1 sess., Senate Bill No. 123. + + [14] _Senate Journal_, 25 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 297-8, 300. + + [15] _Senate Doc_, 28 Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 217, p. 19; + _Senate Exec. Doc._, 31 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 6, pp. 3, 10, + etc.; 33 Cong. 1 sess. VIII. No. 47, pp. 5-6; 34 Cong. 1 sess. + XV. No. 99, p. 80; _House Journal_, 26 Cong. 1 sess. pp. + 117-8; cf. _Ibid._, 20 Cong. 1 sess. p. 650, etc.; 21 Cong. 2 + sess. p. 194; 27 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 31, 184; _House Doc._, 29 + Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 43, p. 11; _House Exec. Doc._, 31 Cong. + 1 sess. III. pt. 1, No. 5, pp. 7-8. + + [16] _Senate Journal_, 26 Cong. 1 sess., Senate Bill No. 335; + _House Journal_, 26 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 1138, 1228, 1257. + + [17] _Statutes at Large_, III. 764. + + [18] Cf. above, Chapter VIII. p. 125. + + [19] Cf. _Report of the Secretary of the Navy_, 1827. + + [20] _Ibid._ + + [21] _House Reports_, 24 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 223. + + [22] This account is taken exclusively from government + documents: _Amer. State Papers, Naval_, III. Nos. 339, 340, + 357, 429 E; IV. Nos. 457 R (1 and 2), 486 H, I, p. 161 and 519 + R, 564 P, 585 P; _House Reports_, 19 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 65; + _House Doc._, 19 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 69; 21 Cong. 2 sess. I. + No. 2, pp. 42-3, 211-8; 22 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 45, + 272-4; 22 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 48, 229; 23 Cong. 1 + sess. I. No. 1, pp. 238, 269; 23 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. + 315, 363; 24 Cong, 1 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 336, 378; 24 Cong. 2 + sess. I. No. 2, pp. 450, 506; 25 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 3, pp. + 771, 850; 26 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 534, 612; 26 Cong. 2 + sess. I. No. 2, pp. 405, 450. It is probable that the agent + became eventually the United States consul and minister; I + cannot however cite evidence for this supposition. + + [23] _Report of the Secretary of the Navy_, 1824. + + [24] _Ibid._, 1826. + + [25] _Ibid._, 1839. + + [26] _Ibid._, 1842. + + [27] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1857-8, p. 1250. + + [28] Lord Napier to Secretary of State Cass, Dec. 24, 1857: + _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1857-8, p. 1249. + + [29] _Parliamentary Papers_, 1847-8, Vol. LXIV. No. 133, + _Papers Relative to the Suppression of the Slave Trade on the + Coast of Africa_, p. 2. + + [30] Report of Perry: _Senate Doc._, 28 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. + 150, p. 118. + + [31] Consul Park at Rio Janeiro to Secretary Buchanan, Aug. + 20, 1847: _House Exec. Doc._, 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61, p. + 7. + + [32] Suppose "an American vessel employed to take in negroes + at some point on this coast. There is no American man-of-war + here to obtain intelligence. What risk does she run of being + searched? But suppose that there is a man-of-war in port. What + is to secure the master of the merchantman against her [the + man-of-war's commander's knowing all about his [the + merchant-man's] intention, or suspecting it in time to be upon + him [the merchant-man] before he shall have run a league on + his way to Texas?" Consul Trist to Commander Spence: _House + Doc._, 27 Cong. 1 sess. No. 34, p. 41.] + + [33] A typical set of instructions was on the following plan: + 1. You are charged with the protection of legitimate commerce. + 2. While the United States wishes to suppress the slave-trade, + she will not admit a Right of Search by foreign vessels. 3. + You are to arrest slavers. 4. You are to allow in no case an + exercise of the Right of Search or any great interruption of + legitimate commerce.--To Commodore Perry, March 30, 1843: + _House Exec. Doc._, 35 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 104. + + [34] _House Reports_, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283, pp. + 765-8. Cf. Benton's speeches on the treaty of 1842. + + [35] Report of Hotham to Admiralty, April 7, 1847: + _Parliamentary Papers_, 1847-8, Vol. LXIV. No. 133, _Papers + Relative to the Suppression of the Slave Trade on the Coast of + Africa_, p. 13. + + [36] _Opinions of Attorneys-General_, III. 512. + + [37] _Tenth Annual Report of the Amer. and Foreign Anti-Slav. + Soc._, May 7, 1850, p. 149. + + [38] _Opinions of Attorneys-General_, IV. 245. + + [39] _Senate Doc._, 28 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 150, pp. 108, + 132. + + [40] _House Exec. Doc._, 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61, p. 18. + + [41] Foote, _Africa and the American Flag_, pp. 286-90. + + [42] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1839-40, pp. 913-4. + + [43] Cf. United States census reports; and Olmsted, _Cotton + Kingdom_. + + [44] _House Journal_, 26 Cong. 1 sess. p. 118. + + [45] _Ibid._, 27 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 31, 184. + + [46] _Ibid._, 27 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 14, 15, 86, 113. + + [47] _Senate Journal_, 28 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 191, 227. + + [48] _House Exec. Doc._, 31 Cong. 1 sess. III. pt. I. No. 5, + p. 7. + + [49] Foote, _Africa and the American Flag_, p. 152. + + [50] _Ibid._, pp. 152-3. + + [51] _Ibid._, p. 241. + + [52] Cf. e.g. _House Doc._, 28 Cong. 2 sess. IV. pt. I. No. + 148; 29 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 43; _House Exec. Doc._, 30 + Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61; _Senate Exec. Doc._, 30 Cong. 1 + sess. IV. No. 28; 31 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 6; 33 Cong. 1 sess. + VIII. No. 47. + + [53] Foote, _Africa and the American Flag_, p. 218. + + [54] _Ibid._, p. 221. + + [55] Palmerston to Stevenson: _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. + V. No. 115, p. 5. In 1836 five such slavers were known to have + cleared; in 1837, eleven; in 1838, nineteen; and in 1839, + twenty-three: _Ibid._, pp. 220-1. + + [56] _Parliamentary Papers_, 1839, Vol. XLIX., _Slave Trade_, + class A, Further Series, pp. 58-9; class B, Further Series, p. + 110; class D, Further Series, p. 25. Trist pleaded ignorance + of the law: Trist to Forsyth, _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. + V. No. 115. + + [57] _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115. + + [58] Foote, _Africa and the American Flag_, p. 290. + + [59] _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 121, + 163-6. + + [60] _Senate Exec. Doc._, 31 Cong. 1 sess. XIV No. 66. + + [61] Trist to Forsyth: _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. + 115. "The business of supplying the United States with + Africans from this island is one that must necessarily exist," + because "slaves are a hundred _per cent_, or more, higher in + the United States than in Cuba," and this profit "is a + temptation which it is not in human nature as modified by + American institutions to withstand": _Ibid._ + + [62] _Statutes at Large_, V. 674. + + [63] Cf. above, p. 157, note 1. + + [64] Buxton, _The African Slave Trade and its Remedy_, pp. + 44-5. Cf. _2d Report of the London African Soc._, p. 22. + + [65] I.e., Bay Island in the Gulf of Mexico, near the coast of + Honduras. + + [66] _Revelations of a Slave Smuggler_, p. 98. + + [67] Mr. H. Moulton in _Slavery as it is_, p. 140; cited in + _Facts and Observations on the Slave Trade_ (Friends' ed. + 1841), p. 8. + + [68] In a memorial to Congress, 1840: _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 1 + sess. VI. No. 211. + + [69] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1845-6, pp. 883, 968, + 989-90. The governor wrote in reply: "The United States, if + properly served by their law officers in the Floridas, will + not experience any difficulty in obtaining the requisite + knowledge of these illegal transactions, which, I have reason + to believe, were the subject of common notoriety in the + neighbourhood where they occurred, and of boast on the part of + those concerned in them": _British and Foreign State Papers_, + 1845-6, p. 990. + + * * * * * + + + + +_Chapter XI_ + +THE FINAL CRISIS. 1850-1870. + + 80. The Movement against the Slave-Trade Laws. + 81. Commercial Conventions of 1855-56. + 82. Commercial Conventions of 1857-58. + 83. Commercial Convention of 1859. + 84. Public Opinion in the South. + 85. The Question in Congress. + 86. Southern Policy in 1860. + 87. Increase of the Slave-Trade from 1850 to 1860. + 88. Notorious Infractions of the Laws. + 89. Apathy of the Federal Government. + 90. Attitude of the Southern Confederacy. + 91. Attitude of the United States. + + +80. ~The Movement against the Slave-Trade Laws.~ It was not altogether a +mistaken judgment that led the constitutional fathers to consider the +slave-trade as the backbone of slavery. An economic system based on +slave labor will find, sooner or later, that the demand for the cheapest +slave labor cannot long be withstood. Once degrade the laborer so that +he cannot assert his own rights, and there is but one limit below which +his price cannot be reduced. That limit is not his physical well-being, +for it may be, and in the Gulf States it was, cheaper to work him +rapidly to death; the limit is simply the cost of procuring him and +keeping him alive a profitable length of time. Only the moral sense of a +community can keep helpless labor from sinking to this level; and when a +community has once been debauched by slavery, its moral sense offers +little resistance to economic demand. This was the case in the West +Indies and Brazil; and although better moral stamina held the crisis +back longer in the United States, yet even here the ethical standard of +the South was not able to maintain itself against the demands of the +cotton industry. When, after 1850, the price of slaves had risen to a +monopoly height, the leaders of the plantation system, brought to the +edge of bankruptcy by the crude and reckless farming necessary under a +slave _régime_, and baffled, at least temporarily, in their quest of new +rich land to exploit, began instinctively to feel that the only +salvation of American slavery lay in the reopening of the African +slave-trade. + +It took but a spark to put this instinctive feeling into words, and +words led to deeds. The movement first took definite form in the ever +radical State of South Carolina. In 1854 a grand jury in the +Williamsburg district declared, "as our unanimous opinion, that the +Federal law abolishing the African Slave Trade is a public grievance. We +hold this trade has been and would be, if re-established, a blessing to +the American people, and a benefit to the African himself."[1] This +attracted only local attention; but when, in 1856, the governor of the +State, in his annual message, calmly argued at length for a reopening of +the trade, and boldly declared that "if we cannot supply the demand for +slave labor, then we must expect to be supplied with a species of labor +we do not want,"[2] such words struck even Southern ears like "a thunder +clap in a calm day."[3] And yet it needed but a few years to show that +South Carolina had merely been the first to put into words the +inarticulate thought of a large minority, if not a majority, of the +inhabitants of the Gulf States. + + +81. ~Commercial Conventions of 1855-56.~ The growth of the movement is +best followed in the action of the Southern Commercial Convention, an +annual gathering which seems to have been fairly representative of a +considerable part of Southern opinion. In the convention that met at New +Orleans in 1855, McGimsey of Louisiana introduced a resolution +instructing the Southern Congressmen to secure the repeal of the +slave-trade laws. This resolution went to the Committee on Resolutions, +and was not reported.[4] In 1856, in the convention at Savannah, W.B. +Goulden of Georgia moved that the members of Congress be requested to +bestir themselves energetically to have repealed all laws which forbade +the slave-trade. By a vote of 67 to 18 the convention refused to debate +the motion, but appointed a committee to present at the next convention +the facts relating to a reopening of the trade.[5] In regard to this +action a pamphlet of the day said: "There were introduced into the +convention two leading measures, viz.: the laying of a State tariff on +northern goods, and the reopening of the slave-trade; the one to advance +our commercial interest, the other our agricultural interest, and which, +when taken together, as they were doubtless intended to be, and although +they have each been attacked by presses of doubtful service to the +South, are characterized in the private judgment of politicians as one +of the completest southern remedies ever submitted to popular action.... +The proposition to revive, or more properly to reopen, the slave trade +is as yet but imperfectly understood, in its intentions and probable +results, by the people of the South, and but little appreciated by them. +It has been received in all parts of the country with an undefined sort +of repugnance, a sort of squeamishness, which is incident to all such +violations of moral prejudices, and invariably wears off on familiarity +with the subject. The South will commence by enduring, and end by +embracing the project."[6] The matter being now fully before the public +through these motions, Governor Adams's message, and newspaper and +pamphlet discussion, the radical party pushed the project with all +energy. + + +82. ~Commercial Conventions of 1857-58.~ The first piece of regular +business that came before the Commercial Convention at Knoxville, +Tennessee, August 10, 1857, was a proposal to recommend the abrogation +of the 8th Article of the Treaty of Washington, on the slave-trade. An +amendment offered by Sneed of Tennessee, declaring it inexpedient and +against settled policy to reopen the trade, was voted down, Alabama, +Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia +refusing to agree to it. The original motion then passed; and the +radicals, satisfied with their success in the first skirmish, again +secured the appointment of a committee to report at the next meeting on +the subject of reopening the slave-trade.[7] This next meeting assembled +May 10, 1858, in a Gulf State, Alabama, in the city of Montgomery. +Spratt of South Carolina, the slave-trade champion, presented an +elaborate majority report from the committee, and recommended the +following resolutions:-- + + 1. _Resolved_, That slavery is right, and that being right, + there can be no wrong in the natural means to its formation. + + 2. _Resolved_, That it is expedient and proper that the foreign + slave trade should be re-opened, and that this Convention will + lend its influence to any legitimate measure to that end. + + 3. _Resolved_, That a committee, consisting of one from each + slave State, be appointed to consider of the means, consistent + with the duty and obligations of these States, for re-opening + the foreign slave-trade, and that they report their plan to the + next meeting of this Convention. + +Yancey, from the same committee, presented a minority report, which, +though it demanded the repeal of the national prohibitory laws, did not +advocate the reopening of the trade by the States. + +Much debate ensued. Pryor of Virginia declared the majority report "a +proposition to dissolve the Union." Yancey declared that "he was for +disunion now. [Applause.]" He defended the principle of the slave-trade, +and said: "If it is right to buy slaves in Virginia and carry them to +New Orleans, why is it not right to buy them in Cuba, Brazil, or Africa, +and carry them there?" The opposing speeches made little attempt to meet +this uncomfortable logic; but, nevertheless, opposition enough was +developed to lay the report on the table until the next convention, with +orders that it be printed, in the mean time, as a radical campaign +document. Finally the convention passed a resolution:-- + + That it is inexpedient for any State, or its citizens, to + attempt to re-open the African slave-trade while that State is + one of the United States of America.[8] + + +83. ~Commercial Convention of 1859.~ The Convention of 1859 met at +Vicksburg, Mississippi, May 9-19, and the slave-trade party came ready +for a fray. On the second day Spratt called up his resolutions, and the +next day the Committee on Resolutions recommended that, _"in the opinion +of this Convention, all laws, State or Federal, prohibiting the African +slave trade, ought to be repealed."_ Two minority reports accompanied +this resolution: one proposed to postpone action, on account of the +futility of the attempt at that time; the other report recommended that, +since repeal of the national laws was improbable, nullification by the +States impracticable, and action by the Supreme Court unlikely, +therefore the States should bring in the Africans as apprentices, a +system the legality of which "is incontrovertible." "The only difficult +question," it was said, "is the future status of the apprentices after +the expiration of their term of servitude."[9] Debate on these +propositions began in the afternoon. A brilliant speech on the +resumption of the importation of slaves, says Foote of Mississippi, "was +listened to with breathless attention and applauded vociferously. Those +of us who rose in opposition were looked upon by the excited assemblage +present as _traitors_ to the best interests of the South, and only +worthy of expulsion from the body. The excitement at last grew so high +that personal violence was menaced, and some dozen of the more +conservative members of the convention withdrew from the hall in which +it was holding its sittings."[10] "It was clear," adds De Bow, "that the +people of Vicksburg looked upon it [i.e., the convention] with some +distrust."[11] When at last a ballot was taken, the first resolution +passed by a vote of 40 to 19.[12] Finally, the 8th Article of the Treaty +of Washington was again condemned; and it was also suggested, in the +newspaper which was the official organ of the meeting, that "the +Convention raise a fund to be dispensed in premiums for the best +sermons in favor of reopening the African Slave Trade."[13] + + +84. ~Public Opinion in the South.~ This record of the Commercial +Conventions probably gives a true reflection of the development of +extreme opinion on the question of reopening the slave-trade. First, it +is noticeable that on this point there was a distinct divergence of +opinion and interest between the Gulf and the Border States, and it was +this more than any moral repugnance that checked the radicals. The whole +movement represented the economic revolt of the slave-consuming +cotton-belt against their base of labor supply. This revolt was only +prevented from gaining its ultimate end by the fact that the Gulf States +could not get on without the active political co-operation of the Border +States. Thus, although such hot-heads as Spratt were not able, even as +late as 1859, to carry a substantial majority of the South with them in +an attempt to reopen the trade at all hazards, yet the agitation did +succeed in sweeping away nearly all theoretical opposition to the trade, +and left the majority of Southern people in an attitude which regarded +the reopening of the African slave-trade as merely a question of +expediency. + +This growth of Southern opinion is clearly to be followed in the +newspapers and pamphlets of the day, in Congress, and in many +significant movements. The Charleston _Standard_ in a series of articles +strongly advocated the reopening of the trade; the Richmond _Examiner_, +though opposing the scheme as a Virginia paper should, was brought to +"acknowledge that the laws which condemn the Slave-trade imply an +aspersion upon the character of the South.[14] In March, 1859, the +_National Era_ said: "There can be no doubt that the idea of reviving +the African Slave Trade is gaining ground in the South. Some two months +ago we could quote strong articles from ultra Southern journals against +the traffic; but of late we have been sorry to observe in the same +journals an ominous silence upon the subject, while the advocates of +'free trade in negroes' are earnest and active."[15] The Savannah +_Republican_, which at first declared the movement to be of no serious +intent, conceded, in 1859, that it was gaining favor, and that +nine-tenths of the Democratic Congressional Convention favored it, and +that even those who did not advocate a revival demanded the abolition of +the laws.[16] A correspondent from South Carolina writes, December 18, +1859: "The nefarious project of opening it [i.e., the slave trade] has +been started here in that prurient temper of the times which manifests +itself in disunion schemes.... My State is strangely and terribly +infected with all this sort of thing.... One feeling that gives a +countenance to the opening of the slave trade is, that it will be a sort +of spite to the North and defiance of their opinions."[17] The New +Orleans _Delta_ declared that those who voted for the slave-trade in +Congress were men "whose names will be honored hereafter for the +unflinching manner in which they stood up for principle, for truth, and +consistency, as well as the vital interests of the South."[18] + +85. ~The Question in Congress.~ Early in December, 1856, the subject +reached Congress; and although the agitation was then new, fifty-seven +Southern Congressmen refused to declare a re-opening of the slave-trade +"shocking to the moral sentiment of the enlightened portion of mankind," +and eight refused to call the reopening even "unwise" and +"inexpedient."[19] Three years later, January 31, 1859, it was +impossible, in a House of one hundred and ninety-nine members, to get a +two-thirds vote in order even to consider Kilgore's resolutions, which +declared "that no legislation can be too thorough in its measures, nor +can any penalty known to the catalogue of modern punishment for crime be +too severe against a traffic so inhuman and unchristian."[20] + +Congressmen and other prominent men hastened with the rising tide.[21] +Dowdell of Alabama declared the repressive acts "highly offensive;" J.B. +Clay of Kentucky was "opposed to all these laws;"[22] Seward of Georgia +declared them "wrong, and a violation of the Constitution;"[23] +Barksdale of Mississippi agreed with this sentiment; Crawford of Georgia +threatened a reopening of the trade; Miles of South Carolina was for +"sweeping away" all restrictions;[24] Keitt of South Carolina wished to +withdraw the African squadron, and to cease to brand slave-trading as +piracy;[25] Brown of Mississippi "would repeal the law instantly;"[26] +Alexander Stephens, in his farewell address to his constituents, said: +"Slave states cannot be made without Africans.... [My object is] to +bring clearly to your mind the great truth that without an increase of +African slaves from abroad, you may not expect or look for many more +slave States."[27] Jefferson Davis strongly denied "any coincidence of +opinion with those who prate of the inhumanity and sinfulness of the +trade. The interest of Mississippi," said he, "not of the African, +dictates my conclusion." He opposed the immediate reopening of the trade +in Mississippi for fear of a paralyzing influx of Negroes, but carefully +added: "This conclusion, in relation to Mississippi, is based upon my +view of her _present_ condition, _not_ upon any _general theory_. It is +not supposed to be applicable to Texas, to New Mexico, or to any _future +acquisitions_ to be made south of the Rio Grande."[28] John Forsyth, who +for seven years conducted the slave-trade diplomacy of the nation, +declared, about 1860: "But one stronghold of its [i.e., slavery's] +enemies remains to be carried, to _complete its triumph_ and assure its +welfare,--that is the existing prohibition of the African +Slave-trade."[29] Pollard, in his _Black Diamonds_, urged the +importation of Africans as "laborers." "This I grant you," said he, +"would be practically the re-opening of the African slave trade; but ... +you will find that it very often becomes necessary to evade the letter +of the law, in some of the greatest measures of social happiness and +patriotism."[30] + + +86. ~Southern Policy in 1860.~ The matter did not rest with mere words. +During the session of the Vicksburg Convention, an "African Labor Supply +Association" was formed, under the presidency of J.D.B. De Bow, editor +of _De Bow's Review_, and ex-superintendent of the seventh census. The +object of the association was "to promote the supply of African +labor."[31] In 1857 the committee of the South Carolina legislature to +whom the Governor's slave-trade message was referred made an elaborate +report, which declared in italics: _"The South at large does need a +re-opening of the African slave trade."_ Pettigrew, the only member who +disagreed to this report, failed of re-election. The report contained an +extensive argument to prove the kingship of cotton, the perfidy of +English philanthropy, and the lack of slaves in the South, which, it was +said, would show a deficit of six hundred thousand slaves by 1878.[32] +In Georgia, about this time, an attempt to expunge the slave-trade +prohibition in the State Constitution lacked but one vote of +passing.[33] From these slower and more legal movements came others +less justifiable. The long argument on the "apprentice" system finally +brought a request to the collector of the port at Charleston, South +Carolina, from E. Lafitte & Co., for a clearance to Africa for the +purpose of importing African "emigrants." The collector appealed to the +Secretary of the Treasury, Howell Cobb of Georgia, who flatly refused to +take the bait, and replied that if the "emigrants" were brought in as +slaves, it would be contrary to United States law; if as freemen, it +would be contrary to their own State law.[34] In Louisiana a still more +radical movement was attempted, and a bill passed the House of +Representatives authorizing a company to import two thousand five +hundred Africans, "indentured" for fifteen years "at least." The bill +lacked but two votes of passing the Senate.[35] It was said that the +_Georgian_, of Savannah, contained a notice of an agricultural society +which "unanimously resolved to offer a premium of $25 for the best +specimen of a live African imported into the United States within the +last twelve months."[36] + +It would not be true to say that there was in the South in 1860 +substantial unanimity on the subject of reopening the slave-trade; +nevertheless, there certainly was a large and influential minority, +including perhaps a majority of citizens of the Gulf States, who favored +the project, and, in defiance of law and morals, aided and abetted its +actual realization. Various movements, it must be remembered, gained +much of their strength from the fact that their success meant a partial +nullification of the slave-trade laws. The admission of Texas added +probably seventy-five thousand recently imported slaves to the Southern +stock; the movement against Cuba, which culminated in the "Ostend +Manifesto" of Buchanan, Mason, and Soulé, had its chief impetus in the +thousands of slaves whom Americans had poured into the island. Finally, +the series of filibustering expeditions against Cuba, Mexico, and +Central America were but the wilder and more irresponsible attempts to +secure both slave territory and slaves. + + +87. ~Increase of the Slave-Trade from 1850 to 1860.~ The long and open +agitation for the reopening of the slave-trade, together with the fact +that the South had been more or less familiar with violations of the +laws since 1808, led to such a remarkable increase of illicit traffic +and actual importations in the decade 1850-1860, that the movement may +almost be termed a reopening of the slave-trade. + +In the foreign slave-trade our own officers continue to report "how +shamefully our flag has been used;"[37] and British officers write "that +at least one half of the successful part of the slave trade is carried +on under the American flag," and this because "the number of American +cruisers on the station is so small, in proportion to the immense extent +of the slave-dealing coast."[38] The fitting out of slavers became a +flourishing business in the United States, and centred at New York City. +"Few of our readers," writes a periodical of the day, "are aware of the +extent to which this infernal traffic is carried on, by vessels clearing +from New York, and in close alliance with our legitimate trade; and that +down-town merchants of wealth and respectability are extensively engaged +in buying and selling African Negroes, and have been, with comparatively +little interruption, for an indefinite number of years."[39] Another +periodical says: "The number of persons engaged in the slave-trade, and +the amount of capital embarked in it, exceed our powers of calculation. +The city of New York has been until of late [1862] the principal port of +the world for this infamous commerce; although the cities of Portland +and Boston are only second to her in that distinction. Slave dealers +added largely to the wealth of our commercial metropolis; they +contributed liberally to the treasuries of political organizations, and +their bank accounts were largely depleted to carry elections in New +Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut."[40] During eighteen months of +the years 1859-1860 eighty-five slavers are reported to have been +fitted out in New York harbor,[41] and these alone transported from +30,000 to 60,000 slaves annually.[42] The United States deputy marshal +of that district declared in 1856 that the business of fitting out +slavers "was never prosecuted with greater energy than at present. The +occasional interposition of the legal authorities exercises no apparent +influence for its suppression. It is seldom that one or more vessels +cannot be designated at the wharves, respecting which there is evidence +that she is either in or has been concerned in the Traffic."[43] On the +coast of Africa "it is a well-known fact that most of the Slave ships +which visit the river are sent from New York and New Orleans."[44] + +The absence of United States war-ships at the Brazilian station enabled +American smugglers to run in cargoes, in spite of the prohibitory law. +One cargo of five hundred slaves was landed in 1852, and the _Correio +Mercantil_ regrets "that it was the flag of the United States which +covered this act of piracy, sustained by citizens of that great +nation."[45] When the Brazil trade declined, the illicit Cuban trade +greatly increased, and the British consul reported: "Almost all the +slave expeditions for some time past have been fitted out in the United +States, chiefly at New York."[46] + +88. ~Notorious Infractions of the Laws.~ This decade is especially +noteworthy for the great increase of illegal importations into the +South. These became bold, frequent, and notorious. Systematic +introduction on a considerable scale probably commenced in the forties, +although with great secrecy. "To have boldly ventured into New Orleans, +with negroes freshly imported from Africa, would not only have brought +down upon the head of the importer the vengeance of our very +philanthropic Uncle Sam, but also the anathemas of the whole sect of +philanthropists and negrophilists everywhere. To import them for years, +however, into quiet places, evading with impunity the penalty of the +law, and the ranting of the thin-skinned sympathizers with Africa, was +gradually to popularize the traffic by creating a demand for laborers, +and thus to pave the way for the _gradual revival of the slave trade_. +To this end, a few men, bold and energetic, determined, ten or twelve +years ago [1848 or 1850], to commence the business of importing negroes, +slowly at first, but surely; and for this purpose they selected a few +secluded places on the coast of Florida, Georgia and Texas, for the +purpose of concealing their stock until it could be sold out. Without +specifying other places, let me draw your attention to a deep and abrupt +pocket or indentation in the coast of Texas, about thirty miles from +Brazos Santiago. Into this pocket a slaver could run at any hour of the +night, because there was no hindrance at the entrance, and here she +could discharge her cargo of movables upon the projecting bluff, and +again proceed to sea inside of three hours. The live stock thus landed +could be marched a short distance across the main island, over a porous +soil which refuses to retain the recent foot-prints, until they were +again placed in boats, and were concealed upon some of the innumerable +little islands which thicken on the waters of the Laguna in the rear. +These islands, being covered with a thick growth of bushes and grass, +offer an inscrutable hiding place for the 'black diamonds.'"[47] These +methods became, however, toward 1860, too slow for the radicals, and the +trade grew more defiant and open. The yacht "Wanderer," arrested on +suspicion in New York and released, landed in Georgia six months later +four hundred and twenty slaves, who were never recovered.[48] The +Augusta _Despatch_ says: "Citizens of our city are probably interested +in the enterprise. It is hinted that this is the third cargo landed by +the same company, during the last six months."[49] Two parties of +Africans were brought into Mobile with impunity. One bark, strongly +suspected of having landed a cargo of slaves, was seized on the Florida +coast; another vessel was reported to be landing slaves near Mobile; a +letter from Jacksonville, Florida, stated that a bark had left there for +Africa to ship a cargo for Florida and Georgia.[50] Stephen A. Douglas +said "that there was not the shadow of doubt that the Slave-trade had +been carried on quite extensively for a long time back, and that there +had been more Slaves imported into the southern States, during the last +year, than had ever been imported before in any one year, even when the +Slave-trade was legal. It was his confident belief, that over fifteen +thousand Slaves had been brought into this country during the past year +[1859.] He had seen, with his own eyes, three hundred of those +recently-imported, miserable beings, in a Slave-pen in Vicksburg, Miss., +and also large numbers at Memphis, Tenn."[51] It was currently reported +that depots for these slaves existed in over twenty large cities and +towns in the South, and an interested person boasted to a senator, about +1860, that "twelve vessels would discharge their living freight upon our +shores within ninety days from the 1st of June last," and that between +sixty and seventy cargoes had been successfully introduced in the last +eighteen months.[52] The New York _Tribune_ doubted the statement; but +John C. Underwood, formerly of Virginia, wrote to the paper saying that +he was satisfied that the correspondent was correct. "I have," he said, +"had ample evidences of the fact, that reopening the African Slave-trade +is a thing already accomplished, and the traffic is brisk, and rapidly +increasing. In fact, the most vital question of the day is not the +opening of this trade, but its suppression. The arrival of cargoes of +negroes, fresh from Africa, in our southern ports, is an event of +frequent occurrence."[53] + +Negroes, newly landed, were openly advertised for sale in the public +press, and bids for additional importations made. In reply to one of +these, the Mobile _Mercury_ facetiously remarks: "Some negroes who never +learned to talk English, went up the railroad the other day."[54] +Congressmen declared on the floor of the House: "The slave trade may +therefore be regarded as practically re-established;"[55] and petitions +like that from the American Missionary Society recited the fact that +"this piratical and illegal trade--this inhuman invasion of the rights +of men,--this outrage on civilization and Christianity--this violation +of the laws of God and man--is openly countenanced and encouraged by a +portion of the citizens of some of the States of this Union."[56] + +From such evidence it seems clear that the slave-trade laws, in spite of +the efforts of the government, in spite even of much opposition to these +extra-legal methods in the South itself, were grossly violated, if not +nearly nullified, in the latter part of the decade 1850-1860. + + +89. ~Apathy of the Federal Government.~ During the decade there was some +attempt at reactionary legislation, chiefly directed at the Treaty of +Washington. June 13, 1854, Slidell, from the Committee on Foreign +Relations, made an elaborate report to the Senate, advocating the +abrogation of the 8th Article of that treaty, on the ground that it was +costly, fatal to the health of the sailors, and useless, as the trade +had actually increased under its operation.[57] Both this and a similar +attempt in the House failed,[58] as did also an attempt to substitute +life imprisonment for the death penalty.[59] Most of the actual +legislation naturally took the form of appropriations. In 1853 there was +an attempt to appropriate $20,000.[60] This failed, and the +appropriation of $8,000 in 1856 was the first for ten years.[61] The +following year brought a similar appropriation,[62] and in 1859[63] and +1860[64] $75,000 and $40,000 respectively were appropriated. Of +attempted legislation to strengthen the laws there was plenty: e.g., +propositions to regulate the issue of sea-letters and the use of our +flag;[65] to prevent the "coolie" trade, or the bringing in of +"apprentices" or "African laborers;"[66] to stop the coastwise +trade;[67] to assent to a Right of Search;[68] and to amend the +Constitution by forever prohibiting the slave-trade.[69] + +The efforts of the executive during this period were criminally lax and +negligent. "The General Government did not exert itself in good faith to +carry out either its treaty stipulations or the legislation of Congress +in regard to the matter. If a vessel was captured, her owners were +permitted to bond her, and thus continue her in the trade; and if any +man was convicted of this form of piracy, the executive always +interposed between him and the penalty of his crime. The laws providing +for the seizure of vessels engaged in the traffic were so constructed as +to render the duty unremunerative; and marshals now find their fees for +such services to be actually less than their necessary expenses. No one +who bears this fact in mind will be surprised at the great indifference +of these officers to the continuing of the slave-trade; in fact, he will +be ready to learn that the laws of Congress upon the subject had become +a dead letter, and that the suspicion was well grounded that certain +officers of the Federal Government had actually connived at their +violation."[70] From 1845 to 1854, in spite of the well-known activity +of the trade, but five cases obtained cognizance in the New York +district. Of these, Captains Mansfield and Driscoll forfeited their +bonds of $5,000 each, and escaped; in the case of the notorious Canot, +nothing had been done as late as 1856, although he was arrested in 1847; +Captain Jefferson turned State's evidence, and, in the case of Captain +Mathew, a _nolle prosequi_ was entered.[71] Between 1854 and 1856 +thirty-two persons were indicted in New York, of whom only thirteen had +at the latter date been tried, and only one of these convicted.[72] +These dismissals were seldom on account of insufficient evidence. In the +notorious case of the "Wanderer," she was arrested on suspicion, +released, and soon after she landed a cargo of slaves in Georgia; some +who attempted to seize the Negroes were arrested for larceny, and in +spite of the efforts of Congress the captain was never punished. The +yacht was afterwards started on another voyage, and being brought back +to Boston was sold to her former owner for about one third her +value.[73] The bark "Emily" was seized on suspicion and released, and +finally caught red-handed on the coast of Africa; she was sent to New +York for trial, but "disappeared" under a certain slave captain, +Townsend, who had, previous to this, in the face of the most convincing +evidence, been acquitted at Key West.[74] + +The squadron commanders of this time were by no means as efficient as +their predecessors, and spent much of their time, apparently, in +discussing the Right of Search. Instead of a number of small light +vessels, which by the reports of experts were repeatedly shown to be the +only efficient craft, the government, until 1859, persisted in sending +out three or four great frigates. Even these did not attend faithfully +to their duties. A letter from on board one of them shows that, out of a +fifteen months' alleged service, only twenty-two days were spent on the +usual cruising-ground for slavers, and thirteen of these at anchor; +eleven months were spent at Madeira and Cape Verde Islands, 300 miles +from the coast and 3,000 miles from the slave market.[75] British +commanders report the apathy of American officers and the extreme +caution of their instructions, which allowed many slavers to escape.[76] + +The officials at Washington often remained in blissful, and perhaps +willing, ignorance of the state of the trade. While Americans were +smuggling slaves by the thousands into Brazil, and by the hundreds into +the United States, Secretary Graham was recommending the abrogation of +the 8th Article of the Treaty of Washington;[77] so, too, when the Cuban +slave-trade was reaching unprecedented activity, and while slavers were +being fitted out in every port on the Atlantic seaboard, Secretary +Kennedy naïvely reports, "The time has come, perhaps, when it may be +properly commended to the notice of Congress to inquire into the +necessity of further continuing the regular employment of a squadron on +this [i.e., the African] coast."[78] Again, in 1855, the government has +"advices that the slave trade south of the equator is entirely broken +up;"[79] in 1856, the reports are "favorable;"[80] in 1857 a British +commander writes: "No vessel has been seen here for one year, certainly; +I think for nearly three years there have been no American cruizers on +these waters, where a valuable and extensive American commerce is +carried on. I cannot, therefore, but think that this continued absence +of foreign cruizers looks as if they were intentionally withdrawn, and +as if the Government did not care to take measures to prevent the +American flag being used to cover Slave Trade transactions;"[81] +nevertheless, in this same year, according to Secretary Toucey, "the +force on the coast of Africa has fully accomplished its main +object."[82] Finally, in the same month in which the "Wanderer" and her +mates were openly landing cargoes in the South, President Buchanan, who +seems to have been utterly devoid of a sense of humor, was urging the +annexation of Cuba to the United States as the only method of +suppressing the slave-trade![83] + +About 1859 the frequent and notorious violations of our laws aroused +even the Buchanan government; a larger appropriation was obtained, swift +light steamers were employed, and, though we may well doubt whether +after such a carnival illegal importations "entirely" ceased, as the +President informed Congress,[84] yet some sincere efforts at suppression +were certainly begun. From 1850 to 1859 we have few notices of captured +slavers, but in 1860 the increased appropriation of the thirty-fifth +Congress resulted in the capture of twelve vessels with 3,119 +Africans.[85] The Act of June 16, 1860, enabled the President to +contract with the Colonization Society for the return of recaptured +Africans; and by a long-needed arrangement cruisers were to proceed +direct to Africa with such cargoes, instead of first landing them in +this country.[86] + + +90. ~Attitude of the Southern Confederacy.~ The attempt, initiated by +the constitutional fathers, to separate the problem of slavery from that +of the slave-trade had, after a trial of half a century, signally +failed, and for well-defined economic reasons. The nation had at last +come to the parting of the ways, one of which led to a free-labor +system, the other to a slave system fed by the slave-trade. Both +sections of the country naturally hesitated at the cross-roads: the +North clung to the delusion that a territorially limited system of +slavery, without a slave-trade, was still possible in the South; the +South hesitated to fight for her logical object--slavery and free trade +in Negroes--and, in her moral and economic dilemma, sought to make +autonomy and the Constitution her object. The real line of contention +was, however, fixed by years of development, and was unalterable by the +present whims or wishes of the contestants, no matter how important or +interesting these might be: the triumph of the North meant free labor; +the triumph of the South meant slavery and the slave-trade. + +It is doubtful if many of the Southern leaders ever deceived themselves +by thinking that Southern slavery, as it then was, could long be +maintained without a general or a partial reopening of the slave-trade. +Many had openly declared this a few years before, and there was no +reason for a change of opinion. Nevertheless, at the outbreak of actual +war and secession, there were powerful and decisive reasons for +relegating the question temporarily to the rear. In the first place, +only by this means could the adherence of important Border States be +secured, without the aid of which secession was folly. Secondly, while +it did no harm to laud the independence of the South and the kingship of +cotton in "stump" speeches and conventions, yet, when it came to actual +hostilities, the South sorely needed the aid of Europe; and this a +nation fighting for slavery and the slave-trade stood poor chance of +getting. Consequently, after attacking the slave-trade laws for a +decade, and their execution for a quarter-century, we find the Southern +leaders inserting, in both the provisional and the permanent +Constitutions of the Confederate States, the following article:-- + + The importation of negroes of the African race, from any foreign + country other than the slaveholding States or Territories of the + United States of America, is hereby forbidden; and Congress is + required to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the + same. + + Congress shall also have power to prohibit the introduction of + slaves from any State not a member of, or Territory not + belonging to, this Confederacy.[87] + +The attitude of the Confederate government toward this article is best +illustrated by its circular of instructions to its foreign ministers:-- + + It has been suggested to this Government, from a source of + unquestioned authenticity, that, after the recognition of our + independence by the European Powers, an expectation is generally + entertained by them that in our treaties of amity and commerce a + clause will be introduced making stipulations against the + African slave trade. It is even thought that neutral Powers may + be inclined to insist upon the insertion of such a clause as a + _sine qua non_. + + You are well aware how firmly fixed in our Constitution is the + policy of this Confederacy against the opening of that trade, + but we are informed that false and insidious suggestions have + been made by the agents of the United States at European Courts + of our intention to change our constitution as soon as peace is + restored, and of authorizing the importation of slaves from + Africa. If, therefore, you should find, in your intercourse with + the Cabinet to which you are accredited, that any such + impressions are entertained, you will use every proper effort to + remove them, and if an attempt is made to introduce into any + treaty which you may be charged with negotiating stipulations on + the subject just mentioned, you will assume, in behalf of your + Government, the position which, under the direction of the + President, I now proceed to develop. + + The Constitution of the Confederate States is an agreement made + between independent States. By its terms all the powers of + Government are separated into classes as follows, viz.:-- + + 1st. Such powers as the States delegate to the General + Government. + + 2d. Such powers as the States agree to refrain from exercising, + although they do not delegate them to the General Government. + + 3d. Such powers as the States, without delegating them to the + General Government, thought proper to exercise by direct + agreement between themselves contained in the Constitution. + + 4th. All remaining powers of sovereignty, which not being + delegated to the Confederate States by the Constitution nor + prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States + respectively, or to the people thereof.... Especially in + relation to the importation of African negroes was it deemed + important by the States that no power to permit it should exist + in the Confederate Government.... It will thus be seen that no + power is delegated to the Confederate Government over this + subject, but that it is included in the third class above + referred to, of powers exercised directly by the States.... This + Government unequivocally and absolutely denies its possession of + any power whatever over the subject, and cannot entertain any + proposition in relation to it.... The policy of the Confederacy + is as fixed and immutable on this subject as the imperfection of + human nature permits human resolve to be. No additional + agreements, treaties, or stipulations can commit these States to + the prohibition of the African slave trade with more binding + efficacy than those they have themselves devised. A just and + generous confidence in their good faith on this subject + exhibited by friendly Powers will be far more efficacious than + persistent efforts to induce this Government to assume the + exercise of powers which it does not possess.... We trust, + therefore, that no unnecessary discussions on this matter will + be introduced into your negotiations. If, unfortunately, this + reliance should prove ill-founded, you will decline continuing + negotiations on your side, and transfer them to us at + home....[88] + +This attitude of the conservative leaders of the South, if it meant +anything, meant that individual State action could, when it pleased, +reopen the slave-trade. The radicals were, of course, not satisfied with +any veiling of the ulterior purpose of the new slave republic, and +attacked the constitutional provision violently. "If," said one, "the +clause be carried into the permanent government, our whole movement is +defeated. It will abolitionize the Border Slave States--it will brand +our institution. Slavery cannot share a government with Democracy,--it +cannot bear a brand upon it; thence another revolution ... having +achieved one revolution to escape democracy at the North, it must still +achieve another to escape it at the South. That it will ultimately +triumph none can doubt."[89] + +91. ~Attitude of the United States.~ In the North, with all the +hesitation in many matters, there existed unanimity in regard to the +slave-trade; and the new Lincoln government ushered in the new policy of +uncompromising suppression by hanging the first American slave-trader +who ever suffered the extreme penalty of the law.[90] One of the +earliest acts of President Lincoln was a step which had been necessary +since 1808, but had never been taken, viz., the unification of the whole +work of suppression into the hands of one responsible department. By an +order, dated May 2, 1861, Caleb B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior, was +charged with the execution of the slave-trade laws,[91] and he +immediately began energetic work. Early in 1861, as soon as the +withdrawal of the Southern members untied the hands of Congress, two +appropriations of $900,000 each were made to suppress the slave trade, +the first appropriations commensurate with the vastness of the task. +These were followed by four appropriations of $17,000 each in the years +1863 to 1867, and two of $12,500 each in 1868 and 1869.[92] The first +work of the new secretary was to obtain a corps of efficient assistants. +To this end, he assembled all the marshals of the loyal seaboard States +at New York, and gave them instruction and opportunity to inspect +actual slavers. Congress also, for the first time, offered them proper +compensation.[93] The next six months showed the effect of this policy +in the fact that five vessels were seized and condemned, and four +slave-traders were convicted and suffered the penalty of their crimes. +"This is probably the largest number [of convictions] ever obtained, and +certainly the only ones for many years."[94] + +Meantime the government opened negotiations with Great Britain, and the +treaty of 1862 was signed June 7, and carried out by Act of Congress, +July 11.[95] Specially commissioned war vessels of either government +were by this agreement authorized to search merchant vessels on the high +seas and specified coasts, and if they were found to be slavers, or, on +account of their construction or equipment, were suspected to be such, +they were to be sent for condemnation to one of the mixed courts +established at New York, Sierra Leone, and the Cape of Good Hope. These +courts, consisting of one judge and one arbitrator on the part of each +government, were to judge the facts without appeal, and upon +condemnation by them, the culprits were to be punished according to the +laws of their respective countries. The area in which this Right of +Search could be exercised was somewhat enlarged by an additional article +to the treaty, signed in 1863. In 1870 the mixed courts were abolished, +but the main part of the treaty was left in force. The Act of July 17, +1862, enabled the President to contract with foreign governments for the +apprenticing of recaptured Africans in the West Indies,[96] and in 1864 +the coastwise slave-trade was forever prohibited.[97] By these measures +the trade was soon checked, and before the end of the war entirely +suppressed.[98] The vigilance of the government, however, was not +checked, and as late as 1866 a squadron of ten ships, with one hundred +and thirteen guns, patrolled the slave coast.[99] Finally, the +Thirteenth Amendment legally confirmed what the war had already +accomplished, and slavery and the slave-trade fell at one blow.[100] + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1854-5, p. 1156. + + [2] Cluskey, _Political Text-Book_ (14th ed.), p. 585. + + [3] _De Bow's Review_, XXII. 223; quoted from Andrew Hunter of + Virginia. + + [4] _Ibid._, XVIII. 628. + + [5] _Ibid._, XXII. 91, 102, 217, 221-2. + + [6] From a pamphlet entitled "A New Southern Policy, or the + Slave Trade as meaning Union and Conservatism;" quoted in + Etheridge's speech, Feb. 21, 1857: _Congressional Globe_, 34 + Cong. 3 sess., Appendix, p. 366. + + [7] _De Bow's Review_, XXIII. 298-320. A motion to table the + motion on the 8th article was supported only by Kentucky, + Tennessee, North Carolina, and Maryland. Those voting for + Sneed's motion were Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, and + Tennessee. The appointment of a slave-trade committee was at + first defeated by a vote of 48 to 44. Finally a similar motion + was passed, 52 to 40. + + [8] _De Bow's Review_, XXIV. 473-491, 579-605. The Louisiana + delegation alone did not vote for the last resolution, the + vote of her delegation being evenly divided. + + [9] _De Bow's Review_, XXVII. 94-235. + + [10] H.S. Foote, in _Bench and Bar of the South and + Southwest_, p. 69. + + [11] _De Bow's Review_, XXVII. 115. + + [12] _Ibid._, p. 99. The vote was:-- + + _Yea._ _Nay._ + Alabama, 5 votes. Tennessee, 12 votes. + Arkansas, 4 " Florida, 3 " + South Carolina, 4 " South Carolina, 4 " + Louisiana, 6 " Total 19 + Texas, 4 " + Georgia, 10 " Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and + Mississippi, 7 " North Carolina did not vote; they either + Total 40 withdrew or were not represented. + + + + [13] Quoted in _26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, p. + 38. The official organ was the _True Southron_. + + [14] Quoted in _24th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, p. + 54. + + [15] Quoted in _26th Report_, _Ibid._, p. 43. + + [16] _27th Report_, _Ibid._, pp. 19-20. + + [17] Letter of W.C. Preston, in the _National Intelligencer_, + April 3, 1863. Also published in the pamphlet, _The African + Slave Trade: The Secret Purpose_, etc., p. 26. + + [18] Quoted in Etheridge's speech: _Congressional Globe_, 34 + Cong. 3 sess. Appen., p. 366. + + [19] _House Journal_, 34 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 105-10; + _Congressional Globe_, 34 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 123-6; Cluskey, + _Political Text-Book_ (14th ed.), p. 589. + + [20] _House Journal_, 35 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 298-9. Cf. _26th + Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, p. 45. + + [21] Cf. _Reports of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, especially + the 26th, pp. 43-4. + + [22] _Ibid._, p. 43. He referred especially to the Treaty of + 1842. + + [23] _Ibid._; _Congressional Globe_, 35 Cong. 2 sess., Appen., + pp. 248-50. + + [24] _26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, p. 44. + + [25] _Ibid._; _27th Report_, pp. 13-4. + + [26] _26th Report_, _Ibid._, p. 44. + + [27] Quoted in Lalor, _Cyclopædia_, III. 733; Cairnes, _The + Slave Power_ (New York, 1862), p. 123, note; _27th Report of + the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, p. 15. + + [28] Quoted in Cairnes, _The Slave Power_, p. 123, note; _27th + Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, p. 19. + + [29] _27th Report_, _Ibid._, p. 16; quoted from the Mobile + _Register_. + + [30] Edition of 1859, pp. 63-4. + + [31] _De Bow's Review_, XXVII. 121, 231-5. + + [32] _Report of the Special Committee_, etc. (1857), pp. 24-5. + + [33] _26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, p. 40. The + vote was 47 to 46. + + [34] _House Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 7, pp. + 632-6. For the State law, cf. above, Chapter II. This refusal + of Cobb's was sharply criticised by many Southern papers. Cf. + _26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, p. 39. + + [35] New York _Independent_, March 11 and April 1, 1858. + + [36] _26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, p. 41. + + [37] Gregory to the Secretary of the Navy, June 8, 1850: + _Senate Exec. Doc._, 31 Cong. 1 sess. XIV. No. 66, p. 2. Cf. + _Ibid._, 31 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 6. + + [38] Cumming to Commodore Fanshawe, Feb. 22, 1850: _Senate + Exec. Doc._, 31 Cong. 1 sess. XIV. No. 66, p. 8. + + [39] New York _Journal of Commerce_, 1857; quoted in _24th + Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, p. 56. + + [40] "The Slave-Trade in New York," in the _Continental + Monthly_, January, 1862, p. 87. + + [41] New York _Evening Post_; quoted in Lalor, _Cyclopædia_, + III. 733. + + [42] Lalor, _Cyclopædia_, III. 733; quoted from a New York + paper. + + [43] _Friends' Appeal on behalf of the Coloured Races_ (1858), + Appendix, p. 41; quoted from the _Journal of Commerce_. + + [44] _26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, pp. 53-4; + quoted from the African correspondent of the Boston _Journal_. + From April, 1857, to May, 1858, twenty-one of twenty-two + slavers which were seized by British cruisers proved to be + American, from New York, Boston, and New Orleans. Cf. _25th + Report_, _Ibid._, p. 122. De Bow estimated in 1856 that forty + slavers cleared annually from Eastern harbors, clearing yearly + $17,000,000: _De Bow's Review_, XXII. 430-1. + + [45] _Senate Exec. Doc._, 33 Cong. 1 sess. VIII. No. 47, p. + 13. + + [46] _House Exec. Doc._, 34 Cong. 1 sess. XII. No. 105, p. 38. + + [47] New York _Herald_, Aug. 5, 1860; quoted in Drake, + _Revelations of a Slave Smuggler_, Introd., pp. vii.-viii. + + [48] _House Exec. Doc._, 35 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 89. Cf. + _26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, pp. 45-9. + + [49] Quoted in _26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, p. + 46. + + [50] For all the above cases, cf. _Ibid._, p. 49. + + [51] Quoted in _27th Report_, _Ibid._, p. 20. Cf. _Report of + the Secretary of the Navy_, 1859; _Senate Exec. Doc._, 36 + Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 2. + + [52] _27th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, p. 21. + + [53] Quoted in _Ibid._ + + [54] Issue of July 22, 1860; quoted in Drake, _Revelations of + a Slave Smuggler_, Introd., p. vi. The advertisement referred + to was addressed to the "Ship-owners and Masters of our + Mercantile Marine," and appeared in the Enterprise (Miss.) + _Weekly News_, April 14, 1859. William S. Price and seventeen + others state that they will "pay three hundred dollars per + head for one thousand native Africans, between the ages of + fourteen and twenty years, (of sexes equal,) likely, sound, + and healthy, to be delivered within twelve months from this + date, at some point accessible by land, between Pensacola, + Fla., and Galveston, Texas; the contractors giving thirty + days' notice as to time and place of delivery": Quoted in + _26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, pp. 41-2. + + [55] _Congressional Globe_, 35 Cong. 1 sess. p. 1362. Cf. the + speech of a delegate from Georgia to the Democratic Convention + at Charleston, 1860: "If any of you northern democrats will go + home with me to my plantation, I will show you some darkies + that I bought in Virginia, some in Delaware, some in Florida, + and I will also show you the pure African, the noblest Roman + of them all. I represent the African slave trade interest of + my section:" Lalor, _Cyclopædia_, III. 733. + + [56] _Senate Misc. Doc._, 36 Cong. 1 sess. No. 8. + + [57] _Senate Journal_, 34 Cong. 1-2 sess. pp. 396, 695-8; + _Senate Reports_, 34 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 195. + + [58] _House Journal_, 31 Cong. 2 sess. p. 64. There was still + another attempt by Sandidge. Cf. _26th Report of the Amer. + Anti-Slav. Soc._, p. 44. + + [59] _Senate Journal_, 36 Cong. 1 sess. p. 274; _Congressional + Globe_, 36 Cong. 1 sess. p. 1245. + + [60] Congressional Globe, 32 Cong. 2 sess. p. 1072. + + [61] I.e., since 1846: _Statutes at Large_, XI. 90. + + [62] _Ibid._, XI. 227. + + [63] _Ibid._, XI. 404. + + [64] _Ibid._, XII. 21. + + [65] E.g., Clay's resolutions: _Congressional Globe_, 31 Cong. + 2 sess. pp. 304-9. Clayton's resolutions: _Senate Journal_, 33 + Cong. 1 sess. p. 404; _House Journal_, 33 Cong. 1 sess. pp. + 1093, 1332-3; _Congressional Globe_, 33 Cong. 1 sess. pp. + 1591-3, 2139. Seward's bill: _Senate Journal_, 33 Cong. 1 + sess. pp. 448, 451. + + [66] Mr. Blair of Missouri asked unanimous consent in + Congress, Dec. 23, 1858, to a resolution instructing the + Judiciary Committee to bring in such a bill; Houston of + Alabama objected: _Congressional Globe_, 35 Cong. 2 sess. p. + 198; _26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, p. 44. + + [67] This was the object of attack in 1851 and 1853 by + Giddings: _House Journal_, 32 Cong. 1 sess. p. 42; 33 Cong. 1 + sess. p. 147. Cf. _House Journal_, 38 Cong. 1 sess. p. 46. + + [68] By Mr. Wilson, March 20, 1860: _Senate Journal_, 36 Cong. + 1 sess. p. 274. + + [69] Four or five such attempts were made: Dec. 12, 1860, + _House Journal_, 36 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 61-2; Jan. 7, 1861, + _Congressional Globe_, 36 Cong. 2 sess. p. 279; Jan. 23, 1861, + _Ibid._, p. 527; Feb. 1, 1861, _Ibid._, p. 690; Feb. 27, 1861, + _Ibid._, pp. 1243, 1259. + + [70] "The Slave-Trade in New York," in the _Continental + Monthly_, January, 1862, p. 87. + + [71] New York _Herald_, July 14, 1856. + + [72] _Ibid._ Cf. _Senate Exec. Doc._, 37 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. + 53. + + [73] _27th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, pp. 25-6. Cf. + _26th Report_, _Ibid._, pp. 45-9. + + [74] _27th Report_, _Ibid._, pp. 26-7. + + [75] _26th Report_, _Ibid._, p. 54. + + [76] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1859-60, pp. 899, + 973. + + [77] Nov. 29, 1851: _House Exec. Doc._, 32 Cong. 1 sess. II. + pt. 2, No. 2, p. 4. + + [78] Dec. 4, 1852: _House Exec. Doc._, 32 Cong. 2 sess. I. pt. + 2, No. 1, p. 293. + + [79] _Ibid._, 34 Cong. 1 sess. I. pt. 3, No. 1, p. 5. + + [80] _Ibid._, 34 Cong. 3 sess. I. pt. 2, No. 1, p. 407. + + [81] Commander Burgess to Commodore Wise, Whydah, Aug. 12, + 1857: _Parliamentary Papers_, 1857-8, vol. LXI. _Slave Trade_, + Class A, p. 136. + + [82] _House Exec. Doc._, 35 Cong. 1 sess. II. pt. 3, No. 2, p. + 576. + + [83] _Ibid._, 35 Cong. 2 sess. II. pt. 1, No. 2, pp. 14-15, + 31-33. + + [84] _Senate Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1, p. 24. + The Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1859, contains this + ambiguous passage: "What the effect of breaking up the trade + will be upon the United States or Cuba it is not necessary to + inquire; certainly, under the laws of Congress and our treaty + obligations, it is the duty of the executive government to see + that our citizens shall not be engaged in it": _Ibid._, 36 + Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 2, pp. 1138-9. + + [85] _Senate Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 2 sess. III. pt. 1, No. 1, + pp. 8-9. + + [86] _Statutes at Large_, XII. 40. + + [87] _Confederate States of America Statutes at Large_, 1861, + p. 15, Constitution, Art. 1, sect. 9, §§ 1, 2. + + [88] From an intercepted circular despatch from J.P. Benjamin, + "Secretary of State," addressed in this particular instance to + Hon. L.Q.C. Lamar, "Commissioner, etc., St. Petersburg, + Russia," and dated Richmond, Jan. 15, 1863; published in the + _National Intelligencer_, March 31, 1863; cf. also the issues + of Feb. 19, 1861, April 2, 3, 25, 1863; also published in the + pamphlet, _The African Slave-Trade: The Secret Purpose_, etc. + The editors vouch for its authenticity, and state it to be in + Benjamin's own handwriting. + + [89] L.W. Spratt of South Carolina, in the _Southern Literary + Messenger_, June, 1861, XXXII. 414, 420. Cf. also the + Charleston _Mercury_, Feb. 13, 1861, and the _National + Intelligencer_, Feb. 19, 1861. + + [90] Captain Gordon of the slaver "Erie;" condemned in the + U.S. District Court for Southern New York in 1862. Cf. _Senate + Exec. Doc._, 37 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1, p. 13. + + [91] _Ibid._, pp. 453-4. + + [92] _Statutes at Large_, XII. 132, 219, 639; XIII. 424; XIV. + 226, 415; XV. 58, 321. The sum of $250,000 was also + appropriated to return the slaves on the "Wildfire": _Ibid._, + XII. 40-41. + + [93] _Statutes at Large_, XII. 368-9. + + [94] _Senate Exec. Doc._, 37 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1, pp. + 453-4. + + [95] _Statutes at Large_, XII. 531. + + [96] For a time not exceeding five years: _Ibid._, pp. 592-3. + + [97] By section 9 of an appropriation act for civil expenses, + July 2, 1864: _Ibid._, XIII. 353. + + [98] British officers attested this: _Diplomatic + Correspondence_, 1862, p. 285. + + [99] _Report of the Secretary of the Navy_, 1866; _House Exec. + Doc._, 39 Cong. 2 sess. IV. p. 12. + +[100] There were some later attempts to legislate. Sumner + tried to repeal the Act of 1803: _Congressional Globe_, 41 + Cong. 2 sess. pp. 2894, 2932, 4953, 5594. Banks introduced a + bill to prohibit Americans owning or dealing in slaves abroad: + _House Journal_, 42 Cong. 2 sess. p. 48. For the legislation + of the Confederate States, cf. Mason, _Veto Power_, 2d ed., + Appendix C, No. 1. + + * * * * * + + + + +_Chapter XII_ + +THE ESSENTIALS IN THE STRUGGLE. + + 92. How the Question Arose. + 93. The Moral Movement. + 94. The Political Movement. + 95. The Economic Movement. + 96. The Lesson for Americans. + + +92. ~How the Question Arose.~ We have followed a chapter of history +which is of peculiar interest to the sociologist. Here was a rich new +land, the wealth of which was to be had in return for ordinary manual +labor. Had the country been conceived of as existing primarily for the +benefit of its actual inhabitants, it might have waited for natural +increase or immigration to supply the needed hands; but both Europe and +the earlier colonists themselves regarded this land as existing chiefly +for the benefit of Europe, and as designed to be exploited, as rapidly +and ruthlessly as possible, of the boundless wealth of its resources. +This was the primary excuse for the rise of the African slave-trade to +America. + +Every experiment of such a kind, however, where the moral standard of a +people is lowered for the sake of a material advantage, is dangerous in +just such proportion as that advantage is great. In this case it was +great. For at least a century, in the West Indies and the southern +United States, agriculture flourished, trade increased, and English +manufactures were nourished, in just such proportion as Americans stole +Negroes and worked them to death. This advantage, to be sure, became +much smaller in later times, and at one critical period was, at least in +the Southern States, almost _nil_; but energetic efforts were wanting, +and, before the nation was aware, slavery had seized a new and well-nigh +immovable footing in the Cotton Kingdom. + +The colonists averred with perfect truth that they did not commence this +fatal traffic, but that it was imposed upon them from without. +Nevertheless, all too soon did they lay aside scruples against it and +hasten to share its material benefits. Even those who braved the rough +Atlantic for the highest moral motives fell early victims to the +allurements of this system. Thus, throughout colonial history, in spite +of many honest attempts to stop the further pursuit of the slave-trade, +we notice back of nearly all such attempts a certain moral apathy, an +indisposition to attack the evil with the sharp weapons which its nature +demanded. Consequently, there developed steadily, irresistibly, a vast +social problem, which required two centuries and a half for a nation of +trained European stock and boasted moral fibre to solve. + + +93. ~The Moral Movement.~ For the solution of this problem there were, +roughly speaking, three classes of efforts made during this +time,--moral, political, and economic: that is to say, efforts which +sought directly to raise the moral standard of the nation; efforts which +sought to stop the trade by legal enactment; efforts which sought to +neutralize the economic advantages of the slave-trade. There is always a +certain glamour about the idea of a nation rising up to crush an evil +simply because it is wrong. Unfortunately, this can seldom be realized +in real life; for the very existence of the evil usually argues a moral +weakness in the very place where extraordinary moral strength is called +for. This was the case in the early history of the colonies; and +experience proved that an appeal to moral rectitude was unheard in +Carolina when rice had become a great crop, and in Massachusetts when +the rum-slave-traffic was paying a profit of 100%. That the various +abolition societies and anti-slavery movements did heroic work in +rousing the national conscience is certainly true; unfortunately, +however, these movements were weakest at the most critical times. When, +in 1774 and 1804, the material advantages of the slave-trade and the +institution of slavery were least, it seemed possible that moral suasion +might accomplish the abolition of both. A fatal spirit of temporizing, +however, seized the nation at these points; and although the slave-trade +was, largely for political reasons, forbidden, slavery was left +untouched. Beyond this point, as years rolled by, it was found well-nigh +impossible to rouse the moral sense of the nation. Even in the matter of +enforcing its own laws and co-operating with the civilized world, a +lethargy seized the country, and it did not awake until slavery was +about to destroy it. Even then, after a long and earnest crusade, the +national sense of right did not rise to the entire abolition of +slavery. It was only a peculiar and almost fortuitous commingling of +moral, political, and economic motives that eventually crushed African +slavery and its handmaid, the slave-trade in America. + + +94. ~The Political Movement.~ The political efforts to limit the +slave-trade were the outcome partly of moral reprobation of the trade, +partly of motives of expediency. This legislation was never such as wise +and powerful rulers may make for a nation, with the ulterior purpose of +calling in the respect which the nation has for law to aid in raising +its standard of right. The colonial and national laws on the slave-trade +merely registered, from time to time, the average public opinion +concerning this traffic, and are therefore to be regarded as negative +signs rather than as positive efforts. These signs were, from one point +of view, evidences of moral awakening; they indicated slow, steady +development of the idea that to steal even Negroes was wrong. From +another point of view, these laws showed the fear of servile +insurrection and the desire to ward off danger from the State; again, +they often indicated a desire to appear well before the civilized world, +and to rid the "land of the free" of the paradox of slavery. +Representing such motives, the laws varied all the way from mere +regulating acts to absolute prohibitions. On the whole, these acts were +poorly conceived, loosely drawn, and wretchedly enforced. The systematic +violation of the provisions of many of them led to a widespread belief +that enforcement was, in the nature of the case, impossible; and thus, +instead of marking ground already won, they were too often sources of +distinct moral deterioration. Certainly the carnival of lawlessness that +succeeded the Act of 1807, and that which preceded final suppression in +1861, were glaring examples of the failure of the efforts to suppress +the slave-trade by mere law. + + +95. ~The Economic Movement.~ Economic measures against the trade were +those which from the beginning had the best chance of success, but which +were least tried. They included tariff measures; efforts to encourage +the immigration of free laborers and the emigration of the slaves; +measures for changing the character of Southern industry; and, finally, +plans to restore the economic balance which slavery destroyed, by +raising the condition of the slave to that of complete freedom and +responsibility. Like the political efforts, these rested in part on a +moral basis; and, as legal enactments, they were also themselves often +political measures. They differed, however, from purely moral and +political efforts, in having as a main motive the economic gain which a +substitution of free for slave labor promised. + +The simplest form of such efforts was the revenue duty on slaves that +existed in all the colonies. This developed into the prohibitive tariff, +and into measures encouraging immigration or industrial improvements. +The colonization movement was another form of these efforts; it was +inadequately conceived, and not altogether sincere, but it had a sound, +although in this case impracticable, economic basis. The one great +measure which finally stopped the slave-trade forever was, naturally, +the abolition of slavery, i.e., the giving to the Negro the right to +sell his labor at a price consistent with his own welfare. The abolition +of slavery itself, while due in part to direct moral appeal and +political sagacity, was largely the result of the economic collapse of +the large-farming slave system. + + +96. ~The Lesson for Americans.~ It may be doubted if ever before such +political mistakes as the slavery compromises of the Constitutional +Convention had such serious results, and yet, by a succession of +unexpected accidents, still left a nation in position to work out its +destiny. No American can study the connection of slavery with United +States history, and not devoutly pray that his country may never have a +similar social problem to solve, until it shows more capacity for such +work than it has shown in the past. It is neither profitable nor in +accordance with scientific truth to consider that whatever the +constitutional fathers did was right, or that slavery was a plague sent +from God and fated to be eliminated in due time. We must face the fact +that this problem arose principally from the cupidity and carelessness +of our ancestors. It was the plain duty of the colonies to crush the +trade and the system in its infancy: they preferred to enrich themselves +on its profits. It was the plain duty of a Revolution based upon +"Liberty" to take steps toward the abolition of slavery: it preferred +promises to straightforward action. It was the plain duty of the +Constitutional Convention, in founding a new nation, to compromise with +a threatening social evil only in case its settlement would thereby be +postponed to a more favorable time: this was not the case in the slavery +and the slave-trade compromises; there never was a time in the history +of America when the system had a slighter economic, political, and moral +justification than in 1787; and yet with this real, existent, growing +evil before their eyes, a bargain largely of dollars and cents was +allowed to open the highway that led straight to the Civil War. +Moreover, it was due to no wisdom and foresight on the part of the +fathers that fortuitous circumstances made the result of that war what +it was, nor was it due to exceptional philanthropy on the part of their +descendants that that result included the abolition of slavery. + +With the faith of the nation broken at the very outset, the system of +slavery untouched, and twenty years' respite given to the slave-trade to +feed and foster it, there began, with 1787, that system of bargaining, +truckling, and compromising with a moral, political, and economic +monstrosity, which makes the history of our dealing with slavery in the +first half of the nineteenth century so discreditable to a great people. +Each generation sought to shift its load upon the next, and the burden +rolled on, until a generation came which was both too weak and too +strong to bear it longer. One cannot, to be sure, demand of whole +nations exceptional moral foresight and heroism; but a certain hard +common-sense in facing the complicated phenomena of political life must +be expected in every progressive people. In some respects we as a nation +seem to lack this; we have the somewhat inchoate idea that we are not +destined to be harassed with great social questions, and that even if we +are, and fail to answer them, the fault is with the question and not +with us. Consequently we often congratulate ourselves more on getting +rid of a problem than on solving it. Such an attitude is dangerous; we +have and shall have, as other peoples have had, critical, momentous, and +pressing questions to answer. The riddle of the Sphinx may be postponed, +it may be evasively answered now; sometime it must be fully answered. + +It behooves the United States, therefore, in the interest both of +scientific truth and of future social reform, carefully to study such +chapters of her history as that of the suppression of the slave-trade. +The most obvious question which this study suggests is: How far in a +State can a recognized moral wrong safely be compromised? And although +this chapter of history can give us no definite answer suited to the +ever-varying aspects of political life, yet it would seem to warn any +nation from allowing, through carelessness and moral cowardice, any +social evil to grow. No persons would have seen the Civil War with more +surprise and horror than the Revolutionists of 1776; yet from the small +and apparently dying institution of their day arose the walled and +castled Slave-Power. From this we may conclude that it behooves nations +as well as men to do things at the very moment when they ought to be +done. + + * * * * * + + + +APPENDIX A. + +A CHRONOLOGICAL CONSPECTUS OF COLONIAL AND STATE LEGISLATION RESTRICTING +THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. 1641-1787. + + +~1641. Massachusetts: Limitations on Slavery.~ + +"Liberties of Forreiners & Strangers": 91. "There shall never be any +bond slaverie villinage or Captivitie amongst vs, unles it be lawfull +Captives taken in iust warres, & such strangers as willingly selle +themselves or are sold to us. And those shall have all the liberties & +Christian usages w^{ch} y^e law of god established in Jsraell concerning +such p/^{sons} doeth morally require. This exempts none from servitude +who shall be Judged there to by Authoritie." + +"Capitall Laws": 10. "If any man stealeth aman or mankinde, he shall +surely be put to death" (marginal reference, Exodus xxi. 16). Re-enacted +in the codes of 1649, 1660, and 1672. Whitmore, _Reprint of Colonial +Laws of 1660_, etc. (1889), pp. 52, 54, 71-117. + + +~1642, April 3. New Netherland: Ten per cent Duty.~ + +"Ordinance of the Director and Council of New Netherland, imposing +certain Import and Export Duties." O'Callaghan, _Laws of New Netherland_ +(1868), p. 31. + + +~1642, Dec. 1. Connecticut: Man-Stealing made a Capital Offence.~ + +"Capitall Lawes," No. 10. Re-enacted in Ludlow's code, 1650. _Colonial +Records_, I. 77. + + +~1646, Nov. 4. Massachusetts: Declaration against Man-Stealing.~ + +Testimony of the General Court. For text, see above, page 37. _Colonial +Records_, II. 168; III. 84. + + +~1652, April 4. New Netherland: Duty of 15 Guilders.~ + +"Conditions and Regulations" of Trade to Africa. O'Callaghan, _Laws of +New Netherland_, pp. 81, 127. + + +~1652, May 18-20. Rhode Island: Perpetual Slavery Prohibited.~ + +For text, see above, page 40. _Colonial Records_, I. 243. + + +~1655, Aug. 6. New Netherland: Ten per cent Export Duty.~ + +"Ordinance of the Director General and Council of New Netherland, +imposing a Duty on exported Negroes." O'Callaghan, _Laws of New +Netherland_, p. 191. + + +~1664, March 12. Duke of York's Patent: Slavery Regulated.~ + +"Lawes establisht by the Authority of his Majesties Letters patents, +granted to his Royall Highnes James Duke of Yorke and Albany; Bearing +Date the 12th Day of March in the Sixteenth year of the Raigne of our +Soveraigne Lord Kinge Charles the Second." First published at Long +Island in 1664. + +"Bond slavery": "No Christian shall be kept in Bond-slavery villenage or +Captivity, Except Such who shall be Judged thereunto by Authority, or +such as willingly have sould, or shall sell themselves," etc. +Apprenticeship allowed. _Charter to William Penn, and Laws of the +Province of Pennsylvania_ (1879), pp. 3, 12. + + +~1672, October. Connecticut: Law against Man-Stealing.~ + +"The General Laws and Liberties of Conecticut + +"Capital Laws": 10. "If any Man stealeth a Man or Man kinde, and selleth +him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall be put to death. Exod. 21. +16." _Laws of Connecticut_, 1672 (repr. 1865), p. 9. + + +~1676, March 3. West New Jersey: Slavery Prohibited (?).~ + +"The Concessions and Agreements of the Proprietors, Freeholders and +Inhabitants of the Province of West New-Jersey, in America." + +Chap. XXIII. "That in all publick Courts of Justice for Tryals of +Causes, Civil or Criminal, any Person or Persons, Inhabitants of the +said Province, may freely come into, and attend the said Courts, ... +that all and every Person and Persons Inhabiting the said Province, +shall, as far as in us lies, be free from Oppression and Slavery." +Leaming and Spicer, _Grants, Concessions_, etc., pp. 382, 398. + + +~1688, Feb. 18. Pennsylvania: First Protest of Friends against +Slave-Trade.~ + +"At Monthly Meeting of Germantown Friends." For text, see above, pages +28-29. _Fac-simile Copy_ (1880). + + +~1695, May. Maryland: 10s. Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for the laying an Imposition upon Negroes, Slaves, and White +Persons imported into this Province." Re-enacted in 1696, and included +in Acts of 1699 and 1704. Bacon, _Laws_, 1695, ch. ix.; 1696, ch. vii.; +1699, ch. xxiii.; 1704, ch. ix. + + +~1696. Pennsylvania: Protest of Friends.~ + +"That Friends be careful not to encourage the bringing in of any more +negroes." Bettle, _Notices of Negro Slavery_, in _Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem._ +(1864), I. 383. + + +~1698, Oct. 8. South Carolina: White Servants Encouraged.~ + +"An Act for the Encouragement of the Importation of White Servants." + +"Whereas, the great number of negroes which of late have been imported +into this Collony may endanger the safety thereof if speedy care be not +taken and encouragement given for the importation of white servants." + +§ 1. £13 are to be given to any ship master for every male white servant +(Irish excepted), between sixteen and forty years, whom he shall bring +into Ashley river; and £12 for boys between twelve and sixteen years. +Every servant must have at least four years to serve, and every boy +seven years. + +§ 3. Planters are to take servants in proportion of one to every six +male Negroes above sixteen years. + +§ 5. Servants are to be distributed by lot. + +§ 8. This act to continue three years. Cooper, _Statutes_, II. 153. + + +~1699, April. Virginia: 20s. Duty Act.~ + +"An act for laying an imposition upon servants and slaves imported into +this country, towards building the Capitoll." For three years; continued +in August, 1701, and April, 1704. Hening, _Statutes_, III. 193, 212, +225. + + +~1703, May 6. South Carolina: Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for the laying an Imposition on Furrs, Skinns, Liquors and other +Goods and Merchandize, Imported into and Exported out of this part of +this Province, for the raising of a Fund of Money towards defraying the +publick charges and expenses of this Province, and paying the debts due +for the Expedition against St. Augustine." 10_s._ on Africans and 20_s._ +on others. Cooper, _Statutes_, II. 201. + + +~1704, October. Maryland: 20s. Duty Act.~ + +"An Act imposing Three Pence per Gallon on Rum and Wine, Brandy and +Spirits; and Twenty Shillings per Poll for Negroes; for raising a Supply +to defray the Public Charge of this Province; and Twenty Shillings per +Poll on Irish Servants, to prevent the importing too great a Number of +Irish Papists into this Province." Revived in 1708 and 1712. Bacon, +_Laws_, 1704, ch. xxxiii.; 1708, ch. xvi.; 1712, ch. xxii. + + +~1705, Jan. 12. Pennsylvania: 10s. Duty Act. ~ + +"An Act for Raising a Supply of Two pence half penny per Pound & ten +shillings per Head. Also for Granting an Impost & laying on Sundry +Liquors & negroes Imported into this Province for the Support of +Governmt., & defraying the necessary Publick Charges in the +Administration thereof." _Colonial Records_ (1852), II. 232, No. 50. + + +~1705, October. Virginia: 6d. Tax on Imported Slaves.~ + +"An act for raising a publick revenue for the better support of the +Government," etc. Similar tax by Act of October, 1710. Hening, +_Statutes_, III. 344, 490. + + +~1705, October. Virginia: 20s. Duty Act.~ + +"An act for laying an Imposition upon Liquors and Slaves." For two +years; re-enacted in October, 1710, for three years, and in October, +1712. _Ibid._, III. 229, 482; IV. 30. + + +~1705, Dec. 5. Massachusetts: £4 Duty Act.~ + +"An act for the Better Preventing of a Spurious and Mixt Issue," etc. + +§ 6. On and after May 1, 1706, every master importing Negroes shall +enter his number, name, and sex in the impost office, and insert them in +the bill of lading; he shall pay to the commissioner and receiver of the +impost £4 per head for every such Negro. Both master and ship are to be +security for the payment of the same. + +§ 7. If the master neglect to enter the slaves, he shall forfeit £8 for +each Negro, one-half to go to the informer and one-half to the +government. + +§ 8. If any Negro imported shall, within twelve months, be exported and +sold in any other plantation, and a receipt from the collector there be +shown, a drawback of the whole duty will be allowed. Like drawback will +be allowed a purchaser, if any Negro sold die within six weeks after +importation. _Mass. Province Laws, 1705-6_, ch. 10. + + +~1708, February. Rhode Island: £3 Duty Act.~ + +No title or text found. Slightly amended by Act of April, 1708; +strengthened by Acts of February, 1712, and July 5, 1715; proceeds +disposed of by Acts of July, 1715, October, 1717, and June, 1729. +_Colonial Records_, IV. 34, 131-5, 138, 143, 191-3, 225, 423-4. + + +~1709, Sept. 24. New York: £3 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for Laying a Duty on the Tonnage of Vessels and Slaves." A duty +of £3 was laid on slaves not imported directly from their native +country. Continued by Act of Oct. 30, 1710. _Acts of Assembly, +1691-1718_, pp. 97, 125, 134; Laws of New York, 1691-1773, p. 83. + + +~1710, Dec. 28. Pennsylvania: 40s. Duty Act.~ + +"An impost Act, laying a duty on Negroes, wine, rum and other spirits, +cyder and vessels." Repealed by order in Council Feb. 20, 1713. Carey +and Bioren, _Laws_, I. 82; Bettle, _Notices of Negro Slavery_, in _Penn. +Hist. Soc. Mem._ (1864), I. 415. + + +~1710. Virginia: £5 Duty Act.~ + +"Intended to discourage the importation" of slaves. Title and text not +found. Disallowed (?). _Governor Spotswood to the Lords of Trade_, in +_Va. Hist. Soc. Coll._, New Series, I. 52. + + +~1711, July-Aug. New York: Act of 1709 Strengthened.~ + +"An Act for the more effectual putting in Execution an Act of General +Assembly, Intituled, An Act for Laying a Duty on the Tonnage of Vessels +and Slaves." _Acts of Assembly, 1691-1718_, p. 134. + + +~1711, December. New York: Bill to Increase Duty.~ + +Bill for laying a further duty on slaves. Passed Assembly; lost in +Council. _Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York_, V. 293. + + +~1711. Pennsylvania: Testimony of Quakers.~ + +" ... the Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia, on a representation from the +Quarterly Meeting of Chester, that the buying and encouraging the +importation of negroes was still practised by some of the members of the +society, again repeated and enforced the observance of the advice issued +in 1696, and further directed all merchants and factors to write to +their correspondents and discourage their sending any more negroes." +Bettle, _Notices of Negro Slavery_, in _Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem._ (1864), +I. 386. + + +~1712, June 7. Pennsylvania: Prohibitive (?) Duty Act.~ + +"A supplementary Act to an act, entituled, An impost act, laying a duty +on Negroes, rum," etc. Disallowed by Great Britain, 1713. Carey and +Bioren, _Laws_, I. 87, 88. Cf. _Colonial Records_ (1852), II. 553. + + +~1712, June 7. Pennsylvania: Prohibitive Duty Act.~ + +"An act to prevent the Importation of Negroes and Indians into this +Province." + +"Whereas Divers Plots and Insurrections have frequently happened, not +only in the Islands, but on the Main Land of _America_, by Negroes, +which have been carried on so far that several of the Inhabitants have +been thereby barbarously Murthered, an instance whereof we have lately +had in our neighboring Colony of _New York_. And whereas the +Importation of Indian Slaves hath given our Neighboring _Indians_ in +this Province some umbrage of Suspicion and Dis-satisfaction. For +Prevention of all which for the future, + +"_Be it Enacted_ ..., That from and after the Publication of this Act, +upon the Importation of any Negro or Indian, by Land or Water, into this +Province, there shall be paid by the Importer, Owner or Possessor +thereof, the sum of _Twenty Pounds per head_, for every Negro or Indian +so imported or brought in (except Negroes directly brought in from the +_West India Islands_ before the first Day of the Month called _August_ +next) unto the proper Officer herein after named, or that shall be +appointed according to the Directions of this Act to receive the same," +etc. Disallowed by Great Britain, 1713. _Laws of Pennsylvania, +collected_, etc. (ed. 1714), p. 165; _Colonial Records_ (1852), II. 553; +Burge, _Commentaries_, I. 737, note; _Penn. Archives_, I. 162. + + +~1713, March 11. New Jersey: £10 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for laying a Duty on Negro, Indian and Mulatto Slaves, imported +and brought into this Province." + +"_Be it Enacted_ ..., That every Person or Persons that shall hereafter +Import or bring in, or cause to be imported or brought into this +Province, any Negro Indian or Mulatto Slave or Slaves, every such Person +or Persons so importing or bringing in, or causing to be imported or +brought in, such Slave or Slaves, shall enter with one of the Collectors +of her Majestie's Customs of this Province, every such Slave or Slaves, +within Twenty Four Hours after such Slave or Slaves is so Imported, and +pay the Sum of _Ten Pounds_ Money as appointed by her Majesty's +Proclamation, for each Slave so imported, or give sufficient Security +that the said Sum of _Ten Pounds_, Money aforesaid, shall be well and +truly paid within three Months after such Slave or Slaves are so +imported, to the Collector or his Deputy of the District into which +such Slave or Slaves shall be imported, for the use of her Majesty, her +Heirs and Successors, toward the Support of the Government of this +Province." For seven years; violations incur forfeiture and sale of +slaves at auction; slaves brought from elsewhere than Africa to pay £10, +etc. _Laws and Acts of New Jersey, 1703-1717_ (ed. 1717), p. 43; _N.J. +Archives_, 1st Series, XIII. 516, 517, 520, 522, 523, 527, 532, 541. + + +~1713, March 26. Great Britain and Spain: The Assiento.~ + +"The Assiento, or Contract for allowing to the Subjects of Great Britain +the Liberty of importing Negroes into the Spanish America. Signed by the +Catholick King at Madrid, the 26th Day of March, 1713." + +Art. I. "First then to procure, by this means, a mutual and reciprocal +advantage to the sovereigns and subjects of both crowns, her British +majesty does offer and undertake for the persons, whom she shall name +and appoint, That they shall oblige and charge themselves with the +bringing into the West-Indies of America, belonging to his catholick +majesty, in the space of the said 30 years, to commence on the 1st day +of May, 1713, and determine on the like day, which will be in the year +1743, _viz._ 144000 negroes, _Piezas de India_, of both sexes, and of +all ages, at the rate of 4800 negroes, _Piezas de India_, in each of the +said 30 years, with this condition, That the persons who shall go to the +West-Indies to take care of the concerns of the assiento, shall avoid +giving any offence, for in such case they shall be prosecuted and +punished in the same manner, as they would have been in Spain, if the +like misdemeanors had been committed there." + +Art. II. Assientists to pay a duty of 33 pieces of eight (_Escudos_) for +each Negro, which should include all duties. + +Art. III. Assientists to advance to his Catholic Majesty 200,000 pieces +of eight, which should be returned at the end of the first twenty years, +etc. John Almon, _Treaties of Peace, Alliance, and Commerce, between +Great-Britain and other Powers_ (London, 1772), I. 83-107. + + +~1713, July 13. Great Britain and Spain: Treaty of Utrecht.~ + +"Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the most serene and most potent +princess Anne, by the grace of God, Queen of Great Britain, France, and +Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. and the most serene and most potent +Prince Philip V the Catholick King of Spain, concluded at Utrecht, the +2/13 Day of July, 1713." + +Art. XII. "The Catholick King doth furthermore hereby give and grant to +her Britannick majesty, and to the company of her subjects appointed for +that purpose, as well the subjects of Spain, as all others, being +excluded, the contract for introducing negroes into several parts of the +dominions of his Catholick Majesty in America, commonly called _el Pacto +de el Assiento de Negros_, for the space of thirty years successively, +beginning from the first day of the month of May, in the year 1713, with +the same conditions on which the French enjoyed it, or at any time might +or ought to enjoy the same, together with a tract or tracts of Land to +be allotted by the said Catholick King, and to be granted to the company +aforesaid, commonly called _la Compania de el Assiento_, in some +convenient place on the river of Plata, (no duties or revenues being +payable by the said company on that account, during the time of the +abovementioned contract, and no longer) and this settlement of the said +society, or those tracts of land, shall be proper and sufficient for +planting, and sowing, and for feeding cattle for the subsistence of +those who are in the service of the said company, and of their negroes; +and that the said negroes may be there kept in safety till they are +sold; and moreover, that the ships belonging to the said company may +come close to land, and be secure from any danger. But it shall always +be lawful for the Catholick King, to appoint an officer in the said +place or settlement, who may take care that nothing be done or practised +contrary to his royal interests. And all who manage the affairs of the +said company there, or belong to it, shall be subject to the inspection +of the aforesaid officer, as to all matters relating to the tracts of +land abovementioned. But if any doubts, difficulties, or controversies, +should arise between the said officer and the managers for the said +company, they shall be referred to the determination of the governor of +Buenos Ayres. The Catholick King has been likewise pleased to grant to +the said company, several other extraordinary advantages, which are more +fully and amply explained in the contract of the Assiento, which was +made and concluded at Madrid, the 26th day of the month of March, of +this present year 1713. Which contract, or _Assiento de Negros_, and all +the clauses, conditions, privileges and immunities contained therein, +and which are not contrary to this article, are and shall be deemed, and +taken to be, part of this treaty, in the same manner as if they had been +here inserted word for word." John Almon, _Treaties of Peace, Alliance, +and Commerce, between Great-Britain and other Powers_, I. 168-80. + + +~1714, Feb. 18. South Carolina: Duty on American Slaves.~ + +"An Act for laying an additional duty on all Negro Slaves imported into +this Province from any part of America." Title quoted in Act of 1719, +§30, _q.v._ + + +~1714, Dec. 18. South Carolina: Prohibitive Duty.~ + +"An additional Act to an Act entitled 'An Act for the better Ordering +and Governing Negroes and all other Slaves.'" + +§9 "And _whereas_, the number of negroes do extremely increase in this +Province, and through the afflicting providence of God, the white +persons do not proportionally multiply, by reason whereof, the safety +of the said Province is greatly endangered; for the prevention of which +for the future, + +"_Be it further enacted_ by the authority aforesaid, That all negro +slaves from twelve years old and upwards, imported into this part of +this Province from any part of Africa, shall pay such additional duties +as is hereafter named, that is to say:--that every merchant or other +person whatsoever, who shall, six months after the ratification of this +Act, import any negro slaves as aforesaid, shall, for every such slave, +pay unto the public receiver for the time being, (within thirty days +after such importation,) the sum of two pounds current money of this +Province." Cooper, _Statutes_, VII. 365. + + +~1715, Feb. 18. South Carolina: Duty on American Negroes.~ + +"_An additional Act_ to an act entitled _an act for raising the sum of +£2000, of and from the estates real and personal of the inhabitants of +this Province, ratified in open Assembly the 18th day of December, +1714_; and for laying an additional duty on all Negroe slaves imported +into this Province from any part of America." Title only given. Grimké, +_Public Laws_, p. xvi, No. 362. + + +~1715, May 28. Pennsylvania: £5 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for laying a Duty on _Negroes_ imported into this province." +Disallowed by Great Britain, 1719. _Acts and Laws of Pennsylvania, +1715_, p. 270; _Colonial Records_ (1852), III. 75-6; Chalmers, +_Opinions_, II. 118. + + +~1715, June 3. Maryland: 20s. Duty Act.~ + +"An Act laying an Imposition on Negroes ...; and also on Irish Servants, +to prevent the importing too great a Number of Irish Papists into this +Province." Supplemented April 23, 1735, and July 25, 1754. _Compleat +Collection of the Laws of Maryland_ (ed. 1727), p. 157; Bacon, _Laws_, +1715, ch. xxxvi. §8; 1735, ch. vi. §§1-3; _Acts of Assembly, 1754_, p. +10. + + +~1716, June 30. South Carolina: £3 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for laying an Imposition on Liquors, Goods and Merchandizes, +Imported into and Exported out of this Province, for the raising of a +Fund of Money towards the defraying the publick charges and expences of +the Government." A duty of £3 was laid on African slaves, and £30 on +American slaves. Cooper, _Statutes_, II. 649. + + +~1716. New York: 5 oz. and 10 oz. plate Duty Act.~ + +"An Act to Oblige all Vessels Trading into this Colony (except such as +are therein excepted) to pay a certain Duty; and for the further +Explanation and rendring more Effectual certain Clauses in an Act of +General Assembly of this Colony, Intituled, An Act by which a Duty is +laid on Negroes, and other Slaves, imported into this Colony." The act +referred to is not to be found. _Acts of Assembly, 1691-1718_, p. 224. + + +~1717, June 8. Maryland: Additional 20s. Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for laying an Additional Duty of Twenty Shillings Current Money +per Poll on all Irish Servants, ... also, the Additional Duty of Twenty +Shillings Current Money per Poll on all Negroes, for raising a Fund for +the Use of Publick Schools," etc. Continued by Act of 1728. _Compleat +Collection of the Laws of Maryland_ (ed. 1727), p. 191; Bacon, _Laws_, +1728, ch. viii. + + +~1717, Dec. 11. South Carolina: Prohibitive Duty.~ + +"A further additional Act to an Act entitled An Act for the better +ordering and governing of Negroes and all other Slaves; and to an +additional Act to an Act entitled An Act for the better ordering and +governing of Negroes and all other Slaves." + +§ 3. "And _whereas_, the great importation of negroes to this Province, +in proportion to the white inhabitants of the same, whereby the future +safety of this Province will be greatly endangered; for the prevention +whereof, + +"_Be it enacted_ by the authority aforesaid, That all negro slaves of +any age or condition whatsoever, imported or otherwise brought into this +Province, from any part of the world, shall pay such additional duties +as is hereafter named, that is to say:--that every merchant or other +person whatsoever, who shall, eighteen months after the ratification of +this Act, import any negro slave as aforesaid, shall, for every such +slave, pay unto the public receiver for the time being, at the time of +each importation, over and above all the duties already charged on +negroes, by any law in force in this Province, the additional sum of +forty pounds current money of this Province," etc. + +§ 4. This section on duties to be in force for four years after +ratification, and thence to the end of the next session of the General +Assembly. Cooper, _Statutes_, VII. 368. + + +~1718, Feb. 22. Pennsylvania: Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for continuing a duty on Negroes brought into this province." +Carey and Bioren, _Laws_, I. 118. + + +~1719, March 20. South Carolina: £10 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for laying an Imposition on Negroes, Liquors, and other Goods +and Merchandizes, imported, and exported out of this Province, for the +raising of a Fund of Money towards the defraying the Publick Charges and +Expences of this Government; as also to Repeal several Duty Acts, and +Clauses and Paragraphs of Acts, as is herein mentioned." This repeals +former duty acts (e.g. that of 1714), and lays a duty of £10 on African +slaves, and £30 on American slaves. Cooper, _Statutes_, III. 56. + + +~1721, Sept. 21. South Carolina: £10 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for granting to His Majesty a Duty and Imposition on Negroes, +Liquors, and other Goods and Merchandize, imported into and exported out +of this Province." This was a continuation of the Act of 1719. _Ibid._, +III. 159. + + +~1722, Feb. 23. South Carolina: £10 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for Granting to His Majesty a Duty and Imposition on Negroes, +Liquors, and other Goods and Merchandizes, for the use of the Publick +of this Province." + +§ 1. " ... on all negro slaves imported from Africa directly, or any +other place whatsoever, Spanish negroes excepted, if above ten years of +age, ten pounds; on all negroes under ten years of age, (sucking +children excepted) five pounds," etc. + +§ 3. "And whereas, it has proved to the detriment of some of the +inhabitants of this Province, who have purchased negroes imported here +from the Colonies of America, that they were either transported thence +by the Courts of justice, or sent off by private persons for their ill +behaviour and misdemeanours, to prevent which for the future, + +"_Be it enacted_ by the authority aforesaid, That all negroes imported +in this Province from any part of America, after the ratification of +this Act, above ten years of age, shall pay unto the Publick Receiver as +a duty, the sum of fifty pounds, and all such negroes under the age of +ten years, (sucking children excepted) the sum of five pounds of like +current money, unless the owner or agent shall produce a testimonial +under the hand and seal of any Notary Publick of the Colonies or +plantations from whence such negroes came last, before whom it was +proved upon oath, that the same are new negroes, and have not been six +months on shoar in any part of America," etc. + +§ 4. "And whereas, the importation of Spanish Indians, mustees, negroes, +and mulattoes, may be of dangerous consequence by inticing the slaves +belonging to the inhabitants of this Province to desert with them to the +Spanish settlements near us, + +"_Be it therefore enacted_ That all such Spanish negroes, Indians, +mustees, or mulattoes, so imported into this Province, shall pay unto +the Publick Receiver, for the use of this Province, a duty of one +hundred and fifty pounds, current money of this Province." + +§ 19. Rebate of three-fourths of the duty allowed in case of +re-exportation in six months. + +§ 31. Act of 1721 repealed. + +§ 36. This act to continue in force for three years, and thence to the +end of the next session of the General Assembly, and no longer. Cooper, +_Statutes_, III. 193. + + +~1722, May 12. Pennsylvania: Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for laying a duty on Negroes imported into this province." Carey +and Bioren, _Laws_, I. 165. + + +~1723, May. Virginia: Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for laying a Duty on Liquors and Slaves." Title only; repealed +by proclamation Oct. 27, 1724. Hening, _Statutes_, IV. 118. + + +~1723, June 18. Rhode Island: Back Duties Collected.~ + +Resolve appointing the attorney-general to collect back duties on +Negroes. _Colonial Records_, IV. 330. + + +~1726, March 5. Pennsylvania: £10 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for the better regulating of Negroes in this province." Carey +and Bioren, _Laws_, I. 214; Bettle, _Notices of Negro Slavery_, in +_Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem._ (1864), I. 388. + + +~1726, March 5. Pennsylvania: Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for laying a duty on Negroes imported into this province." Carey +and Bioren, _Laws_, I. 213. + + +~1727, February. Virginia: Prohibitive Duty Act (?).~ + +"An Act for laying a Duty on Slaves imported; and for appointing a +Treasurer." Title only found; the duty was probably prohibitive; it was +enacted with a suspending clause, and was not assented to by the king. +Hening, _Statutes_, IV. 182. + + +~1728, Aug. 31. New York: £2 and £4 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act to repeal some Parts and to continue and enforce other Parts of +the Act therein mentioned, and for granting several Duties to His +Majesty, for supporting His Government in the Colony of New York" from +Sept. 1, 1728, to Sept. 1, 1733. Same duty continued by Act of 1732. +_Laws of New York, 1691-1773_, pp. 148, 171; _Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New +York_, VI. 32, 33, 34, 37, 38. + + +~1728, Sept. 14. Massachusetts: Act of 1705 Strengthened.~ + +"An Act more effectually to secure the Duty on the Importation of +Negroes." For seven years; substantially the same law re-enacted Jan. +26, 1738, for ten years. _Mass. Province Laws, 1728-9_, ch. 16; +_1738-9_, ch. 27. + + +~1729, May 10. Pennsylvania: 40s. Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for laying a Duty on Negroes imported into this Province." _Laws +of Pennsylvania_ (ed. 1742), p. 354, ch. 287. + + +~1732, May. Rhode Island: Repeal of Act of 1712.~ + +"Whereas, there was an act made and passed by the General Assembly, at +their session, held at Newport, the 27th day of February, 1711 [O.S., +N.S. = 1712], entitled 'An Act for laying a duty on negro slaves that +shall be imported into this colony,' and this Assembly being directed by +His Majesty's instructions to repeal the same;-- + +"Therefore, be it enacted by the General Assembly ... that the said act +... be, and it is hereby repealed, made null and void, and of none +effect for the future." If this is the act mentioned under Act of 1708, +the title is wrongly cited; if not, the act is lost. _Colonial Records_, +IV. 471. + + +~1732, May. Virginia: Five per cent Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for laying a Duty upon Slaves, to be paid by the Buyers." For +four years; continued and slightly amended by Acts of 1734, 1736, 1738, +1742, and 1745; revived February, 1752, and continued by Acts of +November, 1753, February, 1759, November, 1766, and 1769; revived (or +continued?) by Act of February, 1772, until 1778. Hening, _Statutes_, +IV. 317, 394, 469; V. 28, 160, 318; VI. 217, 353; VII. 281; VIII. 190, +336, 530. + + +~1734, November. New York: Duty Act.~ + +"An act to lay a duty on Negroes & a tax on the Slaves therein mentioned +during the time and for the uses within mentioned." The tax was 1_s._ +yearly per slave. _Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York_, VI. 38. + + +~1734, Nov. 28. New York: £2 and £4 (?) Duty Act.~ + +"An Act to lay a Duty on the Goods, and a Tax on the Slaves therein +mentioned, during the Time, and for the Uses mentioned in the same." +Possibly there were two acts this year. _Laws of New York, 1691-1773_, +p. 186; _Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York_, VI. 27. + + +~1735. Georgia: Prohibitive Act.~ + +An "act for rendering the colony of Georgia more defensible by +prohibiting the importation and use of black slaves or negroes into the +same." W.B. Stevens, _History of Georgia_, I. 311; [B. Martyn], _Account +of the Progress of Georgia_ (1741), pp. 9-10; Prince Hoare, _Memoirs of +Granville Sharp_ (London, 1820), p. 157. + + +~1740, April 5. South Carolina: £100 Prohibitive Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for the better strengthening of this Province, by granting to +His Majesty certain taxes and impositions on the purchasers of Negroes +imported," etc. The duty on slaves from America was £150. Continued to +1744. Cooper, _Statutes_, III. 556. Cf. _Abstract Evidence on +Slave-Trade before Committee of House of Commons, 1790-91_ (London, +1791), p. 150. + + +~1740, May. Virginia: Additional Five per cent Duty Act.~ + +"An Act, for laying an additional Duty upon Slaves, to be paid by the +Buyer, for encouraging persons to enlist in his Majesty's service: And +for preventing desertion." To continue until July 1, 1744. Hening, +_Statutes_, V. 92. + + +~1751, June 14. South Carolina: White Servants Encouraged.~ + +"An Act for the better strengthening of this Province, by granting to +His Majesty certain Taxes and Impositions on the purchasers of Negroes +and other slaves imported, and for appropriating the same to the uses +therein mentioned, and for granting to His Majesty a duty on Liquors and +other Goods and Merchandize, for the uses therein mentioned, and for +exempting the purchasers of Negroes and other slaves imported from +payment of the Tax, and the Liquors and other Goods and Merchandize from +the duties imposed by any former Act or Acts of the General Assembly of +this Province." + +"Whereas, the best way to prevent the mischiefs that may be attended by +the great importation of negroes into this Province, will be to +establish a method by which such importation should be made a necessary +means of introducing a proportionable number of white inhabitants into +the same; therefore for the effectual raising and appropriating a fund +sufficient for the better settling of this Province with white +inhabitants, we, his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the +House of Assembly now met in General Assembly, do cheerfully give and +grant unto the King's most excellent Majesty, his heirs and successors, +the several taxes and impositions hereinafter mentioned, for the uses +and to be raised, appropriated, paid and applied as is hereinafter +directed and appointed, and not otherwise, and do humbly pray his most +sacred Majesty that it may be enacted, + +§ 1. "_And be it enacted_, by his Excellency James Glen, Esquire, +Governor in chief and Captain General in and over the Province of South +Carolina, by and with the advice and consent of his Majesty's honorable +Council, and the House of Assembly of the said Province, and by the +authority of the same, That from and immediately after the passing of +this Act, there shall be imposed on and paid by all and every the +inhabitants of this Province, and other person and persons whosoever, +first purchasing any negro or other slave, hereafter to be imported, a +certain tax or sum of ten pounds current money for every such negro and +other slave of the height of four feet two inches and upwards; and for +every one under that height, and above three feet two inches, the sum of +five pounds like money; and for all under three feet two inches, +(sucking children excepted) two pounds and ten shillings like money, +which every such inhabitant of this Province, and other person and +persons whosoever shall so purchase or buy as aforesaid, which said sums +of ten pounds and five pounds and two pounds and ten shillings +respectively, shall be paid by such purchaser for every such slave, at +the time of his, her or their purchasing of the same, to the public +treasurer of this Province for the time being, for the uses hereinafter +mentioned, set down and appointed, under pain of forfeiting all and +every such negroes and slaves, for which the said taxes or impositions +shall not be paid, pursuant to the directions of this Act, to be sued +for, recovered and applied in the manner hereinafter directed." + +§ 6. "_And be it further enacted_ by the authority aforesaid, That the +said tax hereby imposed on negroes and other slaves, paid or to be paid +by or on the behalf of the purchasers as aforesaid, by virtue of this +Act, shall be applied and appropriated as followeth, and to no other +use, or in any other manner whatever, (that is to say) that three-fifth +parts (the whole into five equal parts to be divided) of the net sum +arising by the said tax, for and during the term of five years from the +time of passing this Act, be applied and the same is hereby applied for +payment of the sum of six pounds proclamation money to every poor +foreign protestant whatever from Europe, or other poor protestant (his +Majesty's subject) who shall produce a certificate under the seal of any +corporation, or a certificate under the hands of the minister and +church-wardens of any parish, or the minister and elders of any church, +meeting or congregation in Great Britain or Ireland, of the good +character of such poor protestant, above the age of twelve and under the +age of fifty years, and for payment of the sum of three pounds like +money, to every such poor protestant under the age of twelve and above +the age of two years; who shall come into this Province within the first +three years of the said term of five years, and settle on any part of +the southern frontier lying between Pon Pon and Savannah rivers, or in +the central parts of this Province," etc. For the last two years the +bounty is £4 and £2. + +§ 7. After the expiration of this term of five years, the sum is +appropriated to the protestants settling anywhere in the State, and the +bounty is £2 13_s._ 4_d._, and £1 6_s._ 8_d._ + +§ 8. One other fifth of the tax is appropriated to survey lands, and the +remaining fifth as a bounty for ship-building, and for encouraging the +settlement of ship-builders. + +§ 14. Rebate of three-fourths of the tax allowed in case of +re-exportation of the slaves in six months. + +§ 16. "_And be it further enacted_ by the authority aforesaid, That +every person or persons who after the passing this Act shall purchase +any slave or slaves which shall be brought or imported into this +Province, either by land or water, from any of his Majesty's plantations +or colonies in America, that have been in any such colony or plantation +for the space of six months; and if such slave or slaves have not been +so long in such colony or plantation, the importer shall be obliged to +make oath or produce a proper certificate thereof, or otherwise every +such importer shall pay a further tax or imposition of fifty pounds, +over and besides the tax hereby imposed for every such slave which he or +they shall purchase as aforesaid." Actual settlers bringing slaves are +excepted. + +§ 41. This act to continue in force ten years from its passage, and +thence to the end of the next session of the General Assembly, and no +longer. Cooper, _Statutes_, III. 739. + + +~1753, Dec. 12. New York: 5 oz. and 10 oz. plate Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for granting to His Majesty the several Duties and Impositions, +on Goods, Wares and Merchandizes imported into this Colony, therein +mentioned." Annually continued until 1767, or perhaps until 1774. _Laws +of New York, 1752-62_, p. 21, ch. xxvii.; _Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New +York_, VII. 907; VIII. 452. + + +~1754, February. Virginia: Additional Five per cent Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for the encouragement and protection of the settlers upon the +waters of the Mississippi." For three years; continued in 1755 and 1763; +revived in 1772, and continued until 1778. Hening, _Statutes_, VI. 417, +468; VII. 639; VIII. 530. + + +~1754, July 25. Maryland: Additional 10s. Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for his Majesty's Service." Bacon, _Laws_, 1754, ch. ix. + + +~1755, May. Virginia: Additional Ten per cent Duty Act.~ + +"An act to explain an act, intituled, An act for raising the sum of +twenty thousand pounds, for the protection of his majesty's subjects, +against the insults and encroachments of the French; and for other +purposes therein mentioned." + +§ 10. " ... from and after the passing of this act, there shall be +levied and paid to our sovereign lord the king, his heirs and +successors, for all slaves imported, or brought into this colony and +dominion for sale, either by land or water, from any part [port] or +place whatsoever, by the buyer, or purchaser, after the rate of ten per +centum, on the amount of each respective purchase, over and above the +several duties already laid on slaves, imported as aforesaid, by an act +or acts of Assembly, now subsisting, and also over and above the duty +laid by" the Act of 1754. Repealed by Act of May, 1760, § 11, " ... +inasmuch as the same prevents the importation of slaves, and thereby +lessens the fund arising from the duties upon slaves." Hening, +_Statutes_, VI. 461; VII. 363. Cf. _Dinwiddie Papers_, II. 86. + + +~1756, March 22. Maryland: Additional 20s. Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for granting a Supply of Forty Thousand Pounds, for his +Majesty's Service," etc. For five years. Bacon, _Laws_, 1756, ch. v. + + +~1757, April. Virginia: Additional Ten per cent Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for granting an aid to his majesty for the better protection of +this colony, and for other purposes therein mentioned." + +§ 22. " ... from and after the ninth day of July, one thousand seven +hundred and fifty-eight, during the term of seven years, there shall be +paid for all slaves imported into this colony, for sale, either by land +or water, from any port or place whatsoever, by the buyer or purchaser +thereof, after the rate of ten per centum on the amount of each +respective purchase, over and above the several duties already laid upon +slaves imported, as aforesaid, by any act or acts of Assembly now +subsisting in this colony," etc. Repealed by Act of March, 1761, § 6, as +being "found very inconvenient." Hening, _Statutes_, VII. 69, 383. + + +~1759, November. Virginia: Twenty per cent Duty Act.~ + +"An Act to oblige the persons bringing slaves into this colony from +Maryland, Carolina, and the West-Indies, for their own use, to pay a +duty." + +§ 1. " ... from and after the passing of this act, there shall be paid +... for all slaves imported or brought into this colony and dominion +from Maryland, North-Carolina, or any other place in America, by the +owner or importer thereof, after the rate of twenty per centum on the +amount of each respective purchase," etc. This act to continue until +April 20, 1767; continued in 1766 and 1769, until 1773; altered by Act +of 1772, _q.v. Ibid._, VII. 338; VIII. 191, 336. + + +~1760. South Carolina: Total Prohibition.~ + +Text not found; act disallowed by Great Britain. Cf. Burge, +_Commentaries_, I. 737, note; W.B. Stevens, _History of Georgia_, I. +286. + + +~1761, March 14. Pennsylvania: £10 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for laying a duty on Negroes and Mulattoe slaves, imported into +this province." Continued in 1768; repealed (or disallowed) in 1780. +Carey and Bioren, _Laws_, I. 371, 451; _Acts of Assembly_ (ed. 1782), p. +149; _Colonial Records_ (1852), VIII. 576. + + +~1761, April 22. Pennsylvania: Prohibitive Duty Act.~ + +"A Supplement to an act, entituled An Act for laying a duty on Negroes +and Mulattoe slaves, imported into this province." Continued in 1768. +Carey and Bioren, _Laws_, I. 371, 451; Bettle, _Notices of Negro +Slavery_, in _Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem._ (1864), I. 388-9. + + +~1763, Nov. 26. Maryland: Additional £2 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for imposing an additional Duty of Two Pounds per Poll on all +Negroes Imported into this Province." + +§ 1. All persons importing Negroes by land or water into this province, +shall at the time of entry pay to the naval officer the sum of two +pounds, current money, over and above the duties now payable by law, for +every Negro so imported or brought in, on forfeiture of £10 current +money for every Negro so brought in and not paid for. One half of the +penalty is to go to the informer, the other half to the use of the +county schools. The duty shall be collected, accounted for, and paid by +the naval officers, in the same manner as former duties on Negroes. + +§ 2. But persons removing from any other of his Majesty's dominions in +order to settle and reside within this province, may import their slaves +for carrying on their proper occupations at the time of removal, duty +free. + +§ 3. Importers of Negroes, exporting the same within two months of the +time of their importation, on application to the naval officer shall be +paid the aforesaid duty. Bacon, _Laws_, 1763, ch. xxviii. + + +~1763 (circa). New Jersey: Prohibitive Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for laying a duty on Negroes and Mulatto Slaves Imported into +this Province." Disallowed (?) by Great Britain. _N.J. Archives_, IX. +345-6, 383, 447, 458. + + +~1764, Aug. 25. South Carolina: Additional £100 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for laying an additional duty upon all Negroes hereafter to be +imported into this Province, for the time therein mentioned, to be paid +by the first purchasers of such Negroes." Cooper, _Statutes_, IV 187. + + +~1766, November. Virginia: Proposed Duty Act.~ + +"An act for laying an additional duty upon slaves imported into this +colony." + +§ 1. " ... from and after the passing of this act there shall be levied +and paid ... for all slaves imported or brought into this colony for +sale, either by land or water from any port or place whatsoever, by the +buyer or purchaser, after the rate of ten per centum on the amount of +each respective purchase over and above the several duties already laid +upon slaves imported or brought into this colony as aforesaid," etc. To +be suspended until the king's consent is given, and then to continue +seven years. The same act was passed again in 1769. Hening, _Statutes_, +VIII. 237, 337. + + +~1766. Rhode Island: Restrictive Measure (?).~ + +Title and text not found. Cf. _Digest_ of 1798, under "Slave Trade;" +_Public Laws of Rhode Island_ (revision of 1822), p. 441. + + +~1768, Feb. 20. Pennsylvania: Re-enactment of Acts of 1761.~ + +Titles only found. Dallas, _Laws_, I. 490; _Colonial Records_ (1852), +IX. 472, 637, 641. + + +~1769, Nov. 16. New Jersey: £15 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for laying a Duty on the Purchasers of Slaves imported into this +Colony." + +"Whereas Duties on the Importation of Negroes in several of the +neighbouring Colonies hath, on Experience, been found beneficial in the +Introduction of sober, industrious Foreigners, to settle under His +Majesty's Allegiance, and the promoting a Spirit of Industry among the +Inhabitants in general: _In order therefore_ to promote the same good +Designs in this Government, and that such as choose to purchase Slaves +may contribute some equitable Proportion of the publick Burdens," etc. +A duty of "_Fifteen Pounds_, Proclamation Money, is laid." _Acts of +Assembly_ (Allinson, 1776), p. 315. + + +~1769 (circa). Connecticut: Importation Prohibited (?).~ + +Title and text not found. "Whereas, the increase of slaves is injurious +to the poor, and inconvenient, therefore," etc. Fowler, _Historical +Status of the Negro in Connecticut_, in _Local Law_, etc., p. 125. + + +~1770. Rhode Island: Bill to Prohibit Importation.~ + +Bill to prohibit importation of slaves fails. Arnold, _History of Rhode +Island_ (1859), II. 304, 321, 337. + + +~1771, April 12. Massachusetts: Bill to Prevent Importation.~ + +Bill passes both houses and fails of Governor Hutchinson's assent. +_House Journal_, pp. 211, 215, 219, 228, 234, 236, 240, 242-3. + + +~1771. Maryland: Additional £5 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for imposing a further additional duty of five pounds current +money per poll on all negroes imported into this province." For seven +years. _Laws of Maryland since 1763_: 1771, ch. vii.; cf. 1773, sess. +Nov.-Dec., ch. xiv. + + +~1772, April 1. Virginia: Address to the King.~ + +" ... The importation of slaves into the colonies from the coast of +Africa hath long been considered as a trade of great inhumanity, and +under its _present encouragement_, we have too much reason to fear _will +endanger the very existence_ of your majesty's American dominions.... + +"Deeply impressed with these sentiments, we most humbly beseech your +majesty to _remove all those restraints_ on your majesty's governors of +this colony, _which inhibit their assenting to such laws as might check +so very pernicious a commerce_." _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, +p. 131; quoted in Tucker, _Dissertation on Slavery_ (repr. 1861), p. 43. + + +~1773, Feb. 26. Pennsylvania: Additional £10 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for making perpetual the act ... [of 1761] ... and laying an +additional duty on the said slaves." Dallas, _Laws_, I. 671; _Acts of +Assembly_ (ed. 1782), p. 149. + + +~1774, March, June. Massachusetts: Bills to Prohibit Importation.~ + +Two bills designed to prohibit the importation of slaves fail of the +governor's assent. First bill: _General Court Records_, XXX. 248, 264; +_Mass. Archives, Domestic Relations, 1643-1774_, IX. 457. Second bill: +_General Court Records_, XXX. 308, 322. + + +~1774, June. Rhode Island: Importation Restricted.~ + +"An Act prohibiting the importation of Negroes into this Colony." + +"Whereas, the inhabitants of America are generally engaged in the +preservation of their own rights and liberties, among which, that of +personal freedom must be considered as the greatest; as those who are +desirous of enjoying all the advantages of liberty themselves, should be +willing to extend personal liberty to others;-- + +"Therefore, be it enacted ... that for the future, no negro or mulatto +slave shall be brought into this colony; and in case any slave shall +hereafter be brought in, he or she shall be, and are hereby, rendered +immediately free, so far as respects personal freedom, and the enjoyment +of private property, in the same manner as the native Indians." + +"Provided that the slaves of settlers and travellers be excepted. + +"Provided, also, that nothing in this act shall extend, or be deemed to +extend, to any negro or mulatto slave brought from the coast of Africa, +into the West Indies, on board any vessel belonging to this colony, and +which negro or mulatto slave could not be disposed of in the West +Indies, but shall be brought into this colony. + +"Provided, that the owner of such negro or mulatto slave give bond to +the general treasurer of the said colony, within ten days after such +arrival in the sum of £100, lawful money, for each and every such negro +or mulatto slave so brought in, that such negro or mulatto slave shall +be exported out of the colony, within one year from the date of such +bond; if such negro or mulatto be alive, and in a condition to be +removed." + +"Provided, also, that nothing in this act shall extend, or be deemed to +extend, to any negro or mulatto slave that may be on board any vessel +belonging to this colony, now at sea, in her present voyage." Heavy +penalties are laid for bringing in Negroes in order to free them. +_Colonial Records_, VII. 251-3. + +[1784, February: "It is voted and resolved, that the whole of the clause +contained in an act of this Assembly, passed at June session, +A.D. 1774, permitting slaves brought from the coast of Africa +into the West Indies, on board any vessel belonging to this (then +colony, now) state, and who could not be disposed of in the West Indies, +&c., be, and the same is, hereby repealed." _Colonial Records_, X. 8.] + + +~1774, October. Connecticut: Importation Prohibited.~ + +"An Act for prohibiting the Importation of Indian, Negro or Molatto +Slaves." + +" ... no indian, negro or molatto Slave shall at any time hereafter be +brought or imported into this Colony, by sea or land, from any place or +places whatsoever, to be disposed of, left or sold within this Colony." +This was re-enacted in the revision of 1784, and slaves born after 1784 +were ordered to be emancipated at the age of twenty-five. _Colonial +Records_, XIV. 329; _Acts and Laws of Connecticut_ (ed. 1784), pp. +233-4. + + +~1774. New Jersey: Proposed Prohibitive Duty.~ + +"A Bill for laying a Duty on Indian, Negroe and Molatto Slaves, imported +into this Colony." Passed the Assembly, and was rejected by the Council +as "plainly" intending "an intire Prohibition," etc. _N.J. Archives_, +1st Series, VI. 222. + + +~1775, March 27. Delaware: Bill to Prohibit Importation.~ + +Passed the Assembly and was vetoed by the governor. Force, _American +Archives_, 4th Series, II. 128-9. + + +~1775, Nov. 23. Virginia: On Lord Dunmore's Proclamation.~ + +Williamsburg Convention to the public: "Our Assemblies have repeatedly +passed acts, laying heavy duties upon imported Negroes, by which they +meant altogether to prevent the horrid traffick; but their humane +intentions have been as often frustrated by the cruelty and covetousness +of a set of _English_ merchants." ... The Americans would, if possible, +"not only prevent any more Negroes from losing their freedom, but +restore it to such as have already unhappily lost it." This is evidently +addressed in part to Negroes, to keep them from joining the British. +_Ibid._, III. 1387. + + +~1776, June 29. Virginia: Preamble to Frame of Government.~ + +Blame for the slave-trade thrown on the king. See above, page 21. +Hening, _Statutes_, IX. 112-3. + + +~1776, Aug.-Sept. Delaware: Constitution.~ + +"The Constitution or system of Government agreed to and resolved upon by +the Representatives in full Convention of the Delaware State," etc. + +§ 26. "No person hereafter imported into this State from _Africa_ ought +to be held in slavery on any pretence whatever; and no Negro, Indian, or +Mulatto slave ought to be brought into this State, for sale, from any +part of the world." Force, _American Archives_, 5th Series, I. 1174-9. + + +~1777, July 2. Vermont: Slavery Condemned.~ + +The first Constitution declares slavery a violation of "natural, +inherent and unalienable rights." _Vermont State Papers, 1779-86_, p. +244. + + +~1777. Maryland: Negro Duty Maintained.~ + +"An Act concerning duties." + +" ... no duties imposed by act of assembly on any article or thing +imported into or exported out of this state (except duties imposed on +the importation of negroes), shall be taken or received within two years +from the end of the present session of the general assembly." _Laws of +Maryland since 1763_: 1777, sess. Feb.-Apr., ch. xviii. + + +~1778, Sept. 7. Pennsylvania: Act to Collect Back Duties.~ + +"An Act for the recovery of the duties on Negroes and Mulattoe slaves, +which on the fourth day of July, one thousand seven hundred and +seventy-six, were due to this state," etc. Dallas, _Laws_, I. 782. + + +~1778, October. Virginia: Importation Prohibited.~ + +"An act for preventing the farther importation of Slaves. + +§ 1. "For preventing the farther importation of slaves into this +commonwealth, _Be it enacted by the General Assembly_, That from and +after the passing of this act no slave or slaves shall hereafter be +imported into this commonwealth by sea or land, nor shall any slaves so +imported be sold or bought by any person whatsoever. + +§ 2. "Every person hereafter importing slaves into this commonwealth +contrary to this act shall forfeit and pay the sum of one thousand +pounds for every slave so imported, and every person selling or buying +any such slaves shall in like manner forfeit and pay the sum of five +hundred pounds for every slave so sold or bought," etc. + +§ 3. "_And be it farther enacted_, That every slave imported into this +commonwealth, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, +shall, upon such importation become free." + +§ 4. Exceptions are _bona fide_ settlers with slaves not imported later +than Nov. 1, 1778, nor intended to be sold; and transient travellers. +Re-enacted in substance in the revision of October, 1785. For a +temporary exception to this act, as concerns citizens of Georgia and +South Carolina during the war, see Act of May, 1780. Hening, _Statutes_, +IX. 471; X. 307; XII. 182. + + +~1779, October. Rhode Island: Slave-Trade Restricted.~ + +"An Act prohibiting slaves being sold out of the state, against their +consent." Title only found. _Colonial Records_, VIII. 618; Arnold, +_History of Rhode Island_, II. 449. + + +~1779. Vermont: Importation Prohibited.~ + +"An Act for securing the general privileges of the people," etc. The act +abolished slavery. _Vermont State Papers, 1779-86_, p. 287. + + +~1780. Massachusetts: Slavery Abolished.~ + +Passage in the Constitution which was held by the courts to abolish +slavery: "Art. I. All men are born free and equal, and have certain, +natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned +the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties," etc. +_Constitution of Massachusetts_, Part I., Art. 1; prefixed to _Perpetual +Laws_ (1789). + + +~1780, March 1. Pennsylvania: Slavery Abolished.~ + +"An Act for the gradual abolition of slavery." + +§ 5. All slaves to be registered before Nov. 1. + +§ 10. None but slaves "registered as aforesaid, shall, at any time +hereafter, be deemed, adjudged, or holden, within the territories of +this commonwealth, as slaves or servants for life, but as free men and +free women; except the domestic slaves attending upon Delegates in +Congress from the other American States," and those of travellers not +remaining over six months, foreign ministers, etc., "provided such +domestic slaves be not aliened or sold to any inhabitant," etc. + +§ 11. Fugitive slaves from other states may be taken back. + +§ 14. Former duty acts, etc., repealed. Dallas, _Laws_, I. 838. Cf. +_Penn. Archives_, VII. 79; VIII. 720. + + +~1783, April. Confederation: Slave-Trade in Treaty of 1783.~ + +"To the earnest wish of Jay that British ships should have no right +under the convention to carry into the states any slaves from any part +of the world, it being the intention of the United States entirely to +prohibit their importation, Fox answered promptly: 'If that be their +policy, it never can be competent to us to dispute with them their own +regulations.'" Fox to Hartley, June 10, 1783, in Bancroft, _History of +the Constitution_, I. 61. Cf. Sparks, _Diplomatic Correspondence_, X. +154, June, 1783. + + +~1783. Maryland: Importation Prohibited.~ + +"An Act to prohibit the bringing slaves into this state." + +" ... it shall not be lawful, after the passing this act, to import or +bring into this state, by land or water, any negro, mulatto, or other +slave, for sale, or to reside within this state; and any person brought +into this state as a slave contrary to this act, if a slave before, +shall thereupon immediately cease to be a slave, and shall be free; +provided that this act shall not prohibit any person, being a citizen of +some one of the United States, coming into this state, with a _bona +fide_ intention of settling therein, and who shall actually reside +within this state for one year at least, ... to import or bring in any +slave or slaves which before belonged to such person, and which slave or +slaves had been an inhabitant of some one of the United States, for the +space of three whole years next preceding such importation," etc. _Laws +of Maryland since 1763_: 1783, sess. April--June, ch. xxiii. + + +~1783, Aug. 13. South Carolina: £3 and £20 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for levying and collecting certain duties and imposts therein +mentioned, in aid of the public revenue." Cooper, _Statutes_, IV. 576. + + +~1784, February. Rhode Island: Manumission.~ + +"An Act authorizing the manumission of negroes, mulattoes, and others, +and for the gradual abolition of slavery." Persons born after March, +1784, to be free. Bill framed pursuant to a petition of Quakers. +_Colonial Records_, X. 7-8; Arnold, _History of Rhode Island_, II. 503. + + +~1784, March 26. South Carolina: £3 and £5 Duty Act.~ + +"An Act for levying and collecting certain Duties," etc. Cooper, +_Statutes_, IV. 607. + + +~1785, April 12. New York: Partial Prohibition.~ + +"An Act granting a bounty on hemp to be raised within this State, and +imposing an additional duty on sundry articles of merchandise, and for +other purposes therein mentioned." + +" ... _And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid_, That if +any negro or other person to be imported or brought into this State from +any of the United States or from any other place or country after the +first day of June next, shall be sold as a slave or slaves within this +State, the seller or his or her factor or agent, shall be deemed guilty +of a public offence, and shall for every such offence forfeit the sum of +one hundred pounds lawful money of New York, to be recovered by any +person," etc. + +"_And be it further enacted_ ... That every such person imported or +brought into this State and sold contrary to the true intent and meaning +of this act shall be freed." _Laws of New York, 1785-88_ (ed. 1886), pp. +120-21. + + +~1785. Rhode Island: Restrictive Measure (?).~ + +Title and text not found. Cf. _Public Laws of Rhode Island_ (revision of +1822), p. 441. + + +~1786, March 2. New Jersey: Importation Prohibited.~ + +"An Act to prevent the importation of Slaves into the State of New +Jersey, and to authorize the Manumission of them under certain +restrictions, and to prevent the Abuse of Slaves." + +"Whereas the Principles of Justice and Humanity require that the +barbarous Custom of bringing the unoffending African from his native +Country and Connections into a State of Slavery ought to be +discountenanced, and as soon as possible prevented; and sound Policy +also requires, in order to afford ample Support to such of the Community +as depend upon their Labour for their daily Subsistence, that the +Importation of Slaves into this State from any other State or Country +whatsoever, ought to be prohibited under certain Restrictions; and that +such as are under Servitude in the State ought to be protected by Law +from those Exercises of Wanton Cruelty too often practiced upon them; +and that every unnecessary Obstruction in the Way of freeing Slaves +should be removed; therefore, + +§ 1. "_Be it Enacted by the Council and General Assembly of this State, +and it is hereby Enacted by the Authority of the same_, That from and +after the Publication of this Act, it shall not be lawful for any Person +or Persons whatsoever to bring into this State, either for Sale or for +Servitude, any Negro Slave brought from Africa since the Year Seventeen +Hundred and Seventy-six; and every Person offending by bringing into +this State any such Negro Slave shall, for each Slave, forfeit and Pay +the Sum of Fifty Pounds, to be sued for and recovered with Costs by the +Collector of the Township into which such Slave shall be brought, to be +applied when recovered to the Use of the State. + +§ 2. "_And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid_, That if +any Person shall either bring or procure to be brought into this State, +any Negro or Mulatto Slave, who shall not have been born in or brought +from Africa since the Year above mentioned, and either sell or buy, or +cause such Negro or Mulatto Slave to be sold or remain in this State, +for the Space of six Months, every such Person so bringing or procuring +to be brought or selling or purchasing such Slave, not born in or +brought from Africa since the Year aforesaid, shall for every such +Slave, forfeit and pay the Sum of Twenty Pounds, to be sued for and +recovered with Costs by the Collector of the Township into which such +Slave shall be brought or remain after the Time limited for that +Purpose, the Forfeiture to be applied to the Use of the State as +aforesaid. + +§ 3. "_Provided always, and be it further Enacted by the Authority +aforesaid_, That Nothing in this Act contained shall be construed to +prevent any Person who shall remove into the State, to take a settled +Residence here, from bringing all his or her Slaves without incurring +the Penalties aforesaid, excepting such Slaves as shall have been +brought from Africa since the Year first above mentioned, or to prevent +any Foreigners or others having only a temporary Residence in this +State, for the Purpose of transacting any particular Business, or on +their Travels, from bringing and employing such Slaves as Servants, +during the Time of his or her Stay here, provided such Slaves shall not +be sold or disposed of in this State." _Acts of the Tenth General +Assembly_ (Tower Collection of Laws). + + +~1786, Oct. 30. Vermont: External Trade Prohibited.~ + +"An act to prevent the sale and transportation of Negroes and Molattoes +out of this State." £100 penalty. _Statutes of Vermont_ (ed. 1787), p. +105. + + +~1786. North Carolina: Prohibitive Duty.~ + +"An act to impose a duty on all slaves brought into this state by land +or water." + +"Whereas the importation of slaves into this state is productive of evil +consequences, and highly impolitic," etc. A prohibitive duty is imposed. +The exact text was not found. + +§ 6. Slaves introduced from States which have passed emancipation acts +are to be returned in three months; if not, a bond of £50 is to be +forfeited, and a fine of £100 imposed. + +§ 8. Act to take effect next Feb. 1; repealed by Act of 1790, ch. 18. +Martin, _Iredell's Acts of Assembly_, I. 413, 492. + + +~1787, Feb. 3. Delaware: Exportation Prohibited.~ + +"An Act to prevent the exportation of slaves, and for other purposes." +_Laws of Delaware_ (ed. 1797), p. 884, ch. 145 b. + + +~1787, March 28. South Carolina: Total Prohibition.~ + +"An Act to regulate the recovery and payment of debts and for +prohibiting the importation of negroes for the time therein mentioned." +Title only given. Grimké, _Public Laws_, p. lxviii, No. 1485. + + +~1787, March 28. South Carolina: Importation Prohibited.~ + +"An Ordinance to impose a Penalty on any person who shall import into +this State any Negroes, contrary to the Instalment Act." + +1. "_Be it ordained_, by the honorable the Senate and House of +Representatives, met in General Assembly, and by the authority of the +same, That any person importing or bringing into this State a negro +slave, contrary to the Act to regulate the recovery of debts and +prohibiting the importation of negroes, shall, besides the forfeiture of +such negro or slave, be liable to a penalty of one hundred pounds, to +the use of the State, for every such negro or slave so imported and +brought in, in addition to the forfeiture in and by the said Act +prescribed." Cooper, _Statutes_, VII. 430. + + +~1787, October. Rhode Island: Importation Prohibited.~ + +"An act to prevent the slave trade and to encourage the abolition of +slavery." This act prohibited and censured trade under penalty of £100 +for each person and £1,000 for each vessel. Bartlett, _Index to the +Printed Acts and Resolves_, p. 333; _Narragansett Historical Register_, +II. 298-9. + + * * * * * + + + +APPENDIX B. + +A CHRONOLOGICAL CONSPECTUS OF STATE, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL +LEGISLATION. + +1788-1871. + + + As the State statutes and Congressional reports and bills are + difficult to find, the significant parts of such documents are + printed in full. In the case of national statutes and treaties, + the texts may easily be found through the references. + + +~1788, Feb. 22. New York: Slave-Trade Prohibited.~ + +"An Act concerning slaves." + +"Whereas in consequence of the act directing a revision of the laws of +this State, it is expedient that the several existing laws relative to +slaves, should be revised, and comprized in one. Therefore, _Be it +enacted_," etc. + +"And to prevent the further importation of slaves into this State, _Be +it further enacted by the authority aforesaid_, That if any person shall +sell as a slave within this State any negro, or other person, who has +been imported or brought into this State, after" June 1, 1785, "such +seller, or his or her factor or agent, making such sale, shall be deemed +guilty of a public offence, and shall for every such offence, forfeit +the sum of one hundred pounds.... _And further_, That every person so +imported ... shall be free." The purchase of slaves for removal to +another State is prohibited under penalty of £100. _Laws of New York, +1785-88_ (ed. 1886), pp. 675-6. + + +~1788, March 25. Massachusetts: Slave-Trade Prohibited.~ + +"An Act to prevent the Slave-Trade, and for granting Relief to the +Families of such unhappy Persons as may be kidnapped or decoyed away +from this Commonwealth." + +"Whereas by the African trade for slaves, the lives and liberties of +many innocent persons have been from time to time sacrificed to the lust +of gain: And whereas some persons residing in this Commonwealth may be +so regardless of the rights of human kind, as to be concerned in that +unrighteous commerce: + +§ 1. "Be it therefore enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, +in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That no +citizen of this Commonwealth, or other person residing within the same, +shall for himself, or any other person whatsoever, either as master, +factor, supercargo, owner or hirer, in whole or in part, of any vessel, +directly or indirectly, import or transport, or buy or sell, or receive +on board, his or their vessel, with intent to cause to be imported or +transported, any of the inhabitants of any State or Kingdom, in that +part of the world called _Africa_, as slaves, or as servants for term of +years." Any person convicted of doing this shall forfeit and pay the sum +of £50 for every person received on board, and the sum of £200 for every +vessel fitted out for the trade, "to be recovered by action of debt, in +any Court within this Commonwealth, proper to try the same; the one +moiety thereof to the use of this Commonwealth, and the other moiety to +the person who shall prosecute for and recover the same." + +§ 2. All insurance on said vessels and cargo shall be null and void; +"and this act may be given in evidence under the general issue, in any +suit or action commenced for the recovery of insurance so made," etc. + +§ 4. "_Provided_ ... That this act do not extend to vessels which have +already sailed, their owners, factors, or commanders, for and during +their present voyage, or to any insurance that shall have been made, +previous to the passing of the same." _Perpetual Laws of Massachusetts, +1780-89_ (ed. 1789), p. 235. + + +~1788, March 29. Pennsylvania: Slave-Trade Prohibited.~ + +"An Act to explain and amend an act, entituled, 'An Act for the gradual +abolition of slavery.'" + +§ 2. Slaves brought in by persons intending to settle shall be free. + +§ 3. " ... no negro or mulatto slave, or servant for term of years," +except servants of congressmen, consuls, etc., "shall be removed out of +this state, with the design and intention that the place of abode or +residence of such slave or servant shall be thereby altered or changed, +or with the design and intention that such slave or servant, if a +female, and pregnant, shall be detained and kept out of this state till +her delivery of the child of which she is or shall be pregnant, or with +the design and intention that such slave or servant shall be brought +again into this state, after the expiration of six months from the time +of such slave or servant having been first brought into this state, +without his or her consent, if of full age, testified upon a private +examination, before two Justices of the peace of the city or county in +which he or she shall reside, or, being under the age of twenty-one +years, without his or her consent, testified in manner aforesaid, and +also without the consent of his or her parents," etc. Penalty for every +such offence, £75. + +§ 5. " ... if any person or persons shall build, fit, equip, man, or +otherwise prepare any ship or vessel, within any port of this state, or +shall cause any ship or other vessel to sail from any port of this +state, for the purpose of carrying on a trade or traffic in slaves, to, +from, or between Europe, Asia, Africa or America, or any places or +countries whatever, or of transporting slaves to or from one port or +place to another, in any part or parts of the world, such ship or +vessel, her tackle, furniture, apparel, and other appurtenances, shall +be forfeited to the commonwealth.... And, moreover, all and every person +and persons so building, fitting out," etc., shall forfeit £1000. +Dallas, _Laws_, II. 586. + + +~1788, October. Connecticut: Slave-Trade Prohibited.~ + +"An Act to prevent the Slave-Trade." + +_"Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and Representatives in General +Court assembled, and by the Authority of the same_, That no Citizen or +Inhabitant of this State, shall for himself, or any other Person, either +as Master, Factor, Supercargo, Owner or Hirer, in Whole, or in Part, of +any Vessel, directly or indirectly, import or transport, or buy or sell, +or receive on board his or her Vessel, with Intent to cause to be +imported or transported, any of the Inhabitants of any Country in +Africa, as Slaves or Servants, for Term of Years; upon Penalty of _Fifty +Pounds_, for every Person so received on board, as aforesaid; and of +_Five Hundred Pounds_ for every such Vessel employed in the Importation +or Transportation aforesaid; to be recovered by Action, Bill, Plaint or +Information; the one Half to the Plaintiff, and the other Half to the +Use of this State." And all insurance on vessels and slaves shall be +void. This act to be given as evidence under general issue, in any suit +commenced for recovery of such insurance. + +" ... if any Person shall kidnap ... any free Negro," etc., inhabitant +of this State, he shall forfeit £100. Every vessel clearing for the +coast of Africa or any other part of the world, and suspected to be in +the slave-trade, must give bond in £1000. Slightly amended in 1789. +_Acts and Laws of Connecticut_ (ed. 1784), pp. 368-9, 388. + + +~1788, Nov. 4. South Carolina: Temporary Prohibition.~ + +"An Act to regulate the Payment and Recovery of Debts, and to prohibit +the Importation of Negroes, for the Time therein limited." + +§ 16. "No negro or other slave shall be imported or brought into this +State either by land or water on or before the first of January, 1793, +under the penalty of forfeiting every such slave or slaves to any person +who will sue or inform for the same; and under further penalty of +paying £100 to the use of the State for every such negro or slave so +imported or brought in: _Provided_, That nothing in this prohibition +contained shall extend to such slaves as are now the property of +citizens of the United States, and at the time of passing this act shall +be within the limits of the said United States. + +§ 17. "All former instalment laws, and an ordinance imposing a penalty +on persons importing negroes into this State, passed the 28th day of +March 1787, are hereby repealed." Grimké, _Public Laws_, p. 466. + + +~1789, Feb. 3. Delaware: Slave-Trade Prohibited.~ + +"_An additional Supplementary_ ACT _to an act, intituled_, An act to +prevent the exportation of slaves, and for other purposes." + +"Whereas it is inconsistent with that spirit of general liberty which +pervades the constitution of this state, that vessels should be fitted +out, or equipped, in any of the ports thereof, for the purpose of +receiving and transporting the natives of Africa to places where they +are held in slavery; or that any acts should be deemed lawful, which +tend to encourage or promote such iniquitous traffic among us: + +§ 1. "_Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of Delaware_, +That if any owner or owners, master, agent, or factor, shall fit out, +equip, man, or otherwise prepare, any ship or vessel within any port or +place in this state, or shall cause any ship, or other vessel, to sail +from any port or place in this state, for the purpose of carrying on a +trade or traffic in slaves, to, from, or between, Europe, Asia, Africa, +or America, or any places or countries whatever, or of transporting +slaves to, or from, one port or place to another, in any part or parts +of the world; such ship or vessel, her tackle, furniture, apparel, and +other appurtenances, shall be forfeited to this state.... And moreover, +all and every person and persons so fitting out ... any ship or vessel +... shall severally forfeit and pay the sum of Five Hundred Pounds;" +one-half to the state, and one-half to the informer. + +§ 2. "_And whereas_ it has been found by experience, that the act, +intituled, _An act to prevent the exportation of slaves, and for other +purposes_, has not produced all the good effects expected therefrom," +any one exporting a slave to Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South +Carolina, Georgia, or the West Indies, without license, shall forfeit +£100 for each slave exported and £20 for each attempt. + +§ 3. Slaves to be tried by jury for capital offences. _Laws of Delaware_ +(ed. 1797), p. 942, ch. 194 b. + + +~1789, May 13. Congress (House): Proposed Duty on Slaves Imported.~ + +A tax of $10 per head on slaves imported, moved by Parker of Virginia. +After debate, withdrawn. _Annals of Cong._, 1 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 336-42. + + +~1789, Sept. 19. Congress (House): Bill to Tax Slaves Imported.~ + +A committee under Parker of Virginia reports, "a bill concerning the +importation of certain persons prior to the year 1808." Read once and +postponed until next session. _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 1 Cong. 1 +sess. I. 37, 114; _Annals of Cong._, 1 Cong. 1 sess., pp. 366, 903. + + +~1790, March 22. Congress (House): Declaration of Powers.~ + +See above, pages 82-83. + + +~1790, March 22. New York: Amendment of Act of 1788.~ + +"An Act to amend the act entitled 'An act concerning slaves.'" + +"Whereas many inconveniences have arisen from the prohibiting the +exporting of slaves from this State. Therefore + +"_Be it enacted_ ..., That where any slave shall hereafter be convicted +of a crime under the degree of a capital offence, in the supreme court, +or the court of oyer and terminer, and general gaol delivery, or a court +of general sessions of the peace within this State, it shall and may be +lawful to and for the master or mistress to cause such slave to be +transported out of this State," etc. _Laws of New York, 1789-96_ (ed. +1886), p. 151. + + +~1792, May. Connecticut: Act of 1788 Strengthened.~ + +"An Act in addition to an Act, entitled 'An Act to prevent the Slave +Trade.'" + +This provided that persons directly or indirectly aiding or assisting in +slave-trading should be fined £100. All notes, bonds, mortgages, etc., +of any kind, made or executed in payment for any slave imported contrary +to this act, are declared null and void. Persons removing from the State +might carry away their slaves. _Acts and Laws of Connecticut_ (ed. +1784), pp. 412-3. + + +~1792, Dec. 17. Virginia: Revision of Acts.~ + +"An Act to reduce into one, the several acts concerning slaves, free +negroes, and mulattoes." + +§ 1. "_Be it enacted_ ..., That no persons shall henceforth be slaves +within this commonwealth, except such as were so on the seventeenth day +of October," 1785, "and the descendants of the females of them." + +§ 2. "Slaves which shall hereafter be brought into this commonwealth, +and kept therein one whole year together, or so long at different times +as shall amount to one year, shall be free." + +§ 4. "_Provided_, That nothing in this act contained, shall be construed +to extend to those who may incline to remove from any of the United +States and become citizens of this, if within sixty days after such +removal, he or she shall take the following oath before some justice of +the peace of this commonwealth: '_I, A.B., do swear, that my removal +into the state of Virginia, was with no intent of evading the laws for +preventing the further importation of slaves, nor have I brought with me +any slaves, with an intention of selling them, nor have any of the +slaves which I have brought with me, been imported from Africa, or any +of the West India islands, since the first day of November_,'" 1778, +etc. + +§ 53. This act to be in force immediately. _Statutes at Large of +Virginia, New Series_, I. 122. + + +~1792, Dec. 21. South Carolina: Importation Prohibited until 1795.~ + +"An Act to prohibit the importation of Slaves from Africa, or other +places beyond sea, into this State, for two years; and also to prohibit +the importation or bringing in Slaves, or Negroes, Mulattoes, Indians, +Moors or Mestizoes, bound for a term of years, from any of the United +States, by land or by water." + +"Whereas, it is deemed inexpedient to increase the number of slaves +within this State, in our present circumstances and situation; + +§ 1. "_Be it therefore enacted_ ..., That no slave shall be imported +into this State from Africa, the West India Islands, or other place +beyond sea, for and during the term of two years, commencing from the +first day of January next, which will be in the year of our Lord one +thousand seven hundred and ninety-three." + +§ 2. No slaves, Negroes, Indians, etc., bound for a term of years, to be +brought in from any of the United States or bordering countries. +Settlers may bring their slaves. Cooper, _Statutes_, VII. 431. + + +~1793, Dec. 19. Georgia: Importation Prohibited.~ + +"An act to prevent the importation of negroes into this state from the +places herein mentioned." Title only. Re-enacted (?) by the Constitution +of 1798. Marbury and Crawford, _Digest_, p. 442; Prince, _Digest_, p. +786. + + +~1794, North Carolina: Importation Prohibited.~ + +"An act to prevent the further importation and bringing of slaves and +indented servants of colour into this state." + +§ 1. "_Be it enacted_ ..., That from and after the first day of May +next, no slave or indented servant of colour shall be imported or +brought into this state by land or water; nor shall any slave or +indented servant of colour, who may be imported or brought contrary to +the intent and meaning of this act, be bought, sold or hired by any +person whatever." + +§ 2. Penalty for importing, £100 per slave; for buying or selling, the +same. + +§ 4. Persons removing, travelling, etc., are excepted. The act was +amended slightly in 1796. Martin, _Iredell's Acts of Assembly_, II. 53, +94. + + +~1794, March 22. United States Statute: Export Slave-Trade Forbidden.~ + +"An Act to prohibit the carrying on the Slave Trade from the United +States to any foreign place or country." _Statutes at Large_, I. 347. +For proceedings in Congress, see _Senate Journal_ (repr. 1820), 3 Cong. +1 sess. II. 51; _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 3 Cong. 1 sess. II. 76, +84, 85, 96, 98, 99, 100; _Annals of Cong._, 3 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 64, 70, +72. + + +~1794, Dec. 20. South Carolina: Act of 1792 Extended.~ + +"An Act to revive and extend an Act entitled 'An Act to prohibit the +importation of Slaves from Africa, or other places beyond Sea, into this +State, for two years; and also, to prohibit the importation or bringing +in of Negro Slaves, Mulattoes, Indians, Moors or Mestizoes, bound for a +term of years, from any of the United States, by Land or Water.'" + +§ 1. Act of 1792 extended until Jan. 1, 1797. + +§ 2. It shall not be lawful hereafter to import slaves, free Negroes, +etc., from the West Indies, any part of America outside the United +States, "or from other parts beyond sea." Such slaves are to be +forfeited and sold; the importer to be fined £50; free Negroes to be +re-transported. Cooper, _Statutes_, VII. 433. + + +~1795. North Carolina: Act against West Indian Slaves.~ + +"An act to prevent any person who may emigrate from any of the West +India or Bahama islands, or the French, Dutch or Spanish settlements on +the southern coast of America, from bringing slaves into this state, and +also for imposing certain restrictions on free persons of colour who +may hereafter come into this state." Penalty, £100 for each slave over +15 years of age. _Laws of North Carolina_ (revision of 1819), I. 786. + + +~1796. Maryland: Importation Prohibited.~ + +"An Act relating to Negroes, and to repeal the acts of assembly therein +mentioned." + +"_Be it enacted_ ..., That it shall not be lawful, from and after the +passing of this act, to import or bring into this state, by land or +water, any negro, mulatto or other slave, for sale, or to reside within +this state; and any person brought into this state as a slave contrary +to this act, if a slave before, shall thereupon immediately cease to be +the property of the person or persons so importing or bringing such +slave within this state, and shall be free." + +§ 2. Any citizen of the United States, coming into the State to take up +_bona fide_ residence, may bring with him, or within one year import, +any slave which was his property at the time of removal, "which slaves, +or the mother of which slaves, shall have been a resident of the United +States, or some one of them, three whole years next preceding such +removal." + +§ 3. Such slaves cannot be sold within three years, except by will, etc. +In 1797, "A Supplementary Act," etc., slightly amended the preceding, +allowing guardians, executors, etc., to import the slaves of the estate. +Dorsey, _Laws_, I. 334, 344. + + +~1796, Dec. 19. South Carolina: Importation Prohibited until 1799.~ + +"An Act to prohibit the importation of Negroes, until the first day of +January, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine." + +"Whereas, it appears to be highly impolitic to import negroes from +Africa, or other places beyond seas," etc. Extended by acts of Dec. 21, +1798, and Dec. 20, 1800, until Jan. 1, 1803. Cooper, _Statutes_, VII. +434, 436. + + +~1797, Jan. 18. Delaware: Codification of Acts.~ + +"An Act concerning Negro and Mulatto slaves." + +§ 5. " ... any Negro or Mulatto slave, who hath been or shall be brought +into this state contrary to the intent and meaning of [the act of 1787]; +and any Negro or Mulatto slave who hath been or shall be exported, or +sold with an intention for exportation, or carried out for sale from +this state, contrary to the intent and meaning of [the act of 1793], +shall be, and are hereby declared free; any thing in this act to the +contrary notwithstanding." _Laws of Delaware_ (ed. 1797), p. 1321, ch. +124 c. + + +~1798, Jan. 31. Georgia: Importation Prohibited.~ + +"An act to prohibit the further importation of slaves into this state." + +§ 1. " ... six months after the passing of this act, it shall be +unlawful for any person or persons to import into this state, from +Africa or elsewhere, any negro or negroes of any age or sex." Every +person so offending shall forfeit for the first offence the sum of +$1,000 for every negro so imported, and for every subsequent offence the +sum of $1,000, one half for the use of the informer, and one half for +the use of the State. + +§ 2. Slaves not to be brought from other States for sale after three +months. + +§ 3. Persons convicted of bringing slaves into this State with a view to +sell them, are subject to the same penalties as if they had sold them. +Marbury and Crawford, _Digest_, p. 440. + + +~1798, March 14. New Jersey: Slave-Trade Prohibited.~ + +"An Act respecting slaves." + +§ 12. "_And be it enacted_, That from and after the passing of this act, +it shall not be lawful for any person or persons whatsoever, to bring +into this state, either for sale or for servitude, any negro or other +slave whatsoever." Penalty, $140 for each slave; travellers and +temporary residents excepted. + +§ 17. Any persons fitting out vessels for the slave-trade shall forfeit +them. Paterson, _Digest_, p. 307. + + +~1798, April 7. United States Statute: Importation into Mississippi +Territory Prohibited.~ + +"An Act for an amicable settlement of limits with the state of Georgia, +and authorizing the establishment of a government in the Mississippi +territory." _Statutes at Large_, I. 549. For proceedings in Congress, +see _Annals of Cong._, 5 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 511, 512, 513, 514, 515, 532, +533, 1235, 1249, 1277-84, 1296, 1298-1312, 1313, 1318. + + +~1798, May 30. Georgia: Constitutional Prohibition.~ + +Constitution of Georgia:-- + +Art. IV § 11. "There shall be no future importation of slaves into this +state from Africa, or any foreign place, after the first day of October +next. The legislature shall have no power to pass laws for the +emancipation of slaves, without the consent of each of their respective +owners previous to such emancipation. They shall have no power to +prevent emigrants, from either of the United States to this state, from +bringing with them such persons as may be deemed slaves, by the laws of +any one of the United States." Marbury and Crawford, _Digest_, p. 30. + + +~1800, May 10. United States Statute: Americans Forbidden to Trade from +one Foreign Country to Another.~ + +"An Act in addition to the act intituled 'An act to prohibit the +carrying on the Slave Trade from the United States to any foreign place +or country.'" _Statutes at Large_, II. 70. For proceedings in Congress, +see _Senate Journal_ (repr. 1821), 6 Cong. 1 sess. III. 72, 77, 88, 92. + + +~1800, Dec. 20. South Carolina: Slaves and Free Negroes Prohibited.~ + +"An Act to prevent Negro Slaves and other persons of Colour, from being +brought into or entering this State." Supplemented Dec. 19, 1801, and +amended Dec. 18, 1802. Cooper, _Statutes_, VII. 436, 444, 447. + + +~1801, April 8. New York: Slave-Trade Prohibited.~ + +"An Act concerning slaves and servants." + +" ... _And be it further enacted_, That no slave shall hereafter be +imported or brought into this State, unless the person importing or +bringing such slave shall be coming into this State with intent to +reside permanently therein and shall have resided without this State, +and also have owned such slave at least during one year next preceding +the importing or bringing in of such slave," etc. A certificate, sworn +to, must be obtained; any violation of this act or neglect to take out +such certificate will result in freedom to the slave. Any sale or +limited transfer of any person hereafter imported to be a public +offence, under penalty of $250, and freedom to the slave transferred. +The export of slaves or of any person freed by this act is forbidden, +under penalty of $250 and freedom to the slave. Transportation for crime +is permitted. Re-enacted with amendments March 31, 1817. _Laws of New +York, 1801_ (ed. 1887), pp. 547-52; _Laws of New York, 1817_ (ed. 1817), +p. 136. + + +~1803, Feb. 28. United States Statute: Importation into States +Prohibiting Forbidden.~ + +"An Act to prevent the importation of certain persons into certain +states, where, by the laws thereof, their admission is prohibited." +_Statutes at Large_, II. 205. For copy of the proposed bill which this +replaced, see _Annals of Cong._, 7 Cong. 2 sess. p. 467. For proceedings +in Congress, see _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 7 Cong. 2 sess. IV 304, +324, 347; _Senate Journal_ (repr. 1821), 7 Cong. 2 sess. III. 267, 268, +269-70, 273, 275, 276, 279. + + +~1803, Dec. 17. South Carolina: African Slaves Admitted.~ + +"An Act to alter and amend the several Acts respecting the importation +or bringing into this State, from beyond seas, or elsewhere, Negroes and +other persons of colour; and for other purposes therein mentioned." + +§ 1. Acts of 1792, 1794, 1796, 1798, 1800, 1802, hereby repealed. + +§ 2. Importation of Negroes from the West Indies prohibited. + +§ 3. No Negro over fifteen years of age to be imported from the United +States except under certificate of good character. + +§ 5. Negroes illegally imported to be forfeited and sold, etc. Cooper, +_Statutes_, VII. 449. + + +~1804.~ [~Denmark.~ + +Act of 1792 abolishing the slave-trade goes into effect.] + + +~1804, Feb. 14. Congress (House): Proposed Censure of South Carolina.~ + +Representative Moore of South Carolina offered the following resolution, +as a substitute to Mr. Bard's taxing proposition of Jan. 6:-- + +"_Resolved_, That this House receive with painful sensibility +information that one of the Southern States, by a repeal of certain +prohibitory laws, have permitted a traffic unjust in its nature, and +highly impolitic in free Governments." Ruled out of order by the +chairman of the Committee of the Whole. _Annals of Cong._, 8 Cong. 1 +sess. p. 1004. + + +~1804, Feb. 15. Congress (House): Proposed Duty.~ + +"_Resolved_, That a tax of ten dollars be imposed on every slave +imported into any part of the United States." + +"_Ordered_, That a bill, or bills, be brought in, pursuant to the said +resolution," etc. Feb. 16 "a bill laying a duty on slaves imported into +the United States" was read, but was never considered. _House Journal_ +(repr. 1826), 8 Cong. 1 sess. IV 523, 578, 580, 581-2, 585; _Annals of +Cong._, 8 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 820, 876, 991, 1012, 1020, 1024-36. + + +~1804, March 26. United States Statute: Slave-Trade Limited.~ + +"An Act erecting Louisiana into two territories," etc. Acts of 1794 and +1803 extended to Louisiana. _Statutes at Large_, II. 283. For +proceedings in Congress, see _Annals of Cong._, 8 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 106, +211, 223, 231, 233-4, 238, 255, 1038, 1054-68, 1069-79, 1128-30, +1185-9. + + +~1805, Feb. 15. Massachusetts: Proposed Amendment.~ + +"_Resolve requesting the Governor to transmit to the Senators and +Representatives in Congress, and the Executives of the several States +this Resolution, as an amendment to the Constitution of the United +States, respecting Slaves._" June 8, Governor's message; Connecticut +answers that it is inexpedient; Maryland opposes the proposition. +_Massachusetts Resolves_, February, 1805, p. 55; June, 1805, p. 18. See +below, March 3, 1805. + + +~1805, March 2. United States Statute: Slave-Trade to Orleans Territory +Permitted.~ + +"An Act further providing for the government of the territory of +Orleans." + +§ 1. A territorial government erected similar to Mississippi, with same +rights and privileges. + +§ 5. 6th Article of Ordinance of 1787, on slaves, not to extend to this +territory. + +_Statutes at Large_, II. 322. For proceedings in Congress, see _Annals +of Cong._, 8 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 28, 30, 45-6, 47, 48, 54, 59-61, 69, +727-8, 871-2, 957, 1016-9, 1020-1, 1201, 1209-10, 1211. Cf. _Statutes at +Large_, II. 331; _Annals of Cong._, 8 Cong. 2 sess., pp. 50, 51, 52, 57, +68, 69, 1213, 1215. In _Journals_, see Index, Senate Bills Nos. 8, 11. + + +~1805, March 3. Congress (House): Massachusetts Proposition to Amend +Constitution.~ + +Mr. Varnum of Massachusetts presented the resolution of the Legislature +of Massachusetts, "instructing the Senators, and requesting the +Representatives in Congress, from the said State, to take all legal and +necessary steps, to use their utmost exertions, as soon as the same is +practicable, to obtain an amendment to the Federal Constitution, so as +to authorize and empower the Congress of the United States to pass a +law, whenever they may deem it expedient, to prevent the further +importation of slaves from any of the West India Islands, from the coast +of Africa, or elsewhere, into the United States, or any part thereof." A +motion was made that Congress have power to prevent further +importation; it was read and ordered to lie on the table. _House +Journal_ (repr. 1826), 8 Cong. 2 sess. V 171; _Annals of Cong._, 8 Cong. +2 sess. pp. 1221-2. For the original resolution, see _Massachusetts +Resolves_, May, 1802, to March, 1806, Vol. II. A. (State House ed., p. +239.) + + +~1805, Dec. 17. Congress (Senate): Proposition to Prohibit Importation.~ + +A "bill to prohibit the importation of certain persons therein described +into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States, +from and after" Jan. 1, 1808, was read twice and postponed. _Senate +Journal_ (repr. 1821), 9 Cong. 1 sess. IV. 10-11; _Annals of Cong._, 9 +Cong. 1 sess. pp. 20-1. + + +~1806, Jan. 20. Congress (House): Vermont Proposed Amendment.~ + +"Mr. Olin, one of the Representatives from the State of Vermont, +presented to the House certain resolutions of the General Assembly of +the said State, proposing an article of amendment to the Constitution of +the United States, to prevent the further importation of slaves, or +people of color, from any of the West India Islands, from the coast of +Africa, or elsewhere, into the United States, or any part thereof; which +were read, and ordered to lie on the table." No further mention found. +_House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 1 sess. V 238; _Annals of Cong._, +9 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 343-4. + + +~1806, Jan. 25. Virginia: Imported Slaves to be Sold.~ + +"An Act to amend the several laws concerning slaves." + +§ 5. If the jury before whom the importer is brought "shall find that +the said slave or slaves were brought into this commonwealth, and have +remained therein, contrary to the provisions of this act, the court +shall make an order, directing him, her or them to be delivered to the +overseers of the poor, to be by them sold for cash and applied as herein +directed." + +§ 8. Penalty for bringing slaves, $400 per slave; the same for buying +or hiring, knowingly, such a slave. + +§ 16. This act to take effect May 1, 1806. _Statutes at Large of +Virginia_, New Series, III. 251. + + +~1806, Jan. 27. Congress (House): Bill to Tax Slaves Imported.~ + +"A Bill laying a duty on slaves imported into any of the United States." +Finally dropped. _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 8 Cong. 2 sess. V. 129; +_Ibid._, 9 Cong. 1 sess. V. 195, 223, 240, 242, 243-4, 248, 260, 262, +264, 276-7, 287, 294, 305, 309, 338; _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 1 sess. +pp. 273, 274, 346, 358, 372, 434, 442-4, 533. + + +~1806, Feb. 4. Congress (House): Proposition to Prohibit Slave-Trade +after 1807.~ + +Mr. Bidwell moved that the following section be added to the bill for +taxing slaves imported,--that any ship so engaged be forfeited. The +proposition was rejected, yeas, 17, nays, 86 (?). _Annals of Cong._, 9 +Cong. 1 sess. p. 438. + + +~1806, Feb. 10. Congress (House): New Hampshire Proposed Amendment.~ + +"Mr. Tenney ... presented to the House certain resolutions of the +Legislature of the State of New Hampshire, 'proposing an amendment to +the Constitution of the United States, so as to authorize and empower +Congress to pass a law, whenever they may deem it expedient, to prevent +the further importation of slaves,' or people of color, into the United +States, or any part thereof." Read and laid on the table. _House +Journal_ (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 1 sess. V. 266; _Annals of Cong._, 9 +Cong. 1 sess. p. 448. + + +~1806, Feb. 17. Congress (House): Proposition on Slave-Trade.~ + +The committee on the slave-trade reported a resolution:-- + +"_Resolved_, That it shall not be lawful for any person or persons, to +import or bring into any of the Territories of the United States, any +slave or slaves that may hereafter be imported into the United States." +_House Journal_, 9 Cong. 1 sess. V 264, 278, 308, 345-6; _House +Reports_, 9 Cong. 1 sess. II. Feb. 17, 1806; _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. +1 sess. pp. 472-3. + + +~1806, April 7. Congress (Senate): Maryland Proposed Amendment.~ + +"Mr. Wright communicated a resolution of the legislature of the state of +Maryland instructing their Senators and Representatives in Congress to +use their utmost exertions to obtain an amendment to the constitution of +the United States to prevent the further importation of slaves; +whereupon, Mr. Wright submitted the following resolutions for the +consideration of the Senate.... + +"_Resolved_, That the migration or importation of slaves into the United +States, or any territory thereof, be prohibited after the first day of +January, 1808." Considered April 10, and further consideration postponed +until the first Monday in December next. _Senate Journal_ (repr. 1821), +9 Cong. 1 sess. IV. 76-7, 79; _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 1 sess. pp. +229, 232. + + +~1806, Dec. 2. President Jefferson's Message.~ + +See above, pages 97-98. _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 2 sess. V. +468. + + +~1806, Dec. 15. Congress (House): Proposition on Slave-Trade.~ + +"A bill to prohibit the importation or bringing of slaves into the +United States, etc.," after Dec. 31, 1807. Finally merged into Senate +bill. _Ibid._, House Bill No. 148. + + +~1806, Dec. 17. Congress (House): Sloan's Proposition.~ + +Proposition to amend the House bill by inserting after the article +declaring the forfeiture of an illegally imported slave, "And such +person or slave shall be entitled to his freedom." Lost. _Annals of +Cong._, 9 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 167-77, 180-89. + + +~1806, Dec. 29. Congress (House): Sloan's Second Proposition.~ + +Illegally imported Africans to be either freed, apprenticed, or +returned to Africa. Lost; Jan. 5, 1807, a somewhat similar proposition +was also lost. _Ibid._, pp. 226-8, 254. + + +~1806, Dec. 31. Great Britain: Rejected Treaty.~ + +"Treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, between His Britannic +Majesty and the United States of America." + +"Art. XXIV. The high contracting parties engage to communicate to each +other, without delay, all such laws as have been or shall be hereafter +enacted by their respective Legislatures, as also all measures which +shall have been taken for the abolition or limitation of the African +slave trade; and they further agree to use their best endeavors to +procure the co-operation of other Powers for the final and complete +abolition of a trade so repugnant to the principles of justice and +humanity." _Amer. State Papers, Foreign_, III. 147, 151. + + +~1807, March 25. [England: Slave-Trade Abolished.~ + +"An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade." _Statute 47 George III._, +1 sess. ch. 36.] + + +~1807, Jan. 7. Congress (House): Bidwell's Proposition.~ + +"Provided, that no person shall be sold as a slave by virtue of this +act." Offered as an amendment to § 3 of House bill; defeated 60 to 61, +Speaker voting. A similar proposition was made Dec. 23, 1806. _House +Journal_ (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 2 sess. V. 513-6. Cf. _Annals of Cong._, +9 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 199-203, 265-7. + + +~1807, Feb. 9. Congress (House): Section Seven of House Bill.~ + +§ 7 of the bill reported to the House by the committee provided that all +Negroes imported should be conveyed whither the President might direct +and there be indentured as apprentices, or employed in whatever way the +President might deem best for them and the country; provided that no +such Negroes should be indentured or employed except in some State in +which provision is now made for the gradual abolition of slavery. Blank +spaces were left for limiting the term of indenture. The report was +never acted on. _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 477-8. + + +~1807, March 2. United States Statute: Importation Prohibited.~ + +"An Act to prohibit the importation of Slaves into any port or place +within the jurisdiction of the United States, from and after the first +day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and +eight." Bills to amend § 8, so as to make less ambiguous the permit +given to the internal traffic, were introduced Feb. 27 and Nov. 27. +_Statutes at Large_, II. 426. For proceedings in Senate, see _Senate +Journal_ (repr. 1821), 9 Cong. 1-2 sess. IV. 11, 112, 123, 124, 132, +133, 150, 158, 164, 165, 167, 168; _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 2 sess. +pp. 16, 19, 23, 33, 36, 45, 47, 68, 69, 70, 71, 79, 87, 93. For +proceedings in House, see _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 2 sess. +V. 470, 482, 488, 490, 491, 496, 500, 504, 510, 513-6, 517, 540, 557, +575, 579, 581, 583-4, 585, 592, 594, 610, 613-4, 616, 623, 638, 640; 10 +Cong. 1 sess. VI. 27, 50; _Annals of Cong._, 9 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 167, +180, 200, 220, 231, 254, 264, 270. + + +~1808, Feb. 23. Congress (Senate): Proposition to Amend Constitution.~ + +"Agreeably to instructions from the legislature of the state of +Pennsylvania to their Senators in Congress, Mr. Maclay submitted the +following resolution, which was read for consideration:-- + +"_Resolved_ ..., That the Constitution of the United States be so +altered and amended, as to prevent the Congress of the United States, +and the legislatures of any state in the Union, from authorizing the +importation of slaves." No further mention. _Senate Journal_ (repr. +1821), 10 Cong. 1 sess. IV. 235; _Annals of Cong._, 10 Cong. 1 sess. p. +134. For the full text of the instructions, see _Amer. State Papers, +Miscellaneous_, I. 716. + + +~1810, Dec. 5. President Madison's Message.~ + +"Among the commercial abuses still committed under the American flag, +... it appears that American citizens are instrumental in carrying on a +traffic in enslaved Africans, equally in violation of the laws of +humanity, and in defiance of those of their own country. The same just +and benevolent motives which produced the interdiction in force against +this criminal conduct, will doubtless be felt by Congress, in devising +further means of suppressing the evil." _House Journal_ (repr. 1826), 11 +Cong. 3 sess. VII. 435. + + +~1811, Jan. 15. United States Statute: Secret Act and Joint Resolution +against Amelia Island Smugglers.~ + +_Statutes at Large_, III. 471 ff. + + +~1815, March 29. [France: Abolition of Slave-Trade.~ + +Napoleon on his return from Elba decrees the abolition of the +slave-trade. Decree re-enacted in 1818 by the Bourbon dynasty. _British +and Foreign State Papers_, 1815-16, p. 196, note; 1817-18, p. 1025.] + + +~1815, Feb. 18. Great Britain: Treaty of Ghent.~ + +"Treaty of peace and amity. Concluded December 24, 1814; Ratifications +exchanged at Washington February 17, 1815; Proclaimed February 18, +1815." + +Art. X. "Whereas the traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the +principles of humanity and justice, and whereas both His Majesty and the +United States are desirous of continuing their efforts to promote its +entire abolition, it is hereby agreed that both the contracting parties +shall use their best endeavors to accomplish so desirable an object." +_U.S. Treaties and Conventions_ (ed. 1889), p. 405. + + +~1815, Dec. 8. Alabama and Mississippi Territory: Act to Dispose of +Illegally Imported Slaves.~ + +"An Act concerning Slaves brought into this Territory, contrary to the +Laws of the United States." Slaves to be sold at auction, and the +proceeds to be divided between the territorial treasury and the +collector or informer. Toulmin, _Digest of the Laws of Alabama_, p. 637; +_Statutes of Mississippi digested_, etc. (ed. 1816), p. 389. + + +~1816, Nov. 18. North Carolina: Act to Dispose of Illegally Imported +Slaves.~ + +"An act to direct the disposal of negroes, mulattoes and persons of +colour, imported into this state, contrary to the provisions of an act +of the Congress of the United States, entitled 'an act to prohibit the +importation of slaves into any port or place, within the jurisdiction of +the United States, from and after the first day of January, in the year +of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight.'" + +§ 1. Every slave illegally imported after 1808 shall be sold for the use +of the State. + +§ 2. The sheriff shall seize and sell such slave, and pay the proceeds +to the treasurer of the State. + +§ 3. If the slave abscond, the sheriff may offer a reward not exceeding +one-fifth of the value of the slave. _Laws of North Carolina, 1816_, ch. +xii. p. 9; _Laws of North Carolina_ (revision of 1819), II. 1350. + + +~1816, Dec. 3. President Madison's Message.~ + +"The United States having been the first to abolish, within the extent +of their authority, the transportation of the natives of Africa into +slavery, by prohibiting the introduction of slaves, and by punishing +their citizens participating in the traffick, cannot but be gratified at +the progress, made by concurrent efforts of other nations, towards a +general suppression of so great an evil. They must feel, at the same +time, the greater solicitude to give the fullest efficacy to their own +regulations. With that view, the interposition of Congress appears to be +required by the violations and evasions which, it is suggested, are +chargeable on unworthy citizens, who mingle in the slave trade under +foreign flags, and with foreign ports; and by collusive importations of +slaves into the United States, through adjoining ports and territories. +I present the subject to Congress, with a full assurance of their +disposition to apply all the remedy which can be afforded by an +amendment of the law. The regulations which were intended to guard +against abuses of a kindred character, in the trade between the several +States, ought also to be rendered more effectual for their humane +object." _House Journal_, 14 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 15-6. + + +~1817, Feb. 11. Congress (House): Proposed Joint Resolution.~ + +"Joint Resolution for abolishing the traffick in Slaves, and the +Colinization [_sic_] of the Free People of Colour of the United States." + +"_Resolved_, ... That the President be, and he is hereby authorized to +consult and negotiate with all the governments where ministers of the +United States are, or shall be accredited, on the means of effecting an +entire and immediate abolition of the traffick in slaves. And, also, to +enter into a convention with the government of Great Britain, for +receiving into the colony of Sierra Leone, such of the free people of +colour of the United States as, with their own consent, shall be carried +thither.... + +"_Resolved_, That adequate provision shall hereafter be made to defray +any necessary expenses which may be incurred in carrying the preceding +resolution into effect." Reported on petition of the Colonization +Society by the committee on the President's Message. No further record. +_House Journal_, 14 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 25-7, 380; _House Doc._, 14 Cong. +2 sess. No. 77. + + +~1817, July 28. [Great Britain and Portugal: First Concession of Right +of Search.~ + +"By this treaty, ships of war of each of the nations might visit +merchant vessels of both, if suspected of having slaves on board, +acquired by illicit traffic." This "related only to the trade north of +the equator; for the slave-trade of Portugal within the regions of +western Africa, to the south of the equator, continued long after this +to be carried on with great vigor." Woolsey, _International Law_ +(1874), § 197, pp. 331-2; _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1816-17, +pp. 85-118.] + + +~1817, Sept. 23. [Great Britain and Spain: Abolition of Trade North of +Equator.~ + +"By the treaty of Madrid, ... Great Britain obtained from Spain, for the +sum of four hundred thousand pounds, the immediate abolition of the +trade north of the equator, its entire abolition after 1820, and the +concession of the same mutual right of search, which the treaty with +Portugal had just established." Woolsey, _International Law_ (1874), § +197, p. 332; _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1816-17, pp. 33-74.] + + +~1817, Dec. 2. President Monroe's Message on Amelia Island, etc.~ + +"A just regard for the rights and interests of the United States +required that they [i.e., the Amelia Island and Galveston pirates] +should be suppressed, and orders have been accordingly issued to that +effect. The imperious considerations which produced this measure will be +explained to the parties whom it may, in any degree, concern." _House +Journal_, 15 Cong. 1 sess. p. 11. + + +~1817, Dec. 19. Georgia: Act to Dispose of Illegally Imported Slaves.~ + +"An Act for disposing of any such negro, mulatto, or person of color, +who has been or may hereafter be imported or brought into this State in +violation of an act of the United States, entitled an act to prohibit +the importation of slaves," etc. + +§ 1. The governor by agent shall receive such Negroes, and, + +§ 2. sell them, or, + +§ 3. give them to the Colonization Society to be transported, on +condition that the Society reimburse the State for all expense, and +transport them at their own cost. Prince, _Digest_, p. 793. + + +~1818, Jan. 10. Congress (House): Bill to Supplement Act of 1807.~ + +Mr. Middleton, from the committee on so much of the President's Message +as related to the illicit introduction of slaves into the United States +from Amelia Island, reported a bill in addition to former acts +prohibiting the introduction of slaves into the United States. This was +read twice and committed; April 1 it was considered in Committee of the +Whole; Mr. Middleton offered a substitute, which was ordered to be laid +on table and to be printed; it became the Act of 1819. See below, March +3, 1819. _House Journal_, 15 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 131, 410. + + +~1818, Jan. 13. President Monroe's Special Message.~ + +"I have the satisfaction to inform Congress, that the establishment at +Amelia Island has been suppressed, and without the effusion of blood. +The papers which explain this transaction, I now lay before Congress," +etc. _Ibid._, pp. 137-9. + + +~1818, Feb. 9. Congress (Senate): Bill to Register (?) Slaves.~ + +"A bill respecting the transportation of persons of color, for sale, or +to be held to labor." Passed Senate, dropped in House; similar bill Dec. +9, 1818, also dropped in House. _Senate Journal_, 15 Cong. 1 sess. pp. +147, 152, 157, 165, 170, 188, 201, 203, 232, 237; 15 Cong. 2 sess. pp. +63, 74, 77, 202, 207, 285, 291, 297; _House Journal_, 15 Cong. 1 sess. +p. 332; 15 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 303, 305, 316. + + +~1818, April 4. Congress (House): Proposition to Amend Constitution.~ + +Mr. Livermore's resolution:-- + +"No person shall be held to service or labour as a slave, nor shall +slavery be tolerated in any state hereafter admitted into the Union, or +made one of the United States of America." Read, and on the question, +"Will the House consider the same?" it was determined in the negative. +_House Journal_, 15 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 420-1; _Annals of Cong._, 15 Cong. +1 sess. pp. 1675-6. + + +~1818, April 20. United States Statute: Act in Addition to Act of 1807.~ + +"An Act in addition to 'An act to prohibit the introduction +[importation] of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction +of the United States, from and after the first day of January, in the +year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight,' and to repeal +certain parts of the same." _Statutes at Large_, III. 450. For +proceedings in Congress, see _Senate Journal_, 15 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 243, +304, 315, 333, 338, 340, 348, 377, 386, 388, 391, 403, 406; _House +Journal_, 15 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 450, 452, 456, 468, 479, 484, 492,505. + + +~1818, May 4. [Great Britain and Netherlands: Treaty.~ + +Right of Search granted for the suppression of the slave-trade. _British +and Foreign State Papers_, 1817-18, pp. 125-43.] + + +~1818, Dec. 19. Georgia: Act of 1817 Reinforced.~ + +No title found. "_Whereas_ numbers of African slaves have been illegally +introduced into the State, in direct violation of the laws of the United +States and of this State, _Be it therefore enacted_," etc. Informers are +to receive one-tenth of the net proceeds from the sale of illegally +imported Africans, "_Provided_, nothing herein contained shall be so +construed as to extend farther back than the year 1817." Prince, +_Digest_, p. 798. + + +~1819, Feb. 8. Congress (Senate): Bill in Addition to Former Acts.~ + +"A bill supplementary to an act, passed the 2d day of March, 1807, +entitled," etc. Postponed. _Senate Journal_, 15 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 234, +244, 311-2, 347. + + +~1819, March 3. United States Statute: Cruisers Authorized, etc.~ + +"An Act in addition to the Acts prohibiting the slave trade." _Statutes +at Large_, III. 532. For proceedings in Congress, see _Senate Journal_, +15 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 338, 339, 343, 345, 350, 362; _House Journal_, 15 +Cong. 2 sess. pp. 9-19, 42-3, 150, 179, 330, 334, 341, 343, 352. + + +~1819, Dec. 7. President Monroe's Message.~ + +"Due attention has likewise been paid to the suppression of the slave +trade, in compliance with a law of the last session. Orders have been +given to the commanders of all our public ships to seize all vessels +navigated under our flag, engaged in that trade, and to bring them in, +to be proceeded against, in the manner prescribed by that law. It is +hoped that these vigorous measures, supported by like acts by other +nations, will soon terminate a commerce so disgraceful to the civilized +world." _House Journal_, 16 Cong, 1 sess. p. 18. + + +~1820, Jan. 19. Congress (House): Proposed Registry of Slaves.~ + +"On motion of Mr. Cuthbert, + +"Resolved, That the Committee on the Slave Trade be instructed to +enquire into the expediency of establishing a registry of slaves, more +effectually to prevent the importation of slaves into the United States, +or the territories thereof." No further mention. _Ibid._, p. 150. + + +~1820, Feb. 5. Congress (House): Proposition on Slave-Trade.~ + +"Mr. Meigs submitted the following preamble and resolution: + +"Whereas, slavery in the United States is an evil of great and +increasing magnitude; one which merits the greatest efforts of this +nation to remedy: Therefore, + +"Resolved, That a committee be appointed to enquire into the expediency +of devoting the public lands as a fund for the purpose of, + +"1st, Employing a naval force competent to the annihilation of the slave +trade; + +"2dly, The emancipation of slaves in the United States; and, + +"3dly, Colonizing them in such way as shall be conducive to their +comfort and happiness, in Africa, their mother country." Read, and, on +motion of Walker of North Carolina, ordered to lie on the table. Feb. 7, +Mr. Meigs moved that the House now consider the above-mentioned +resolution, but it was decided in the negative. Feb. 18, he made a +similar motion and proceeded to discussion, but was ruled out of order +by the Speaker. He appealed, but the Speaker was sustained, and the +House refused to take up the resolution. No further record appears. +_Ibid._, pp. 196, 200, 227. + + +~1820, Feb. 23. Massachusetts: Slavery in Western Territory.~ + +_"Resolve respecting Slavery":--_ + +"The Committee of both Houses, who were appointed to consider 'what +measures it may be proper for the Legislature of this Commonwealth to +adopt, in the expression of their sentiments and views, relative to the +interesting subject, now before Congress, of interdicting slavery in the +New States, which may be admitted into the Union, beyond the River +Mississippi,' respectfully submit the following report: ... + +"Nor has this question less importance as to its influence on the slave +trade. Should slavery be further permitted, an immense new market for +slaves would be opened. It is well known that notwithstanding the +strictness of our laws, and the vigilance of the government, thousands +are now annually imported from Africa," etc. _Massachusetts Resolves_, +May, 1819, to February, 1824, pp. 147-51. + + +~1820, May 12. Congress (House): Resolution for Negotiation.~ + +"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the +United States be requested to negociate with all the governments where +ministers of the United States are or shall be accredited, on the means +of effecting an entire and immediate abolition of the slave trade." +Passed House, May 12, 1820; lost in Senate, May 15, 1820. _House +Journal_, 16 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 497, 518, 520-21, 526; _Annals of Cong._, +16 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 697-700. + + +~1820, May 15. United States Statute: Slave-Trade made Piracy.~ + +"An act to continue in force 'An act to protect the commerce of the +United States, and punish the crime of piracy,' and also to make further +provisions for punishing the crime of piracy." Continued by several +statutes until passage of the Act of 1823, _q.v. Statutes at Large_, +III. 600. For proceedings in Congress, see _Senate Journal_, 16 Cong. 1 +sess. pp. 238, 241, 268, 286-7, 314, 331, 346, 350, 409, 412, 417, 422, +424, 425; _House Journal_, 16 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 453, 454, 494, 518, 520, +522, 537, 539, 540, 542. There was also a House bill, which was dropped: +cf. _House Journal_, 16 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 21, 113, 280, 453, 494. + + +~1820, Nov. 14. President Monroe's Message.~ + +"In execution of the law of the last session, for the suppression of the +slave trade, some of our public ships have also been employed on the +coast of Africa, where several captures have already been made of +vessels engaged in that disgraceful traffic." _Senate Journal_, 16 Cong. +2 sess. pp. 16-7. + + +~1821, Feb. 15. Congress (House): Meigs's Resolution.~ + +Mr. Meigs offered in modified form the resolutions submitted at the last +session:-- + +"Whereas slavery, in the United States, is an evil, acknowledged to be +of great and increasing magnitude, ... therefore, + +"Resolved, That a committee be appointed to inquire into the expediency +of devoting five hundred million acres of the public lands, next west of +the Mississippi, as a fund for the purpose of, in the + +"_First place_; Employing a naval force, competent to the annihilation +of the slave trade," etc. Question to consider decided in the +affirmative, 63 to 50; laid on the table, 66 to 55. _House Journal_, 16 +Cong. 2 sess. p. 238; _Annals of Cong._, 16 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 1168-70. + + +~1821, Dec. 3. President Monroe's Message.~ + +"Like success has attended our efforts to suppress the slave trade. +Under the flag of the United States, and the sanction of their papers, +the trade may be considered as entirely suppressed; and, if any of our +citizens are engaged in it, under the flag and papers of other powers, +it is only from a respect to the rights of those powers, that these +offenders are not seized and brought home, to receive the punishment +which the laws inflict. If every other power should adopt the same +policy, and pursue the same vigorous means for carrying it into effect, +the trade could no longer exist." _House Journal_, 17 Cong. 1 sess. p. +22. + + +~1822, April 12. Congress (House): Proposed Resolution.~ + +"_Resolved_, That the President of the United States be requested to +enter into such arrangements as he may deem suitable and proper, with +one or more of the maritime powers of Europe, for the effectual +abolition of the slave trade." _House Reports_, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. +92, p. 4; _Annals of Cong._, 17 Cong. 1 sess. p. 1538. + + +~1822, June 18. Mississippi: Act on Importation, etc.~ + +"An act, to reduce into one, the several acts, concerning slaves, free +negroes, and mulattoes." + +§ 2. Slaves born and resident in the United States, and not criminals, +may be imported. + +§ 3. No slave born or resident outside the United States shall be +brought in, under penalty of $1,000 per slave. Travellers are excepted. +_Revised Code of the Laws of Mississippi_ (Natchez, 1824), p. 369. + + +~1822, Dec. 3. President Monroe's Message.~ + +"A cruise has also been maintained on the coast of Africa, when the +season would permit, for the suppression of the slave-trade; and orders +have been given to the commanders of all our public ships to seize our +own vessels, should they find any engaged in that trade, and to bring +them in for adjudication." _House Journal_, 17 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 12, 21. + + +~1823, Jan. 1. Alabama: Act to Dispose of Illegally Imported Slaves.~ + +"An Act to carry into effect the laws of the United States prohibiting +the slave trade." + +§ 1. "_Be it enacted_, ... That the Governor of this state be ... +authorized and required to appoint some suitable person, as the agent of +the state, to receive all and every slave or slaves or persons of +colour, who may have been brought into this state in violation of the +laws of the United States, prohibiting the slave trade: _Provided_, that +the authority of the said agent is not to extend to slaves who have been +condemned and sold." + +§ 2. The agent must give bonds. + +§ 3. "_And be it further enacted_, That the said slaves, when so placed +in the possession of the state, as aforesaid, shall be employed on such +public work or works, as shall be deemed by the Governor of most value +and utility to the public interest." + +§ 4. A part may be hired out to support those employed in public work. + +§ 5. "_And be it further enacted_, That in all cases in which a decree +of any court having competent authority, shall be in favor of any or +claimant or claimants, the said slaves shall be truly and faithfully, by +said agent, delivered to such claimant or claimants: but in case of +their condemnation, they shall be sold by such agent for cash to the +highest bidder, by giving sixty days notice," etc. _Acts of the Assembly +of Alabama, 1822_ (Cahawba, 1823), p. 62. + + +~1823, Jan. 30. United States Statute: Piracy Act made Perpetual.~ + +"An Act in addition to 'An act to continue in force "An act to protect +the commerce of the United States, and punish the crime of piracy,"'" +etc. _Statutes at Large_, III. 510-14, 721, 789. For proceedings in +Congress, see _Senate Journal_, 17 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 61, 64, 70, 83, 98, +101, 106, 110, 111, 122, 137; _House Journal_, 17 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 73, +76, 156, 183, 189. + + +~1823, Feb. 10. Congress (House): Resolution on Slave-Trade.~ + +Mr. Mercer offered the following resolution:-- + +"Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to enter +upon, and to prosecute, from time to time, such negotiations with the +several maritime powers of Europe and America, as he may deem expedient, +for the effectual abolition of the African slave trade, and its ultimate +denunciation as piracy, under the law of nations, by the consent of the +civilized world." Agreed to Feb. 28; passed Senate. _House Journal_, 17 +Cong. 2 sess. pp. 212, 280-82; _Annals of Cong._, 17 Cong. 2 sess. pp. +928, 1147-55. + + +~1823, March 3. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +"An Act making appropriations for the support of the navy," etc. + +"To enable the President of the United States to carry into effect the +act" of 1819, $50,000. _Statutes at Large_, III. 763, 764 + + +~1823. President: Proposed Treaties.~ + +Letters to various governments in accordance with the resolution of +1823: April 28, to Spain; May 17, to Buenos Ayres; May 27, to United +States of Colombia; Aug. 14, to Portugal. See above, Feb. 10, 1823. +_House Doc._, 18 Cong. 1 sess. VI. No. 119. + + +~1823, June 24. Great Britain: Proposed Treaty.~ + +Adams, March 31, proposes that the trade be made piracy. Canning, April +8, reminds Adams of the treaty of Ghent and asks for the granting of a +mutual Right of Search to suppress the slave-trade. The matter is +further discussed until June 24. Minister Rush is empowered to propose a +treaty involving the Right of Search, etc. This treaty was substantially +the one signed (see below, March 13, 1824), differing principally in the +first article. + +"Article I. The two high contracting Powers, having each separately, by +its own laws, subjected their subjects and citizens, who may be +convicted of carrying on the illicit traffic in slaves on the coast of +Africa, to the penalties of piracy, do hereby agree to use their +influence, respectively, with the other maritime and civilized nations +of the world, to the end that the said African slave trade may be +recognized, and declared to be, piracy, under the law of nations." +_House Doc._, 18 Cong, 1 sess. VI. No. 119. + + +~1824, Feb. 6. Congress (House): Proposition to Amend Constitution.~ + +Mr. Abbot's resolution on persons of color:-- + +"That no part of the constitution of the United States ought to be +construed, or shall be construed to authorize the importation or ingress +of any person of color into any one of the United States, contrary to +the laws of such state." Read first and second time and committed to the +Committee of the Whole. _House Journal_, 18 Cong. 1 sess. p. 208; +_Annals of Cong._, 18 Cong. 1 sess. p. 1399. + + +~1824, March 13. Great Britain: Proposed Treaty of 1824.~ + +"The Convention:"-- + +Art. I. "The commanders and commissioned officers of each of the two +high contracting parties, duly authorized, under the regulations and +instructions of their respective Governments, to cruize on the coasts of +Africa, of America, and of the West Indies, for the suppression of the +slave trade," shall have the power to seize and bring into port any +vessel owned by subjects of the two contracting parties, found engaging +in the slave-trade. The vessel shall be taken for trial to the country +where she belongs. + +Art. II. Provides that even if the vessel seized does not belong to a +citizen or citizens of either of the two contracting parties, but is +chartered by them, she may be seized in the same way as if she belonged +to them. + +Art. III. Requires that in all cases where any vessel of either party +shall be boarded by any naval officer of the other party, on suspicion +of being concerned in the slave-trade, the officer shall deliver to the +captain of the vessel so boarded a certificate in writing, signed by the +naval officer, specifying his rank, etc., and the object of his visit. +Provision is made for the delivery of ships and papers to the tribunal +before which they are brought. + +Art. IV. Limits the Right of Search, recognized by the Convention, to +such investigation as shall be necessary to ascertain the fact whether +the said vessel is or is not engaged in the slave-trade. No person shall +be taken out of the vessel so visited unless for reasons of health. + +Art. V. Makes it the duty of the commander of either nation, having +captured a vessel of the other under the treaty, to receive unto his +custody the vessel captured, and send or carry it into some port of the +vessel's own country for adjudication, in which case triplicate +declarations are to be signed, etc. + +Art. VI. Provides that in cases of capture by the officer of either +party, on a station where no national vessel is cruising, the captor +shall either send or carry his prize to some convenient port of its own +country for adjudication, etc. + +Art. VII. Provides that the commander and crew of the captured vessel +shall be proceeded against as pirates, in the ports to which they are +brought, etc. + +Art. VIII. Confines the Right of Search, under this treaty, to such +officers of both parties as are especially authorized to execute the +laws of their countries in regard to the slave-trade. For every abusive +exercise of this right, officers are to be personally liable in costs +and damages, etc. + +Art. IX. Provides that the government of either nation shall inquire +into abuses of this Convention and of the laws of the two countries, and +inflict on guilty officers the proper punishment. + +Art. X. Declares that the right, reciprocally conceded by this treaty, +is wholly and exclusively founded on the consideration that the two +nations have by their laws made the slave-trade piracy, and is not to be +taken to affect in any other way the rights of the parties, etc.; it +further engages that each power shall use its influence with all other +civilized powers, to procure from them the acknowledgment that the +slave-trade is piracy under the law of nations. + +Art. XI. Provides that the ratifications of the treaty shall be +exchanged at London within twelve months, or as much sooner as possible. +Signed by Mr. Rush, Minister to the Court of St. James, March 13, 1824. + +The above is a synopsis of the treaty as it was laid before the Senate. +It was ratified by the Senate with certain conditions, one of which was +that the duration of this treaty should be limited to the pleasure of +the two parties on six months' notice; another was that the Right of +Search should be limited to the African and West Indian seas: i.e., the +word "America" was struck out. This treaty as amended and passed by the +Senate (cf. above, p. 141) was rejected by Great Britain. A counter +project was suggested by her, but not accepted (cf. above, p. 144). The +striking out of the word "America" was declared to be the insuperable +objection. _Senate Doc._, 18 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1, pp. 15-20; _Niles's +Register_, 3rd Series, XXVI. 230-2. For proceedings in Senate, see +_Amer. State Papers, Foreign_, V. 360-2. + + +~1824, March 31. [Great Britain: Slave-Trade made Piracy.~ + +"An Act for the more effectual Suppression of the _African_ Slave +Trade." + +Any person engaging in the slave-trade "shall be deemed and adjudged +guilty of Piracy, Felony and Robbery, and being convicted thereof shall +suffer Death without Benefit of Clergy, and Loss of Lands, Goods and +Chattels, as Pirates, Felons and Robbers upon the Seas ought to suffer," +etc. _Statute 5 George IV._, ch. 17; _Amer. State Papers, Foreign_, V. +342.] + + +~1824, April 16. Congress (House): Bill to Suppress Slave-Trade.~ + +"Mr. Govan, from the committee to which was referred so much of the +President's Message as relates to the suppression of the Slave Trade, +reported a bill respecting the slave trade; which was read twice, and +committed to a Committee of the Whole." + +§ 1. Provided a fine not exceeding $5,000, imprisonment not exceeding 7 +years, and forfeiture of ship, for equipping a slaver even for the +foreign trade; and a fine not exceeding $3,000, and imprisonment not +exceeding 5 years, for serving on board any slaver. _Annals of Cong._, +18 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 2397-8; _House Journal_, 18 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 26, +180, 181, 323, 329, 356, 423. + + +~1824, May 21. President Monroe's Message on Treaty of 1824.~ + +_Amer. State Papers, Foreign_, V. 344-6. + + +~1824, Nov. 6. [Great Britain and Sweden: Treaty.~ + +Right of Search granted for the suppression of the slave-trade. _British +and Foreign State Papers_, 1824-5, pp. 3-28.] + + +~1824, Nov. 6. Great Britain: Counter Project of 1825.~ + +Great Britain proposes to conclude the treaty as amended by the Senate, +if the word "America" is reinstated in Art. I. (Cf. above, March 13, +1824.) February 16, 1825, the House Committee favors this project; March +2, Addington reminds Adams of this counter proposal; April 6, Clay +refuses to reopen negotiations on account of the failure of the +Colombian treaty. _Amer. State Papers, Foreign_, V. 367; _House +Reports_, 18 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 70; _House Doc._, 19 Cong. 1 sess. I. +No. 16. + + +~1824, Dec. 7. President Monroe's Message.~ + +"It is a cause of serious regret, that no arrangement has yet been +finally concluded between the two Governments, to secure, by joint +co-operation, the suppression of the slave trade. It was the object of +the British Government, in the early stages of the negotiation, to adopt +a plan for the suppression, which should include the concession of the +mutual right of search by the ships of war of each party, of the +vessels of the other, for suspected offenders. This was objected to by +this Government, on the principle that, as the right of search was a +right of war of a belligerant towards a neutral power, it might have an +ill effect to extend it, by treaty, to an offence which had been made +comparatively mild, to a time of peace. Anxious, however, for the +suppression of this trade, it was thought adviseable, in compliance with +a resolution of the House of Representatives, founded on an act of +Congress, to propose to the British Government an expedient, which +should be free from that objection, and more effectual for the object, +by making it piratical.... A convention to this effect was concluded and +signed, in London," on the 13th of March, 1824, "by plenipotentiaries +duly authorized by both Governments, to the ratification of which +certain obstacles have arisen, which are not yet entirely removed." [For +the removal of which, the documents relating to the negotiation are +submitted for the action of Congress].... + +"In execution of the laws for the suppression of the slave trade, a +vessel has been occasionally sent from that squadron to the coast of +Africa, with orders to return thence by the usual track of the slave +ships, and to seize any of our vessels which might be engaged in that +trade. None have been found, and, it is believed, that none are thus +employed. It is well known, however, that the trade still exists under +other flags." _House Journal_, 18 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 11, 12, 19, 27, 241; +_House Reports_, 18 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 70; Gales and Seaton, _Register +of Debates_, I. 625-8, and Appendix, p. 2 ff. + + +~1825, Feb. 21. United States of Colombia: Proposed Treaty.~ + +The President sends to the Senate a treaty with the United States of +Colombia drawn, as United States Minister Anderson said, similar to that +signed at London, with the alterations made by the Senate. March 9, +1825, the Senate rejects this treaty. _Amer. State Papers, Foreign_, V. +729-35. + + +~1825, Feb. 28. Congress (House): Proposed Resolution on Slave-Trade.~ + +Mr. Mercer laid on the table the following resolution:-- + +"_Resolved_, That the President of the United States be requested to +enter upon, and prosecute from time to time, such negotiations with the +several maritime powers of Europe and America, as he may deem expedient +for the effectual abolition of the slave trade, and its ultimate +denunciation, as piracy, under the law of nations, by the consent of the +civilized world." The House refused to consider the resolution. _House +Journal_, 18 Cong. 2 sess. p. 280; Gales and Seaton, _Register of +Debates_, I. 697, 736. + + +~1825, March 3. Congress (House): Proposed Resolution against Right of +Search.~ + +"Mr. Forsyth submitted the following resolution: + +"_Resolved_, That while this House anxiously desires that the Slave +Trade should be, universally, denounced as Piracy, and, as such, should +be detected and punished under the law of nations, it considers that it +would be highly inexpedient to enter into engagements with any foreign +power, by which _all_ the merchant vessels of the United States would be +exposed to the inconveniences of any regulation of search, from which +any merchant vessels of that foreign power would be exempted." +Resolution laid on the table. _House Journal_, 18 Cong. 2 sess. pp. +308-9; Gales and Seaton, _Register of Debates_, I. 739. + + +~1825, Dec. 6. President Adams's Message.~ + +"The objects of the West India Squadron have been, to carry into +execution the laws for the suppression of the African Slave Trade: for +the protection of our commerce against vessels of piratical +character.... These objects, during the present year, have been +accomplished more effectually than at any former period. The African +Slave Trade has long been excluded from the use of our flag; and if some +few citizens of our country have continued to set the laws of the Union, +as well as those of nature and humanity, at defiance, by persevering in +that abominable traffic, it has been only by sheltering themselves under +the banners of other nations, less earnest for the total extinction of +the trade than ours." _House Journal_, 19 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 20, 96, +296-7, 305, 323, 329, 394-5, 399, 410, 414, 421, 451, 640. + + +~1826, Feb. 14. Congress (House): Proposition to Repeal Parts of Act of +1819.~ + +"Mr. Forsyth submitted the following resolutions, viz.: + +1. "_Resolved_, That it is expedient to repeal so much of the act of the +3d March, 1819, entitled, 'An act in addition to the acts prohibiting +the slave trade,' as provides for the appointment of agents on the coast +of Africa. + +2. "_Resolved_, That it is expedient so to modify the said act of the 3d +of March, 1819, as to release the United States from all obligation to +support the negroes already removed to the coast of Africa, and to +provide for such a disposition of those taken in slave ships who now are +in, or who may be, hereafter, brought into the United States, as shall +secure to them a fair opportunity of obtaining a comfortable +subsistence, without any aid from the public treasury." Read and laid on +the table. _Ibid._, p. 258. + + +~1826, March 14. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +"An Act making appropriations for the support of the navy," etc. + +"For the agency on the coast of Africa, for receiving the negroes," +etc., $32,000. _Statutes at Large_, IV. 140, 141. + + +~1827, March 2. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +"An Act making appropriations for the support of the Navy," etc. + +"For the agency on the coast of Africa," etc., $56,710. _Ibid._, W. 206, +208. + + +~1827, March 11. Texas: Introduction of Slaves Prohibited.~ + +Constitution of the State of Coahuila and Texas. Preliminary +Provisions:-- + +Art. 13. "From and after the promulgation of the constitution in the +capital of each district, no one shall be born a slave in the state, and +after six months the introduction of slaves under any pretext shall not +be permitted." _Laws and Decrees of Coahuila and Texas_ (Houston, 1839), +p. 314. + + +~1827, Sept. 15. Texas: Decree against Slave-Trade.~ + +"The Congress of the State of Coahuila and Texas decrees as follows:" + +Art. 1. All slaves to be registered. + +Art. 2, 3. Births and deaths to be recorded. + +Art. 4. "Those who introduce slaves, after the expiration of the term +specified in article 13 of the Constitution, shall be subject to the +penalties established by the general law of the 13th of July, 1824." +_Ibid._, pp. 78-9. + + +~1828, Feb. 25. Congress (House): Proposed Bill to Abolish African +Agency, etc.~ + +"Mr. McDuffie, from the Committee of Ways and Means, ... reported the +following bill: + +"A bill to abolish the Agency of the United States on the Coast of +Africa, to provide other means of carrying into effect the laws +prohibiting the slave trade, and for other purposes." This bill was +amended so as to become the act of May 24, 1828 (see below). _House +Reports_, 21 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 348, p. 278. + + +~1828, May 24. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +"An Act making an appropriation for the suppression of the slave trade." +_Statutes at Large_, IV. 302; _House Journal_, 20 Cong. 1 sess., House +Bill No. 190. + + +~1829, Jan. 28. Congress (House): Bill to Amend Act of 1807.~ + +The Committee on Commerce reported "a bill (No. 399) to amend an act, +entitled 'An act to prohibit the importation of slaves,'" etc. Referred +to Committee of the Whole. _House Journal_, 20 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 58, 84, +215. Cf. _Ibid._, 20 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 121, 135. + + +~1829, March 2. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +"An Act making additional appropriations for the support of the navy," +etc. + +"For the reimbursement of the marshal of Florida for expenses incurred +in the case of certain Africans who were wrecked on the coast of the +United States, and for the expense of exporting them to Africa," +$16,000. _Statutes at Large_, IV. 353, 354. + + +~1830, April 7. Congress (House): Resolution against Slave-Trade.~ + +Mr. Mercer reported the following resolution:-- + +"_Resolved_, That the President of the United States be requested to +consult and negotiate with all the Governments where Ministers of the +United States are, or shall be accredited, on the means of effecting an +entire and immediate abolition of the African slave trade; and +especially, on the expediency, with that view, of causing it to be +universally denounced as piratical." Referred to Committee of the Whole; +no further action recorded. _House Journal_, 21 Cong. 1 sess. p. 512. + + +~1830, April 7. Congress (House): Proposition to Amend Act of March 3, +1819.~ + +Mr. Mercer, from the committee to which was referred the memorial of the +American Colonization Society, and also memorials, from the inhabitants +of Kentucky and Ohio, reported with a bill (No. 412) to amend "An act in +addition to the acts prohibiting the slave trade," passed March 3, 1819. +Read twice and referred to Committee of the Whole. _Ibid._ + + +~1830, May 31. Congress (Statute): Appropriation.~ + +"An Act making a re-appropriation of a sum heretofore appropriated for +the suppression of the slave trade." _Statutes at Large_, IV. 425; +_Senate Journal_, 21 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 359, 360, 383; _House Journal_, +21 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 624, 808-11. + + +~1830. [Brazil: Prohibition of Slave-Trade.~ + +Slave-trade prohibited under severe penalties.] + + +~1831, 1833. [Great Britain and France: Treaty Granting Right of +Search.~ + +Convention between Great Britain and France granting a mutual limited +Right of Search on the East and West coasts of Africa, and on the coasts +of the West Indies and Brazil. _British and Foreign State Papers_, +1830-1, p. 641 ff; 1832-3, p. 286 ff.] + + +~1831, Feb. 16. Congress (House): Proposed Resolution on Slave-Trade.~ + +"Mr. Mercer moved to suspend the rule of the House in regard to motions, +for the purpose of enabling himself to submit a resolution requesting +the Executive to enter into negotiations with the maritime Powers of +Europe, to induce them to enact laws declaring the African slave trade +piracy, and punishing it as such." The motion was lost. Gales and +Seaton, _Register of Debates_, VII. 726. + + +~1831, March 2. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +"An Act making appropriations for the naval service," etc. + +"For carrying into effect the acts for the suppression of the slave +trade," etc., $16,000. _Statutes at Large_, IV. 460, 462. + + +~1831, March 3. Congress (House): Resolution as to Treaties.~ + +"Mr. Mercer moved to suspend the rule to enable him to submit the +following resolution: + +"_Resolved_, That the President of the United States be requested to +renew, and to prosecute from time to time, such negotiations with the +several maritime powers of Europe and America as he may deem expedient +for the effectual abolition of the African slave trade, and its ultimate +denunciation as piracy, under the laws of nations, by the consent of the +civilized world." The rule was suspended by a vote of 108 to 36, and the +resolution passed, 118 to 32. _House Journal_, 21 Cong. 2 sess. pp. +426-8. + + +~1833, Feb. 20. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +"An Act making appropriations for the naval service," etc. + +" ... for carrying into effect the acts for the suppression of the slave +trade," etc., $5,000. _Statutes at Large_, IV. 614, 615. + + +~1833, August. Great Britain and France: Proposed Treaty with the United +States.~ + +British and French ministers simultaneously invited the United States to +accede to the Convention just concluded between them for the suppression +of the slave-trade. The Secretary of State, Mr. M'Lane, deferred answer +until the meeting of Congress, and then postponed negotiations on +account of the irritable state of the country on the slave question. +Great Britain had proposed that "A reciprocal right of search ... be +conceded by the United States, limited as to place, and subject to +specified restrictions. It is to be employed only in repressing the +Slave Trade, and to be exercised under a written and specific authority, +conferred on the Commander of the visiting ship." In the act of +accession, "it will be necessary that the right of search should be +extended to the coasts of the United States," and Great Britain will in +turn extend it to the British West Indies. This proposal was finally +refused, March 24, 1834, chiefly, as stated, because of the extension of +the Right of Search to the coasts of the United States. This part was +waived by Great Britain, July 7, 1834. On Sept. 12 the French Minister +joined in urging accession. On Oct. 4, 1834, Forsyth states that the +determination has "been definitely formed, not to make the United States +a party to any Convention on the subject of the Slave Trade." +_Parliamentary Papers_, 1835, Vol. LI., _Slave Trade_, Class B., pp. +84-92. + + +~1833, Dec. 23. Georgia: Slave-Trade Acts Amended.~ + +"An Act to reform, amend, and consolidate the penal laws of the State of +Georgia." + +13th Division. "Offences relative to Slaves":-- + +§ 1. "If any person or persons shall bring, import, or introduce into +this State, or aid or assist, or knowingly become concerned or +interested, in bringing, importing, or introducing into this State, +either by land or by water, or in any manner whatever, any slave or +slaves, each and every such person or persons so offending, shall be +deemed principals in law, and guilty of a high misdemeanor, and ... on +conviction, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred +dollars each, for each and every slave, ... and imprisonment and labor +in the penitentiary for any time not less than one year, nor longer than +four years." Residents, however, may bring slaves for their own use, but +must register and swear they are not for sale, hire, mortgage, etc. + +§ 6. Penalty for knowingly receiving such slaves, $500. Slightly amended +Dec. 23, 1836, e.g., emigrants were allowed to hire slaves out, etc.; +amended Dec. 19, 1849, so as to allow importation of slaves from "any +other slave holding State of this Union." Prince, _Digest_, pp. 619, +653, 812; Cobb, _Digest_, II. 1018. + + +~1834, Jan. 24. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +"An Act making appropriations for the naval service," etc. + +"For carrying into effect the acts for the suppression of the slave +trade," etc., $5,000. _Statutes at Large_, IV. 670, 671. + + +~1836, March 17. Texas: African Slave-Trade Prohibited.~ + +Constitution of the Republic of Texas: General Provisions:-- + +§ 9. All persons of color who were slaves for life before coming to +Texas shall remain so. "Congress shall pass no laws to prohibit +emigrants from bringing their slaves into the republic with them, and +holding them by the same tenure by which such slaves were held in the +United States; ... the importation or admission of Africans or negroes +into this republic, excepting from the United States of America, is +forever prohibited, and declared to be piracy." _Laws of the Republic of +Texas_ (Houston, 1838), I. 19. + + +~1836, Dec. 21. Texas: Slave-Trade made Piracy.~ + +"An Act supplementary to an act, for the punishment of Crimes and +Misdemeanors." + +§ 1. "_Be it enacted_ ..., That if any person or persons shall introduce +any African negro or negroes, contrary to the true intent and meaning of +the ninth section of the general provisions of the constitution, ... +except such as are from the United States of America, and had been held +as slaves therein, be considered guilty of piracy; and upon conviction +thereof, before any court having cognizance of the same, shall suffer +death, without the benefit of clergy." + +§ 2. The introduction of Negroes from the United States of America, +except of those legally held as slaves there, shall be piracy. _Ibid._, +I. 197. Cf. _House Doc._, 27 Cong. 1 sess. No. 34, p. 42. + + +~1837, March 3. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +"An Act making appropriations for the naval service," etc. + +"For carrying into effect the acts for the suppression of the slave +trade," etc., $11,413.57. _Statutes at Large_, V. 155, 157. + + +~1838, March 19. Congress (Senate): Slave-Trade with Texas, etc.~ + +"Mr. Morris submitted the following motion for consideration: + +"_Resolved_, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to +inquire whether the present laws of the United States, on the subject of +the slave trade, will prohibit that trade being carried on between +citizens of the United States and citizens of the Republic of Texas, +either by land or by sea; and whether it would be lawful in vessels +owned by citizens of that Republic, and not lawful in vessels owned by +citizens of this, or lawful in both, and by citizens of both countries; +and also whether a slave carried from the United States into a foreign +country, and brought back, on returning into the United States, is +considered a free person, or is liable to be sent back, if demanded, as +a slave, into that country from which he or she last came; and also +whether any additional legislation by Congress is necessary on any of +these subjects." March 20, the motion of Mr. Walker that this resolution +"lie on the table," was determined in the affirmative, 32 to 9. _Senate +Journal_, 25 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 297-8, 300. + + +~1839, Feb. 5. Congress (Senate): Bill to Amend Slave-Trade Acts.~ + +"Mr. Strange, on leave, and in pursuance of notice given, introduced a +bill to amend an act entitled an act to prohibit the importation of +slaves into any port in the jurisdiction of the United States; which was +read twice, and referred to the Committee on Commerce." March 1, the +Committee was discharged from further consideration of the bill. +_Congressional Globe_, 25 Cong. 3 sess. p. 172; _Senate Journal_, 25 +Cong. 3 sess. pp. 200, 313. + + +~1839, Dec. 24. President Van Buren's Message.~ + +"It will be seen by the report of the Secretary of the navy respecting +the disposition of our ships of war, that it has been deemed necessary +to station a competent force on the coast of Africa, to prevent a +fraudulent use of our flag by foreigners. + +"Recent experience has shown that the provisions in our existing laws +which relate to the sale and transfer of American vessels while abroad, +are extremely defective. Advantage has been taken of these defects to +give to vessels wholly belonging to foreigners, and navigating the +ocean, an apparent American ownership. This character has been so well +simulated as to afford them comparative security in prosecuting the +slave trade, a traffic emphatically denounced in our statutes, regarded +with abhorrence by our citizens, and of which the effectual suppression +is nowhere more sincerely desired than in the United States. These +circumstances make it proper to recommend to your early attention a +careful revision of these laws, so that ... the integrity and honor of +our flag may be carefully preserved." _House Journal_, 26 Cong. 1 sess. +pp. 117-8. + + +~1840, Jan. 3. Congress (Senate): Bill to Amend Act of 1807.~ + +"Agreeably to notice, Mr. Strange asked and obtained leave to bring in a +bill (Senate, No. 123) to amend an act entitled 'An act to prohibit the +importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of +the United States from and after the 1st day of January, in the year +1808,' approved the 2d day of March, 1807; which was read the first and +second times, by unanimous consent, and referred to the Committee on the +Judiciary." Jan. 8, it was reported without amendment; May 11, it was +considered, and, on motion by Mr. King, "_Ordered_, That it lie on the +table." _Senate Journal_, 26 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 73, 87, 363. + + +~1840, May 4. Congress (Senate): Bill on Slave-Trade.~ + +"Mr. Davis, from the Committee on Commerce, reported a bill (Senate, No. +335) making further provision to prevent the abuse of the flag of the +United States, and the use of unauthorized papers in the foreign +slavetrade, and for other purposes." This passed the Senate, but was +dropped in the House. _Ibid._, pp. 356, 359, 440, 442; _House Journal_, +26 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 1138, 1228, 1257. + + +~1841, June 1. Congress (House): President Tyler's Message.~ + +"I shall also, at the proper season, invite your attention to the +statutory enactments for the suppression of the slave trade, which may +require to be rendered more efficient in their provisions. There is +reason to believe that the traffic is on the increase. Whether such +increase is to be ascribed to the abolition of slave labor in the +British possessions in our vicinity, and an attendant diminution in the +supply of those articles which enter into the general consumption of the +world, thereby augmenting the demand from other quarters, ... it were +needless to inquire. The highest considerations of public honor, as well +as the strongest promptings of humanity, require a resort to the most +vigorous efforts to suppress the trade." _House Journal_, 27 Cong. 1 +sess. pp. 31, 184. + + +~1841, Dec. 7. President Tyler's Message.~ + +Though the United States is desirous to suppress the slave-trade, she +will not submit to interpolations into the maritime code at will by +other nations. This government has expressed its repugnance to the trade +by several laws. It is a matter for deliberation whether we will enter +upon treaties containing mutual stipulations upon the subject with other +governments. The United States will demand indemnity for all +depredations by Great Britain. + +"I invite your attention to existing laws for the suppression of the +African slave trade, and recommend all such alterations as may give to +them greater force and efficacy. That the American flag is grossly +abused by the abandoned and profligate of other nations is but too +probable. Congress has, not long since, had this subject under its +consideration, and its importance well justifies renewed and anxious +attention." _House Journal_, 27 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 14-5, 86, 113. + + +~1841, Dec. 20. [Great Britain, Austria, Russia, Prussia, and France: +Quintuple Treaty.]~ _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1841-2, p. 269 +ff. + + +~1842, Feb. 15. Right of Search: Cass's Protest.~ + +Cass writes to Webster, that, considering the fact that the signing of +the Quintuple Treaty would oblige the participants to exercise the Right +of Search denied by the United States, or to make a change in the +hitherto recognized law of nations, he, on his own responsibility, +addressed the following protest to the French Minister of Foreign +Affairs, M. Guizot:-- + + "LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, + "PARIS, FEBRUARY 13, 1842. + +"SIR: The recent signature of a treaty, having for its object +the suppression of the African slave trade, by five of the powers of +Europe, and to which France is a party, is a fact of such general +notoriety that it may be assumed as the basis of any diplomatic +representations which the subject may fairly require." + +The United States is no party to this treaty. She denies the Right of +Visitation which England asserts. [Quotes from the presidential message +of Dec. 7, 1841.] This principle is asserted by the treaty. + +" ... The moral effect which such a union of five great powers, two of +which are eminently maritime, but three of which have perhaps never had +a vessel engaged in that traffic, is calculated to produce upon the +United States, and upon other nations who, like them, may be indisposed +to these combined movements, though it may be regretted, yet furnishes +no just cause of complaint. But the subject assumes another aspect when +they are told by one of the parties that their vessels are to be +forcibly entered and examined, in order to carry into effect these +stipulations. Certainly the American Government does not believe that +the high powers, contracting parties to this treaty, have any wish to +compel the United States, by force, to adopt their measures to its +provisions, or to adopt its stipulations ...; and they will see with +pleasure the prompt disavowal made by yourself, sir, in the name of your +country, ... of any intentions of this nature. But were it otherwise, +... They would prepare themselves with apprehension, indeed, but without +dismay--with regret, but with firmness--for one of those desperate +struggles which have sometimes occurred in the history of the world." + +If, as England says, these treaties cannot be executed without visiting +United States ships, then France must pursue the same course. It is +hoped, therefore, that his Majesty will, before signing this treaty, +carefully examine the pretensions of England and their compatibility +with the law of nations and the honor of the United States. _Senate +Doc._, 27 Cong. 3 sess. II. No. 52, and IV. No. 223; 29 Cong. 1 sess. +VIII. No. 377, pp. 192-5. + + +~1842, Feb. 26. Mississippi: Resolutions on Creole Case.~ + +The following resolutions were referred to the Committee on Foreign +Affairs in the United States Congress, House of Representatives, May 10, +1842: + +"Whereas, the right of search has never been yielded to Great Britain," +and the brig Creole has not been surrendered by the British authorities, +etc., therefore, + +§ 1. "_Be it resolved by the Legislature of the State of Mississippi_, +That ... the right of search cannot be conceded to Great Britain without +a manifest servile submission, unworthy a free nation.... + +§ 2. "_Resolved_, That any attempt to detain and search our vessels, by +British cruisers, should be held and esteemed an unjustifiable outrage +on the part of the Queen's Government; and that any such outrage, which +may have occurred since Lord Aberdeen's note to our envoy at the Court +of St. James, of date October thirteen, eighteen hundred and forty-one, +(if any,) may well be deemed, by our Government, just cause of war." + +§ 3. "_Resolved_, That the Legislature of the State, in view of the late +murderous insurrection of the slaves on board the Creole, their +reception in a British port, the absolute connivance at their crimes, +manifest in the protection extended to them by the British authorities, +most solemnly declare their firm conviction that, if the conduct of +those authorities be submitted to, compounded for by the payment of +money, or in any other manner, or atoned for in any mode except by the +surrender of the actual criminals to the Federal Government, and the +delivery of the other identical slaves to their rightful owner or +owners, or his or their agents, the slaveholding States would have most +just cause to apprehend that the American flag is powerless to protect +American property; that the Federal Government is not sufficiently +energetic in the maintenance and preservation of their peculiar rights; +and that these rights, therefore, are in imminent danger." + +§ 4. _Resolved_, That restitution should be demanded "at all hazards." +_House Doc._, 27 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 215. + +~1842, March 21. Congress (House): Giddings's Resolutions.~ + +Mr. Giddings moved the following resolutions:-- + +§ 5. "_Resolved_, That when a ship belonging to the citizens of any +State of this Union leaves the waters and territory of such State, and +enters upon the high seas, the persons on board cease to be subject to +the slave laws of such State, and therefore are governed in their +relations to each other by, and are amenable to, the laws of the United +States." + +§ 6. _Resolved_, That the slaves in the brig Creole are amenable only to +the laws of the United States. + +§ 7. _Resolved_, That those slaves by resuming their natural liberty +violated no laws of the United States. + +§ 8. _Resolved_, That all attempts to re-enslave them are +unconstitutional, etc. + +Moved that these resolutions lie on the table; defeated, 53 to 125. Mr. +Giddings withdrew the resolutions. Moved to censure Mr. Giddings, and he +was finally censured. _House Journal_, 27 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 567-80. + + +~1842, May 10. Congress (House): Remonstrance of Mississippi against +Right of Search.~ + +"Mr. Gwin presented resolutions of the Legislature of the State of +Mississippi, against granting the right of search to Great Britain for +the purpose of suppressing the African slave trade; urging the +Government to demand of the British Government redress and restitution +in relation to the case of the brig Creole and the slaves on board." +Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. _House Journal_, 27 Cong. +2 sess. p. 800. + + +~1842, Aug. 4. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +"An Act making appropriations for the naval service," etc. + +"For carrying into effect the acts for the suppression of the slave +trade," etc. $10,543.42. _Statutes at Large_, V. 500, 501. + + +~1842, Nov. 10. Joint-Cruising Treaty with Great Britain.~ + +"Treaty to settle and define boundaries; for the final suppression of +the African slave-trade; and for the giving up of criminals fugitive +from justice. Concluded August 9, 1842; ratifications exchanged at +London October 13, 1842; proclaimed November 10, 1842." Articles VIII., +and IX. Ratified by the Senate by a vote of 39 to 9, after several +unsuccessful attempts to amend it. _U.S. Treaties and Conventions_ +(1889), pp. 436-7; _Senate Exec. Journal_, VI. 118-32. + + +~1842, Dec. 7. President Tyler's Message.~ + +The treaty of Ghent binds the United States and Great Britain to the +suppression of the slave-trade. The Right of Search was refused by the +United States, and our Minister in France for that reason protested +against the Quintuple Treaty; his conduct had the approval of the +administration. On this account the eighth article was inserted, causing +each government to keep a flotilla in African waters to enforce the +laws. If this should be done by all the powers, the trade would be swept +from the ocean. _House Journal_, 27 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 16-7. + + +~1843, Feb. 22. Congress (Senate): Appropriation Opposed.~ + +Motion by Mr. Benton, during debate on naval appropriations, to strike +out appropriation "for the support of Africans recaptured on the coast +of Africa or elsewhere, and returned to Africa by the armed vessels of +the United States, $5,000." Lost; similar proposition by Bagby, lost. +Proposition to strike out appropriation for squadron, lost. March 3, +bill becomes a law, with appropriation for Africans, but without that +for squadron. _Congressional Globe_, 27 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 328, 331-6; +_Statutes at Large_, V. 615. + + +~1845, Feb. 20. President Tyler's Special Message to Congress.~ + +Message on violations of Brazilian slave-trade laws by Americans. _House +Journal_, 28 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 425, 463; _House Doc._, 28 Cong. 2 sess. +IV. No. 148. Cf. _Ibid._, 29 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 43. + + +~1846, Aug. 10. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +"For carrying into effect the acts for the suppression of the slave +trade, including the support of recaptured Africans, and their removal +to their country, twenty-five thousand dollars." _Statutes at Large_, +IX. 96. + + +~1849, Dec. 4. President Taylor's Message.~ + +"Your attention is earnestly invited to an amendment of our existing +laws relating to the African slave-trade, with a view to the effectual +suppression of that barbarous traffic. It is not to be denied that this +trade is still, in part, carried on by means of vessels built in the +United States, and owned or navigated by some of our citizens." _House +Exec. Doc._, 31 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 5, pp. 7-8. + + +~1850, Aug. 1. Congress (House): Bill for War Steamers.~ + +"A bill (House, No. 367) to establish a line of war steamers to the +coast of Africa for the suppression of the slave trade and the promotion +of commerce and colonization." Read twice, and referred to Committee of +the Whole. _House Journal_, 31 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 1022, 1158, 1217. + + +~1850, Dec. 16. Congress (House): Treaty of Washington.~ + +"Mr. Burt, by unanimous consent, introduced a joint resolution (No. 28) +'to terminate the eighth article of the treaty between the United +States and Great Britain concluded at Washington the ninth day of +August, 1842.'" Read twice, and referred to the Committee on Naval +Affairs. _Ibid._, 31 Cong. 2 sess. p. 64. + + +~1851, Jan. 22. Congress (Senate): Resolution on Sea Letters.~ + +"The following resolution, submitted by Mr. Clay the 20th instant, came +up for consideration:-- + +"_Resolved_, That the Committee on Commerce be instructed to inquire +into the expediency of making more effectual provision by law to prevent +the employment of American vessels and American seamen in the African +slave trade, and especially as to the expediency of granting sea letters +or other evidence of national character to American vessels clearing out +of the ports of the empire of Brazil for the western coast of Africa." +Agreed to. _Congressional Globe_, 31 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 304-9; _Senate +Journal_, 31 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 95, 102-3. + + +~1851, Feb. 19. Congress (Senate): Bill on Slave-Trade.~ + +"A bill (Senate, No. 472) concerning the intercourse and trade of +vessels of the United States with certain places on the eastern and +western coasts of Africa, and for other purposes." Read once. _Senate +Journal_, 31 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 42, 45, 84, 94, 159, 193-4; +_Congressional Globe_, 31 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 246-7. + + +~1851, Dec. 3. Congress (House): Bill to Amend Act of 1807.~ + +Mr. Giddings gave notice of a bill to repeal §§ 9 and 10 of the act to +prohibit the importation of slaves, etc. from and after Jan. 1, 1808. +_House Journal_, 32 Cong. 1 sess. p. 42. Cf. _Ibid._, 33 Cong. 1 sess. +p. 147. + + +~1852, Feb. 5. Alabama: Illegal Importations.~ + +By code approved on this date:-- + +§§ 2058-2062. If slaves have been imported contrary to law, they are to +be sold, and one fourth paid to the agent or informer and the residue to +the treasury. An agent is to be appointed to take charge of such +slaves, who is to give bond. Pending controversy, he may hire the slaves +out. Ormond, _Code of Alabama_, pp. 392-3. + + +~1853, March 3. Congress (Senate): Appropriation Proposed.~ + +A bill making appropriations for the naval service for the year ending +June 30, 1854. Mr. Underwood offered the following amendment:-- + +"For executing the provisions of the act approved 3d of March, 1819, +entitled 'An act in addition to the acts prohibiting the slave trade,' +$20,000." Amendment agreed to, and bill passed. It appears, however, to +have been subsequently amended in the House, and the appropriation does +not stand in the final act. _Congressional Globe_, 32 Cong. 2 sess. p. +1072; _Statutes at Large_, X. 214. + + +~1854, May 22. Congress (Senate): West India Slave-Trade.~ + +Mr. Clayton presented the following resolution, which was unanimously +agreed to:-- + +"_Resolved_, That the Committee on Foreign Relations be instructed to +inquire into the expediency of providing by law for such restrictions on +the power of American consuls residing in the Spanish West India islands +to issue sea letters on the transfer of American vessels in those +islands, as will prevent the abuse of the American flag in protecting +persons engaged in the African slave trade." June 26, 1854, this +committee reported "a bill (Senate, No. 416) for the more effectual +suppression of the slave-trade in American built vessels." Passed +Senate, postponed in House. _Senate Journal_, 33 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 404, +457-8, 472-3, 476; _House Journal_, 33 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 1093, 1332-3; +_Congressional Globe_, 33 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 1257-61, 1511-3, 1591-3, +2139. + + +~1854, May 29. Congress (Senate): Treaty of Washington.~ + +_Resolved_, "that, in the opinion of the Senate, it is expedient, and in +conformity with the interests and sound policy of the United States, +that the eighth article of the treaty between this government and Great +Britain, of the 9th of August, 1842, should be abrogated." Introduced by +Slidell, and favorably reported from Committee on Foreign Relations in +Executive Session, June 13, 1854. _Senate Journal_, 34 Cong. 1-2 sess. +pp. 396, 695-8; _Senate Reports_, 34 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 195. + + +~1854, June 21. Congress (Senate): Bill Regulating Navigation.~ + +"Mr. Seward asked and obtained leave to bring in a bill (Senate, No. +407) to regulate navigation to the coast of Africa in vessels owned by +citizens of the United States, in certain cases; which was read and +passed to a second reading." June 22, ordered to be printed. _Senate +Journal_, 33 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 448, 451; _Congressional Globe_, 33 Cong. +1 sess. pp. 1456, 1461, 1472. + + +~1854, June 26. Congress (Senate): Bill to Suppress Slave-Trade.~ + +"A bill for the more effectual suppression of the slave trade in +American built vessels." See references to May 22, 1854, above. + + +~1856, June 23. Congress (House): Proposition to Amend Act of 1818.~ + +Notice given of a bill to amend the Act of April 20, 1818. _House +Journal_, 34 Cong. 1 sess. II. 1101. + + +~1856, Aug. 18. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +To carry out the Act of March 3, 1819, and subsequent acts, $8,000. +_Statutes at Large_, XI. 90. + + +~1856, Nov. 24. South Carolina: Governor's Message.~ + +Governor Adams, in his annual message to the legislature, said:-- + +"It is apprehended that the opening of this trade [_i.e._, the +slave-trade] will lessen the value of slaves, and ultimately destroy the +institution. It is a sufficient answer to point to the fact, that +unrestricted immigration has not diminished the value of labor in the +Northwestern section of the confederacy. The cry there is, want of +labor, notwithstanding capital has the pauperism of the old world to +press into its grinding service. If we cannot supply the demand for +slave labor, then we must expect to be supplied with a species of labor +we do not want, and which is, from the very nature of things, +antagonistic to our institutions. It is much better that our drays +should be driven by slaves--that our factories should be worked by +slaves--that our hotels should be served by slaves--that our locomotives +should be manned by slaves, than that we should be exposed to the +introduction, from any quarter, of a population alien to us by birth, +training, and education, and which, in the process of time, must lead to +that conflict between capital and labor, 'which makes it so difficult to +maintain free institutions in all wealthy and highly civilized nations +where such institutions as ours do not exist.' In all slaveholding +States, true policy dictates that the superior race should direct, and +the inferior perform all menial service. Competition between the white +and black man for this service, may not disturb Northern sensibility, +but it does not exactly suit our latitude." _South Carolina House +Journal_, 1856, p. 36; Cluskey, _Political Text-Book_, 14 edition, p. +585. + + +~1856, Dec. 15. Congress (House): Reopening of Slave-Trade.~ + +"_Resolved_, That this House of Representatives regards all suggestions +and propositions of every kind, by whomsoever made, for a revival of the +African slave trade, as shocking to the moral sentiment of the +enlightened portion of mankind; and that any action on the part of +Congress conniving at or legalizing that horrid and inhuman traffic +would justly subject the government and citizens of the United States to +the reproach and execration of all civilized and Christian people +throughout the world." Offered by Mr. Etheridge; agreed to, 152 to 57. +_House Journal_, 34 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 105-11; _Congressional Globe_, 34 +Cong. 3 sess. pp. 123-5, and Appendix, pp. 364-70. + + +~1856, Dec. 15. Congress (House): Reopening of Slave-Trade.~ + +"_Resolved_, That it is inexpedient to repeal the laws prohibiting the +African slave trade." Offered by Mr. Orr; not voted upon. _Congressional +Globe_, 34 Cong. 3 sess. p. 123. + + +~1856, Dec. 15. Congress (House): Reopening of Slave-Trade.~ + +"_Resolved_, That it is inexpedient, unwise, and contrary to the settled +policy of the United States, to repeal the laws prohibiting the African +slave trade." Offered by Mr. Orr; agreed to, 183 to 8. _House Journal_, +34 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 111-3; _Congressional Globe_, 34 Cong. 3 sess. pp. +125-6. + + +~1856, Dec. 15. Congress (House): Reopening of Slave-Trade.~ + +"_Resolved_, That the House of Representatives, expressing, as they +believe, public opinion both North and South, are utterly opposed to the +reopening of the slave trade." Offered by Mr. Boyce; not voted upon. +_Congressional Globe_, 34 Cong. 3 sess. p. 125. + + +~1857. South Carolina: Report of Legislative Committee.~ + +Special committee of seven on the slave-trade clause in the Governor's +message report: majority report of six members, favoring the reopening +of the African slave-trade; minority report of Pettigrew, opposing it. +_Report of the Special Committee_, etc., published in 1857. + + +~1857, March 3. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +To carry out the Act of March 3, 1819, and subsequent acts, $8,000. +_Statutes at Large_, XI. 227; _House Journal_, 34 Cong. 3 sess. p. 397. +Cf. _House Exec. Doc._, 34 Cong. 3 sess. IX. No. 70. + + +~1858, March (?). Louisiana: Bill to Import Africans.~ + +Passed House; lost in Senate by two votes. Cf. _Congressional Globe_, 35 +Cong. 1 sess. p. 1362. + + +~1858, Dec. 6. President Buchanan's Message.~ + +"The truth is, that Cuba in its existing colonial condition, is a +constant source of injury and annoyance to the American people. It is +the only spot in the civilized world where the African slave trade is +tolerated; and we are bound by treaty with Great Britain to maintain a +naval force on the coast of Africa, at much expense both of life and +treasure, solely for the purpose of arresting slavers bound to that +island. The late serious difficulties between the United States and +Great Britain respecting the right of search, now so happily terminated, +could never have arisen if Cuba had not afforded a market for slaves. As +long as this market shall remain open, there can be no hope for the +civilization of benighted Africa.... + +"It has been made known to the world by my predecessors that the United +States have, on several occasions, endeavored to acquire Cuba from Spain +by honorable negotiation. If this were accomplished, the last relic of +the African slave trade would instantly disappear. We would not, if we +could, acquire Cuba in any other manner. This is due to our national +character.... This course we shall ever pursue, unless circumstances +should occur, which we do not now anticipate, rendering a departure from +it clearly justifiable, under the imperative and overruling law of +self-preservation." _House Exec. Doc._, 35 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 2, pp. +14-5. See also _Ibid._, pp. 31-3. + + +~1858, Dec. 23. Congress (House): Resolution on Slave-Trade.~ + +On motion of Mr. Farnsworth, + +"_Resolved_, That the Committee on Naval Affairs be requested to inquire +and report to this House if any, and what, further legislation is +necessary on the part of the United States to fully carry out and +perform the stipulations contained in the eighth article of the treaty +with Great Britain (known as the 'Ashburton treaty') for the suppression +of the slave trade." _House Journal_, 35 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 115-6. + + +~1859, Jan. 5. Congress (Senate): Resolution on Slave-Trade.~ + +On motion of Mr. Seward, Dec. 21, 1858, + +"_Resolved_, That the Committee on the Judiciary inquire whether any +amendments to existing laws ought to be made for the suppression of the +African slave trade." _Senate Journal_, 35 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 80, 108, +115. + + +~1859, Jan. 13. Congress (Senate): Bill on Slave-Trade.~ + +Mr. Seward introduced "a bill (Senate, No. 510) in addition to the acts +which prohibit the slave trade." Referred to committee, reported, and +dropped. _Ibid._, pp. 134, 321. + + +~1859, Jan. 31. Congress (House): Reopening of Slave-Trade.~ + +"Mr. Kilgore moved that the rules be suspended, so as to enable him to +submit the following preamble and resolutions, viz: + +"Whereas the laws prohibiting the African slave trade have become a +topic of discussion with newspaper writers and political agitators, many +of them boldly denouncing these laws as unwise in policy and disgraceful +in their provisions, and insisting on the justice and propriety of their +repeal, and the revival of the odious traffic in African slaves; and +whereas recent demonstrations afford strong reasons to apprehend that +said laws are to be set at defiance, and their violation openly +countenanced and encouraged by a portion of the citizens of some of the +States of this Union; and whereas it is proper in view of said facts +that the sentiments of the people's representatives in Congress should +be made public in relation thereto: Therefore-- + +"_Resolved_, That while we recognize no right on the part of the federal +government, or any other law-making power, save that of the States +wherein it exists, to interfere with or disturb the institution of +domestic slavery where it is established or protected by State +legislation, we do hold that Congress has power to prohibit the foreign +traffic, and that no legislation can be too thorough in its measures, +nor can any penalty known to the catalogue of modern punishment for +crime be too severe against a traffic so inhuman and unchristian. + +"_Resolved_, That the laws in force against said traffic are founded +upon the broadest principles of philanthropy, religion, and humanity; +that they should remain unchanged, except so far as legislation may be +needed to render them more efficient; that they should be faithfully and +promptly executed by our government, and respected by all good citizens. + +"_Resolved_, That the Executive should be sustained and commended for +any proper efforts whenever and wherever made to enforce said laws, and +to bring to speedy punishment the wicked violators thereof, and all +their aiders and abettors." + +Failed of the two-thirds vote necessary to suspend the rules--the vote +being 115 to 84--and was dropped. _House Journal_, 35 Cong. 2 sess. pp. +298-9. + + +~1859, March 3. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +To carry out the Act of March 3, 1819, and subsequent acts, and to pay +expenses already incurred, $75,000. _Statutes at Large_, XI. 404. + + +~1859, Dec. 19. President Buchanan's Message.~ + +"All lawful means at my command have been employed, and shall continue +to be employed, to execute the laws against the African slave trade. +After a most careful and rigorous examination of our coasts, and a +thorough investigation of the subject, we have not been able to discover +that any slaves have been imported into the United States except the +cargo by the Wanderer, numbering between three and four hundred. Those +engaged in this unlawful enterprise have been rigorously prosecuted, but +not with as much success as their crimes have deserved. A number of them +are still under prosecution. [Here follows a history of our slave-trade +legislation.] + +"These acts of Congress, it is believed, have, with very rare and +insignificant exceptions, accomplished their purpose. For a period of +more than half a century there has been no perceptible addition to the +number of our domestic slaves.... Reopen the trade, and it would be +difficult to determine whether the effect would be more deleterious on +the interests of the master, or on those of the native born slave, ..." +_Senate Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 5-8. + + +~1860, March 20. Congress (Senate): Proposed Resolution.~ + +"Mr. Wilson submitted the following resolution; which was considered, by +unanimous consent, and agreed to:-- + +"_Resolved_, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to +inquire into the expediency of so amending the laws of the United States +in relation to the suppression of the African slave trade as to provide +a penalty of imprisonment for life for a participation in such trade, +instead of the penalty of forfeiture of life, as now provided; and also +an amendment of such laws as will include in the punishment for said +offense all persons who fit out or are in any way connected with or +interested in fitting out expeditions or vessels for the purpose of +engaging in such slave trade." _Senate Journal_, 36 Cong. 1 sess. p. +274. + + +~1860, March 20. Congress (Senate): Right of Search.~ + +"Mr. Wilson asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to bring in +a joint resolution (Senate, No. 20) to secure the right of search on the +coast of Africa, for the more effectual suppression of the African slave +trade." Read twice, and referred to Committee on Foreign Relations. +_Ibid._ + + +~1860, March 20. Congress (Senate): Steam Vessels for Slave-Trade.~ + +"Mr. Wilson asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to bring in +a bill (Senate, No. 296) for the construction of five steam screw +sloops-of-war, for service on the African coast." Read twice, and +referred to Committee on Naval Affairs; May 23, reported with an +amendment. _Ibid._, pp. 274, 494-5. + + +~1860 March 26. Congress (House): Proposed Resolutions.~ + +"Mr. Morse submitted ... the following resolutions; which were read and +committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, +viz: + +"_Resolved_, That for the more effectual suppression of the African +slave trade the treaty of 1842 ..., requiring each country to keep +_eighty_ guns on the coast of Africa for that purpose, should be so +changed as to require a specified and sufficient number of small +steamers and fast sailing brigs or schooners to be kept on said +coast.... + +"_Resolved_, That as the African slave trade appears to be rapidly +increasing, some effective mode of identifying the nationality of a +vessel on the coast of Africa suspected of being in the slave trade or +of wearing false colors should be immediately adopted and carried into +effect by the leading maritime nations of the earth; and that the +government of the United States has thus far, by refusing to aid in +establishing such a system, shown a strange neglect of one of the best +means of suppressing said trade. + +"_Resolved_, That the African slave trade is against the moral sentiment +of mankind and a crime against human nature; and that as the most highly +civilized nations have made it a criminal offence or piracy under their +own municipal laws, it ought at once and without hesitation to be +declared a crime by the code of international law; and that ... the +President be requested to open negotiations on this subject with the +leading powers of Europe." ... _House Journal_, 36 Cong. 1 sess. I. +588-9. + + +~1860, April 16. Congress (Senate): Bill on Slave-Trade.~ + +"Mr. Wilson asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to bring in +a bill (Senate, No. 408) for the more effectual suppression of the slave +trade." Bill read twice, and ordered to lie on the table; May 21, +referred to Committee on the Judiciary, and printed. _Senate Journal_, +36 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 394, 485; _Congressional Globe_, 36 Cong. 1 sess. +pp. 1721, 2207-11. + + +~1860, May 21. Congress (House): Buyers of Imported Negroes.~ + +"Mr. Wells submitted the following resolution, and debate arising +thereon, it lies over under the rule, viz: + +"_Resolved_, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to report +forthwith a bill providing that any person purchasing any negro or other +person imported into this country in violation of the laws for +suppressing the slave trade, shall not by reason of said purchase +acquire any title to said negro or person; and where such purchase is +made with a knowledge that such negro or other person has been so +imported, shall forfeit not less than one thousand dollars, and be +punished by imprisonment for a term not less than six months." _House +Journal_, 36 Cong. 1 sess. II. 880. + + +~1860, May 26. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +To carry out the Act of March 3, 1819, and subsequent acts, $40,000. +_Statutes at Large_, XII. 21. + + +~1860, June 16. United States Statute: Additional Act to Act of 1819.~ + +"An Act to amend an Act entitled 'An Act in addition to the Acts +Prohibiting the Slave Trade.'" _Ibid._, XII. 40-1; _Senate Journal_, 36 +Cong. 1 sess., Senate Bill No. 464. + + +~1860, July 11. Great Britain: Proposed Co-operation.~ + +Lord John Russell suggested for the suppression of the trade:-- + +"1st. A systematic plan of cruising on the coast of Cuba by the vessels +of Great Britain, Spain, and the United States. + +"2d. Laws of registration and inspection in the Island of Cuba, by +which the employment of slaves, imported contrary to law, might be +detected by the Spanish authorities. + +"3d. A plan of emigration from China, regulated by the agents of +European nations, in conjunction with the Chinese authorities." +President Buchanan refused to co-operate on this plan. _House Exec. +Doc._, 36 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 7, pp. 441-3, 446-8. + + +~1860, Dec. 3. President Buchanan's Message.~ + +"It is with great satisfaction I communicate the fact that since the +date of my last annual message not a single slave has been imported into +the United States in violation of the laws prohibiting the African slave +trade. This statement is founded upon a thorough examination and +investigation of the subject. Indeed, the spirit which prevailed some +time since among a portion of our fellow-citizens in favor of this trade +seems to have entirely subsided." _Senate Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 2 sess. +I. No. 1, p. 24. + + +~1860, Dec. 12. Congress (House): Proposition to Amend Constitution.~ + +Mr. John Cochrane's resolution:-- + +"The migration or importation of slaves into the United States or any of +the Territories thereof, from any foreign country, is hereby +prohibited." _House Journal_, 36 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 61-2; _Congressional +Globe_, 36 Cong. 2 sess. p. 77. + + +~1860, Dec. 24. Congress (Senate): Bill on Slave-Trade.~ + +"Mr. Wilson asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to bring in +a bill (Senate, No. 529) for the more effectual suppression of the slave +trade." Read twice, and referred to Committee on the Judiciary; not +mentioned again. _Senate Journal_, 36 Cong. 2 sess. p. 62; +_Congressional Globe_, 36 Cong. 2 sess. p. 182. + + +~1861, Jan. 7. Congress (House): Proposition to Amend Constitution.~ + +Mr. Etheridge's resolution:-- + +§ 5. "The migration or importation of persons held to service or labor +for life, or a term of years, into any of the States, or the Territories +belonging to the United States, is perpetually prohibited; and Congress +shall pass all laws necessary to make said prohibition effective." +_Congressional Globe_, 36 Cong. 2 sess. p. 279. + + +~1861, Jan. 23. Congress (House): Proposition to Amend Constitution.~ + +Resolution of Mr. Morris of Pennsylvania:--"Neither Congress nor a +Territorial Legislature shall make any law respecting slavery or +involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime; but Congress +may pass laws for the suppression of the African slave trade, and the +rendition of fugitives from service or labor in the States." Mr. Morris +asked to have it printed, that he might at the proper time move it as an +amendment to the report of the select committee of thirty-three. It was +ordered to be printed. _Ibid._, p. 527. + + +~1861, Feb. 1. Congress (House): Proposition to Amend Constitution.~ + +Resolution of Mr. Kellogg of Illinois:-- + +§ 16. "The migration or importation of persons held to service or +involuntary servitude into any State, Territory, or place within the +United States, from any place or country beyond the limits of the United +States or Territories thereof, is forever prohibited." Considered Feb. +27, 1861, and lost. _Ibid._, pp. 690, 1243, 1259-60. + + +~1861, Feb. 8. Confederate States of America: Importation Prohibited.~ + +Constitution for the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of +America, Article I. Section 7:-- + +"1. The importation of African negroes from any foreign country other +than the slave-holding States of the United States, is hereby forbidden; +and Congress are required to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent +the same. + +"2. The Congress shall also have power to prohibit the introduction of +slaves from any State not a member of this Confederacy." March 11, 1861, +this article was placed in the permanent Constitution. The first line +was changed so as to read "negroes of the African race." _C.S.A. +Statutes at Large, 1861-2_, pp. 3, 15. + + +~1861, Feb. 9. Confederate States of America: Statutory Prohibition.~ + +"_Be it enacted by the Confederate States of America in Congress +assembled_, That all the laws of the United States of America in force +and in use in the Confederate States of America on the first day of +November last, and not inconsistent with the Constitution of the +Confederate States, be and the same are hereby continued in force until +altered or repealed by the Congress." _Ibid._, p. 27. + + +~1861, Feb. 19. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +To supply deficiencies in the fund hitherto appropriated to carry out +the Act of March 3, 1819, and subsequent acts, $900,000. _Statutes at +Large_, XII. 132. + + +~1861, March 2. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +To carry out the Act of March 3, 1819, and subsequent acts, and to +provide compensation for district attorneys and marshals, $900,000. +_Ibid._, XII. 218-9. + + +~1861, Dec. 3. President Lincoln's Message.~ + +"The execution of the laws for the suppression of the African slave +trade has been confided to the Department of the Interior. It is a +subject of gratulation that the efforts which have been made for the +suppression of this inhuman traffic have been recently attended with +unusual success. Five vessels being fitted out for the slave trade have +been seized and condemned. Two mates of vessels engaged in the trade, +and one person in equipping a vessel as a slaver, have been convicted +and subjected to the penalty of fine and imprisonment, and one captain, +taken with a cargo of Africans on board his vessel, has been convicted +of the highest grade of offence under our laws, the punishment of which +is death." _Senate Exec. Doc._, 37 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1, p. 13. + + +~1862, Jan. 27. Congress (Senate): Bill on Slave-Trade.~ + +"Agreeably to notice Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, asked and obtained +leave to bring in a bill (Senate, No. 173), for the more effectual +suppression of the slave trade." Read twice, and referred to Committee +on the Judiciary; Feb. 11, 1863, reported adversely, and postponed +indefinitely. _Senate Journal_, 37 Cong. 2 sess. p. 143; 37 Cong. 3 +sess. pp. 231-2. + + +~1862, March 14. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +For compensation to United States marshals, district attorneys, etc., +for services in the suppression of the slave-trade, so much of the +appropriation of March 2, 1861, as may be expedient and proper, not +exceeding in all $10,000. _Statutes at Large_, XII. 368-9. + + +~1862, March 25. United States Statute: Prize Law.~ + +"An Act to facilitate Judicial Proceedings in Adjudications upon +Captured Property, and for the better Administration of the Law of +Prize." Applied to captures under the slave-trade law. _Ibid._, XII. +374-5; _Congressional Globe_, 37 Cong. 2 sess., Appendix, pp. 346-7. + + +~1862, June 7. Great Britain: Treaty of 1862.~ + +"Treaty for the suppression of the African slave trade. Concluded at +Washington April 7, 1862; ratifications exchanged at London May 20, +1862; proclaimed June 7, 1862." Ratified unanimously by the Senate. +_U.S. Treaties and Conventions_ (1889), pp. 454-66. See also _Senate +Exec. Journal_, XII. pp. 230, 231, 240, 254, 391, 400, 403. + + +~1862, July 11. United States Statute: Treaty of 1862 Carried into +Effect.~ + +"An Act to carry into Effect the Treaty between the United States and +her Britannic Majesty for the Suppression of the African Slave-Trade." +_Statutes at Large_, XII. 531; _Senate Journal_ and _House Journal_, +37 Cong. 2 sess., Senate Bill No. 352. + + +~1862, July 17. United States Statute: Former Acts Amended.~ + +"An Act to amend an Act entitled 'An Act to amend an Act entitled "An +Act in Addition to the Acts prohibiting the Slave Trade."'" _Statutes at +Large_, XII. 592-3; _Senate Journal_ and _House Journal_, 37 Cong. 2 +sess., Senate Bill No. 385. + + +~1863, Feb. 4. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +To carry out the treaty with Great Britain, proclaimed July 11, 1862, +$17,000. _Statutes at Large_, XII. 639. + + +~1863, March 3. Congress: Joint Resolution.~ + +"Joint Resolution respecting the Compensation of the Judges and so +forth, under the Treaty with Great Britain and other Persons employed in +the Suppression of the Slave Trade." _Statutes at Large_, XII. 829. + + +~1863, April 22. Great Britain: Treaty of 1862 Amended.~ + +"Additional article to the treaty for the suppression of the African +slave trade of April 7, 1862." Concluded February 17, 1863; +ratifications exchanged at London April 1, 1863; proclaimed April 22, +1863. + +Right of Search extended. _U.S. Treaties and Conventions_ (1889), pp. +466-7. + + +~1863, Dec. 17. Congress (House): Resolution on Coastwise Slave-Trade.~ + +Mr. Julian introduced a bill to repeal portions of the Act of March 2, +1807, relative to the coastwise slave-trade. Read twice, and referred to +Committee on the Judiciary. _Congressional Globe_, 38 Cong. 1 sess. p. +46. + + +~1864, July 2. United States Statute: Coastwise Slave-Trade Prohibited +Forever.~ + +§ 9 of Appropriation Act repeals §§ 8 and 9 of Act of 1807. _Statutes at +Large_, XIII. 353. + + +~1864, Dec. 7. Great Britain: International Proposition.~ + +"The crime of trading in human beings has been for many years branded by +the reprobation of all civilized nations. Still the atrocious traffic +subsists, and many persons flourish on the gains they have derived from +that polluted source. + +"Her Majesty's government, contemplating, on the one hand, with +satisfaction the unanimous abhorrence which the crime inspires, and, on +the other hand, with pain and disgust the slave-trading speculations +which still subist [_sic_], have come to the conclusion that no measure +would be so effectual to put a stop to these wicked acts as the +punishment of all persons who can be proved to be guilty of carrying +slaves across the sea. Her Majesty's government, therefore, invite the +government of the United States to consider whether it would not be +practicable, honorable, and humane-- + +"1st. To make a general declaration, that the governments who are +parties to it denounce the slave trade as piracy. + +"2d. That the aforesaid governments should propose to their legislatures +to affix the penalties of piracy already existing in their +laws--provided, only, that the penalty in this case be that of death--to +all persons, being subjects or citizens of one of the contracting +powers, who shall be convicted in a court which takes cognizance of +piracy, of being concerned in carrying human beings across the sea for +the purpose of sale, or for the purpose of serving as slaves, in any +country or colony in the world." Signed, + "RUSSELL." + +Similar letters were addressed to France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, +Prussia, Italy, Netherlands, and Russia. _Diplomatic Correspondence_, +1865, pt. ii. pp. 4, 58-9, etc. + + +~1865, Jan. 24. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +To carry out the treaty with Great Britain, proclaimed July 11, 1862, +$17,000. _Statutes at Large_, XIII. 424. + + +~1866, April 7. United States Statute: Compensation to Marshals, etc.~ + +For additional compensation to United States marshals, district +attorneys, etc., for services in the suppression of the slave-trade, so +much of the appropriation of March 2, 1861, as may be expedient and +proper, not exceeding in all $10,000; and also so much as may be +necessary to pay the salaries of judges and the expenses of mixed +courts. _Ibid._, XIV. 23. + + +~1866, July 25. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +To carry out the treaty with Great Britain, proclaimed July 11, 1862, +$17,000. _Ibid._, XIV. 226. + + +~1867, Feb. 28. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +To carry out the treaty with Great Britain, proclaimed July 11, 1862, +$17,000. _Ibid._, XIV. 414-5. + + +~1868, March 30. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +To carry out the treaty with Great Britain, proclaimed July 11, 1862, +$12,500. _Ibid._, XV. 58. + + +~1869, Jan. 6. Congress (House): Abrogation of Treaty of 1862.~ + +Mr. Kelsey asked unanimous consent to introduce the following +resolution:-- + +"Whereas the slave trade has been practically suppressed; and whereas by +our treaty with Great Britain for the suppression of the slave trade +large appropriations are annually required to carry out the provisions +thereof: Therefore, + +"_Resolved_, That the Committee on Foreign Affairs are hereby instructed +to inquire into the expediency of taking proper steps to secure the +abrogation or modification of the treaty with Great Britain for the +suppression of the slave trade." Mr. Arnell objected. _Congressional +Globe_, 40 Cong. 3 sess. p. 224. + + +~1869, March 3. United States Statute: Appropriation.~ + +To carry out the treaty with Great Britain, proclaimed July 11, 1862, +$12,500; provided that the salaries of judges be paid only on condition +that they reside where the courts are held, and that Great Britain be +asked to consent to abolish mixed courts. _Statutes at Large_, XV. 321. + + +~1870, April 22. Congress (Senate): Bill to Repeal Act of 1803.~ + +Senate Bill No. 251, to repeal an act entitled "An act to prevent the +importation of certain persons into certain States where by the laws +thereof their admission is prohibited." Mr. Sumner said that the bill +had passed the Senate once, and that he hoped it would now pass. Passed; +title amended by adding "approved February 28, 1803;" June 29, bill +passed over in House; July 14, consideration again postponed on Mr. +Woodward's objection. _Congressional Globe_, 41 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 2894, +2932, 4953, 5594. + + +~1870, Sept. 16. Great Britain: Additional Treaty.~ + +"Additional convention to the treaty of April 7, 1862, respecting the +African slave trade." Concluded June 3, 1870; ratifications exchanged at +London August 10, 1870; proclaimed September 16, 1870. _U.S. Treaties +and Conventions_ (1889), pp. 472-6. + + +~1871, Dec. 11. Congress (House): Bill on Slave-Trade.~ + +On the call of States, Mr. Banks introduced "a bill (House, No. 490) to +carry into effect article thirteen of the Constitution of the United +States, and to prohibit the owning or dealing in slaves by American +citizens in foreign countries." _House Journal_, 42 Cong. 2 sess. p. +48. + + * * * * * + + + + +APPENDIX C. + +TYPICAL CASES OF VESSELS ENGAGED IN THE AMERICAN SLAVE-TRADE. 1619-1864. + + This chronological list of certain typical American slavers is + not intended to catalogue all known cases, but is designed + merely to illustrate, by a few selected examples, the character + of the licit and the illicit traffic to the United States. + + +~1619.~ ----. Dutch man-of-war, imports twenty Negroes into Virginia, +the first slaves brought to the continent. Smith, _Generall Historie of +Virginia_ (1626 and 1632), p. 126. + + +~1645.~ ~Rainbowe,~ under Captain Smith, captures and imports African +slaves into Massachusetts. The slaves were forfeited and returned. +_Massachusetts Colonial Records_, II. 115, 129, 136, 168, 176; III. 13, +46, 49, 58, 84. + + +~1655.~ ~Witte paert,~ first vessel to import slaves into New York. +O'Callaghan, _Laws of New Netherland_ (ed. 1868), p. 191, note. + + +~1736, Oct.~ ----. Rhode Island slaver, under Capt. John Griffen. +_American Historical Record_, I. 312. + + +~1746.~ ----. Spanish vessel, with certain free Negroes, captured by +Captains John Dennis and Robert Morris, and Negroes sold by them in +Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York; these Negroes afterward +returned to Spanish colonies by the authorities of Rhode Island. _Rhode +Island Colonial Records_, V. 170, 176-7; Dawson's _Historical Magazine_, +XVIII. 98. + + +~1752.~ ~Sanderson,~ of Newport, trading to Africa and West Indies. +_American Historical Record_, I. 315-9, 338-42. Cf. above, p. 35, note 4. + + +~1788~ (_circa_). ----. "One or two" vessels fitted out in Connecticut. +W.C. Fowler, _Historical Status of the Negro in Connecticut_, in _Local +Law_, etc., p. 125. + + +~1801.~ ~Sally,~ of Norfolk, Virginia, equipped slaver; libelled and +acquitted; owners claimed damages. _American State Papers, Commerce and +Navigation_, I. No. 128. + + +~1803~ (?). ----. Two slavers seized with slaves, and brought to +Philadelphia; both condemned, and slaves apprenticed. Robert Sutcliff, +_Travels in North America_, p. 219. + + +~1804.~ ----. Slaver, allowed by Governor Claiborne to land fifty +Negroes in Louisiana. _American State Papers, Miscellaneous_, I. No. +177. + + +~1814.~ ~Saucy Jack~ carries off slaves from Africa and attacks British +cruiser. _House Reports_, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 92, p. 46; 21 Cong. 1 +sess. III. No. 348, p. 147. + + +~1816~ (_circa_). ~Paz,~ ~Rosa,~ ~Dolores,~ ~Nueva Paz,~ and ~Dorset,~ +American slavers in Spanish-African trade. Many of these were formerly +privateers. _Ibid._, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 92, pp. 45-6; 21 Cong. 1 +sess. III. No. 348, pp. 144-7. + + +~1817, Jan. 17.~ ~Eugene,~ armed Mexican schooner, captured while +attempting to smuggle slaves into the United States. _House Doc._, 15 +Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 12, p. 22. + + +~1817, Nov. 19.~ ~Tentativa,~ captured with 128 slaves and brought into +Savannah. _Ibid._, p. 38; _House Reports_, 21 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. +348, p. 81. See _Friends' View of the African Slave Trade_ (1824), pp. +44-7. + + +~1818.~ ----. Three schooners unload slaves in Louisiana. Collector Chew +to the Secretary of the Treasury, _House Reports_, 21 Cong. 1 sess. III. +No. 348, p. 70. + + +~1818, Jan. 23.~ English brig ~Neptune,~ detained by U.S.S. John Adams, +for smuggling slaves into the United States. _House Doc._, 16 Cong. 1 +sess. III. No. 36 (3). + + +~1818, June.~ ~Constitution,~ captured with 84 slaves on the Florida +coast, by a United States army officer. See references under 1818, June, +below. + + +~1818, June.~ ~Louisa~ and ~Merino,~ captured slavers, smuggling from +Cuba to the United States; condemned after five years' litigation. +_House Doc._, 15 Cong. 2 sess. VI. No. 107; 19 Cong. 1 sess. VI.-IX. +Nos. 121, 126, 152, 163; _House Reports_, 19 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 231; +_American State Papers, Naval Affairs_, II. No. 308; Decisions of the +United States Supreme Court in _9 Wheaton_, 391. + + +~1819.~ ~Antelope,~ or ~General Ramirez.~ The Colombia (or Arraganta), a +Venezuelan privateer, fitted in the United States and manned by +Americans, captures slaves from a Spanish slaver, the Antelope, and from +other slavers; is wrecked, and transfers crew and slaves to Antelope; +the latter, under the name of the General Ramirez, is captured with 280 +slaves by a United States ship. The slaves were distributed, some to +Spanish claimants, some sent to Africa, and some allowed to remain; many +died. _House Reports_, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 92, pp. 5, 15; 21 Cong. +1 sess. III. No. 348, p. 186; _House Journal_, 20 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 59, +76, 123 to 692, _passim_. Gales and Seaton, _Register of Debates_, IV. +pt. 1, pp. 915-6, 955-68, 998, 1005; _Ibid._, pt. 2, pp. 2501-3; +_American State Papers, Naval Affairs_, II. No. 319, pp. 750-60; +Decisions of the United States Supreme Court in _10 Wheaton_, 66, and +_12 Ibid._, 546. + + +~1820.~ ~Endymion,~ ~Plattsburg,~ ~Science,~ ~Esperanza,~ and +~Alexander,~ captured on the African coast by United States ships, and +sent to New York and Boston. _House Reports_, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. +92, pp. 6, 15; 21 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 348, pp. 122, 144, 187. + + +~1820.~ ~General Artigas~ imports twelve slaves into the United States. +_Friends' View of the African Slave Trade_ (1824), p. 42. + +~1821~ (?). ~Dolphin,~ captured by United States officers and sent to +Charleston, South Carolina. _Ibid._, pp. 31-2. + + +~1821.~ ~La Jeune Eugène,~ ~La Daphnée,~ ~La Mathilde,~ and ~L'Elize,~ +captured by U.S.S. Alligator; ~La Jeune Eugène~ sent to Boston; the rest +escape, and are recaptured under the French flag; the French protest. +_House Reports_, 21 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 348, p. 187; _Friends' View +of the African Slave Trade_ (1824), pp. 35-41. + + +~1821.~ ~La Pensée,~ captured with 220 slaves by the U.S.S. Hornet; +taken to Louisiana. _House Reports_, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 92, p. 5; +21 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 348, p. 186. + + +~1821.~ ~Esencia~ lands 113 Negroes at Matanzas. _Parliamentary Papers_, +1822, Vol. XXII., _Slave Trade, Further Papers_, III. p. 78. + + +~1826.~ ~Fell's Point~ attempts to land Negroes in the United States. +The Negroes were seized. _American State Papers, Naval Affairs_, II. No. +319, p. 751. + + +~1827, Dec. 20.~ ~Guerrero,~ Spanish slaver, chased by British, cruiser +and grounded on Key West, with 561 slaves; a part (121) were landed at +Key West, where they were seized by the collector; 250 were seized by +the Spanish and taken to Cuba, etc. _House Journal_, 20 Cong. 1 sess. p. +650; _House_ _Reports_, 24 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 268; 25 Cong. 2 sess. +I. No. 4; _American State Papers, Naval Affairs_, III. No. 370, p. 210; +_Niles's Register_, XXXIII. 373. + + +~1828, March 11.~ ~General Geddes~ brought into St. Augustine for safe +keeping 117 slaves, said to have been those taken from the wrecked +~Guerrero~ and landed at Key West (see above, 1827). _House Doc._, 20 +Cong. 1 sess. VI. No. 262. + + +~1828.~ ~Blue-eyed Mary,~ of Baltimore, sold to Spaniards and captured +with 405 slaves by a British cruiser. _Niles's Register_, XXXIV. 346. + + +~1830, June 4.~ ~Fenix,~ with 82 Africans, captured by U.S.S. Grampus, +and brought to Pensacola; American built, with Spanish colors. _House +Doc._, 21 Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 54; _House Reports_, 24 Cong. 1 sess. +I. No. 223; _Niles's Register_, XXXVIII. 357. + + +~1831, Jan. 3.~ ~Comet,~ carrying slaves from the District of Columbia +to New Orleans, was wrecked on Bahama banks and 164 slaves taken to +Nassau, in New Providence, where they were freed. Great Britain finally +paid indemnity for these slaves. _Senate Doc._, 24 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. +174; 25 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 216. + + +~1834, Feb. 4.~ ~Encomium,~ bound from Charleston, South Carolina, to +New Orleans, with 45 slaves, was wrecked near Fish Key, Abaco, and +slaves were carried to Nassau and freed. Great Britain eventually paid +indemnity for these slaves. _Ibid._ + + +~1835, March.~ ~Enterprise,~ carrying 78 slaves from the District of +Columbia to Charleston, was compelled by rough weather to put into the +port of Hamilton, West Indies, where the slaves were freed. Great +Britain refused to pay for these, because, before they landed, slavery +in the West Indies had been abolished. _Ibid._ + + +~1836, Aug.-Sept.~ ~Emanuel,~ ~Dolores,~ ~Anaconda,~ and ~Viper,~ built +in the United States, clear from Havana for Africa. _House Doc._, 26 +Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 4-6, 221. + + +~1837.~ ----. Eleven American slavers clear from Havana for Africa. +_Ibid._, p. 221. + + +~1837.~ ~Washington,~ allowed to proceed to Africa by the American +consul at Havana. _Ibid._, pp. 488-90, 715 ff; 27 Cong, 1 sess. No. 34, +pp. 18-21. + + +~1838.~ ~Prova~ spends three months refitting in the harbor of +Charleston, South Carolina; afterwards captured by the British, with 225 +slaves. _Ibid._, pp. 121, 163-6. + + +~1838.~ ----. Nineteen American slavers clear from Havana for Africa. +_House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, p. 221. + + +~1838-9.~ ~Venus,~ American built, manned partly by Americans, owned by +Spaniards. _Ibid._, pp. 20-2, 106, 124-5, 132, 144-5, 330-2, 475-9. + + +~1839.~ ~Morris Cooper,~ of Philadelphia, lands 485 Negroes in Cuba. +_Niles's Register_, LVII. 192. + + +~1839.~ ~Edwin~ and ~George Crooks,~ slavers, boarded by British +cruisers. _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 12-4, 61-4. + + +~1839.~ ~Eagle,~ ~Clara,~ and ~Wyoming,~ with American and Spanish flags +and papers and an American crew, captured by British cruisers, and +brought to New York. The United States government declined to interfere +in case of the ~Eagle~ and the ~Clara,~ and they were taken to Jamaica. +The ~Wyoming~ was forfeited to the United States. _Ibid._, pp. 92-104, +109, 112, 118-9, 180-4; _Niles's Register_, LVI. 256; LVII. 128, 208. + + +~1839.~ ~Florida,~ protected from British cruisers by American papers. +_House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 113-5. + + +~1839.~ ----. Five American slavers arrive at Havana from Africa, under +American flags. _Ibid._, p. 192. + + +~1839.~ ----. Twenty-three American slavers clear from Havana. _Ibid._, +pp. 190-1, 221. + + +~1839.~ ~Rebecca,~ part Spanish, condemned at Sierra Leone. _House +Reports_, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283, pp. 649-54, 675-84. + + +~1839.~ ~Douglas~ and ~Iago,~ American slavers, visited by British +cruisers, for which the United States demanded indemnity. _Ibid._, pp. +542-65, 731-55; _Senate Doc._, 29 Cong. 1 sess. VIII. No. 377, pp. +39-45, 107-12, 116-24, 160-1, 181-2. + + +~1839, April 9.~ ~Susan,~ suspected slaver, boarded by the British. +_House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 34-41. + + +~1839, July-Sept.~ ~Dolphin~ (or ~Constitução),~ ~Hound,~ ~Mary Cushing~ +(or ~Sete de Avril~), with American and Spanish flags and papers. +_Ibid._, pp. 28, 51-5, 109-10, 136, 234-8; _House Reports_, 27 Cong. 3 +sess. III. No. 283, pp. 709-15. + + +~1839, Aug.~ ~L'Amistad,~ slaver, with fifty-three Negroes on board, who +mutinied; the vessel was then captured by a United States vessel and +brought into Connecticut; the Negroes were declared free. _House Doc._, +26 Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 185; 27 Cong. 3 sess. V. No. 191; 28 Cong. 1 +sess. IV. No. 83; _House Exec. Doc._, 32 Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 20; +_House Reports_, 26 Cong. 2 sess. No. 51; 28 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 426; +29 Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 753; _Senate Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. +179; _Senate Exec. Doc._, 31 Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 29; 32 Cong. 2 sess. +III. No. 19; _Senate Reports_, 31 Cong. 2 sess. No. 301; 32 Cong. 1 +sess. I. No. 158; 35 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 36; Decisions of the United +States Supreme Court in _15 Peters_, 518; _Opinions of the +Attorneys-General_, III. 484-92. + + +~1839, Sept.~ ~My Boy,~ of New Orleans, seized by a British cruiser, and +condemned at Sierra Leone. _Niles's Register_, LVII. 353. + + +~1839, Sept. 23.~ ~Butterfly,~ of New Orleans, fitted as a slaver, and +captured by a British cruiser on the coast of Africa. _House Doc._, 26 +Cong. 2 sess. No. 115, pp. 191, 244-7; _Niles's Register_, LVII. 223. + + +~1839, Oct.~ ~Catharine,~ of Baltimore, captured on the African coast by +a British cruiser, and brought by her to New York. _House Doc._, 26 +Cong. 2 sess. V No. 115, pp. 191, 215, 239-44; _Niles's Register_, LVII. +119, 159. + + +~1839.~ ~Asp,~ ~Laura,~ and ~Mary Ann Cassard,~ foreign slavers sailing +under the American flag. _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. +126-7, 209-18; _House Reports_, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283, p. 688 +ff. + + +~1839.~ ~Two Friends,~ of New Orleans, equipped slaver, with Spanish, +Portuguese, and American flags. _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. +115, pp. 120, 160-2, 305. + + +~1839.~ ~Euphrates,~ of Baltimore, with American papers, seized by +British cruisers as Spanish property. Before this she had been boarded +fifteen times. _Ibid._, pp. 41-4; A.H. Foote, _Africa and the American +Flag_, pp. 152-6. + + +~1839.~ ~Ontario,~ American slaver, "sold" to the Spanish on shipping a +cargo of slaves. _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 45-50. + + +~1839.~ ~Mary,~ of Philadelphia; case of a slaver whose nationality was +disputed. _House Reports_, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283, pp. 736-8; +_Senate Doc._, 29 Cong. 1 sess. VIII. No. 377, pp. 19, 24-5. + + +~1840, March.~ ~Sarah Ann,~ of New Orleans, captured with fraudulent +papers. _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 184-7. + + +~1840, June.~ ~Caballero,~ ~Hudson,~ and ~Crawford;~ the arrival of +these American slavers was publicly billed in Cuba. _Ibid._, pp. 65-6. + + +~1840.~ ~Tigris,~ captured by British cruisers and sent to Boston for +kidnapping. _House Reports_, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283, pp. 724-9; +_Senate Doc._, 29 Cong. 1 sess. VIII. No. 377, P. 94. + + +~1840.~ ~Jones,~ seized by the British. _Senate Doc._, 29 Cong. 1 sess. +VIII. No. 377, pp. 131-2, 143-7, 148-60. + + +~1841, Nov. 7.~ ~Creole,~ of Richmond, Virginia, transporting slaves to +New Orleans; the crew mutiny and take her to Nassau, British West +Indies. The slaves were freed and Great Britain refused indemnity. +_Senate Doc._, 27 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 51 and III. No. 137. + + +~1841.~ ~Sophia,~ of New York, ships 750 slaves for Brazil. _House +Doc._, 29 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 43, pp. 3-8. + + +~1841.~ ~Pilgrim,~ of Portsmouth, N.H., ~Solon,~ of Baltimore, ~William +Jones~ and ~Himmaleh,~ of New York, clear from Rio Janeiro for Africa. +_Ibid._, pp. 8-12. + + +~1842, May.~ ~Illinois,~ of Gloucester, saved from search by the +American flag; escaped under the Spanish flag, loaded with slaves. +_Senate Doc._, 28 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 150, p. 72 ff. + + +~1842, June.~ ~Shakespeare,~ of Baltimore, with 430 slaves, captured by +British cruisers. _Ibid._ + + +~1843.~ ~Kentucky,~ of New York, trading to Brazil. _Ibid._, 30 Cong. 1 +sess. IV. No. 28, pp. 71-8; _House Exec. Doc._, 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. +No. 61, p. 72 ff. + + +~1844.~ ~Enterprise,~ of Boston, transferred in Brazil for slave-trade. +_Senate Exec. Doc._, 30 Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 28, pp. 79-90. + + +~1844.~ ~Uncas,~ of New Orleans, protected by United States papers; +allowed to clear, in spite of her evident character. _Ibid._, 28 Cong. 2 +sess. IX. No. 150, pp. 106-14. + + +~1844.~ ~Sooy,~ of Newport, without papers, captured by the British +sloop Racer, after landing 600 slaves on the coast of Brazil. _House +Doc._, 28 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 148, pp. 4, 36-62. + + +~1844.~ ~Cyrus,~ of New Orleans, suspected slaver, captured by the +British cruiser Alert. _Ibid._, pp. 3-41. + + +~1844-5.~ ----. Nineteen slavers from Beverly, Boston, Baltimore, +Philadelphia, New York, Providence, and Portland, make twenty-two trips. +_Ibid._, 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61, pp. 219-20. + + +~1844-9.~ ----. Ninety-three slavers in Brazilian trade. _Senate Exec. +Doc._, 31 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 6, pp. 37-8. + + +~1845.~ ~Porpoise,~ trading to Brazil. _House Exec. Doc._, 30 Cong. 2 +sess. VII. No. 61, pp. 111-56, 212-4. + + +~1845, May 14.~ ~Spitfire,~ of New Orleans, captured on the coast of +Africa, and the captain indicted in Boston. A.H. Foote, _Africa and the +American Flag_, pp. 240-1; _Niles's Register_, LXVIII. 192, 224, 248-9. + + +~1845-6.~ ~Patuxent,~ ~Pons,~ ~Robert Wilson,~ ~Merchant,~ and +~Panther,~ captured by Commodore Skinner. _House Exec. Doc._, 31 Cong. 1 +sess. IX. No. 73. + + +~1847.~ ~Fame,~ of New London, Connecticut, lands 700 slaves in Brazil. +_House Exec. Doc._, 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61, pp. 5-6, 15-21. + + +~1847.~ ~Senator,~ of Boston, brings 944 slaves to Brazil. _Ibid._, pp. +5-14. + + +~1849.~ ~Casco,~ slaver, with no papers; searched, and captured with 420 +slaves, by a British cruiser. _Senate Exec. Doc._, 31 Cong. 1 sess. XIV +No. 66, p. 13. + + +~1850.~ ~Martha,~ of New York, captured when about to embark 1800 +slaves. The captain was admitted to bail, and escaped. A.H. Foote, +_Africa and the American Flag_, pp. 285-92. + + +~1850.~ ~Lucy Ann,~ of Boston, captured with 547 slaves by the British. +_Senate Exec. Doc._, 31 Cong. 1 sess. XIV No. 66, pp. 1-10 ff. + + +~1850.~ ~Navarre,~ American slaver, trading to Brazil, searched and +finally seized by a British cruiser. _Ibid._ + + +~1850~ (_circa_). ~Louisa Beaton,~ ~Pilot,~ ~Chatsworth,~ ~Meteor,~ ~R. +de Zaldo,~ ~Chester,~ etc., American slavers, searched by British +vessels. _Ibid., passim._ + + +~1851, Sept. 18.~ ~Illinois~ brings seven kidnapped West India Negro +boys into Norfolk, Virginia. _House Exec. Doc._, 34 Cong. 1 sess. XII. +No. 105, pp. 12-14. + + +~1852-62.~ ----. Twenty-six ships arrested and bonded for slave-trading +in the Southern District of New York. _Senate Exec. Doc._, 37 Cong. 2 +sess. V. No. 53. + + +~1852.~ ~Advance~ and ~Rachel P. Brown,~ of New York; the capture of +these was hindered by the United States consul in the Cape Verd Islands. +_Ibid._, 34 Cong. 1 sess. XV. No. 99, pp. 41-5; _House Exec. Doc._, 34 +Cong. 1 sess. XII. No. 105, pp. 15-19. + + +~1853.~ ~Silenus,~ of New York, and ~General de Kalb,~ of Baltimore, +carry 900 slaves from Africa. _Senate Exec. Doc._, 34 Cong. 1 sess. XV. +No. 99, pp. 46-52; _House Exec. Doc._, 34 Cong. 1 sess. XII. No. 105, +pp. 20-26. + + +~1853.~ ~Jasper~ carries slaves to Cuba. _Senate Exec. Doc._, 34 Cong. 1 +sess. XV. No. 99, pp. 52-7. + + +~1853.~ ~Camargo,~ of Portland, Maine, lands 500 slaves in Brazil. +_Ibid._, 33 Cong. 1 sess. VIII. No. 47. + + +~1854.~ ~Glamorgan,~ of New York, captured when about to embark nearly +700 slaves. _Ibid._, 34 Cong. 1 sess. XV. No. 99, pp. 59-60. + + +~1854.~ ~Grey Eagle,~ of Philadelphia, captured off Cuba by British +cruiser. _Ibid._, pp. 61-3. + + +~1854.~ ~Peerless,~ of New York, lands 350 Negroes in Cuba. _Ibid._, +p. 66. + + +~1854.~ ~Oregon,~ of New Orleans, trading to Cuba. _Senate Exec. Doc._, +34 Cong. 1 sess. XV. No. 99, pp. 69-70. + + +~1856.~ ~Mary E. Smith,~ sailed from Boston in spite of efforts to +detain her, and was captured with 387 slaves, by the Brazilian brig +Olinda, at port of St. Matthews. _Ibid._, pp. 71-3. + + +~1857.~ ----. Twenty or more slavers from New York, New Orleans, etc. +_Ibid._, 35 Cong. 1 sess. XII. No. 49, pp. 14-21, 70-1, etc. + + +~1857.~ ~William Clark~ and ~Jupiter,~ of New Orleans, ~Eliza Jane,~ of +New York, ~Jos. H. Record,~ of Newport, and ~Onward,~ of Boston, +captured by British cruisers. _Ibid._, pp. 13, 25-6, 69, etc. + + +~1857.~ ~James Buchanan,~ slaver, escapes under American colors, with +300 slaves. _Ibid._, p. 38. + + +~1857.~ ~James Titers,~ of New Orleans, with 1200 slaves, captured by +British cruiser. _Ibid._, pp. 31-4, 40-1. + + +~1857.~ ----. Four New Orleans slavers on the African coast. _Senate +Exec. Doc._, 35 Cong. 1 sess., XII. No. 49, p. 30. + + +~1857.~ ~Cortes,~ of New York, captured. _Ibid._, pp. 27-8. + + +~1857.~ ~Charles,~ of Boston, captured by British cruisers, with about +400 slaves. _Ibid._, pp. 9, 13, 36, 69, etc. + + +~1857.~ ~Adams Gray~ and ~W.D. Miller,~ of New Orleans, fully equipped +slavers. _Ibid._, pp. 3-5, 13. + + +~1857-8.~ ~Charlotte,~ of New York, ~Charles,~ of Maryland, etc., +reported American slavers. _Ibid., passim_. + + +~1858, Aug. 21.~ ~Echo,~ captured with 306 slaves, and brought to +Charleston, South Carolina. _House Exec. Doc._, 35 Cong. 2 sess. II. pt. +4, No. 2. pt. 4, pp. 5, 14. + + +~1858, Sept. 8.~ ~Brothers,~ captured and sent to Charleston, South +Carolina. _Ibid._, p. 14. + + +~1858.~ ~Mobile,~ ~Cortez,~ ~Tropic Bird;~ cases of American slavers +searched by British vessels. _Ibid._, 36 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 7, p. 97 +ff. + + +~1858.~ ~Wanderer,~ lands 500 slaves in Georgia. _Senate Exec. Doc._, 35 +Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 8; _House Exec. Doc._, 35 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. +89. + + +~1859, Dec. 20.~ ~Delicia,~ supposed to be Spanish, but without papers; +captured by a United States ship. The United States courts declared her +beyond their jurisdiction. _House Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. +7, p. 434. + + +~1860.~ ~Erie,~ with 897 Africans, captured by a United States ship. +_Senate Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1, pp. 41-4. + + +~1860.~ ~William,~ with 550 slaves, ~Wildfire,~ with 507, captured on +the coast of Cuba. _Senate Journal_, 36 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 478-80, 492, +543, etc.; _Senate Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 1 sess. XI. No. 44; _House +Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 1 sess. XII. No. 83; 36 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 11; +_House Reports_, 36 Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 602. + + +~1861.~ ~Augusta,~ slaver, which, in spite of the efforts of the +officials, started on her voyage. _Senate Exec Doc._, 37 Cong. 2 sess. +V. No. 40; _New York Tribune_, Nov. 26, 1861. + + +~1861.~ ~Storm King,~ of Baltimore, lands 650 slaves in Cuba. _Senate +Exec. Doc._, 38 Cong. 1 sess. No. 56, p. 3. + + +~1862.~ ~Ocilla,~ of Mystic, Connecticut, lands slaves in Cuba. _Ibid._, +pp. 8-13. + + +~1864.~ ~Huntress,~ of New York, under the American flag, lands slaves +in Cuba. _Ibid._, pp. 19-21. + + * * * * * + + + + +APPENDIX D. + +BIBLIOGRAPHY. + +~COLONIAL LAWS.~ + +[The Library of Harvard College, the Boston Public Library, and the +Charlemagne Tower Collection at Philadelphia are especially rich in +Colonial Laws.] + + +~Alabama and Mississippi Territory.~ Acts of the Assembly of Alabama, +1822, etc.; J.J. Ormond, Code of Alabama, Montgomery, 1852; H. Toulmin, +Digest of the Laws of Alabama, Cahawba, 1823; A. Hutchinson, Code of +Mississippi, Jackson, 1848; Statutes of Mississippi etc., digested, +Natchez, 1816 and 1823. + +~Connecticut.~ Acts and Laws of Connecticut, New London, 1784 [-1794], +and Hartford, 1796; Connecticut Colonial Records; The General Laws and +Liberties of Connecticut Colonie, Cambridge, 1673, reprinted at Hartford +in 1865; Statute Laws of Connecticut, Hartford, 1821. + +~Delaware.~ Laws of Delaware, 1700-1797, 2 vols., New Castle, 1797. + +~Georgia.~ George W.J. De Renne, editor, Colonial Acts of Georgia, +Wormsloe, 1881; Constitution of Georgia; T.R.R. Cobb, Digest of the +Laws, Athens, Ga., 1851; Horatio Marbury and W.H. Crawford, Digest of +the Laws, Savannah, 1802; Oliver H. Prince, Digest of the Laws, 2d +edition, Athens, Ga., 1837. + +~Maryland.~ James Bisset, Abridgment of the Acts of Assembly, +Philadelphia, 1759; Acts of Maryland, 1753-1768, Annapolis, 1754 +[-1768]; Compleat Collection of the Laws of Maryland, Annapolis, 1727; +Thomas Bacon, Laws of Maryland at Large, Annapolis, 1765; Laws of +Maryland since 1763, Annapolis, 1787, year 1771; Clement Dorsey, General +Public Statutory Law, etc., 1692-1837, 3 vols., Baltimore, 1840. + +~Massachusetts.~ Acts and Laws of His Majesty's Province of the +Massachusetts-Bay in New-England, Boston, 1726; Acts and Resolves ... of +the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, 1692-1780 [Massachusetts +Province Laws]; Colonial Laws of Massachusetts, reprinted from the +editions of 1660 and 1672, Boston, 1887, 1890; General Court Records; +Massachusetts Archives; Massachusetts Historical Society Collections; +Perpetual Laws of Massachusetts, 1780-1789, Boston, 1789; Plymouth +Colony Records; Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts +Bay. + +~New Jersey.~ Samuel Allinson, Acts of Assembly, Burlington, 1776; +William Paterson, Digest of the Laws, Newark, 1800; William A. +Whitehead, editor, Documents relating to the Colonial History of New +Jersey, Newark, 1880-93; Joseph Bloomfield, Laws of New Jersey, Trenton, +1811; New Jersey Archives. + +~New York.~ Acts of Assembly, 1691-1718, London, 1719; E.B. O'Callaghan, +Documentary History of New York, 4 vols., Albany, 1849-51; E.B. +O'Callaghan, editor, Documents relating to the Colonial History of New +York, 12 vols., Albany, 1856-77; Laws of New York, 1752-1762, New York, +1762; Laws of New York, 1777-1801, 5 vols., republished at Albany, +1886-7. + +~North Carolina.~ F.X. Martin, Iredell's Public Acts of Assembly, +Newbern, 1804; Laws, revision of 1819, 2 vols., Raleigh, 1821; North +Carolina Colonial Records, edited by William L. Saunders, Raleigh, +1886-90. + +~Pennsylvania.~ Acts of Assembly, Philadelphia, 1782; Charter and Laws +of the Province of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, 1879; M. Carey and J. +Bioren, Laws of Pennsylvania, 1700-1802, 6 vols., Philadelphia, 1803; +A.J. Dallas, Laws of Pennsylvania, 1700-1781, Philadelphia, 1797; +_Ibid._, 1781-1790, Philadelphia, 1793; Collection of all the Laws now +in force, 1742; Pennsylvania Archives; Pennsylvania Colonial Records. + +~Rhode Island.~ John Russell Bartlett, Index to the Printed Acts and +Resolves, of ... the General Assembly, 1756-1850, Providence, 1856; +Elisha R. Potter, Reports and Documents upon Public Schools, etc., +Providence, 1855; Rhode Island Colonial Records. + +~South Carolina.~ J.F. Grimké, Public Laws, Philadelphia, 1790; Thomas +Cooper and D.J. McCord, Statutes at Large, 10 vols., Columbia, 1836-41. + +~Vermont.~ Statutes of Vermont, Windsor, 1787; Vermont State Papers, +Middlebury, 1823. + +~Virginia.~ John Mercer, Abridgement of the Acts of Assembly, Glasgow, +1759; Acts of Assembly, Williamsburg, 1769: Collection of Public Acts +... passed since 1768, Richmond, 1785; Collections of the Virginia +Historical Society; W.W. Hening, Statutes at Large, 13 vols., Richmond, +etc., 1819-23; Samuel Shepherd, Statutes at Large, New Series +(continuation of Hening), 3 vols, Richmond, 1835-6. + + +~UNITED STATES DOCUMENTS.~ + +~1789-1836.~ American State Papers--Class I., _Foreign Relations_, Vols. +III. and IV. (Reprint of Foreign Relations, 1789-1828.) Class VI., +_Naval Affairs_. (Well indexed.) + +~1794, Feb. 11.~ Report of Committee on the Slave Trade. _Amer. State +Papers, Miscellaneous_, I. No. 44. + +~1806, Feb. 17.~ Report of the Committee appointed on the seventh +instant, to inquire whether any, and if any, what Additional Provisions +are necessary to Prevent the Importation of Slaves into the Territories +of the United States. _House Reports_, 9 Cong. 1 sess. II. + +~1817, Feb. 11.~ Joint Resolution for abolishing the traffick in Slaves, +and the Colinization [_sic_] of the Free People Of Colour of the United +States. _House Doc._, 14 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 77. + +~1817, Dec. 15.~ Message from the President ... communicating +Information of the Proceeding of certain Persons who took Possession of +Amelia Island and of Galvezton, [_sic_] during the Summer of the Present +Year, and made Establishments there. _House Doc._, 15 Cong. 1 sess. II. +No. 12. (Contains much evidence of illicit traffic.) + +~1818, Jan. 10.~ Report of the Committee to whom was referred so much of +the President's Message as relates to the introduction of Slaves from +Amelia Island. _House Doc._, 15 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 46 (cf. _House +Reports_, 21 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 348). + +~1818, Jan. 13.~ Message from the President ... communicating +information of the Troops of the United States having taken possession +of Amelia Island, in East Florida. _House Doc._, 15 Cong. 1 sess. III. +No. 47. (Contains correspondence.) + +~1819, Jan. 12.~ Letter from the Secretary of the Navy, transmitting +copies of the instructions which have been issued to Naval Commanders, +upon the subject of the Importation of Slaves, etc. _House Doc._, 15 +Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 84. + +~1819, Jan. 19.~ Extracts from Documents in the Departments of State, of +the Treasury, and of the Navy, in relation to the Illicit Introduction +of Slaves into the United States. _House Doc._, 15 Cong. 2 sess. VI. No. +100. + +~1819, Jan. 21.~ Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury ... in +relation to Ships engaged in the Slave Trade, which have been Seized and +Condemned, and the Disposition which has been made of the Negroes, by +the several State Governments, under whose Jurisdiction they have +fallen. _House Doc._, 15 Cong. 2 sess. VI. No. 107. + +~1820, Jan. 7.~ Letter from the Secretary of the Navy, transmitting +information in relation to the Introduction of Slaves into the United +States. _House Doc._, 16 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 36. + +~1820, Jan. 13.~ Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting +... Information in relation to the Illicit Introduction of Slaves into +the United States, etc., _Ibid._, No. 42. + +~1820, May 8.~ Report of the Committee to whom was referred ... so much +of the President's Message as relates to the Slave Trade, etc. _House +Reports_, 16 Cong. 1 sess. No. 97. + +~1821, Jan. 5.~ Message from the President ... transmitting ... +Information on the Subject of the African Slave Trade. _House Doc._, 16 +Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 48. + +~1821, Feb. 7.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Reports_, 17 +Cong. 1 sess. No. 92, pp. 15-21. + +~1821, Feb. 9.~ Report of the Committee to which was referred so much of +the President's message as relates to the Slave Trade. _House Reports_, +16 Cong. 2 sess. No. 59. + +~1822, April 12.~ Report of the Committee on the Suppression of the +Slave Trade. Also Report of 1821, Feb. 9, reprinted. (Contains +discussion of the Right of Search, and papers on European Conference for +the Suppression of the Slave Trade.) _House Reports_, 17 Cong. 1 sess. +II. No. 92. + +~1823, Dec. 1.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Doc._, 18 +Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 2, p. 111, ff.; _Amer. State Papers, Naval +Affairs_, I. No. 258. (Contains reports on the establishment at Cape +Mesurado.)[1] + +~1824, March 20.~ Message from the President ... in relation to the +Suppression of the African Slave Trade. _House Doc._, 18 Cong. 1 sess. +VI. No. 119. (Contains correspondence on the proposed treaty of 1824.) + +~1824, Dec. 1.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _Amer. State +Papers, Naval Affairs_, I. No. 249. + +~1824, Dec. 7.~ Documents accompanying the Message of the President ... +to both Houses of Congress, at the commencement of the Second Session of +the Eighteenth Congress: Documents from the Department of State. _House +Doc._, 18 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1. pp. 1-56. Reprinted in _Senate Doc._, +18 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1. (Matter on the treaty of 1824.) + +~1825, Feb. 16.~ Report of the Committee to whom was referred so much of +the President's Message, of the 7th of December last, as relates to the +Suppression of the Slave Trade. _House Reports_, 18 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. +70 (Report favoring the treaty of 1824.) + +~1825, Dec. 2.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Doc._, 19 +Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 1. p. 98. + +~1825, Dec. 27.~ Slave Trade: Message from the President ... +communicating Correspondence with Great Britain in relation to the +Convention for Suppressing the Slave Trade. _House Doc._, 19 Cong. 1 +sess. I. No. 16. + +~1826, Feb. 6.~ Appropriation--Slave Trade: Report of the Committee of +Ways and Means on the subject of the estimate of appropriations for the +service of the year 1826. _House Reports_, 19 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 65. +(Contains report of the Secretary of the Navy and account of +expenditures for the African station.) + +~1826, March 8.~ Slave Ships in Alabama: Message from the President ... +in relation to the Cargoes of certain Slave Ships, etc. _House Doc._, 19 +Cong. 1 sess. VI. No. 121; cf. _Ibid._, VIII. No. 126, and IX. Nos. 152, +163; also _House Reports_, 19 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 231. (Cases of the +Constitution, Louisa, and Merino.) + +~1826, Dec. 2.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. (Part IV. of +Documents accompanying the President's Message.) _House Doc._, 19 Cong. +2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 9, 10, 74-103. + +~1827, etc.~ Colonization Society: Reports, etc. _House Doc._, 19 Cong. +2 sess. IV. Nos. 64, 69; 20 Cong. 1 sess. III. Nos. 99, 126, and V. No. +193; 20 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 114, 127-8; 21 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. +2, p. 211-18; _House Reports_, 19 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 101; 21 Cong. 1 +sess. II. No. 277, and III. No. 348; 22 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 277. + +~1827, Jan. 30.~ Prohibition of the Slave Trade: Statement showing the +Expenditure of the Appropriation for the Prohibition of the Slave Trade, +during the year 1826, and an Estimate for 1827. _House Doc._, 19 Cong. 2 +sess. IV. No. 69. + +~1827, Dec. 1 and Dec. 4.~ Reports of the Secretary of the Navy. _Amer. +State Papers, Naval Affairs,_ III. Nos. 339, 340. + +~1827, Dec. 6.~ Message from the President ... transmitting ... a Report +from the Secretary of the Navy, showing the expense annually incurred in +carrying into effect the Act of March 2, 1819, for Prohibiting the Slave +Trade. _Senate Doc._, 20 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 3. + +~1828, March 12.~ Recaptured Africans: Letter from the Secretary of the +Navy ... in relation to ... Recaptured Africans. _House Doc._, 20 Cong. +1 sess. V. No. 193; cf. _Ibid._, 20 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 114, +127-8; also _Amer. State Papers, Naval Affairs_, III. No. 357. + +~1828, April 30.~ Africans at Key West: Message from the President ... +relative to the Disposition of the Africans Landed at Key West. _House +Doc._, 20 Cong. 1 sess. VI. No. 262. + +~1828, Nov. 27.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _Amer. State +Papers, Naval Affairs_, III. No. 370. + +~1829, Dec. 1.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Doc._, 21 +Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 2, p. 40. + +~1830, April 7.~ Slave Trade ... Report: "The committee to whom were +referred the memorial of the American Society for colonizing the free +people of color of the United States; also, sundry memorials from the +inhabitants of the State of Kentucky, and a memorial from certain free +people of color of the State of Ohio, report," etc., 3 pp. Appendix. +Collected and arranged by Samuel Burch. 290 pp. _House Reports_, 21 +Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 348. (Contains a reprint of legislation and +documents from 14 Cong. 2 sess. to 21 Cong. 1 sess. Very valuable.) + +~1830, Dec. 6.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Doc._, 21 +Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 42-3; _Amer. State Papers, Naval Affairs_, +III. No. 429 E. + +~1830, Dec. 6.~ Documents communicated to Congress by the President at +the opening of the Second Session of the Twenty-first Congress, +accompanying the Report of the Secretary of the Navy: Paper E. Statement +of expenditures, etc., for the removal of Africans to Liberia. _House +Doc._, 21 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 211-8. + +~1831, Jan. 18.~ Spanish Slave Ship Fenix: Message from the President +... transmitting Documents in relation to certain captives on board the +Spanish slave vessel, called the Fenix. _House Doc._, 21 Cong. 2 sess. +III. No. 54; _Amer. State Papers, Naval Affairs_, III. No. 435. + +~1831-1835.~ Reports of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Doc._, 22 +Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 45, 272-4; 22 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. +48, 229; 23 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 1, pp. 238, 269; 23 Cong. 2 sess. I. +No. 2, pp. 315, 363; 24 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 336, 378. Also +_Amer. State Papers, Naval Affairs_, IV. No. 457, R. Nos. 1, 2; No. 486, +H. I.; No. 519, R.; No. 564, P.; No. 585, P. + +~1836, Jan. 26.~ Calvin Mickle, Ex'r of Nagle & De Frias. _House +Reports_, 24 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 209. (Reports on claims connected with +the captured slaver Constitution.) + +~1836, Jan. 27, etc.~ [Reports from the Committee of Claims on cases of +captured Africans.] _House Reports_, 24 Cong. 1 sess. I. Nos. 223, 268, +and III. No. 574. No. 268 is reprinted in _House Reports_, 25 Cong. 2 +sess. I. No. 4. + +~1836, Dec. 3.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Doc._, 24 +Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 450, 506. + +~1837, Feb. 14.~ Message from the President ... with copies of +Correspondence in relation to the Seizure of Slaves on board the brigs +"Encomium" and "Enterprise." _Senate Doc._, 24 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. +174; cf. _Ibid._, 25 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 216. + +~1837-1839.~ Reports of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Doc._, 25 +Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 3, pp. 762, 771, 850; 25 Cong. 3 sess. I. No. 2, p. +613; 26 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 534, 612. + +~1839.~ [L'Amistad Case.] _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 185 +(correspondence); 27 Cong. 3 sess. V. No. 191 (correspondence); 28 Cong. +1 sess. IV No. 83; _House Exec. Doc._, 32 Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 20; +_House Reports_, 26 Cong. 2 sess. No. 51 (case of altered Ms.); 28 Cong. +1 sess. II. No. 426 (Report of Committee); 29 Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 753 +(Report of Committee); _Senate Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 179 +(correspondence); _Senate Exec Doc._, 31 Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 29 +(correspondence); 32 Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 19; _Senate Reports_, 31 +Cong. 2 sess. No. 301 (Report of Committee); 32 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 158 +(Report of Committee); 35 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 36 (Report of Committee). + +~1840, May 18.~ Memorial of the Society of Friends, upon the subject of +the foreign slave trade. _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 1 sess. VI. No. 211. +(Results of certain investigations.) + +~1840, Dec. 5.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Doc._, 26 +Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 405, 450. + +~1841, Jan. 20.~ Message from the President ... communicating ... copies +of correspondence, imputing malpractices to the American consul at +Havana, in regard to granting papers to vessels engaged in the +slave-trade. _Senate Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 125. (Contains +much information.) + +~1841, March 3.~ Search or Seizure of American Vessels, etc.: Message +from the President ... transmitting a report from the Secretary of +State, in relation to seizures or search of American vessels on the +coast of Africa, etc. _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115 +(elaborate correspondence). See also _Ibid._, 27 Cong. 1 sess. No. 34; +_House Reports_, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283, pp. 478-755 +(correspondence). + +~1841, Dec. 4.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Doc._, 27 +Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 349, 351. + +~1842, Jan. 20.~ Message from the President ... communicating ... copies +of correspondence in relation to the mutiny on board the brig Creole, +and the liberation of the slaves who were passengers in the said vessel. +_Senate Doc._, 27 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 51. See also _Ibid._, III. No. +137; _House Doc._, 27 Cong. 3 sess. I. No. 2, p. 114. + +~1842, May 10.~ Resolutions of the Legislature of the State of +Mississippi in reference to the right of search, and the case of the +American brig Creole. _House Doc._, 27 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 215. +(Suggestive.) + +~1842, etc.~ [Quintuple Treaty and Cass's Protest: Messages of the +President, etc.] _House Doc._, 27 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 249; _Senate +Doc._, 27 Cong. 3 sess. II. No. 52, and IV. No. 223; 29 Cong. 1 sess. +VIII. No. 377. + +~1842, June 10.~ Indemnities for slaves on board the Comet and Encomium: +Report of the Secretary of State. _House Doc._, 27 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. +242. + +~1842, Aug.~ Suppression of the African Slave Trade--Extradition: Case +of the Creole, etc. _House Doc._, 27 Cong. 3 sess. I. No. 2, pp. +105-136. (Correspondence accompanying Message of President.) + +~1842, Dec.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Doc._, 27 Cong. +3 sess. I. No. 2, p. 532. + +~1842, Dec. 30.~ Message from the President ... in relation to the +strength and expense of the squadron to be employed on the coast of +Africa. _Senate Doc._, 27 Cong. 3 sess. II. No. 20. + +~1843, Feb. 28.~ Construction of the Treaty of Washington, etc.: Message +from the President ... transmitting a report from the Secretary of +State, in answer to the resolution of the House of the 22d February, +1843. _House Doc._, 27 Cong. 3 sess. V. No. 192. + +~1843, Feb. 28.~ African Colonization.... Report: "The Committee on +Commerce, to whom was referred the memorial of the friends of African +colonization, assembled in convention in the city of Washington in May +last, beg leave to submit the following report," etc. (16 pp.). +Appendix. (1071 pp.). _House Reports_, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283 +[Contents of Appendix: pp. 17-408, identical nearly with the Appendix to +_House Reports_, 21 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 348; pp. 408-478. +Congressional history of the slave-trade, case of the Fenix, etc. (cf. +_House Doc._, 21 Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 54); pp. 478-729, search and +seizure of American vessels (same as _House Doc._, 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. +No. 115, pp. 1-252); pp. 730-755, correspondence on British search of +American vessels, etc.; pp. 756-61, Quintuple Treaty; pp. 762-3, +President's Message on Treaty of 1842; pp. 764-96, correspondence on +African squadron, etc.; pp. 796-1088, newspaper extracts on the +slave-trade and on colonization, report of Colonization Society, etc.] + +~1843, Nov. 25.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Doc._, 28 +Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 484-5. + +~1844, March 14.~ Message from the President ... communicating ... +information in relation to the abuse of the flag of the United States in +... the African slave trade, etc. _Senate Doc._, 28 Cong. 1 sess. IV. +No. 217. + +~1844, March 15.~ Report: "The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was +referred the petition of ... John Hanes, ... praying an adjustment of +his accounts for the maintenance of certain captured African slaves, ask +leave to report," etc. _Senate Doc._, 28 Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 194. + +~1844, May 4.~ African Slave Trade: Report: "The Committee on Foreign +Affairs, to whom was referred the petition of the American Colonization +Society and others, respectfully report," etc. _House Reports_, 28 Cong. +1 sess. II. No. 469. + +~1844, May 22.~ Suppression of the Slave-Trade on the coast of Africa: +Message from the President, etc. _House Doc._, 28 Cong. 1 sess. VI. No. +263. + +~1844, Nov. 25.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Doc._, 28 +Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, p. 514. + +~1845, Feb. 20.~ Slave-Trade, etc.: Message from the President ... +transmitting copies of despatches from the American minister at the +court of Brazil, relative to the slave-trade, etc. _House Doc._, 28 +Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 148. (Important evidence, statistics, etc.) + +~1845, Feb. 26.~ Message from the President ... communicating ... +information relative to the operations of the United States squadron, +etc. _Senate Doc._, 28 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 150. (Contains reports of +Commodore Perry, and statistics of Liberia.) + +~1845, Dec. 1.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Doc._, 29 +Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 2, p. 645. + +~1845, Dec. 22.~ African Slave-Trade: Message from the President ... +transmitting a report from the Secretary of State, together with the +correspondence of George W. Slacum, relative to the African slave trade. +_House Doc._, 29 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 43. (Contains much information.) + +~1846, June 6.~ Message from the President ... communicating ... copies +of the correspondence between the government of the United States and +that of Great Britain, on the subject of the right of search; with +copies of the protest of the American minister at Paris against the +quintuple treaty, etc. _Senate Doc._, 29 Cong. 1 sess. VIII. No. 377. +Cf. _Ibid._, 27 Cong. 3 sess. II. No. 52, and IV. No. 223; _House Doc._, +27 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 249. + +~1846-1847, Dec.~ Reports of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Doc._, 29 +Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 4, p. 377; 30 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 8, p. 946. + +~1848, March 3.~ Message from the President ... communicating a report +from the Secretary of State, with the correspondence of Mr. Wise, late +United States minister to Brazil, in relation to the slave trade. +_Senate Exec. Doc._, 30 Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 28. (Full of facts.) + +~1848, May 12.~ Report of the Secretary of State, in relation to ... +the seizure of the brig Douglass by a British cruiser. _Senate Exec. +Doc._, 30 Cong. 1 sess. VI. No. 44. + +~1848, Dec. 4.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Exec. Doc._, +30 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1, pp. 605, 607. + +~1849, March 2.~ Correspondence between the Consuls of the United States +at Rio de Janeiro, etc., with the Secretary of State, on the subject of +the African Slave Trade: Message of the President, etc. _House Exec. +Doc._, 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61. (Contains much evidence.) + +~1849, Dec. 1.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Exec. Doc._, +31 Cong. 1 sess. III. pt. 1, No. 5, pt. 1, pp. 427-8. + +~1850, March 18.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy, showing the +annual number of deaths in the United States squadron on the coast of +Africa, and the annual cost of that squadron. _Senate Exec. Doc._, 31 +Cong. 1 sess. X. No. 40. + +~1850, July 22.~ African Squadron: Message from the President ... +transmitting Information in reference to the African squadron. _House +Exec. Doc._, 31 Cong. 1 sess. IX. No. 73. (Gives total expenses of the +squadron, slavers captured, etc.) + +~1850, Aug. 2.~ Message from the President ... relative to the searching +of American vessels by British ships of war. _Senate Exec. Doc._, 31 +Cong. 1 sess. XIV. No. 66. + +~1850, Dec. 17.~ Message of the President ... communicating ... a report +of the Secretary of State, with documents relating to the African slave +trade. _Senate Exec. Doc._, 31 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 6. + +~1851-1853.~ Reports of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Exec. Doc._, +32 Cong. 1 sess. II. pt. 2, No. 2, pt. 2, pp. 4-5; 32 Cong. 2 sess. I. +pt. 2, No. 1, pt. 2, p. 293; 33 Cong. 1 sess. I. pt. 3, No. 1, pt. 3, +pp. 298-9. + +~1854, March 13.~ Message from the President ... communicating ... the +correspondence between Mr. Schenck, United States Minister to Brazil, +and the Secretary of State, in relation to the African slave trade. +_Senate Exec. Doc._, 33 Cong. 1 sess. VIII. No. 47. + +~1854, June 13.~ Report submitted by Mr. Slidell, from the Committee on +Foreign Relations, on a resolution relative to the abrogation of the +eighth article of the treaty with Great Britain of the 9th of August, +1842, etc. _Senate Reports_, 34 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 195. (Injunction of +secrecy removed June 26, 1856.) + +~1854-1855, Dec.~ Reports of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Exec. +Doc._, 33 Cong. 2 sess. I. pt. 2, No. 1, pt. 2, pp. 386-7; 34 Cong. 1 +sess. I. pt. 3, No. 1, pt. 3, p. 5. + +~1856, May 19.~ Slave and Coolie Trade: Message from the President ... +communicating information in regard to the Slave and Coolie trade. +_House Exec. Doc._, 34 Cong. 1 sess. XII. No. 105. (Partly reprinted in +_Senate Exec. Doc._, 34 Cong. 1 sess. XV No. 99.) + +~1856, Aug. 5.~ Report of the Secretary of State, in compliance with a +resolution of the Senate of April 24, calling for information relative +to the coolie trade. _Senate Exec. Doc._, 34 Cong. 1 sess. XV. No. 99. +(Partly reprinted in _House Exec Doc._, 34 Cong. 1 sess. XII. No. 105.) + +~1856, Dec. 1.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Exec. Doc._, +34 Cong. 3 sess. I. pt. 2, No. 1, pt. 2, p. 407. + +~1857, Feb. 11.~ Slave Trade: Letter from the Secretary of State, asking +an appropriation for the suppression of the slave trade, etc. _House +Exec Doc._, 34 Cong. 3 sess. IX. No. 70. + +~1857, Dec. 3.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Exec Doc._, +35 Cong. 1 sess. II. pt. 3, No. 2, pt. 3, p. 576. + +~1858, April 23.~ Message of the President ... communicating ... reports +of the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Navy, with +accompanying papers, in relation to the African slave trade. _Senate +Exec. Doc._, 35 Cong. 1 sess. XII. No. 49. (Valuable.) + +~1858, Dec. 6.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Exec. Doc._, +35 Cong. 2 sess. II. pt. 4, No. 2, pt. 4, pp. 5, 13-4. + +~1859, Jan. 12.~ Message of the President ... relative to the landing of +the barque Wanderer on the coast of Georgia, etc. _Senate Exec. Doc._, +35 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 8. See also _House Exec. Doc._, 35 Cong. 2 +sess. IX. No. 89. + +~1859, March 1.~ Instructions to African squadron: Message from the +President, etc. _House Exec. Doc._, 35 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 104. + +~1859, Dec. 2.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _Senate Exec. +Doc._, 36 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 2, pt. 3, pp. 1138-9, 1149-50. + +~1860, Jan. 25.~ Memorial of the American Missionary Association, +praying the rigorous enforcement of the laws for the suppression of the +African slave-trade, etc. _Senate Misc. Doc._, 36 Cong. 1 sess. No. 8. + +~1860, April 24.~ Message from the President ... in answer to a +resolution of the House calling for the number of persons ... belonging +to the African squadron, who have died, etc. _House Exec. Doc._, 36 +Cong. 1 sess. XII. No. 73. + +~1860, May 19.~ Message of the President ... relative to the capture of +the slaver Wildfire, etc. _Senate Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 1 sess. XI. No. +44. + +~1860, May 22.~ Capture of the slaver "William": Message from the +President ... transmitting correspondence relative to the capture of the +slaver "William," etc. _House Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 1 sess. XII. No. 83. + +~1860, May 31.~ The Slave Trade ... Report: "The Committee on the +Judiciary, to whom was referred Senate Bill No. 464, ... together with +the messages of the President ... relative to the capture of the slavers +'Wildfire' and 'William,' ... respectfully report," etc. _House +Reports_, 36 Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 602. + +~1860, June 16.~ Recaptured Africans: Letter from the Secretary of the +Interior, on the subject of the return to Africa of recaptured Africans, +etc. _House Misc. Doc._, 36 Cong. 1 sess. VII. No. 96. Cf. _Ibid._, No. +97, p. 2. + +~1860, Dec. 1.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _Senate Exec. +Doc._, 36 Cong. 2 sess. III. pt. 1, No. 1, pt. 3, pp. 8-9. + +~1860, Dec. 6.~ African Slave Trade: Message from the President ... +transmitting ... a report from the Secretary of State in reference to +the African slave trade. _House Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 7. +(Voluminous document, containing chiefly correspondence, orders, etc., +1855-1860.) + +~1860, Dec. 17.~ Deficiencies of Appropriation, etc.: Letter from the +Secretary of the Interior, communicating estimates for deficiencies in +the appropriation for the suppression of the slave trade, etc. _House +Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 11. (Contains names of captured +slavers.) + +~1861, July 4.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _Senate Exec. +Doc._, 37 Cong. 1 sess. No. 1, pp. 92, 97. + +~1861, Dec. 2.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _Senate Exec. +Doc._, 37 Cong. 2 sess. Vol. III. pt. 1, No. 1, pt. 3, pp. 11, 21. + +~1861, Dec. 18.~ In Relation to Captured Africans: Letter from the +Secretary of the Interior ... as to contracts for returning and +subsistence of captured Africans. _House Exec. Doc._, 37 Cong. 2 sess. +I. No. 12. + +~1862, April 1.~ Letter of the Secretary of the Interior ... in relation +to the slave vessel the "Bark Augusta." _Senate Exec. Doc._, 37 Cong. 2 +sess. V. No. 40. + +~1862, May 30.~ Letter of the Secretary of the Interior ... in relation +to persons who have been arrested in the southern district of New York, +from the 1st day of May, 1852, to the 1st day of May, 1862, charged with +being engaged in the slave trade, etc. _Senate Exec. Doc._, 37 Cong. 2 +sess. V. No. 53. + +~1862, June 10.~ Message of the President ... transmitting a copy of the +treaty between the United States and her Britannic Majesty for the +suppression of the African slave trade. _Senate Exec. Doc._, 37 Cong. 2 +sess. V. No. 57. (Also contains correspondence.) + +~1862, Dec. 1.~ Report of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Exec. Doc._, +37 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 1, pt. 3, p. 23. + +~1863, Jan. 7.~ Liberated Africans: Letter from the Acting Secretary of +the Interior ... transmitting reports from Agent Seys in relation to +care of liberated Africans. _House Exec. Doc._, 37 Cong. 3 sess. V. No. +28. + +~1864, July 2.~ Message of the President ... communicating ... +information in regard to the African slave trade. _Senate Exec. Doc._, +38 Cong. 1 sess. No. 56. + +~1866-69.~ Reports of the Secretary of the Navy. _House Exec. Doc._, 39 +Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 1, pt. 6, pp. 12, 18-9; 40 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. +1, p. 11; 40 Cong. 3 sess. IV. No. 1, p. ix; 41 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1, +pp. 4, 5, 9, 10. + +~1870, March 2.~ [Resolution on the slave-trade submitted to the Senate +by Mr. Wilson]. _Senate Misc. Doc._, 41 Cong. 2 sess. No. 66. + + +~GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.~ + +John Quincy Adams. Argument before the Supreme Court of the United +States, in the case of the United States, Appellants, _vs._ Cinque, and +Others, Africans, captured in the schooner Amistad, by Lieut. Gedney, +delivered on the 24th of Feb. and 1st of March, 1841. With a Review of +the case of the Antelope. New York, 1841. + +An African Merchant (anon.). A Treatise upon the Trade from +Great-Britain to Africa; Humbly recommended to the Attention of +Government. London, 1772. + +The African Slave Trade: Its Nature, Consequences, and Extent. From the +Leeds Mercury. [Birmingham, 183-.] + +The African Slave Trade: The Secret Purpose of the Insurgents to Revive +it. No Treaty Stipulations against the Slave Trade to be entered into +with the European Powers, etc. Philadelphia, 1863. + +George William Alexander. Letters on the Slave-Trade, Slavery, and +Emancipation, etc. London, 1842. (Contains Bibliography.) + +American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society; Reports. + +American Anti-Slavery Society. Memorial for the Abolition of Slavery and +the Slave Trade. London, 1841. + +----. Reports and Proceedings. + +American Colonization Society. Annual Reports, 1818-1860. (Cf. above, +United States Documents.) + +J.A. Andrew and A.G. Browne, proctors. Circuit Court of the United +States, Massachusetts District, ss. In Admiralty. The United States, by +Information, _vs._ the Schooner Wanderer and Cargo, G. Lamar, Claimant. +Boston, 1860. + +Edward Armstrong, editor. The Record of the Court at Upland, in +Pennsylvania. 1676-1681. Philadelphia, 1860. (In _Memoirs_ of the +Pennsylvania Historical Society, VII. 11.) + +Samuel Greene Arnold. History of the State of Rhode Island and +Providence Plantations. 2 vols. New York, 1859-60. (See Index to Vol. +II., "Slave Trade.") + +Assiento, or, Contract for allowing to the Subjects of Great Britain the +Liberty of Importing Negroes into the Spanish America. Sign'd by the +Catholick King at Madrid, the Twenty sixth Day of March, 1713. By Her +Majesties special Command. London, 1713. + +R.S. Baldwin. Argument before the Supreme Court of the United States, in +the case of the United States, Appellants, _vs._ Cinque, and Others, +Africans of the Amistad. New York, 1841. + +James Bandinel. Some Account of the Trade in Slaves from Africa as +connected with Europe and America; From the Introduction of the Trade +into Modern Europe, down to the present Time; especially with reference +to the efforts made by the British Government for its extinction. +London, 1842. + +Anthony Benezet. Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, +1442-1771. (In his Historical Account of Guinea, etc., Philadelphia, +1771.) + +----. Notes on the Slave Trade, etc. [1780?]. + +Thomas Hart Benton. Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to +1856. 16 vols. Washington, 1857-61. + +Edward Bettle. Notices of Negro Slavery, as connected with Pennsylvania. +(Read before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Aug. 7, 1826. +Printed in _Memoirs_ of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Vol. I. +Philadelphia, 1864.) + +W.O. Blake. History of Slavery and the Slave Trade, Ancient and Modern. +Columbus, 1859. + +Jeffrey R. Brackett. The Status of the Slave, 1775-1789. (Essay V. in +Jameson's _Essays in the Constitutional History of the United States, +1775-89_. Boston, 1889.) + +Thomas Branagan. Serious Remonstrances, addressed to the Citizens of the +Northern States and their Representatives, on the recent Revival of the +Slave Trade in this Republic. Philadelphia, 1805. + +British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Annual and Special Reports. + +----. Proceedings of the general Anti-Slavery Convention, called by +the committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and held +in London, ... June, 1840. London, 1841. + +[A British Merchant.] The African Trade, the Great Pillar and Support +of the British Plantation Trade in America: shewing, etc. London, 1745. + +[British Parliament, House of Lords.] Report of the Lords of the +Committee of the Council appointed for the Confederation of all Matters +relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations, etc. 2 vols. [London,] 1789. + +William Brodie. Modern Slavery and the Slave Trade: a Lecture, etc. +London, 1860. + +Thomas Fowell Buxton. The African Slave Trade and its Remedy. London, +1840. + +John Elliot Cairnes. The Slave Power: its Character, Career, and +Probable Designs. London, 1862. + +Henry C. Carey. The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign: why it Exists and +how it may be Extinguished. Philadelphia, 1853. + +[Lewis Cass]. An Examination of the Question, now in Discussion, ... +concerning the Right of Search. By an American. [Philadelphia, 1842.] + +William Ellery Channing. The Duty of the Free States, or Remarks +suggested by the case of the Creole. Boston, 1842. + +David Christy. Ethiopia, her Gloom and Glory, as illustrated in the +History of the Slave Trade, etc. (1442-1857.) Cincinnati, 1857. + +Rufus W. Clark. The African Slave Trade. Boston, [1860.] + +Thomas Clarkson. An Essay on the Comparative Efficiency of Regulation or +Abolition, as applied to the Slave Trade. Shewing that the latter only +can remove the evils to be found in that commerce. London, 1789. + +----. An Essay on the Impolicy of the African Slave Trade. In two +parts. Second edition. London, 1788. + +----. An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, +particularly the African. London and Dublin, 1786. + +----. The History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the +Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament. 2 vols. +Philadelphia, 1808. + +Michael W. Cluskey. The Political Text-Book, or Encyclopedia ... for the +Reference of Politicians and Statesmen. Fourteenth edition. +Philadelphia, 1860. + +T.R.R. Cobb. An Historical Sketch of Slavery, from the Earliest Periods. +Philadelphia and Savannah. 1858. + +T.R.R. Cobb. Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States +of America. Vol. I. Philadelphia and Savannah, 1858. + +Company of Royal Adventurers. The Several Declarations of the Company of +Royal Adventurers of England trading into Africa, inviting all His +Majesties Native Subjects in general to Subscribe, and become Sharers in +their Joynt-stock, etc. [London,] 1667. + +Confederate States of America. By Authority of Congress: The Statutes at +Large of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of +America, from the Institution of the Government, Feb. 8, 1861, to its +Termination, Feb. 18, 1862, Inclusive, etc. (Contains provisional and +permanent constitutions.) Edited by James M. Matthews. Richmond, 1864. + +Constitution of a Society for Abolishing the Slave-Trade. With Several +Acts of the Legislatures of the States of Massachusetts, Connecticut and +Rhode-Island, for that Purpose. Printed by John Carter. Providence, +1789. + +Continental Congress. Journals and Secret Journals. + +Moncure D. Conway. Omitted Chapters of History disclosed in the Life and +Papers of Edmund Randolph, etc. New York and London, 1888. + +Thomas Cooper. Letters on the Slave Trade. Manchester, Eng., 1787. + +Correspondence with British Ministers and Agents in Foreign Countries, +and with Foreign Ministers in England, relative to the Slave Trade, +1859-60. London, 1860. + +The Creole Case, and Mr. Webster's Despatch; with the comments of the +New York "American." New York, 1842. + +B.R. Curtis. Reports of Decisions in the Supreme Court of the United +States. With Notes, and a Digest. Fifth edition. 22 vols. Boston, 1870. + +James Dana. The African Slave Trade. A Discourse delivered ... +September, 9, 1790, before the Connecticut Society for the Promotion of +Freedom. New Haven, 1791. + +Henry B. Dawson, editor. The Foederalist: A Collection of Essays, +written in favor of the New Constitution, as agreed upon by the +Foederal Convention, September 17, 1787. Reprinted from the Original +Text. With an Historical Introduction and Notes. Vol. I. New York, +1863. + +Paul Dean. A Discourse delivered before the African Society ... in +Boston, Mass., on the Abolition of the Slave Trade ... July 14, 1819. +Boston, 1819. + +Charles Deane. The Connection of Massachusetts with Slavery and the +Slave-Trade, etc. Worcester, 1886. (Also in _Proceedings_ of the +American Antiquarian Society, October, 1886.) + +----. Charles Deane. Letters and Documents relating to Slavery in +Massachusetts. (In _Collections_ of the Massachusetts Historical +Society, 5th Series, III. 373.) + +Debate on a Motion for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade, in the House of +Commons, on Monday and Tuesday, April 18 and 19, 1791. Reported in +detail. London, 1791. + +J.D.B. De Bow. The Commercial Review of the South and West. (Also De +Bow's Review of the Southern and Western States.) 38 vols. New Orleans, +1846-69. + +Franklin B. Dexter. Estimates of Population in the American Colonies. +Worcester, 1887. + +Captain Richard Drake. Revelations of a Slave Smuggler: being the +Autobiography of Capt. Richard Drake, an African Trader for fifty +years--from 1807 to 1857, etc. New York, [1860.] + +Daniel Drayton. Personal Memoir, etc. Including a Narrative of the +Voyage and Capture of the Schooner Pearl. Published by the American and +Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Boston and New York, 1855. + +John Drayton. Memoirs of the American Revolution. 2 vols. Charleston, +1821. + +Paul Dudley. An Essay on the Merchandize of Slaves and Souls of Men. +Boston, 1731. + +Edward E. Dunbar. The Mexican Papers, containing the History of the Rise +and Decline of Commercial Slavery in America, with reference to the +Future of Mexico. First Series, No. 5. New York, 1861. + +Jonathan Edwards. The Injustice and Impolicy of the Slave Trade, and of +the Slavery of the Africans, etc. [New Haven,] 1791. + +Jonathan Elliot. The Debates ... on the adoption of the Federal +Constitution, etc. 4 vols. Washington, 1827-30. + +Emerson Etheridge. Speech ... on the Revival of the African Slave Trade, +etc. Washington, 1857. + +Alexander Falconbridge. An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of +Africa. London, 1788. + +Andrew H. Foote. Africa and the American Flag. New York, 1854. + +----. The African Squadron: Ashburton Treaty; Consular Sea Letters. +Philadelphia, 1855. + +Peter Force. American Archives, etc. In Six Series. Prepared and +Published under Authority of an act of Congress. Fourth and Fifth +Series. 9 vols. Washington, 1837-53. + +Paul Leicester Ford. The Association of the First Congress, (In +Political Science Quarterly, VI. 613.) + +----. Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States, published +during its Discussion by the People, 1787-8. (With Bibliography, etc.) +Brooklyn, 1888. + +William Chauncey Fowler. Local Law in Massachusetts and Connecticut, +Historically considered; and The Historical Status of the Negro, in +Connecticut, etc. Albany, 1872, and New Haven, 1875. + +[Benjamin Franklin.] An Essay on the African Slave Trade. Philadelphia, +1790. + +[Friends.] Address to the Citizens of the United States of America on +the subject of Slavery, etc. (At New York Yearly Meeting.) New York, +1837. + +----. An Appeal on the Iniquity of Slavery and the Slave Trade. (At +London Yearly Meeting.) London and Cincinnati, 1844. + +----. The Appeal of the Religious Society of Friends in Pennsylvania, +New Jersey, Delaware, etc., [Yearly Meeting] to their Fellow-Citizens of +the United States on behalf of the Coloured Races. Philadelphia, 1858. + +----. A Brief Statement of the Rise and Progress of the Testimony of +the Religious Society of Friends against Slavery and the Slave Trade. +1671-1787. (At Yearly Meeting in Philadelphia.) Philadelphia, 1843. + +----. The Case of our Fellow-Creatures, the Oppressed Africans, +respectfully recommended to the Serious Consideration of the Legislature +of Great-Britain, by the People called Quakers. (At London Meeting.) +London, 1783 and 1784. (This volume contains many tracts on the African +slave-trade, especially in the West Indies; also descriptions of trade, +proposed legislation, etc.) + +[Friends.] An Exposition of the African Slave Trade, from the year 1840, +to 1850, inclusive. Prepared from official documents. Philadelphia, +1857. + +----. Extracts and Observations on the Foreign Slave Trade. +Philadelphia, 1839. + +----. Facts and Observations relative to the Participation of +American Citizens in the African Slave Trade. Philadelphia, 1841. + +----. Faits relatifs à la Traite des Noirs, et Détails sur Sierra +Leone; par la Société des Ames. Paris, 1824. + +----. Germantown Friends' Protest against Slavery, 1688. Fac-simile +Copy. Philadelphia, 1880. + +----. Observations on the Inslaving, importing and purchasing of +Negroes; with some Advice thereon, extracted from the Epistle of the +Yearly-Meeting of the People called Quakers, held at London in the Year +1748. Second edition. Germantown, 1760. + +----. Proceedings in relation to the Presentation of the Address of +the [Great Britain and Ireland] Yearly Meeting on the Slave-Trade and +Slavery, to Sovereigns and those in Authority in the nations of Europe, +and in other parts of the world, where the Christian religion is +professed. Cincinnati, 1855. + +----. Slavery and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States. By +the committee appointed by the late Yearly Meeting of Friends held in +Philadelphia, in 1839. Philadelphia, 1841. + +----. A View of the Present State of the African Slave Trade. +Philadelphia, 1824. + +Carl Garcis. Das Heutige Völkerrecht und der Menschenhandel. Eine +völkerrechtliche Abhandlung, zugleich Ausgabe des deutschen Textes der +Verträge von 20. Dezember 1841 und 29. März 1879. Berlin, 1879. + +----. Der Sklavenhandel, das Völkerrecht, und das deutsche Recht. +(In Deutsche Zeit- und Streit-Fragen, No. 13.) Berlin, 1885. + +Agénor Étienne de Gasparin. Esclavage et Traite. Paris, 1838. + +Joshua R. Giddings. Speech ... on his motion to reconsider the vote +taken upon the final passage of the "Bill for the relief of the owners +of slaves lost from on Board the Comet and Encomium." [Washington, +1843.] + +Benjamin Godwin. The Substance of a Course of Lectures on British +Colonial Slavery, delivered at Bradford, York, and Scarborough. London, +1830. + +----. Lectures on Slavery. From the London edition, with additions. +Edited by W.S. Andrews. Boston, 1836. + +William Goodell. The American Slave Code in Theory and Practice: its +Distinctive Features shown by its Statutes, Judicial Decisions, and +Illustrative Facts. New York, 1853. + +----. Slavery and Anti-Slavery; A History of the great Struggle in +both Hemispheres; with a view of the Slavery Question in the United +States. New York, 1852. + +Daniel R. Goodloe. The Birth of the Republic. Chicago, [1889.] + +[Great Britain.] British and Foreign State Papers. + +----. Sessional Papers. (For notices of slave-trade in British +Sessional Papers, see Bates Hall Catalogue, Boston Public Library, pp. +347 _et seq._) + +[Great Britain: Parliament.] Chronological Table and Index of the +Statutes, Eleventh Edition, to the end of the Session 52 and 53 +Victoria, (1889.) By Authority. London, 1890. + +[Great Britain: Record Commission.] The Statutes of the Realm. Printed +by command of His Majesty King George the Third ... From Original +Records and Authentic Manuscripts. 9 vols. London, 1810-22. + +George Gregory. Essays, Historical and Moral. Second edition. London, +1788. (Essays 7 and 8: Of Slavery and the Slave Trade; A Short Review, +etc.) + +Pope Gregory XVI. To Catholic Citizens! The Pope's Bull [for the +Abolition of the Slave Trade], and the words of Daniel O'Connell [on +American Slavery.] New York, [1856.] + +H. Hall. Slavery in New Hampshire. (In _New England Register_, XXIX. +247.) + +Isaac W. Hammond. Slavery in New Hampshire in the Olden Time. (In +_Granite Monthly_, IV. 108.) + +James H. Hammond. Letters on Southern Slavery: addressed to Thomas +Clarkson. [Charleston, (?)]. + +Robert G. Harper. Argument against the Policy of Reopening the African +Slave Trade. Atlanta, Ga., 1858. + +Samuel Hazard, editor. The Register of Pennsylvania. 16 vols. +Philadelphia, 1828-36. + +Hinton R. Helper. The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet it. +Enlarged edition. New York, 1860. + +Lewis and Sir Edward Hertslet, compilers. A Complete Collection of the +Treaties and Conventions, and Reciprocal Regulations, at present +subsisting between Great Britain and Foreign Powers, and of the Laws, +Decrees, and Orders in Council, concerning the same; so far as they +relate to Commerce and Navigation, ... the Slave Trade, etc. 17 vols., +(Vol. XVI., Index.) London, 1840-90. + +William B. Hodgson. The Foulahs of Central Africa, and the African Slave +Trade. [New York, (?)] 1843. + +John Codman Hurd. The Law of Freedom and Bondage in the United States. 2 +vols. Boston and New York, 1858, 1862. + +----. The International Law of the Slave Trade, and the Maritime +Right of Search. (In the American Jurist, XXVI. 330.) + +----. The Jamaica Movement, for promoting the Enforcement of the +Slave-Trade Treaties, and the Suppression of the Slave-Trade; with +statements of Fact, Convention, and Law: prepared at the request of the +Kingston Committee. London, 1850. + +William Jay. Miscellaneous Writings on Slavery. Boston, 1853. + +----. A View of the Action of the Federal Government, in Behalf of +Slavery. New York, 1839. + +T. and J.W. Johnson. Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United +States. + +Alexandre Moreau de Jonnès. Recherches Statistiques sur l'Esclavage +Colonial et sur les Moyens de le supprimer. Paris, 1842. + +M.A. Juge. The American Planter: or The Bound Labor Interest in the +United States. New York, 1854. + +Friedrich Kapp. Die Sklavenfrage in den Vereinigten Staaten. Göttingen +and New York, 1854. + +----. Geschichte der Sklaverei in den Vereinigten Staaten von +Amerika. Hamburg, 1861. + +Frederic Kidder. The Slave Trade in Massachusetts. (In _New-England +Historical and Genealogical Register_, XXXI. 75.) + +George Lawrence. An Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade ... Jan. +1, 1813. New York, 1813. + +William B. Lawrence. Visitation and Search; or, An Historical Sketch of +the British Claim to exercise a Maritime Police over the Vessels of all +Nations, in Peace as well as in War. Boston, 1858. + +Letter from ... in London, to his Friend in America, on the ... Slave +Trade, etc. New York, 1784. + +Thomas Lloyd. Debates of the Convention of the State of Pennsylvania on +the Constitution, proposed for the Government of the United States. In +two volumes. Vol. I. Philadelphia, 1788. + +London Anti-Slavery Society. The Foreign Slave Trade, A Brief Account of +its State, of the Treaties which have been entered into, and of the Laws +enacted for its Suppression, from the date of the English Abolition Act +to the present time. London, 1837. + +----. The Foreign Slave Trade, etc., No. 2. London, 1838. + +London Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade, and for the +Civilization of Africa. Proceedings at the first Public Meeting, held at +Exeter Hall, on Monday, 1st June, 1840. London, 1840. + +Theodore Lyman, Jr. The Diplomacy of the United States, etc. Second +edition. 2 vols. Boston, 1828. + +Hugh M'Call. The History of Georgia, containing Brief Sketches of the +most Remarkable Events, up to the Present Day. 2 vols. Savannah, +1811-16. + +Marion J. McDougall. Fugitive Slaves. Boston, 1891. + +John Fraser Macqueen. Chief Points in the Laws of War and Neutrality, +Search and Blockade, etc. London and Edinburgh, 1862. + +R.R. Madden. A Letter to W.E. Channing, D.D., on the subject of the +Abuse of the Flag of the United States in the Island of Cuba, and the +Advantage taken of its Protection in promoting the Slave Trade. Boston, +1839. + +James Madison. Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, Fourth +President of the United States. In four volumes. Published by order of +Congress. Philadelphia, 1865. + +James Madison. The Papers of James Madison, purchased by order of +Congress; being his Correspondence and Reports of Debates during the +Congress of the Confederation and his Reports of Debates in the Federal +Convention. 3 vols. Washington, 1840. + +Marana (pseudonym). The Future of America. Considered ... in View of ... +Re-opening the Slave Trade. Boston, 1858. + +E. Marining. Six Months on a Slaver. New York, 1879. + +George C. Mason. The African Slave Trade in Colonial Times. (In American +Historical Record, I. 311, 338.) + +Frederic G. Mather. Slavery in the Colony and State of New York. (In +_Magazine of American History_, XI. 408.) + +Samuel May, Jr. Catalogue of Anti-Slavery Publications in America, +1750-1863. (Contains bibliography of periodical literature.) + +Memorials presented to the Congress of the United States of America, by +the Different Societies instituted for promoting the Abolition of +Slavery, etc., etc., in the States of Rhode-Island, Connecticut, +New-York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Philadelphia, 1792. + +Charles F. Mercer. Mémoires relatifs à l'Abolition de la Traite +Africaine, etc. Paris, 1855. + +C.W. Miller. Address on Re-opening the Slave Trade ... August 29, 1857. +Columbia, S.C., 1857. + +George H. Moore. Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts. New +York, 1866. + +----. Slavery in Massachusetts. (In _Historical Magazine_, XV. 329.) + +Jedidiah Morse. A Discourse ... July 14, 1808, in Grateful Celebration +of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade by the Governments of the +United States, Great Britain and Denmark. Boston, 1808. + +John Pennington, Lord Muncaster. Historical Sketches of the Slave Trade +and its effect on Africa, addressed to the People of Great Britain. +London, 1792. + +Edward Needles. An Historical Memoir of the Pennsylvania Society, for +Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. Philadelphia, 1848. + +New England Anti-Slavery Convention. Proceedings at Boston, May 27, +1834. Boston, 1834. + +Hezekiah Niles (_et al._), editors. The Weekly Register, etc. 71 vols. +Baltimore, 1811-1847. (For Slave-Trade, see I. 224; III. 189; V. 30, 46; +VI. 152; VII. 54, 96, 286, 350; VIII. 136, 190, 262, 302, Supplement, p. +155; IX. 60, 78, 133, 172, 335; X. 296, 400, 412, 427; XI. 15, 108, 156, +222, 336, 399; XII. 58, 60, 103, 122, 159, 219, 237, 299, 347, 397, +411.) + +Robert Norris. A Short Account of the African Slave-Trade. A new edition +corrected. London, 1789. + +E.B. O'Callaghan, translator. Voyages of the Slavers St. John and Arms +of Amsterdam, 1659, 1663; with additional papers illustrative of the +Slave Trade under the Dutch. Albany, 1867. (New York Colonial Tracts, +No. 3.) + +Frederick Law Olmsted. A Journey in the Back Country. New York, 1860. + +----. A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, etc. New York, 1856. + +----. A Journey through Texas, etc. New York, 1857. + +----. The Cotton Kingdom, etc. 2 vols. New York, 1861. + +Sir W.G. Ouseley. Notes on the Slave Trade; with Remarks on the Measures +adopted for its Suppression. London, 1850. + +Pennsylvania Historical Society. The Charlemagne Tower Collection of +American Colonial Laws. (Bibliography.) Philadelphia, 1890. + +Edward A. Pollard. Black Diamonds gathered in the Darkey Homes of the +South. New York, 1859. + +William F. Poole. Anti-Slavery Opinions before the Year 1800. To which +is appended a fac-simile reprint of Dr. George Buchanan's Oration on the +Moral and Political Evil of Slavery, etc. Cincinnati, 1873. + +Robert Proud. History of Pennsylvania. 2 vols. Philadelphia. 1797-8. + +[James Ramsay.] An Inquiry into the Effects of putting a Stop to the +African Slave Trade, and of granting Liberty to the Slaves in the +British Sugar Colonies. London, 1784. + +[James Ramsey.] Objections to the Abolition of the Slave Trade, with +Answers, etc. Second edition. London, 1788. + +[John Ranby.] Observations on the Evidence given before the Committees +of the Privy Council and House of Commons in Support of the Bill for +Abolishing the Slave Trade. London, 1791. + +Remarks on the Colonization of the Western Coast of Africa, by the Free +Negroes of the United States, etc. New York, 1850. + +Right of Search. Reply to an "American's Examination" of the "Right of +Search, etc." By an Englishman. London, 1842. + +William Noel Sainsbury, editor. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial +Series, America and the West Indies, 1574-1676. 4 vols. London, 1860-93. + +George Sauer. La Traite et l'Esclavage des Noirs. London, 1863. + +George S. Sawyer. Southern Institutes; or, An Inquiry into the Origin +and Early Prevalence of Slavery and the Slave-Trade. Philadelphia, 1858. + +Selections from the Revised Statutes: Containing all the Laws relating +to Slaves, etc. New York, 1830. + +Johann J. Sell. Versuch einer Geschichte des Negersclavenhandels. Halle, +1791. + +[Granville Sharp.] Extract of a Letter to a Gentleman in Maryland; +Wherein is demonstrated the extreme wickedness of tolerating the Slave +Trade. Fourth edition. London, 1806. + +A Short Account of that part of Africa Inhabited by the Negroes, ... and +the Manner by which the Slave Trade is carried on. Third edition. +London, 1768. + +A Short Sketch of the Evidence for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade. +Philadelphia, 1792. + +Joseph Sidney. An Oration commemorative of the Abolition of the Slave +Trade in the United States.... Jan. 2. 1809. New York, 1809. + +[A Slave Holder.] Remarks upon Slavery and the Slave-Trade, addressed to +the Hon. Henry Clay. 1839. + +The Slave Trade in New York. (In the _Continental Monthly_, January, +1862, p. 86.) + +Joseph Smith. A Descriptive Catalogue of Friends' Books. (Bibliography.) +2 vols. London, 1867. + +Capt. William Snelgrave. A New Account of some Parts of Guinea, and the +Slave-Trade. London, 1734. + +South Carolina. General Assembly (House), 1857. Report of the Special +Committee of the House of Representatives ... on so much of the Message +of His Excellency Gov. Jas. H. Adams, as relates to Slavery and the +Slave Trade. Columbia, S.C., 1857. + +L.W. Spratt. A Protest from South Carolina against a Decision of the +Southern Congress: Slave Trade in the Southern Congress. (In Littell's +_Living Age_, Third Series, LXVIII. 801.) + +----. Speech upon the Foreign Slave Trade, before the Legislature of +South Carolina. Columbia, S.C., 1858. + +----. The Foreign Slave Trade the Source of Political Power, etc. +Charleston, 1858. + +William Stith. The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of +Virginia. Virginia and London, 1753. + +George M. Stroud. A Sketch of the Laws relating to Slavery in the +Several States of the United States of America. Philadelphia, 1827. + +James Swan. A Dissuasion to Great-Britain and the Colonies: from the +Slave-Trade to Africa. Shewing the Injustice thereof, etc. Revised and +Abridged. Boston, 1773. + +F.T. Texugo. A Letter on the Slave Trade still carried on along the +Eastern Coast of Africa, etc. London, 1839. + +R. Thorpe. A View of the Present Increase of the Slave Trade, the Cause +of that Increase, and a mode for effecting its total Annihilation. +London, 1818. + +Jesse Torrey. A Portraiture of Domestic Slavery ... and a Project of +Colonial Asylum for Free Persons of Colour. Philadelphia, 1817. + +Drs. Tucker and Belknap. Queries respecting the Slavery and Emancipation +of Negroes in Massachusetts, proposed by the Hon. Judge Tucker of +Virginia, and answered by the Rev. Dr. Belknap. (In Collections of the +Massachusetts Historical Society, First Series, IV. 191.) + +David Turnbull. Travels in the West. Cuba; with Notices of Porto Rico, +and the Slave Trade. London, 1840. + +United States Congress. Annals of Congress, 1789-1824; Congressional +Debates, 1824-37; Congressional Globe, 1833-73; Congressional Record, +1873-; Documents (House and Senate); Executive Documents (House and +Senate); Journals (House and Senate); Miscellaneous Documents (House and +Senate); Reports (House and Senate); Statutes at Large. + +United States Supreme Court. Reports of Decisions. + +Charles W. Upham. Speech in the House of Representatives, Massachusetts, +on the Compromises of the Constitution, with an Appendix containing the +Ordinance of 1787. Salem, 1849. + +Virginia State Convention. Proceedings and Debates, 1829-30. Richmond, +1830. + +G. Wadleigh. Slavery in New Hampshire. (In _Granite Monthly_, VI. 377.) + +Emory Washburn. Extinction of Slavery in Massachusetts. (In Proceedings +of the Massachusetts Historical Society, May, 1857. Boston, 1859.) + +William B. Weeden. Economic and Social History of New England, +1620-1789. 2 vols. Boston, 1890. + +Henry Wheaton. Enquiry into the Validity of the British Claim to a Right +of Visitation and Search of American Vessels suspected to be engaged in +the African Slave-Trade. Philadelphia, 1842. + +William H. Whitmore. The Colonial Laws of Massachusetts. Reprinted from +the Edition of 1660, with the Supplements to 1772. Containing also the +Body of Liberties of 1641. Boston, 1889. + +George W. Williams. History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to +1880. 2 vols. New York, 1883. + +Henry Wilson. History of the Antislavery Measures of the Thirty-seventh +and Thirty-eighth United-States Congresses, 1861-64. Boston, 1864. + +----. History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America. 3 +vols. Boston, 1872-7. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The Reports of the Secretary of the Navy are found among +the documents accompanying the annual messages of the President. + + * * * * * + + + + +Index + + +ABOLITION of slave-trade by Europe, 145 n. + +Abolition Societies, organization of, 42, 74; + petitions of, 79, 80-85. + +Adams, C.F., 151. + +Adams, J.Q., on Right of Search, 139; + proposes Treaty of 1824, 140; + message, 271-72. + +Adams, Governor of S.C., message on slave-trade, 169, 170, 289-90. + +Advertisements for smuggled slaves, 182 n. + +Africa, English trade to, 10, 12-13; + Dutch trade to, 24-25; + Colonial trade to, 26, 35, 36, 41-42, 47, 75, 76; + "Association" and trade to, 47, 52; + American trade to, 88, 112, 113, 116, 148, 179, 180, 181-82, 185-87; + reopening of trade to, 168-92. + +African Agency, establishment, 124, 126; + attempts to abolish, 156; + history, 158. + +"African Labor Supply Association," 176. + +African Society of London, 113. + +African squadron, establishment of, 123, 124; + activity of, 128, 129, 146, 148, 157, 159, 184, 185, 186, 191. + +Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace, 11; + Congress, 137 n. + +Alabama, in Commercial Convention, 170; + State statutes, 112, 254, 263-64, 287-88. + +Alston, speeches on Act of 1807, 99 n., 101 n., 102 n. + +Amelia Island, illicit traffic at, 116, 117, 121, 254; + capture of, 118, 257. + +Amendments to slave-trade clause in Constitution proposed, 72, 94, + 111 n., 183, 248-51, 253, 258, 266, 298, 299. + +American Missionary Society, petition, 182. + +"L'Amistad," case of, 143, 311. + +Anderson, minister to Colombia, 142 n. + +"Antelope" ("Ramirez"), case of, 129 n., 132, 284. + +"Apprentices," African, importation of, 172, 177; + Louisiana bill on, 177; + Congressional bill on, 183. + +Appropriations to suppress the slave-trade, chronological list of, 125 n.; + from 1820 to 1850, 157-58; + from 1850 to 1860, 183; + from 1860 to 1870, 190; + statutes, 255, 265, 272-76, 277-78, 285, 286-89, 291, 294, 297, 300, + 301, 304. + +Argentine Confederation, 144 n. + +Arkansas, 170. + +Arkwright, Richard, 152. + +Ashmun, Jehudi, 158. + +Assiento treaty, 4, 206, 207; + influence of, 7, 22, 45. + +"Association," the, reasons leading to, 47, 48; + establishment of, 50, 51; + results of, 52-53. + +Atherton, J., speech of, 72. + +"Augusta," case of the slaver, 315. + +Aury, Capt., buccaneer, 116. + +Austria, at Congress of Vienna, 155-56; + at Congress of Verona, 139-40; + signs Quintuple Treaty, 147, 281. + +Ayres, Eli, U.S. African agent, 158; + report of, 128, 129. + + +BABBIT, William, slave-trader, 131 n. + +Bacon, Samuel, African agent, 126, 158. + +Badger, Joseph, slave-trader, 131 n. + +Baldwin, Abraham, in Federal Convention, 59, 60, 63, 65; + in Congress, 81, 108. + +Baltimore, slave-trade at, 131-32, 165, 166. + +Banks, N.P., 192, 305. + +Barancas, Fort, 120. + +Barbadoes, 12. + +Bard (of Pa.), Congressman, 90. + +Barksdale, Wm. (of Miss.), 175. + +Barnwell, Robert (of S.C.), 70. + +Barry, Robert, slave-trader, 165. + +Bay Island slave-depot, 166. + +Bayard, J.A. (of Del.), Congressman, 87. + +Bedinger, G.M. (of Ky.), 89 n. + +Belgium, 150. + +Belknap, J. (of Mass.), 77. + +Benezet, Anthony, 29. + +Benton, Thomas H., 140, 156, 285. + +Betton (of N.H.), Congressman, 109 n. + +Biblical Codes of Law, 26, 37, 44 n. + +Bidwell (of Mass.), Congressman, 99 n., 100 n., 102 n., 104 n., 108-10, + 111, 252. + +Blanco and Caballo, slave-traders, 165. + +Bland, T. (of Va.), Congressman, 81. + +Bolivia, 144 n. + +Border States, interstate slave-trade from, 155; + legislation of, 76; + see also under individual States. + +Boston, slave-trade at, 37, 85, 166, 184. + +Bozal Negroes, 166. + +Braddock's Expedition, 21. + +Bradley, S.R., Senator, 98, 107, 108. + +Brazil, slave-trade to, 25, 114, 144, 163, 164, 171, 179, 275; + slaves in, 133; + proposed conference with, 150; + squadron on coasts of, 160. + +Brazos Santiago, 180. + +Brown (of Miss.), Congressman, 175. + +Brown, John (of Va.), slave-trader, 52. + +Brown, John (of R.I.), 85-87. + +Buchanan, James A., refuses to co-operate with England, 151; + issues "Ostend Manifesto," 177; + as president, enforces slave-trade laws, 186; + messages, 291, 294-95, 298. + +Buchanan, Governor of Sierra Leone, 164. + +Bullock, Collector of Revenue, 116. + +Burgesses, Virginia House of, petitions vs. slave-trade, 21; + declares vs. slave-trade, 21; + in "Association," 48. + +Burke, Aedanus (of S.C.), 78-80. + +Butler, Pierce (of S.C.), Senator, 65. + + +CALHOUN, J.C., 155 n. + +California, vessels bound to, 162. + +Campbell, John, Congressman, 108. + +Campbell, Commander, U.S.N., 118 n. + +Canning, Stratford, British Minister, 138, 140. + +Canot, Capt., slave-trader, 184. + +Cape de Verde Islands, 185. + +Cartwright, Edmund, 152. + +Cass, Lewis, 147-51, 281. + +Castlereagh, British Cabinet Minister, 135, 136. + +Cato, insurrection of the slave, 18. + +"Centinel," newspaper correspondent, 67. + +Central America, 177. + +Chandalier Islands, 119. + +Chandler, John (of N.H.), 104 n. + +Charles II., of England, 10. + +Charleston, S.C., attitude toward "Association," 49; + slave-trade at, 89, 92, 93, 96, 113, 165. + +Chew, Beverly, Collector of Revenue, 116, 118. + +Chili, 150. + +Chittenden, Martin (of Vt.), 109 n. + +Claiborne, Wm., Governor of La., 92. + +Clarkson, William, 53, 134. + +Clay, J.B. (of Ky.), Congressman, 175. + +Clay, Congressman, 102 n. + +Clearance of slavers, 157, 162, 164, 184, 280, 287, 288. + +Clymer, George (of Pa.), 63, 77. + +Coastwise slave-trade, 98, 106-09, 156, 161, 183, 191, 302. + +Cobb, Howell, Sec. of the Treasury, 177. + +Coles (of Va.), Congressman, 81. + +Colombia, U.S. of, 142, 270. + +Colonies, legislation of, see under individual Colonies, and Appendix A; + slave-trade in, 11, 13, 22, 25, 34-36, 46-47, 53-56; + status of slavery in, 13-14, 23, 24, 33-34, 44, 199, 200. + +Colonization Society, 126, 156 n., 158, 196. + +"Comet," case of the slaver, 143, 309. + +Commercial conventions, Southern, 169-73. + +Company of Merchants Trading to Africa, 11. + +Compromises in Constitution, 62-66, 196-98. + +Compton, Samuel, 152. + +Confederate States of America, 187-90, 299, 300. + +Confederation, the, 56-57, 228. + +Congress of the United States, 77-111, + 112, 121-26, 128, 131, 156-58, 174, 190-92, 239, 247-66, 268, 271-75, + 278-81, 284-94, 295-97, 298-99, 301-02, 304-05. + +Congress of Verona, 139. + +Congress of Vienna, 135, 137. + +Connecticut, restrictions in, 43-44, 57; + elections in, 178; + Colonial and State legislation, 199, 200, 223, 225, 236, 240. + +"Constitution," slaver, 120, 121, 307. + +Constitution of the United States, 58-73, 78, 79-83, 94, 102-03, 107, + 111 n., 139, 183, 196, 248-51, 253, 258, 266, 298, 299. + See also Amendments and Compromises. + +Continental Congress, 49-52. + +Cook, Congressman, 100 n., 103 n., 108. + +Cosby, Governor of N.Y., 27. + +Cotton, manufacture of, 152, 153; + price of, 153-54; + crop of, 154. + +Cotton-gin, 153. + +Coxe, Tench, 68. + +Cranston, Governor of R.I., 41. + +Crawford, W.H., Secretary, 119, 175. + +"Creole," case of the slaver, 143, 283-84, 312. + +Crimean war, 154. + +Cruising Conventions, 138, 139, 146, 148-49, 285, 289, 292, 297-98. + +Cuba, cruising off, 151, 297; + movement to acquire, 155, 177, 186; + illicit traffic to and from, 161, 162, 164, 166, 171. + +Cumberland, Lieut., R.N., 149. + +"Cyane," U.S.S., 129. + + +DANA (of Conn.), Congressman, 86. + +Danish slave-trade, 47. + +Darien, Ga., 51, 117. + +Davis, Jefferson, 175. + +De Bow, J.D.B., 172, 176. + +Declaration of Independence, 53-54. + +Delaware, restrictions in, 31, 56, 76; + attitude toward slave-trade, 64, 72 n., 74; + Colonial and State statutes, 225, 226, 232, 238-39, 244. + +Denmark, abolition of slave-trade, 133, 247. + +Dent (of Md.), Congressman, 87. + +Dickinson, John, in the Federal Convention, 59, 60, 63. + +Dickson (of N.C.), Congressman, 87. + +Disallowance of Colonial acts, 11, 12, 18-19, 21, 27, 29, 32, 42. + +Dobbs, Governor of N.C., 12. + +Dolben, Sir William, M.P., 134. + +Douglas, Stephen A., 181. + +Dowdell (of Ala.), Congressman, 175. + +Drake, Capt., slave-smuggler, 114, 166. + +Driscoll, Capt., slave-trader, 184. + +Duke of York's Laws, 26, 200. + +Dunmore, Lord, 226. + +Dutch. See Holland. + +Dutch West India Company, 25. + +Duty, on African goods, 10; + on slaves imported, 10, 11, 12, 16-22, 26-32, 38, 40-42, 59, 62-66, + 67, 68, 77-84, 89, 90, 95, 96, 196, 199-206, 208-27, 229, 232, 239, + 247, 250. + +Dwight, Theodore, of Conn., 105 n. + + +EARLY, Peter (of Ga.), 99 n., 100, 102, 104-08, 111. + +East Indies, 50. + +Economic revolution, 152-54. + +Edwards (of N.C.), Congressman, 122 n. + +Ellsworth, Oliver (of Conn.), in Federal Convention, 58, 59, 61. + +Elmer, Congressman, 106 n. + +Ely, Congressman, 103 n., 105 n. + +Emancipation of slaves, 31, 39, 42, 44, 68, 70, 76, 79-84, 192, 196, + 226-29. + +"Encomium," case of, 143, 309. + +England, slave-trade policy, 9-14, 25, 30, 42, 46-50, 53, 54, 97, 134-51, + 153, 191, 206, 207, 208, 252, 254, 256, 259, 265-69, 275, 276, 281, + 285, 297, 301, 302, 303, 305. + See Disallowance. + +English Colonies. See Colonies. + +"Enterprise," case of, 143, 309. + +Escambia River, 114. + + +FAIRFAX County, Virginia, 49. + +Faneuil Hall, meeting in, 48. + +Federalist, the, on slave-trade, 69. + +Fernandina, port of, 116. + +Filibustering expeditions, 177. + +Findley, Congressman, 103 n. + +Fisk, Congressman, 100 n. + +Florida, 52, 102, 114, 116, 120, 166, 170, 180, 181. + See St. Mary's River and Amelia Island. + +Foote, H.S. (of Miss.), 172. + +Forsyth, John, Secretary of State, 144, 146, 156 n., 176. + +Foster (of N.H.), Congressman, 81. + +Fowler, W.C., 112-13. + +Fox, C.J., English Cabinet Minister, 135 n. + +France, Revolution in, 133; + Colonial slave-trade of, 46, 92, 133, 254; + Convention of, 86, 133; + at Congress of Vienna, 135; + at Congress of Verona, 139; + treaties with England, 143, 150, 275, 276; + flag of, in slave-trade, 144; + refuses to sign Quintuple Treaty, 147; + invited to conference, 150. + +Franklin, Benjamin, 80. + +Friends, protest of, vs. slave-trade, 28-29; + attitude towards slave-trade, 30-31, 33, 43, 68-69, 77, 204; + petitions of, vs. slave-trade, 56, 57, 77, 84; + reports of, on slave-trade, 167. + + +GAILLARD, Congressman, 108. + +Gallatin, Albert, 91-92. + +Gallinas, port of, Africa, 128. + +Galveston, Tex., 115. + +Garnett (of Va.), Congressman, 109 n. + +"General Ramirez." See "Antelope." + +Georgia, slavery in, 13, 14; + restrictions in, 15, 16, 75, 176-77; + opposition to "Association," 51, 52; + demands slave-trade, 16, 55, 60-67; + attitude toward restrictions, 80, 81, 84, 132; + smuggling to, 89, 95, 102, 114, 116, 117, 180, 181; + Colonial and State statutes, 112, 215, 241, 244, 245, 257, 259, 276-77. + +Germanic Federation, 150. + +Gerry, Elbridge, in the Federal Convention, 59, 60; + in Congress, 80, 81. + +Ghent, Treaty of, 136, 254. + +Giddings, J.R., 183 n., 284, 287. + +Giles, W.B. (of Va.), Congressman, 108. + +Gordon, Capt., slave-trader, 190 n. + +Good Hope, Cape of, 151, 160, 191. + +Gorham, N. (of Mass.), in Federal Convention, 58, 65. + +Goulden, W.B., 169. + +Graham, Secretary of the Navy, 185. + +Great Britain. See England. + +Gregory XVI., Pope, 145. + +Grenville-Fox ministry, 134. + +Guadaloupe, 88. + +Guinea. See Africa. + +Guizot, F., French Foreign Minister, 147. + + +HABERSHAM, R.W., 130 n. + +Hamilton, Alexander, 58. + +Hanse Towns, 142. + +Harmony and Co., slave-traders, 165. + +Harper (of S.C.), Congressman, 92. + +Hartley, David, 80, 81. + +Hastings, Congressman, 105 n. + +Havana, Cuba, 119, 120, 145, 162, 165. + +Hawkins, Sir John, 9. + +Hayti, 144 n.; + influence of the revolution, 74-77, 84-88, 96-97. + See San Domingo. + +Heath, General, of Mass., 71. + +Henderick, Garrett, 28. + +Hill (of N.C.), Congressman, 85. + +Holland, participation of, in slave-trade, 24, 25, 47; + slaves in Colonies, 133; + abolishes slave-trade, 136; + treaty with England, 137, 259; + West India Company, 25. + +Holland, Congressman, 99 n., 103, 106 n. + +Hopkins, John, slave-trader, 131 n. + +Hopkins, Samuel, 41. + +Horn, Cape, 160, 162. + +Huger (of S.C.), Congressman, 87, 91 n. + +Hunter, Andrew, 169 n. + +Hunter, Governor of N.J., 32. + +Hutchinson, Wm., Governor of Mass., 38. + + +IMPORT duties on slaves. See Duty. + +Indians, 29. + +Instructions to Governors, 12, 18-19, 27, 30, 33, 36; + to naval officers, 119, 161, 185. + See Disallowance. + +Insurrections. See Slaves. + +Iredell, James (of N.C.), 67, 71. + +Ireland, 48. + + +JACKSON, Andrew, pardons slave-traders, 131 n. + +Jackson, J. (of Ga.), 78, 80, 81. + +Jacksonville, Fla., 181. + +Jamaica, 12. + +Jay, William, 134-35. + +Jefferson, Thomas, drafts Declaration of Independence, 53, 54; + as President, messages on slave-trade, 92, 97-98, 251; + signs Act of 1807, 110; + pardons slave-traders, 131 n. + +Jefferson, Capt, slave-trader, 184. + +Johnson (of Conn.), 50, 63. + +Johnson (of La.), 141. + +Joint-cruising. See Cruising Conventions. + + +KANE, Commissioner, 162. + +Keitt, L.M. (of S.C.), Congressman, 175. + +Kelly, Congressman, 108. + +Kenan, Congressman, 108. + +Kendall, Amos, 126 n. + +Kennedy, Secretary of the Navy, 185. + +Kentucky, 108 n., 170 n., 172 n. + +Key West, 185. + +Kilgore, resolutions in Congress, 175, 293. + +King, Rufus, in Federal Convention, 59, 63, 65. + +Knoxville, Tenn., 170. + + +LA COSTE, Capt., slave-trader, 131. + +Lafitte, E., and Co., 177. + +Langdon, John, 59, 60, 63, 65. + +Lawrence (of N.Y.), 80, 81. + +Laws. See Statutes. + +Lee, Arthur, 48 n. + +Lee, R.H., 48 n., 49. + +Legislation. See Statutes. + +Le Roy, L., slave-trader, 131 n. + +Liberia, 124, 158. + See African Agency. + +Lincoln, Abraham, 111, 126, 151, 190, 300-01. + +Liverpool, Eng., 53, 145. + +Livingstone (of N.Y.), in Federal Convention, 63. + +Lloyd, Congressman, 102 n., 106 n. + +London, Eng., 135, 137, 137 n., 147, 150, 154 n. + +"Louisa," slaver, 120, 121. + +Louisiana, sale of, 74, 97; + slave-trade to, 75, 91-94; + influence on S.C. repeal of 1803, 89; + status of slave-trade to, 91-94, 171; + State statutes, 177, 291. + +Low, I. (of N.Y.), 50. + +Lowndes, R. (of S.C.), 72, 89 n., 90. + + +MCCARTHY, Governor of Sierra Leone, 115. + +McGregor Raid, the, 116. + +McIntosh, Collector of Revenue, 117 n. + +McKeever, Lieut., U.S.N., 120, 121. + +Macon, N., 100, 102 n., 109. + +Madeira, 185. + +Madison, James, in the Federal Convention, 59, 63, 64; + in Congress, 78-81; + as President, 113, 115, 137 n., 254, 255-56. + +Madrid, Treaty of, 257. + +Maine, 166. + +Manchester, Eng., 47. + +Mansfield, Capt., slave-trader, 184. + +"Marino," slaver, 120, 121. + +Martin, Luther (of Md.), in the Federal Convention, 59, 61, 63, 65. + +Maryland, slavery in, 14; + restrictions in, 22, 23, 57, 76; + attitude toward slave-trade, 65, 74, 83, 94; + Colonial and State statutes, 201, 202, 209, 210, 219-20, 221, 223, 226, + 229, 243, 251. + +Mason, George, 59, 61, 65-67, 71. + +Mason, J.M., 177. + +Massachusetts, in slave-trade, 34-36; + restrictions in, 37-39, 77; + attitude toward slave-trade, 71, 77, 83, 94; + Colonial and State legislation, 199, 201, 203, 214, 223, 224, 228, 234, + 248, 249, 261. + +Masters, Congressman, 99 n. + +Mathew, Capt., slave-trader, 184. + +Mathew, Governor of the Bahama Islands, 167. + +Matthews (of S.C.), 56. + +Meigs, Congressman, 132 n., 262. + +Memphis, Tenn., 181. + +Mercer, John (of Va.), 139 n., 142, 156 n. + +Messages, Presidential, 97-98, 113, 115, 141, 148, 157, 163, 251, 254, + 255-60, 262, 264, 269, 271, 279, 280-81, 285, 291, 292, 294-95, 298, + 300-01. + +Mesurado, Cape, 126, 158. + +Mexico, treaty with England, 144 n.; + conquest of, 155, 161, 177. + +Mexico, Gulf of, 118, 159, 160, 166 n. + +Mickle, Calvin, 121. + +Middle Colonies, 24, 33, 57, 66. + +Middleton (of S.C.), Congressman, 126. + +Middletown, Conn., 43. + +Mifflin, W. (of Penn.), in Continental Congress, 50. + +Miles (of S.C.), Congressman, 175. + +Mississippi, slavery in, 91; + illicit trade to, 102; + legislation, 112, 254, 263, 283, 284. + +Missouri, 123. + +Missouri Compromise, 124. + +Mitchell, Gen. D.B., 118. + +Mitchell, S.L. (of N.Y.), Congressman, 89 n. + +Mixed courts for slave-traders, 137, 139, 151, 191. + +Mobile, Ala., illicit trade to, 118, 119, 161, 181. + +Monroe, James, as President, messages on slave-trade, 117, 141, 257, 258, + 259-60, 262-63, 265, 269; + establishment of African Agency, 126, 158; + pardons, 131 n. + +Morbon, Wm., slave-trader, 131 n. + +Morris, Gouverneur, in Federal Convention, 59, 63, 64, 65. + +Morris, Governor of N.J., 33. + +Moseley, Congressman, 106. + + +NANSEMOND County, Va., 49. + +Naples (Two Sicilies), 142. + +Napoleon I., 74, 134, 136, 254. + +Navigation Ordinance, 25. + +Navy, United States, 111, 115, 118-20, 123, 124, 128, 159-61, 163, 184-86, + 191, 259, 286, 295, 301; + reports of Secretary of, 185, 186, 318-31. + +Neal, Rev. Mr., in Mass. Convention, 71. + +Negroes, character of, 13-14. + See Slaves. + +Negro plots, 18, 30, 204. + +Nelson, Hugh (of Va.), 122 n., 123 n. + +Nelson, Attorney-General, 162. + +Netherlands. See Holland. + +New England, slavery in, 14, 34, 44; + slave-trade by, 34-36, 43, 57; + Colonial statutes, see under individual Colonies. + +New Hampshire, restrictions in, 36, 37; + attitude toward slave-trade, 34, 72, 94; + State legislation, 250. + +New Jersey, slavery in, 14; + restrictions in, 32, 33, 76; + attitude toward slavery, 64, 74, 178; + Colonial and State statutes, 200, 205, 221, 222, 225, 230, 244. + +New Mexico, 176. + +New Netherland, 24, 199, 200. + +New Orleans, illicit traffic to, 92, 115, 131 n., 161, 166, 171, 179. + +Newport, R.I., 35, 41. + +New York, slavery in, 14; + restrictions in, 25-27; + Abolition societies in, 74, 83; + Colonial and State statutes, 203-04, 210, 213, 214, 218, 229-30, 234, + 239, 245-46. + +New York City, illicit traffic at, 162, 166, 178-81, 190, 191. + +Nichols (of Va.), Congressman, 87. + +Norfolk, Va., 162. + +North Carolina, restrictions in, 19, 57, 76; + "Association" in, 48, 55; + reception of Constitution, 65, 71; + cession of back-lands, 91; + Colonial and State statutes, 112, 232, 241, 242, 255. + +Northwest Territory, 91. + +Nourse, Joseph, Registrar of the Treasury, 120 n. + +Nova Scotia, 52. + +Nunez River, Africa, 129. + + +OGLETHORPE, General James, 15. + +Olin (of Vt.), Congressman, 105 n. + +Ordinance of 1787, 91. + +"Ostend Manifesto," 177. + + +PAGE, John (of Va.), 81. + +Palmerston, Lord, 146. + +Panama Congress, 142 n. + +Pardons granted to slave-traders, 131 n. + +Paris, France, Treaty of, 134, 135, 137 n. + +Parker, R.E. (of Va.), 77-78, 81. + +Parliament, slave-trade in, 10, 134. + +Pastorius, F.D., 28. + +Paterson's propositions, 58. + +Peace negotiations of 1783, 134. + +Pemberton, Thomas, 34. + +Pennsylvania, slavery in, 14; + restrictions in, 28-31, 76; + attitude towards slave-trade, 56, 67, 70, 80, 83; + in Constitutional Convention, 64; + Colonial and State statutes, 201-05, 209, 211, 213-14, 220, 221, 222, + 223, 227, 235-36. + +Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, 74, 80. + +Perdido River, 119. + +Perry, Commander, U.S.N., 162. + +Perry, Jesse, slave-trader, 131 n. + +Perry, Robert, slave-trader, 131 n. + +"Perry," U.S.S., 162, 165. + +Petitions, of Abolition societies, 56, 79-81, 83, 84; + of free Negroes, 85, 86. + +Pettigrew (of S.C.), 176. + +Philadelphia, 162, 166. + +Pinckney, Charles (of S.C.), in Federal Convention, 58-60, 65. + +Pinckney, C.C. (of S.C.), in Federal Convention, 59-63, 64. + +Pindall, Congressman, 122 n., 123 n. + +Piracy, slave-trade made, 124-25, 140, 141, 146, 149, 155 n. + +Pitkin, T. (of Conn.), 99 n., 104 n. + +Pitt, William, 134. + +Plumer, Wm. (of N.H.), 127. + +Pollard, Edward, 176. + +Pongas River, Africa, 129. + +Portugal, treaties with England, 135, 137, 145 n., 150, 256; + slaves in colonies, 46, 133; + abolition of slave-trade by, 136, 144 n.; + use of flag of, 144. + +Presidents. See under individual names. + +Price of slaves, 163. + +Prince George County, Va., 49. + +Privy Council, report to, 134. + +Proffit, U.S. Minister to Brazil, 164. + +Prohibition of slave-trade by Ga., 15, 75; + S.C., 17, 89; + N.C., 19; + Va., 20; + Md., 22; + N.Y., 26; + Vermont, 28; + Penn., 28, 29; + Del., 31; + N.J., 32; + N.H., 36; + Mass., 37; + R.I., 40; + Conn., 43; + United States, 110; + England, 135; + Confederate States, 188. + See also Appendices. + +Providence, R.I., 42. + +Prussia at European Congresses, 135-36, 139, 147, 281. + +Pryor, R.A. (of Va.), 171. + + +QUAKERS. See Friends. + +Quarantine of slaves, 16. + +Quebec, 52. + +Quincy, Josiah, Congressman, 100 n., 102 n. + +Quintuple Treaty, 145, 147, 281. + + +RABUN, Wm., Governor of Ga., 127. + +Ramsey, David (of S.C.), 69. + +Randolph, Edmund, in the Federal Convention, 58, 59, 63. + +Randolph, John, Congressman, 106-07. + +Randolph, Thomas M., Congressman, 108. + +Registration of slaves, 16, 132 n., 258, 260. + +Revenue from slave-trade, 87, 90, 95, 111, 112. + See Duty Acts. + +Rhode Island, slave-trade in, 34, 35, 85; + restrictions in, 40-43; + "Association" in, 48; + reception of Constitution by, 72; + abolition societies in, 42, 74, 83; + Colonial and State legislation, 200, 203, 213, 214, 222, 223, 224-25, + 227-30, 233. + +Rice Crop, 17, 20. + +Right of Search, 137-42, 145 n., 148-51, 156, 183, 185, 191, 256, 295. + +Rio Grande river, 176. + +Rio Janeiro, Brazil, 145, 160, 162. + +Rolfe, John, 25. + +Royal Adventurers, Company of, 10. + +Royal African Company, 10-11. + +Rum, traffic in, 35, 36, 50. + +Rush, Richard, Minister to England, 138. + +Russell, Lord John, 150, 297, 303. + +Russia in European Congresses, 135, 139, 147; +signs Quintuple Treaty, 147, 281. + +Rutledge, Edward, in Federal Convention, 58-61, 65. + +Rutledge, John, Congressman, 84-87. + + +ST. AUGUSTINE, 114. + +St. Johns, Island of, 52. + +St. Johns Parish, Ga., 52. + +St. Mary's River, Fla., 113-14, 116, 117. + +"Sanderson," slaver, 35 n. + +Sandiford, 29. + +San Domingo, trade with, stopped, 50, 96; + insurrection in, 74, 84, 86, 96; + deputies from, 133. + +Sardinia, 142. + +Savannah, Ga., 16, 51, 169. + +Search. See Right of Search. + +Sewall, Wm., slave-trader, 131 n. + +Seward, Wm. H., Secretary, 151, 289, 293. + +Seward (of Ga.), Congressman, 175. + +Sharpe, Granville, 134. + +Sherbro Islands, Africa, 158. + +Sherman, Roger, in the Federal Convention, 59, 60, 62, 65; + in Congress, 78. + +Shields, Thomas, slave-trader, 131 n. + +Sierra Leone, 129, 151, 191. + +Sinnickson (of N.J.), Congressman, 81. + +Slave Power, the, 153, 198. + +Slavers: + "Alexander," 129 n.; + "Amedie," 138 n.; + "L'Amistad," 143; + "Antelope" ("Ramirez"), 132; + "Comet," 143 n.; + "Constitution," 120, 121; + "Creole," 143; + "Daphne," 129 n.; + "Dorset," 115; + "Eliza," 129 n.; + "Emily," 185; + "Encomium," 143 n.; + "Endymion," 129 n.; + "Esperanza," 129 n.; + "Eugene," 115, 129 n.; + "Fame," 162; + "Fortuna," 138 n.; + "Illinois," 149; + "Le Louis," 138 n.; + "Louisa," 120; + "Marino," 120; + "Martha," 165; + "Mary," 131 n.; + "Mathilde," 129 n.; + "Paz," 115; + "La Pensée," 129 n.; + "Plattsburg," 128 n., 129 n.; + "Prova," 165; + "Ramirez" ("Antelope"), 129 n., 130; + "Rebecca," 115; + "Rosa," 115; + "Sanderson," 35 n.; + "San Juan Nepomuceno," 138 n.; + "Saucy Jack," 115; + "Science," 129 n.; + "Wanderer," 180, 184, 186; + "Wildfire," 190 n.; + see also Appendix C. + +Slavery. See Table of Contents. + +Slaves, number imported, 11, 13, 23 n., 27 n., 31 n., 33 n., 36 n., + 39 n., 40 n., 43 n., 44 n., 89, 94, 181; + insurrections of, 13, 18, 30, 204; + punishments of, 13; + captured on high seas, 39, 56, 186; + illegal traffic in, 88, 95, 112-21, 126-32, 165, 166, 179; + abducted, 144. + +Slave-trade, see Table of Contents; + internal, 9, 155; + coastwise, 98, 106-09, 156, 161, 183, 191, 302. + +Slave-traders, 10, 11, 25, 34, 35, 37, 41, 93, 113, 119, 126-29, 146, + 161, 176, 178, 180, 184; + prosecution and conviction of, 119, 120, 121, 126, 127, 130, 161, 162, + 183, 190, 191; + Pardon of, 131; + punishment of, 37, 104, 122, 127, 132, 190, 191, 199, 261, 264, 268, + 274, 296. + For ships, see under Slavers, and Appendix C. + +Slidell, John, 182. + +Sloan (of N.J.), Congressman, 99 n., 100, 105 n., 111, 251, 252. + +Smilie, John (of Pa.), Congressman, 99 n., 105 n., 104 n. + +Smith, Caleb B., 190. + +Smith, J.F., slave-trader, 131 n. + +Smith (of S.C.), Senator, 78-81, 93. + +Smith, Capt., slave-trader, 37. + +Smuggling of slaves, 76, 108, 109, 114, 116, 117, 127, 128, 129, 130, + 166, 179-82. + +Sneed (of Tenn.), Congressman, 170. + +Soulé, Pierre, 177. + +South Carolina, slavery in, 13, 14, 17, 18, 93; + restrictions in, 16-19, 75; + attitude toward slave-trade, 49, 52, 55, 57, 81, 84; + in the Federal Convention, 59-67, 70, 72; + illicit traffic to, 89; + repeal of prohibition, 89, 90, 92, 95; + movement to reopen slave-trade, 169, 171, 172 n., 173; + Colonial and State statutes, 201, 208-13, 215, 218, 220, 222, 229, 232, + 237-38, 241-43, 245-47, 289-91. + +Southeby, Wm., 29. + +Southern Colonies, 15, 23. + See under individual Colonies. + +Spaight, in Federal Convention, 65. + +Spain, signs Assiento, 11; + colonial slave-trade of, 10; + colonial slavery, 133; + war with Dutch, 25; + abolishes slave-trade, 136, 137, 145 n.; + L'Amistad case with, 143; + flag of, in slave-trade, 113, 114, 115, 144, 150, 159; + treaties, 206, 208, 257. + +Spottswood, Governor of Virginia, 20. + +Spratt, L.W. (of S.C.), 171, 172, 190 n. + +Stanton (of R.I.), Congressman, 89 n., 106. + +States. See under individual States. + +Statutes, Colonial, see under names of individual Colonies; + State, 56-57, 75-77; + see under names of individual States, and Appendices A and B; + United States, Act of 1794, 83, 242; + Act of 1800, 85, 245; + Act of 1803, 87, 246; + Act of 1807, 97, 253; + Act of 1818, 121, 258; + Act of 1819, 123, 259; + Act of 1820, 124, 261; + Act of 1860, 187, 297; + Act of 1862, 191, 302; + see also Appendix B, 247, 248, 254, 264, 272, 273, 276, 277, 285, + 286, 289, 291, 294, 300, 303, 304. + +Stephens, Alexander, 175. + +Stevenson, A., Minister to England, 146-47. + +Stone (of Md.), Congressman, 79, 81, 108. + +Stono, S.C., insurrection at, 18. + +Sumner, Charles, 192 n., 305. + +Sweden, 135, 142, 269; + Delaware Colony, 31; + slaves in Colonies, 133. + +Sylvester (of N.Y.), Congressman, 81. + + +TAYLOR, Zachary, 286. + +Texas, 116, 144 n., 150, 155, 156, 165, 176, 180, 273, 277-78. + +Treaties, 11, 135-37, 141, 142, 145, 147-50, 151, 159, 206, 207, 228, + 252, 254, 256, 259, 265, 269, 275, 276, 281, 285, 288, 292, 301-05. + +Trist, N., 160 n., 164, 165 n. + +Tyler, John, 148, 285, 286. + + +UNDERWOOD, John C., 181. + +United States, 55, 74, 77, 84, 87, 88, 89, 90, 92, 97, 98, 102, 103, 110, + 114, 117, 119, 120, 122, 126, 127, 128, 129, 133, 138, 136-51, 153, + 156, 157, 158, 162-67, 168, 178, 179, 185, 188, 190, 242, 245-48, 264, + 272-76, 277, 285, 286, 289, 291, 294, 297, 300-04. + See also Table of Contents. + +Up de Graeff, Derick, 28. + +Up den Graef, Abraham, 28. + +Uruguay, 144 n. + +Utrecht, Treaty of, 207. + + +VAN BUREN, Martin, 79-80. + +Van Rensselaer, Congressman, 108. + +Varnum, J., Congressman, 105 n. + +Venezuela, 144 n. + +Vermont, 28, 57, 94, 226, 228, 232, 249. + +Verona, Congress of, 139. + +Vicksburg, Miss., 172, 181. + +Vienna, Congress of, 135. + +Virginia, first slaves imported, 28, 306; + slavery in, 14; + restrictions in, 19-22, 76; + frame of government of, 21; + "Association" in, 48, 52, 57; + in the Federal Convention, 61, 62, 64, 71; + abolition sentiment in, 74, 78, 83; + attitude on reopening the slave-trade, 171, 173 n.; + Colonial and State statutes, 201-04, 213-15, 219-20, 222, 226, 227, + 240, 249. + + +WALLACE, L.R., slave-trader, 131 n. + +Waln (of Penn.), Congressman, 85. + +"Wanderer," case of the slaver, 180, 184. + +Washington, Treaty of (1842), 148-50, 170, 172, 182, 185, 285, 286, + 288, 292. + +Watt, James, 152 n. + +Webster, Daniel, 147, 281. + +Webster, Noah, 68. + +Wentworth, Governor of N.H., 36. + +West Indies, slave-trade to and from, 10, 13, 17, 25, 35, 37, 41, 42, + 46, 48, 50, 55, 114, 117, 141, 151, 275; + slavery in, 13, 168, 193; + restrictions on importation of slaves from, 26, 75, 76, 87; + revolution in, 74-77, 84-88, 96-97; + mixed court in, 151 n., 191. + +Western territory, 81, 261. + +Whitney, Eli, 153. + +Whydah, Africa, 149. + +Wilberforce, Wm., 134. + +Wilde, R.H., 132. + +"Wildfire," slaver, 190 n., 315. + +"William," case of the slaver, 315. + +Williams, D.R. (of N.C.), Congressman, 102 n., 109 n., 111. + +Williamsburg district, S.C., 169. + +Williamson (of S.C.), in Federal Convention, 59, 63, 65. + +Wilmington, N.C., 88. + +Wilson, James, in Federal Convention, 56, 58, 62, 70. + +Wilson (of Mass.), Congressman, 295, 296, 298. + +Winn, African agent, 158. + +Winston, Zenas, slave-trader, 131 n. + +Wirt, William, 118, 126 n., 130. + +Woolman, John, 29. + +Wright (of Va.), 126. + + +YANCEY, W.L., 171. + + + TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + +1. Text surrounded by underscores (_) was italicised in the original. +2. Text surrounded by tildes (~) was bolded in the original. +3. Footnotes have been collected at the end of each chapter. Footnote + numbering restarts with each new chapter. In the original, footnotes + were collected at the bottom of each page and numbering restarted for + each page. +4. Letters preceded by ^ and surrounded by {} indicates letters + superscripted in the original. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Suppression of the African Slave +Trade to the United States of America, by W. E. B. Du Bois + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVE TRADE *** + +***** This file should be named 17700-8.txt or 17700-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/7/0/17700/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Victoria Woosley and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + + THREE ADDRESSES + + ON THE + + Relations Subsisting between the White + and Colored People of the + United States, + + by + + FREDERICK DOUGLASS. + + [Illustration: decorative bar] + + WASHINGTON: + GIBSON BROS., PRINTERS AND BOOKBINDERS. + 1886. + + + + +In Louisville, KY., 1883. + + The following was delivered by FREDERICK DOUGLASS as an address to + the people of the United States at a Convention of Colored Men held + in Louisville, Ky., September 24, 1883: + +FELLOW-CITIZENS: Charged with the responsibility and duty of doing what +we may to advance the interest and promote the general welfare of a +people lately enslaved, and who, though now free, still suffer many of +the disadvantages and evils derived from their former condition, not the +least among which is the low and unjust estimate entertained of their +abilities and possibilities as men, and their value as citizens of the +Republic; instructed by these people to make such representations and +adopt such measures as in our judgment may help to bring about a better +understanding and a more friendly feeling between themselves and their +white fellow-citizens recognizing the great fact as we do, that the +relations of the American people and those of civilized nations +generally depend more upon prevailing ideas, opinions, and long +established usages for their qualities of good and evil than upon courts +of law or creeds of religion. Allowing the existence of a magnanimous +disposition on your part to listen candidly to an honest appeal for fair +play, coming from any class of your fellow-citizens, however humble, who +may have, or may think they have, rights to assert or wrongs to redress, +the members of this National Convention, chosen from all parts of the +United States, representing the thoughts, feelings and purposes of +colored men generally, would, as one means of advancing the cause +committed to them, most respectfully and earnestly ask your attention +and favorable consideration to the matters contained in the present +paper. + +At the outset we very cordially congratulate you upon the altered +condition both of ourselves and our common country. Especially do we +congratulate you upon the fact that a great reproach, which for two +centuries rested on the good name of your country, has been blotted out; +that chattel slavery is no longer the burden of the colored man’s +complaint, and that we now come to rattle no chains, to clank no +fetters, to paint no horrors of the old plantation to shock your +sensibilities, to humble your pride, excite your pity, or to kindle +your indignation. We rejoice also that one of the results of this +stupendous revolution in our national history, the Republic which was +before divided and weakened between two hostile and irreconcilable +interests, has become united and strong; that from a low plain of life, +which bordered upon barbarism, it has risen to the possibility of the +highest civilization; that this change has started the American Republic +on a new departure, full of promise, although it has also brought you +and ourselves face to face with problems novel and difficult, destined +to impose upon us responsibilities and duties, which, plainly enough, +will tax our highest mental and moral ability for their happy solution. + +Born on American soil in common with yourselves, deriving our bodies and +our minds from its dust, centuries having passed away since our +ancestors were torn from the shores of Africa, we, like yourselves, hold +ourselves to be in every sense Americans, and that we may, therefore, +venture to speak to you in a tone not lower than that which becomes +earnest men and American citizens. Having watered your soil with our +tears, enriched it with our blood, performed its roughest labor in time +of peace, defended it against enemies in time of war, and at all times +been loyal and true to its best interests, we deem it no arrogance or +presumption to manifest now a common concern with you for its welfare, +prosperity, honor and glory. + +If the claim thus set up by us be admitted, as we think it ought to be, +it may be asked, what propriety or necessity can there be for the +Convention, of which we are members? and why are we now addressing you +in some sense as suppliants asking for justice and fair play? These +questions are not new to us. From the day the call for this Convention +went forth this seeming incongruity and contradiction has been brought +to our attention. From one quarter or another, sometimes with argument +and sometimes without argument, sometimes with seeming pity for our +ignorance, and at other times with fierce censure for our depravity, +these questions have met us. With apparent surprise, astonishment, and +impatience, we have been asked: “What more can the colored people of +this country want than they now have, and what more is possible to +them?” It is said they were once slaves, they are now free; they were +once subjects, they are now sovereigns; they were once outside of all +American institutions, they are now inside of all and are a recognized +part of the whole American people. Why, then, do they hold Colored +National Conventions and thus insist upon keeping up the color line +between themselves and their white fellow-countrymen? We do not deny the +pertinence and plausibility of these questions, nor do we shrink from a +candid answer to the argument which they are supposed to contain. For we +do not forget that they are not only put to us by those who have no +sympathy with us, but by many who wish us well, and that in any case +they deserve an answer. Before, however, we proceed to answer them, we +digress here to say that there is only one element associated with them +which excites the least bitterness of feeling in us, or that calls for +special rebuke, and that is when they fall from the lips and pens of +colored men who suffer with us and ought to know better. A few such men, +well known to us and the country, happening to be more fortunate in the +possession of wealth, education, and position than their humbler +brethren, have found it convenient to chime in with the popular cry +against our assembling, on the ground that we have no valid reason for +this measure or for any other separate from the whites; that we ought to +be satisfied with things as they are. With white men who thus object the +case is different and less painful. For them there is a chance for +charity. Educated as they are and have been for centuries, taught to +look upon colored people as a lower order of humanity than themselves, +and as having few rights, if any, above domestic animals, regarding them +also through the medium of their beneficent religious creeds and just +laws--as if law and practice were identical--some allowance can, and +perhaps ought to, be made when they misapprehend our real situation and +deny our wants and assume a virtue they do not possess. But no such +excuse or apology can be properly framed for men who are in any way +identified with us. What may be erroneous in others implies either +baseness or imbecility in them. Such men, it seems to us, are either +deficient in self-respect or too mean, servile and cowardly to assert +the true dignity of their manhood and that of their race. To admit that +there are such men among us is a disagreeable and humiliating +confession. But in this respect, as in others, we are not without the +consolation of company; we are neither alone nor singular in the +production of just such characters. All oppressed people have been thus +afflicted. + +It is one of the most conspicuous evils of caste and oppression, that +they inevitably tend to make cowards and serviles of their victims, men +ever ready to bend the knee to pride and power that thrift may follow +fawning, willing to betray the cause of the many to serve the ends of +the few; men who never hesitate to sell a friend when they think they +can thereby purchase an enemy. Specimens of this sort may be found +everywhere and at all times. There were Northern men with Southern +principles in the time of slavery, and Tories in the revolution for +independence. There are betrayers and informers to-day in Ireland, ready +to kiss the hand that smites them and strike down the arm reached out to +save them. Considering our long subjection to servitude and caste, and +the many temptations to which we are exposed to betray our race into the +hands of their enemies, the wonder is not that we have so many traitors +among us as that we have so few. + +The most of our people, to their honor be it said, are remarkably sound +and true to each other. To those who think we have no cause to hold this +convention, we freely admit that, so far as the organic law of the land +is concerned, we have indeed nothing to complain of, to ask or desire. +There may be need of legislation, but the organic law is sound. + +Happily for us and for the honor of the Republic, the United States +Constitution is just, liberal, and friendly. The amendments to that +instrument, adopted in the trying times of reconstruction of the +Southern States, are a credit to the courage and statesmanship of the +leading men of that crisis. These amendments establish freedom and +abolish all unfair and invidious discrimination against citizens on +account of race and color, so far as law can do so. In their view, +citizens are neither black nor white, and all are equals. With this +admission and this merited reproof to trimmers and traitors, we again +come to the question, Why are we here in this National Convention? To +this we answer, first, because there is a power in numbers and in union; +because the many are more than the few; because the voice of a whole +people, oppressed by a common injustice, is far more likely to command +attention and exert an influence on the public mind than the voice of +single individuals and isolated organizations; because, coming together +from all parts of the country, the members of a National convention have +the means of a more comprehensive knowledge of the general situation, +and may, therefore, fairly be presumed to conceive more clearly and +express more fully and wisely the policy it may be necessary for them +to pursue in the premises. Because conventions of the people are in +themselves harmless, and when made the means of setting forth +grievances, whether real or fancied, they are the safety-valves of the +Republic, a wise and safe substitute for violence, dynamite, and all +sorts of revolutionary action against the peace and good order of +society. If they are held without sufficient reason, that fact will be +made manifest in their proceedings, and people will only smile at their +weakness and pass on to their usual business without troubling +themselves about the empty noise they are able to make. But if held with +good cause, and by wise, sober, and earnest men, that fact will be made +apparent and the result will be salutary. That good old maxim, which has +come down to us from revolutionary times, that error may be safely +tolerated, while truth is left free to combat it, applies here. A bad +law is all the sooner repealed by being executed, and error is sooner +dispelled by exposure than by silence. So much we have deemed it fit to +say of conventions generally, because our resort to this measure has +been treated by many as if there were something radically wrong in the +very idea of a convention. It has been treated as if it were some +ghastly, secret conclave, sitting in darkness to devise strife and +mischief. The fact is, the only serious feature in the argument against +us is the one which respects color. We are asked not only why hold a +convention, but with emphasis, why hold a _colored_ convention? Why keep +up this odious distinction between citizens of a common country, and +thus give countenance to the color line? It is argued that, if colored +men hold conventions, based upon color, white men may hold white +conventions based upon color, and thus keep open the chasm between one +and the other class of citizens, and keep alive a prejudice which we +profess to deplore. We state the argument against us fairly and +forcibly, and will answer it candidly and we hope conclusively. By that +answer it will be seen that the force of the objection is, after all, +more in sound than in substance. No reasonable man will ever object to +white men holding conventions in their own interests, when they are once +in our condition and we in theirs, when they are the oppressed and we +the oppressors. In point of fact, however, white men are already in +convention against us in various ways and at many important points. The +practical construction of American life is a convention against us. +Human law may know no distinction among men in respect of rights, but +human practice may. Examples are painfully abundant. + +The border men hate the Indians; the Californian, the Chinaman; the +Mohammedan, the Christian, and _vice versa_. In spite of a common nature +and the equality framed into law, this hate works injustice, of which +each in their own name and under their own color may justly complain. +The apology for observing the color line in the composition of our State +and National conventions is in its necessity and in the fact that we +must do this or nothing, for if we move our color is recognized and must +be. It has its foundation in the exceptional relation we sustain to the +white people of the country. A simple statement of our position +vindicates at once our convention and our cause. + +It is our lot to live among a people whose laws, traditions, and +prejudices have been against us for centuries, and from these they are +not yet free. To assume that they are free from these evils simply +because they have changed their laws is to assume what is utterly +unreasonable and contrary to facts. Large bodies move slowly. +Individuals may be converted on the instant and change their whole +course of life. Nations never. Time and events are required for the +conversion of nations. Not even the character of a great political +organization can be changed by a new platform. It will be the same old +snake though in a new skin. Though we have had war, reconstruction and +abolition as a nation, we still linger in the shadow and blight of an +extinct institution. Though the colored man is no longer subject to be +bought and sold, he is still surrounded by an adverse sentiment which +fetters all his movements. In his downward course he meets with no +resistance, but his course upward is resented and resisted at every step +of his progress. If he comes in ignorance, rags, and wretchedness, he +conforms to the popular belief of his character, and in that character +he is welcome. But if he shall come as a gentleman, a scholar, and a +statesman, he is hailed as a contradiction to the national faith +concerning his race, and his coming is resented as impudence. In the one +case he may provoke contempt and derision, but in the other he is an +affront to pride, and provokes malice. Let him do what he will, there is +at present, therefore, no escape for him. The color line meets him +everywhere, and in a measure shuts him out from all respectable and +profitable trades and callings. In spite of all your religion and laws +he is a rejected man. + +He is rejected by trade unions, of every trade, and refused work while +he lives, and burial when he dies, and yet he is asked to forget his +color, and forget that which everybody else remembers. If he offers +himself to a builder as a mechanic, to a client as a lawyer, to a +patient as a physician, to a college as a professor, to a firm as a +clerk, to a Government Department as an agent, or an officer, he is +sternly met on the color line, and his claim to consideration in some +way is disputed on the ground of color. + +Not even our churches, whose members profess to follow the despised +Nazarene, whose home, when on earth, was among the lowly and despised, +have yet conquered this feeling of color madness, and what is true of +our churches is also true of our courts of law. Neither is free from +this all-pervading atmosphere of color hate. The one describes the Deity +as impartial, no respecter of persons, and the other the Goddess of +Justice as blindfolded, with sword by her side and scales in her hand +held evenly between high and low, rich and poor, white and black, but +both are the images of American imagination, rather than American +practices. + +Taking advantage of the general disposition in this country to impute +crime to color, white men _color_ their faces to commit crime and wash +off the hated color to escape punishment. In many places where the +commission of crime is alleged against one of our color, the ordinary +processes of the law are set aside as too slow for the impetuous justice +of the infuriated populace. They take the law into their own bloody +hands and proceed to whip, stab, shoot, hang, or burn the alleged +culprit, without the intervention of courts, counsel, judges, juries, or +witnesses. In such cases it is not the business of the accusers to prove +guilt, but it is for the accused to prove his innocence, a thing hard +for any man to do, even in a court of law, and utterly impossible for +him to do in these infernal Lynch courts. A man accused, surprised, +frightened and captured by a motley crowd, dragged with a rope about his +neck in midnight-darkness to the nearest tree, and told in the coarsest +terms of profanity to prepare for death, would be more than human if he +did not, in his terror-stricken appearance, more confirm suspicion of +guilt than the contrary. Worse still, in the presence of such hell-black +outrages, the pulpit is usually dumb, and the press in the neighborhood +is silent or openly takes side with the mob. There are occasional cases +in which white men are lynched, but one sparrow does not make a summer. +Every one knows that what is called Lynch law is peculiarly the law for +colored people and for nobody else. If there were no other grievance +than this horrible and barbarous Lynch law custom, we should be +justified in assembling, as we have now done, to expose and denounce it. +But this is not all. Even now, after twenty years of so-called +emancipation, we are subject to lawless raids of midnight riders, who, +with blackened faces, invade our homes and perpetrate the foulest of +crimes upon us and our families. This condition of things is too +flagrant and notorious to require specifications or proof. Thus in all +the relations of life and death we are met by the color line. We cannot +ignore it if we would, and ought not if we could. It hunts us at +midnight, it denies us accommodation in hotels and justice in the +courts; excludes our children from schools, refuses our sons the chance +to learn trades, and compels us to pursue only such labor as will bring +the least reward. While we recognize the color line as a hurtful force, +a mountain barrier to our progress, wounding our bleeding feet with its +flinty rocks at every step, we do not despair. We are a hopeful people. +This convention is a proof of our faith in you, in reason, in truth and +justice--our belief that prejudice, with all its malign accompaniments, +may yet be removed by peaceful means; that, assisted by time and events +and the growing enlightenment of both races, the color line will +ultimately become harmless. When this shall come it will then only be +used, as it should be, to distinguish one variety of the human family +from another. It will cease to have any civil, political, or moral +significance, and colored conventions will then be dispensed with as +anachronisms, wholly out of place, but not till then. Do not marvel that +we are not discouraged. The faith within us has a rational basis, and is +confirmed by facts. When we consider how deep-seated this feeling +against us is; the long centuries it has been forming; the forces of +avarice which have been marshaled to sustain it; how the language and +literature of the country have been pervaded with it; how the church, +the press, the play-house, and other influences of the country have been +arrayed in its support, the progress toward its extinction must be +considered vast and wonderful. + +If liberty, with us, is yet but a name, our citizenship is but a sham, +and our suffrage thus far only a cruel mockery, we may yet congratulate +ourselves upon the fact that the laws and institutions of the country +are sound, just and liberal. There is hope for a people when their laws +are righteous whether for the moment they conform to their requirements +or not. But until this nation shall make its practice accord with its +Constitution and its righteous laws, it will not do to reproach the +colored people of this country with keeping up the color line--for that +people would prove themselves scarcely worthy of even theoretical +freedom, to say nothing of practical freedom, if they settled down in +silent, servile and cowardly submission to their wrongs, from fear of +making their color visible. They are bound by every element of manhood +to hold conventions in their own name and on their own behalf, to keep +their grievances before the people and make every organized protest +against the wrongs inflicted upon them within their power. They should +scorn the counsels of cowards, and hang their banner on the outer wall. +Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow. We do not believe, +as we are often told, that the negro is the ugly child of the national +family, and the more he is kept out of sight the better it will be for +him. You know that liberty given is never so precious as liberty sought +for and fought for. The man outraged is the man to make the outcry. +Depend upon it, men will not care much for a people who do not care for +themselves. Our meeting here was opposed by some of our members, because +it would disturb the peace of the Republican party. The suggestion came +from coward lips and misapprehended the character of that party. If the +Republican party cannot stand a demand for justice and fair play, it +ought to go down. We were men before that party was born, and our +manhood is more sacred than any party can be. Parties were made for men, +not men for parties. + +If the six millions of colored people of this country, armed with the +Constitution of the United States, with a million votes of their own to +lean upon, and millions of white men at their back, whose hearts are +responsive to the claims of humanity, have not sufficient spirit and +wisdom to organize and combine to defend themselves from outrage, +discrimination, and oppression, it will be idle for them to expect that +the Republican party or any other political party will organize and +combine for them or care what becomes of them. Men may combine to +prevent cruelty to animals, for they are dumb and cannot speak for +themselves; but we are men and must speak for ourselves, or we shall not +be spoken for at all. We have conventions in America for Ireland, but we +should have none if Ireland did not speak for herself. It is because she +makes a noise and keeps her cause before the people that other people go +to her help. It was the sword of Washington and of Lafayette that gave +us Independence. In conclusion upon this color objection, we have to say +that we meet here in open daylight. There is nothing sinister about us. +The eyes of the nation are upon us. Ten thousand newspapers may tell if +they choose of whatever is said and done here. They may commend our +wisdom or condemn our folly, precisely as we shall be wise or foolish. + +We put ourselves before them as honest men, and ask their judgment upon +our work. + + +THE LABOR QUESTION. + +Not the least important among the subjects to which we invite your +earnest attention is the condition of the labor class at the South. +Their cause is one with the labor classes all over the world. The labor +unions of the country should not throw away this colored element of +strength. Everywhere there is dissatisfaction with the present relation +of labor and capital, and to-day no subject wears an aspect more +threatening to civilization than the respective claims of capital and +labor, landlords and tenants. In what we have to say for our laboring +class we expect to have and ought to have the sympathy and support of +laboring men everywhere and of every color. + +It is a great mistake for any class of laborers to isolate itself and +thus weaken the bond of brotherhood between those on whom the burden and +hardships of labor fall. The fortunate ones of the earth, who are +abundant in land and money and know nothing of the anxious care and +pinching poverty of the laboring classes, may be indifferent to the +appeal for justice at this point, but the laboring classes cannot afford +to be indifferent. What labor everywhere wants, what it ought to have, +and will some day demand and receive, is an honest day’s pay for an +honest day’s work. As the laborer becomes more intelligent he will +develop what capital he already possesses--that is the power to organize +and combine for its own protection. Experience demonstrates that there +may be a wages of slavery only a little less galling and crushing in +its effects than chattel slavery, and that this slavery of wages must go +down with the other. + +There is nothing more common now than the remark that the physical +condition of the freedmen of the South is immeasurably worse than in the +time of slavery; that in respect to food, clothing and shelter they are +wretched, miserable and destitute; that they are worse masters to +themselves than their old masters were to them. To add insult to injury, +the reproach of their condition is charged upon themselves. A grandson +of John C. Calhoun, an Arkansas land-owner, testifying the other day +before the Senate Committee of Labor and Education, says the “negroes +are so indolent that they fail to take advantage of the opportunities +offered them; that they will only devote so much of their time to work +as will enable them to procure the necessities of life; that there is +danger of a war of races,” etc., etc. + +His testimony proclaims him the grandson of the man whose name he bears. +The blame which belongs to his own class he shifts from them to the +shoulders of labor. It becomes us to test the truth of that assertion by +the light of reason, and by appeals to indisputable facts. Of course the +land-owners of the South may be expected to view things differently from +the landless. The slaveholders always did look at things a little +differently from the slaves, and we therefore insist that, in order that +the whole truth shall be brought out, the laborer as well as the +capitalist shall be called as witnesses before the Senate Committee of +Labor and Education. Experience proves that it takes more than one class +of people to tell the whole truth about matters in which they are +interested on opposite sides, and we protest against the allowance of +only one side of the labor question to be heard by the country in this +case. Meanwhile, a little reason and reflection will in some measure +bring out truth! The colored people of the South are the laboring people +of the South. The labor of a country is the source of its wealth; +without the colored laborer to-day the South would be a howling +wilderness, given up to bats, owls, wolves, and bears. He was the source +of its wealth before the war, and has been the source of its prosperity +since the war. He almost alone is visible in her fields, with implements +of toil in his hands, and laboriously using them to-day. + +Let us look candidly at the matter. While we see and hear that the +South is more prosperous than it ever was before and rapidly recovering +from the waste of war, while we read that it raises more cotton, sugar, +rice, tobacco, corn, and other valuable products than it ever produced +before, how happens it, we sternly ask, that the houses of its laborers +are miserable huts, that their clothes are rags, and their food the +coarsest and scantiest? How happens it that the land-owner is becoming +richer and the laborer poorer? + +The implication is irresistible--that where the landlord is prosperous +the laborer ought to share his prosperity, and whenever and wherever we +find this is not the case there is manifestly wrong somewhere. + +This sharp contrast of wealth and poverty, as every thoughtful man +knows, can exist only in one way, and from one cause, and that is by one +getting more than its proper share of the reward of industry, and the +other side getting less, and that in some way labor has been defrauded +or otherwise denied of its due proportion, and we think the facts, as +well as this philosophy, will support this view in the present case, and +do so conclusively. We utterly deny that the colored people of the South +are too lazy to work, or that they are indifferent to their physical +wants; as already said, they are the workers of that section. + +The trouble is not that the colored people of the South are indolent, +but that no matter how hard or how persistent may be their industry, +they get barely enough for their labor to support life at the very low +point at which we find them. We therefore throw off the burden of +disgrace and reproach from the laborer where Mr. Calhoun and others of +his class would place it, and put it on the land-owner where it belongs. +It is the old case over again. The black man does the work and the white +man gets the money. + +It may be said after all the colored people have themselves to blame for +this state of things, because they have not intelligently taken the +matter into their own hands and provided a remedy for the evil they +suffer. + +Some blame may attach at this point. But those who reproach us thus +should remember that it is hard for labor, however fortunately and +favorably surrounded, to cope with the tremendous power of capital in +any contest for higher wages or improved condition. A strike for higher +wages is seldom successful, and is often injurious to the strikers; the +losses sustained are seldom compensated by the concessions gained. A +case in point is the recent strike of the telegraph operators--a more +intelligent class can nowhere be found. It was a contest of brains +against money, and the want of money compelled intelligence to surrender +to wealth. + +An empty sack is not easily made to stand upright. The man who has it in +his power to say to a man, you must work the land for me for such wages +as I choose to give, has a power of slavery over him as real, if not as +complete, as he who compels toil under the lash. All that a man hath +will he give for his life. + +In contemplating the little progress made by the colored people in the +acquisition of property in the South, and their present wretched +condition, the circumstances of their emancipation should not be +forgotten. Measurement in their case should not begin from the height +yet to be attained by them, but from the depths whence they have come. + +It should be remembered by our severe judges that freedom came to us not +from the sober dictates of wisdom, or from any normal condition of +things, not as a matter of choice on the part of the land-owners of the +South, nor from moral considerations on the part of the North. It was +born of battle and of blood. It came across fields of smoke and fire +strewn with wounded, bleeding, and dying men. Not from the Heaven of +Peace amid the morning stars, but from the hell of war--out of the +tempest and whirlwind of warlike passions, mingled with deadly hate and +a spirit of revenge; it came, not so much as a boon to us as a blast to +the enemy. Those against whom the measure was directed were the +land-owners, and they were not angels, but men, and, being men, it was +to be expected they would resent the blow. They did resent it, and a +part of that resentment unhappily fell upon us. + +At first the land-owners drove us out of our old quarters, and told us +they did not want us in their fields; that they meant to import German, +Irish, and Chinese laborers. But as the passions of the war gradually +subsided we were taken back to our old places; but, plainly enough, this +change of front was not from choice, but necessity. Feeling themselves +somehow or other entitled to our labor without the payment of wages, it +was not strange that they should make the hardest bargains for our +labor, and get it for as little as possible. For them the contest was +easy; their tremendous power and our weakness easily gave them the +victory. + +Against the voice of Stevens, Sumner, and Wade, and other far-seeing +statesmen, the Government by whom we were emancipated left us completely +in the power of our former owners. They turned us loose to the open sky +and left us not a foot of ground from which to get a crust of bread. + +It did not do as well by us as Russia did by her serfs, or Pharaoh did +by the Hebrews. With freedom Russia gave land and Egypt loaned jewels. + +It may have been best to leave us thus to make terms with those whose +wrath it had kindled against us. It does not seem right that we should +have been so left, but it fully explains our present poverty and +wretchedness. + +The marvel is not that we are poor in such circumstances, but rather +that we were not exterminated. In view of the circumstances, our +extermination was confidently predicted. The facts that we still live +and have increased in higher ratio than the native white people of the +South are proofs of our vitality, and, in some degree, of our industry. + +Nor is it to be wondered at that the standard of morals is not higher +among us, that respect for the rights of property is not stronger. The +power of life and death held over labor which says you shall work for me +on my own terms or starve, is a source of crime, as well as poverty. + +Weeds do not more naturally spring out of a manure pile than crime out +of enforced destitution. Out of the misery of Ireland comes murder, +assassination, fire, and sword. The Irish are by nature no worse than +other people, and no better. If oppression makes a wise man mad it may +do the same, and worse, to a people who are not reputed wise. The woe +pronounced upon those who keep back wages of the laborer by fraud is +self-acting and self-executing and certain as death. The world is full +of warnings. + + +THE ORDER SYSTEM. + +No more crafty and effective devise for defrauding the southern laborers +could be adopted than the one that substitutes orders upon shopkeepers +for currency in payment of wages. It has the merit of a show of honesty, +while it puts the laborer completely at the mercy of the land-owner and +the shopkeeper. He is between the upper and the nether millstones, and +is hence ground to dust. It gives the shopkeeper a customer who can +trade with no other storekeeper, and thus leaves the latter no motive +for fair dealing except his own moral sense, which is never too strong. +While the laborer holding the orders is tempted by their worthlessness, +as a circulating medium, to get rid of them at any sacrifice, and hence +is led into extravagance and consequent destitution. + +The merchant puts him off with his poorest commodities at highest +prices, and can say to him take these or nothing. Worse still. By this +means the laborer is brought into debt, and hence is kept always in the +power of the land-owner. When this system is not pursued and land is +rented to the freedman, he is charged more for the use of an acre of +land for a single year than the land would bring in the market if +offered for sale. On such a system of fraud and wrong one might well +invoke a bolt from heaven--red with uncommon wrath. + +It is said if the colored people do not like the conditions upon which +their labor is demanded and secured, let them leave and go elsewhere. A +more heartless suggestion never emanated from an oppressor. Having for +years paid them in shop orders, utterly worthless outside the shop to +which they are directed, without a dollar in their pockets, brought by +this crafty process into bondage to the land-owners, who can and would +arrest them if they should attempt to leave when they are told to go. + +We commend the whole subject to the Senate Committee of Labor and +Education, and urge upon that committee the duty to call before it not +only the land-owners, but the landless laborers of the South, and thus +get at the whole truth concerning the labor question of that section. + + +EDUCATION. + +On the subject of equal education and educational facilities, mentioned +in the call for this convention, we expect little resistance from any +quarter. It is everywhere an accepted truth, that in a country governed +by the people, like ours, education of the youth of all classes is vital +to its welfare, prosperity, and to its existence. + +In the light of this unquestioned proposition, the patriot cannot but +view with a shudder the widespread and truly alarming illiteracy as +revealed by the census of 1880. + +The question as to how this evil is to be remedied is an important one. +Certain it is that it will not do to trust to the philanthropy of +wealthy individuals or benevolent societies to remove it. The States in +which this illiteracy prevails either can not or will not provide +adequate systems of education for their own youth. But, however this may +be, the fact remains that the whole country is directly interested in +the education of every child that lives within its borders. The +ignorance of any part of the American people so deeply concerns all the +rest that there can be no doubt of the right to pass laws compelling the +attendance of every child at school. Believing that such is now required +and ought to be enacted, we hereby put ourselves on record in favor of +stringent laws to this end. + +In the presence of this appalling picture, presented by the last census, +we hold it to be the imperative duty of Congress to take hold of this +important subject, and, without waiting for the States to adopt liberal +school systems within their respective jurisdictions, to enter +vigorously upon the work of universal education. + +The National Government, with its immense resources, can carry the +benefits of a sound common-school education to the door of every poor +man from Maine to Texas, and to withhold this boon is to neglect the +greatest assurance it has of its own perpetuity. As a part of the +American people we unite most emphatically with others who have already +spoken on this subject, in urging Congress to lay the foundation of a +great national system of aid to education at its next session. + +In this connection, and as germane to the subject of education under +national auspices, we would most respectfully and earnestly request +Congress to authorize the appointment of a commission of three or more +persons of suitable character and qualifications to ascertain the legal +claimants, as far as they can, to a large fund now in the United States +treasury, appropriated for the payment of bounties of colored soldiers +and sailors; and to provide by law that at the expiration of three or +five years the balance remaining in the treasury be distributed among +the colored colleges of the country, giving the preference as to amounts +to the schools that are doing effective work in industrial branches. + + +FREEDMEN’S BANK. + +The colored people have suffered much on account of the failure of the +Freedman’s bank. Their loss by this institution was a peculiar hardship, +coming as it did upon them in the days of their greatest weakness. It is +certain that the depositors in this institution were led to believe +that as Congress had chartered it and established its headquarters at +the capital the Government in some way was responsible for the safe +keeping of their money. + +Without the dissemination of this belief it would never have had the +confidence of the people as it did nor have secured such an immense +deposit. Nobody authorized to speak for the Government ever corrected +this deception, but on the contrary, Congress continued to legislate for +the bank as if all that had been claimed for it was true. + +Under these circumstances, together with much more that might be said in +favor of such a measure, we ask Congress to reimburse the unfortunate +victims of that institution, and thus carry hope and give to many fresh +encouragement in the battle of life. + + +BOUNTY AND PENSION LAWS. + +We desire, also, to call the attention of Congress and the country to +the bounty and pension laws and to the filing of original claims. We ask +for the passage of an act extending the time for filing original claims +beyond the present limit. + +This we do for the reason that many of the soldiers and sailors that +served in the war of the rebellion and their heirs, and especially +colored claimants living in parts of the country where they have but +meagre means of information, have been, and still are, ignorant of their +rights and the methods of enforcing them. + +But while we urge these duties on Congress and the country, we must +never forget that any race worth living will live, and whether Congress +heeds our request in these and other particulars or not, we must +demonstrate our capacity to live by living. We must acquire property and +educate the hands and hearts and heads of our children whether we are +helped or not. Races that fail to do these things die politically and +socially, and are only fit to die. + +One great source of independence that has been sought by multitudes of +our white fellow-citizens is still open to us--we refer to the public +lands in the great West. The amazing rapidity with which the public +lands are being taken up warns us that we must lay hold of this +opportunity soon, or it will be gone forever. The Government gives to +every actual settler, under certain conditions, 160 acres of land. By +addressing a letter to the United States Land Office, Washington, D. +C., any person will receive full information in regard to this subject. +Thousands of white men have settled on these lands with scarcely any +money beyond their immediate wants, and in a few years have found +themselves the lords of a 160-acre farm. Let us do likewise. + + +CIVIL RIGHTS. + +The right of every American citizen to select his own society and invite +whom he will to his own parlor and table should be sacredly respected. A +man’s house is his castle, and he has a right to admit or refuse +admission to it as he may please, and defend his house from all +intruders even with force, if need be. This right belongs to the +humblest not less than the highest, and the exercise of it by any of our +citizens toward anybody or class who may presume to intrude, should +cause no complaint, for each and all may exercise the same right toward +whom he will. + +When he quits his home and goes upon the public street, enters a public +car or a public house, he has no exclusive right of occupancy. He is +only a part of the great public, and while he has the right to walk, +ride, and be accommodated with food and shelter in a public conveyance +or hotel, he has no exclusive right to say that another citizen, tall or +short, black or white, shall not have the same civil treatment with +himself. The argument against equal rights at hotels is very improperly +put upon the ground that the exercise of such rights, it is insisted, is +social equality. But this ground is unreasonable. It is hard to say what +social equality is, but it is certain that going into the same street +car, hotel, or steamboat cabin does not make any man society for another +any more than flying in the same air makes all birds of one feather. + +Two men may be seated at the same table at a hotel; one may be a Webster +in intellect, and the other a Guiteau in feebleness of mind and morals, +and, of course, socially and intellectually, they are as wide apart as +are the poles of the moral universe, but their civil rights are the +same. The distinction between the two sorts of equality is broad and +plain to the understanding of the most limited, and yet, blinded by +prejudice, men never cease to confound one with the other, and allow +themselves to infringe the civil rights of their fellow-citizens as if +those rights were, in some way, in violation of their social rights. + +That this denial of rights to us is because of our color, only as color +is a badge of condition, is manifest in the fact that no matter how +decently dressed or well-behaved a colored man may be, he is denied +civil treatment in the ways thus pointed out, unless he comes as a +servant. His color, not his character, determines the place he shall +hold and the kind of treatment he shall receive. That this is due to a +prejudice and has no rational principle under it is seen in the fact +that the presence of colored persons in hotels and rail cars is only +offensive when they are there as guests and passengers. As servants they +are welcome, but as equal citizens they are not. It is also seen in the +further fact that nowhere else on the globe, except in the United +States, are colored people subject to insult and outrage on account of +color. The colored traveler in Europe does not meet it, and we denounce +it here as a disgrace to American civilization and American religion and +as a violation of the spirit and letter of the Constitution of the +United States. From those courts which have solemnly sworn to support +the Constitution and that yet treat this provision of it with contempt +we appeal to the people, and call upon our friends to remember our civil +rights at the ballot-box. On the point of the two equalities we are +determined to be understood. + +We leave social equality where it should be left, with each individual +man and woman. No law can regulate or control it. It is a matter with +which governments have nothing whatever to do. Each may choose his own +friends and associates without interference or dictation of any. + + +POLITICAL EQUALITY. + +Flagrant as have been the outrages committed upon colored citizens in +respect to their civil rights, more flagrant, shocking, and scandalous +still have been the outrages committed upon our political rights by +means of bull-dozing and Kukluxing, Mississippi plans, fraudulent +counts, tissue ballots, and the like devices. Three States in which the +colored people outnumber the white population are without colored +representation and their political voice suppressed. The colored +citizens in those States are virtually disfranchised, the Constitution +held in utter contempt and its provisions nullified. This has been done +in the face of the Republican party and successive Republican +administrations. + +It was once said by the great O’Connell that the history of Ireland +might be traced like a wounded man through a crowd by the blood, and +the same may be truly said of the history of the colored voters of the +South. + +They have marched to the ballot-box in face of gleaming weapons, wounds, +and death. They have been abandoned by the Government, and left to the +laws of nature. So far as they are concerned, there is no Government or +Constitution of the United States. + +They are under control of a foul, haggard, and damning conspiracy +against reason, law, and constitution. How you can be indifferent, how +any leading colored men can allow themselves to be silent in presence of +this state of things, we cannot see. + +“Should tongues be mute while deeds are wrought which well might shame +extremest hell?” And yet they are mute, and condemn our assembling here +to speak out in manly tones against the continuance of this infernal +reign of terror. + +This is no question of party. It is a question of law and government. It +is a question whether men shall be protected by law, or be left to the +mercy of cyclones of anarchy and bloodshed. It is whether the Government +or the mob shall rule this land; whether the promises solemnly made to +us in the Constitution be manfully kept or meanly and flagrantly broken. +Upon this vital point we ask the whole people of the United States to +take notice that whatever of political power we have shall be exerted +for no man of any party who will not, in advance of election, promise to +use every power given him by the Government, State or National, to make +the black man’s path to the ballot-box as straight, smooth and safe as +that of any other American citizen. + + +POLITICAL AMBITION. + +We are as a people often reproached with ambition for political offices +and honors. We are not ashamed of this alleged ambition. Our destitution +of such ambition would be our real shame. If the six millions and a half +of people whom we represent could develop no aspirants to political +office and honor under this Government, their mental indifference, +barrenness and stolidity might well enough be taken as proof of their +unfitness for American citizenship. + +It is no crime to seek or hold office. If it were it would take a larger +space than that of Noah’s Ark to hold the white criminals. + +One of the charges against this convention is that it seeks for the +colored people a larger share than they now possess in the offices and +emoluments of the Government. + +We are now significantly reminded by even one of our own members that we +are only twenty years out of slavery, and we ought therefore to be +modest in our aspirations. Such leaders should remember that men will +not be religious when the devil turns preacher. + +The inveterate and persistent office-seeker and office-holder should be +modest when he preaches that virtue to others which he does not himself +practice. Wolsey could not tell Cromwell to fling away ambition properly +only when he had flung away his own. + +We are far from affirming that there may not be too much zeal among +colored men in pursuit of political preferment; but the fault is not +wholly theirs. They have young men among them noble and true, who are +educated and intelligent--fit to engage in enterprise of “pith and +moment"--who find themselves shut out from nearly all the avenues of +wealth and respectability, and hence they turn their attention to +politics. They do so because they can find nothing else. The best cure +for the evil is to throw open other avenues and activities to them. + +We shall never cease to be a despised and persecuted class while we are +known to be excluded by our color from all important positions under the +Government. + +While we do not make office the one thing important, nor the one +condition of our alliance with any party, and hold that the welfare, +prosperity and happiness of our whole country is the true criterion of +political action for ourselves and for all men, we can not disguise from +ourselves the fact that our persistent exclusion from office as a class +is a great wrong, fraught with injury, and ought to be resented and +opposed by all reasonable and effective means in our power. + +We hold it to be self-evident that no class or color should be the +exclusive rulers of this country. If there is such a ruling class, there +must of course be a subject class, and when this condition is once +established this Government of the people, by the people, and for the +people, will have perished from the earth. + + + + +IN WASHINGTON, D. C., 1885. + + On being introduced by Hon. B. K. BRUCE, on the occasion of the + twenty-third anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the + District of Columbia, FREDERICK DOUGLASS spoke as follows: + + +FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS: Your committee of arrangements were pleased +to select me as your orator of the day, on an occasion similar to this, +two years ago. At that time, while appreciating the honor conferred upon +me, I ventured to express the wish that some one of the many competent +colored young men of this city and District had been chosen to discharge +this honorable duty in my stead. There were excellent reasons for that +wish then, and there are even much better reasons for the same wish now. +Time and cultivation have largely added to the number of those from whom +a suitable selection might have been made, and one of these silent, yet +powerful, agents whose mission it is to create and destroy all things +mortal has left me much less desire for such distinguished service now +than two years ago. Happily, however, the burden is not heavy or +grievous, and the proper story of this occasion is simple, familiar, and +easily told. In observing the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in +the District of Columbia, we attract the attention of the American +people to one of the most important and significant events in their +national history, and at the same time evince a grateful and proper +sense of the wonderful changes for the better that have taken place in +our condition, and in that of the country generally. Though in its +immediate and legal operation this act of emancipation was local in its +range as to territory, and limited in its application as to the number +of persons liberated by it, morally it looms upon us as a grand, +comprehensive, and far-reaching measure. + +To appreciate its importance we must not consider it as a single +independent act standing alone, nor as one pertaining to this District +only, nor to the colored people only. We must regard it as a part of a +series of splendid public measures, as one of so many steps in the +national progress looking to one beneficent and glorious result, a large +contribution to the honor and welfare of the whole country. It was the +auspicious beginning of a great movement in the councils of the nation, +made necessary by the war, and one which finally culminated in the +complete and permanent abolition of slavery, not only in the District of +Columbia, but in every part of the Republic. Thus viewed it was the one +act which broke the gloomy spell that bound the nation in the bonds of +servile, unnatural reverence and awe for slavery. It withdrew the +sympathy of European nations from the rebellion; it brought the moral +support of the civilized world to the loyal cause; it erased the foulest +blot that ever stained our national escutcheon; it gave to the war for +the Union a logical, humane, and consistent purpose; it solved a problem +which was the standing grief of good men, and the perplexity of +statesmen for ages; it gave courage and hope to our armies in the field; +it weakened the rebellion; it raised the whole nation to a higher and +happier plane of civilization, and placed the American people where they +never were before, in a position where they could consistently and +effectively preach liberty to all the nations of the world. + +The 16th of April, the anniversary of this great act of the nation, +strangely and erroneously enough has been considered simply as the +colored man’s day only. The business of consecrating and preserving its +memory has been, by common consent, relegated to him exclusively. But, +in this, our fellow-citizens have been more generous to us than just to +themselves. Colored men have very little more reason to hallow this day +than have white men. If it brought freedom to us, it brought peace and +safety to them, and hence they may well enough unite in this and similar +celebrations, and regard the day as theirs as well as ours. No truth +taught by our national history is more evident than this, that while +slavery dominated the southern half of the Republic, and free +institutions prevailed in the northern half, peace and harmony between +the two sections were utterly and forever impossible. No man can serve +two masters, and the attempt of our Government to do this was a +stupendous failure. The union between liberty and slavery was a marriage +without love, a house divided against itself; a couple unequally yoked +together, held together by external force, not by moral cohesion; it +brought happiness to neither, and misery to both. + +Like any other embodiment of social and material interest peculiar to a +given community, slavery generated its own sentiments, its own morals, +manners, and religion; and begot a character in all around it in favor +of its own existence. + +In nearly everything indigenous and peculiar to society in the two +sections, they were as separate and distinct as are any two nations on +the globe. The longer they were thus linked together in the bonds of +outward union, the more palpable became their points of difference, and +the more passionate became their hostility to each other. Liberty became +more and more the glory of the North, and slavery more and more the idol +of the South. Not even the bonds of Christian fellowship were strong +enough to hold together the churches of the two sections. + +In view of this settled and growing antagonism, only one of three +courses was opened to the nation: The first was to make the country all +slaves, the second was to make it all free, and the third was to divide +the Union, and let each section set up a government of its own--the one +based upon the system of slavery, and the other based upon the +principles of the Declaration of American Independence. + +Thanks to the wisdom, loyalty, patriotism, courage, and statesmanship +developed by the crisis, the nation rejected equally the idea of making +the country all slaves, and permitting two separate nations, with +hostile civilizations, side by side, with a chafing, bloody border +between them, but chose to give us one country, one citizenship, and one +liberty for all the people, and hence we are here this evening. There +was never any physical reason for the dissolution of the Union. The +geographical and topographical conditions of the country all served to +unite rather than to divide the two sections. It was moral not physical +dynamite that blew the two sections asunder. + +We are told by the poet that-- + + “Lands intersected by a narrow frith, abhor each other; + Mountains interposed make enemies of nations, + Which else, like kindred drops, had mingled into one.” + +But in this case there were neither friths nor mountains to separate the +South from the North, or to make our Southern brethren hate the people +of the North. The moral cause of trouble in the system of slavery being +now removed, peace and harmony are possible, and, I doubt not, these +blessings, though long delayed, will finally come. In calling attention +to the event which makes this day precious we honor ourselves, and +honor the noble and brave men who brought it about. We render our humble +tribute of gratitude to-day, not only to those whose valor and whose +blood on the battlefield brought freedom to the American slave; not only +to the great generals who led our armies, but to our great statesmen as +well who framed our laws; and not to these only, but also to the noble +army of men and women which preceded both statesmen and warriors in the +cause of emancipation, and made these warriors and statesmen possible. +Neither would our gratitude forget those who supplemented the great act +of emancipation by carrying the blessings of education to the benighted +South, thus preparing the liberated freedman for the duties of +citizenship. + +I need not stop here to call the roll of any of these classes. The +nation knows the debt it owes them, and will never forget them. We have +but to mention the honored name of Abraham Lincoln in the Presidential +chair, of Ulysses S. Grant in the field, at whose bedside a grateful +nation now stands mute in sympathy and sad expectation; of William Lloyd +Garrison in the columns of the _Liberator_, of Wendell Phillips on the +rostrum, of Charles Sumner in the Senate, to cause a host of noble men +and women to start up and pass in review before us. + +But I drop this brief reference to the history and personnel of the +anti-slavery movement, and will speak of matters nearer our times and +equally pertinent to this occasion. Those who abolished slavery did +their work, and did it well. They served their day and generation with +wisdom, courage, and fortitude, and are an example to this and coming +generations. They bravely upheld the principles of liberty and justice, +and it will go well with this nation and with us if we in our time, and +if those who are to come after us in theirs, shall adhere to and uphold +these same principles with equal zeal, courage, fidelity, and fortitude. +One generation cannot safely rest on the achievements of another, and +ought not so to rest. + +Hitherto there has been little variety in the thoughts, resolutions, and +addresses presented for consideration on occasions similar to this. Each +celebration has been almost a _fac-simile_ of its predecessors. The +speeches have been little more than echoes of those made before, because +the conditions of their utterances have been so uniform, and all one +way. To-day, however, conditions are changed, or appear to be changed. +We do not stand where we stood one year ago. We are confronted by a new +Administration. The term of twenty-four years of steady, unbroken, +successful Republican rule is ended. The great Republican party that +carried the country safely through the late war against the rebellion, +emancipated the slave, saved the Union, reconstructed the government of +the Southern States, enfranchised the freedmen, raised the national +credit, improved the currency, decreased the national debt, and did more +for the honor, prosperity, and glory of the American people than was +ever done before in the same length of time by any party in any country +under similar circumstances, has been defeated, humiliated, and driven +from place and power. + +For the first time since the chains fell from the limbs of the slaves of +the District of Columbia; for the first time since slaves were raised +from chattels to men; for the first time since they were clothed with +the dignity of American citizenship they find themselves under the rule +of a political party which steadily opposed their every step from +bondage to freedom, and this fact may well enough give a peculiar +coloring to the thoughts and feelings with which this anniversary of +emancipation is celebrated. + +The great question of the hour respects the true significance of this +change in the national front. What does it portend? How will it affect +our relations to the people and government of this country? How was this +stupendous change brought about, and, in point of fact, it may be asked +with some propriety if there has really been any serious change made in +our condition by this change in the relations of parties? + +To the eye of the colored man the change, or apparent change, in the +political situation is very marked, and wears a very sinister aspect. He +has so long been accustomed to think the Republican party the +sheet-anchor of his liberty, the star of all his hopes, that he can see +nought but ill in the ascendancy of the Democratic party. He addresses +it much as did Hamlet his father’s ghost: + + “Tell why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death, + Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre. + Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn’d, + Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws to cast thee up again. + What may this mean, that thou, dead corpse, + Again in complete steel, revisit’st thus the glimpses of the moon, + Making night hideous, and we, poor fools of nature, + So horridly to shake our disposition + With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?” + +It is, perhaps, too early to determine the full significance of the +return of the Democratic party to power, or to tell just how that return +to power came about. One thing must be admitted, and that is that the +power and vitality of the Democratic party have been vastly underrated. +It has indulged in vices and crimes enough to have killed a dozen +ordinary parties, and yet it lives. At times it has really seemed to be +dead. Some said it had died by opposing the war for the Union, but it +was not so. We thought the life had gone out of it when it took our late +friend, Horace Greely, for its candidate for the Presidency and adopted +a Republican platform, but it was not so. + +It was the same old party in a new dress, and time has shown that it was +as full of life and power as ever. The fact is, it was never either +honestly dead or securely buried. Even when it slept it had one eye +open, and saw better with that one eye than did the Republican party +with its two. Our mistakes concerning it have been made abundantly clear +by the late election and the dazzling splendor of the recent +inauguration. We thought the Democratic party dead when it was alive, +and the Republican party alive and strong when it was half dead. Long +continuance in power had developed rival ambitions, personal +animosities, factional combinations in the Republican party that were +fatal to its success and even endangered its life. + +One great lesson taught by Republican defeat is familiar to all. It is +the folly of relying upon past good behavior for present success. +Parties, like men, must act in the living present or fail. It is not +what they have done or left undone in the past that turns the scale, but +what they are doing, and mean to do now. The result shows that neither +the past good conduct of the Republican party nor the past bad conduct +of the Democratic party has had much to do with the late election. + +Americans have too little memory for good or bad political conduct. The +people have said in the late election, “We care nothing for your past; +but what is your present character and work?” And in rendering judgment +they have said, “We see little ground for preferring one to the other.” + +But, fellow-citizens, it is consoling to think that this change in the +political front justly implies no real change for the worse in the moral +convictions of the American people. On the great questions that divided +the parties during the periods of war and reconstruction there has been +no change whatever. Upon all the great measures of justice, liberty, +and civilization, originated and carried through Congress by the +Republican party, I believe the heart of the nation to be still safe and +sound. If the measures then in controversy between the parties were now +submitted to the American people, I fully believe they would sustain +them one and all by an overwhelming vote. + +The trouble was that the Republican party in the late campaign forgot +for the moment its high mission as the party of great moral ideas, and +sought victory on grounds far below its ordinary level. It made national +pelf more important and prominent than national purity. It made the body +more important than the soul; national prosperity more important than +national justice. There was no square issue made up between the parties. +One talked in favor of the tariff and the other did not talk against it. +Both together beat the air and raised a dust, confused counsel, blinded +the voters, and rendered victory a thing of chance rather than a thing +of choice. The Republican party was not more surprised by defeat than +the Democratic party was astonished by victory. Twelve hundred votes +would have changed the result; so that nothing for the future can be +safely predicted upon the election either way. It does not imply that +the Democratic party is in power to stay, or that the Republican party +is out of power to stay, or that new parties are to arise and take the +place of the old. + +While it was painfully evident that the Republican party, during the +late canvass, had little or nothing to say against the outrages +committed upon the newly enfranchised people of the South, it was +equally plain that the Democratic party had nothing to say in defense of +these outrages. Yet it is not strange, in view of the history of the two +parties, that much alarm was felt by colored people all over the South +when they first learned that the great Republican party was defeated and +that the Democratic party was soon to administer the National +Government. + +Ignorant as the colored people of the South have been, and may still be, +about other matters of national importance, they have always been +intelligent enough as to the character and relations of political +parties. They have never been mistaken as to the historical difference +between the party which gave them liberty and the party which sought to +continue their enslavement. They had known the Democratic party long +and well and only as the party of the old master class. They naturally +held the triumph of that party as a victory of the old master class. In +the panic of the moment they saw in it a possible attempt to +rehabilitate the old order of government in the South, in which they +would be greatly oppressed if not enslaved. + +In the joy and exultation of the old master class over the defeat of the +Republican party, and over the return of the old Democratic party to +power, they read what they thought their doom. Jealous of their newly +gained liberty, as well they might be, feeling themselves in peril and +left naked to their enemies, their fears amounted to agony. But, thanks +to the kind assurances promptly given by the President-elect and by +other Democrats in high places, this alarm was transient, and has now +given way in some measure to a feeling of confidence and security. + +How long this feeling of confidence and security will last, however, +will depend upon the future policy of the present administration. The +inaugural address of President Cleveland was all that any friend of +liberty and justice could reasonably ask for the freedmen. It was a +frank and manly avowal, worthy of the occasion. It accepted their +citizenship as a fact settled beyond debate, and as a subject which +ought to attract attention only with a view to the improvement of their +character and their better qualification by education for the duties and +responsibilities of citizens of the Republic. + +No better words have dropped from the east portico of the Capitol since +the inauguration days of Abraham Lincoln and Gen. Grant. I believe they +were sincerely spoken, but whether the President will be able to +administer the government in the light of those liberal sentiments is an +open question. The one-man power in our government is very great, but +the power of party may be greater. The President is not the autocrat, +but the executive of the nation. But, happily, the executive is yet a +power, and may be able to obtain the support of the co-ordinate branches +of the government in so plain a duty as protecting the rights of the +colored citizens, with those of all other citizens of the Republic. For +one, though Republican I am, and have been, and ever expect to be, +though I did what I could to elect James G. Blaine as President of the +United States, I am disposed to trust President Cleveland. By his words, +as well as by his oath of office, solemnly subscribed to before +uncounted thousands of American citizens, he is held and firmly bound +to execute the Constitution of the United States in the fullness of its +spirit and in the completeness of its letter, and thus far he has shown +no disposition to shrink from that duty. + +The Southern question is evidently the most difficult question with +which President Cleveland will have to deal. Hard as it may be to manage +his party on the civil service question, where he has only to deal with +hungry and thirsty office-seekers, nineteen out of every twenty of whom +he must necessarily offend by failing to find desirable places for them, +he will find it incomparably harder to meet that party’s wishes in +dealing with the Southern question. There are several methods of +disposing of this Southern question open to him, and there are lions in +the way, whichever method he may adopt. + +First. He may adopt a policy of total indifference. He may shut his eyes +to the fact that in all of the Gulf States political rights of colored +citizens are literally stamped out; that the Constitution which he has +solemnly sworn to support and enforce is under the feet of the mob; that +in those States there is no such thing as a fair election and an honest +count. He may utterly refuse to interfere by word or deed for the +enforcement of the Constitution and for the protection of the ballot, +and let the Southern question drift whithersoever it will, to a port of +safety or to a rock of disaster. He will probably be counselled to +pursue the course of President Hayes, but I hope he will refuse to +follow it. The reasons which supported that policy do not exist in the +case of a Democratic President. Mr. Hayes made a virtue of necessity. He +had fair warning that not a dollar or a dime would be voted by a +Democratic Congress if the army were kept in the South. The cry of the +country was against what was called bayonet rule. + +Secondly. The President may pursue a temporizing policy; keep the word +of promise to the ear and break it to the heart, a half-hearted, a +neither hot nor cold, a good Lord and good devil policy. He may try to +avoid giving offence to any, and thus succeed in pleasing none; a policy +which no man or party can pursue without inviting and earning the scorn +and contempt of all honest men and of all honest parties. + +Thirdly. He may decide to accept the Mississippi plan of conducting +elections at the South; encourage violence and crime; elevate to office +the men whose hands are reddest with innocent blood; force the negroes +out of Southern politics by the shot-gun and the bulldozer’s whip; +cheat them out of the elective franchise; suppress the Republican vote; +kill off their white Republican leaders, and keep the South solid; and +keep its one hundred and fifty-three electoral votes--obtained thus by +force, fraud, and red-handed violence--ready to be cast for a Democratic +candidate in 1888. This might be acceptable to a certain class of +Democrats at the South, but the Democrats of the North would abhor and +denounce it as a bloody and hell-black policy. It would hurl the party +from power in spite of the solid South, and keep it out of power another +four and twenty years. + +Fourthly. He may sustain a policy of absolute fidelity to all the +requirements of the Constitution as it is, and, as John Adams said of +the Declaration of Independence, he may bravely say to the South and to +the nation: “Sink or swim, survive or perish, I am for the Constitution +in all its parts! I will be true to my oath, and I will, to the best of +my ability, and to the fullest extent of my power, defend, protect, and +maintain the rights of all citizens, without regard to race or color.” + +There can be no doubt as to which of these methods of treating the +Southern question is the most honest and safe one. There may be many +wrong ways for individuals or nations to pursue, but there is but one +right way, and it remains to be seen if this is the one the present +administration will adopt and pursue. Left to the promptings of his own +heart and his own view of his constitutional duties, and to his own +sense of the requirements of consistency, and even expediency, I firmly +believe that President Cleveland would do his utmost to protect and +defend the constitutional rights of all classes of citizens. But he is +not left to himself, and may adopt a different policy. + +One thing seems plain, which it is well for all parties to know and +consider. It is this: There are 7,000,000 of colored citizens now in +this Republic. They stand between the two great parties--the Republican +party and the Democratic party--and whichever of these two parties shall +be most just and true to these 7,000,000 may safely count upon a long +lease of power in this Republic. It is not their votes alone that will +tell. There is deep down among the people of this country a love of +justice and fair play, and that fact will tell. It is now as it was in +the time of war, and it will be so in all time. The party which takes +the negro on its side will triumph. The world moves, and the conditions +of success and failure have changed. + +Formerly, devotion to slavery was the condition upon which the success +of the Democratic party was based. But time and events have swept away +this abhorred condition. Liberty, not slavery, is now the autocrat of +the Republic. Neither politics nor religion can succeed in the future by +pandering to the prejudices arising out of slavery. Let the great +Democratic party realize this fact, and shape its policy in accordance +with it; let it do justice to the negro, and it will certainly succeed +itself in power four years hence, and long years after. + +On the contrary, if it forgets the nation’s progress, falls back into +its old ruts, and seeks success on the old conditions; if it forgets +that slavery has now become an anachronism, a superstition of the past, +having no proper relation to the age and body of our times, it will be +ignominiously driven from place and power four years hence, and no arm +can, or ought to, save it. + + “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, + Taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.” + +This tide is now rising at the feet of President Cleveland and his +administration, and, as I have said, it remains to be seen if it will be +wisely taken at the flood. Depend upon it, if the Democratic party does +not avail itself of the colored man’s support the Republican party +certainly will. That party is still the colored man’s party, and it will +be all the more likely to consider the claims of the colored man, in +view of its late defeat, and the causes by which that defeat was brought +about. Twelve hundred more colored votes in the State of New York would +have saved that party from defeat. + +Unless the ballot is protected better than heretofore the Augusta speech +of the Hon. James G. Blaine, delivered after the election, will be the +keynote of the Republican campaign four years hence. There is only one +way to prevent the success of the Republican party if that issue is +permitted to be raised. The Northern people were sound for free soil; +sound for free speech; sound for the Union; sound for reconstruction in +other days, and they will be sound for justice and liberty and a free +ballot to the newly enfranchised citizens when that issue shall be +fairly presented as a living issue between the two contending parties. + +The great mistake made by the leaders of the Republican party during the +late canvass was the failure to recognize the facts now stated, and +their refusal to act upon them. They had become tired of the old issues +and wanted new ones. They made their appeal to the pocket of the nation, +and not to the heart of the nation. They attended to the mint, anise, +and cummin of politics, but omitted the weightier matters of the +law--judgment, mercy, and faith. They were loud for the protection of +things, but silent for the protection of men. These things they ought to +have done, and not left the other undone. + +The idea that righteousness exalteth a nation, and that sin is a +reproach to any people, was, for a time, lost sight of. The +all-engrossing thought of the campaign was a judicious, discriminating +protective tariff. The great thing was protection to the wool of Ohio; +to the iron of Pennsylvania, and to American manufactures generally. +Little was said, thought, or felt about national integrity, the +importance of maintaining good faith with the freedmen or the Indian, or +the protection of the constitutional rights of American citizens, except +where such rights were in no danger. + +The great thing to be protected was American industry against +competition with the pauper labor of Europe--not protection of the +starving labor of the South. The body of the nation was everything; the +soul of the nation was nothing. It did not appear from the campaign +speeches that it was important to protect and preserve both, or that the +body was not more dependent upon bread for life than was the soul +dependent upon truth, justice, benevolence, and good faith for health +and life. In the absence of these, the soul of the nation starves, +sickens, and dies. It may not fall at once upon the withdrawal of these, +but persistent injustice will, in the end, do its certain work of moral +destruction. No nation, no party, no man can live long and flourish on +falsehood, deceit, injustice, and broken pledges. Loyalty will perish +where protection and good faith are denied and withheld, and nothing +other that this should be expected, either by a party, a man, or by a +government. On the other hand, where good faith is maintained, where +justice is upheld, where truth and right prevail, the government will be +like the wise man’s house in Scripture--the winds may blow, the rains +may descend, the flood may come and beat upon it, but it will stand, +because it is founded upon the solid rock of principle. I speak this, +not only for the Republican party, but for all parties. Though I am a +party man, to me parties are valuable only as they subserve the ends of +good government. When they persistently violate the fundamental rights +of the humblest and weakest in the land I scout them, despise them, and +leave them. + +We boast of our riches, power, and glory as a nation, and we have reason +to do so. But what is prosperity, what is power, what is national glory, +when national honor, national good faith, and national protection to the +rights of our citizens are denied? Of what avail is citizenship and the +elective franchise where a whole people are deliberately abandoned to +anarchy by the Government under which they live, and told they must +protect themselves from violence as best they may, for, practically, +this is just what the American Government has said to the colored and +white Republican voters of the South during the last eight years. +Minister Lowell was accused of not protecting the rights of +Irish-Americans in England, and our ships are just now ordered to Panama +to look after the interests of American citizens in Central America. +This is all right, but when and where have our army and navy gone to +protect the rights of American citizens at home? To say, “I am a Roman +citizen!” could once arrest the bloody scourge and cause the brutal +tyrant to turn pale. But who cares now for the citizenship of any +American Republican, black or white, in Mississippi or South Carolina? +We are rich and powerful. But we should remember that the whole vast +volume of human history is dotted all along with the wrecks of nations +which have perished amid wealth, luxury, and splendor. What doth it +profit a nation to gain the whole world if it shall lose its own soul? +Henry Clay, in 1839, made an elaborate defence of the right to hold +property in man. Two hundred years of legislation has sanctioned and +identified negro slaves as property. When warned by anti-slavery men of +the dreadful consequences of perpetuating slavery, he said that that +warning had been given fifty years before, and that it had been answered +by fifty years of unexampled prosperity. His idea was that if slavery +were a curse God would not allow a nation that upheld it to prosper. The +argument was sophistical, but it contained a great truth after all, and +time only was required to verify it. He forgot that God reigns in +eternity; that space is sometimes given for repentance. He did not +remember, as Jefferson did, that God is just, and that His justice +cannot sleep forever. + +Had Mr. Clay lived to see, as we have seen, the union of his beloved +country rent asunder at the centre, and hostile armies composed of his +beloved countrymen on the field of battle, amid dust, smoke, and fire, +blowing each other to pieces from the cannon’s mouth; had he seen five +hundred thousand of the youth and flower of both sections of this land +cut down by the sword and flung down into bloody graves; had he seen in +the wake of this fratricidal war the smoldering ruins of noble towns and +cities, and the nation staggering under a debt heavier than a mountain +of gold; had he seen the sullen discontent and deadly hate which +survived the war, and traced all these calamities and more, as he must +do, to the existence of slavery, he would, in all the bitterness of his +soul, have cursed the day when he poured out his eloquence in defence of +that system which brought upon his country these accumulated horrors. + +The lesson of this national experience is in place to-day, and it would +be well for this nation to study and learn it. Look abroad! What rocks +Europe to-day? What causes the Emperor of all the Russias to be uneasy +on his pillow? What makes Austria tremble? Why does England start up +frantically at midnight and search her premises? You know, and I know, +that these countries have aggrieved classes among them who have just +ground of complaint against their governments. + +Now, fellow-citizens, let me speak plainly. This is an age when men go +to and fro in the earth, and knowledge increases oppressed peoples all +over the world are protesting with earthquake emphasis against all forms +of injustice, some by one means and some by another. Examples, like +certain diseases, are contagious. Railroads, steam navigation, electric +wires, newspapers, and traveling emissaries are abroad. Can you be quite +sure that the oppressed laborers in this country, white and colored, +will not some day make common cause and learn some of the dangerous +modes of protest against injustice adopted in other countries? I deal in +no threats, for myself or for any of my countrymen, and am only for +peaceful methods; but I say to all oppressors, “Have a care how you goad +and imbrute the colored man of the South!” He is weak, but not +powerless. He is submissive to wrongs, but not insensible to his rights. +He is hopeful, but not incapable of despair. He can endure, but even to +him may come a time when he shall think endurance has ceased to be a +virtue. All the world is a school, and in it one lesson is just now +being taught in letters of fire and blood, and that is, the utter +insecurity of life and property in the presence of an aggrieved class. +This lesson can be learned by the ignorant as well as by the wise. Who +can blame the negro if, when he is driven from the ballot-box, the +jury-box, and the schoolhouse, denied equal rights on railroads and +steamboats, called out of his bed at midnight and whipped by regulators, +compelled to live in rags and wretchedness, and his wages kept back by +fraud, denied a fair trial when accused of crime, he shall imitate the +example of other oppressed classes and invokes some terrible explosive +power as a means of bringing his oppressors to their senses, and making +them respect the claims of justice? This would indeed be madness, but +oppression will make even a wise man mad. + +It should not be forgotten that the negro is not what he was twenty +years ago. Kossuth once said that bayonets think. The negro is beginning +to think. Years ago a book had as little to say to him and had as little +meaning for him as a brick. It was then a thing of darkness and silence. +Now it is a thing of light and speech. Education, the sheet anchor of +safety to society where liberty and justice are secure, is a dangerous +thing to society in the presence of injustice and oppression. + +I pursue this thought no further. A hint to the wise ought to be +sufficient. Let not my words be construed as a menace, but taken as I +mean them--as a warning; not interpreted as inviting disaster, but +considered as designed to avert disaster. + +Fellow-citizens, many things calculated to make us thoughtful have +occurred since I addressed you on an occasion like this, two years ago; +but nothing has occurred which ought to make us more thoughtful than the +recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States on the civil +rights bill. That decision came upon the country like a clap of thunder +from a clear sky. It came without warning. It was a surprise to enemies +and a bitter disappointment to friends. Had the bench been composed of +Democratic judges some such a decision might have come upon us without +producing any very startling effect. But the fact was otherwise. This +blow was dealt us in the house of our friends. The bench was composed +of nine learned Republican judges, and of these nine honorable men only +one came to our help, I mean Honorable Justice John M. Harlan. He stood +up for the rights of colored citizens as those rights are defined by the +fourteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States. + +It was a magnificent spectacle, this grand representation of American +justice standing alone, and the country will not soon forget it. Without +meaning any disrespect to the Supreme Court, or reflecting upon the +purity of its motives, I must say here, as I have said elsewhere, and +shall say many times over if my life is spared, that that decision is +the most striking illustration I have ever seen of how it is possible to +keep alive the letter of the law and at the same time stab its spirit to +death. Portia strictly construed the law of Venice for mercy, and this +rule of construction has the approval of all the ages, but the Supreme +Court of the United States construed American law against the weak and +in the interest of prejudice and brutality. Never before was made so +clear the meaning of Paul’s saying, “The letter killeth, but the spirit +giveth life.” + +I am glad, and I know that you are glad, that there was one man on that +bench who had the mind and heart to be as true to liberty in this its +day as was the old Supreme Court of slavery in its day. While slavery +existed all presumptions were made in its favor. The obvious intention +of the law prevailed, but now the plain intention of the law has been +strangled by the letter of the law. + +The fourteenth amendment of the Constitution was plainly intended to +secure equal rights to all citizens of the United States, without regard +to race or color, and Congress was authorized to carry out this +provision by appropriate legislation. But by this decision of the +Supreme Court the fourteenth amendment has been slain in the house of +its friends. I have no doubt that that decision contributed to the +defeat of the Republican party in the late election. I repeat, that +decision may well make colored men thoughtful. + +Kentucky has done many evil things in her time, but she has also done +many great and good things. She has recently given us a law by which +equal educational advantages have been extended to colored children. +Long ago she gave us James G. Birney, the first abolition candidate for +the presidency of the United States; a former slave-holder, but one who +emancipated his slaves on his own motion; a genuine gentleman of the old +school, and one to be gratefully remembered by every friend of liberty +in this country. She has given us Cassius M. Clay, the man who fought +his way to freedom of speech on his native soil. She has given us John +G. Fee, the earnest and devoted educator of the freedman. Nor is this +all. She has given us two of the largest hearts and broadest minds of +which our country can boast; men who had the courage of their +convictions, and who dared, at the peril of what men hold most dear, to +be true to their convictions. These strong men--one dead and the other +living--are Abraham Lincoln and John M. Harlan. Abraham Lincoln is +already enshrined in the hearts of the American people, and Justice John +M. Harlan will hold a place beside him in the hearts of his countrymen. + +You remember the public meeting held in Lincoln Hall, and the free +expression of opinion upon the unsoundness of the decision of the +Supreme Court on the civil rights bill. You will also remember that the +ablest and boldest words there spoken were from the lips of Robert G. +Ingersoll, a man everywhere spoken against as an infidel and a +blasphemer. Well, my friends, better be an infidel and a so-called +blasphemer than a hypocrite who steals the livery of the court of heaven +to serve the devil in. + +Infidel though Mr. Ingersoll may be called, he never turned his back +upon his colored brothers, as did the evangelical Christians of this +city on the occasion of the late visit of Mr. Moody. Of all the forms of +negro hate in this world, save me from that one which clothes itself +with the name of the loving Jesus, who, when on earth, especially +identified himself with the lowest classes of suffering men, and the +proof given of his Messiahship was that the poor had the Gospel preached +unto them. The negro can go into the circus, the theatre, the cars, and +can be admitted into the lectures of Mr. Ingersoll, but cannot go into +an Evangelical Christian meeting. + +I do not forget that on the occasion of the civil rights meeting I have +mentioned, one evangelical clergyman, a real man of God, gave to the +gospel trumpet a certain sound. The religion of Dr. John E. Rankin, like +the love of his Redeemer, is not bounded by race or color, but takes in +the whole human family. No truer man than he ever ascended a Washington +pulpit. + +In conclusion let me say one word more of the soul of the nation and of +the importance of keeping it sensitive and responsive to the claims of +truth, justice, liberty, and progress. In speaking of the soul of the +nation I deal in no cant phraseology. I speak of that mysterious, +invisible, impalpable something which underlies the life alike of +individuals and of nations, and determines their character and destiny. + +It is the soul that makes a nation great or small, noble or ignoble, +weak or strong. It is the soul that exalts it to happiness, or sinks it +to misery. While it modifies and shapes all physical conditions, it is +itself superior to all such conditions. It is the spiritual side of +humanity. Fire cannot burn it, water cannot quench it. Though occult and +impalpable, it is just as real as granite or iron. The laws of its life +are spiritual, not carnal, and it must conform to these laws or it +starves and dies. The outward semblance of it may survive for a time, +just as ancient temples and old cathedrals may stand long after the +spirit that inspired them has vanished. But they, too, will moulder to +ruin and vanish. The life of the nation is secure only while the nation +is honest, truthful, and virtuous; for upon these conditions depend the +life of its life. + +A few years ago a terrible and desolating fire swept over the proud +young city of Chicago, and left her architectural splendors in ashes. In +a few hours her “cloud-capped towers and gorgeous palaces” and solemn +temples crumbled to dust, and were scattered to the four winds of +heaven, so that no man could find them, but there remained the invisible +soul of a great people, full of energy, enterprise, and faith, and +hence, out of the ashes and hollow desolation, a grander Chicago than +the one destroyed arose “as if by magic.” + + “What constitutes a state? + Not high raised battlements, or labored mound, + Thick walls or moated gate; + Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned; + Not bays and broad armed ports, + Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride. + No, men; high-minded men! + With power as far above dull brutes endued, + In forest, brake, or den, + As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude; + Men who their duties know, + But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain.” + + + + +IN WASHINGTON, D. C., 1886. + + In introducing Mr. FREDERICK DOUGLASS, on the occasion of the + Twenty-fourth Anniversary of Emancipation in the District of + Columbia, Prof. J. M. GREGORY made the following remarks: + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: For many years prior to 1861 the friends of +freedom, seeing the prominence slavery had acquired because of its +existence at the capital of the nation, and the evil influence which it +necessarily exerted upon legislation, sought in vain by petitions and +other measures for its abolition in the District of Columbia. It was +not, however, till the national conscience began to be quickened by the +reverses of our armies, and legislators to realize the dangers which +threatened the life of the nation, that the cause could muster +sufficient strength to gain a hearing in Congress. + +On the 16th of December, 1861, Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, introduced +into the Senate a bill providing for the immediate emancipation of +slaves in the District upon the payment to the owners of $300 for each +slave. As was to be expected the bill was antagonized by pro-slavery men +in the Senate and House. They feared that the measure proposed was the +entering wedge for the final overthrow of their pet institution in the +South. As subsequent events proved their fears were not without +foundation. Notwithstanding the bitter opposition which the bill +encountered, it passed both houses of Congress in less than four months +from its first introduction in the Senate, and was approved by the +President on the 16th of April, just twenty-four years ago to-day. + +The debates on this and kindred questions makes memorable the second +session of the Thirty-seventh Congress, and they are of special interest +because they indicated a new departure in the line of argument pursued +by Northern statesmen. They based their arguments for emancipation, not +upon grounds of expediency, but the great principles of right and +justice. + +The importance of this act must not be overlooked. It struck the +shackles from the limbs of 3,000 human beings and placed them in the +ranks of freemen. It took away the shame which slavery had brought upon +the National Capital. But this was not all. It elevated the nation in +its own eyes and in the eyes of the civilized world, and roused a +feeling of patriotism and pride. It called forth an expression from the +National Legislature, and a majority of the members by solemn vote +arrayed themselves on the side of emancipation and liberty, in +opposition to slavery and oppression. It was the forerunner of the great +emancipation proclamation--that proclamation which more than all his +other acts makes the name of Abraham Lincoln secure to all posterity. + +In our rejoicing on this occasion we should not forget to hold in +grateful remembrance the men whose votes secured the passage of the +bill, and especially its author, a man who by his works proved himself a +friend of the oppressed, Hon. Henry Wilson, the benefactor of the +District. + +When the emancipation bill became a law in 1862, there were 15,000 +colored people in the District of Columbia, 12,000 of whom were free and +the remainder slaves. They maintained eight schools for the education of +their children, and were the owners of twelve churches, which cost about +$75,000. With the increase of population came the demand for more +churches, so that to-day they have eighty churches and missions in the +District. Many of the churches are very valuable and located on some of +the principal streets and avenues, the new Metropolitan Church alone +being valued at $100,000. + +Under the old system the word “colored” appeared opposite the name of +each colored person paying taxes on the books of the Collector of Taxes. +Now, no such distinction is made, and there are no data from which the +number paying taxes among colored citizens can be definitely known. From +information received at the tax office, I judge that there are about 180 +persons with property assessed individually at $1,000, the assessed +valuation of real estate in this District being two-thirds to actual +cash valuation. It will be quite in keeping with the facts to say that +two of our citizens have acquired property valued at $100,000 each, two +at $75,000, six at $25,000, fifteen at $20,000, twenty at $10,000, and +fifty at $5,000, making in the aggregate at least a million of dollars. +I am positively assured that the increase in the valuation of property +owned by colored men since emancipation is 100 per cent. This, we think, +is a most creditable showing for our property interests. + +Of the 15,000 colored people in the District at the time of emancipation +there were proportionately more skilled carpenters and masons than now +in a population of 70,000. But labor has become more diversified. We are +now engaged in pursuits in which we had no experience before the war. In +1861 a colored lawyer was a personage unknown to the national capital. +Now half a dozen colored lawyers successfully practice their profession +in the courts of the District. Then we had no physicians, regular +graduates of medical schools; now a dozen or more follow the practice of +medicine in the cities of Washington and Georgetown, and are recognized +as men of skill and ability by the profession. One of these physicians, +with his assistant, is in charge of the Freedman’s Hospital, one of the +largest and most successful hospitals in the country. Government +employment tends to keep out many from some business occupations in +which the people in other large cities engage, but this disadvantage, if +disadvantage it be considered, operates no more against us than against +other citizens. + +The greatest progress made, however, and that which is necessarily the +first in order of time and importance, has been in matters of education. +The schools have increased from 8 to 174, with an average attendance of +9,000 children, giving employment to more than 100 teachers. Twelve of +the school-houses in which these schools are conducted are among the +largest and most convenient school buildings in the District. Too much +cannot be said in praise of the teachers, supervising principals, +superintendent and trustees, for it is by their combined efforts largely +that the schools have attained that degree of excellence for which they +are known. Howard University and Wayland Seminary, placed on heights +commanding beautiful views of Washington, are among the results of +emancipation. These institutions grew out of the necessities of the +times to meet the wants of colored youth for higher and professional +education. It is proper that we should take pride in our schools and +institutions of learning, for they are the chief instruments through +which our children are to receive the training which will fit them to +properly discharge the duties that will afterward devolve upon them as +men and women and to elevate the race to an equality of development and +enlightenment with other peoples. + +We often hear the question asked, “What are we to do with the +Americanized negro?” Articles have appeared in newspapers, pamphlets, +and magazines giving what the author regards as a proper solution of +the negro problem, so-called. But I ask why should there be a negro +problem any more than a problem for any other class of the American +people? We need not go far to seek the answer. It is found in the fact +that in certain parts of our country the people are not willing to +receive the negro into full fellowship and to grant him the civil and +political rights enjoyed in common by other citizens. They take from him +the means of elevation and then reproach him with inferiority. They +would rejoice to rid the country of his presence by colonization, but +seeing the utter hopelessness of the colonization scheme, they seek to +inflame the public mind against him by constant appeals to the low and +narrow prejudices entertained by certain classes of the American people. +When the 300 colored citizens from Cleveland visited President-elect +Garfield at Mentor, he said in reply to the address, to which he had +given respectful attention, that he did not profess to be more of a +friend to colored men than hundreds of others, but he was in favor of +giving, and, so far as it was consistent with the duties of his office, +would give them _opportunity_ to achieve success for themselves. This is +all we ask to-day. This is all we can reasonably ask. Give us fair play, +equal opportunity, and we will work out our own destinies. + +Ten years ago, in this city, on the occasion of the unveiling of the +Freedman’s Monument in memory of Abraham Lincoln, an eminent divine, +after congratulating the orator of the day upon his masterly portrayal +of the character of the martyr President, turned to General Grant and +said: “There is but one Frederick Douglass.” This distinguished citizen, +the orator who paid the eloquent tribute to the memory of Mr. Lincoln on +the occasion referred to, the Hon. Frederick Douglass, will now address +you. + +At the conclusion of Prof. Gregory’s remarks Mr. Douglass said: + +FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS: I appear before you again, and for the +third time since my residence among you, to assist in the celebration of +the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. And while I highly +appreciate the honor and the confidence implied in your call upon me to +do so, when I consider the importance of the task it has imposed, I can +say in all sincerity, as I have said before, that I wish that your +choice of speaker had fallen upon one of our young men, quite as well +qualified to serve you as myself. I want to see them coming to the front +as I am retiring to the rear. Then the fact that I have several times +addressed you upon subjects naturally suggested by the recurrence of +this interesting anniversary is, of itself, somewhat embarrassing. It is +not an easy task to speak many times on the same subject, before the +same audience, without repeating the same views and sentiments. If, +therefore, you find me committing this offence to-day, you will consider +the difficulty of avoiding it, and also that the same views and +sentiments are as pertinent and necessary to-day as years ago. You need +not fear, however, that I shall inflict upon you any one of my former +orations. I am not bound by any such necessity. The field is broad, and +the material is abundant. The phases of public affairs touching the +colored people of the United States are never stationary. They change +with every season, and often many times in the course of a single year. +There is no standing still for anybody in this world. We are either +rising or falling, advancing or retreating. + +Last year, at this time, we were confronted with an unusual and somewhat +alarming state of facts. We stood at the gateway of a new and strange +administration. After wandering about during twenty-four years, seeking +rest and finding none, often hungry and sometimes thirsty, and, though +not feeding swine or eating husks, yet not unfrequently found in very +low places and wasting the substance of the national family, our +prodigal Democratic son, with one tremendous effort of will, returned to +the White House, and was received with every demonstration of parental +joy and gladness. Of course this did not take place without a murmur of +complaint and disapproval. There was an elder brother here as elsewhere; +one who had remained at home, worked the old farm, kept the fences in +repair; one who had done his duty and made things in the old house +comfortable and pleasant generally. Indeed, but for his elder brother, +the Republican party, the house would have been broken up, the whole +family turned out of doors and scattered in poverty and destitution. It +was natural, therefore, when this elder brother saw the great doings at +the White House one year ago, when he heard the music and saw the +dancing, and learned what it was all about, he was not over well +pleased, and thought his father not only soft-hearted, but a little +soft-headed, and a trifle ungrateful, if not crazy withal. But elder +brothers, you know, are usually reasonable and patient, and are +generally quite submissive to parental authority, and though he knew +the bad character of the young truant who had now come home, he hoped he +had reformed. How far this cheerful and patient hope has been justified +by one year of this administration I will not now stop to say; I may, +however, remark, as a prelude to what I shall hereafter say, that as far +as the colored people of the country are concerned, their condition +seems no better and not much worse than under previous administrations. +Lynch law, violence, and murder have gone on about the same as formerly, +and without the least show of Federal interference or popular rebuke. +The Constitution has been openly violated with the usual impunity, and +the colored vote has been as completely nullified, suppressed, and +scouted as if the fifteenth amendment formed no part of the +Constitution, and as if every colored citizen of the South had been +struck dead by lightning or blown to atoms by dynamite. There have also +been the usual number of outrages committed against the civil rights of +colored citizens on highways and by-ways, by land and by water, and the +courts of the country, under the decision of the Supreme Court of the +United States, have shown the same disposition to punish the innocent +and shield the guilty, as during the presidency of Mr. Arthur. Perhaps +colored men have fared a little worse, so far as office-holding is +concerned. In some of the Departments, I am sorry to say, there have +been many dismissals, but, even in this respect, colored men have not +suffered much more than one-armed soldiers, and other loyal white men, +whose places were wanted by deserving Democrats. Upon the whole, candor +compels me to admit that this twenty-fourth year of our freedom finds us +thoughtful, somewhat mystified by what is passing around us, but +hopeful, strong to suffer, and yet strong to strive, with a moderate +degree of faith that, under the Constitution and its amendments, we +shall yet be clothed with dignity of freedom and American citizenship. +But more of this in the right place. + +I take it that no apology is needed for these annual celebrations, for, +notwithstanding the unfriendly outlook of affairs, we have yet much over +which to rejoice. Besides, such demonstrations of popular feeling in +regard to large benefits received and progress made, are consistent with +and creditable to human nature. They have been observed all along the +line of by-gone ages, and are peculiar to no class, clime, race, or +color. From the day that Moses is said to have smote the Red Sea, and +the Hebrews passed safely over from Egyptian bondage, leaving Pharaoh +overwhelmed and struggling with that hell of waters, down to the 4th of +July, 1776, when the fathers of this Republic threw off the British +yoke, declared their independence, and appealed to the god of battles, +similar events to that which we now celebrate have been gratefully and +joyfully commemorated. + +If, for any reason, I feel like apologizing to-day, it is not for this +celebration, but for an incident connected with it, and by which it is +greatly marred. For the first time since the emancipation of the slaves +of the District of Columbia we have two celebrations in progress at the +same time. This should not be so. By this fact we have said to the world +that we are not sufficiently united as a people to celebrate our freedom +together. This spectacle of division among men working for a common +cause is not pleasing in any case, and is especially displeasing and +shocking in this instance. Without attempting to show which party is to +blame in this controversy, I have no hesitation in saying that this +division itself is most unfortunate, disgraceful, and mortifying. It +cannot fail, I fear, to make an unfavorable impression for us upon +thoughtful observers. But, standing here as your mouthpiece to-day, I +beg the disgusted public to remember that colored men are but men, and +that the best men will sometimes differ, and will often differ more +widely and violently about trifles than about things of substance, where +a difference of opinion would be at least dignified. Something must, +however, be pardoned to the spirit of liberty, especially in those who +have but recently acquired liberty. There is always some awkwardness in +the gait of men who, for the first time, have on their Sunday clothes. +When we have enjoyed the blessings of liberty longer we shall put away +such childish things and shall act more wisely. We shall think more of a +common cause and its requirements and less of obligation to support the +claims of rival individual leaders. Depend upon it, a repetition of this +spectacle will bring our celebrations into disgrace and make them +despicable. + +The thought is already gaining ground, that we have not heretofore +received the best influence which this anniversary is capable of +exerting; that tinsel show, gaudy display, and straggling processions, +which empty the alleys and dark places of our city into the broad +daylight of our thronged streets and avenues, thus thrusting upon the +public view a vastly undue proportion of the most unfortunate, +unimproved, and unprogressive class of the colored people, and thereby +inviting public disgust and contempt, and repelling the more thrifty and +self-respecting among us, is a positive hurt to the whole colored +population of this city. These annual celebrations of ours should be so +arranged as to make a favorable impression for us upon ourselves and +upon our fellow-citizens. They should bring into notice the very best +elements of our colored population, and in what is said and done on +these occasions, we should find a deeper and broader comprehension of +our relations and duties. They should kindle in us higher hopes, nobler +aspirations, and stimulate us to more earnest endeavors; they should +help us to shorten the distance between ourselves and the more highly +advanced and highly favored people among whom we are. If they fail to +produce, in some measure, such results, they had better be discontinued. +I am sure that such a lecture as I have now given on this point may be +distasteful to a part of this assembly. But I can say, in all truth, +that nothing short of a profound desire to promote the best interests of +all concerned, has emboldened me to run the risk of such displeasure, +and I hope the motive will excuse my offence. + +And now, fellow-citizens, I turn away from this and other merely race +considerations, to those common to all our fellow citizens, yet happily +those in which we, too, are included. I call attention to the proposed +celebration of the centennial anniversary of our present form of +government. The year 1789 will never cease to be memorable in the +history and progress of the American people. It was in that year of +grace that the founders of the American Republic, having tested the +strength and discovered the weakness of the old articles of colonial +confederation, bravely decided to lay those articles aside as no longer +adequate to successful and permanent national existence, and resolved to +form a new compact and adopt a new constitution, better suited, in their +judgment, to their national character and to their governmental wants. +In this instrument they set forth six definite and cardinal objects to +be attained by this new departure. These were: First. “To form a more +perfect union.” Second. “To establish justice.” Third. “To provide for +the common defense.” Fourth. “To insure domestic tranquillity.” Fifth. +“To promote the general welfare.” And sixth. “Secure the blessings of +liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” Perhaps there never was an +instrument framed by men at the beginning of any national career +designed to accomplish nobler objects than those set forth in the +preamble of this constitution. They are objects worthy of a great +nation, worthy of those who gave to the world the immortal Declaration +of Independence, in which they asserted the equal rights of man, and +boldly declared in the face of all the divine right governments of +Europe the doctrine that governments derive their right to govern from +the consent of the governed. + +How far these fundamental objects, solemnly set forth in the +Constitution, have been realized by the practical operation of the +Government created under it, I will not stop just now to state or +explain. Whether the Union has been perfectly formed, whether under the +ægis of the Constitution the sacred principle of justice has been +established, whether the general welfare has been promoted, or whether +the blessings of liberty have been secured, are questions to which +reference may be made in a subsequent part of this address. For the +present I refer to this grand starting point in the nation’s history for +another purpose. I wish simply to remind you of the flight of time; that +we are now drawing near the close of the first century of our national +existence, and the notice that should be taken of that fact. Without +going into the general questions raised a moment ago, as to the +fulfillment of what was promised in the Constitution, we may, in +passing, affirm what must be admitted by all, that under this form of +government so happily described, and so faithfully upheld by the great +lamented Abraham Lincoln, as “Government of the people, by the people, +and for the people,” this nation has become rich, great, progressive, +and strong. This fact is cheerfully acknowledged by the whole sisterhood +of contemporaneous nations. From thirteen comparatively weak and +sparsely populated States, skirting and hovering along the line of our +Atlantic coast, constituting a mere string of isolated communities, we +now have thirty-eight States covering our broad continent, extending +from east to west, and from sea to sea. Under our Constitution the +desert and solitary places have been reclaimed and made to blossom as +the rose. From a population of seven millions, we have reached the +enormous number of fifty millions; and in less than half a century we +shall have double that number. Such an augmentation of wealth, power, +and population has no example in the experience of any nation in ancient +or modern times. The mind grows dizzy in contemplation of the future of +a country so great and so increasing in greatness, and to whose +greatness there seems to be no limit. The question naturally arises, +what is to be the effect of such accumulated wealth, such vast increase +of population, such expanded domain, and such augmentation of national +power? Plainly enough either one of two very opposite conditions may +arise. It may either blast or bless, it may lift us to heaven or sink us +to perdition. + +If we shall become proud, selfish, imperious, oppressive, and rapacious; +if we shall persist in trampling on the weak and exalting the strong, +worshipping the rich and despising the poor, our doom as a nation is +already foreshadowed. + +That Almighty Power recognized in one form or another by all thoughtful +men; that Almighty Power which controls every atom of the earth, and +governs the universe; that Almighty Power which stood and measured the +globe, which beheld and drove asunder the nations, will surely deal with +us in the future as that Power has dealt in the past with other wicked +nations--it will bring us to dust and ashes. The rule of life for +individuals and for nations is the same. Neither can escape the +consequences of transgression. As they sow, so shall they reap. There is +no salvation for either outside of a life of truth and justice. +Contradiction to this in theory, for either individuals or nations, is a +damning heresy; and contradiction to this in practice is certain +destruction. + +Large and imposing plans are just now proposed, and are maturing, for +the appropriate celebration of this first centennial year of our +national life. If these plans should be perfected and executed, as they +probably will be, and as they certainly should be, Washington will +witness a demonstration in this line far transcending in grandeur and +sublimity the centennial exposition in the city of Philadelphia ten +years ago. + +These celebrations, like our own, have large uses. They serve as lofty +pedestals or platforms from which the national patriotism and +intelligence may survey the past, and, in some sense, penetrate and +divine the national future. + +It is also fit and proper that our young and beautiful city of +Washington should be the theatre of such a grand national centennial +demonstration. It is the capital of the nation, and is, in some sense, +the shining sun of our national system, around which our thirty-eight +States, linked and inter-linked in one unbroken national interest, +revolve in union. Upon this spot no one citizen has more rights than +another. The right to be here is vested in all alike. Distance does not +diminish or alienate, contiguity does not increase any man’s right on +this soil. In this capital of the nation California is equal to +Virginia, and, as Webster said of Bunker Hill, “Wherever else we may be +strangers, we are all at home here.” + +As a part of the people of this great country, we may feel ourselves +included. We represent the class which has enriched our soil with its +blood, watered it with its tears, and defended it with its strong arms, +but have hitherto been excluded from all part in our national glory. +Now, however, all is changed. We may look forward with pleasure to the +promised National Centennial Exposition, and take some credit to +ourselves for helping to make the District of Columbia a suitable place +for such a display. We have at least done a large proportion of the most +laborious and needed work to this end. + +The wisdom of the framers of the Constitution of the United States in +granting to the nation, through its Congress, exclusive legislative +jurisdiction over the District of Columbia, has in nothing been more +abundantly and happily vindicated than in the abolition of slavery, and +in making it the freest territory of this country. The benefits of this +act are, however, not confined to the colored people. They are shared by +all the people of this District; not more by the colored than by the +white people. + +Washington owes nothing to Maryland or Virginia (though born of those +parents) in comparison to its debt to the nation. Through the National +Government it has become the elegant and beautiful city that it is. It +is the nation that has graded and paved its broad and far-reaching +streets and avenues; it is the nation that has fenced and beautified its +numerous parks and reservations, and made them the joy of our children, +and the admiration of our visitors; it is the nation that has adorned +its ample public squares and circles with choice flowers, flowing +fountains, and imposing statuary; it is the nation that has erected +enduring monuments of bronze and marble in honor of our statesmen, +warriors, patriots, and heroes; it is the nation that has built here +those vast structures, the different departments, and crowned yonder +hill with a Capitol, one of the proudest architectural wonders of the +world; it is the nation that has built Washington Monument, the pride of +the city, the tallest structure that ever rose from the ground toward +heaven at the bidding of human pride, patriotism, or piety, standing +there in full view of all comers, whether approaching by land or water, +with its base deep down in the earth, and its capstone against the sky, +receiving and reflecting every light and shadow of the passing hour, +steady alike in sunshine and storm, defying lightning, whirlwind, and +earthquake--its grandeur and sublimity, like Niagara, impress us more +and more the longer we hold it in range of vision. + +But the nation, as I have already said, has done more for the District +of Columbia than to clothe it with material greatness and splendor. It +has, by the act of emancipation, imparted to it a moral beauty. It has +not only made it a pleasure to the eye, but a joy to the heart. No +material adornment or addition has ever done or could do for this +District what the abolition of slavery has done. The nation did a great +and good thing fifteen years ago by giving us a local government, and a +Shepherd that lifted the city out of its deep mud and above its blinding +dust and put it on the way to its present greatness, but it did a +greater and better thing when it lifted it out of the mire of barbarism +coincident with slavery. + +Fellow-citizens, we are proud to-day, and justly proud, of the +prosperity and the increasing liberality of Washington. With all our +fellow-citizens we behold it with pride and pleasure rising and +spreading noiselessly around us, almost like the temple of Solomon, +without the sound of a hammer. New faces meet us at the corners of the +streets and greet us in the market-places. Conveniences and improvements +are multiplying on every hand. We walk in the shade of its beautiful +trees by day and in the rays of its soft electric lights by night. We +make it warm where it is cool, and cool where it is warm, and healthy +where it is noxious. Our magnificence fills the stranger and sojourner +with admiration and wonder. The contrast between the old time of slavery +and the new dispensation of liberty looms upon us on every hand. We feel +it in the very air we breathe, and in the friendly aspect of all around +us. But time would fail to tell of the vast and wonderful advancement in +civilization made in this city by the abolition of slavery. + +Perhaps a better idea could be formed of what has been done for +Washington and for us by imagining what would be the case in a return to +the old condition of things. Imagine the wheels of progress reversed; +imagine that by some strange and mysterious freak of fortune slavery, +with all its horrid concomitants, was revived; imagine that under the +dome of yonder Capitol legislation was carried on, as formerly, by men +with pistols in their belts and bullets in their pockets; imagine the +right of speech denied, the right of petition stamped out, the press of +the District muzzled, and a word in the streets against slavery the sign +for a mob; imagine a lone woman like Miss Myrtilla Miner, having to +defend her right to teach colored girls to read and write with a pistol +in her hand, here in this very city, now dotted all over with colored +schools, which rival in magnificence the white schools of any other city +of the Union; imagine this, and more, and ask yourselves the question. +What progress has been made in liberty and civilization within the +borders of this capital? Further on let us ask: Of what avail would be +our cloud-capped towers, our gorgeous palaces, and our solemn temples if +slavery again held sway here? Of what avail would be our marble halls if +once more they resounded with the crack of the slave whip, the clank of +the fetter, and the rattle of chains; if slave auctions were held in +front of the halls of justice, and chain-gangs were marched over +Pennsylvania avenue to the Long Bridge for the New Orleans market? Of +what avail would be our state dinners, our splendid receptions if, like +Babylon of old, our people were making merchandise of God’s image, +trafficking in human blood and in the souls and bodies of men? Were this +District once more covered with this moral blight and mildew you would +hear of no plans, as now, for celebrating within its borders the +centennial anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of the United +States. Bold and audacious as were the advocates of slavery in the olden +time they would have been ashamed to invite here the representatives of +the civilized world to inspect the workings of their slave system. To +have done so would have been like inviting a clean man to touch pitch, a +humane man to witness an execution, a tender-hearted woman to witness a +slaughter. In its boldest days slavery drew in its claws and presented a +velvet paw to strangers. They knew it was like Lord Granby’s character, +which could only pass without reprobation as it passed without +observation. Emancipation liberated the master as well as the slave. The +fact that our citizens are now loudly proclaiming Washington to be the +right place for the celebration of the discovery of the continent by +Columbus, and the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, is +an acknowledgement of and attestation of the higher civilization that +has, in their judgment, come here with the abolition of slavery. They no +longer dread the gaze of civilized men. They no longer fear lest a word +of liberty should fall into the ear of a trembling captive and awaken +his manhood. They are no longer required to defend with their lips what +they must have condemned in their hearts. When the galling chain dropped +from the limbs of the slave the mantle of shame dropped from the brows +of their masters. The emancipation of the one was the deliverance of the +other; so that this day, in fact, belongs to the one as truly as it +belongs to the other, though it is left to us alone to keep it in +memory. + +It is usual on occasions of this kind, not only to set forth, as I have +in some measure done, what has been gained by the abolition of slavery, +but also to speak of the causes and instrumentalities which contributed +to this grand result. If this were my first appearance before you on +similar anniversaries, I should feel it entirely proper to do so now; +but having discharged this duty faithfully and fully in several former +addresses, there is no special reason for a repetition of it in this +instance. In one of those addresses I specially endeavored to trace, and +did trace with more or less success, the history of the earliest +utterances of anti-slavery sentiments in this country and in England. I +described the rise, progress, and final triumph of the abolition +movement in both countries. I have in no case omitted to do justice to +the noble band of men and women who espoused the cause of the slave in +the early days of its weakness, and when to do so was to make themselves +of no reputation and subjects of the vilest abuse. I have held up their +example of virtuous self-sacrifice to the admiration and imitation of +all who would serve the human family in its march from barbarism to a +higher state of civilization. In my judgment there never was a band of +reformers more unselfish, more consistent with their principles, more +ardent in their devotion to any cause than were these early anti-slavery +men and women of this country. + +The charge is sometimes made that the colored people are ungrateful to +their benefactors. In my judgment no charge could be more unjust. In +whatever else they have failed, they have ever shown a laudable sense +of gratitude. The names of William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, +John P. Hale, Charles Sumner, Gerrit Smith, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. +Grant, and a host of others are never pronounced by us but with +sentiments of high appreciation and sincere gratitude. + +Of course I cannot deny that there are those amongst us who, either +thoughtlessly or selfishly, or both, dare to deny their obligations to +the great Republican party and its leaders. They insist upon it that +freedom came to them only as an act of military necessity. They see in +it no sentiment of justice, no moral preference. They profess to see no +difference between the Republican party and the Democratic party, and +insist that one party has no more claim to their support than the other. +Such men are about as ready to join one party as the other. Perhaps they +even lean a little more to the Democratic than to the Republican party. +I admit that were they fair representatives of the colored people of the +United States the charge of ingratitude might be very easily sustained. +But, happily, such men do not represent the sentiments of the colored +people, but greatly and flagrantly misrepresent them. The colored people +do see a difference between the two parties, as broad as the moral +universe and as palpable as the difference between the character of +Moses and that of Pharaoh. For one I never will forget that every +concession of liberty made to the colored people of the United States +has come to them through the action of the Republican party, and that +all the opposition made to those concessions has come from the +Democratic party. Any colored man who either denies this or endeavors to +disparage that party and belittle their concessions by attributing them +entirely to selfish and cowardly motives brands himself as unjust, +uncharitable, and ungrateful. The blindness of such men is very +surprising. Do they not see that in denying their obligations to the +Republican party they only invite the scorn and contempt of the +Democratic party? Do they not understand that they are advertising +themselves as base political ingrates? Do they not know that they are +giving notice to the Democratic party--the party that they are just now +aiming to conciliate--that they will be as unjust and ungrateful to that +party for any concessions from it as they declare themselves to be to +the Republican party for what that party has done? + +But, fellow-citizens, while I gratefully remember the important services +of the Republican party in emancipating and enfranchising the colored +people of the United States, I do not forget that the work of that party +is most sadly incomplete. We are yet, as a people, only half-free. The +promise of liberty remains unfulfilled. We stand to-day only in the +twilight of American liberty. The sunbeams of perfect day are still +behind the mountains, and the mission of the Republican party will not +be ended until the persons, the property, and the ballot of the colored +man shall be as well protected in every State of the American Union as +are such rights in the case of the white man. The Republican party is +not perfect. It is cautious even to the point of timidity; but it is, +nevertheless, the best political force and friend we have. + +And now I return to the point at which I commenced these remarks. I have +spoken to you of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States +and of the national progress and prosperity under that instrument; I +have called your attention to the noble objects announced in the +preamble of the Constitution. I did not stop then and there to inquire +how far those objects, so solemnly proclaimed to the world, and so often +sworn to, have been attained, or to point out how far they have been +practically disregarded and abandoned by the Government ordained to +practically carry them out. I now undertake to say that neither the +Constitution of 1789, nor the Constitution as amended since the war, is +the law of the land. That Constitution has been slain in the house of +its friends. So far as the colored people of the country are concerned, +the Constitution is but a stupendous sham, a rope of sand, a Dead Sea +apple, fair without and foul within, keeping the promise to the eye and +breaking it to the heart. The Federal Government, so far as we are +concerned, has abdicated its functions and abandoned the objects for +which the Constitution was framed and adopted, and for this I arraign it +at the bar of public opinion, both of our own country and that of the +civilized world. I am here to tell the truth, and to tell it without +fear or favor, and the truth is that neither the Republican party nor +the Democratic party has yet complied with the solemn oath, taken by +their respective representatives, to support the Constitution, and +execute the laws enacted under its provisions. They have promised us +law, and abandoned us to anarchy; they have promised protection, and +given us violence; they have promised us fish, and given us a serpent. A +vital and fundamental object which they have sworn to realize to the +best of their ability, is the establishment of justice. This is one of +the six fundamental objects for which the Constitution was ordained; but +when, where, and how has any attempt been made by the Federal Government +to enforce or establish justice in any one of the late slave-holding +States? Has any one of our Republican Presidents, since Grant, earnestly +endeavored to establish justice in the South? According to the highest +legal authorities, justice is the perpetual disposition to secure to +every man, by due process of law, protection to his person, his property +and his political rights. “Due process of law” has a definite and legal +meaning. It means the right to be tried in open court by a jury of one’s +peers, and before an impartial judge. It means that the accused shall be +brought face to face with his accusers; that he shall be allowed to call +witnesses in his defence, and that he shall have the assistance of +counsel; it means that, preceding his trial, he shall be safe in the +custody of the Government, and that no harm shall come to him for any +alleged offence till he is fairly tried, convicted, and sentenced by the +court. This protection is given to the vilest white criminal in the +land. He cannot be convicted while there is even a reasonable doubt in +the minds of the jury as to his guilt. But to the colored man accused of +crime in the Southern States, a different rule is almost everywhere +applied. With him, to be accused is to be convicted. The court in which +he is tried is a lynching mob. This mob takes the place of “due process +of law,” of judge, jury, witness, and counsel. It does not come to +ascertain the guilt or innocence of the accused, but to hang, shoot, +stab, burn, or whip him to death. Neither courts, jails, nor marshals +are allowed to protect him. Every day brings us tidings of these +outrages. I will not stop to detail individual instances. Their name is +legion. Everybody knows that what I say is true, and that no power is +employed by the Government to prevent this lawless violence. Yet our +chief magistrates and other officers, Democratic and Republican, +continue to go through the solemn mockery, the empty form of swearing by +the name of Almighty God that they will execute the laws and the +Constitution; that they will establish justice, insure domestic +tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our +posterity. + +Only a few weeks ago, at Carrolton Court-house, Mississippi, in the +absence of all political excitement, while the Government of the nation, +as well as the government of the Southern States, was safely in the +hands of the Democratic party; when there was no pending election, and +no pretence of a fear of possible negro supremacy, one hundred white +citizens, on horseback, armed to the teeth, deliberately assembled and +in cold blood opened a deadly fire upon a party of peaceable, unarmed +colored men, killing eleven of them on the spot, and mortally wounding +nine others, most of whom have since died. The sad thing is that, in the +average American mind, horrors of this character have become so frequent +since the slave-holding rebellion that they excite neither shame nor +surprise; neither pity for the slain, nor indignation for the slayers. +It is the old story verified: + + “Vice is a monster of such frightful mien + That, to be hated, needs but to be seen; + But seen too oft, familiar with its face, + We first endure, then pity, then embrace.” + +It is said that those who live on the banks of Niagara neither hear its +thunder nor shudder at its overwhelming power. In any other country such +a frightful crime as the Carrolton massacre--in any other country than +this a scream would have gone up from all quarters of the land for the +arrest and punishment of these cold-blooded murderers. But alas! nothing +like this has happened here. We are used to the shedding of innocent +blood, and the heart of this nation is torpid, if not dead, to the +natural claims of justice and humanity where the victims are of the +colored race. Where are the sworn ministers of the law? Where are the +guardians of public justice? + +Where are the defenders of the Constitution? What hand in House or +Senate; what voice in court or Cabinet is uplifted to stay this tide of +violence, blood, and barbarism? Neither governors, presidents, nor +statesmen have yet declared that these barbarities shall be stopped. On +the contrary, they all confess themselves powerless to protect our +class; and thus you and I and all of us are struck down, and bloody +treason flourishes over us. In view of this confessed impotency of the +Government and this apparent insensibility of the nation to the claims +of humanity, do you ask me why I expend my time and breath in denouncing +these wholesale murders when there is no seeming prospect of a favorable +response? I answer in turn, how can you, how can any man with a heart +in his breast do otherwise when, louder than the blood of Abel, the +blood of his fellow-men cries from the ground? + + “Shall tongues be mute when deeds are wrought + Which well might shame extremest hell? + Shall freeman lock the indignant thought? + Shall mercy’s bosom cease to swell? + Shall honor bleed, shall truth succumb, + Shall pen, and press, and soul be dumb? + By all around, above, below, + Be ours the indignant answer, No!” + +In a former address, delivered on the occasion of this anniversary, I +was at the pains of showing that much of the crime attributed to colored +people, and for which they were held responsible, imprisoned, and +murdered, was, in fact, committed by white men disguised as negroes. I +affirm that all presumptions in courts of law and in the community were +against the negro, and that color was the safest disguise a white man +could assume in which to commit crime; that all he had to do to commit +the worst crimes with impunity was to blacken his face and take on the +similitude of a negro, but even this disguise sometimes fails. Only a +few days ago a Mr. J. H. Justice, an eminent citizen of Granger county, +Tenn., attempted under this disguise to commit a cunningly devised +robbery and have his offence fixed upon a negro. All worked well till a +bullet brought him to the ground and a little soap and water was applied +to his face, when he was found to be no negro at all, but a very +respectable white citizen. + +Dark, desperate, and forlorn as I have described the situation, the +reality exceeds the description. In most of the Gulf States, and in some +parts of the border States, I have sometimes thought that we should be +about as well-situated for the purposes of justice if there were no +Constitution of the United States at all; as well off if there were no +law or law-makers, no constables, no jails, no courts of justice, and we +were left entirely without the pretence of legal protection, for we are +now at the mercy of midnight raiders, assassins, and murderers, and we +should only be in the same condition if these pretended safeguards were +abandoned. They now only mock us. Other men are presumed to be innocent +until they are proved guilty. We are presumed to be guilty until we are +proved to be innocent. + +The charge is often made that negroes are by nature the criminal class +of America; that they furnish a larger proportion of petty thieves than +any other class. I admit the charge, but deny that nature, race, or +color has anything to do with the fact. Any other race with the same +antecedents and the same condition would show a similar thieving +propensity. + +The American people have this lesson to learn: That where justice is +denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where +any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to +oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be +safe. I deny that nature has made the negro a thief or a burglar. Look +at these black criminals, as they are brought into your police courts; +view and study their faces, their forms, and their features, as I have +done for years as Marshal of this District, and you will see that their +antecedents are written all over them. Two hundred and fifty years of +grinding slavery has done its work upon them. They stand before you +to-day physically and mentally maimed and mutilated men. Many of their +mothers and grandmothers were lashed to agony before their birth by +cruel overseers, and the children have inherited in their faces the +anguish and resentment felt by their parents. Many of these poor +creatures have not been free long enough to outgrow the marks of the +lash on their backs, and the deeper marks on their souls. No, no! It is +not nature that has erred in making the negro. That shame rests with +slavery. It has twisted his limbs, deformed his body, flattened his +feet, and distorted his features, and made him, though black, no longer +comely. In infancy he slept on the cold clay floor of his cabin, with +quick circulation on one side, and tardy circulation on the other. So +that he has grown up unequal, unsymmetrical, and is no longer a +vertical, well-rounded man, in body or in mind. Time, education, and +training will restore him to natural proportions, for, though bruised +and blasted, he is yet a man. + +The school of the negro since leaving slavery has not been much of an +improvement on his former condition. Individuals of the race have here +and there enjoyed large benefits from emancipation, and the result is +seen in their conduct, but the mass have had their liberty coupled with +hardships which tend strongly to keep them a dwarfed and miserable +class. A man who labors ten hours a day with pickaxe, crowbar, and +shovel, and has a family to support and house rent to pay, and receives +for his work but a dollar a day, and what is worse still, he is deprived +of labor a large part of his time by reason of sickness and the weather, +in his poverty, easily falls before the temptation to steal and rob. +Hungry men will eat. Desperate men will commit crime. Outraged men will +seek revenge. It is said to be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom +of heaven. I have sometimes thought it harder still for a poor man to +enter the kingdom of heaven. Man is so constituted that if he cannot get +a living honestly, he will get it dishonestly. “Skin for skin,” as the +devil said of Job. “All that a man hath will he give for his life.” +Oppression makes even wise men mad and reckless; for illustration I pray +look at East St. Louis. + +In the Southern States to-day a landlord system is in operation which +keeps the negroes of that section in rags and wretchedness, almost to +the point of starvation. As a rule, this system puts it out of the power +of the negro to own land. There is, to be sure, no law forbidding the +selling of land to the colored people, but there is an understanding +which has the full effect of law. That understanding is that the land +must be kept in the hands of the old master class. The colored people +can rent land, it is true, and many of them do rent many acres, and find +themselves poorer at the end of the year than at the beginning, because +they are charged more a year for rent per acre than the land would bring +at auction sale. The landlord and tenant system of Ireland, which has +conducted that country to the jaws of ruin, bad as it is, is not worse +than that which prevails at this hour at the South, and yet the colored +people of the South are constantly reproached for their poverty. They +are asked to make bricks without straw. Their hands are tied, and they +are asked to work. They are forced to be poor, and laughed at for their +destitution. + +I am speaking mainly to colored men to-night, but I want my words to +find their way to the eyes, ears, heads and hearts of my white +fellow-countrymen, hoping that some among them may be made to think, +some hearts among them will be made to feel, and some of their number +will be made to act. I appeal to our white fellow-countrymen. The power +to protect is in their hands. This is and must be practically the white +man’s government. He has the numbers and the intelligence to control and +direct. To him belongs the responsibility of its honor or dishonor, its +glory or its shame, its salvation or its ruin. If they can protect the +rights of white men they can protect the rights of black men; if they +can defend the rights of American citizens abroad they can defend them +at home; if they can use the army to protect the rights of Chinamen, +they can use the army to protect the rights of colored men. The only +trouble is the will! the will! the will! Here, as elsewhere, “Where +there is a will there is a way.” + +I have now said not all that could be said but enough to indicate the +relations at present existing between the white and colored people of +this country, especially the relations subsisting between the two +classes of the late slave-holding States. Time would fail me to trace +this relation in all its ramifications; but that labor is neither +required by this audience nor by the country. The condition of the +emancipated class is known alike to ourselves and to the Government, to +pulpit and press, and to both of the great political parties. These have +only to do their duty and all will be well. + +One use of this annual celebration is to keep the subject of our +grievances before the people and government, and to urge both to do +their respective parts in the happy solution of the race problem. The +weapons of our warfare for equal rights are not carnal but simple truth, +addressed to the hearts and sense of justice of the American people. If +this fails we are lost. We have no armies or generals, no swords or +cannons to enforce our claims, and do not want any. + +We are often asked with an air of reproach by white men at the North: +“Why don’t your people fight their way to the ballot-box?” The question +adds insult to injury. Whom are we called upon to fight? They are the +men who held this nation, with all its tremendous resources of men and +money, at bay during four long and bloody years. Whom are we to fight? I +answer, not a few midnight assassins, not the rabble mob, but trained +armies, skilled generals of the Confederate army, and in the last resort +we should have to meet the Federal army. Though that army cannot now be +employed to defend the weak against the strong, means would certainly be +found for its employment to protect the strong against the weak. In such +a case insurrection would be madness. + +But there is another remedy proposed. These people are advised to make +an exodus to the Pacific slope. With the best intentions they are told +of the fertility of the soil and salubrity of the climate. If they +should tell the same as existing in the moon, the simple question, How +shall they get there? would knock the life out of it at once. Without +money, without friends, without knowledge, and only gaining enough by +daily toil to keep them above the starvation point, where they are, how +can such a people rise and cross the continent? The measure on its face +is no remedy at all. Besides, who does not know that should these people +ever attempt such an exodus, that they would be met with shot-guns at +every cross-road. Who does not know that the white landholders of the +South would never consent to let that labor which alone gives value to +their land march off without opposition? Who does not know that if the +Federal Government is powerless to protect these people in staying that +it would be equally powerless to protect them in going _en masse_? For +one, I say away with such contrivances, such lame and impotent +substitutes for the justice and protection due us. The first duty that +the National Government owes to its citizens is protection. + +While, however, I hold now, as I held years ago, that the South is the +natural home of the colored race, and that there must the destiny of +that race be mainly worked out, I still believe that means can be and +ought to be adopted to assist in the emigration of such of their number +as may wish to change their residence to parts of the country where +their civil and political rights are better protected than at present +they can be at the South. + +I adopt the suggestion of the _National Republican_, of this city, that +_diffusion_ is the true policy for the colored people of the South. All, +of course, cannot leave that section, and ought not; but some can, and +the condition of those who must remain will be better because of those +who go. Men, like trees, may be too thickly planted to thrive. If the +labor market of Mississippi were to-day not over-loaded and over +supplied, the laborers would be more fully appreciated; but this work of +diffusion and distribution cannot be carried on by the emancipated class +alone. They need, and ought to have, the material aid of both white and +colored people of the free states. A million of dollars devoted to this +purpose would do more for the colored people of the South than the same +amount expended in any other way. There is no degradation, no loss of +self-respect, in asking this aid, considering the circumstances of these +people. The white people of this nation owe them this help and a great +deal more. The keynote of the future should not be concentration, but +diffusion--distribution. This may not be a remedy for all evils now +uncured, but it certainly will be a help in the right direction. + +A word now in respect of another remedy for the black man’s ills. It +calls itself independent political action. This has, during the past few +years, been advocated with much zeal and spirit by several of our +leading colored men, and also with much ability, though I am happy to +say not with much success. First, their plan, if I understand it, is to +separate the colored people of the country from the Republican party. +This, with them, is the primary and essential condition of making the +colored vote independent. Hence all their artillery is directed to +making that party odious in the eyes of the colored voters. Colored men +who adhere to the Republican party are vilified as slaves, +office-seekers, serviles, “knuckle-close” Republicans, as tools of white +men, traitors to their race, and much more of the same sort. Perhaps no +one has been a more prominent target for such denunciation than your +humble speaker. + +Now, the position to which these gentlemen invite us is one of +neutrality between the two great political parties, and to vote with +either, or against either, according to the prevailing motive when the +time for action shall arrive. In the interval we are to have no standing +with either party, and have no active influence in shaping the policy of +either, but we are to stand alone, and hold ourselves ready to serve one +or to serve the other, or both, as we may incline at the moment. + +With all respect to these political doctors, I must say that their +remedy is no remedy at all. No man can serve two masters in politics any +more than in religion. If there is one position in life more despicable +in the eyes of man, and more condemned by nature than another, it is +that of neutrality. Besides, if there is one thing more impossible than +another, it is a position of perfect neutrality in politics. Our +friends, Fortune, Downing, and others, flatter themselves that they have +reached this perfection, but they are utterly mistaken. No man can read +their utterances without seeing their animus of hate to the Republican +party, and their preference for the Democratic party. The fault is not +so much in their intention, as in their position. They can neither act +with nor against the two parties impartially. They are compelled by +their position to either serve the one and oppose the other, and they +cannot serve or oppose both alike. Independence, like neutrality, is +also impossible. If the colored man does not depend upon the Republican +party, he will depend upon the Democratic party, and if he does neither, +he becomes a nonentity in American politics. But these gentlemen do, in +effect, ask us to break down the power of the Republican party, when to +do it is to put the Government in the hands of the Democratic party. +Colored men are already in the Republican party, and to come out of it +is to defeat it. + +For one, I must say that the Democratic party has as yet given me no +sufficient reasons for doing it any such service, nor has the Republican +party sunk so low that I must abandon it for its great rival. With all +its faults it is the best party now in existence. In it are the best +elements of the American people, and if any good is to come to us +politically it will be through that party. + +I must cease to remember a great many things and must forget a great +many things before I can counsel any man, colored or white, to join the +Democratic party, or to occupy a position of neutrality between that +party and the Republican party. Such a position of the colored people of +this country will prove about as comfortable as between the upper and +nether millstone. Those of our number now posing as Independents are +doing better service to the Democratic party under the Independent mask +than they could do if they came out honestly for the Democratic party. + +I am charged with commending the inaugural address of President +Cleveland. I am not ashamed of that charge. I said at the time that no +better words for the colored citizen had dropped from the east portico +of the Capitol since the days of Lincoln and Grant, and I say so still. +I did not say, as my traducer lyingly asserts, that Mr. Cleveland said +better words than Lincoln or Grant. But it would not have suited the man +who left Washington with malice in his heart and falsehood in his throat +to be more truthful in Petersburg than in Washington. This malcontent +accuser seeks to make the impression that those who thought and spoke +well of the inaugural address did so from selfish motives, and from a +desire to get or retain office. “Out of the abundance of the heart the +mouth speaketh.” “With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and +with what measure ye mete, the same shall be measured to you again.” He +ought to remember, however, that a serpent without a fang, a scorpion +without a sting, has no more ability to poison than a lie which has lost +its ability to deceive has to injure. It so happens that we had two +Presidents and one Vice-President prior to President Cleveland, and I +challenge my ambitious and envious accuser to find any better word for +the colored citizens of this country in the inaugural addresses of +either than is found in the inaugural address of President Cleveland. I +also beg my accuser to remember that I gave no pledge that Mr. Cleveland +would be able to live up to the sentiments of that address, but, on the +contrary I doubted even the probability of his success in doing so. I +gave him credit, however, for an honest purpose, and expressed a hope +that he might be able to do as well and better than he promised. But I +saw him in the rapids and predicted that they would be too strong for +him. Did this look like seeking favor? He did a brave thing in removing +from office an abettor of murder in Mississippi. He has expressed in a +private way, to Messrs. Bruce and Lynch, his reprobation of the recent +massacres at Carrollton, and for this we thank him. But he has done +nothing in his position as Commander-in-chief of the army and navy to +put a stop to such horrors. I am quite sure that he abhors violence and +bloodshed. He has shown this in his publicly spoken words in behalf of +persecuted and murdered Chinamen; he should do the same for the +persecuted and murdered black citizens of Mississippi. He could threaten +the law-breakers and murderers of the West with the sword of the nation, +why not the South? If it was right to protect and defend the Chinese, +why not the negro? If in the days of slavery the army could be used to +hunt slaves, and suppress slave insurrections, why, in the days of +liberty, may it not be used to enforce rights guaranteed by the +Constitution? Alas! fellow-citizens, there is no right so neglected as +the negro’s right. There is no flesh so despised as the negro’s flesh. +There is no blood so cheap as the negro’s blood. I have been saying +these things to the American people for nearly fifty years. In the order +of nature I cannot say them much longer; but, as was said by another, +“though time himself should confront me, and shake his hoary locks at my +persistence, I shall not cease while life is left me, and our wrongs are +unredressed, to thus cry aloud and spare not.” + +Fellow-citizens, I am disappointed. The accession of the Democratic +party to power has not been followed by the results I expected. When the +tiger has quenched his thirst in blood, and when the anaconda has +swallowed his prey, they cease to pursue their trembling game and sink +to rest; so I thought when the Democratic party came into power, when +the solid South gave law to the land, when there could no longer be any +pretence for the fear of negro ascendency in the councils of the nation, +persecution, violence, and murder would cease, and the negro would be +left in peace; but the bloody scenes at Carrollton, and the daily +reports of lynch law in the South, have destroyed this cherished hope +and told me that the end of our sufferings is not yet. + +But, fellow-citizens, I do not despair, and no power that I know of can +make me despair of the ultimate triumph of justice and liberty in this +country. I have seen too many abuses outgrown, too many evils removed, +too many moral and physical improvements made, to doubt that the wheels +of progress will still roll on. We have but to toil and trust, throw +away whiskey and tobacco, improve the opportunities that we have, put +away all extravagance, learn to live within our means, lay up our +earnings, educate our children, live industrious and virtuous lives, +establish a character for sobriety, punctuality, and general +uprightness, and we shall raise up powerful friends who shall stand by +us in our struggle for an equal chance in the race of life. The white +people of this country are asleep, but not dead. In other days we had a +potent voice in the Senate which awoke the nation. + +Ireland now has an advocate in the British Senate who has arrested the +eye and ear of the civilized world in championing the cause of Ireland. +There is to-day in the American Senate an opportunity for an American +Gladstone; one whose voice shall have power to awake this nation to the +stupendous wrongs inflicted upon our newly-made citizens and move the +Government to a vindication of our constitutional rights. We have in +other days had a Sumner, a Wilson, a Chase, a Conkling, a Thaddeus +Stevens, and a Morton. These did not exhaust the justice and humanity of +American statesmanship. There is heart and eloquence still left in the +councils of the nation, and these will, I trust, yet make themselves +potent in having both the Constitution of 1789 and the Constitution with +the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments made practically the law of the +land for all the people thereof. + + +UP FROM SLAVERY: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY + +By Booker T. Washington + + + + + This volume is dedicated to my Wife + Margaret James Washington + And to my Brother John H. Washington + Whose patience, fidelity, + and hard work have gone far to make the + work at Tuskegee successful. + + + + +Preface + +This volume is the outgrowth of a series of articles, dealing with +incidents in my life, which were published consecutively in the Outlook. +While they were appearing in that magazine I was constantly surprised at +the number of requests which came to me from all parts of the country, +asking that the articles be permanently preserved in book form. I am +most grateful to the Outlook for permission to gratify these requests. + +I have tried to tell a simple, straightforward story, with no attempt +at embellishment. My regret is that what I have attempted to do has +been done so imperfectly. The greater part of my time and strength is +required for the executive work connected with the Tuskegee Normal +and Industrial Institute, and in securing the money necessary for the +support of the institution. Much of what I have said has been written +on board trains, or at hotels or railroad stations while I have been +waiting for trains, or during the moments that I could spare from my +work while at Tuskegee. Without the painstaking and generous assistance +of Mr. Max Bennett Thrasher I could not have succeeded in any +satisfactory degree. + + + + +Introduction + +The details of Mr. Washington's early life, as frankly set down in "Up +from Slavery," do not give quite a whole view of his education. He had +the training that a coloured youth receives at Hampton, which, indeed, +the autobiography does explain. But the reader does not get his +intellectual pedigree, for Mr. Washington himself, perhaps, does not +as clearly understand it as another man might. The truth is he had a +training during the most impressionable period of his life that was very +extraordinary, such a training as few men of his generation have had. +To see its full meaning one must start in the Hawaiian Islands half +a century or more ago.* There Samuel Armstrong, a youth of missionary +parents, earned enough money to pay his expenses at an American college. +Equipped with this small sum and the earnestness that the undertaking +implied, he came to Williams College when Dr. Mark Hopkins was +president. Williams College had many good things for youth in that day, +as it has in this, but the greatest was the strong personality of its +famous president. Every student does not profit by a great teacher; but +perhaps no young man ever came under the influence of Dr. Hopkins, +whose whole nature was so ripe for profit by such an experience as young +Armstrong. He lived in the family of President Hopkins, and thus had a +training that was wholly out of the common; and this training had +much to do with the development of his own strong character, whose +originality and force we are only beginning to appreciate. + + * For this interesting view of Mr. Washington's education, I + am indebted to Robert C. Ogden, Esq., Chairman of the Board + of Trustees of Hampton Institute and the intimate friend of + General Armstrong during the whole period of his educational + work. + +In turn, Samuel Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, took up his +work as a trainer of youth. He had very raw material, and doubtless most +of his pupils failed to get the greatest lessons from him; but, as +he had been a peculiarly receptive pupil of Dr. Hopkins, so Booker +Washington became a peculiarly receptive pupil of his. To the formation +of Mr. Washington's character, then, went the missionary zeal of New +England, influenced by one of the strongest personalities in modern +education, and the wide-reaching moral earnestness of General Armstrong +himself. These influences are easily recognizable in Mr. Washington +to-day by men who knew Dr. Hopkins and General Armstrong. + +I got the cue to Mr. Washington's character from a very simple incident +many years ago. I had never seen him, and I knew little about him, +except that he was the head of a school at Tuskegee, Alabama. I had +occasion to write to him, and I addressed him as "The Rev. Booker T. +Washington." In his reply there was no mention of my addressing him as a +clergyman. But when I had occasion to write to him again, and persisted +in making him a preacher, his second letter brought a postscript: "I +have no claim to 'Rev.'" I knew most of the coloured men who at that +time had become prominent as leaders of their race, but I had not then +known one who was neither a politician nor a preacher; and I had +not heard of the head of an important coloured school who was not +a preacher. "A new kind of man in the coloured world," I said to +myself--"a new kind of man surely if he looks upon his task as an +economic one instead of a theological one." I wrote him an apology for +mistaking him for a preacher. + +The first time that I went to Tuskegee I was asked to make an address +to the school on Sunday evening. I sat upon the platform of the large +chapel and looked forth on a thousand coloured faces, and the choir of +a hundred or more behind me sang a familiar religious melody, and the +whole company joined in the chorus with unction. I was the only white +man under the roof, and the scene and the songs made an impression on me +that I shall never forget. Mr. Washington arose and asked them to sing +one after another of the old melodies that I had heard all my life; +but I had never before heard them sung by a thousand voices nor by the +voices of educated Negroes. I had associated them with the Negro of the +past, not with the Negro who was struggling upward. They brought to my +mind the plantation, the cabin, the slave, not the freedman in quest of +education. But on the plantation and in the cabin they had never been +sung as these thousand students sang them. I saw again all the old +plantations that I had ever seen; the whole history of the Negro +ran through my mind; and the inexpressible pathos of his life found +expression in these songs as I had never before felt it. + +And the future? These were the ambitious youths of the race, at work +with an earnestness that put to shame the conventional student life of +most educational institutions. Another song rolled up along the +rafters. And as soon as silence came, I found myself in front of this +extraordinary mass of faces, thinking not of them, but of that long and +unhappy chapter in our country's history which followed the one great +structural mistake of the Fathers of the Republic; thinking of the one +continuous great problem that generations of statesmen had wrangled +over, and a million men fought about, and that had so dwarfed the mass +of English men in the Southern States as to hold them back a hundred +years behind their fellows in every other part of the world--in England, +in Australia, and in the Northern and Western States; I was thinking of +this dark shadow that had oppressed every large-minded statesman from +Jefferson to Lincoln. These thousand young men and women about me were +victims of it. I, too, was an innocent victim of it. The whole Republic +was a victim of that fundamental error of importing Africa into America. +I held firmly to the first article of my faith that the Republic +must stand fast by the principle of a fair ballot; but I recalled the +wretched mess that Reconstruction had made of it; I recalled the +low level of public life in all the "black" States. Every effort of +philanthropy seemed to have miscarried, every effort at correcting +abuses seemed of doubtful value, and the race friction seemed to become +severer. Here was the century-old problem in all its pathos seated +singing before me. Who were the more to be pitied--these innocent +victims of an ancient wrong, or I and men like me, who had inherited +the problem? I had long ago thrown aside illusions and theories, and was +willing to meet the facts face to face, and to do whatever in God's name +a man might do towards saving the next generation from such a burden. +But I felt the weight of twenty well-nigh hopeless years of thought and +reading and observation; for the old difficulties remained and new +ones had sprung up. Then I saw clearly that the way out of a century +of blunders had been made by this man who stood beside me and was +introducing me to this audience. Before me was the material he had used. +All about me was the indisputable evidence that he had found the +natural line of development. He had shown the way. Time and patience and +encouragement and work would do the rest. + +It was then more clearly than ever before that I understood the +patriotic significance of Mr. Washington's work. It is this conception +of it and of him that I have ever since carried with me. It is on this +that his claim to our gratitude rests. + +To teach the Negro to read, whether English, or Greek, or Hebrew, +butters no parsnips. To make the Negro work, that is what his master did +in one way and hunger has done in another; yet both these left Southern +life where they found it. But to teach the Negro to do skilful work, +as men of all the races that have risen have worked,--responsible work, +which IS education and character; and most of all when Negroes so teach +Negroes to do this that they will teach others with a missionary zeal +that puts all ordinary philanthropic efforts to shame,--this is to +change the whole economic basis of life and the whole character of a +people. + +The plan itself is not a new one. It was worked out at Hampton +Institute, but it was done at Hampton by white men. The plan had, in +fact, been many times theoretically laid down by thoughtful students of +Southern life. Handicrafts were taught in the days of slavery on most +well-managed plantations. But Tuskegee is, nevertheless, a brand-new +chapter in the history of the Negro, and in the history of the knottiest +problem we have ever faced. It not only makes "a carpenter of a man; it +makes a man of a carpenter." In one sense, therefore, it is of greater +value than any other institution for the training of men and women that +we have, from Cambridge to Palo Alto. It is almost the only one of which +it may be said that it points the way to a new epoch in a large area of +our national life. + +To work out the plan on paper, or at a distance--that is one thing. For +a white man to work it out--that too, is an easy thing. For a coloured +man to work it out in the South, where, in its constructive period, +he was necessarily misunderstood by his own people as well as by the +whites, and where he had to adjust it at every step to the strained race +relations--that is so very different and more difficult a thing that the +man who did it put the country under lasting obligations to him. + +It was not and is not a mere educational task. Anybody could teach boys +trades and give them an elementary education. Such tasks have been done +since the beginning of civilization. But this task had to be done with +the rawest of raw material, done within the civilization of the dominant +race, and so done as not to run across race lines and social lines that +are the strongest forces in the community. It had to be done for the +benefit of the whole community. It had to be done, moreover, without +local help, in the face of the direst poverty, done by begging, and done +in spite of the ignorance of one race and the prejudice of the other. + +No man living had a harder task, and a task that called for more wisdom +to do it right. The true measure of Mr. Washington's success is, then, +not his teaching the pupils of Tuskegee, nor even gaining the support of +philanthropic persons at a distance, but this--that every Southern white +man of character and of wisdom has been won to a cordial recognition +of the value of the work, even men who held and still hold to the +conviction that a mere book education for the Southern blacks under +present conditions is a positive evil. This is a demonstration of +the efficiency of the Hampton-Tuskegee idea that stands like the +demonstration of the value of democratic institutions themselves--a +demonstration made so clear in spite of the greatest odds that it is no +longer open to argument. + +Consider the change that has come in twenty years in the discussion +of the Negro problem. Two or three decades ago social philosophers and +statisticians and well-meaning philanthropists were still talking and +writing about the deportation of the Negroes, or about their settlement +within some restricted area, or about their settling in all parts of the +Union, or about their decline through their neglect of their children, +or about their rapid multiplication till they should expel the whites +from the South--of every sort of nonsense under heaven. All this has +given place to the simple plan of an indefinite extension among the +neglected classes of both races of the Hampton-Tuskegee system of +training. The "problem" in one sense has disappeared. The future will +have for the South swift or slow development of its masses and of its +soil in proportion to the swift or slow development of this kind of +training. This change of view is a true measure of Mr. Washington's +work. + +The literature of the Negro in America is colossal, from political +oratory through abolitionism to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "Cotton is +King"--a vast mass of books which many men have read to the waste of +good years (and I among them); but the only books that I have read a +second time or ever care again to read in the whole list (most of them +by tiresome and unbalanced "reformers") are "Uncle Remus" and "Up from +Slavery"; for these are the great literature of the subject. One has all +the best of the past, the other foreshadows a better future; and the +men who wrote them are the only men who have written of the subject with +that perfect frankness and perfect knowledge and perfect poise whose +other name is genius. + +Mr. Washington has won a world-wide fame at an early age. His story +of his own life already has the distinction of translation into more +languages, I think, than any other American book; and I suppose that +he has as large a personal acquaintance among men of influence as any +private citizen now living. + +His own teaching at Tuskegee is unique. He lectures to his advanced +students on the art of right living, not out of text-books, but +straight out of life. Then he sends them into the country to visit Negro +families. Such a student will come back with a minute report of the way +in which the family that he has seen lives, what their earnings are, +what they do well and what they do ill; and he will explain how they +might live better. He constructs a definite plan for the betterment +of that particular family out of the resources that they have. Such a +student, if he be bright, will profit more by an experience like this +than he could profit by all the books on sociology and economics that +ever were written. I talked with a boy at Tuskegee who had made such a +study as this, and I could not keep from contrasting his knowledge and +enthusiasm with what I heard in a class room at a Negro university +in one of the Southern cities, which is conducted on the idea that a +college course will save the soul. Here the class was reciting a lesson +from an abstruse text-book on economics, reciting it by rote, with so +obvious a failure to assimilate it that the waste of labour was pitiful. + +I asked Mr. Washington years ago what he regarded as the most important +result of his work, and he replied: + +"I do not know which to put first, the effect of Tuskegee's work on the +Negro, or the effect on the attitude of the white man to the Negro." + +The race divergence under the system of miseducation was fast getting +wider. Under the influence of the Hampton-Tuskegee idea the races +are coming into a closer sympathy and into an honourable and helpful +relation. As the Negro becomes economically independent, he becomes a +responsible part of the Southern life; and the whites so recognize +him. And this must be so from the nature of things. There is nothing +artificial about it. It is development in a perfectly natural way. And +the Southern whites not only so recognize it, but they are imitating it +in the teaching of the neglected masses of their own race. It has thus +come about that the school is taking a more direct and helpful hold on +life in the South than anywhere else in the country. Education is not +a thing apart from life--not a "system," nor a philosophy; it is direct +teaching how to live and how to work. + +To say that Mr. Washington has won the gratitude of all thoughtful +Southern white men, is to say that he has worked with the highest +practical wisdom at a large constructive task; for no plan for the +up-building of the freedman could succeed that ran counter to Southern +opinion. To win the support of Southern opinion and to shape it was a +necessary part of the task; and in this he has so well succeeded that +the South has a sincere and high regard for him. He once said to me that +he recalled the day, and remembered it thankfully, when he grew large +enough to regard a Southern white man as he regarded a Northern one. It +is well for our common country that the day is come when he and his work +are regarded as highly in the South as in any other part of the Union. I +think that no man of our generation has a more noteworthy achievement to +his credit than this; and it is an achievement of moral earnestness of +the strong character of a man who has done a great national service. + +Walter H. Page. + + + + +UP FROM SLAVERY + + + +Chapter I. A Slave Among Slaves + +I was born a slave on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia. I am +not quite sure of the exact place or exact date of my birth, but at +any rate I suspect I must have been born somewhere and at some time. +As nearly as I have been able to learn, I was born near a cross-roads +post-office called Hale's Ford, and the year was 1858 or 1859. I do not +know the month or the day. The earliest impressions I can now recall are +of the plantation and the slave quarters--the latter being the part of +the plantation where the slaves had their cabins. + +My life had its beginning in the midst of the most miserable, desolate, +and discouraging surroundings. This was so, however, not because my +owners were especially cruel, for they were not, as compared with many +others. I was born in a typical log cabin, about fourteen by sixteen +feet square. In this cabin I lived with my mother and a brother and +sister till after the Civil War, when we were all declared free. + +Of my ancestry I know almost nothing. In the slave quarters, and even +later, I heard whispered conversations among the coloured people of +the tortures which the slaves, including, no doubt, my ancestors on my +mother's side, suffered in the middle passage of the slave ship while +being conveyed from Africa to America. I have been unsuccessful in +securing any information that would throw any accurate light upon +the history of my family beyond my mother. She, I remember, had a +half-brother and a half-sister. In the days of slavery not very much +attention was given to family history and family records--that is, +black family records. My mother, I suppose, attracted the attention of a +purchaser who was afterward my owner and hers. Her addition to the slave +family attracted about as much attention as the purchase of a new horse +or cow. Of my father I know even less than of my mother. I do not even +know his name. I have heard reports to the effect that he was a white +man who lived on one of the near-by plantations. Whoever he was, I never +heard of his taking the least interest in me or providing in any way +for my rearing. But I do not find especial fault with him. He was simply +another unfortunate victim of the institution which the Nation unhappily +had engrafted upon it at that time. + +The cabin was not only our living-place, but was also used as the +kitchen for the plantation. My mother was the plantation cook. The cabin +was without glass windows; it had only openings in the side which let in +the light, and also the cold, chilly air of winter. There was a door to +the cabin--that is, something that was called a door--but the uncertain +hinges by which it was hung, and the large cracks in it, to say nothing +of the fact that it was too small, made the room a very uncomfortable +one. In addition to these openings there was, in the lower right-hand +corner of the room, the "cat-hole,"--a contrivance which almost every +mansion or cabin in Virginia possessed during the ante-bellum period. +The "cat-hole" was a square opening, about seven by eight inches, +provided for the purpose of letting the cat pass in and out of the house +at will during the night. In the case of our particular cabin I could +never understand the necessity for this convenience, since there were +at least a half-dozen other places in the cabin that would have +accommodated the cats. There was no wooden floor in our cabin, the naked +earth being used as a floor. In the centre of the earthen floor there +was a large, deep opening covered with boards, which was used as a place +in which to store sweet potatoes during the winter. An impression of +this potato-hole is very distinctly engraved upon my memory, because I +recall that during the process of putting the potatoes in or taking them +out I would often come into possession of one or two, which I roasted +and thoroughly enjoyed. There was no cooking-stove on our plantation, +and all the cooking for the whites and slaves my mother had to do over +an open fireplace, mostly in pots and "skillets." While the poorly built +cabin caused us to suffer with cold in the winter, the heat from the +open fireplace in summer was equally trying. + +The early years of my life, which were spent in the little cabin, were +not very different from those of thousands of other slaves. My mother, +of course, had little time in which to give attention to the training of +her children during the day. She snatched a few moments for our care in +the early morning before her work began, and at night after the day's +work was done. One of my earliest recollections is that of my mother +cooking a chicken late at night, and awakening her children for the +purpose of feeding them. How or where she got it I do not know. I +presume, however, it was procured from our owner's farm. Some people may +call this theft. If such a thing were to happen now, I should condemn it +as theft myself. But taking place at the time it did, and for the reason +that it did, no one could ever make me believe that my mother was guilty +of thieving. She was simply a victim of the system of slavery. I cannot +remember having slept in a bed until after our family was declared +free by the Emancipation Proclamation. Three children--John, my older +brother, Amanda, my sister, and myself--had a pallet on the dirt floor, +or, to be more correct, we slept in and on a bundle of filthy rags laid +upon the dirt floor. + +I was asked not long ago to tell something about the sports and pastimes +that I engaged in during my youth. Until that question was asked it +had never occurred to me that there was no period of my life that was +devoted to play. From the time that I can remember anything, almost +every day of my life had been occupied in some kind of labour; though +I think I would now be a more useful man if I had had time for sports. +During the period that I spent in slavery I was not large enough to be +of much service, still I was occupied most of the time in cleaning the +yards, carrying water to the men in the fields, or going to the mill to +which I used to take the corn, once a week, to be ground. The mill was +about three miles from the plantation. This work I always dreaded. The +heavy bag of corn would be thrown across the back of the horse, and the +corn divided about evenly on each side; but in some way, almost +without exception, on these trips, the corn would so shift as to become +unbalanced and would fall off the horse, and often I would fall with it. +As I was not strong enough to reload the corn upon the horse, I would +have to wait, sometimes for many hours, till a chance passer-by came +along who would help me out of my trouble. The hours while waiting for +some one were usually spent in crying. The time consumed in this way +made me late in reaching the mill, and by the time I got my corn ground +and reached home it would be far into the night. The road was a lonely +one, and often led through dense forests. I was always frightened. The +woods were said to be full of soldiers who had deserted from the army, +and I had been told that the first thing a deserter did to a Negro boy +when he found him alone was to cut off his ears. Besides, when I was +late in getting home I knew I would always get a severe scolding or a +flogging. + +I had no schooling whatever while I was a slave, though I remember on +several occasions I went as far as the schoolhouse door with one of my +young mistresses to carry her books. The picture of several dozen boys +and girls in a schoolroom engaged in study made a deep impression upon +me, and I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse and study in +this way would be about the same as getting into paradise. + +So far as I can now recall, the first knowledge that I got of the fact +that we were slaves, and that freedom of the slaves was being discussed, +was early one morning before day, when I was awakened by my mother +kneeling over her children and fervently praying that Lincoln and his +armies might be successful, and that one day she and her children might +be free. In this connection I have never been able to understand how the +slaves throughout the South, completely ignorant as were the masses so +far as books or newspapers were concerned, were able to keep themselves +so accurately and completely informed about the great National questions +that were agitating the country. From the time that Garrison, Lovejoy, +and others began to agitate for freedom, the slaves throughout the South +kept in close touch with the progress of the movement. Though I was a +mere child during the preparation for the Civil War and during the war +itself, I now recall the many late-at-night whispered discussions that I +heard my mother and the other slaves on the plantation indulge in. These +discussions showed that they understood the situation, and that they +kept themselves informed of events by what was termed the "grape-vine" +telegraph. + +During the campaign when Lincoln was first a candidate for the +Presidency, the slaves on our far-off plantation, miles from any +railroad or large city or daily newspaper, knew what the issues involved +were. When war was begun between the North and the South, every slave on +our plantation felt and knew that, though other issues were discussed, +the primal one was that of slavery. Even the most ignorant members of +my race on the remote plantations felt in their hearts, with a certainty +that admitted of no doubt, that the freedom of the slaves would be the +one great result of the war, if the Northern armies conquered. Every +success of the Federal armies and every defeat of the Confederate forces +was watched with the keenest and most intense interest. Often the slaves +got knowledge of the results of great battles before the white people +received it. This news was usually gotten from the coloured man who was +sent to the post-office for the mail. In our case the post-office was +about three miles from the plantation, and the mail came once or twice +a week. The man who was sent to the office would linger about the place +long enough to get the drift of the conversation from the group of white +people who naturally congregated there, after receiving their mail, +to discuss the latest news. The mail-carrier on his way back to our +master's house would as naturally retail the news that he had secured +among the slaves, and in this way they often heard of important events +before the white people at the "big house," as the master's house was +called. + +I cannot remember a single instance during my childhood or early +boyhood when our entire family sat down to the table together, and God's +blessing was asked, and the family ate a meal in a civilized manner. +On the plantation in Virginia, and even later, meals were gotten by the +children very much as dumb animals get theirs. It was a piece of bread +here and a scrap of meat there. It was a cup of milk at one time and +some potatoes at another. Sometimes a portion of our family would eat +out of the skillet or pot, while some one else would eat from a tin +plate held on the knees, and often using nothing but the hands with +which to hold the food. When I had grown to sufficient size, I was +required to go to the "big house" at meal-times to fan the flies from +the table by means of a large set of paper fans operated by a pulley. +Naturally much of the conversation of the white people turned upon the +subject of freedom and the war, and I absorbed a good deal of it. I +remember that at one time I saw two of my young mistresses and some +lady visitors eating ginger-cakes, in the yard. At that time those cakes +seemed to me to be absolutely the most tempting and desirable things +that I had ever seen; and I then and there resolved that, if I ever got +free, the height of my ambition would be reached if I could get to the +point where I could secure and eat ginger-cakes in the way that I saw +those ladies doing. + +Of course as the war was prolonged the white people, in many cases, +often found it difficult to secure food for themselves. I think the +slaves felt the deprivation less than the whites, because the usual diet +for slaves was corn bread and pork, and these could be raised on the +plantation; but coffee, tea, sugar, and other articles which the whites +had been accustomed to use could not be raised on the plantation, and +the conditions brought about by the war frequently made it impossible +to secure these things. The whites were often in great straits. Parched +corn was used for coffee, and a kind of black molasses was used instead +of sugar. Many times nothing was used to sweeten the so-called tea and +coffee. + +The first pair of shoes that I recall wearing were wooden ones. They +had rough leather on the top, but the bottoms, which were about an +inch thick, were of wood. When I walked they made a fearful noise, and +besides this they were very inconvenient, since there was no yielding +to the natural pressure of the foot. In wearing them one presented an +exceedingly awkward appearance. The most trying ordeal that I was forced +to endure as a slave boy, however, was the wearing of a flax shirt. In +the portion of Virginia where I lived it was common to use flax as part +of the clothing for the slaves. That part of the flax from which our +clothing was made was largely the refuse, which of course was the +cheapest and roughest part. I can scarcely imagine any torture, except, +perhaps, the pulling of a tooth, that is equal to that caused by putting +on a new flax shirt for the first time. It is almost equal to the +feeling that one would experience if he had a dozen or more chestnut +burrs, or a hundred small pin-points, in contact with his flesh. Even +to this day I can recall accurately the tortures that I underwent when +putting on one of these garments. The fact that my flesh was soft and +tender added to the pain. But I had no choice. I had to wear the flax +shirt or none; and had it been left to me to choose, I should have +chosen to wear no covering. In connection with the flax shirt, my +brother John, who is several years older than I am, performed one of +the most generous acts that I ever heard of one slave relative doing for +another. On several occasions when I was being forced to wear a new flax +shirt, he generously agreed to put it on in my stead and wear it for +several days, till it was "broken in." Until I had grown to be quite a +youth this single garment was all that I wore. + +One may get the idea, from what I have said, that there was bitter +feeling toward the white people on the part of my race, because of the +fact that most of the white population was away fighting in a war +which would result in keeping the Negro in slavery if the South was +successful. In the case of the slaves on our place this was not true, +and it was not true of any large portion of the slave population in the +South where the Negro was treated with anything like decency. During +the Civil War one of my young masters was killed, and two were severely +wounded. I recall the feeling of sorrow which existed among the slaves +when they heard of the death of "Mars' Billy." It was no sham sorrow, +but real. Some of the slaves had nursed "Mars' Billy"; others had played +with him when he was a child. "Mars' Billy" had begged for mercy in +the case of others when the overseer or master was thrashing them. The +sorrow in the slave quarter was only second to that in the "big house." +When the two young masters were brought home wounded, the sympathy of +the slaves was shown in many ways. They were just as anxious to assist +in the nursing as the family relatives of the wounded. Some of the +slaves would even beg for the privilege of sitting up at night to nurse +their wounded masters. This tenderness and sympathy on the part of those +held in bondage was a result of their kindly and generous nature. In +order to defend and protect the women and children who were left on the +plantations when the white males went to war, the slaves would have laid +down their lives. The slave who was selected to sleep in the "big house" +during the absence of the males was considered to have the place of +honour. Any one attempting to harm "young Mistress" or "old Mistress" +during the night would have had to cross the dead body of the slave to +do so. I do not know how many have noticed it, but I think that it will +be found to be true that there are few instances, either in slavery +or freedom, in which a member of my race has been known to betray a +specific trust. + +As a rule, not only did the members of my race entertain no feelings of +bitterness against the whites before and during the war, but there are +many instances of Negroes tenderly caring for their former masters and +mistresses who for some reason have become poor and dependent since the +war. I know of instances where the former masters of slaves have for +years been supplied with money by their former slaves to keep them from +suffering. I have known of still other cases in which the former slaves +have assisted in the education of the descendants of their former +owners. I know of a case on a large plantation in the South in which a +young white man, the son of the former owner of the estate, has become +so reduced in purse and self-control by reason of drink that he is a +pitiable creature; and yet, notwithstanding the poverty of the coloured +people themselves on this plantation, they have for years supplied this +young white man with the necessities of life. One sends him a little +coffee or sugar, another a little meat, and so on. Nothing that the +coloured people possess is too good for the son of "old Mars' Tom," who +will perhaps never be permitted to suffer while any remain on the place +who knew directly or indirectly of "old Mars' Tom." + +I have said that there are few instances of a member of my race +betraying a specific trust. One of the best illustrations of this which +I know of is in the case of an ex-slave from Virginia whom I met not +long ago in a little town in the state of Ohio. I found that this man +had made a contract with his master, two or three years previous to +the Emancipation Proclamation, to the effect that the slave was to be +permitted to buy himself, by paying so much per year for his body; and +while he was paying for himself, he was to be permitted to labour where +and for whom he pleased. Finding that he could secure better wages in +Ohio, he went there. When freedom came, he was still in debt to his +master some three hundred dollars. Notwithstanding that the Emancipation +Proclamation freed him from any obligation to his master, this black man +walked the greater portion of the distance back to where his old master +lived in Virginia, and placed the last dollar, with interest, in his +hands. In talking to me about this, the man told me that he knew that +he did not have to pay the debt, but that he had given his word to the +master, and his word he had never broken. He felt that he could not +enjoy his freedom till he had fulfilled his promise. + +From some things that I have said one may get the idea that some of the +slaves did not want freedom. This is not true. I have never seen one who +did not want to be free, or one who would return to slavery. + +I pity from the bottom of my heart any nation or body of people that is +so unfortunate as to get entangled in the net of slavery. I have long +since ceased to cherish any spirit of bitterness against the Southern +white people on account of the enslavement of my race. No one section of +our country was wholly responsible for its introduction, and, besides, +it was recognized and protected for years by the General Government. +Having once got its tentacles fastened on to the economic and social +life of the Republic, it was no easy matter for the country to relieve +itself of the institution. Then, when we rid ourselves of prejudice, or +racial feeling, and look facts in the face, we must acknowledge that, +notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, the ten million +Negroes inhabiting this country, who themselves or whose ancestors +went through the school of American slavery, are in a stronger and more +hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously, +than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of +the globe. This is so to such an extent that Negroes in this country, +who themselves or whose forefathers went through the school of slavery, +are constantly returning to Africa as missionaries to enlighten those +who remained in the fatherland. This I say, not to justify slavery--on +the other hand, I condemn it as an institution, as we all know that in +America it was established for selfish and financial reasons, and not +from a missionary motive--but to call attention to a fact, and to +show how Providence so often uses men and institutions to accomplish +a purpose. When persons ask me in these days how, in the midst of what +sometimes seem hopelessly discouraging conditions, I can have such +faith in the future of my race in this country, I remind them of the +wilderness through which and out of which, a good Providence has already +led us. + +Ever since I have been old enough to think for myself, I have +entertained the idea that, notwithstanding the cruel wrongs inflicted +upon us, the black man got nearly as much out of slavery as the white +man did. The hurtful influences of the institution were not by any means +confined to the Negro. This was fully illustrated by the life upon our +own plantation. The whole machinery of slavery was so constructed as to +cause labour, as a rule, to be looked upon as a badge of degradation, +of inferiority. Hence labour was something that both races on the slave +plantation sought to escape. The slave system on our place, in a large +measure, took the spirit of self-reliance and self-help out of the white +people. My old master had many boys and girls, but not one, so far as +I know, ever mastered a single trade or special line of productive +industry. The girls were not taught to cook, sew, or to take care of the +house. All of this was left to the slaves. The slaves, of course, +had little personal interest in the life of the plantation, and their +ignorance prevented them from learning how to do things in the most +improved and thorough manner. As a result of the system, fences were +out of repair, gates were hanging half off the hinges, doors creaked, +window-panes were out, plastering had fallen but was not replaced, weeds +grew in the yard. As a rule, there was food for whites and blacks, but +inside the house, and on the dining-room table, there was wanting that +delicacy and refinement of touch and finish which can make a home the +most convenient, comfortable, and attractive place in the world. Withal +there was a waste of food and other materials which was sad. When +freedom came, the slaves were almost as well fitted to begin life anew +as the master, except in the matter of book-learning and ownership of +property. The slave owner and his sons had mastered no special industry. +They unconsciously had imbibed the feeling that manual labour was not +the proper thing for them. On the other hand, the slaves, in many cases, +had mastered some handicraft, and none were ashamed, and few unwilling, +to labour. + +Finally the war closed, and the day of freedom came. It was a momentous +and eventful day to all upon our plantation. We had been expecting it. +Freedom was in the air, and had been for months. Deserting soldiers +returning to their homes were to be seen every day. Others who had been +discharged, or whose regiments had been paroled, were constantly passing +near our place. The "grape-vine telegraph" was kept busy night and day. +The news and mutterings of great events were swiftly carried from one +plantation to another. In the fear of "Yankee" invasions, the silverware +and other valuables were taken from the "big house," buried in the +woods, and guarded by trusted slaves. Woe be to any one who would have +attempted to disturb the buried treasure. The slaves would give the +Yankee soldiers food, drink, clothing--anything but that which had been +specifically intrusted to their care and honour. As the great day drew +nearer, there was more singing in the slave quarters than usual. It +was bolder, had more ring, and lasted later into the night. Most of the +verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom. True, they +had sung those same verses before, but they had been careful to explain +that the "freedom" in these songs referred to the next world, and had +no connection with life in this world. Now they gradually threw off the +mask, and were not afraid to let it be known that the "freedom" in their +songs meant freedom of the body in this world. The night before the +eventful day, word was sent to the slave quarters to the effect that +something unusual was going to take place at the "big house" the next +morning. There was little, if any, sleep that night. All as excitement +and expectancy. Early the next morning word was sent to all the slaves, +old and young, to gather at the house. In company with my mother, +brother, and sister, and a large number of other slaves, I went to +the master's house. All of our master's family were either standing or +seated on the veranda of the house, where they could see what was to +take place and hear what was said. There was a feeling of deep interest, +or perhaps sadness, on their faces, but not bitterness. As I now recall +the impression they made upon me, they did not at the moment seem to be +sad because of the loss of property, but rather because of parting with +those whom they had reared and who were in many ways very close to them. +The most distinct thing that I now recall in connection with the scene +was that some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, +I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper--the +Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading we were told that +we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, +who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while +tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all +meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but +fearing that she would never live to see. + +For some minutes there was great rejoicing, and thanksgiving, and wild +scenes of ecstasy. But there was no feeling of bitterness. In fact, +there was pity among the slaves for our former owners. The wild +rejoicing on the part of the emancipated coloured people lasted but for +a brief period, for I noticed that by the time they returned to their +cabins there was a change in their feelings. The great responsibility of +being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan +for themselves and their children, seemed to take possession of them. It +was very much like suddenly turning a youth of ten or twelve years +out into the world to provide for himself. In a few hours the great +questions with which the Anglo-Saxon race had been grappling for +centuries had been thrown upon these people to be solved. These were +the questions of a home, a living, the rearing of children, education, +citizenship, and the establishment and support of churches. Was it any +wonder that within a few hours the wild rejoicing ceased and a feeling +of deep gloom seemed to pervade the slave quarters? To some it seemed +that, now that they were in actual possession of it, freedom was a more +serious thing than they had expected to find it. Some of the slaves +were seventy or eighty years old; their best days were gone. They had +no strength with which to earn a living in a strange place and among +strange people, even if they had been sure where to find a new place of +abode. To this class the problem seemed especially hard. Besides, deep +down in their hearts there was a strange and peculiar attachment to "old +Marster" and "old Missus," and to their children, which they found it +hard to think of breaking off. With these they had spent in some cases +nearly a half-century, and it was no light thing to think of parting. +Gradually, one by one, stealthily at first, the older slaves began +to wander from the slave quarters back to the "big house" to have a +whispered conversation with their former owners as to the future. + + + +Chapter II. Boyhood Days + +After the coming of freedom there were two points upon which practically +all the people on our place were agreed, and I found that this was +generally true throughout the South: that they must change their names, +and that they must leave the old plantation for at least a few days or +weeks in order that they might really feel sure that they were free. + +In some way a feeling got among the coloured people that it was far from +proper for them to bear the surname of their former owners, and a great +many of them took other surnames. This was one of the first signs of +freedom. When they were slaves, a coloured person was simply called +"John" or "Susan." There was seldom occasion for more than the use of +the one name. If "John" or "Susan" belonged to a white man by the +name of "Hatcher," sometimes he was called "John Hatcher," or as +often "Hatcher's John." But there was a feeling that "John Hatcher" or +"Hatcher's John" was not the proper title by which to denote a freeman; +and so in many cases "John Hatcher" was changed to "John S. Lincoln" or +"John S. Sherman," the initial "S" standing for no name, it being simply +a part of what the coloured man proudly called his "entitles." + +As I have stated, most of the coloured people left the old plantation +for a short while at least, so as to be sure, it seemed, that they +could leave and try their freedom on to see how it felt. After they +had remained away for a while, many of the older slaves, especially, +returned to their old homes and made some kind of contract with their +former owners by which they remained on the estate. + +My mother's husband, who was the stepfather of my brother John and +myself, did not belong to the same owners as did my mother. In fact, he +seldom came to our plantation. I remember seeing him there perhaps once +a year, that being about Christmas time. In some way, during the war, by +running away and following the Federal soldiers, it seems, he found +his way into the new state of West Virginia. As soon as freedom was +declared, he sent for my mother to come to the Kanawha Valley, in West +Virginia. At that time a journey from Virginia over the mountains +to West Virginia was rather a tedious and in some cases a painful +undertaking. What little clothing and few household goods we had were +placed in a cart, but the children walked the greater portion of the +distance, which was several hundred miles. + +I do not think any of us ever had been very far from the plantation, and +the taking of a long journey into another state was quite an event. The +parting from our former owners and the members of our own race on the +plantation was a serious occasion. From the time of our parting till +their death we kept up a correspondence with the older members of the +family, and in later years we have kept in touch with those who were the +younger members. We were several weeks making the trip, and most of +the time we slept in the open air and did our cooking over a log fire +out-of-doors. One night I recall that we camped near an abandoned log +cabin, and my mother decided to build a fire in that for cooking, and +afterward to make a "pallet" on the floor for our sleeping. Just as the +fire had gotten well started a large black snake fully a yard and a half +long dropped down the chimney and ran out on the floor. Of course we at +once abandoned that cabin. Finally we reached our destination--a little +town called Malden, which is about five miles from Charleston, the +present capital of the state. + +At that time salt-mining was the great industry in that part of West +Virginia, and the little town of Malden was right in the midst of +the salt-furnaces. My stepfather had already secured a job at a +salt-furnace, and he had also secured a little cabin for us to live +in. Our new house was no better than the one we had left on the +old plantation in Virginia. In fact, in one respect it was worse. +Notwithstanding the poor condition of our plantation cabin, we were at +all times sure of pure air. Our new home was in the midst of a cluster +of cabins crowded closely together, and as there were no sanitary +regulations, the filth about the cabins was often intolerable. Some of +our neighbours were coloured people, and some were the poorest and most +ignorant and degraded white people. It was a motley mixture. Drinking, +gambling, quarrels, fights, and shockingly immoral practices were +frequent. All who lived in the little town were in one way or another +connected with the salt business. Though I was a mere child, my +stepfather put me and my brother at work in one of the furnaces. Often I +began work as early as four o'clock in the morning. + +The first thing I ever learned in the way of book knowledge was while +working in this salt-furnace. Each salt-packer had his barrels marked +with a certain number. The number allotted to my stepfather was "18." +At the close of the day's work the boss of the packers would come around +and put "18" on each of our barrels, and I soon learned to recognize +that figure wherever I saw it, and after a while got to the point where +I could make that figure, though I knew nothing about any other figures +or letters. + +From the time that I can remember having any thoughts about anything, +I recall that I had an intense longing to learn to read. I determined, +when quite a small child, that, if I accomplished nothing else in life, +I would in some way get enough education to enable me to read common +books and newspapers. Soon after we got settled in some manner in our +new cabin in West Virginia, I induced my mother to get hold of a book +for me. How or where she got it I do not know, but in some way she +procured an old copy of Webster's "blue-back" spelling-book, which +contained the alphabet, followed by such meaningless words as "ab," +"ba," "ca," "da." I began at once to devour this book, and I think that +it was the first one I ever had in my hands. I had learned from somebody +that the way to begin to read was to learn the alphabet, so I tried +in all the ways I could think of to learn it,--all of course without a +teacher, for I could find no one to teach me. At that time there was not +a single member of my race anywhere near us who could read, and I was +too timid to approach any of the white people. In some way, within a few +weeks, I mastered the greater portion of the alphabet. In all my efforts +to learn to read my mother shared fully my ambition, and sympathized +with me and aided me in every way that she could. Though she was totally +ignorant, she had high ambitions for her children, and a large fund of +good, hard, common sense, which seemed to enable her to meet and master +every situation. If I have done anything in life worth attention, I feel +sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother. + +In the midst of my struggles and longing for an education, a young +coloured boy who had learned to read in the state of Ohio came to +Malden. As soon as the coloured people found out that he could read, a +newspaper was secured, and at the close of nearly every day's work +this young man would be surrounded by a group of men and women who were +anxious to hear him read the news contained in the papers. How I used to +envy this man! He seemed to me to be the one young man in all the world +who ought to be satisfied with his attainments. + +About this time the question of having some kind of a school opened for +the coloured children in the village began to be discussed by members +of the race. As it would be the first school for Negro children that had +ever been opened in that part of Virginia, it was, of course, to be a +great event, and the discussion excited the wildest interest. The most +perplexing question was where to find a teacher. The young man from +Ohio who had learned to read the papers was considered, but his age was +against him. In the midst of the discussion about a teacher, another +young coloured man from Ohio, who had been a soldier, in some way found +his way into town. It was soon learned that he possessed considerable +education, and he was engaged by the coloured people to teach their +first school. As yet no free schools had been started for coloured +people in that section, hence each family agreed to pay a certain +amount per month, with the understanding that the teacher was to "board +'round"--that is, spend a day with each family. This was not bad for the +teacher, for each family tried to provide the very best on the day the +teacher was to be its guest. I recall that I looked forward with an +anxious appetite to the "teacher's day" at our little cabin. + +This experience of a whole race beginning to go to school for the +first time, presents one of the most interesting studies that has ever +occurred in connection with the development of any race. Few people who +were not right in the midst of the scenes can form any exact idea of the +intense desire which the people of my race showed for an education. As +I have stated, it was a whole race trying to go to school. Few were too +young, and none too old, to make the attempt to learn. As fast as any +kind of teachers could be secured, not only were day-schools filled, but +night-schools as well. The great ambition of the older people was to try +to learn to read the Bible before they died. With this end in view men +and women who were fifty or seventy-five years old would often be found +in the night-school. Some day-schools were formed soon after +freedom, but the principal book studied in the Sunday-school was the +spelling-book. Day-school, night-school, Sunday-school, were always +crowded, and often many had to be turned away for want of room. + +The opening of the school in the Kanawha Valley, however, brought to me +one of the keenest disappointments that I ever experienced. I had been +working in a salt-furnace for several months, and my stepfather had +discovered that I had a financial value, and so, when the school opened, +he decided that he could not spare me from my work. This decision seemed +to cloud my every ambition. The disappointment was made all the more +severe by reason of the fact that my place of work was where I could see +the happy children passing to and from school mornings and afternoons. +Despite this disappointment, however, I determined that I would learn +something, anyway. I applied myself with greater earnestness than ever +to the mastering of what was in the "blue-back" speller. + +My mother sympathized with me in my disappointment, and sought to +comfort me in all the ways she could, and to help me find a way to +learn. After a while I succeeded in making arrangements with the teacher +to give me some lessons at night, after the day's work was done. These +night lessons were so welcome that I think I learned more at night +than the other children did during the day. My own experiences in the +night-school gave me faith in the night-school idea, with which, in +after years, I had to do both at Hampton and Tuskegee. But my boyish +heart was still set upon going to the day-school, and I let no +opportunity slip to push my case. Finally I won, and was permitted to go +to the school in the day for a few months, with the understanding that +I was to rise early in the morning and work in the furnace till nine +o'clock, and return immediately after school closed in the afternoon for +at least two more hours of work. + +The schoolhouse was some distance from the furnace, and as I had to work +till nine o'clock, and the school opened at nine, I found myself in +a difficulty. School would always be begun before I reached it, and +sometimes my class had recited. To get around this difficulty I yielded +to a temptation for which most people, I suppose, will condemn me; but +since it is a fact, I might as well state it. I have great faith in the +power and influence of facts. It is seldom that anything is permanently +gained by holding back a fact. There was a large clock in a little +office in the furnace. This clock, of course, all the hundred or more +workmen depended upon to regulate their hours of beginning and ending +the day's work. I got the idea that the way for me to reach school on +time was to move the clock hands from half-past eight up to the nine +o'clock mark. This I found myself doing morning after morning, till the +furnace "boss" discovered that something was wrong, and locked the clock +in a case. I did not mean to inconvenience anybody. I simply meant to +reach that schoolhouse in time. + +When, however, I found myself at the school for the first time, I also +found myself confronted with two other difficulties. In the first place, +I found that all the other children wore hats or caps on their heads, +and I had neither hat nor cap. In fact, I do not remember that up to +the time of going to school I had ever worn any kind of covering upon +my head, nor do I recall that either I or anybody else had even thought +anything about the need of covering for my head. But, of course, when +I saw how all the other boys were dressed, I began to feel quite +uncomfortable. As usual, I put the case before my mother, and she +explained to me that she had no money with which to buy a "store hat," +which was a rather new institution at that time among the members of my +race and was considered quite the thing for young and old to own, +but that she would find a way to help me out of the difficulty. +She accordingly got two pieces of "homespun" (jeans) and sewed them +together, and I was soon the proud possessor of my first cap. + +The lesson that my mother taught me in this has always remained with me, +and I have tried as best as I could to teach it to others. I have +always felt proud, whenever I think of the incident, that my mother +had strength of character enough not to be led into the temptation +of seeming to be that which she was not--of trying to impress my +schoolmates and others with the fact that she was able to buy me a +"store hat" when she was not. I have always felt proud that she refused +to go into debt for that which she did not have the money to pay for. +Since that time I have owned many kinds of caps and hats, but never one +of which I have felt so proud as of the cap made of the two pieces of +cloth sewed together by my mother. I have noted the fact, but without +satisfaction, I need not add, that several of the boys who began their +careers with "store hats" and who were my schoolmates and used to join +in the sport that was made of me because I had only a "homespun" cap, +have ended their careers in the penitentiary, while others are not able +now to buy any kind of hat. + +My second difficulty was with regard to my name, or rather A name. +From the time when I could remember anything, I had been called simply +"Booker." Before going to school it had never occurred to me that it +was needful or appropriate to have an additional name. When I heard the +school-roll called, I noticed that all of the children had at least two +names, and some of them indulged in what seemed to me the extravagance +of having three. I was in deep perplexity, because I knew that the +teacher would demand of me at least two names, and I had only one. +By the time the occasion came for the enrolling of my name, an idea +occurred to me which I thought would make me equal to the situation; and +so, when the teacher asked me what my full name was, I calmly told him +"Booker Washington," as if I had been called by that name all my life; +and by that name I have since been known. Later in my life I found that +my mother had given me the name of "Booker Taliaferro" soon after I was +born, but in some way that part of my name seemed to disappear and for a +long while was forgotten, but as soon as I found out about it I revived +it, and made my full name "Booker Taliaferro Washington." I think there +are not many men in our country who have had the privilege of naming +themselves in the way that I have. + +More than once I have tried to picture myself in the position of a boy +or man with an honoured and distinguished ancestry which I could +trace back through a period of hundreds of years, and who had not only +inherited a name, but fortune and a proud family homestead; and yet I +have sometimes had the feeling that if I had inherited these, and had +been a member of a more popular race, I should have been inclined to +yield to the temptation of depending upon my ancestry and my colour to +do that for me which I should do for myself. Years ago I resolved that +because I had no ancestry myself I would leave a record of which my +children would be proud, and which might encourage them to still higher +effort. + +The world should not pass judgment upon the Negro, and especially the +Negro youth, too quickly or too harshly. The Negro boy has obstacles, +discouragements, and temptations to battle with that are little known to +those not situated as he is. When a white boy undertakes a task, it is +taken for granted that he will succeed. On the other hand, people are +usually surprised if the Negro boy does not fail. In a word, the Negro +youth starts out with the presumption against him. + +The influence of ancestry, however, is important in helping forward any +individual or race, if too much reliance is not placed upon it. Those +who constantly direct attention to the Negro youth's moral weaknesses, +and compare his advancement with that of white youths, do not consider +the influence of the memories which cling about the old family +homesteads. I have no idea, as I have stated elsewhere, who my +grandmother was. I have, or have had, uncles and aunts and cousins, +but I have no knowledge as to where most of them are. My case will +illustrate that of hundreds of thousands of black people in every part +of our country. The very fact that the white boy is conscious that, if +he fails in life, he will disgrace the whole family record, extending +back through many generations, is of tremendous value in helping him +to resist temptations. The fact that the individual has behind and +surrounding him proud family history and connection serves as a stimulus +to help him to overcome obstacles when striving for success. + +The time that I was permitted to attend school during the day was short, +and my attendance was irregular. It was not long before I had to stop +attending day-school altogether, and devote all of my time again to +work. I resorted to the night-school again. In fact, the greater part +of the education I secured in my boyhood was gathered through the +night-school after my day's work was done. I had difficulty often in +securing a satisfactory teacher. Sometimes, after I had secured some one +to teach me at night, I would find, much to my disappointment, that +the teacher knew but little more than I did. Often I would have to walk +several miles at night in order to recite my night-school lessons. There +was never a time in my youth, no matter how dark and discouraging the +days might be, when one resolve did not continually remain with me, and +that was a determination to secure an education at any cost. + +Soon after we moved to West Virginia, my mother adopted into our family, +notwithstanding our poverty, an orphan boy, to whom afterward we gave +the name of James B. Washington. He has ever since remained a member of +the family. + +After I had worked in the salt-furnace for some time, work was secured +for me in a coal-mine which was operated mainly for the purpose of +securing fuel for the salt-furnace. Work in the coal-mine I always +dreaded. One reason for this was that any one who worked in a coal-mine +was always unclean, at least while at work, and it was a very hard job +to get one's skin clean after the day's work was over. Then it was fully +a mile from the opening of the coal-mine to the face of the coal, and +all, of course, was in the blackest darkness. I do not believe that one +ever experiences anywhere else such darkness as he does in a coal-mine. +The mine was divided into a large number of different "rooms" or +departments, and, as I never was able to learn the location of all +these "rooms," I many times found myself lost in the mine. To add to the +horror of being lost, sometimes my light would go out, and then, if I +did not happen to have a match, I would wander about in the darkness +until by chance I found some one to give me a light. The work was not +only hard, but it was dangerous. There was always the danger of being +blown to pieces by a premature explosion of powder, or of being crushed +by falling slate. Accidents from one or the other of these causes were +frequently occurring, and this kept me in constant fear. Many children +of the tenderest years were compelled then, as is now true I fear, in +most coal-mining districts, to spend a large part of their lives in +these coal-mines, with little opportunity to get an education; and, what +is worse, I have often noted that, as a rule, young boys who begin life +in a coal-mine are often physically and mentally dwarfed. They soon lose +ambition to do anything else than to continue as a coal-miner. + +In those days, and later as a young man, I used to try to picture in my +imagination the feelings and ambitions of a white boy with absolutely +no limit placed upon his aspirations and activities. I used to envy +the white boy who had no obstacles placed in the way of his becoming a +Congressman, Governor, Bishop, or President by reason of the accident of +his birth or race. I used to picture the way that I would act under such +circumstances; how I would begin at the bottom and keep rising until I +reached the highest round of success. + +In later years, I confess that I do not envy the white boy as I once +did. I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the +position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has +overcome while trying to succeed. Looked at from this standpoint, I +almost reached the conclusion that often the Negro boy's birth and +connection with an unpopular race is an advantage, so far as real life +is concerned. With few exceptions, the Negro youth must work harder and +must perform his tasks even better than a white youth in order to secure +recognition. But out of the hard and unusual struggle through which he +is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence, that one misses +whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race. + +From any point of view, I had rather be what I am, a member of the Negro +race, than be able to claim membership with the most favoured of any +other race. I have always been made sad when I have heard members of any +race claiming rights or privileges, or certain badges of distinction, +on the ground simply that they were members of this or that race, +regardless of their own individual worth or attainments. I have been +made to feel sad for such persons because I am conscious of the fact +that mere connection with what is known as a superior race will not +permanently carry an individual forward unless he has individual worth, +and mere connection with what is regarded as an inferior race will not +finally hold an individual back if he possesses intrinsic, individual +merit. Every persecuted individual and race should get much consolation +out of the great human law, which is universal and eternal, that merit, +no matter under what skin found, is, in the long run, recognized and +rewarded. This I have said here, not to call attention to myself as an +individual, but to the race to which I am proud to belong. + + + +Chapter III. The Struggle For An Education + +One day, while at work in the coal-mine, I happened to overhear two +miners talking about a great school for coloured people somewhere in +Virginia. This was the first time that I had ever heard anything about +any kind of school or college that was more pretentious than the little +coloured school in our town. + +In the darkness of the mine I noiselessly crept as close as I could to +the two men who were talking. I heard one tell the other that not +only was the school established for the members of any race, but the +opportunities that it provided by which poor but worthy students could +work out all or a part of the cost of a board, and at the same time be +taught some trade or industry. + +As they went on describing the school, it seemed to me that it must +be the greatest place on earth, and not even Heaven presented more +attractions for me at that time than did the Hampton Normal and +Agricultural Institute in Virginia, about which these men were talking. +I resolved at once to go to that school, although I had no idea where +it was, or how many miles away, or how I was going to reach it; I +remembered only that I was on fire constantly with one ambition, and +that was to go to Hampton. This thought was with me day and night. + +After hearing of the Hampton Institute, I continued to work for a few +months longer in the coal-mine. While at work there, I heard of a vacant +position in the household of General Lewis Ruffner, the owner of the +salt-furnace and coal-mine. Mrs. Viola Ruffner, the wife of General +Ruffner, was a "Yankee" woman from Vermont. Mrs. Ruffner had a +reputation all through the vicinity for being very strict with her +servants, and especially with the boys who tried to serve her. Few of +them remained with her more than two or three weeks. They all left with +the same excuse: she was too strict. I decided, however, that I would +rather try Mrs. Ruffner's house than remain in the coal-mine, and so my +mother applied to her for the vacant position. I was hired at a salary +of $5 per month. + +I had heard so much about Mrs. Ruffner's severity that I was almost +afraid to see her, and trembled when I went into her presence. I had not +lived with her many weeks, however, before I began to understand her. I +soon began to learn that, first of all, she wanted everything kept clean +about her, that she wanted things done promptly and systematically, +and that at the bottom of everything she wanted absolute honesty and +frankness. Nothing must be sloven or slipshod; every door, every fence, +must be kept in repair. + +I cannot now recall how long I lived with Mrs. Ruffner before going to +Hampton, but I think it must have been a year and a half. At any rate, +I here repeat what I have said more than once before, that the lessons +that I learned in the home of Mrs. Ruffner were as valuable to me as any +education I have ever gotten anywhere else. Even to this day I never see +bits of paper scattered around a house or in the street that I do not +want to pick them up at once. I never see a filthy yard that I do not +want to clean it, a paling off of a fence that I do not want to put it +on, an unpainted or unwhitewashed house that I do not want to paint or +whitewash it, or a button off one's clothes, or a grease-spot on them or +on a floor, that I do not want to call attention to it. + +From fearing Mrs. Ruffner I soon learned to look upon her as one of +my best friends. When she found that she could trust me she did so +implicitly. During the one or two winters that I was with her she +gave me an opportunity to go to school for an hour in the day during a +portion of the winter months, but most of my studying was done at night, +sometimes alone, sometimes under some one whom I could hire to teach me. +Mrs. Ruffner always encouraged and sympathized with me in all my efforts +to get an education. It was while living with her that I began to get +together my first library. I secured a dry-goods box, knocked out one +side of it, put some shelves in it, and began putting into it every kind +of book that I could get my hands upon, and called it my "library." + +Notwithstanding my success at Mrs. Ruffner's I did not give up the idea +of going to the Hampton Institute. In the fall of 1872 I determined +to make an effort to get there, although, as I have stated, I had no +definite idea of the direction in which Hampton was, or of what it would +cost to go there. I do not think that any one thoroughly sympathized +with me in my ambition to go to Hampton unless it was my mother, and she +was troubled with a grave fear that I was starting out on a "wild-goose +chase." At any rate, I got only a half-hearted consent from her that +I might start. The small amount of money that I had earned had been +consumed by my stepfather and the remainder of the family, with the +exception of a very few dollars, and so I had very little with which to +buy clothes and pay my travelling expenses. My brother John helped me +all that he could, but of course that was not a great deal, for his work +was in the coal-mine, where he did not earn much, and most of what he +did earn went in the direction of paying the household expenses. + +Perhaps the thing that touched and pleased me most in connection with +my starting for Hampton was the interest that many of the older coloured +people took in the matter. They had spent the best days of their lives +in slavery, and hardly expected to live to see the time when they would +see a member of their race leave home to attend a boarding-school. Some +of these older people would give me a nickel, others a quarter, or a +handkerchief. + +Finally the great day came, and I started for Hampton. I had only a +small, cheap satchel that contained a few articles of clothing I could +get. My mother at the time was rather weak and broken in health. I +hardly expected to see her again, and thus our parting was all the more +sad. She, however, was very brave through it all. At that time there +were no through trains connecting that part of West Virginia with +eastern Virginia. Trains ran only a portion of the way, and the +remainder of the distance was travelled by stage-coaches. + +The distance from Malden to Hampton is about five hundred miles. I had +not been away from home many hours before it began to grow painfully +evident that I did not have enough money to pay my fare to Hampton. +One experience I shall long remember. I had been travelling over the +mountains most of the afternoon in an old-fashion stage-coach, when, +late in the evening, the coach stopped for the night at a common, +unpainted house called a hotel. All the other passengers except myself +were whites. In my ignorance I supposed that the little hotel existed +for the purpose of accommodating the passengers who travelled on the +stage-coach. The difference that the colour of one's skin would make I +had not thought anything about. After all the other passengers had been +shown rooms and were getting ready for supper, I shyly presented myself +before the man at the desk. It is true I had practically no money in my +pocket with which to pay for bed or food, but I had hoped in some way to +beg my way into the good graces of the landlord, for at that season +in the mountains of Virginia the weather was cold, and I wanted to get +indoors for the night. Without asking as to whether I had any money, the +man at the desk firmly refused to even consider the matter of providing +me with food or lodging. This was my first experience in finding out +what the colour of my skin meant. In some way I managed to keep warm by +walking about, and so got through the night. My whole soul was so bent +upon reaching Hampton that I did not have time to cherish any bitterness +toward the hotel-keeper. + +By walking, begging rides both in wagons and in the cars, in some way, +after a number of days, I reached the city of Richmond, Virginia, about +eighty-two miles from Hampton. When I reached there, tired, hungry, and +dirty, it was late in the night. I had never been in a large city, +and this rather added to my misery. When I reached Richmond, I was +completely out of money. I had not a single acquaintance in the place, +and, being unused to city ways, I did not know where to go. I applied at +several places for lodging, but they all wanted money, and that was what +I did not have. Knowing nothing else better to do, I walked the streets. +In doing this I passed by many food-stands where fried chicken and +half-moon apple pies were piled high and made to present a most tempting +appearance. At that time it seemed to me that I would have promised all +that I expected to possess in the future to have gotten hold of one of +those chicken legs or one of those pies. But I could not get either of +these, nor anything else to eat. + +I must have walked the streets till after midnight. At last I became so +exhausted that I could walk no longer. I was tired, I was hungry, I was +everything but discouraged. Just about the time when I reached extreme +physical exhaustion, I came upon a portion of a street where the board +sidewalk was considerably elevated. I waited for a few minutes, till +I was sure that no passers-by could see me, and then crept under the +sidewalk and lay for the night upon the ground, with my satchel of +clothing for a pillow. Nearly all night I could hear the tramp of feet +over my head. The next morning I found myself somewhat refreshed, but +I was extremely hungry, because it had been a long time since I had +had sufficient food. As soon as it became light enough for me to see my +surroundings I noticed that I was near a large ship, and that this ship +seemed to be unloading a cargo of pig iron. I went at once to the vessel +and asked the captain to permit me to help unload the vessel in order +to get money for food. The captain, a white man, who seemed to be +kind-hearted, consented. I worked long enough to earn money for my +breakfast, and it seems to me, as I remember it now, to have been about +the best breakfast that I have ever eaten. + +My work pleased the captain so well that he told me if I desired I could +continue working for a small amount per day. This I was very glad to do. +I continued working on this vessel for a number of days. After buying +food with the small wages I received there was not much left to add on +the amount I must get to pay my way to Hampton. In order to economize +in every way possible, so as to be sure to reach Hampton in a reasonable +time, I continued to sleep under the same sidewalk that gave me shelter +the first night I was in Richmond. Many years after that the coloured +citizens of Richmond very kindly tendered me a reception at which there +must have been two thousand people present. This reception was held not +far from the spot where I slept the first night I spent in the city, and +I must confess that my mind was more upon the sidewalk that first gave +me shelter than upon the recognition, agreeable and cordial as it was. + +When I had saved what I considered enough money with which to reach +Hampton, I thanked the captain of the vessel for his kindness, and +started again. Without any unusual occurrence I reached Hampton, with a +surplus of exactly fifty cents with which to begin my education. To me +it had been a long, eventful journey; but the first sight of the large, +three-story, brick school building seemed to have rewarded me for all +that I had undergone in order to reach the place. If the people who gave +the money to provide that building could appreciate the influence the +sight of it had upon me, as well as upon thousands of other youths, they +would feel all the more encouraged to make such gifts. It seemed to me +to be the largest and most beautiful building I had ever seen. The sight +of it seemed to give me new life. I felt that a new kind of existence +had now begun--that life would now have a new meaning. I felt that I had +reached the promised land, and I resolved to let no obstacle prevent me +from putting forth the highest effort to fit myself to accomplish the +most good in the world. + +As soon as possible after reaching the grounds of the Hampton Institute, +I presented myself before the head teacher for an assignment to a +class. Having been so long without proper food, a bath, and a change of +clothing, I did not, of course, make a very favourable impression upon +her, and I could see at once that there were doubts in her mind about +the wisdom of admitting me as a student. I felt that I could hardly +blame her if she got the idea that I was a worthless loafer or tramp. +For some time she did not refuse to admit me, neither did she decide in +my favour, and I continued to linger about her, and to impress her +in all the ways I could with my worthiness. In the meantime I saw her +admitting other students, and that added greatly to my discomfort, for I +felt, deep down in my heart, that I could do as well as they, if I could +only get a chance to show what was in me. + +After some hours had passed, the head teacher said to me: "The adjoining +recitation-room needs sweeping. Take the broom and sweep it." + +It occurred to me at once that here was my chance. Never did I receive +an order with more delight. I knew that I could sweep, for Mrs. Ruffner +had thoroughly taught me how to do that when I lived with her. + +I swept the recitation-room three times. Then I got a dusting-cloth and +dusted it four times. All the woodwork around the walls, every bench, +table, and desk, I went over four times with my dusting-cloth. Besides, +every piece of furniture had been moved and every closet and corner in +the room had been thoroughly cleaned. I had the feeling that in a large +measure my future depended upon the impression I made upon the teacher +in the cleaning of that room. When I was through, I reported to the head +teacher. She was a "Yankee" woman who knew just where to look for dirt. +She went into the room and inspected the floor and closets; then she +took her handkerchief and rubbed it on the woodwork about the walls, and +over the table and benches. When she was unable to find one bit of dirt +on the floor, or a particle of dust on any of the furniture, she quietly +remarked, "I guess you will do to enter this institution." + +I was one of the happiest souls on Earth. The sweeping of that room was +my college examination, and never did any youth pass an examination for +entrance into Harvard or Yale that gave him more genuine satisfaction. I +have passed several examinations since then, but I have always felt that +this was the best one I ever passed. + +I have spoken of my own experience in entering the Hampton Institute. +Perhaps few, if any, had anything like the same experience that I had, +but about the same period there were hundreds who found their way to +Hampton and other institutions after experiencing something of the +same difficulties that I went through. The young men and women were +determined to secure an education at any cost. + +The sweeping of the recitation-room in the manner that I did it seems to +have paved the way for me to get through Hampton. Miss Mary F. Mackie, +the head teacher, offered me a position as janitor. This, of course, I +gladly accepted, because it was a place where I could work out nearly +all the cost of my board. The work was hard and taxing but I stuck to +it. I had a large number of rooms to care for, and had to work late into +the night, while at the same time I had to rise by four o'clock in the +morning, in order to build the fires and have a little time in which to +prepare my lessons. In all my career at Hampton, and ever since I have +been out in the world, Miss Mary F. Mackie, the head teacher to whom I +have referred, proved one of my strongest and most helpful friends. Her +advice and encouragement were always helpful in strengthening to me in +the darkest hour. + +I have spoken of the impression that was made upon me by the buildings +and general appearance of the Hampton Institute, but I have not spoken +of that which made the greatest and most lasting impression on me, and +that was a great man--the noblest, rarest human being that it has +ever been my privilege to meet. I refer to the late General Samuel C. +Armstrong. + +It has been my fortune to meet personally many of what are called great +characters, both in Europe and America, but I do not hesitate to say +that I never met any man who, in my estimation, was the equal of General +Armstrong. Fresh from the degrading influences of the slave plantation +and the coal-mines, it was a rare privilege for me to be permitted to +come into direct contact with such a character as General Armstrong. I +shall always remember that the first time I went into his presence he +made the impression upon me of being a perfect man: I was made to +feel that there was something about him that was superhuman. It was my +privilege to know the General personally from the time I entered Hampton +till he died, and the more I saw of him the greater he grew in my +estimation. One might have removed from Hampton all the buildings, +class-rooms, teachers, and industries, and given the men and women there +the opportunity of coming into daily contact with General Armstrong, and +that alone would have been a liberal education. The older I grow, the +more I am convinced that there is no education which one can get from +books and costly apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten +from contact with great men and women. Instead of studying books so +constantly, how I wish that our schools and colleges might learn to +study men and things! + +General Armstrong spent two of the last six months of his life in my +home at Tuskegee. At that time he was paralyzed to the extent that +he had lost control of his body and voice in a very large degree. +Notwithstanding his affliction, he worked almost constantly night and +day for the cause to which he had given his life. I never saw a man +who so completely lost sight of himself. I do not believe he ever had +a selfish thought. He was just as happy in trying to assist some other +institution in the South as he was when working for Hampton. Although he +fought the Southern white man in the Civil War, I never heard him +utter a bitter word against him afterward. On the other hand, he was +constantly seeking to find ways by which he could be of service to the +Southern whites. + +It would be difficult to describe the hold that he had upon the students +at Hampton, or the faith they had in him. In fact, he was worshipped by +his students. It never occurred to me that General Armstrong could fail +in anything that he undertook. There is almost no request that he could +have made that would not have been complied with. When he was a guest at +my home in Alabama, and was so badly paralyzed that he had to be wheeled +about in an invalid's chair, I recall that one of the General's former +students had occasion to push his chair up a long, steep hill that taxed +his strength to the utmost. When the top of the hill was reached, the +former pupil, with a glow of happiness on his face, exclaimed, "I am so +glad that I have been permitted to do something that was real hard +for the General before he dies!" While I was a student at Hampton, the +dormitories became so crowded that it was impossible to find room for +all who wanted to be admitted. In order to help remedy the difficulty, +the General conceived the plan of putting up tents to be used as rooms. +As soon as it became known that General Armstrong would be pleased if +some of the older students would live in the tents during the winter, +nearly every student in school volunteered to go. + +I was one of the volunteers. The winter that we spent in those tents +was an intensely cold one, and we suffered severely--how much I am sure +General Armstrong never knew, because we made no complaints. It was +enough for us to know that we were pleasing General Armstrong, and +that we were making it possible for an additional number of students to +secure an education. More than once, during a cold night, when a stiff +gale would be blowing, our tent was lifted bodily, and we would find +ourselves in the open air. The General would usually pay a visit to the +tents early in the morning, and his earnest, cheerful, encouraging voice +would dispel any feeling of despondency. + +I have spoken of my admiration for General Armstrong, and yet he was but +a type of that Christlike body of men and women who went into the Negro +schools at the close of the war by the hundreds to assist in lifting +up my race. The history of the world fails to show a higher, purer, and +more unselfish class of men and women than those who found their way +into those Negro schools. + +Life at Hampton was a constant revelation to me; was constantly taking +me into a new world. The matter of having meals at regular hours, of +eating on a tablecloth, using a napkin, the use of the bath-tub and of +the tooth-brush, as well as the use of sheets upon the bed, were all new +to me. + +I sometimes feel that almost the most valuable lesson I got at the +Hampton Institute was in the use and value of the bath. I learned there +for the first time some of its value, not only in keeping the body +healthy, but in inspiring self-respect and promoting virtue. In all my +travels in the South and elsewhere since leaving Hampton I have always +in some way sought my daily bath. To get it sometimes when I have been +the guest of my own people in a single-roomed cabin has not always been +easy to do, except by slipping away to some stream in the woods. I have +always tried to teach my people that some provision for bathing should +be a part of every house. + +For some time, while a student at Hampton, I possessed but a single pair +of socks, but when I had worn these till they became soiled, I would +wash them at night and hang them by the fire to dry, so that I might +wear them again the next morning. + +The charge for my board at Hampton was ten dollars per month. I was +expected to pay a part of this in cash and to work out the remainder. To +meet this cash payment, as I have stated, I had just fifty cents when I +reached the institution. Aside from a very few dollars that my brother +John was able to send me once in a while, I had no money with which to +pay my board. I was determined from the first to make my work as janitor +so valuable that my services would be indispensable. This I succeeded in +doing to such an extent that I was soon informed that I would be allowed +the full cost of my board in return for my work. The cost of tuition was +seventy dollars a year. This, of course, was wholly beyond my ability to +provide. If I had been compelled to pay the seventy dollars for tuition, +in addition to providing for my board, I would have been compelled to +leave the Hampton school. General Armstrong, however, very kindly got +Mr. S. Griffitts Morgan, of New Bedford, Mass., to defray the cost of +my tuition during the whole time that I was at Hampton. After I finished +the course at Hampton and had entered upon my lifework at Tuskegee, I +had the pleasure of visiting Mr. Morgan several times. + +After having been for a while at Hampton, I found myself in difficulty +because I did not have books and clothing. Usually, however, I got +around the trouble about books by borrowing from those who were more +fortunate than myself. As to clothes, when I reached Hampton I had +practically nothing. Everything that I possessed was in a small hand +satchel. My anxiety about clothing was increased because of the fact +that General Armstrong made a personal inspection of the young men in +ranks, to see that their clothes were clean. Shoes had to be polished, +there must be no buttons off the clothing, and no grease-spots. To wear +one suit of clothes continually, while at work and in the schoolroom, +and at the same time keep it clean, was rather a hard problem for me to +solve. In some way I managed to get on till the teachers learned that +I was in earnest and meant to succeed, and then some of them were kind +enough to see that I was partly supplied with second-hand clothing that +had been sent in barrels from the North. These barrels proved a blessing +to hundreds of poor but deserving students. Without them I question +whether I should ever have gotten through Hampton. + +When I first went to Hampton I do not recall that I had ever slept in +a bed that had two sheets on it. In those days there were not many +buildings there, and room was very precious. There were seven other boys +in the same room with me; most of them, however, students who had been +there for some time. The sheets were quite a puzzle to me. The first +night I slept under both of them, and the second night I slept on top +of them; but by watching the other boys I learned my lesson in this, and +have been trying to follow it ever since and to teach it to others. + +I was among the youngest of the students who were in Hampton at the +time. Most of the students were men and women--some as old as forty +years of age. As I now recall the scene of my first year, I do not +believe that one often has the opportunity of coming into contact with +three or four hundred men and women who were so tremendously in earnest +as these men and women were. Every hour was occupied in study or work. +Nearly all had had enough actual contact with the world to teach them +the need of education. Many of the older ones were, of course, too old +to master the text-books very thoroughly, and it was often sad to watch +their struggles; but they made up in earnest much of what they lacked +in books. Many of them were as poor as I was, and, besides having to +wrestle with their books, they had to struggle with a poverty which +prevented their having the necessities of life. Many of them had aged +parents who were dependent upon them, and some of them were men who had +wives whose support in some way they had to provide for. + +The great and prevailing idea that seemed to take possession of every +one was to prepare himself to lift up the people at his home. No one +seemed to think of himself. And the officers and teachers, what a rare +set of human beings they were! They worked for the students night and +day, in seasons and out of season. They seemed happy only when they were +helping the students in some manner. Whenever it is written--and I hope +it will be--the part that the Yankee teachers played in the education +of the Negroes immediately after the war will make one of the most +thrilling parts of the history off this country. The time is not far +distant when the whole South will appreciate this service in a way that +it has not yet been able to do. + + + +Chapter IV. Helping Others + +At the end of my first year at Hampton I was confronted with another +difficulty. Most of the students went home to spend their vacation. I +had no money with which to go home, but I had to go somewhere. In those +days very few students were permitted to remain at the school during +vacation. It made me feel very sad and homesick to see the other +students preparing to leave and starting for home. I not only had no +money with which to go home, but I had none with which to go anywhere. + +In some way, however, I had gotten hold of an extra, second-hand coat +which I thought was a pretty valuable coat. This I decided to sell, in +order to get a little money for travelling expenses. I had a good deal +of boyish pride, and I tried to hide, as far as I could, from the other +students the fact that I had no money and nowhere to go. I made it known +to a few people in the town of Hampton that I had this coat to sell, +and, after a good deal of persuading, one coloured man promised to come +to my room to look the coat over and consider the matter of buying it. +This cheered my drooping spirits considerably. Early the next morning my +prospective customer appeared. After looking the garment over carefully, +he asked me how much I wanted for it. I told him I thought it was worth +three dollars. He seemed to agree with me as to price, but remarked in +the most matter-of-fact way: "I tell you what I will do; I will take the +coat, and will pay you five cents, cash down, and pay you the rest of +the money just as soon as I can get it." It is not hard to imagine what +my feelings were at the time. + +With this disappointment I gave up all hope of getting out of the town +of Hampton for my vacation work. I wanted very much to go where I +might secure work that would at least pay me enough to purchase some +much-needed clothing and other necessities. In a few days practically +all the students and teachers had left for their homes, and this served +to depress my spirits even more. + +After trying for several days in and near the town of Hampton, I finally +secured work in a restaurant at Fortress Monroe. The wages, however, +were very little more than my board. At night, and between meals, I +found considerable time for study and reading; and in this direction I +improved myself very much during the summer. + +When I left school at the end of my first year, I owed the institution +sixteen dollars that I had not been able to work out. It was my greatest +ambition during the summer to save money enough with which to pay this +debt. I felt that this was a debt of honour, and that I could hardly +bring myself to the point of even trying to enter school again till it +was paid. I economized in every way that I could think of--did my own +washing, and went without necessary garments--but still I found my +summer vacation ending and I did not have the sixteen dollars. + +One day, during the last week of my stay in the restaurant, I found +under one of the tables a crisp, new ten-dollar bill. I could hardly +contain myself, I was so happy. As it was not my place of business I +felt it to be the proper thing to show the money to the proprietor. This +I did. He seemed as glad as I was, but he coolly explained to me that, +as it was his place of business, he had a right to keep the money, and +he proceeded to do so. This, I confess, was another pretty hard blow +to me. I will not say that I became discouraged, for as I now look +back over my life I do not recall that I ever became discouraged over +anything that I set out to accomplish. I have begun everything with +the idea that I could succeed, and I never had much patience with the +multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one cannot +succeed. I determined to face the situation just as it was. At the end +of the week I went to the treasurer of the Hampton Institute, General +J.F.B. Marshall, and told him frankly my condition. To my gratification +he told me that I could reenter the institution, and that he would trust +me to pay the debt when I could. During the second year I continued to +work as a janitor. + +The education that I received at Hampton out of the text-books was but +a small part of what I learned there. One of the things that impressed +itself upon me deeply, the second year, was the unselfishness of the +teachers. It was hard for me to understand how any individuals could +bring themselves to the point where they could be so happy in working +for others. Before the end of the year, I think I began learning that +those who are happiest are those who do the most for others. This lesson +I have tried to carry with me ever since. + +I also learned a valuable lesson at Hampton by coming into contact with +the best breeds of live stock and fowls. No student, I think, who +has had the opportunity of doing this could go out into the world and +content himself with the poorest grades. + +Perhaps the most valuable thing that I got out of my second year was an +understanding of the use and value of the Bible. Miss Nathalie Lord, one +of the teachers, from Portland, Me., taught me how to use and love the +Bible. Before this I had never cared a great deal about it, but now I +learned to love to read the Bible, not only for the spiritual help which +it gives, but on account of it as literature. The lessons taught me in +this respect took such a hold upon me that at the present time, when I +am at home, no matter how busy I am, I always make it a rule to read a +chapter or a portion of a chapter in the morning, before beginning the +work of the day. + +Whatever ability I may have as a public speaker I owe in a measure +to Miss Lord. When she found out that I had some inclination in this +direction, she gave me private lessons in the matter of breathing, +emphasis, and articulation. Simply to be able to talk in public for the +sake of talking has never had the least attraction to me. In fact, +I consider that there is nothing so empty and unsatisfactory as mere +abstract public speaking; but from my early childhood I have had a +desire to do something to make the world better, and then to be able to +speak to the world about that thing. + +The debating societies at Hampton were a constant source of delight to +me. These were held on Saturday evening; and during my whole life at +Hampton I do not recall that I missed a single meeting. I not only +attended the weekly debating society, but was instrumental in organizing +an additional society. I noticed that between the time when supper was +over and the time to begin evening study there were about twenty minutes +which the young men usually spent in idle gossip. About twenty of us +formed a society for the purpose of utilizing this time in debate or in +practice in public speaking. Few persons ever derived more happiness or +benefit from the use of twenty minutes of time than we did in this way. + +At the end of my second year at Hampton, by the help of some money sent +me by my mother and brother John, supplemented by a small gift from +one of the teachers at Hampton, I was enabled to return to my home in +Malden, West Virginia, to spend my vacation. When I reached home I found +that the salt-furnaces were not running, and that the coal-mine was not +being operated on account of the miners being out on "strike." This was +something which, it seemed, usually occurred whenever the men got two or +three months ahead in their savings. During the strike, of course, they +spent all that they had saved, and would often return to work in debt at +the same wages, or would move to another mine at considerable expense. +In either case, my observations convinced me that the miners were worse +off at the end of the strike. Before the days of strikes in that section +of the country, I knew miners who had considerable money in the bank, +but as soon as the professional labour agitators got control, the +savings of even the more thrifty ones began disappearing. + +My mother and the other members of my family were, of course, much +rejoiced to see me and to note the improvement that I had made during +my two years' absence. The rejoicing on the part of all classes of the +coloured people, and especially the older ones, over my return, was +almost pathetic. I had to pay a visit to each family and take a meal +with each, and at each place tell the story of my experiences at +Hampton. In addition to this I had to speak before the church and +Sunday-school, and at various other places. The thing that I was most in +search of, though, work, I could not find. There was no work on account +of the strike. I spent nearly the whole of the first month of my +vacation in an effort to find something to do by which I could earn +money to pay my way back to Hampton and save a little money to use after +reaching there. + +Toward the end of the first month, I went to a place a considerable +distance from my home, to try to find employment. I did not succeed, and +it was night before I got started on my return. When I had gotten within +a mile or so of my home I was so completely tired out that I could not +walk any farther, and I went into an old, abandoned house to spend the +remainder of the night. About three o'clock in the morning my brother +John found me asleep in this house, and broke to me, as gently as he +could, the sad news that our dear mother had died during the night. + +This seemed to me the saddest and blankest moment in my life. For +several years my mother had not been in good health, but I had no idea, +when I parted from her the previous day, that I should never see her +alive again. Besides that, I had always had an intense desire to be with +her when she did pass away. One of the chief ambitions which spurred +me on at Hampton was that I might be able to get to be in a position in +which I could better make my mother comfortable and happy. She had so +often expressed the wish that she might be permitted to live to see her +children educated and started out in the world. + +In a very short time after the death of my mother our little home was +in confusion. My sister Amanda, although she tried to do the best +she could, was too young to know anything about keeping house, and my +stepfather was not able to hire a housekeeper. Sometimes we had food +cooked for us, and sometimes we did not. I remember that more than once +a can of tomatoes and some crackers constituted a meal. Our clothing +went uncared for, and everything about our home was soon in a +tumble-down condition. It seems to me that this was the most dismal +period of my life. + +My good friend, Mrs. Ruffner, to whom I have already referred, always +made me welcome at her home, and assisted me in many ways during this +trying period. Before the end of the vacation she gave me some work, and +this, together with work in a coal-mine at some distance from my home, +enabled me to earn a little money. + +At one time it looked as if I would have to give up the idea of +returning to Hampton, but my heart was so set on returning that I +determined not to give up going back without a struggle. I was very +anxious to secure some clothes for the winter, but in this I was +disappointed, except for a few garments which my brother John secured +for me. Notwithstanding my need of money and clothing, I was very +happy in the fact that I had secured enough money to pay my travelling +expenses back to Hampton. Once there, I knew that I could make myself +so useful as a janitor that I could in some way get through the school +year. + +Three weeks before the time for the opening of the term at Hampton, I +was pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from my good friend Miss +Mary F. Mackie, the lady principal, asking me to return to Hampton two +weeks before the opening of the school, in order that I might assist her +in cleaning the buildings and getting things in order for the new school +year. This was just the opportunity I wanted. It gave me a chance to +secure a credit in the treasurer's office. I started for Hampton at +once. + +During these two weeks I was taught a lesson which I shall never forget. +Miss Mackie was a member of one of the oldest and most cultured families +of the North, and yet for two weeks she worked by my side cleaning +windows, dusting rooms, putting beds in order, and what not. She felt +that things would not be in condition for the opening of school unless +every window-pane was perfectly clean, and she took the greatest +satisfaction in helping to clean them herself. The work which I have +described she did every year that I was at Hampton. + +It was hard for me at this time to understand how a woman of her +education and social standing could take such delight in performing such +service, in order to assist in the elevation of an unfortunate race. +Ever since then I have had no patience with any school for my race in +the South which did not teach its students the dignity of labour. + +During my last year at Hampton every minute of my time that was not +occupied with my duties as janitor was devoted to hard study. I was +determined, if possible, to make such a record in my class as would +cause me to be placed on the "honour roll" of Commencement speakers. +This I was successful in doing. It was June of 1875 when I finished the +regular course of study at Hampton. The greatest benefits that I got out +of my my life at the Hampton Institute, perhaps, may be classified under +two heads:-- + +First was contact with a great man, General S.C. Armstrong, who, I +repeat, was, in my opinion, the rarest, strongest, and most beautiful +character that it has ever been my privilege to meet. + +Second, at Hampton, for the first time, I learned what education was +expected to do for an individual. Before going there I had a good deal +of the then rather prevalent idea among our people that to secure an +education meant to have a good, easy time, free from all necessity for +manual labour. At Hampton I not only learned that it was not a disgrace +to labour, but learned to love labour, not alone for its financial +value, but for labour's own sake and for the independence and +self-reliance which the ability to do something which the world wants +done brings. At that institution I got my first taste of what it meant +to live a life of unselfishness, my first knowledge of the fact that the +happiest individuals are those who do the most to make others useful and +happy. + +I was completely out of money when I graduated. In company with other +Hampton students, I secured a place as a table waiter in a summer hotel +in Connecticut, and managed to borrow enough money with which to get +there. I had not been in this hotel long before I found out that I knew +practically nothing about waiting on a hotel table. The head waiter, +however, supposed that I was an accomplished waiter. He soon gave me +charge of the table at which there sat four or five wealthy and rather +aristocratic people. My ignorance of how to wait upon them was so +apparent that they scolded me in such a severe manner that I became +frightened and left their table, leaving them sitting there without +food. As a result of this I was reduced from the position of waiter to +that of a dish-carrier. + +But I determined to learn the business of waiting, and did so within +a few weeks and was restored to my former position. I have had the +satisfaction of being a guest in this hotel several times since I was a +waiter there. + +At the close of the hotel season I returned to my former home in Malden, +and was elected to teach the coloured school at that place. This was the +beginning of one of the happiest periods of my life. I now felt that I +had the opportunity to help the people of my home town to a higher life. +I felt from the first that mere book education was not all that the +young people of that town needed. I began my work at eight o'clock in +the morning, and, as a rule, it did not end until ten o'clock at night. +In addition to the usual routine of teaching, I taught the pupils to +comb their hair, and to keep their hands and faces clean, as well as +their clothing. I gave special attention to teaching them the proper +use of the tooth-brush and the bath. In all my teaching I have watched +carefully the influence of the tooth-brush, and I am convinced +that there are few single agencies of civilization that are more +far-reaching. + +There were so many of the older boys and girls in the town, as well as +men and women, who had to work in the daytime and still were craving an +opportunity for an education, that I soon opened a night-school. From +the first, this was crowded every night, being about as large as the +school that I taught in the day. The efforts of some of the men and +women, who in many cases were over fifty years of age, to learn, were in +some cases very pathetic. + +My day and night school work was not all that I undertook. I established +a small reading-room and a debating society. On Sundays I taught two +Sunday-schools, one in the town of Malden in the afternoon, and the +other in the morning at a place three miles distant from Malden. In +addition to this, I gave private lessons to several young men whom I was +fitting to send to the Hampton Institute. Without regard to pay and with +little thought of it, I taught any one who wanted to learn anything that +I could teach him. I was supremely happy in the opportunity of being +able to assist somebody else. I did receive, however, a small salary +from the public fund, for my work as a public-school teacher. + +During the time that I was a student at Hampton my older brother, John, +not only assisted me all that he could, but worked all of the time in +the coal-mines in order to support the family. He willingly neglected +his own education that he might help me. It was my earnest wish to help +him to prepare to enter Hampton, and to save money to assist him in his +expenses there. Both of these objects I was successful in accomplishing. +In three years my brother finished the course at Hampton, and he is +now holding the important position of Superintendent of Industries at +Tuskegee. When he returned from Hampton, we both combined our efforts +and savings to send our adopted brother, James, through the Hampton +Institute. This we succeeded in doing, and he is now the postmaster +at the Tuskegee Institute. The year 1877, which was my second year of +teaching in Malden, I spent very much as I did the first. + +It was while my home was at Malden that what was known as the "Ku Klux +Klan" was in the height of its activity. The "Ku Klux" were bands of +men who had joined themselves together for the purpose of regulating the +conduct of the coloured people, especially with the object of preventing +the members of the race from exercising any influence in politics. They +corresponded somewhat to the "patrollers" of whom I used to hear a +great deal during the days of slavery, when I was a small boy. The +"patrollers" were bands of white men--usually young men--who were +organized largely for the purpose of regulating the conduct of the +slaves at night in such matters as preventing the slaves from going from +one plantation to another without passes, and for preventing them from +holding any kind of meetings without permission and without the presence +at these meetings of at least one white man. + +Like the "patrollers" the "Ku Klux" operated almost wholly at night. +They were, however, more cruel than the "patrollers." Their objects, in +the main, were to crush out the political aspirations of the Negroes, +but they did not confine themselves to this, because schoolhouses as +well as churches were burned by them, and many innocent persons were +made to suffer. During this period not a few coloured people lost their +lives. + +As a young man, the acts of these lawless bands made a great impression +upon me. I saw one open battle take place at Malden between some of the +coloured and white people. There must have been not far from a hundred +persons engaged on each side; many on both sides were seriously injured, +among them General Lewis Ruffner, the husband of my friend Mrs. Viola +Ruffner. General Ruffner tried to defend the coloured people, and +for this he was knocked down and so seriously wounded that he never +completely recovered. It seemed to me as I watched this struggle between +members of the two races, that there was no hope for our people in this +country. The "Ku Klux" period was, I think, the darkest part of the +Reconstruction days. + +I have referred to this unpleasant part of the history of the South +simply for the purpose of calling attention to the great change that has +taken place since the days of the "Ku Klux." To-day there are no such +organizations in the South, and the fact that such ever existed is +almost forgotten by both races. There are few places in the South now +where public sentiment would permit such organizations to exist. + + + +Chapter V. The Reconstruction Period + +The years from 1867 to 1878 I think may be called the period of +Reconstruction. This included the time that I spent as a student at +Hampton and as a teacher in West Virginia. During the whole of the +Reconstruction period two ideas were constantly agitating in the minds +of the coloured people, or, at least, in the minds of a large part of +the race. One of these was the craze for Greek and Latin learning, and +the other was a desire to hold office. + +It could not have been expected that a people who had spent generations +in slavery, and before that generations in the darkest heathenism, could +at first form any proper conception of what an education meant. In every +part of the South, during the Reconstruction period, schools, both +day and night, were filled to overflowing with people of all ages and +conditions, some being as far along in age as sixty and seventy +years. The ambition to secure an education was most praiseworthy and +encouraging. The idea, however, was too prevalent that, as soon as one +secured a little education, in some unexplainable way he would be free +from most of the hardships of the world, and, at any rate, could live +without manual labour. There was a further feeling that a knowledge, +however little, of the Greek and Latin languages would make one a very +superior human being, something bordering almost on the supernatural. I +remember that the first coloured man whom I saw who knew something about +foreign languages impressed me at the time as being a man of all others +to be envied. + +Naturally, most of our people who received some little education became +teachers or preachers. While among those two classes there were many +capable, earnest, godly men and women, still a large proportion took +up teaching or preaching as an easy way to make a living. Many became +teachers who could do little more than write their names. I remember +there came into our neighbourhood one of this class, who was in search +of a school to teach, and the question arose while he was there as to +the shape of the earth and how he could teach the children concerning +the subject. He explained his position in the matter by saying that he +was prepared to teach that the earth was either flat or round, according +to the preference of a majority of his patrons. + +The ministry was the profession that suffered most--and still suffers, +though there has been great improvement--on account of not only ignorant +but in many cases immoral men who claimed that they were "called to +preach." In the earlier days of freedom almost every coloured man who +learned to read would receive "a call to preach" within a few days +after he began reading. At my home in West Virginia the process of being +called to the ministry was a very interesting one. Usually the "call" +came when the individual was sitting in church. Without warning the one +called would fall upon the floor as if struck by a bullet, and would lie +there for hours, speechless and motionless. Then the news would spread +all through the neighborhood that this individual had received a "call." +If he were inclined to resist the summons, he would fall or be made to +fall a second or third time. In the end he always yielded to the call. +While I wanted an education badly, I confess that in my youth I had a +fear that when I had learned to read and write very well I would receive +one of these "calls"; but, for some reason, my call never came. + +When we add the number of wholly ignorant men who preached or "exhorted" +to that of those who possessed something of an education, it can be seen +at a glance that the supply of ministers was large. In fact, some time +ago I knew a certain church that had a total membership of about two +hundred, and eighteen of that number were ministers. But, I repeat, in +many communities in the South the character of the ministry is being +improved, and I believe that within the next two or three decades a very +large proportion of the unworthy ones will have disappeared. The "calls" +to preach, I am glad to say, are not nearly so numerous now as they were +formerly, and the calls to some industrial occupation are growing more +numerous. The improvement that has taken place in the character of the +teachers is even more marked than in the case of the ministers. + +During the whole of the Reconstruction period our people throughout the +South looked to the Federal Government for everything, very much as +a child looks to its mother. This was not unnatural. The central +government gave them freedom, and the whole Nation had been enriched for +more than two centuries by the labour of the Negro. Even as a youth, +and later in manhood, I had the feeling that it was cruelly wrong in +the central government, at the beginning of our freedom, to fail to make +some provision for the general education of our people in addition +to what the states might do, so that the people would be the better +prepared for the duties of citizenship. + +It is easy to find fault, to remark what might have been done, and +perhaps, after all, and under all the circumstances, those in charge +of the conduct of affairs did the only thing that could be done at the +time. Still, as I look back now over the entire period of our freedom, +I cannot help feeling that it would have been wiser if some plan could +have been put in operation which would have made the possession of +a certain amount of education or property, or both, a test for the +exercise of the franchise, and a way provided by which this test should +be made to apply honestly and squarely to both the white and black +races. + +Though I was but little more than a youth during the period of +Reconstruction, I had the feeling that mistakes were being made, and +that things could not remain in the condition that they were in then +very long. I felt that the Reconstruction policy, so far as it related +to my race, was in a large measure on a false foundation, was artificial +and forced. In many cases it seemed to me that the ignorance of my race +was being used as a tool with which to help white men into office, +and that there was an element in the North which wanted to punish the +Southern white men by forcing the Negro into positions over the heads +of the Southern whites. I felt that the Negro would be the one to suffer +for this in the end. Besides, the general political agitation drew +the attention of our people away from the more fundamental matters of +perfecting themselves in the industries at their doors and in securing +property. + +The temptations to enter political life were so alluring that I came +very near yielding to them at one time, but I was kept from doing so +by the feeling that I would be helping in a more substantial way by +assisting in the laying of the foundation of the race through a generous +education of the hand, head, and heart. I saw coloured men who were +members of the state legislatures, and county officers, who, in some +cases, could not read or write, and whose morals were as weak as their +education. Not long ago, when passing through the streets of a certain +city in the South, I heard some brick-masons calling out, from the +top of a two-story brick building on which they were working, for the +"Governor" to "hurry up and bring up some more bricks." Several times +I heard the command, "Hurry up, Governor!" "Hurry up, Governor!" My +curiosity was aroused to such an extent that I made inquiry as to who +the "Governor" was, and soon found that he was a coloured man who at one +time had held the position of Lieutenant-Governor of his state. + +But not all the coloured people who were in office during Reconstruction +were unworthy of their positions, by any means. Some of them, like +the late Senator B.K. Bruce, Governor Pinchback, and many others, were +strong, upright, useful men. Neither were all the class designated as +carpetbaggers dishonourable men. Some of them, like ex-Governor Bullock, +of Georgia, were men of high character and usefulness. + +Of course the coloured people, so largely without education, and wholly +without experience in government, made tremendous mistakes, just as many +people similarly situated would have done. Many of the Southern whites +have a feeling that, if the Negro is permitted to exercise his political +rights now to any degree, the mistakes of the Reconstruction period will +repeat themselves. I do not think this would be true, because the Negro +is a much stronger and wiser man than he was thirty-five years ago, and +he is fast learning the lesson that he cannot afford to act in a manner +that will alienate his Southern white neighbours from him. More and more +I am convinced that the final solution of the political end of our race +problem will be for each state that finds it necessary to change the law +bearing upon the franchise to make the law apply with absolute honesty, +and without opportunity for double dealing or evasion, to both races +alike. Any other course my daily observation in the South convinces me, +will be unjust to the Negro, unjust to the white man, and unfair to the +rest of the state in the Union, and will be, like slavery, a sin that at +some time we shall have to pay for. + +In the fall of 1878, after having taught school in Malden for two years, +and after I had succeeded in preparing several of the young men and +women, besides my two brothers, to enter the Hampton Institute, I +decided to spend some months in study at Washington, D.C. I remained +there for eight months. I derived a great deal of benefit from the +studies which I pursued, and I came into contact with some strong +men and women. At the institution I attended there was no industrial +training given to the students, and I had an opportunity of comparing +the influence of an institution with no industrial training with that of +one like the Hampton Institute, that emphasizes the industries. At this +school I found the students, in most cases, had more money, were better +dressed, wore the latest style of all manner of clothing, and in some +cases were more brilliant mentally. At Hampton it was a standing rule +that, while the institution would be responsible for securing some one +to pay the tuition for the students, the men and women themselves must +provide for their own board, books, clothing, and room wholly by work, +or partly by work and partly in cash. At the institution at which I +now was, I found that a large portion of the students by some means +had their personal expenses paid for them. At Hampton the student was +constantly making the effort through the industries to help himself, +and that very effort was of immense value in character-building. The +students at the other school seemed to be less self-dependent. They +seemed to give more attention to mere outward appearances. In a word, +they did not appear to me to be beginning at the bottom, on a real, +solid foundation, to the extent that they were at Hampton. They knew +more about Latin and Greek when they left school, but they seemed to +know less about life and its conditions as they would meet it at their +homes. Having lived for a number of years in the midst of comfortable +surroundings, they were not as much inclined as the Hampton students to +go into the country districts of the South, where there was little of +comfort, to take up work for our people, and they were more inclined to +yield to the temptation to become hotel waiters and Pullman-car porters +as their life-work. + +During the time I was a student at Washington the city was crowded with +coloured people, many of whom had recently come from the South. A large +proportion of these people had been drawn to Washington because they +felt that they could lead a life of ease there. Others had secured minor +government positions, and still another large class was there in the +hope of securing Federal positions. A number of coloured men--some of +them very strong and brilliant--were in the House of Representatives +at that time, and one, the Hon. B.K. Bruce, was in the Senate. All +this tended to make Washington an attractive place for members of the +coloured race. Then, too, they knew that at all times they could have +the protection of the law in the District of Columbia. The public +schools in Washington for coloured people were better then than they +were elsewhere. I took great interest in studying the life of our people +there closely at that time. I found that while among them there was +a large element of substantial, worthy citizens, there was also a +superficiality about the life of a large class that greatly alarmed me. +I saw young coloured men who were not earning more than four dollars a +week spend two dollars or more for a buggy on Sunday to ride up and down +Pennsylvania Avenue in, in order that they might try to convince the +world that they were worth thousands. I saw other young men who received +seventy-five or one hundred dollars per month from the Government, who +were in debt at the end of every month. I saw men who but a few months +previous were members of Congress, then without employment and in +poverty. Among a large class there seemed to be a dependence upon the +Government for every conceivable thing. The members of this class had +little ambition to create a position for themselves, but wanted the +Federal officials to create one for them. How many times I wished then, +and have often wished since, that by some power of magic I might remove +the great bulk of these people into the county districts and plant them +upon the soil, upon the solid and never deceptive foundation of Mother +Nature, where all nations and races that have ever succeeded have gotten +their start,--a start that at first may be slow and toilsome, but one +that nevertheless is real. + +In Washington I saw girls whose mothers were earning their living by +laundrying. These girls were taught by their mothers, in rather a crude +way it is true, the industry of laundrying. Later, these girls entered +the public schools and remained there perhaps six or eight years. When +the public school course was finally finished, they wanted more costly +dresses, more costly hats and shoes. In a word, while their wants +have been increased, their ability to supply their wants had not been +increased in the same degree. On the other hand, their six or eight +years of book education had weaned them away from the occupation of +their mothers. The result of this was in too many cases that the girls +went to the bad. I often thought how much wiser it would have been to +give these girls the same amount of maternal training--and I favour any +kind of training, whether in the languages or mathematics, that gives +strength and culture to the mind--but at the same time to give them the +most thorough training in the latest and best methods of laundrying and +other kindred occupations. + + + +Chapter VI. Black Race And Red Race + +During the year that I spent in Washington, and for some little time +before this, there had been considerable agitation in the state of +West Virginia over the question of moving the capital of the state +from Wheeling to some other central point. As a result of this, the +Legislature designated three cities to be voted upon by the citizens of +the state as the permanent seat of government. Among these cities was +Charleston, only five miles from Malden, my home. At the close of my +school year in Washington I was very pleasantly surprised to receive, +from a committee of three white people in Charleston, an invitation +to canvass the state in the interests of that city. This invitation I +accepted, and spent nearly three months in speaking in various parts of +the state. Charleston was successful in winning the prize, and is now +the permanent seat of government. + +The reputation that I made as a speaker during this campaign induced a +number of persons to make an earnest effort to get me to enter political +life, but I refused, still believing that I could find other service +which would prove of more permanent value to my race. Even then I had a +strong feeling that what our people most needed was to get a foundation +in education, industry, and property, and for this I felt that they +could better afford to strive than for political preferment. As for my +individual self, it appeared to me to be reasonably certain that I could +succeed in political life, but I had a feeling that it would be a rather +selfish kind of success--individual success at the cost of failing to do +my duty in assisting in laying a foundation for the masses. + +At this period in the progress of our race a very large proportion of +the young men who went to school or to college did so with the expressed +determination to prepare themselves to be great lawyers, or Congressmen, +and many of the women planned to become music teachers; but I had a +reasonably fixed idea, even at that early period in my life, that there +was a need for something to be done to prepare the way for successful +lawyers, Congressmen, and music teachers. + +I felt that the conditions were a good deal like those of an old +coloured man, during the days of slavery, who wanted to learn how to +play on the guitar. In his desire to take guitar lessons he applied to +one of his young masters to teach him, but the young man, not having +much faith in the ability of the slave to master the guitar at his age, +sought to discourage him by telling him: "Uncle Jake, I will give you +guitar lessons; but, Jake, I will have to charge you three dollars for +the first lesson, two dollars for the second lesson, and one dollar for +the third lesson. But I will charge you only twenty-five cents for the +last lesson." + +Uncle Jake answered: "All right, boss, I hires you on dem terms. But, +boss! I wants yer to be sure an' give me dat las' lesson first." + +Soon after my work in connection with the removal of the capital was +finished, I received an invitation which gave me great joy and which +at the same time was a very pleasant surprise. This was a letter +from General Armstrong, inviting me to return to Hampton at the next +Commencement to deliver what was called the "post-graduate address." +This was an honour which I had not dreamed of receiving. With much +care I prepared the best address that I was capable of. I chose for my +subject "The Force That Wins." + +As I returned to Hampton for the purpose of delivering this address, +I went over much of the same ground--now, however, covered entirely by +railroad--that I had traversed nearly six years before, when I first +sought entrance into Hampton Institute as a student. Now I was able to +ride the whole distance in the train. I was constantly contrasting this +with my first journey to Hampton. I think I may say, without seeming +egotism, that it is seldom that five years have wrought such a change in +the life and aspirations of an individual. + +At Hampton I received a warm welcome from teachers and students. I found +that during my absence from Hampton the institute each year had been +getting closer to the real needs and conditions of our people; that the +industrial teaching, as well as that of the academic department, had +greatly improved. The plan of the school was not modelled after that of +any other institution then in existence, but every improvement was made +under the magnificent leadership of General Armstrong solely with the +view of meeting and helping the needs of our people as they presented +themselves at the time. Too often, it seems to me, in missionary +and educational work among underdeveloped races, people yield to the +temptation of doing that which was done a hundred years before, or is +being done in other communities a thousand miles away. The temptation +often is to run each individual through a certain educational +mould, regardless of the condition of the subject or the end to be +accomplished. This was not so at Hampton Institute. + +The address which I delivered on Commencement Day seems to have pleased +every one, and many kind and encouraging words were spoken to me +regarding it. Soon after my return to my home in West Virginia, where +I had planned to continue teaching, I was again surprised to receive a +letter from General Armstrong, asking me to return to Hampton partly as +a teacher and partly to pursue some supplementary studies. This was +in the summer of 1879. Soon after I began my first teaching in West +Virginia I had picked out four of the brightest and most promising of my +pupils, in addition to my two brothers, to whom I have already referred, +and had given them special attention, with the view of having them go +to Hampton. They had gone there, and in each case the teachers had found +them so well prepared that they entered advanced classes. This fact, it +seems, led to my being called back to Hampton as a teacher. One of +the young men that I sent to Hampton in this way is now Dr. Samuel E. +Courtney, a successful physician in Boston, and a member of the School +Board of that city. + +About this time the experiment was being tried for the first time, by +General Armstrong, of educating Indians at Hampton. Few people then had +any confidence in the ability of the Indians to receive education and +to profit by it. General Armstrong was anxious to try the experiment +systematically on a large scale. He secured from the reservations in +the Western states over one hundred wild and for the most part perfectly +ignorant Indians, the greater proportion of whom were young men. The +special work which the General desired me to do was to be a sort of "house +father" to the Indian young men--that is, I was to live in the building +with them and have the charge of their discipline, clothing, rooms, and +so on. This was a very tempting offer, but I had become so much absorbed +in my work in West Virginia that I dreaded to give it up. However, I +tore myself away from it. I did not know how to refuse to perform any +service that General Armstrong desired of me. + +On going to Hampton, I took up my residence in a building with about +seventy-five Indian youths. I was the only person in the building who +was not a member of their race. At first I had a good deal of doubt +about my ability to succeed. I knew that the average Indian felt himself +above the white man, and, of course, he felt himself far above the +Negro, largely on account of the fact of the Negro having submitted to +slavery--a thing which the Indian would never do. The Indians, in the +Indian Territory, owned a large number of slaves during the days of +slavery. Aside from this, there was a general feeling that the attempt +to educate and civilize the red men at Hampton would be a failure. +All this made me proceed very cautiously, for I felt keenly the great +responsibility. But I was determined to succeed. It was not long before +I had the complete confidence of the Indians, and not only this, but +I think I am safe in saying that I had their love and respect. I found +that they were about like any other human beings; that they responded +to kind treatment and resented ill-treatment. They were continually +planning to do something that would add to my happiness and comfort. The +things that they disliked most, I think, were to have their long hair +cut, to give up wearing their blankets, and to cease smoking; but no +white American ever thinks that any other race is wholly civilized until +he wears the white man's clothes, eats the white man's food, speaks the +white man's language, and professes the white man's religion. + +When the difficulty of learning the English language was subtracted, I +found that in the matter of learning trades and in mastering academic +studies there was little difference between the coloured and Indian +students. It was a constant delight to me to note the interest which +the coloured students took in trying to help the Indians in every way +possible. There were a few of the coloured students who felt that the +Indians ought not to be admitted to Hampton, but these were in the +minority. Whenever they were asked to do so, the Negro students gladly +took the Indians as room-mates, in order that they might teach them to +speak English and to acquire civilized habits. + +I have often wondered if there was a white institution in this country +whose students would have welcomed the incoming of more than a hundred +companions of another race in the cordial way that these black students +at Hampton welcomed the red ones. How often I have wanted to say to +white students that they lift themselves up in proportion as they help +to lift others, and the more unfortunate the race, and the lower in the +scale of civilization, the more does one raise one's self by giving the +assistance. + +This reminds me of a conversation which I once had with the Hon. +Frederick Douglass. At one time Mr. Douglass was travelling in the state +of Pennsylvania, and was forced, on account of his colour, to ride in +the baggage-car, in spite of the fact that he had paid the same price +for his passage that the other passengers had paid. When some of the +white passengers went into the baggage-car to console Mr. Douglass, and +one of them said to him: "I am sorry, Mr. Douglass, that you have been +degraded in this manner," Mr. Douglass straightened himself up on +the box upon which he was sitting, and replied: "They cannot degrade +Frederick Douglass. The soul that is within me no man can degrade. I +am not the one that is being degraded on account of this treatment, but +those who are inflicting it upon me." + +In one part of the country, where the law demands the separation of +the races on the railroad trains, I saw at one time a rather amusing +instance which showed how difficult it sometimes is to know where the +black begins and the white ends. + +There was a man who was well known in his community as a Negro, but who +was so white that even an expert would have hard work to classify him as +a black man. This man was riding in the part of the train set aside for +the coloured passengers. When the train conductor reached him, he showed +at once that he was perplexed. If the man was a Negro, the conductor did +not want to send him to the white people's coach; at the same time, if +he was a white man, the conductor did not want to insult him by asking +him if he was a Negro. The official looked him over carefully, examining +his hair, eyes, nose, and hands, but still seemed puzzled. Finally, to +solve the difficulty, he stooped over and peeped at the man's feet. When +I saw the conductor examining the feet of the man in question, I said to +myself, "That will settle it;" and so it did, for the trainman promptly +decided that the passenger was a Negro, and let him remain where he was. +I congratulated myself that my race was fortunate in not losing one of +its members. + +My experience has been that the time to test a true gentleman is to +observe him when he is in contact with individuals of a race that is +less fortunate than his own. This is illustrated in no better way than +by observing the conduct of the old-school type of Southern gentleman +when he is in contact with his former slaves or their descendants. + +An example of what I mean is shown in a story told of George Washington, +who, meeting a coloured man in the road once, who politely lifted his +hat, lifted his own in return. Some of his white friends who saw +the incident criticised Washington for his action. In reply to their +criticism George Washington said: "Do you suppose that I am going to +permit a poor, ignorant, coloured man to be more polite than I am?" + +While I was in charge of the Indian boys at Hampton, I had one or two +experiences which illustrate the curious workings of caste in America. +One of the Indian boys was taken ill, and it became my duty to take him +to Washington, deliver him over to the Secretary of the Interior, and +get a receipt for him, in order that he might be returned to his Western +reservation. At that time I was rather ignorant of the ways of the +world. During my journey to Washington, on a steamboat, when the bell +rang for dinner, I was careful to wait and not enter the dining room +until after the greater part of the passengers had finished their meal. +Then, with my charge, I went to the dining saloon. The man in charge +politely informed me that the Indian could be served, but that I could +not. I never could understand how he knew just where to draw the colour +line, since the Indian and I were of about the same complexion. The +steward, however, seemed to be an expert in this manner. I had been +directed by the authorities at Hampton to stop at a certain hotel in +Washington with my charge, but when I went to this hotel the clerk +stated that he would be glad to receive the Indian into the house, but +said that he could not accommodate me. + +An illustration of something of this same feeling came under my +observation afterward. I happened to find myself in a town in which +so much excitement and indignation were being expressed that it seemed +likely for a time that there would be a lynching. The occasion of the +trouble was that a dark-skinned man had stopped at the local hotel. +Investigation, however, developed the fact that this individual was a +citizen of Morocco, and that while travelling in this country he spoke +the English language. As soon as it was learned that he was not an +American Negro, all the signs of indignation disappeared. The man who +was the innocent cause of the excitement, though, found it prudent after +that not to speak English. + +At the end of my first year with the Indians there came another opening +for me at Hampton, which, as I look back over my life now, seems to +have come providentially, to help to prepare me for my work at Tuskegee +later. General Armstrong had found out that there was quite a number of +young coloured men and women who were intensely in earnest in wishing to +get an education, but who were prevented from entering Hampton Institute +because they were too poor to be able to pay any portion of the cost of +their board, or even to supply themselves with books. He conceived the +idea of starting a night-school in connection with the Institute, into +which a limited number of the most promising of these young men and +women would be received, on condition that they were to work for ten +hours during the day, and attend school for two hours at night. They +were to be paid something above the cost of their board for their work. +The greater part of their earnings was to be reserved in the school's +treasury as a fund to be drawn on to pay their board when they had +become students in the day-school, after they had spent one or two years +in the night-school. In this way they would obtain a start in their +books and a knowledge of some trade or industry, in addition to the +other far-reaching benefits of the institution. + +General Armstrong asked me to take charge of the night-school, and I +did so. At the beginning of this school there were about twelve strong, +earnest men and women who entered the class. During the day the greater +part of the young men worked in the school's sawmill, and the young +women worked in the laundry. The work was not easy in either place, +but in all my teaching I never taught pupils who gave me much genuine +satisfaction as these did. They were good students, and mastered their +work thoroughly. They were so much in earnest that only the ringing of +the retiring-bell would make them stop studying, and often they would +urge me to continue the lessons after the usual hour for going to bed +had come. + +These students showed so much earnestness, both in their hard work +during the day, as well as in their application to their studies at +night, that I gave them the name of "The Plucky Class"--a name which +soon grew popular and spread throughout the institution. After a student +had been in the night-school long enough to prove what was in him, I +gave him a printed certificate which read something like this:-- + +"This is to certify that James Smith is a member of The Plucky Class of +the Hampton Institute, and is in good and regular standing." + +The students prized these certificates highly, and they added greatly to +the popularity of the night-school. Within a few weeks this department +had grown to such an extent that there were about twenty-five students +in attendance. I have followed the course of many of these twenty-five +men and women ever since then, and they are now holding important and +useful positions in nearly every part of the South. The night-school at +Hampton, which started with only twelve students, now numbers between +three and four hundred, and is one of the permanent and most important +features of the institution. + + + +Chapter VII. Early Days At Tuskegee + +During the time that I had charge of the Indians and the night-school +at Hampton, I pursued some studies myself, under the direction of +the instructors there. One of these instructors was the Rev. Dr. H.B. +Frissell, the present Principal of the Hampton Institute, General +Armstrong's successor. + +In May, 1881, near the close of my first year in teaching the +night-school, in a way that I had not dared expect, the opportunity +opened for me to begin my life-work. One night in the chapel, after the +usual chapel exercises were over, General Armstrong referred to the fact +that he had received a letter from some gentlemen in Alabama asking him +to recommend some one to take charge of what was to be a normal school +for the coloured people in the little town of Tuskegee in that state. +These gentlemen seemed to take it for granted that no coloured man +suitable for the position could be secured, and they were expecting the +General to recommend a white man for the place. The next day General +Armstrong sent for me to come to his office, and, much to my surprise, +asked me if I thought I could fill the position in Alabama. I told him +that I would be willing to try. Accordingly, he wrote to the people +who had applied to him for the information, that he did not know of any +white man to suggest, but if they would be willing to take a coloured +man, he had one whom he could recommend. In this letter he gave them my +name. + +Several days passed before anything more was heard about the matter. +Some time afterward, one Sunday evening during the chapel exercises, a +messenger came in and handed the general a telegram. At the end of the +exercises he read the telegram to the school. In substance, these were +its words: "Booker T. Washington will suit us. Send him at once." + +There was a great deal of joy expressed among the students and teachers, +and I received very hearty congratulations. I began to get ready at once +to go to Tuskegee. I went by way of my old home in West Virginia, where +I remained for several days, after which I proceeded to Tuskegee. I +found Tuskegee to be a town of about two thousand inhabitants, nearly +one-half of whom were coloured. It was in what was known as the Black +Belt of the South. In the county in which Tuskegee is situated the +coloured people outnumbered the whites by about three to one. In some of +the adjoining and near-by counties the proportion was not far from six +coloured persons to one white. + +I have often been asked to define the term "Black Belt." So far as I can +learn, the term was first used to designate a part of the country which +was distinguished by the colour of the soil. The part of the country +possessing this thick, dark, and naturally rich soil was, of course, +the part of the South where the slaves were most profitable, and +consequently they were taken there in the largest numbers. Later, +and especially since the war, the term seems to be used wholly in a +political sense--that is, to designate the counties where the black +people outnumber the white. + +Before going to Tuskegee I had expected to find there a building and +all the necessary apparatus ready for me to begin teaching. To my +disappointment, I found nothing of the kind. I did find, though, that +which no costly building and apparatus can supply,--hundreds of hungry, +earnest souls who wanted to secure knowledge. + +Tuskegee seemed an ideal place for the school. It was in the midst of +the great bulk of the Negro population, and was rather secluded, being +five miles from the main line of railroad, with which it was connected +by a short line. During the days of slavery, and since, the town had +been a centre for the education of the white people. This was an added +advantage, for the reason that I found the white people possessing +a degree of culture and education that is not surpassed by many +localities. While the coloured people were ignorant, they had not, as a +rule, degraded and weakened their bodies by vices such as are common to +the lower class of people in the large cities. In general, I found the +relations between the two races pleasant. For example, the largest, and +I think at that time the only hardware store in the town was owned and +operated jointly by a coloured man and a white man. This copartnership +continued until the death of the white partner. + +I found that about a year previous to my going to Tuskegee some of the +coloured people who had heard something of the work of education being +done at Hampton had applied to the state Legislature, through their +representatives, for a small appropriation to be used in starting a +normal school in Tuskegee. This request the Legislature had complied +with to the extent of granting an annual appropriation of two thousand +dollars. I soon learned, however, that this money could be used only for +the payment of the salaries of the instructors, and that there was no +provision for securing land, buildings, or apparatus. The task before me +did not seem a very encouraging one. It seemed much like making bricks +without straw. The coloured people were overjoyed, and were constantly +offering their services in any way in which they could be of assistance +in getting the school started. + +My first task was to find a place in which to open the school. After +looking the town over with some care, the most suitable place that could +be secured seemed to be a rather dilapidated shanty near the coloured +Methodist church, together with the church itself as a sort of +assembly-room. Both the church and the shanty were in about as bad +condition as was possible. I recall that during the first months of +school that I taught in this building it was in such poor repair that, +whenever it rained, one of the older students would very kindly leave +his lessons and hold an umbrella over me while I heard the recitations +of the others. I remember, also, that on more than one occasion my +landlady held an umbrella over me while I ate breakfast. + +At the time I went to Alabama the coloured people were taking +considerable interest in politics, and they were very anxious that I +should become one of them politically, in every respect. They seemed to +have a little distrust of strangers in this regard. I recall that one +man, who seemed to have been designated by the others to look after my +political destiny, came to me on several occasions and said, with a +good deal of earnestness: "We wants you to be sure to vote jes' like we +votes. We can't read de newspapers very much, but we knows how to vote, +an' we wants you to vote jes' like we votes." He added: "We watches de +white man, and we keeps watching de white man till we finds out which +way de white man's gwine to vote; an' when we finds out which way de +white man's gwine to vote, den we votes 'xactly de other way. Den we +knows we's right." + +I am glad to add, however, that at the present time the disposition +to vote against the white man merely because he is white is largely +disappearing, and the race is learning to vote from principle, for what +the voter considers to be for the best interests of both races. + +I reached Tuskegee, as I have said, early in June, 1881. The first month +I spent in finding accommodations for the school, and in travelling +through Alabama, examining into the actual life of the people, +especially in the court districts, and in getting the school advertised +among the class of people that I wanted to have attend it. The most of +my travelling was done over the country roads, with a mule and a cart +or a mule and a buggy wagon for conveyance. I ate and slept with the +people, in their little cabins. I saw their farms, their schools, their +churches. Since, in the case of the most of these visits, there had +been no notice given in advance that a stranger was expected, I had the +advantage of seeing the real, everyday life of the people. + +In the plantation districts I found that, as a rule, the whole family +slept in one room, and that in addition to the immediate family there +sometimes were relatives, or others not related to the family, who slept +in the same room. On more than one occasion I went outside the house +to get ready for bed, or to wait until the family had gone to bed. They +usually contrived some kind of a place for me to sleep, either on the +floor or in a special part of another's bed. Rarely was there any place +provided in the cabin where one could bathe even the face and hands, but +usually some provision was made for this outside the house, in the yard. + +The common diet of the people was fat pork and corn bread. At times I +have eaten in cabins where they had only corn bread and "black-eye peas" +cooked in plain water. The people seemed to have no other idea than to +live on this fat meat and corn bread,--the meat, and the meal of which +the bread was made, having been bought at a high price at a store in +town, notwithstanding the fact that the land all about the cabin homes +could easily have been made to produce nearly every kind of garden +vegetable that is raised anywhere in the country. Their one object +seemed to be to plant nothing but cotton; and in many cases cotton was +planted up to the very door of the cabin. + +In these cabin homes I often found sewing-machines which had been +bought, or were being bought, on instalments, frequently at a cost of +as much as sixty dollars, or showy clocks for which the occupants of +the cabins had paid twelve or fourteen dollars. I remember that on one +occasion when I went into one of these cabins for dinner, when I sat +down to the table for a meal with the four members of the family, I +noticed that, while there were five of us at the table, there was but +one fork for the five of us to use. Naturally there was an awkward pause +on my part. In the opposite corner of that same cabin was an organ +for which the people told me they were paying sixty dollars in monthly +instalments. One fork, and a sixty-dollar organ! + +In most cases the sewing-machine was not used, the clocks were so +worthless that they did not keep correct time--and if they had, in nine +cases out of ten there would have been no one in the family who could +have told the time of day--while the organ, of course, was rarely used +for want of a person who could play upon it. + +In the case to which I have referred, where the family sat down to the +table for the meal at which I was their guest, I could see plainly that +this was an awkward and unusual proceeding, and was done in my honour. +In most cases, when the family got up in the morning, for example, the +wife would put a piece of meat in a frying-pan and put a lump of dough +in a "skillet," as they called it. These utensils would be placed on the +fire, and in ten or fifteen minutes breakfast would be ready. Frequently +the husband would take his bread and meat in his hand and start for the +field, eating as he walked. The mother would sit down in a corner and +eat her breakfast, perhaps from a plate and perhaps directly from the +"skillet" or frying-pan, while the children would eat their portion of +the bread and meat while running about the yard. At certain seasons of +the year, when meat was scarce, it was rarely that the children who were +not old enough or strong enough to work in the fields would have the +luxury of meat. + +The breakfast over, and with practically no attention given to the +house, the whole family would, as a general thing, proceed to the +cotton-field. Every child that was large enough to carry a hoe was put +to work, and the baby--for usually there was at least one baby--would be +laid down at the end of the cotton row, so that its mother could give +it a certain amount of attention when she had finished chopping her +row. The noon meal and the supper were taken in much the same way as the +breakfast. + +All the days of the family would be spent after much this same routine, +except Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday the whole family would spent at +least half a day, and often a whole day, in town. The idea in going to +town was, I suppose, to do shopping, but all the shopping that the whole +family had money for could have been attended to in ten minutes by one +person. Still, the whole family remained in town for most of the day, +spending the greater part of the time in standing on the streets, the +women, too often, sitting about somewhere smoking or dipping snuff. +Sunday was usually spent in going to some big meeting. With few +exceptions, I found that the crops were mortgaged in the counties where +I went, and that the most of the coloured farmers were in debt. The +state had not been able to build schoolhouses in the country districts, +and, as a rule, the schools were taught in churches or in log cabins. +More than once, while on my journeys, I found that there was no +provision made in the house used for school purposes for heating the +building during the winter, and consequently a fire had to be built in +the yard, and teacher and pupils passed in and out of the house as they +got cold or warm. With few exceptions, I found the teachers in these +country schools to be miserably poor in preparation for their work, and +poor in moral character. The schools were in session from three to five +months. There was practically no apparatus in the schoolhouses, except +that occasionally there was a rough blackboard. I recall that one day I +went into a schoolhouse--or rather into an abandoned log cabin that was +being used as a schoolhouse--and found five pupils who were studying a +lesson from one book. Two of these, on the front seat, were using +the book between them; behind these were two others peeping over the +shoulders of the first two, and behind the four was a fifth little +fellow who was peeping over the shoulders of all four. + +What I have said concerning the character of the schoolhouses and +teachers will also apply quite accurately as a description of the church +buildings and the ministers. + +I met some very interesting characters during my travels. As +illustrating the peculiar mental processes of the country people, I +remember that I asked one coloured man, who was about sixty years old, +to tell me something of his history. He said that he had been born in +Virginia, and sold into Alabama in 1845. I asked him how many were sold +at the same time. He said, "There were five of us; myself and brother +and three mules." + +In giving all these descriptions of what I saw during my month of travel +in the country around Tuskegee, I wish my readers to keep in mind the +fact that there were many encouraging exceptions to the conditions which +I have described. I have stated in such plain words what I saw, mainly +for the reason that later I want to emphasize the encouraging changes +that have taken place in the community, not wholly by the work of the +Tuskegee school, but by that of other institutions as well. + + + +Chapter VIII. Teaching School In A Stable And A Hen-House + +I confess that what I saw during my month of travel and investigation +left me with a very heavy heart. The work to be done in order to lift +these people up seemed almost beyond accomplishing. I was only one +person, and it seemed to me that the little effort which I could put +forth could go such a short distance toward bringing about results. I +wondered if I could accomplish anything, and if it were worth while for +me to try. + +Of one thing I felt more strongly convinced than ever, after spending +this month in seeing the actual life of the coloured people, and that +was that, in order to lift them up, something must be done more than +merely to imitate New England education as it then existed. I saw more +clearly than ever the wisdom of the system which General Armstrong had +inaugurated at Hampton. To take the children of such people as I had +been among for a month, and each day give them a few hours of mere book +education, I felt would be almost a waste of time. + +After consultation with the citizens of Tuskegee, I set July 4, 1881, +as the day for the opening of the school in the little shanty and church +which had been secured for its accommodation. The white people, as well +as the coloured, were greatly interested in the starting of the new +school, and the opening day was looked forward to with much earnest +discussion. There were not a few white people in the vicinity of +Tuskegee who looked with some disfavour upon the project. They +questioned its value to the coloured people, and had a fear that it +might result in bringing about trouble between the races. Some had the +feeling that in proportion as the Negro received education, in the same +proportion would his value decrease as an economic factor in the state. +These people feared the result of education would be that the Negroes +would leave the farms, and that it would be difficult to secure them for +domestic service. + +The white people who questioned the wisdom of starting this new school +had in their minds pictures of what was called an educated Negro, with a +high hat, imitation gold eye-glasses, a showy walking-stick, kid gloves, +fancy boots, and what not--in a word, a man who was determined to live +by his wits. It was difficult for these people to see how education +would produce any other kind of a coloured man. + +In the midst of all the difficulties which I encountered in getting +the little school started, and since then through a period of nineteen +years, there are two men among all the many friends of the school in +Tuskegee upon whom I have depended constantly for advice and guidance; +and the success of the undertaking is largely due to these men, from +whom I have never sought anything in vain. I mention them simply as +types. One is a white man and an ex-slaveholder, Mr. George W. Campbell; +the other is a black man and an ex-slave, Mr. Lewis Adams. These were +the men who wrote to General Armstrong for a teacher. + +Mr. Campbell is a merchant and banker, and had had little experience in +dealing with matters pertaining to education. Mr. Adams was a +mechanic, and had learned the trades of shoemaking, harness-making, and +tinsmithing during the days of slavery. He had never been to school a +day in his life, but in some way he had learned to read and write while +a slave. From the first, these two men saw clearly what my plan of +education was, sympathized with me, and supported me in every effort. In +the days which were darkest financially for the school, Mr. Campbell was +never appealed to when he was not willing to extend all the aid in his +power. I do not know two men, one an ex-slaveholder, one an ex-slave, +whose advice and judgment I would feel more like following in everything +which concerns the life and development of the school at Tuskegee than +those of these two men. + +I have always felt that Mr. Adams, in a large degree, derived his +unusual power of mind from the training given his hands in the process +of mastering well three trades during the days of slavery. If one +goes to-day into any Southern town, and asks for the leading and most +reliable coloured man in the community, I believe that in five cases +out of ten he will be directed to a Negro who learned a trade during the +days of slavery. + +On the morning that the school opened, thirty students reported for +admission. I was the only teacher. The students were about equally +divided between the sexes. Most of them lived in Macon County, +the county in which Tuskegee is situated, and of which it is the +county-seat. A great many more students wanted to enter the school, but +it had been decided to receive only those who were above fifteen years +of age, and who had previously received some education. The greater part +of the thirty were public-school teachers, and some of them were nearly +forty years of age. With the teachers came some of their former pupils, +and when they were examined it was amusing to note that in several cases +the pupil entered a higher class than did his former teacher. It was +also interesting to note how many big books some of them had studied, +and how many high-sounding subjects some of them claimed to have +mastered. The bigger the book and the longer the name of the subject, +the prouder they felt of their accomplishment. Some had studied Latin, +and one or two Greek. This they thought entitled them to special +distinction. + +In fact, one of the saddest things I saw during the month of travel +which I have described was a young man, who had attended some high +school, sitting down in a one-room cabin, with grease on his clothing, +filth all around him, and weeds in the yard and garden, engaged in +studying a French grammar. + +The students who came first seemed to be fond of memorizing long and +complicated "rules" in grammar and mathematics, but had little thought +or knowledge of applying these rules to their everyday affairs of their +life. One subject which they liked to talk about, and tell me that they +had mastered, in arithmetic, was "banking and discount," but I soon +found out that neither they nor almost any one in the neighbourhood in +which they had lived had ever had a bank account. In registering the +names of the students, I found that almost every one of them had one or +more middle initials. When I asked what the "J" stood for, in the name +of John J. Jones, it was explained to me that this was a part of his +"entitles." Most of the students wanted to get an education because they +thought it would enable them to earn more money as school-teachers. + +Notwithstanding what I have said about them in these respects, I have +never seen a more earnest and willing company of young men and women +than these students were. They were all willing to learn the right thing +as soon as it was shown them what was right. I was determined to start +them off on a solid and thorough foundation, so far as their books were +concerned. I soon learned that most of them had the merest smattering of +the high-sounding things that they had studied. While they could locate +the Desert of Sahara or the capital of China on an artificial globe, +I found out that the girls could not locate the proper places for the +knives and forks on an actual dinner-table, or the places on which the +bread and meat should be set. + +I had to summon a good deal of courage to take a student who had been +studying cube root and "banking and discount," and explain to him +that the wisest thing for him to do first was thoroughly master the +multiplication table. + +The number of pupils increased each week, until by the end of the first +month there were nearly fifty. Many of them, however, said that, as they +could remain only for two or three months, they wanted to enter a high +class and get a diploma the first year if possible. + +At the end of the first six weeks a new and rare face entered the school +as a co-teacher. This was Miss Olivia A. Davidson, who later became +my wife. Miss Davidson was born in Ohio, and received her preparatory +education in the public schools of that state. When little more than a +girl, she heard of the need of teachers in the South. She went to the +state of Mississippi and began teaching there. Later she taught in the +city of Memphis. While teaching in Mississippi, one of her pupils became +ill with smallpox. Every one in the community was so frightened that no +one would nurse the boy. Miss Davidson closed her school and remained by +the bedside of the boy night and day until he recovered. While she was +at her Ohio home on her vacation, the worst epidemic of yellow fever +broke out in Memphis, Tenn., that perhaps has ever occurred in the +South. When she heard of this, she at once telegraphed the Mayor of +Memphis, offering her services as a yellow-fever nurse, although she had +never had the disease. + +Miss Davidon's experience in the South showed her that the people needed +something more than mere book-learning. She heard of the Hampton system +of education, and decided that this was what she wanted in order to +prepare herself for better work in the South. The attention of Mrs. Mary +Hemenway, of Boston, was attracted to her rare ability. Through Mrs. +Hemenway's kindness and generosity, Miss Davidson, after graduating +at Hampton, received an opportunity to complete a two years' course of +training at the Massachusetts State Normal School at Framingham. + +Before she went to Framingham, some one suggested to Miss Davidson +that, since she was so very light in colour, she might find it more +comfortable not to be known as a coloured women in this school in +Massachusetts. She at once replied that under no circumstances and for +no considerations would she consent to deceive any one in regard to her +racial identity. + +Soon after her graduation from the Framingham institution, Miss Davidson +came to Tuskegee, bringing into the school many valuable and fresh ideas +as to the best methods of teaching, as well as a rare moral character +and a life of unselfishness that I think has seldom been equalled. No +single individual did more toward laying the foundations of the Tuskegee +Institute so as to insure the successful work that has been done there +than Olivia A. Davidson. + +Miss Davidson and I began consulting as to the future of the school from +the first. The students were making progress in learning books and in +developing their minds; but it became apparent at once that, if we +were to make any permanent impression upon those who had come to us +for training we must do something besides teach them mere books. The +students had come from homes where they had had no opportunities for +lessons which would teach them how to care for their bodies. With few +exceptions, the homes in Tuskegee in which the students boarded were +but little improvement upon those from which they had come. We wanted +to teach the students how to bathe; how to care for their teeth and +clothing. We wanted to teach them what to eat, and how to eat it +properly, and how to care for their rooms. Aside from this, we wanted to +give them such a practical knowledge of some one industry, together with +the spirit of industry, thrift, and economy, that they would be sure of +knowing how to make a living after they had left us. We wanted to teach +them to study actual things instead of mere books alone. + +We found that the most of our students came from the country districts, +where agriculture in some form or other was the main dependence of +the people. We learned that about eighty-five per cent of the coloured +people in the Gulf states depended upon agriculture for their living. +Since this was true, we wanted to be careful not to educate our students +out of sympathy with agricultural life, so that they would be attracted +from the country to the cities, and yield to the temptation of trying +to live by their wits. We wanted to give them such an education as would +fit a large proportion of them to be teachers, and at the same time +cause them to return to the plantation districts and show the people +there how to put new energy and new ideas into farming, as well as into +the intellectual and moral and religious life of the people. + +All these ideas and needs crowded themselves upon us with a seriousness +that seemed well-nigh overwhelming. What were we to do? We had only +the little old shanty and the abandoned church which the good +coloured people of the town of Tuskegee had kindly loaned us for the +accommodation of the classes. The number of students was increasing +daily. The more we saw of them, and the more we travelled through the +country districts, the more we saw that our efforts were reaching, to +only a partial degree, the actual needs of the people whom we wanted to +lift up through the medium of the students whom we should educate and +send out as leaders. + +The more we talked with the students, who were then coming to us from +several parts of the state, the more we found that the chief ambition +among a large proportion of them was to get an education so that they +would not have to work any longer with their hands. + +This is illustrated by a story told of a coloured man in Alabama, who, +one hot day in July, while he was at work in a cotton-field, suddenly +stopped, and, looking toward the skies, said: "O Lawd, de cotton am +so grassy, de work am so hard, and the sun am so hot dat I b'lieve dis +darky am called to preach!" + +About three months after the opening of the school, and at the time when +we were in the greatest anxiety about our work, there came into market +for sale an old and abandoned plantation which was situated about a +mile from the town of Tuskegee. The mansion house--or "big house," as +it would have been called--which had been occupied by the owners during +slavery, had been burned. After making a careful examination of the +place, it seemed to be just the location that we wanted in order to make +our work effective and permanent. + +But how were we to get it? The price asked for it was very little--only +five hundred dollars--but we had no money, and we were strangers in the +town and had no credit. The owner of the land agreed to let us occupy +the place if we could make a payment of two hundred and fifty dollars +down, with the understanding that the remaining two hundred and fifty +dollars must be paid within a year. Although five hundred dollars was +cheap for the land, it was a large sum when one did not have any part of +it. + +In the midst of the difficulty I summoned a great deal of courage and +wrote to my friend General J.F.B. Marshall, the Treasurer of the Hampton +Institute, putting the situation before him and beseeching him to lend +me the two hundred and fifty dollars on my own personal responsibility. +Within a few days a reply came to the effect that he had no authority to +lend me the money belonging to the Hampton Institute, but that he would +gladly lend me the amount needed from his own personal funds. + +I confess that the securing of this money in this way was a great +surprise to me, as well as a source of gratification. Up to that time I +never had had in my possession so much money as one hundred dollars at +a time, and the loan which I had asked General Marshall for seemed a +tremendously large sum to me. The fact of my being responsible for the +repaying of such a large amount of money weighed very heavily upon me. + +I lost no time in getting ready to move the school on to the new farm. +At the time we occupied the place there were standing upon it a cabin, +formerly used as a dining room, an old kitchen, a stable, and an old +hen-house. Within a few weeks we had all of these structures in use. The +stable was repaired and used as a recitation-room, and very presently +the hen-house was utilized for the same purpose. + +I recall that one morning, when I told an old coloured man who lived +near, and who sometimes helped me, that our school had grown so large +that it would be necessary for us to use the hen-house for school +purposes, and that I wanted him to help me give it a thorough cleaning +out the next day, he replied, in the most earnest manner: "What +you mean, boss? You sholy ain't gwine clean out de hen-house in de +day-time?" + +Nearly all the work of getting the new location ready for school +purposes was done by the students after school was over in the +afternoon. As soon as we got the cabins in condition to be used, I +determined to clear up some land so that we could plant a crop. When I +explained my plan to the young men, I noticed that they did not seem +to take to it very kindly. It was hard for them to see the connection +between clearing land and an education. Besides, many of them had been +school-teachers, and they questioned whether or not clearing land would +be in keeping with their dignity. In order to relieve them from any +embarrassment, each afternoon after school I took my axe and led the way +to the woods. When they saw that I was not afraid or ashamed to work, +they began to assist with more enthusiasm. We kept at the work each +afternoon, until we had cleared about twenty acres and had planted a +crop. + +In the meantime Miss Davidson was devising plans to repay the loan. Her +first effort was made by holding festivals, or "suppers." She made a +personal canvass among the white and coloured families in the town +of Tuskegee, and got them to agree to give something, like a cake, a +chicken, bread, or pies, that could be sold at the festival. Of course +the coloured people were glad to give anything that they could spare, +but I want to add that Miss Davidson did not apply to a single white +family, so far as I now remember, that failed to donate something; and +in many ways the white families showed their interest in the school. + +Several of these festivals were held, and quite a little sum of money +was raised. A canvass was also made among the people of both races for +direct gifts of money, and most of those applied to gave small sums. It +was often pathetic to note the gifts of the older coloured people, most +of whom had spent their best days in slavery. Sometimes they would give +five cents, sometimes twenty-five cents. Sometimes the contribution was +a quilt, or a quantity of sugarcane. I recall one old coloured women who +was about seventy years of age, who came to see me when we were raising +money to pay for the farm. She hobbled into the room where I was, +leaning on a cane. She was clad in rags; but they were clean. She said: +"Mr. Washin'ton, God knows I spent de bes' days of my life in slavery. +God knows I's ignorant an' poor; but," she added, "I knows what you an' +Miss Davidson is tryin' to do. I knows you is tryin' to make better men +an' better women for de coloured race. I ain't got no money, but I wants +you to take dese six eggs, what I's been savin' up, an' I wants you to +put dese six eggs into the eddication of dese boys an' gals." + +Since the work at Tuskegee started, it has been my privilege to receive +many gifts for the benefit of the institution, but never any, I think, +that touched me so deeply as this one. + + + +Chapter IX. Anxious Days And Sleepless Nights + +The coming of Christmas, that first year of our residence in Alabama, +gave us an opportunity to get a farther insight into the real life of +the people. The first thing that reminded us that Christmas had arrived +was the "foreday" visits of scores of children rapping at our doors, +asking for "Chris'mus gifts! Chris'mus gifts!" Between the hours of two +o'clock and five o'clock in the morning I presume that we must have had +a half-hundred such calls. This custom prevails throughout this portion +of the South to-day. + +During the days of slavery it was a custom quite generally observed +throughout all the Southern states to give the coloured people a week of +holiday at Christmas, or to allow the holiday to continue as long as the +"yule log" lasted. The male members of the race, and often the female +members, were expected to get drunk. We found that for a whole week +the coloured people in and around Tuskegee dropped work the day before +Christmas, and that it was difficult for any one to perform any service +from the time they stopped work until after the New Year. Persons who at +other times did not use strong drink thought it quite the proper thing +to indulge in it rather freely during the Christmas week. There was +a widespread hilarity, and a free use of guns, pistols, and gunpowder +generally. The sacredness of the season seemed to have been almost +wholly lost sight of. + +During this first Christmas vacation I went some distance from the town +to visit the people on one of the large plantations. In their poverty +and ignorance it was pathetic to see their attempts to get joy out of +the season that in most parts of the country is so sacred and so dear to +the heart. In one cabin I notice that all that the five children had to +remind them of the coming of Christ was a single bunch of firecrackers, +which they had divided among them. In another cabin, where there were +at least a half-dozen persons, they had only ten cents' worth of +ginger-cakes, which had been bought in the store the day before. In +another family they had only a few pieces of sugarcane. In still another +cabin I found nothing but a new jug of cheap, mean whiskey, which the +husband and wife were making free use of, notwithstanding the fact that +the husband was one of the local ministers. In a few instances I found +that the people had gotten hold of some bright-coloured cards that had +been designed for advertising purposes, and were making the most of +these. In other homes some member of the family had bought a new pistol. +In the majority of cases there was nothing to be seen in the cabin to +remind one of the coming of the Saviour, except that the people had +ceased work in the fields and were lounging about their homes. At night, +during Christmas week, they usually had what they called a "frolic," in +some cabin on the plantation. That meant a kind of rough dance, where +there was likely to be a good deal of whiskey used, and where there +might be some shooting or cutting with razors. + +While I was making this Christmas visit I met an old coloured man who +was one of the numerous local preachers, who tried to convince me, from +the experience Adam had in the Garden of Eden, that God had cursed all +labour, and that, therefore, it was a sin for any man to work. For that +reason this man sought to do as little work as possible. He seemed at +that time to be supremely happy, because he was living, as he expressed +it, through one week that was free from sin. + +In the school we made a special effort to teach our students the meaning +of Christmas, and to give them lessons in its proper observance. In this +we have been successful to a degree that makes me feel safe in saying +that the season now has a new meaning, not only through all that +immediate region, but, in a measure, wherever our graduates have gone. + +At the present time one of the most satisfactory features of the +Christmas and Thanksgiving season at Tuskegee is the unselfish and +beautiful way in which our graduates and students spend their time in +administering to the comfort and happiness of others, especially the +unfortunate. Not long ago some of our young men spent a holiday +in rebuilding a cabin for a helpless coloured women who was about +seventy-five years old. At another time I remember that I made it known +in chapel, one night, that a very poor student was suffering from cold, +because he needed a coat. The next morning two coats were sent to my +office for him. + +I have referred to the disposition on the part of the white people in +the town of Tuskegee and vicinity to help the school. From the first, I +resolved to make the school a real part of the community in which it was +located. I was determined that no one should have the feeling that it +was a foreign institution, dropped down in the midst of the people, for +which they had no responsibility and in which they had no interest. +I noticed that the very fact that they had been asking to contribute +toward the purchase of the land made them begin to feel as if it was +going to be their school, to a large degree. I noted that just in +proportion as we made the white people feel that the institution was +a part of the life of the community, and that, while we wanted to make +friends in Boston, for example, we also wanted to make white friends in +Tuskegee, and that we wanted to make the school of real service to all +the people, their attitude toward the school became favourable. + +Perhaps I might add right here, what I hope to demonstrate later, that, +so far as I know, the Tuskegee school at the present time has no warmer +and more enthusiastic friends anywhere than it has among the white +citizens of Tuskegee and throughout the state of Alabama and the entire +South. From the first, I have advised our people in the South to +make friends in every straightforward, manly way with their next-door +neighbour, whether he be a black man or a white man. I have also advised +them, where no principle is at stake, to consult the interests of their +local communities, and to advise with their friends in regard to their +voting. + +For several months the work of securing the money with which to pay for +the farm went on without ceasing. At the end of three months enough was +secured to repay the loan of two hundred and fifty dollars to General +Marshall, and within two months more we had secured the entire five +hundred dollars and had received a deed of the one hundred acres of +land. This gave us a great deal of satisfaction. It was not only a +source of satisfaction to secure a permanent location for the school, +but it was equally satisfactory to know that the greater part of the +money with which it was paid for had been gotten from the white and +coloured people in the town of Tuskegee. The most of this money was +obtained by holding festivals and concerts, and from small individual +donations. + +Our next effort was in the direction of increasing the cultivation of +the land, so as to secure some return from it, and at the same time give +the students training in agriculture. All the industries at Tuskegee +have been started in natural and logical order, growing out of the needs +of a community settlement. We began with farming, because we wanted +something to eat. + +Many of the students, also, were able to remain in school but a few +weeks at a time, because they had so little money with which to pay +their board. Thus another object which made it desirable to get an +industrial system started was in order to make it available as a means +of helping the students to earn money enough so that they might be able +to remain in school during the nine months' session of the school year. + +The first animal that the school came into possession of was an old +blind horse given us by one of the white citizens of Tuskegee. Perhaps +I may add here that at the present time the school owns over two hundred +horses, colts, mules, cows, calves, and oxen, and about seven hundred +hogs and pigs, as well as a large number of sheep and goats. + +The school was constantly growing in numbers, so much so that, after we +had got the farm paid for, the cultivation of the land begun, and the +old cabins which we had found on the place somewhat repaired, we turned +our attention toward providing a large, substantial building. After +having given a good deal of thought to the subject, we finally had the +plans drawn for a building that was estimated to cost about six thousand +dollars. This seemed to us a tremendous sum, but we knew that the school +must go backward or forward, and that our work would mean little unless +we could get hold of the students in their home life. + +One incident which occurred about this time gave me a great deal of +satisfaction as well as surprise. When it became known in the town that +we were discussing the plans for a new, large building, a Southern white +man who was operating a sawmill not far from Tuskegee came to me and +said that he would gladly put all the lumber necessary to erect the +building on the grounds, with no other guarantee for payment than my +word that it would be paid for when we secured some money. I told the +man frankly that at the time we did not have in our hands one dollar of +the money needed. Notwithstanding this, he insisted on being allowed to +put the lumber on the grounds. After we had secured some portion of the +money we permitted him to do this. + +Miss Davidson again began the work of securing in various ways small +contributions for the new building from the white and coloured people +in and near Tuskegee. I think I never saw a community of people so happy +over anything as were the coloured people over the prospect of this new +building. One day, when we were holding a meeting to secure funds for +its erection, an old, ante-bellum coloured man came a distance of twelve +miles and brought in his ox-cart a large hog. When the meeting was in +progress, he rose in the midst of the company and said that he had no +money which he could give, but he had raised two fine hogs, and that +he had brought one of them as a contribution toward the expenses of the +building. He closed his announcement by saying: "Any nigger that's got +any love for his race, or any respect for himself, will bring a hog +to the next meeting." Quite a number of men in the community also +volunteered to give several days' work, each, toward the erection of the +building. + +After we had secured all the help that we could in Tuskegee, Miss +Davidson decided to go North for the purpose of securing additional +funds. For weeks she visited individuals and spoke in churches and +before Sunday schools and other organizations. She found this work quite +trying, and often embarrassing. The school was not known, but she was +not long in winning her way into the confidence of the best people in +the North. + +The first gift from any Northern person was received from a New York +lady whom Miss Davidson met on the boat that was bringing her North. +They fell into a conversation, and the Northern lady became so much +interested in the effort being made at Tuskegee that before they parted +Miss Davidson was handed a check for fifty dollars. For some time before +our marriage, and also after it, Miss Davidson kept up the work of +securing money in the North and in the South by interesting people by +personal visits and through correspondence. At the same time she kept in +close touch with the work at Tuskegee, as lady principal and classroom +teacher. In addition to this, she worked among the older people in and +near Tuskegee, and taught a Sunday school class in the town. She was +never very strong, but never seemed happy unless she was giving all +of her strength to the cause which she loved. Often, at night, after +spending the day in going from door to door trying to interest persons +in the work at Tuskegee, she would be so exhausted that she could not +undress herself. A lady upon whom she called, in Boston, afterward told +me that at one time when Miss Davidson called her to see and send up her +card the lady was detained a little before she could see Miss Davidson, +and when she entered the parlour she found Miss Davidson so exhausted +that she had fallen asleep. + +While putting up our first building, which was named Porter Hall, after +Mr. A.H. Porter, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who gave a generous sum toward +its erection, the need for money became acute. I had given one of our +creditors a promise that upon a certain day he should be paid four +hundred dollars. On the morning of that day we did not have a dollar. +The mail arrived at the school at ten o'clock, and in this mail there +was a check sent by Miss Davidson for exactly four hundred dollars. +I could relate many instances of almost the same character. This four +hundred dollars was given by two ladies in Boston. Two years later, when +the work at Tuskegee had grown considerably, and when we were in the +midst of a season when we were so much in need of money that the future +looked doubtful and gloomy, the same two Boston ladies sent us +six thousand dollars. Words cannot describe our surprise, or the +encouragement that the gift brought to us. Perhaps I might add here that +for fourteen years these same friends have sent us six thousand dollars +a year. + +As soon as the plans were drawn for the new building, the students began +digging out the earth where the foundations were to be laid, working +after the regular classes were over. They had not fully outgrown the +idea that it was hardly the proper thing for them to use their hands, +since they had come there, as one of them expressed it, "to be educated, +and not to work." Gradually, though, I noted with satisfaction that a +sentiment in favour of work was gaining ground. After a few weeks of +hard work the foundations were ready, and a day was appointed for the +laying of the corner-stone. + +When it is considered that the laying of this corner-stone took place in +the heart of the South, in the "Black Belt," in the centre of that +part of our country that was most devoted to slavery; that at that time +slavery had been abolished only about sixteen years; that only sixteen +years before no Negro could be taught from books without the teacher +receiving the condemnation of the law or of public sentiment--when all +this is considered, the scene that was witnessed on that spring day at +Tuskegee was a remarkable one. I believe there are few places in the +world where it could have taken place. + +The principal address was delivered by the Hon. Waddy Thompson, the +Superintendent of Education for the county. About the corner-stone were +gathered the teachers, the students, their parents and friends, the +county officials--who were white--and all the leading white men in that +vicinity, together with many of the black men and women whom the same +white people but a few years before had held a title to as property. The +members of both races were anxious to exercise the privilege of placing +under the corner-stone some momento. + +Before the building was completed we passed through some very trying +seasons. More than once our hearts were made to bleed, as it were, +because bills were falling due that we did not have the money to meet. +Perhaps no one who has not gone through the experience, month after +month, of trying to erect buildings and provide equipment for a +school when no one knew where the money was to come from, can properly +appreciate the difficulties under which we laboured. During the first +years at Tuskegee I recall that night after night I would roll and toss +on my bed, without sleep, because of the anxiety and uncertainty which +we were in regarding money. I knew that, in a large degree, we were +trying an experiment--that of testing whether or not it was possible +for Negroes to build up and control the affairs of a large education +institution. I knew that if we failed it would injure the whole race. +I knew that the presumption was against us. I knew that in the case of +white people beginning such an enterprise it would be taken for granted +that they were going to succeed, but in our case I felt that people +would be surprised if we succeeded. All this made a burden which pressed +down on us, sometimes, it seemed, at the rate of a thousand pounds to +the square inch. + +In all our difficulties and anxieties, however, I never went to a white +or a black person in the town of Tuskegee for any assistance that was +in their power to render, without being helped according to their means. +More than a dozen times, when bills figuring up into the hundreds of +dollars were falling due, I applied to the white men of Tuskegee for +small loans, often borrowing small amounts from as many as a half-dozen +persons, to meet our obligations. One thing I was determined to do from +the first, and that was to keep the credit of the school high; and +this, I think I can say without boasting, we have done all through these +years. + +I shall always remember a bit of advice given me by Mr. George W. +Campbell, the white man to whom I have referred to as the one who +induced General Armstrong to send me to Tuskegee. Soon after I entered +upon the work Mr. Campbell said to me, in his fatherly way: "Washington, +always remember that credit is capital." + +At one time when we were in the greatest distress for money that we ever +experienced, I placed the situation frankly before General Armstrong. +Without hesitation he gave me his personal check for all the money which +he had saved for his own use. This was not the only time that General +Armstrong helped Tuskegee in this way. I do not think I have ever made +this fact public before. + +During the summer of 1882, at the end of the first year's work of the +school, I was married to Miss Fannie N. Smith, of Malden, W. Va. We +began keeping house in Tuskegee early in the fall. This made a home for +our teachers, who now had been increased to four in number. My wife was +also a graduate of the Hampton Institute. After earnest and constant +work in the interests of the school, together with her housekeeping +duties, my wife passed away in May, 1884. One child, Portia M. +Washington, was born during our marriage. + +From the first, my wife most earnestly devoted her thoughts and time to +the work of the school, and was completely one with me in every interest +and ambition. She passed away, however, before she had an opportunity of +seeing what the school was designed to be. + + + +Chapter X. A Harder Task Than Making Bricks Without Straw + +From the very beginning, at Tuskegee, I was determined to have the +students do not only the agricultural and domestic work, but to +have them erect their own buildings. My plan was to have them, while +performing this service, taught the latest and best methods of labour, +so that the school would not only get the benefit of their efforts, +but the students themselves would be taught to see not only utility in +labour, but beauty and dignity; would be taught, in fact, how to lift +labour up from mere drudgery and toil, and would learn to love work for +its own sake. My plan was not to teach them to work in the old way, +but to show them how to make the forces of nature--air, water, steam, +electricity, horse-power--assist them in their labour. + +At first many advised against the experiment of having the buildings +erected by the labour of the students, but I was determined to stick to +it. I told those who doubted the wisdom of the plan that I knew that +our first buildings would not be so comfortable or so complete in their +finish as buildings erected by the experienced hands of outside workmen, +but that in the teaching of civilization, self-help, and self-reliance, +the erection of buildings by the students themselves would more than +compensate for any lack of comfort or fine finish. + +I further told those who doubted the wisdom of this plan, that the +majority of our students came to us in poverty, from the cabins of the +cotton, sugar, and rice plantations of the South, and that while I knew +it would please the students very much to place them at once in finely +constructed buildings, I felt that it would be following out a more +natural process of development to teach them how to construct their own +buildings. Mistakes I knew would be made, but these mistakes would teach +us valuable lessons for the future. + +During the now nineteen years' existence of the Tuskegee school, the +plan of having the buildings erected by student labour has been adhered +to. In this time forty buildings, counting small and large, have been +built, and all except four are almost wholly the product of student +labour. As an additional result, hundreds of men are now scattered +throughout the South who received their knowledge of mechanics while +being taught how to erect these buildings. Skill and knowledge are now +handed down from one set of students to another in this way, until +at the present time a building of any description or size can be +constructed wholly by our instructors and students, from the drawing of +the plans to the putting in of the electric fixtures, without going off +the grounds for a single workman. + +Not a few times, when a new student has been led into the temptation of +marring the looks of some building by leadpencil marks or by the cuts +of a jack-knife, I have heard an old student remind him: "Don't do that. +That is our building. I helped put it up." + +In the early days of the school I think my most trying experience was +in the matter of brickmaking. As soon as we got the farm work reasonably +well started, we directed our next efforts toward the industry of making +bricks. We needed these for use in connection with the erection of our +own buildings; but there was also another reason for establishing this +industry. There was no brickyard in the town, and in addition to our own +needs there was a demand for bricks in the general market. + +I had always sympathized with the "Children of Israel," in their task +of "making bricks without straw," but ours was the task of making bricks +with no money and no experience. + +In the first place, the work was hard and dirty, and it was difficult +to get the students to help. When it came to brickmaking, their distaste +for manual labour in connection with book education became especially +manifest. It was not a pleasant task for one to stand in the mud-pit for +hours, with the mud up to his knees. More than one man became disgusted +and left the school. + +We tried several locations before we opened up a pit that furnished +brick clay. I had always supposed that brickmaking was very simple, but +I soon found out by bitter experience that it required special skill and +knowledge, particularly in the burning of the bricks. After a good deal +of effort we moulded about twenty-five thousand bricks, and put them +into a kiln to be burned. This kiln turned out to be a failure, because +it was not properly constructed or properly burned. We began at once, +however, on a second kiln. This, for some reason, also proved a failure. +The failure of this kiln made it still more difficult to get the +students to take part in the work. Several of the teachers, however, +who had been trained in the industries at Hampton, volunteered their +services, and in some way we succeeded in getting a third kiln ready for +burning. The burning of a kiln required about a week. Toward the latter +part of the week, when it seemed as if we were going to have a good +many thousand bricks in a few hours, in the middle of the night the kiln +fell. For the third time we had failed. + +The failure of this last kiln left me without a single dollar with which +to make another experiment. Most of the teachers advised the abandoning +of the effort to make bricks. In the midst of my troubles I thought of +a watch which had come into my possession years before. I took the watch +to the city of Montgomery, which was not far distant, and placed it in a +pawn-shop. I secured cash upon it to the amount of fifteen dollars, with +which to renew the brickmaking experiment. I returned to Tuskegee, and, +with the help of the fifteen dollars, rallied our rather demoralized and +discouraged forces and began a fourth attempt to make bricks. This time, +I am glad to say, we were successful. Before I got hold of any money, +the time-limit on my watch had expired, and I have never seen it since; +but I have never regretted the loss of it. + +Brickmaking has now become such an important industry at the school +that last season our students manufactured twelve hundred thousand of +first-class bricks, of a quality suitable to be sold in any market. Aside +from this, scores of young men have mastered the brickmaking trade--both +the making of bricks by hand and by machinery--and are now engaged in +this industry in many parts of the South. + +The making of these bricks taught me an important lesson in regard to +the relations of the two races in the South. Many white people who had +had no contact with the school, and perhaps no sympathy with it, came to +us to buy bricks because they found out that ours were good bricks. +They discovered that we were supplying a real want in the community. +The making of these bricks caused many of the white residents of the +neighbourhood to begin to feel that the education of the Negro was not +making him worthless, but that in educating our students we were adding +something to the wealth and comfort of the community. As the people of +the neighbourhood came to us to buy bricks, we got acquainted with them; +they traded with us and we with them. Our business interests became +intermingled. We had something which they wanted; they had something +which we wanted. This, in a large measure, helped to lay the foundation +for the pleasant relations that have continued to exist between us and +the white people in that section, and which now extend throughout the +South. + +Wherever one of our brickmakers has gone in the South, we find that +he has something to contribute to the well-being of the community into +which he has gone; something that has made the community feel that, in +a degree, it is indebted to him, and perhaps, to a certain extent, +dependent upon him. In this way pleasant relations between the races +have been stimulated. + +My experience is that there is something in human nature which always +makes an individual recognize and reward merit, no matter under what +colour of skin merit is found. I have found, too, that it is the +visible, the tangible, that goes a long ways in softening prejudices. +The actual sight of a first-class house that a Negro has built is ten +times more potent than pages of discussion about a house that he ought +to build, or perhaps could build. + +The same principle of industrial education has been carried out in the +building of our own wagons, carts, and buggies, from the first. We now +own and use on our farm and about the school dozens of these vehicles, +and every one of them has been built by the hands of the students. Aside +from this, we help supply the local market with these vehicles. The +supplying of them to the people in the community has had the same effect +as the supplying of bricks, and the man who learns at Tuskegee to build +and repair wagons and carts is regarded as a benefactor by both races in +the community where he goes. The people with whom he lives and works are +going to think twice before they part with such a man. + +The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, +in the end, make his way regardless of race. One man may go into a +community prepared to supply the people there with an analysis of Greek +sentences. The community may not at the time be prepared for, or feel +the need of, Greek analysis, but it may feel its need of bricks and +houses and wagons. If the man can supply the need for those, then, it +will lead eventually to a demand for the first product, and with the +demand will come the ability to appreciate it and to profit by it. + +About the time that we succeeded in burning our first kiln of bricks +we began facing in an emphasized form the objection of the students +to being taught to work. By this time it had gotten to be pretty well +advertised throughout the state that every student who came to Tuskegee, +no matter what his financial ability might be, must learn some industry. +Quite a number of letters came from parents protesting against their +children engaging in labour while they were in the school. Other parents +came to the school to protest in person. Most of the new students +brought a written or a verbal request from their parents to the effect +that they wanted their children taught nothing but books. The more +books, the larger they were, and the longer the titles printed upon +them, the better pleased the students and their parents seemed to be. + +I gave little heed to these protests, except that I lost no opportunity +to go into as many parts of the state as I could, for the purpose +of speaking to the parents, and showing them the value of industrial +education. Besides, I talked to the students constantly on the subject. +Notwithstanding the unpopularity of industrial work, the school +continued to increase in numbers to such an extent that by the middle of +the second year there was an attendance of about one hundred and fifty, +representing almost all parts of the state of Alabama, and including a +few from other states. + +In the summer of 1882 Miss Davidson and I both went North and engaged in +the work of raising funds for the completion of our new building. On my +way North I stopped in New York to try to get a letter of recommendation +from an officer of a missionary organization who had become somewhat +acquainted with me a few years previous. This man not only refused to +give me the letter, but advised me most earnestly to go back home at +once, and not make any attempt to get money, for he was quite sure that +I would never get more than enough to pay my travelling expenses. I +thanked him for his advice, and proceeded on my journey. + +The first place I went to in the North, was Northampton, Mass., where +I spent nearly a half-day in looking for a coloured family with whom I +could board, never dreaming that any hotel would admit me. I was +greatly surprised when I found that I would have no trouble in being +accommodated at a hotel. + +We were successful in getting money enough so that on Thanksgiving Day +of that year we held our first service in the chapel of Porter Hall, +although the building was not completed. + +In looking about for some one to preach the Thanksgiving sermon, I found +one of the rarest men that it has ever been my privilege to know. This +was the Rev. Robert C. Bedford, a white man from Wisconsin, who was then +pastor of a little coloured Congregational church in Montgomery, Ala. +Before going to Montgomery to look for some one to preach this sermon +I had never heard of Mr. Bedford. He had never heard of me. He gladly +consented to come to Tuskegee and hold the Thanksgiving service. It was +the first service of the kind that the coloured people there had ever +observed, and what a deep interest they manifested in it! The sight +of the new building made it a day of Thanksgiving for them never to be +forgotten. + +Mr. Bedford consented to become one of the trustees of the school, and +in that capacity, and as a worker for it, he has been connected with it +for eighteen years. During this time he has borne the school upon his +heart night and day, and is never so happy as when he is performing some +service, no matter how humble, for it. He completely obliterates himself +in everything, and looks only for permission to serve where service is +most disagreeable, and where others would not be attracted. In all my +relations with him he has seemed to me to approach as nearly to the +spirit of the Master as almost any man I ever met. + +A little later there came into the service of the school another man, +quite young at the time, and fresh from Hampton, without whose service +the school never could have become what it is. This was Mr. Warren +Logan, who now for seventeen years has been the treasurer of the +Institute, and the acting principal during my absence. He has always +shown a degree of unselfishness and an amount of business tact, coupled +with a clear judgment, that has kept the school in good condition no +matter how long I have been absent from it. During all the financial +stress through which the school has passed, his patience and faith in +our ultimate success have not left him. + +As soon as our first building was near enough to completion so that we +could occupy a portion of it--which was near the middle of the second +year of the school--we opened a boarding department. Students had begun +coming from quite a distance, and in such increasing numbers that we +felt more and more that we were merely skimming over the surface, in +that we were not getting hold of the students in their home life. + +We had nothing but the students and their appetites with which to begin +a boarding department. No provision had been made in the new building +for a kitchen and dining room; but we discovered that by digging out a +large amount of earth from under the building we could make a partially +lighted basement room that could be used for a kitchen and dining room. +Again I called on the students to volunteer for work, this time to +assist in digging out the basement. This they did, and in a few weeks +we had a place to cook and eat in, although it was very rough and +uncomfortable. Any one seeing the place now would never believe that it +was once used for a dining room. + +The most serious problem, though, was to get the boarding department +started off in running order, with nothing to do with in the way of +furniture, and with no money with which to buy anything. The merchants +in the town would let us have what food we wanted on credit. In fact, in +those earlier years I was constantly embarrassed because people seemed +to have more faith in me than I had in myself. It was pretty hard to +cook, however, without stoves, and awkward to eat without dishes. At +first the cooking was done out-of-doors, in the old-fashioned, primitive +style, in pots and skillets placed over a fire. Some of the carpenters' +benches that had been used in the construction of the building were +utilized for tables. As for dishes, there were too few to make it worth +while to spend time in describing them. + +No one connected with the boarding department seemed to have any idea +that meals must be served at certain fixed and regular hours, and this +was a source of great worry. Everything was so out of joint and so +inconvenient that I feel safe in saying that for the first two weeks +something was wrong at every meal. Either the meat was not done or had +been burnt, or the salt had been left out of the bread, or the tea had +been forgotten. + +Early one morning I was standing near the dining-room door listening +to the complaints of the students. The complaints that morning were +especially emphatic and numerous, because the whole breakfast had been +a failure. One of the girls who had failed to get any breakfast came out +and went to the well to draw some water to drink and take the place of +the breakfast which she had not been able to get. When she reached +the well, she found that the rope was broken and that she could get no +water. She turned from the well and said, in the most discouraged tone, +not knowing that I was where I could hear her, "We can't even get +water to drink at this school." I think no one remark ever came so near +discouraging me as that one. + +At another time, when Mr. Bedford--whom I have already spoken of as one +of our trustees, and a devoted friend of the institution--was visiting +the school, he was given a bedroom immediately over the dining room. +Early in the morning he was awakened by a rather animated discussion +between two boys in the dining room below. The discussion was over the +question as to whose turn it was to use the coffee-cup that morning. One +boy won the case by proving that for three mornings he had not had an +opportunity to use the cup at all. + +But gradually, with patience and hard work, we brought order out of +chaos, just as will be true of any problem if we stick to it with +patience and wisdom and earnest effort. + +As I look back now over that part of our struggle, I am glad to see +that we had it. I am glad that we endured all those discomforts and +inconveniences. I am glad that our students had to dig out the place for +their kitchen and dining room. I am glad that our first boarding-place +was in the dismal, ill-lighted, and damp basement. Had we started in a +fine, attractive, convenient room, I fear we would have "lost our heads" +and become "stuck up." It means a great deal, I think, to start off on a +foundation which one has made for one's self. + +When our old students return to Tuskegee now, as they often do, and +go into our large, beautiful, well-ventilated, and well-lighted dining +room, and see tempting, well-cooked food--largely grown by the students +themselves--and see tables, neat tablecloths and napkins, and vases of +flowers upon the tables, and hear singing birds, and note that each meal +is served exactly upon the minute, with no disorder, and with almost no +complaint coming from the hundreds that now fill our dining room, they, +too, often say to me that they are glad that we started as we did, +and built ourselves up year by year, by a slow and natural process of +growth. + + + +Chapter XI. Making Their Beds Before They Could Lie On Them + +A little later in the history of the school we had a visit from General +J.F.B. Marshall, the Treasurer of the Hampton Institute, who had had +faith enough to lend us the first two hundred and fifty dollars with +which to make a payment down on the farm. He remained with us a week, +and made a careful inspection of everything. He seemed well pleased +with our progress, and wrote back interesting and encouraging reports to +Hampton. A little later Miss Mary F. Mackie, the teacher who had given +me the "sweeping" examination when I entered Hampton, came to see us, +and still later General Armstrong himself came. + +At the time of the visits of these Hampton friends the number of +teachers at Tuskegee had increased considerably, and the most of the new +teachers were graduates of the Hampton Institute. We gave our Hampton +friends, especially General Armstrong, a cordial welcome. They were all +surprised and pleased at the rapid progress that the school had made +within so short a time. The coloured people from miles around came to +the school to get a look at General Armstrong, about whom they had heard +so much. The General was not only welcomed by the members of my own +race, but by the Southern white people as well. + +This first visit which General Armstrong made to Tuskegee gave me an +opportunity to get an insight into his character such as I had not +before had. I refer to his interest in the Southern white people. Before +this I had had the thought that General Armstrong, having fought the +Southern white man, rather cherished a feeling of bitterness toward the +white South, and was interested in helping only the coloured man there. +But this visit convinced me that I did not know the greatness and the +generosity of the man. I soon learned, by his visits to the Southern +white people, and from his conversations with them, that he was as +anxious about the prosperity and the happiness of the white race as the +black. He cherished no bitterness against the South, and was happy +when an opportunity offered for manifesting his sympathy. In all my +acquaintance with General Armstrong I never heard him speak, in public +or in private, a single bitter word against the white man in the South. +From his example in this respect I learned the lesson that great men +cultivate love, and that only little men cherish a spirit of hatred. +I learned that assistance given to the weak makes the one who gives it +strong; and that oppression of the unfortunate makes one weak. + +It is now long ago that I learned this lesson from General Armstrong, +and resolved that I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might +be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. With God's +help, I believe that I have completely rid myself of any ill feeling +toward the Southern white man for any wrong that he may have inflicted +upon my race. I am made to feel just as happy now when I am rendering +service to Southern white men as when the service is rendered to a +member of my own race. I pity from the bottom of my heart any individual +who is so unfortunate as to get into the habit of holding race +prejudice. + +The more I consider the subject, the more strongly I am convinced that +the most harmful effect of the practice to which the people in certain +sections of the South have felt themselves compelled to resort, in order +to get rid of the force of the Negroes' ballot, is not wholly in the +wrong done to the Negro, but in the permanent injury to the morals of +the white man. The wrong to the Negro is temporary, but to the morals of +the white man the injury is permanent. I have noted time and time again +that when an individual perjures himself in order to break the force of +the black man's ballot, he soon learns to practise dishonesty in other +relations of life, not only where the Negro is concerned, but equally so +where a white man is concerned. The white man who begins by cheating a +Negro usually ends by cheating a white man. The white man who begins to +break the law by lynching a Negro soon yields to the temptation to lynch +a white man. All this, it seems to me, makes it important that the whole +Nation lend a hand in trying to lift the burden of ignorance from the +South. + +Another thing that is becoming more apparent each year in the +development of education in the South is the influence of General +Armstrong's idea of education; and this not upon the blacks alone, but +upon the whites also. At the present time there is almost no Southern +state that is not putting forth efforts in the direction of securing +industrial education for its white boys and girls, and in most cases it +is easy to trace the history of these efforts back to General Armstrong. + +Soon after the opening of our humble boarding department students began +coming to us in still larger numbers. For weeks we not only had to +contend with the difficulty of providing board, with no money, but also +with that of providing sleeping accommodations. For this purpose we +rented a number of cabins near the school. These cabins were in a +dilapidated condition, and during the winter months the students who +occupied them necessarily suffered from the cold. We charge the students +eight dollars a month--all they were able to pay--for their board. +This included, besides board, room, fuel, and washing. We also gave the +students credit on their board bills for all the work which they did +for the school which was of any value to the institution. The cost of +tuition, which was fifty dollars a year for each student, we had to +secure then, as now, wherever we could. + +This small charge in cash gave us no capital with which to start a +boarding department. The weather during the second winter of our work +was very cold. We were not able to provide enough bed-clothes to keep +the students warm. In fact, for some time we were not able to provide, +except in a few cases, bedsteads and mattresses of any kind. During the +coldest nights I was so troubled about the discomfort of the students +that I could not sleep myself. I recall that on several occasions I went +in the middle of the night to the shanties occupied by the young men, +for the purpose of confronting them. Often I found some of them sitting +huddled around a fire, with the one blanket which we had been able to +provide wrapped around them, trying in this way to keep warm. During the +whole night some of them did not attempt to lie down. One morning, +when the night previous had been unusually cold, I asked those of the +students in the chapel who thought that they had been frostbitten during +the night to raise their hands. Three hands went up. Notwithstanding +these experiences, there was almost no complaining on the part of the +students. They knew that we were doing the best that we could for them. +They were happy in the privilege of being permitted to enjoy any kind of +opportunity that would enable them to improve their condition. They +were constantly asking what they might do to lighten the burdens of the +teachers. + +I have heard it stated more than once, both in the North and in the +South, that coloured people would not obey and respect each other when +one member of the race is placed in a position of authority over others. +In regard to this general belief and these statements, I can say that +during the nineteen years of my experience at Tuskegee I never, either +by word or act, have been treated with disrespect by any student +or officer connected with the institution. On the other hand, I am +constantly embarrassed by the many acts of thoughtful kindness. The +students do not seem to want to see me carry a large book or a satchel +or any kind of a burden through the grounds. In such cases more than one +always offers to relieve me. I almost never go out of my office when +the rain is falling that some student does not come to my side with an +umbrella and ask to be allowed to hold it over me. + +While writing upon this subject, it is a pleasure for me to add that in +all my contact with the white people of the South I have never received +a single personal insult. The white people in and near Tuskegee, to +an especial degree, seem to count it as a privilege to show me all the +respect within their power, and often go out of their way to do this. + +Not very long ago I was making a journey between Dallas (Texas) and +Houston. In some way it became known in advance that I was on the train. +At nearly every station at which the train stopped, numbers of white +people, including in most cases of the officials of the town, came +aboard and introduced themselves and thanked me heartily for the work +that I was trying to do for the South. + +On another occasion, when I was making a trip from Augusta, Georgia, +to Atlanta, being rather tired from much travel, I rode in a Pullman +sleeper. When I went into the car, I found there two ladies from Boston +whom I knew well. These good ladies were perfectly ignorant, it seems, +of the customs of the South, and in the goodness of their hearts +insisted that I take a seat with them in their section. After some +hesitation I consented. I had been there but a few minutes when one of +them, without my knowledge, ordered supper to be served for the three +of us. This embarrassed me still further. The car was full of Southern +white men, most of whom had their eyes on our party. When I found that +supper had been ordered, I tried to contrive some excuse that would +permit me to leave the section, but the ladies insisted that I must eat +with them. I finally settled back in my seat with a sigh, and said to +myself, "I am in for it now, sure." + +To add further to the embarrassment of the situation, soon after the +supper was placed on the table one of the ladies remembered that she had +in her satchel a special kind of tea which she wished served, and as +she said she felt quite sure the porter did not know how to brew it +properly, she insisted upon getting up and preparing and serving it +herself. At last the meal was over; and it seemed the longest one that I +had ever eaten. When we were through, I decided to get myself out of the +embarrassing situation and go to the smoking-room, where most of the men +were by that time, to see how the land lay. In the meantime, however, it +had become known in some way throughout the car who I was. When I went +into the smoking-room I was never more surprised in my life than when +each man, nearly every one of them a citizen of Georgia, came up and +introduced himself to me and thanked me earnestly for the work that I +was trying to do for the whole South. This was not flattery, because +each one of these individuals knew that he had nothing to gain by trying +to flatter me. + +From the first I have sought to impress the students with the idea that +Tuskegee is not my institution, or that of the officers, but that it is +their institution, and that they have as much interest in it as any of +the trustees or instructors. I have further sought to have them feel +that I am at the institution as their friend and adviser, and not as +their overseer. It has been my aim to have them speak with directness +and frankness about anything that concerns the life of the school. +Two or three times a year I ask the students to write me a letter +criticising or making complaints or suggestions about anything connected +with the institution. When this is not done, I have them meet me in the +chapel for a heart-to-heart talk about the conduct of the school. There +are no meetings with our students that I enjoy more than these, and none +are more helpful to me in planning for the future. These meetings, it +seems to me, enable me to get at the very heart of all that concerns the +school. Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility +upon him, and to let him know that you trust him. When I have read of +labour troubles between employers and employees, I have often thought +that many strikes and similar disturbances might be avoided if +the employers would cultivate the habit of getting nearer to their +employees, of consulting and advising with them, and letting them feel +that the interests of the two are the same. Every individual responds to +confidence, and this is not more true of any race than of the Negroes. +Let them once understand that you are unselfishly interested in them, +and you can lead them to any extent. + +It was my aim from the first at Tuskegee to not only have the buildings +erected by the students themselves, but to have them make their own +furniture as far as was possible. I now marvel at the patience of the +students while sleeping upon the floor while waiting for some kind of a +bedstead to be constructed, or at their sleeping without any kind of a +mattress while waiting for something that looked like a mattress to be +made. + +In the early days we had very few students who had been used to handling +carpenters' tools, and the bedsteads made by the students then were very +rough and very weak. Not unfrequently when I went into the students' +rooms in the morning I would find at least two bedsteads lying about on +the floor. The problem of providing mattresses was a difficult one to +solve. We finally mastered this, however, by getting some cheap cloth +and sewing pieces of this together as to make large bags. These bags +we filled with the pine straw--or, as it is sometimes called, pine +needles--which we secured from the forests near by. I am glad to say +that the industry of mattress-making has grown steadily since then, and +has been improved to such an extent that at the present time it is an +important branch of the work which is taught systematically to a +number of our girls, and that the mattresses that now come out of the +mattress-shop at Tuskegee are about as good as those bought in +the average store. For some time after the opening of the boarding +department we had no chairs in the students' bedrooms or in the dining +rooms. Instead of chairs we used stools which the students constructed +by nailing together three pieces of rough board. As a rule, the +furniture in the students' rooms during the early days of the school +consisted of a bed, some stools, and sometimes a rough table made by the +students. The plan of having the students make the furniture is still +followed, but the number of pieces in a room has been increased, and +the workmanship has so improved that little fault can be found with the +articles now. One thing that I have always insisted upon at Tuskegee +is that everywhere there should be absolute cleanliness. Over and over +again the students were reminded in those first years--and are reminded +now--that people would excuse us for our poverty, for our lack of +comforts and conveniences, but that they would not excuse us for dirt. + +Another thing that has been insisted upon at the school is the use of +the tooth-brush. "The gospel of the tooth-brush," as General Armstrong +used to call it, is part of our creed at Tuskegee. No student is +permitted to retain who does not keep and use a tooth-brush. Several +times, in recent years, students have come to us who brought with them +almost no other article except a tooth-brush. They had heard from the +lips of other students about our insisting upon the use of this, and +so, to make a good impression, they brought at least a tooth-brush with +them. I remember that one morning, not long ago, I went with the lady +principal on her usual morning tour of inspection of the girls' rooms. +We found one room that contained three girls who had recently arrived +at the school. When I asked them if they had tooth-brushes, one of the +girls replied, pointing to a brush: "Yes, sir. That is our brush. We +bought it together, yesterday." It did not take them long to learn a +different lesson. + +It has been interesting to note the effect that the use of the +tooth-brush has had in bringing about a higher degree of civilization +among the students. With few exceptions, I have noticed that, if we can +get a student to the point where, when the first or second tooth-brush +disappears, he of his own motion buys another, I have not been +disappointed in the future of that individual. Absolute cleanliness of +the body has been insisted upon from the first. The students have been +taught to bathe as regularly as to take their meals. This lesson we +began teaching before we had anything in the shape of a bath-house. +Most of the students came from plantation districts, and often we had +to teach them how to sleep at night; that is, whether between the +two sheets--after we got to the point where we could provide them two +sheets--or under both of them. Naturally I found it difficult to teach +them to sleep between two sheets when we were able to supply but one. +The importance of the use of the night-gown received the same attention. + +For a long time one of the most difficult tasks was to teach the +students that all the buttons were to be kept on their clothes, and that +there must be no torn places or grease-spots. This lesson, I am pleased +to be able to say, has been so thoroughly learned and so faithfully +handed down from year to year by one set of students to another that +often at the present time, when the students march out of the chapel in +the evening and their dress is inspected, as it is every night, not one +button is found to be missing. + + + +Chapter XII. Raising Money + +When we opened our boarding department, we provided rooms in the attic +of Porter Hall, our first building, for a number of girls. But the +number of students, of both sexes, continued to increase. We could find +rooms outside the school grounds for many of the young men, but the +girls we did not care to expose in this way. Very soon the problem +of providing more rooms for the girls, as well as a larger boarding +department for all the students, grew serious. As a result, we finally +decided to undertake the construction of a still larger building--a +building that would contain rooms for the girls and boarding +accommodations for all. + +After having had a preliminary sketch of the needed building made, we +found that it would cost about ten thousand dollars. We had no money +whatever with which to begin; still we decided to give the needed +building a name. We knew we could name it, even though we were in doubt +about our ability to secure the means for its construction. We decided +to call the proposed building Alabama Hall, in honour of the state in +which we were labouring. Again Miss Davidson began making efforts to +enlist the interest and help of the coloured and white people in and +near Tuskegee. They responded willingly, in proportion to their means. +The students, as in the case of our first building, Porter Hall, began +digging out the dirt in order to allow the laying of the foundations. + +When we seemed at the end of our resources, so far as securing money +was concerned, something occurred which showed the greatness of General +Armstrong--something which proved how far he was above the ordinary +individual. When we were in the midst of great anxiety as to where and +how we were to get funds for the new building, I received a telegram +from General Armstrong asking me if I could spend a month travelling +with him through the North, and asking me, if I could do so, to come to +Hampton at once. Of course I accepted General Armstrong's invitation, +and went to Hampton immediately. On arriving there I found that the +General had decided to take a quartette of singers through the North, +and hold meetings for a month in important cities, at which meetings +he and I were to speak. Imagine my surprise when the General told me, +further, that these meetings were to be held, not in the interests +of Hampton, but in the interests of Tuskegee, and that the Hampton +Institute was to be responsible for all the expenses. + +Although he never told me so in so many words, I found that General +Armstrong took this method of introducing me to the people of the North, +as well as for the sake of securing some immediate funds to be used in +the erection of Alabama Hall. A weak and narrow man would have reasoned +that all the money which came to Tuskegee in this way would be just +so much taken from the Hampton Institute; but none of these selfish or +short-sighted feelings ever entered the breast of General Armstrong. He +was too big to be little, too good to be mean. He knew that the people +in the North who gave money gave it for the purpose of helping the whole +cause of Negro civilization, and not merely for the advancement of any +one school. The General knew, too, that the way to strengthen Hampton +was to make it a centre of unselfish power in the working out of the +whole Southern problem. + +In regard to the addresses which I was to make in the North, I recall +just one piece of advice which the General gave me. He said: "Give them +an idea for every word." I think it would be hard to improve upon this +advice; and it might be made to apply to all public speaking. From that +time to the present I have always tried to keep his advice in mind. + +Meetings were held in New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia, and +other large cities, and at all of these meetings General Armstrong +pleaded, together with myself, for help, not for Hampton, but for +Tuskegee. At these meetings an especial effort was made to secure help +for the building of Alabama Hall, as well as to introduce the school to +the attention of the general public. In both these respects the meetings +proved successful. + +After that kindly introduction I began going North alone to secure +funds. During the last fifteen years I have been compelled to spend a +large proportion of my time away from the school, in an effort to secure +money to provide for the growing needs of the institution. In my efforts +to get funds I have had some experiences that may be of interest to my +readers. Time and time again I have been asked, by people who are +trying to secure money for philanthropic purposes, what rule or rules +I followed to secure the interest and help of people who were able to +contribute money to worthy objects. As far as the science of what is +called begging can be reduced to rules, I would say that I have had but +two rules. First, always to do my whole duty regarding making our work +known to individuals and organizations; and, second, not to worry about +the results. This second rule has been the hardest for me to live up to. +When bills are on the eve of falling due, with not a dollar in hand +with which to meet them, it is pretty difficult to learn not to worry, +although I think I am learning more and more each year that all worry +simply consumes, and to no purpose, just so much physical and mental +strength that might otherwise be given to effective work. After +considerable experience in coming into contact with wealthy and noted +men, I have observed that those who have accomplished the greatest +results are those who "keep under the body"; are those who never grow +excited or lose self-control, but are always calm, self-possessed, +patient, and polite. I think that President William McKinley is the best +example of a man of this class that I have ever seen. + +In order to be successful in any kind of undertaking, I think the +main thing is for one to grow to the point where he completely forgets +himself; that is, to lose himself in a great cause. In proportion as +one loses himself in the way, in the same degree does he get the highest +happiness out of his work. + +My experience in getting money for Tuskegee has taught me to have no +patience with those people who are always condemning the rich because +they are rich, and because they do not give more to objects of charity. +In the first place, those who are guilty of such sweeping criticisms +do not know how many people would be made poor, and how much suffering +would result, if wealthy people were to part all at once with any large +proportion of their wealth in a way to disorganize and cripple great +business enterprises. Then very few persons have any idea of the large +number of applications for help that rich people are constantly being +flooded with. I know wealthy people who receive as much as twenty calls +a day for help. More than once when I have gone into the offices of rich +men, I have found half a dozen persons waiting to see them, and all come +for the same purpose, that of securing money. And all these calls in +person, to say nothing of the applications received through the mails. +Very few people have any idea of the amount of money given away by +persons who never permit their names to be known. I have often heard +persons condemned for not giving away money, who, to my own knowledge, +were giving away thousands of dollars every year so quietly that the +world knew nothing about it. + +As an example of this, there are two ladies in New York, whose names +rarely appear in print, but who, in a quiet way, have given us the means +with which to erect three large and important buildings during the last +eight years. Besides the gift of these buildings, they have made other +generous donations to the school. And they not only help Tuskegee, but +they are constantly seeking opportunities to help other worthy causes. + +Although it has been my privilege to be the medium through which a +good many hundred thousand dollars have been received for the work at +Tuskegee, I have always avoided what the world calls "begging." I often +tell people that I have never "begged" any money, and that I am not +a "beggar." My experience and observation have convinced me that +persistent asking outright for money from the rich does not, as a rule, +secure help. I have usually proceeded on the principle that persons who +possess sense enough to earn money have sense enough to know how to give +it away, and that the mere making known of the facts regarding Tuskegee, +and especially the facts regarding the work of the graduates, has been +more effective than outright begging. I think that the presentation of +facts, on a high, dignified plane, is all the begging that most rich +people care for. + +While the work of going from door to door and from office to office +is hard, disagreeable, and costly in bodily strength, yet it has some +compensations. Such work gives one a rare opportunity to study human +nature. It also has its compensations in giving one an opportunity to +meet some of the best people in the world--to be more correct, I think +I should say the best people in the world. When one takes a broad survey +of the country, he will find that the most useful and influential people +in it are those who take the deepest interest in institutions that exist +for the purpose of making the world better. + +At one time, when I was in Boston, I called at the door of a rather +wealthy lady, and was admitted to the vestibule and sent up my card. +While I was waiting for an answer, her husband came in, and asked me in +the most abrupt manner what I wanted. When I tried to explain the object +of my call, he became still more ungentlemanly in his words and manner, +and finally grew so excited that I left the house without waiting for +a reply from the lady. A few blocks from that house I called to see a +gentleman who received me in the most cordial manner. He wrote me his +check for a generous sum, and then, before I had had an opportunity to +thank him, said: "I am so grateful to you, Mr. Washington, for giving me +the opportunity to help a good cause. It is a privilege to have a share +in it. We in Boston are constantly indebted to you for doing our work." +My experience in securing money convinces me that the first type of +man is growing more rare all the time, and that the latter type is +increasing; that is, that, more and more, rich people are coming to +regard men and women who apply to them for help for worthy objects, not +as beggars, but as agents for doing their work. + +In the city of Boston I have rarely called upon an individual for funds +that I have not been thanked for calling, usually before I could get an +opportunity to thank the donor for the money. In that city the donors +seem to feel, in a large degree, that an honour is being conferred upon +them in their being permitted to give. Nowhere else have I met with, in +so large a measure, this fine and Christlike spirit as in the city of +Boston, although there are many notable instances of it outside that +city. I repeat my belief that the world is growing in the direction +of giving. I repeat that the main rule by which I have been guided in +collecting money is to do my full duty in regard to giving people who +have money an opportunity for help. + +In the early years of the Tuskegee school I walked the streets or +travelled country roads in the North for days and days without receiving +a dollar. Often as it happened, when during the week I had been +disappointed in not getting a cent from the very individuals from whom +I most expected help, and when I was almost broken down and discouraged, +that generous help has come from some one who I had had little idea +would give at all. + +I recall that on one occasion I obtained information that led me to +believe that a gentleman who lived about two miles out in the country +from Stamford, Conn., might become interested in our efforts at Tuskegee +if our conditions and needs were presented to him. On an unusually cold +and stormy day I walked the two miles to see him. After some difficulty +I succeeded in securing an interview with him. He listened with some +degree of interest to what I had to say, but did not give me anything. +I could not help having the feeling that, in a measure, the three +hours that I had spent in seeing him had been thrown away. Still, I had +followed my usual rule of doing my duty. If I had not seen him, I should +have felt unhappy over neglect of duty. + +Two years after this visit a letter came to Tuskegee from this man, +which read like this: "Enclosed I send you a New York draft for ten +thousand dollars, to be used in furtherance of your work. I had placed +this sum in my will for your school, but deem it wiser to give it to you +while I live. I recall with pleasure your visit to me two years ago." + +I can hardly imagine any occurrence which could have given me more +genuine satisfaction than the receipt of this draft. It was by far +the largest single donation which up to that time the school had ever +received. It came at a time when an unusually long period had passed +since we had received any money. We were in great distress because of +lack of funds, and the nervous strain was tremendous. It is difficult +for me to think of any situation that is more trying on the nerves than +that of conducting a large institution, with heavy obligations to +meet, without knowing where the money is to come from to meet these +obligations from month to month. + +In our case I felt a double responsibility, and this made the anxiety +all the more intense. If the institution had been officered by white +persons, and had failed, it would have injured the cause of Negro +education; but I knew that the failure of our institution, officered +by Negroes, would not only mean the loss of a school, but would cause +people, in a large degree, to lose faith in the ability of the entire +race. The receipt of this draft for ten thousand dollars, under all +these circumstances, partially lifted a burden that had been pressing +down upon me for days. + +From the beginning of our work to the present I have always had the +feeling, and lose no opportunity to impress our teachers with the same +idea, that the school will always be supported in proportion as the +inside of the institution is kept clean and pure and wholesome. + +The first time I ever saw the late Collis P. Huntington, the great +railroad man, he gave me two dollars for our school. The last time I saw +him, which was a few months before he died, he gave me fifty thousand +dollars toward our endowment fund. Between these two gifts there were +others of generous proportions which came every year from both Mr. and +Mrs. Huntington. + +Some people may say that it was Tuskegee's good luck that brought to us +this gift of fifty thousand dollars. No, it was not luck. It was hard +work. Nothing ever comes to me, that is worth having, except as the +result of hard work. When Mr. Huntington gave me the first two dollars, +I did not blame him for not giving me more, but made up my mind that +I was going to convince him by tangible results that we were worthy of +larger gifts. For a dozen years I made a strong effort to convince Mr. +Huntington of the value of our work. I noted that just in proportion as +the usefulness of the school grew, his donations increased. Never did +I meet an individual who took a more kindly and sympathetic interest in +our school than did Mr. Huntington. He not only gave money to us, but +took time in which to advise me, as a father would a son, about the +general conduct of the school. + +More than once I have found myself in some pretty tight places while +collecting money in the North. The following incident I have never +related but once before, for the reason that I feared that people would +not believe it. One morning I found myself in Providence, Rhode Island, +without a cent of money with which to buy breakfast. In crossing the +street to see a lady from whom I hoped to get some money, I found a +bright new twenty-five-cent piece in the middle of the street track. I +not only had this twenty-five cents for my breakfast, but within a few +minutes I had a donation from the lady on whom I had started to call. + +At one of our Commencements I was bold enough to invite the Rev. E. +Winchester Donald, D.D., rector of Trinity Church, Boston, to preach the +Commencement sermon. As we then had no room large enough to accommodate +all who would be present, the place of meeting was under a large +improvised arbour, built partly of brush and partly of rough boards. +Soon after Dr. Donald had begun speaking, the rain came down in +torrents, and he had to stop, while someone held an umbrella over him. + +The boldness of what I had done never dawned upon me until I saw the +picture made by the rector of Trinity Church standing before that large +audience under an old umbrella, waiting for the rain to cease so that he +could go on with his address. + +It was not very long before the rain ceased and Dr. Donald finished his +sermon; and an excellent sermon it was, too, in spite of the weather. +After he had gone to his room, and had gotten the wet threads of his +clothes dry, Dr. Donald ventured the remark that a large chapel at +Tuskegee would not be out of place. The next day a letter came from two +ladies who were then travelling in Italy, saying that they had decided +to give us the money for such a chapel as we needed. + +A short time ago we received twenty thousand dollars from Mr. Andrew +Carnegie, to be used for the purpose of erecting a new library building. +Our first library and reading-room were in a corner of a shanty, and the +whole thing occupied a space about five by twelve feet. It required ten +years of work before I was able to secure Mr. Carnegie's interest and +help. The first time I saw him, ten years ago, he seemed to take but +little interest in our school, but I was determined to show him that +we were worthy of his help. After ten years of hard work I wrote him a +letter reading as follows: + +December 15, 1900. + +Mr. Andrew Carnegie, 5 W. Fifty-first St., New York. + +Dear Sir: Complying with the request which you made of me when I saw you +at your residence a few days ago, I now submit in writing an appeal for +a library building for our institution. + +We have 1100 students, 86 officers and instructors, together with their +families, and about 200 coloured people living near the school, all of +whom would make use of the library building. + +We have over 12,000 books, periodicals, etc., gifts from our friends, +but we have no suitable place for them, and we have no suitable +reading-room. + +Our graduates go to work in every section of the South, and whatever +knowledge might be obtained in the library would serve to assist in the +elevation of the whole Negro race. + +Such a building as we need could be erected for about $20,000. All +of the work for the building, such as brickmaking, brick-masonry, +carpentry, blacksmithing, etc., would be done by the students. The +money which you would give would not only supply the building, but +the erection of the building would give a large number of students an +opportunity to learn the building trades, and the students would use the +money paid to them to keep themselves in school. I do not believe that +a similar amount of money often could be made go so far in uplifting a +whole race. + +If you wish further information, I shall be glad to furnish it. + +Yours truly, + +Booker T. Washington, Principal. + + +The next mail brought back the following reply: "I will be very glad +to pay the bills for the library building as they are incurred, to the +extent of twenty thousand dollars, and I am glad of this opportunity to +show the interest I have in your noble work." + +I have found that strict business methods go a long way in securing +the interest of rich people. It has been my constant aim at Tuskegee to +carry out, in our financial and other operations, such business methods +as would be approved of by any New York banking house. + +I have spoken of several large gifts to the school; but by far the +greater proportion of the money that has built up the institution has +come in the form of small donations from persons of moderate means. +It is upon these small gifts, which carry with them the interest of +hundreds of donors, that any philanthropic work must depend largely for +its support. In my efforts to get money I have often been surprised at +the patience and deep interest of the ministers, who are besieged +on every hand and at all hours of the day for help. If no other +consideration had convinced me of the value of the Christian life, the +Christlike work which the Church of all denominations in America has +done during the last thirty-five years for the elevation of the black +man would have made me a Christian. In a large degree it has been +the pennies, the nickels, and the dimes which have come from the +Sunday-schools, the Christian Endeavour societies, and the missionary +societies, as well as from the church proper, that have helped to +elevate the Negro at so rapid a rate. + +This speaking of small gifts reminds me to say that very few Tuskegee +graduates fail to send us an annual contribution. These contributions +range from twenty-five cents up to ten dollars. + +Soon after beginning our third year's work we were surprised to receive +money from three special sources, and up to the present time we have +continued to receive help from them. First, the State Legislature of +Alabama increased its annual appropriation from two thousand dollars to +three thousand dollars; I might add that still later it increased this +sum to four thousand five hundred dollars a year. The effort to secure +this increase was led by the Hon. M.F. Foster, the member of the +Legislature from Tuskegee. Second, we received one thousand dollars from +the John F. Slater Fund. Our work seemed to please the trustees of this +fund, as they soon began increasing their annual grant. This has been +added to from time to time until at present we receive eleven thousand +dollars annually from the Fund. The other help to which I have referred +came in the shape of an allowance from the Peabody Fund. This was at +first five hundred dollars, but it has since been increased to fifteen +hundred dollars. + +The effort to secure help from the Slater and Peabody Funds brought me +into contact with two rare men--men who have had much to do in shaping +the policy for the education of the Negro. I refer to the Hon. J.L.M. +Curry, of Washington, who is the general agent for these two funds, and +Mr. Morris K. Jessup, of New York. Dr. Curry is a native of the South, +an ex-Confederate soldier, yet I do not believe there is any man in +the country who is more deeply interested in the highest welfare of the +Negro than Dr. Curry, or one who is more free from race prejudice. +He enjoys the unique distinction of possessing to an equal degree the +confidence of the black man and the Southern white man. I shall never +forget the first time I met him. It was in Richmond, Va., where he was +then living. I had heard much about him. When I first went into his +presence, trembling because of my youth and inexperience, he took me +by the hand so cordially, and spoke such encouraging words, and gave me +such helpful advice regarding the proper course to pursue, that I came +to know him then, as I have known him ever since, as a high example +of one who is constantly and unselfishly at work for the betterment of +humanity. + +Mr. Morris K. Jessup, the treasurer of the Slater Fund, I refer to +because I know of no man of wealth and large and complicated business +responsibilities who gives not only money but his time and thought to +the subject of the proper method of elevating the Negro to the extent +that is true of Mr. Jessup. It is very largely through this effort +and influence that during the last few years the subject of industrial +education has assumed the importance that it has, and been placed on its +present footing. + + + +Chapter XIII. Two Thousand Miles For A Five-Minute Speech + +Soon after the opening of our boarding department, quite a number of +students who evidently were worthy, but who were so poor that they did +not have any money to pay even the small charges at the school, began +applying for admission. This class was composed of both men and women. +It was a great trial to refuse admission to these applicants, and in +1884 we established a night-school to accommodate a few of them. + +The night-school was organized on a plan similar to the one which I +had helped to establish at Hampton. At first it was composed of about +a dozen students. They were admitted to the night-school only when they +had no money with which to pay any part of their board in the regular +day-school. It was further required that they must work for ten hours +during the day at some trade or industry, and study academic branches +for two hours during the evening. This was the requirement for the first +one or two years of their stay. They were to be paid something above the +cost of their board, with the understanding that all of their earnings, +except a very small part, were to be reserved in the school's treasury, +to be used for paying their board in the regular day-school after they +had entered that department. The night-school, started in this manner, +has grown until there are at present four hundred and fifty-seven +students enrolled in it alone. + +There could hardly be a more severe test of a student's worth than this +branch of the Institute's work. It is largely because it furnishes such +a good opportunity to test the backbone of a student that I place such +high value upon our night-school. Any one who is willing to work ten +hours a day at the brick-yard, or in the laundry, through one or two +years, in order that he or she may have the privilege of studying +academic branches for two hours in the evening, has enough bottom to +warrant being further educated. + +After the student has left the night-school he enters the day-school, +where he takes academic branches four days in a week, and works at his +trade two days. Besides this he usually works at his trade during the +three summer months. As a rule, after a student has succeeded in going +through the night-school test, he finds a way to finish the regular +course in industrial and academic training. No student, no matter how +much money he may be able to command, is permitted to go through school +without doing manual labour. In fact, the industrial work is now as +popular as the academic branches. Some of the most successful men and +women who have graduated from the institution obtained their start in +the night-school. + +While a great deal of stress is laid upon the industrial side of the +work at Tuskegee, we do not neglect or overlook in any degree the +religious and spiritual side. The school is strictly undenominational, +but it is thoroughly Christian, and the spiritual training of the +students is not neglected. Our preaching service, prayer-meetings, +Sunday-school, Christian Endeavour Society, Young Men's Christian +Association, and various missionary organizations, testify to this. + +In 1885, Miss Olivia Davidson, to whom I have already referred as being +largely responsible for the success of the school during its early +history, and I were married. During our married life she continued +to divide her time and strength between our home and the work for the +school. She not only continued to work in the school at Tuskegee, but +also kept up her habit of going North to secure funds. In 1889 she died, +after four years of happy married life and eight years of hard and happy +work for the school. She literally wore herself out in her never ceasing +efforts in behalf of the work that she so dearly loved. During our +married life there were born to us two bright, beautiful boys, Booker +Taliaferro and Ernest Davidson. The older of these, Booker, has already +mastered the brick-maker's trade at Tuskegee. + +I have often been asked how I began the practice of public speaking. +In answer I would say that I never planned to give any large part of my +life to speaking in public. I have always had more of an ambition to DO +things than merely to talk ABOUT doing them. It seems that when I went +North with General Armstrong to speak at the series of public meetings +to which I have referred, the President of the National Educational +Association, the Hon. Thomas W. Bicknell, was present at one of +those meetings and heard me speak. A few days afterward he sent me an +invitation to deliver an address at the next meeting of the Educational +Association. This meeting was to be held in Madison, Wis. I accepted the +invitation. This was, in a sense, the beginning of my public-speaking +career. + +On the evening that I spoke before the Association there must have been +not far from four thousand persons present. Without my knowing it, there +were a large number of people present from Alabama, and some from the +town of Tuskegee. These white people afterward frankly told me that they +went to this meeting expecting to hear the South roundly abused, but +were pleasantly surprised to find that there was no word of abuse in +my address. On the contrary, the South was given credit for all the +praiseworthy things that it had done. A white lady who was teacher in +a college in Tuskegee wrote back to the local paper that she was +gratified, as well as surprised, to note the credit which I gave the +white people of Tuskegee for their help in getting the school started. +This address at Madison was the first that I had delivered that in any +large measure dealt with the general problem of the races. Those who +heard it seemed to be pleased with what I said and with the general +position that I took. + +When I first came to Tuskegee, I determined that I would make it my +home, that I would take as much pride in the right actions of the people +of the town as any white man could do, and that I would, at the same +time, deplore the wrong-doing of the people as much as any white man. I +determined never to say anything in a public address in the North that +I would not be willing to say in the South. I early learned that it is +a hard matter to convert an individual by abusing him, and that this +is more often accomplished by giving credit for all the praiseworthy +actions performed than by calling attention alone to all the evil done. + +While pursuing this policy I have not failed, at the proper time and +in the proper manner, to call attention, in no uncertain terms, to the +wrongs which any part of the South has been guilty of. I have found +that there is a large element in the South that is quick to respond to +straightforward, honest criticism of any wrong policy. As a rule, the +place to criticise the South, when criticism is necessary, is in the +South--not in Boston. A Boston man who came to Alabama to criticise +Boston would not effect so much good, I think, as one who had his word +of criticism to say in Boston. + +In this address at Madison I took the ground that the policy to be +pursued with references to the races was, by every honourable means, +to bring them together and to encourage the cultivation of friendly +relations, instead of doing that which would embitter. I further +contended that, in relation to his vote, the Negro should more and more +consider the interests of the community in which he lived, rather than +seek alone to please some one who lived a thousand miles away from him +and from his interests. + +In this address I said that the whole future of the Negro rested largely +upon the question as to whether or not he should make himself, through +his skill, intelligence, and character, of such undeniable value to the +community in which he lived that the community could not dispense with +his presence. I said that any individual who learned to do something +better than anybody else--learned to do a common thing in an uncommon +manner--had solved his problem, regardless of the colour of his skin, +and that in proportion as the Negro learned to produce what other people +wanted and must have, in the same proportion would he be respected. + +I spoke of an instance where one of our graduates had produced two +hundred and sixty-six bushels of sweet potatoes from an acre of ground, +in a community where the average production had been only forty-nine +bushels to the acre. He had been able to do this by reason of his +knowledge of the chemistry of the soil and by his knowledge of improved +methods of agriculture. The white farmers in the neighbourhood respected +him, and came to him for ideas regarding the raising of sweet potatoes. +These white farmers honoured and respected him because he, by his skill +and knowledge, had added something to the wealth and the comfort of the +community in which he lived. I explained that my theory of education +for the Negro would not, for example, confine him for all time to farm +life--to the production of the best and the most sweet potatoes--but +that, if he succeeded in this line of industry, he could lay the +foundations upon which his children and grand-children could grow to +higher and more important things in life. + +Such, in brief, were some of the views I advocated in this first address +dealing with the broad question of the relations of the two races, and +since that time I have not found any reason for changing my views on any +important point. + +In my early life I used to cherish a feeling of ill will toward any one +who spoke in bitter terms against the Negro, or who advocated measures +that tended to oppress the black man or take from him opportunities +for growth in the most complete manner. Now, whenever I hear any +one advocating measures that are meant to curtail the development of +another, I pity the individual who would do this. I know that the one +who makes this mistake does so because of his own lack of opportunity +for the highest kind of growth. I pity him because I know that he is +trying to stop the progress of the world, and because I know that in +time the development and the ceaseless advance of humanity will make him +ashamed of his weak and narrow position. One might as well try to stop +the progress of a mighty railroad train by throwing his body across the +track, as to try to stop the growth of the world in the direction +of giving mankind more intelligence, more culture, more skill, more +liberty, and in the direction of extending more sympathy and more +brotherly kindness. + +The address which I delivered at Madison, before the National +Educational Association, gave me a rather wide introduction in the +North, and soon after that opportunities began offering themselves for +me to address audiences there. + +I was anxious, however, that the way might also be opened for me to +speak directly to a representative Southern white audience. A partial +opportunity of this kind, one that seemed to me might serve as an +entering wedge, presented itself in 1893, when the international meeting +of Christian Workers was held at Atlanta, Ga. When this invitation came +to me, I had engagements in Boston that seemed to make it impossible for +me to speak in Atlanta. Still, after looking over my list of dates and +places carefully, I found that I could take a train from Boston that +would get me into Atlanta about thirty minutes before my address was to +be delivered, and that I could remain in that city before taking another +train for Boston. My invitation to speak in Atlanta stipulated that +I was to confine my address to five minutes. The question, then, was +whether or not I could put enough into a five-minute address to make it +worth while for me to make such a trip. + +I knew that the audience would be largely composed of the most +influential class of white men and women, and that it would be a +rare opportunity for me to let them know what we were trying to do at +Tuskegee, as well as to speak to them about the relations of the races. +So I decided to make the trip. I spoke for five minutes to an audience +of two thousand people, composed mostly of Southern and Northern whites. +What I said seemed to be received with favour and enthusiasm. The +Atlanta papers of the next day commented in friendly terms on my +address, and a good deal was said about it in different parts of the +country. I felt that I had in some degree accomplished my object--that +of getting a hearing from the dominant class of the South. + +The demands made upon me for public addresses continued to increase, +coming in about equal numbers from my own people and from Northern +whites. I gave as much time to these addresses as I could spare from the +immediate work at Tuskegee. Most of the addresses in the North were +made for the direct purpose of getting funds with which to support the +school. Those delivered before the coloured people had for their +main object the impressing upon them the importance of industrial and +technical education in addition to academic and religious training. + +I now come to that one of the incidents in my life which seems to have +excited the greatest amount of interest, and which perhaps went further +than anything else in giving me a reputation that in a sense might be +called National. I refer to the address which I delivered at the opening +of the Atlanta Cotton states and International Exposition, at Atlanta, +Ga., September 18, 1895. + +So much has been said and written about this incident, and so many +questions have been asked me concerning the address, that perhaps I may +be excused for taking up the matter with some detail. The five-minute +address in Atlanta, which I came from Boston to deliver, was possibly +the prime cause for an opportunity being given me to make the second +address there. In the spring of 1895 I received a telegram from +prominent citizens in Atlanta asking me to accompany a committee from +that city to Washington for the purpose of appearing before a committee +of Congress in the interest of securing Government help for the +Exposition. The committee was composed of about twenty-five of the most +prominent and most influential white men of Georgia. All the members of +this committee were white men except Bishop Grant, Bishop Gaines, and +myself. The Mayor and several other city and state officials spoke +before the committee. They were followed by the two coloured bishops. My +name was the last on the list of speakers. I had never before appeared +before such a committee, nor had I ever delivered any address in the +capital of the Nation. I had many misgivings as to what I ought to say, +and as to the impression that my address would make. While I cannot +recall in detail what I said, I remember that I tried to impress upon +the committee, with all the earnestness and plainness of any language +that I could command, that if Congress wanted to do something which +would assist in ridding the South of the race question and making +friends between the two races, it should, in every proper way, encourage +the material and intellectual growth of both races. I said that the +Atlanta Exposition would present an opportunity for both races to show +what advance they had made since freedom, and would at the same time +afford encouragement to them to make still greater progress. + +I tried to emphasize the fact that while the Negro should not be +deprived by unfair means of the franchise, political agitation alone +would not save him, and that back of the ballot he must have property, +industry, skill, economy, intelligence, and character, and that no +race without these elements could permanently succeed. I said that in +granting the appropriation Congress could do something that would prove +to be of real and lasting value to both races, and that it was the first +great opportunity of the kind that had been presented since the close of +the Civil War. + +I spoke for fifteen or twenty minutes, and was surprised at the close +of my address to receive the hearty congratulations of the Georgia +committee and of the members of Congress who were present. The Committee +was unanimous in making a favourable report, and in a few days the +bill passed Congress. With the passing of this bill the success of the +Atlanta Exposition was assured. + +Soon after this trip to Washington the directors of the Exposition +decided that it would be a fitting recognition of the coloured race to +erect a large and attractive building which should be devoted wholly to +showing the progress of the Negro since freedom. It was further decided +to have the building designed and erected wholly by Negro mechanics. +This plan was carried out. In design, beauty, and general finish the +Negro Building was equal to the others on the grounds. + +After it was decided to have a separate Negro exhibit, the question +arose as to who should take care of it. The officials of the Exposition +were anxious that I should assume this responsibility, but I declined +to do so, on the plea that the work at Tuskegee at that time demanded +my time and strength. Largely at my suggestion, Mr. I. Garland Penn, of +Lynchburg, Va., was selected to be at the head of the Negro department. +I gave him all the aid that I could. The Negro exhibit, as a whole, +was large and creditable. The two exhibits in this department which +attracted the greatest amount of attention were those from the Hampton +Institute and the Tuskegee Institute. The people who seemed to be +the most surprised, as well as pleased, at what they saw in the Negro +Building were the Southern white people. + +As the day for the opening of the Exposition drew near, the Board of +Directors began preparing the programme for the opening exercises. +In the discussion from day to day of the various features of this +programme, the question came up as to the advisability of putting a +member of the Negro race on for one of the opening addresses, since the +Negroes had been asked to take such a prominent part in the Exposition. +It was argued, further, that such recognition would mark the good +feeling prevailing between the two races. Of course there were those who +were opposed to any such recognition of the rights of the Negro, but the +Board of Directors, composed of men who represented the best and most +progressive element in the South, had their way, and voted to invite a +black man to speak on the opening day. The next thing was to decide upon +the person who was thus to represent the Negro race. After the question +had been canvassed for several days, the directors voted unanimously to +ask me to deliver one of the opening-day addresses, and in a few days +after that I received the official invitation. + +The receiving of this invitation brought to me a sense of responsibility +that it would be hard for any one not placed in my position to +appreciate. What were my feelings when this invitation came to me? I +remembered that I had been a slave; that my early years had been spent +in the lowest depths of poverty and ignorance, and that I had had little +opportunity to prepare me for such a responsibility as this. It was only +a few years before that time that any white man in the audience might +have claimed me as his slave; and it was easily possible that some of my +former owners might be present to hear me speak. + +I knew, too, that this was the first time in the entire history of the +Negro that a member of my race had been asked to speak from the same +platform with white Southern men and women on any important National +occasion. I was asked now to speak to an audience composed of the +wealth and culture of the white South, the representatives of my former +masters. I knew, too, that while the greater part of my audience would +be composed of Southern people, yet there would be present a large +number of Northern whites, as well as a great many men and women of my +own race. + +I was determined to say nothing that I did not feel from the bottom of +my heart to be true and right. When the invitation came to me, there +was not one word of intimation as to what I should say or as to what +I should omit. In this I felt that the Board of Directors had paid a +tribute to me. They knew that by one sentence I could have blasted, in +a large degree, the success of the Exposition. I was also painfully +conscious of the fact that, while I must be true to my own race in my +utterances, I had it in my power to make such an ill-timed address as +would result in preventing any similar invitation being extended to a +black man again for years to come. I was equally determined to be true +to the North, as well as to the best element of the white South, in what +I had to say. + +The papers, North and South, had taken up the discussion of my coming +speech, and as the time for it drew near this discussion became more and +more widespread. Not a few of the Southern white papers were unfriendly +to the idea of my speaking. From my own race I received many suggestions +as to what I ought to say. I prepared myself as best I could for the +address, but as the eighteenth of September drew nearer, the heavier my +heart became, and the more I feared that my effort would prove a failure +and a disappointment. + +The invitation had come at a time when I was very busy with my school +work, as it was the beginning of our school year. After preparing my +address, I went through it, as I usually do with those utterances +which I consider particularly important, with Mrs. Washington, and she +approved of what I intended to say. On the sixteenth of September, the +day before I was to start for Atlanta, so many of the Tuskegee teachers +expressed a desire to hear my address that I consented to read it to +them in a body. When I had done so, and had heard their criticisms and +comments, I felt somewhat relieved, since they seemed to think well of +what I had to say. + +On the morning of September 17, together with Mrs. Washington and my +three children, I started for Atlanta. I felt a good deal as I suppose +a man feels when he is on his way to the gallows. In passing through the +town of Tuskegee I met a white farmer who lived some distance out in the +country. In a jesting manner this man said: "Washington, you have spoken +before the Northern white people, the Negroes in the South, and to us +country white people in the South; but Atlanta, to-morrow, you will have +before you the Northern whites, the Southern whites, and the Negroes all +together. I am afraid that you have got yourself in a tight place." This +farmer diagnosed the situation correctly, but his frank words did not +add anything to my comfort. + +In the course of the journey from Tuskegee to Atlanta both coloured +and white people came to the train to point me out, and discussed with +perfect freedom, in my hearings, what was going to take place the next +day. We were met by a committee in Atlanta. Almost the first thing +that I heard when I got off the train in that city was an expression +something like this, from an old coloured man near by: "Dat's de man of +my race what's gwine to make a speech at de Exposition to-morrow. I'se +sho' gwine to hear him." + +Atlanta was literally packed, at the time, with people from all parts of +the country, and with representatives of foreign governments, as well +as with military and civic organizations. The afternoon papers had +forecasts of the next day's proceedings in flaring headlines. All this +tended to add to my burden. I did not sleep much that night. The next +morning, before day, I went carefully over what I planned to say. I +also kneeled down and asked God's blessing upon my effort. Right here, +perhaps, I ought to add that I make it a rule never to go before an +audience, on any occasion, without asking the blessing of God upon what +I want to say. + +I always make it a rule to make especial preparation for each separate +address. No two audiences are exactly alike. It is my aim to reach +and talk to the heart of each individual audience, taking it into my +confidence very much as I would a person. When I am speaking to an +audience, I care little for how what I am saying is going to sound in +the newspapers, or to another audience, or to an individual. At the +time, the audience before me absorbs all my sympathy, thought, and +energy. + +Early in the morning a committee called to escort me to my place in +the procession which was to march to the Exposition grounds. In this +procession were prominent coloured citizens in carriages, as well +as several Negro military organizations. I noted that the Exposition +officials seemed to go out of their way to see that all of the coloured +people in the procession were properly placed and properly treated. The +procession was about three hours in reaching the Exposition grounds, and +during all of this time the sun was shining down upon us disagreeably +hot. When we reached the grounds, the heat, together with my nervous +anxiety, made me feel as if I were about ready to collapse, and to +feel that my address was not going to be a success. When I entered the +audience-room, I found it packed with humanity from bottom to top, and +there were thousands outside who could not get in. + +The room was very large, and well suited to public speaking. When I +entered the room, there were vigorous cheers from the coloured portion +of the audience, and faint cheers from some of the white people. I had +been told, while I had been in Atlanta, that while many white people +were going to be present to hear me speak, simply out of curiosity, +and that others who would be present would be in full sympathy with me, +there was a still larger element of the audience which would consist of +those who were going to be present for the purpose of hearing me make +a fool of myself, or, at least, of hearing me say some foolish thing +so that they could say to the officials who had invited me to speak, "I +told you so!" + +One of the trustees of the Tuskegee Institute, as well as my personal +friend, Mr. William H. Baldwin, Jr. was at the time General Manager of +the Southern Railroad, and happened to be in Atlanta on that day. He was +so nervous about the kind of reception that I would have, and the effect +that my speech would produce, that he could not persuade himself to +go into the building, but walked back and forth in the grounds outside +until the opening exercises were over. + + + +Chapter XIV. The Atlanta Exposition Address + +The Atlanta Exposition, at which I had been asked to make an address as +a representative of the Negro race, as stated in the last chapter, +was opened with a short address from Governor Bullock. After other +interesting exercises, including an invocation from Bishop Nelson, of +Georgia, a dedicatory ode by Albert Howell, Jr., and addresses by the +President of the Exposition and Mrs. Joseph Thompson, the President of +the Woman's Board, Governor Bullock introduce me with the words, "We +have with us to-day a representative of Negro enterprise and Negro +civilization." + +When I arose to speak, there was considerable cheering, especially from +the coloured people. As I remember it now, the thing that was uppermost +in my mind was the desire to say something that would cement the +friendship of the races and bring about hearty cooperation between them. +So far as my outward surroundings were concerned, the only thing that +I recall distinctly now is that when I got up, I saw thousands of eyes +looking intently into my face. The following is the address which I +delivered:-- + +Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Directors and Citizens. + +One-third of the population of the South is of the Negro race. No +enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this section +can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest +success. I but convey to you, Mr. President and Directors, the sentiment +of the masses of my race when I say that in no way have the value +and manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously +recognized than by the managers of this magnificent Exposition at every +stage of its progress. It is a recognition that will do more to cement +the friendship of the two races than any occurrence since the dawn of +our freedom. + +Not only this, but the opportunity here afforded will awaken among us +a new era of industrial progress. Ignorant and inexperienced, it is +not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the +top instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the state +legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill; that +the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than +starting a dairy farm or truck garden. + +A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. +From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal, "Water, +water; we die of thirst!" The answer from the friendly vessel at once +came back, "Cast down your bucket where you are." A second time the +signal, "Water, water; send us water!" ran up from the distressed +vessel, and was answered, "Cast down your bucket where you are." And a +third and fourth signal for water was answered, "Cast down your bucket +where you are." The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heading +the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, +sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my +race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who +underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the +Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbour, I would say: "Cast +down your bucket where you are"--cast it down in making friends in every +manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. + +Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic +service, and in the professions. And in this connection it is well to +bear in mind that whatever other sins the South may be called to bear, +when it comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the +Negro is given a man's chance in the commercial world, and in nothing +is this Exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. Our +greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may +overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions +of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in +proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labour and put +brains and skill into the common occupations of life; shall prosper in +proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the +substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful. No race can +prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field +as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and +not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our +opportunities. + +To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign +birth and strange tongue and habits of the prosperity of the South, were +I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race: "Cast down your +bucket where you are." Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes +whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have tested in days +when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your firesides. Cast +down your bucket among these people who have, without strikes and labour +wars, tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads +and cities, and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, +and helped make possible this magnificent representation of the progress +of the South. Casting down your bucket among my people, helping and +encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and to education +of head, hand, and heart, you will find that they will buy your surplus +land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your +factories. While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in the +past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, +faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen. +As we have proved our loyalty to you in the past, nursing your children, +watching by the sick-bed of your mothers and fathers, and often +following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, so in the future, +in our humble way, we shall stand by you with a devotion that no +foreigner can approach, ready to lay down our lives, if need be, in +defence of yours, interlacing our industrial, commercial, civil, and +religious life with yours in a way that shall make the interests of both +races one. In all things that are purely social we can be as separate +as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual +progress. + +There is no defence or security for any of us except in the highest +intelligence and development of all. If anywhere there are efforts +tending to curtail the fullest growth of the Negro, let these efforts be +turned into stimulating, encouraging, and making him the most useful and +intelligent citizen. Effort or means so invested will pay a thousand per +cent interest. These efforts will be twice blessed--"blessing him that +gives and him that takes." + +There is no escape through law of man or God from the inevitable:-- + + The laws of changeless justice bind + Oppressor with oppressed; + And close as sin and suffering joined + We march to fate abreast. + +Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load +upward, or they will pull against you the load downward. We shall +constitute one-third and more of the ignorance and crime of the +South, or one-third its intelligence and progress; we shall contribute +one-third to the business and industrial prosperity of the South, or we +shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding +every effort to advance the body politic. + +Gentlemen of the Exposition, as we present to you our humble effort at +an exhibition of our progress, you must not expect overmuch. Starting +thirty years ago with ownership here and there in a few quilts and +pumpkins and chickens (gathered from miscellaneous sources), remember +the path that has led from these to the inventions and production of +agricultural implements, buggies, steam-engines, newspapers, books, +statuary, carving, paintings, the management of drug-stores and banks, +has not been trodden without contact with thorns and thistles. While we +take pride in what we exhibit as a result of our independent efforts, we +do not for a moment forget that our part in this exhibition would fall +far short of your expectations but for the constant help that has come +to our education life, not only from the Southern states, but especially +from Northern philanthropists, who have made their gifts a constant +stream of blessing and encouragement. + +The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions +of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the +enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result +of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing. No +race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long +in any degree ostracized. It is important and right that all privileges +of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared +for the exercises of these privileges. The opportunity to earn a dollar +in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to +spend a dollar in an opera-house. + +In conclusion, may I repeat that nothing in thirty years has given us +more hope and encouragement, and drawn us so near to you of the white +race, as this opportunity offered by the Exposition; and here bending, +as it were, over the altar that represents the results of the struggles +of your race and mine, both starting practically empty-handed three +decades ago, I pledge that in your effort to work out the great and +intricate problem which God has laid at the doors of the South, you +shall have at all times the patient, sympathetic help of my race; only +let this be constantly in mind, that, while from representations in +these buildings of the product of field, of forest, of mine, of factory, +letters, and art, much good will come, yet far above and beyond material +benefits will be that higher good, that, let us pray God, will come, +in a blotting out of sectional differences and racial animosities and +suspicions, in a determination to administer absolute justice, in a +willing obedience among all classes to the mandates of law. This, this, +coupled with our material prosperity, will bring into our beloved South +a new heaven and a new earth. + + +The first thing that I remember, after I had finished speaking, was that +Governor Bullock rushed across the platform and took me by the hand, +and that others did the same. I received so many and such hearty +congratulations that I found it difficult to get out of the building. +I did not appreciate to any degree, however, the impression which my +address seemed to have made, until the next morning, when I went into +the business part of the city. As soon as I was recognized, I was +surprised to find myself pointed out and surrounded by a crowd of men +who wished to shake hands with me. This was kept up on every street on +to which I went, to an extent which embarrassed me so much that I went +back to my boarding-place. The next morning I returned to Tuskegee. At +the station in Atlanta, and at almost all of the stations at which the +train stopped between that city and Tuskegee, I found a crowd of people +anxious to shake hands with me. + +The papers in all parts of the United States published the address +in full, and for months afterward there were complimentary editorial +references to it. Mr. Clark Howell, the editor of the Atlanta +Constitution, telegraphed to a New York paper, among other words, the +following, "I do not exaggerate when I say that Professor Booker T. +Washington's address yesterday was one of the most notable speeches, +both as to character and as to the warmth of its reception, ever +delivered to a Southern audience. The address was a revelation. The +whole speech is a platform upon which blacks and whites can stand with +full justice to each other." + +The Boston Transcript said editorially: "The speech of Booker T. +Washington at the Atlanta Exposition, this week, seems to have dwarfed +all the other proceedings and the Exposition itself. The sensation that +it has caused in the press has never been equalled." + +I very soon began receiving all kinds of propositions from lecture +bureaus, and editors of magazines and papers, to take the lecture +platform, and to write articles. One lecture bureau offered me fifty +thousand dollars, or two hundred dollars a night and expenses, if I +would place my services at its disposal for a given period. To all these +communications I replied that my life-work was at Tuskegee; and that +whenever I spoke it must be in the interests of Tuskegee school and my +race, and that I would enter into no arrangements that seemed to place a +mere commercial value upon my services. + +Some days after its delivery I sent a copy of my address to the +President of the United States, the Hon. Grover Cleveland. I received +from him the following autograph reply:-- + + +Gray Gables, Buzzard's Bay, Mass., + +October 6, 1895. + +Booker T. Washington, Esq.: + +My Dear Sir: I thank you for sending me a copy of your address delivered +at the Atlanta Exposition. + +I thank you with much enthusiasm for making the address. I have read +it with intense interest, and I think the Exposition would be fully +justified if it did not do more than furnish the opportunity for its +delivery. Your words cannot fail to delight and encourage all who wish +well for your race; and if our coloured fellow-citizens do not from your +utterances gather new hope and form new determinations to gain every +valuable advantage offered them by their citizenship, it will be strange +indeed. + +Yours very truly, + +Grover Cleveland. + + +Later I met Mr. Cleveland, for the first time, when, as President, he +visited the Atlanta Exposition. At the request of myself and others he +consented to spend an hour in the Negro Building, for the purpose +of inspecting the Negro exhibit and of giving the coloured people in +attendance an opportunity to shake hands with him. As soon as I met Mr. +Cleveland I became impressed with his simplicity, greatness, and rugged +honesty. I have met him many times since then, both at public functions +and at his private residence in Princeton, and the more I see of him +the more I admire him. When he visited the Negro Building in Atlanta he +seemed to give himself up wholly, for that hour, to the coloured +people. He seemed to be as careful to shake hands with some old coloured +"auntie" clad partially in rags, and to take as much pleasure in doing +so, as if he were greeting some millionaire. Many of the coloured people +took advantage of the occasion to get him to write his name in a book or +on a slip of paper. He was as careful and patient in doing this as if he +were putting his signature to some great state document. + +Mr. Cleveland has not only shown his friendship for me in many personal +ways, but has always consented to do anything I have asked of him for +our school. This he has done, whether it was to make a personal donation +or to use his influence in securing the donations of others. Judging +from my personal acquaintance with Mr. Cleveland, I do not believe that +he is conscious of possessing any colour prejudice. He is too great for +that. In my contact with people I find that, as a rule, it is only +the little, narrow people who live for themselves, who never read good +books, who do not travel, who never open up their souls in a way to +permit them to come into contact with other souls--with the great +outside world. No man whose vision is bounded by colour can come into +contact with what is highest and best in the world. In meeting men, in +many places, I have found that the happiest people are those who do the +most for others; the most miserable are those who do the least. I have +also found that few things, if any, are capable of making one so blind +and narrow as race prejudice. I often say to our students, in the course +of my talks to them on Sunday evenings in the chapel, that the longer +I live and the more experience I have of the world, the more I am +convinced that, after all, the one thing that is most worth living +for--and dying for, if need be--is the opportunity of making some one +else more happy and more useful. + +The coloured people and the coloured newspapers at first seemed to be +greatly pleased with the character of my Atlanta address, as well as +with its reception. But after the first burst of enthusiasm began to +die away, and the coloured people began reading the speech in cold type, +some of them seemed to feel that they had been hypnotized. They seemed +to feel that I had been too liberal in my remarks toward the Southern +whites, and that I had not spoken out strongly enough for what they +termed the "rights" of my race. For a while there was a reaction, so +far as a certain element of my own race was concerned, but later these +reactionary ones seemed to have been won over to my way of believing and +acting. + +While speaking of changes in public sentiment, I recall that about ten +years after the school at Tuskegee was established, I had an experience +that I shall never forget. Dr. Lyman Abbott, then the pastor of Plymouth +Church, and also editor of the Outlook (then the Christian Union), +asked me to write a letter for his paper giving my opinion of the exact +condition, mental and moral, of the coloured ministers in the South, as +based upon my observations. I wrote the letter, giving the exact facts +as I conceived them to be. The picture painted was a rather black +one--or, since I am black, shall I say "white"? It could not be +otherwise with a race but a few years out of slavery, a race which had +not had time or opportunity to produce a competent ministry. + +What I said soon reached every Negro minister in the country, I think, +and the letters of condemnation which I received from them were not +few. I think that for a year after the publication of this article every +association and every conference or religious body of any kind, of my +race, that met, did not fail before adjourning to pass a resolution +condemning me, or calling upon me to retract or modify what I had said. +Many of these organizations went so far in their resolutions as +to advise parents to cease sending their children to Tuskegee. One +association even appointed a "missionary" whose duty it was to warn the +people against sending their children to Tuskegee. This missionary had +a son in the school, and I noticed that, whatever the "missionary" might +have said or done with regard to others, he was careful not to take his +son away from the institution. Many of the coloured papers, especially +those that were the organs of religious bodies, joined in the general +chorus of condemnation or demands for retraction. + +During the whole time of the excitement, and through all the criticism, +I did not utter a word of explanation or retraction. I knew that I was +right, and that time and the sober second thought of the people would +vindicate me. It was not long before the bishops and other church +leaders began to make careful investigation of the conditions of the +ministry, and they found out that I was right. In fact, the oldest and +most influential bishop in one branch of the Methodist Church said that +my words were far too mild. Very soon public sentiment began making +itself felt, in demanding a purifying of the ministry. While this is +not yet complete by any means, I think I may say, without egotism, and I +have been told by many of our most influential ministers, that my words +had much to do with starting a demand for the placing of a higher type +of men in the pulpit. I have had the satisfaction of having many who +once condemned me thank me heartily for my frank words. + +The change of the attitude of the Negro ministry, so far as regards +myself, is so complete that at the present time I have no warmer friends +among any class than I have among the clergymen. The improvement in the +character and life of the Negro ministers is one of the most gratifying +evidences of the progress of the race. My experience with them, as well +as other events in my life, convince me that the thing to do, when one +feels sure that he has said or done the right thing, and is condemned, +is to stand still and keep quiet. If he is right, time will show it. + +In the midst of the discussion which was going on concerning my Atlanta +speech, I received the letter which I give below, from Dr. Gilman, the +President of Johns Hopkins University, who had been made chairman of the +judges of award in connection with the Atlanta Exposition:-- + +Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, + +President's Office, September 30, 1895. + +Dear Mr. Washington: Would it be agreeable to you to be one of the +Judges of Award in the Department of Education at Atlanta? If so, I +shall be glad to place your name upon the list. A line by telegraph will +be welcomed. + +Yours very truly, + +D.C. Gilman + + +I think I was even more surprised to receive this invitation than I +had been to receive the invitation to speak at the opening of the +Exposition. It was to be a part of my duty, as one of the jurors, to +pass not only upon the exhibits of the coloured schools, but also upon +those of the white schools. I accepted the position, and spent a month +in Atlanta in performance of the duties which it entailed. The board of +jurors was a large one, containing in all of sixty members. It was about +equally divided between Southern white people and Northern white people. +Among them were college presidents, leading scientists and men of +letters, and specialists in many subjects. When the group of jurors to +which I was assigned met for organization, Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, who +was one of the number, moved that I be made secretary of that division, +and the motion was unanimously adopted. Nearly half of our division +were Southern people. In performing my duties in the inspection of the +exhibits of white schools I was in every case treated with respect, and +at the close of our labours I parted from my associates with regret. + +I am often asked to express myself more freely than I do upon the +political condition and the political future of my race. These +recollections of my experience in Atlanta give me the opportunity to do +so briefly. My own belief is, although I have never before said so in so +many words, that the time will come when the Negro in the South will +be accorded all the political rights which his ability, character, +and material possessions entitle him to. I think, though, that the +opportunity to freely exercise such political rights will not come in +any large degree through outside or artificial forcing, but will be +accorded to the Negro by the Southern white people themselves, and that +they will protect him in the exercise of those rights. Just as soon +as the South gets over the old feeling that it is being forced by +"foreigners," or "aliens," to do something which it does not want to +do, I believe that the change in the direction that I have indicated +is going to begin. In fact, there are indications that it is already +beginning in a slight degree. + +Let me illustrate my meaning. Suppose that some months before the +opening of the Atlanta Exposition there had been a general demand from +the press and public platform outside the South that a Negro be given +a place on the opening programme, and that a Negro be placed upon the +board of jurors of award. Would any such recognition of the race have +taken place? I do not think so. The Atlanta officials went as far as +they did because they felt it to be a pleasure, as well as a duty, to +reward what they considered merit in the Negro race. Say what we will, +there is something in human nature which we cannot blot out, which makes +one man, in the end, recognize and reward merit in another, regardless +of colour or race. + +I believe it is the duty of the Negro--as the greater part of the race +is already doing--to deport himself modestly in regard to political +claims, depending upon the slow but sure influences that proceed from +the possession of property, intelligence, and high character for the +full recognition of his political rights. I think that the according +of the full exercise of political rights is going to be a matter of +natural, slow growth, not an over-night, gourd-vine affair. I do not +believe that the Negro should cease voting, for a man cannot learn the +exercise of self-government by ceasing to vote, any more than a boy can +learn to swim by keeping out of the water, but I do believe that in his +voting he should more and more be influenced by those of intelligence +and character who are his next-door neighbours. + +I know coloured men who, through the encouragement, help, and advice of +Southern white people, have accumulated thousands of dollars' worth of +property, but who, at the same time, would never think of going to those +same persons for advice concerning the casting of their ballots. This, +it seems to me, is unwise and unreasonable, and should cease. In saying +this I do not mean that the Negro should truckle, or not vote from +principle, for the instant he ceases to vote from principle he loses the +confidence and respect of the Southern white man even. + +I do not believe that any state should make a law that permits an +ignorant and poverty-stricken white man to vote, and prevents a black +man in the same condition from voting. Such a law is not only unjust, +but it will react, as all unjust laws do, in time; for the effect of +such a law is to encourage the Negro to secure education and property, +and at the same time it encourages the white man to remain in +ignorance and poverty. I believe that in time, through the operation of +intelligence and friendly race relations, all cheating at the ballot-box +in the South will cease. It will become apparent that the white man +who begins by cheating a Negro out of his ballot soon learns to cheat a +white man out of his, and that the man who does this ends his career of +dishonesty by the theft of property or by some equally serious crime. In +my opinion, the time will come when the South will encourage all of +its citizens to vote. It will see that it pays better, from every +standpoint, to have healthy, vigorous life than to have that political +stagnation which always results when one-half of the population has no +share and no interest in the Government. + +As a rule, I believe in universal, free suffrage, but I believe that in +the South we are confronted with peculiar conditions that justify the +protection of the ballot in many of the states, for a while at least, +either by an education test, a property test, or by both combined; but +whatever tests are required, they should be made to apply with equal and +exact justice to both races. + + + +Chapter XV. The Secret Of Success In Public Speaking + +As to how my address at Atlanta was received by the audience in the +Exposition building, I think I prefer to let Mr. James Creelman, the +noted war correspondent, tell. Mr. Creelman was present, and telegraphed +the following account to the New York World:-- + +Atlanta, September 18. + +While President Cleveland was waiting at Gray Gables to-day, to send the +electric spark that started the machinery of the Atlanta Exposition, a +Negro Moses stood before a great audience of white people and delivered +an oration that marks a new epoch in the history of the South; and a +body of Negro troops marched in a procession with the citizen soldiery +of Georgia and Louisiana. The whole city is thrilling to-night with a +realization of the extraordinary significance of these two unprecedented +events. Nothing has happened since Henry Grady's immortal speech before +the New England society in New York that indicates so profoundly the +spirit of the New South, except, perhaps, the opening of the Exposition +itself. + +When Professor Booker T. Washington, Principal of an industrial school +for coloured people in Tuskegee, Ala. stood on the platform of the +Auditorium, with the sun shining over the heads of his auditors into his +eyes, and with his whole face lit up with the fire of prophecy, Clark +Howell, the successor of Henry Grady, said to me, "That man's speech is +the beginning of a moral revolution in America." + +It is the first time that a Negro has made a speech in the South on any +important occasion before an audience composed of white men and women. +It electrified the audience, and the response was as if it had come from +the throat of a whirlwind. + +Mrs. Thompson had hardly taken her seat when all eyes were turned on +a tall tawny Negro sitting in the front row of the platform. It was +Professor Booker T. Washington, President of the Tuskegee (Alabama) +Normal and Industrial Institute, who must rank from this time forth +as the foremost man of his race in America. Gilmore's Band played the +"Star-Spangled Banner," and the audience cheered. The tune changed to +"Dixie" and the audience roared with shrill "hi-yis." Again the music +changed, this time to "Yankee Doodle," and the clamour lessened. + +All this time the eyes of the thousands present looked straight at the +Negro orator. A strange thing was to happen. A black man was to speak +for his people, with none to interrupt him. As Professor Washington +strode to the edge of the stage, the low, descending sun shot fiery rays +through the windows into his face. A great shout greeted him. He turned +his head to avoid the blinding light, and moved about the platform for +relief. Then he turned his wonderful countenance to the sun without a +blink of the eyelids, and began to talk. + +There was a remarkable figure; tall, bony, straight as a Sioux chief, +high forehead, straight nose, heavy jaws, and strong, determined mouth, +with big white teeth, piercing eyes, and a commanding manner. The sinews +stood out on his bronzed neck, and his muscular right arm swung high in +the air, with a lead-pencil grasped in the clinched brown fist. His big +feet were planted squarely, with the heels together and the toes turned +out. His voice range out clear and true, and he paused impressively as +he made each point. Within ten minutes the multitude was in an uproar of +enthusiasm--handkerchiefs were waved, canes were flourished, hats were +tossed in the air. The fairest women of Georgia stood up and cheered. It +was as if the orator had bewitched them. + +And when he held his dusky hand high above his head, with the fingers +stretched wide apart, and said to the white people of the South on +behalf of his race, "In all things that are purely social we can be as +separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential +to mutual progress," the great wave of sound dashed itself against the +walls, and the whole audience was on its feet in a delirium of applause, +and I thought at that moment of the night when Henry Grady stood among +the curling wreaths of tobacco-smoke in Delmonico's banquet-hall and +said, "I am a Cavalier among Roundheads." + +I have heard the great orators of many countries, but not even Gladstone +himself could have pleased a cause with most consummate power than did +this angular Negro, standing in a nimbus of sunshine, surrounded by the +men who once fought to keep his race in bondage. The roar might swell +ever so high, but the expression of his earnest face never changed. + +A ragged, ebony giant, squatted on the floor in one of the aisles, +watched the orator with burning eyes and tremulous face until the +supreme burst of applause came, and then the tears ran down his face. +Most of the Negroes in the audience were crying, perhaps without knowing +just why. + +At the close of the speech Governor Bullock rushed across the stage and +seized the orator's hand. Another shout greeted this demonstration, and +for a few minutes the two men stood facing each other, hand in hand. + + +So far as I could spare the time from the immediate work at Tuskegee, +after my Atlanta address, I accepted some of the invitations to speak +in public which came to me, especially those that would take me into +territory where I thought it would pay to plead the cause of my race, +but I always did this with the understanding that I was to be free +to talk about my life-work and the needs of my people. I also had it +understood that I was not to speak in the capacity of a professional +lecturer, or for mere commercial gain. + +In my efforts on the public platform I never have been able to +understand why people come to hear me speak. This question I never can +rid myself of. Time and time again, as I have stood in the street in +front of a building and have seen men and women passing in large numbers +into the audience room where I was to speak, I have felt ashamed that +I should be the cause of people--as it seemed to me--wasting a valuable +hour of their time. Some years ago I was to deliver an address before a +literary society in Madison, Wis. An hour before the time set for me +to speak, a fierce snow-storm began, and continued for several hours. I +made up my mind that there would be no audience, and that I should not +have to speak, but, as a matter of duty, I went to the church, and +found it packed with people. The surprise gave me a shock that I did not +recover from during the whole evening. + +People often ask me if I feel nervous before speaking, or else they +suggest that, since I speak often, they suppose that I get used to it. +In answer to this question I have to say that I always suffer intensely +from nervousness before speaking. More than once, just before I was to +make an important address, this nervous strain has been so great that +I have resolved never again to speak in public. I not only feel nervous +before speaking, but after I have finished I usually feel a sense of +regret, because it seems to me as if I had left out of my address the +main thing and the best thing that I had meant to say. + +There is a great compensation, though, for this preliminary nervous +suffering, that comes to me after I have been speaking for about ten +minutes, and have come to feel that I have really mastered my audience, +and that we have gotten into full and complete sympathy with each other. +It seems to me that there is rarely such a combination of mental and +physical delight in any effort as that which comes to a public speaker +when he feels that he has a great audience completely within his +control. There is a thread of sympathy and oneness that connects a +public speaker with his audience, that is just as strong as though it +was something tangible and visible. If in an audience of a thousand +people there is one person who is not in sympathy with my views, or is +inclined to be doubtful, cold, or critical, I can pick him out. When +I have found him I usually go straight at him, and it is a great +satisfaction to watch the process of his thawing out. I find that the +most effective medicine for such individuals is administered at first +in the form of a story, although I never tell an anecdote simply for the +sake of telling one. That kind of thing, I think, is empty and hollow, +and an audience soon finds it out. + +I believe that one always does himself and his audience an injustice +when he speaks merely for the sake of speaking. I do not believe that +one should speak unless, deep down in his heart, he feels convinced that +he has a message to deliver. When one feels, from the bottom of his feet +to the top of his head, that he has something to say that is going +to help some individual or some cause, then let him say it; and in +delivering his message I do not believe that many of the artificial +rules of elocution can, under such circumstances, help him very much. +Although there are certain things, such as pauses, breathing, and pitch +of voice, that are very important, none of these can take the place of +soul in an address. When I have an address to deliver, I like to forget +all about the rules for the proper use of the English language, and all +about rhetoric and that sort of thing, and I like to make the audience +forget all about these things, too. + +Nothing tends to throw me off my balance so quickly, when I am speaking, +as to have some one leave the room. To prevent this, I make up my mind, +as a rule, that I will try to make my address so interesting, will try +to state so many interesting facts one after another, that no one can +leave. The average audience, I have come to believe, wants facts rather +than generalities or sermonizing. Most people, I think, are able to draw +proper conclusions if they are given the facts in an interesting form on +which to base them. + +As to the kind of audience that I like best to talk to, I would put at +the top of the list an organization of strong, wide-awake, business +men, such, for example, as is found in Boston, New York, Chicago, and +Buffalo. I have found no other audience so quick to see a point, and +so responsive. Within the last few years I have had the privilege of +speaking before most of the leading organizations of this kind in the +large cities of the United States. The best time to get hold of an +organization of business men is after a good dinner, although I think +that one of the worst instruments of torture that was ever invented +is the custom which makes it necessary for a speaker to sit through a +fourteen-course dinner, every minute of the time feeling sure that his +speech is going to prove a dismal failure and disappointment. + +I rarely take part in one of these long dinners that I do not wish that +I could put myself back in the little cabin where I was a slave boy, and +again go through the experience there--one that I shall never forget--of +getting molasses to eat once a week from the "big house." Our usual +diet on the plantation was corn bread and pork, but on Sunday morning +my mother was permitted to bring down a little molasses from the "big +house" for her three children, and when it was received how I did wish +that every day was Sunday! I would get my tin plate and hold it up for +the sweet morsel, but I would always shut my eyes while the molasses was +being poured out into the plate, with the hope that when I opened them +I would be surprised to see how much I had got. When I opened my eyes +I would tip the plate in one direction and another, so as to make the +molasses spread all over it, in the full belief that there would be more +of it and that it would last longer if spread out in this way. So strong +are my childish impressions of those Sunday morning feasts that it +would be pretty hard for any one to convince me that there is not more +molasses on a plate when it is spread all over the plate than when it +occupies a little corner--if there is a corner in a plate. At any rate, +I have never believed in "cornering" syrup. My share of the syrup was +usually about two tablespoonfuls, and those two spoonfuls of molasses +were much more enjoyable to me than is a fourteen-course dinner after +which I am to speak. + +Next to a company of business men, I prefer to speak to an audience of +Southern people, of either race, together or taken separately. Their +enthusiasm and responsiveness are a constant delight. The "amens" and +"dat's de truf" that come spontaneously from the coloured individuals +are calculated to spur any speaker on to his best efforts. I think that +next in order of preference I would place a college audience. It has +been my privilege to deliver addresses at many of our leading colleges +including Harvard, Yale, Williams, Amherst, Fisk University, the +University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley, the University of Michigan, +Trinity College in North Carolina, and many others. + +It has been a matter of deep interest to me to note the number of people +who have come to shake hands with me after an address, who say that this +is the first time they have ever called a Negro "Mister." + +When speaking directly in the interests of the Tuskegee Institute, I +usually arrange, some time in advance, a series of meetings in important +centres. This takes me before churches, Sunday-schools, Christian +Endeavour Societies, and men's and women's clubs. When doing this I +sometimes speak before as many as four organizations in a single day. + +Three years ago, at the suggestion of Mr. Morris K. Jessup, of New York, +and Dr. J.L.M. Curry, the general agent of the fund, the trustees of +the John F. Slater Fund voted a sum of money to be used in paying +the expenses of Mrs. Washington and myself while holding a series +of meetings among the coloured people in the large centres of Negro +population, especially in the large cities of the ex-slaveholding +states. Each year during the last three years we have devoted some weeks +to this work. The plan that we have followed has been for me to speak +in the morning to the ministers, teachers, and professional men. In the +afternoon Mrs. Washington would speak to the women alone, and in the +evening I spoke to a large mass-meeting. In almost every case the +meetings have been attended not only by the coloured people in large +numbers, but by the white people. In Chattanooga, Tenn., for example, +there was present at the mass-meeting an audience of not less than three +thousand persons, and I was informed that eight hundred of these were +white. I have done no work that I really enjoyed more than this, or that +I think has accomplished more good. + +These meetings have given Mrs. Washington and myself an opportunity to +get first-hand, accurate information as to the real condition of +the race, by seeing the people in their homes, their churches, their +Sunday-schools, and their places of work, as well as in the prisons and +dens of crime. These meetings also gave us an opportunity to see the +relations that exist between the races. I never feel so hopeful about +the race as I do after being engaged in a series of these meetings. I +know that on such occasions there is much that comes to the surface that +is superficial and deceptive, but I have had experience enough not to be +deceived by mere signs and fleeting enthusiasms. I have taken pains +to go to the bottom of things and get facts, in a cold, business-like +manner. + +I have seen the statement made lately, by one who claims to know what he +is talking about, that, taking the whole Negro race into account, ninety +per cent of the Negro women are not virtuous. There never was a baser +falsehood uttered concerning a race, or a statement made that was less +capable of being proved by actual facts. + +No one can come into contact with the race for twenty years, as I have +done in the heart of the South, without being convinced that the race is +constantly making slow but sure progress materially, educationally, and +morally. One might take up the life of the worst element in New +York City, for example, and prove almost anything he wanted to prove +concerning the white man, but all will agree that this is not a fair +test. + +Early in the year 1897 I received a letter inviting me to deliver an +address at the dedication of the Robert Gould Shaw monument in Boston. +I accepted the invitation. It is not necessary for me, I am sure, to +explain who Robert Gould Shaw was, and what he did. The monument to +his memory stands near the head of the Boston Common, facing the State +House. It is counted to be the most perfect piece of art of the kind to +be found in the country. + +The exercises connected with the dedication were held in Music Hall, in +Boston, and the great hall was packed from top to bottom with one of +the most distinguished audiences that ever assembled in the city. Among +those present were more persons representing the famous old anti-slavery +element that it is likely will ever be brought together in the country +again. The late Hon. Roger Wolcott, then Governor of Massachusetts, +was the presiding officer, and on the platform with him were many other +officials and hundreds of distinguished men. A report of the meeting +which appeared in the Boston Transcript will describe it better than any +words of mine could do:-- + +The core and kernel of yesterday's great noon meeting, in honour of the +Brotherhood of Man, in Music Hall, was the superb address of the Negro +President of Tuskegee. "Booker T. Washington received his Harvard A.M. +last June, the first of his race," said Governor Wolcott, "to receive an +honorary degree from the oldest university in the land, and this for +the wise leadership of his people." When Mr. Washington rose in the +flag-filled, enthusiasm-warmed, patriotic, and glowing atmosphere of +Music Hall, people felt keenly that here was the civic justification of +the old abolition spirit of Massachusetts; in his person the proof +of her ancient and indomitable faith; in his strong thought and rich +oratory, the crown and glory of the old war days of suffering and +strife. The scene was full of historic beauty and deep significance. +"Cold" Boston was alive with the fire that is always hot in her heart +for righteousness and truth. Rows and rows of people who are seldom seen +at any public function, whole families of those who are certain to be +out of town on a holiday, crowded the place to overflowing. The city was +at her birthright _fête_ in the persons of hundreds of her best citizens, +men and women whose names and lives stand for the virtues that make for +honourable civic pride. + +Battle-music had filled the air. Ovation after ovation, applause warm +and prolonged, had greeted the officers and friends of Colonel Shaw, +the sculptor, St. Gaudens, the memorial Committee, the Governor and his +staff, and the Negro soldiers of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts as +they came upon the platform or entered the hall. Colonel Henry Lee, +of Governor Andrew's old staff, had made a noble, simple presentation +speech for the committee, paying tribute to Mr. John M. Forbes, in whose +stead he served. Governor Wolcott had made his short, memorable speech, +saying, "Fort Wagner marked an epoch in the history of a race, and +called it into manhood." Mayor Quincy had received the monument for the +city of Boston. The story of Colonel Shaw and his black regiment had +been told in gallant words, and then, after the singing of + + Mine eyes have seen the glory + Of the coming of the Lord, + +Booker Washington arose. It was, of course, just the moment for him. The +multitude, shaken out of its usual symphony-concert calm, quivered with +an excitement that was not suppressed. A dozen times it had sprung to +its feet to cheer and wave and hurrah, as one person. When this man of +culture and voice and power, as well as a dark skin, began, and uttered +the names of Stearns and of Andrew, feeling began to mount. You could +see tears glisten in the eyes of soldiers and civilians. When the orator +turned to the coloured soldiers on the platform, to the colour-bearer of +Fort Wagner, who smilingly bore still the flag he had never lowered even +when wounded, and said, "To you, to the scarred and scattered remnants +of the Fifty-fourth, who, with empty sleeve and wanting leg, have +honoured this occasion with your presence, to you, your commander is not +dead. Though Boston erected no monument and history recorded no story, +in you and in the loyal race which you represent, Robert Gould Shaw +would have a monument which time could not wear away," then came the +climax of the emotion of the day and the hour. It was Roger Wolcott, as +well as the Governor of Massachusetts, the individual representative of +the people's sympathy as well as the chief magistrate, who had sprung +first to his feet and cried, "Three cheers to Booker T. Washington!" + + +Among those on the platform was Sergeant William H. Carney, of New +Bedford, Mass., the brave coloured officer who was the colour-bearer +at Fort Wagner and held the American flag. In spite of the fact that a +large part of his regiment was killed, he escaped, and exclaimed, after +the battle was over, "The old flag never touched the ground." + +This flag Sergeant Carney held in his hands as he sat on the platform, +and when I turned to address the survivors of the coloured regiment +who were present, and referred to Sergeant Carney, he rose, as if by +instinct, and raised the flag. It has been my privilege to witness +a good many satisfactory and rather sensational demonstrations in +connection with some of my public addresses, but in dramatic effect +I have never seen or experienced anything which equalled this. For +a number of minutes the audience seemed to entirely lose control of +itself. + +In the general rejoicing throughout the country which followed the close +of the Spanish-American war, peace celebrations were arranged in several +of the large cities. I was asked by President William R. Harper, of the +University of Chicago, who was chairman of the committee of invitations +for the celebration to be held in the city of Chicago, to deliver one of +the addresses at the celebration there. I accepted the invitation, and +delivered two addresses there during the Jubilee week. The first of +these, and the principal one, was given in the Auditorium, on the +evening of Sunday, October 16. This was the largest audience that I have +ever addressed, in any part of the country; and besides speaking in +the main Auditorium, I also addressed, that same evening, two overflow +audiences in other parts of the city. + +It was said that there were sixteen thousand persons in the Auditorium, +and it seemed to me as if there were as many more on the outside trying +to get in. It was impossible for any one to get near the entrance +without the aid of a policeman. President William McKinley attended this +meeting, as did also the members of his Cabinet, many foreign ministers, +and a large number of army and navy officers, many of whom had +distinguished themselves in the war which had just closed. The speakers, +besides myself, on Sunday evening, were Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch, Father +Thomas P. Hodnett, and Dr. John H. Barrows. + +The Chicago Times-Herald, in describing the meeting, said of my +address:-- + +He pictured the Negro choosing slavery rather than extinction; recalled +Crispus Attucks shedding his blood at the beginning of the American +Revolution, that white Americans might be free, while black Americans +remained in slavery; rehearsed the conduct of the Negroes with Jackson +at New Orleans; drew a vivid and pathetic picture of the Southern slaves +protecting and supporting the families of their masters while the latter +were fighting to perpetuate black slavery; recounted the bravery of +coloured troops at Port Hudson and Forts Wagner and Pillow, and praised +the heroism of the black regiments that stormed El Caney and Santiago +to give freedom to the enslaved people of Cuba, forgetting, for the time +being, the unjust discrimination that law and custom make against them +in their own country. + +In all of these things, the speaker declared, his race had chosen the +better part. And then he made his eloquent appeal to the consciences of +the white Americans: "When you have gotten the full story of the heroic +conduct of the Negro in the Spanish-American war, have heard it from the +lips of Northern soldier and Southern soldier, from ex-abolitionist and +ex-masters, then decide within yourselves whether a race that is +thus willing to die for its country should not be given the highest +opportunity to live for its country." + + +The part of the speech which seems to arouse the wildest and most +sensational enthusiasm was that in which I thanked the President for his +recognition of the Negro in his appointments during the Spanish-American +war. The President was sitting in a box at the right of the stage. When +I addressed him I turned toward the box, and as I finished the sentence +thanking him for his generosity, the whole audience rose and cheered +again and again, waving handkerchiefs and hats and canes, until the +President arose in the box and bowed his acknowledgements. At that +the enthusiasm broke out again, and the demonstration was almost +indescribable. + +One portion of my address at Chicago seemed to have been misunderstood +by the Southern press, and some of the Southern papers took occasion +to criticise me rather strongly. These criticisms continued for +several weeks, until I finally received a letter from the editor of the +Age-Herald, published in Birmingham, Ala., asking me if I would say just +what I meant by this part of the address. I replied to him in a letter +which seemed to satisfy my critics. In this letter I said that I had +made it a rule never to say before a Northern audience anything that +I would not say before an audience in the South. I said that I did not +think it was necessary for me to go into extended explanations; if +my seventeen years of work in the heart of the South had not been +explanation enough, I did not see how words could explain. I said that +I made the same plea that I had made in my address at Atlanta, for the +blotting out of race prejudice in "commercial and civil relations." I +said that what is termed social recognition was a question which I never +discussed, and then I quoted from my Atlanta address what I had said +there in regard to that subject. + +In meeting crowds of people at public gatherings, there is one type of +individual that I dread. I mean the crank. I have become so accustomed +to these people now that I can pick them out at a distance when I see +them elbowing their way up to me. The average crank has a long beard, +poorly cared for, a lean, narrow face, and wears a black coat. The front +of his vest and coat are slick with grease, and his trousers bag at the +knees. + +In Chicago, after I had spoken at a meeting, I met one of these fellows. +They usually have some process for curing all of the ills of the world +at once. This Chicago specimen had a patent process by which he said +Indian corn could be kept through a period of three or four years, and +he felt sure that if the Negro race in the South would, as a whole, +adopt his process, it would settle the whole race question. It mattered +nothing that I tried to convince him that our present problem was to +teach the Negroes how to produce enough corn to last them through one +year. Another Chicago crank had a scheme by which he wanted me to join +him in an effort to close up all the National banks in the country. If +that was done, he felt sure it would put the Negro on his feet. + +The number of people who stand ready to consume one's time, to no +purpose, is almost countless. At one time I spoke before a large +audience in Boston in the evening. The next morning I was awakened by +having a card brought to my room, and with it a message that some +one was anxious to see me. Thinking that it must be something very +important, I dressed hastily and went down. When I reached the hotel +office I found a blank and innocent-looking individual waiting for me, +who coolly remarked: "I heard you talk at a meeting last night. I rather +liked your talk, and so I came in this morning to hear you talk some +more." + +I am often asked how it is possible for me to superintend the work +at Tuskegee and at the same time be so much away from the school. In +partial answer to this I would say that I think I have learned, in some +degree at least, to disregard the old maxim which says, "Do not get +others to do that which you can do yourself." My motto, on the other +hand, is, "Do not do that which others can do as well." + +One of the most encouraging signs in connection with the Tuskegee school +is found in the fact that the organization is so thorough that the +daily work of the school is not dependent upon the presence of any one +individual. The whole executive force, including instructors and clerks, +now numbers eighty-six. This force is so organized and subdivided that +the machinery of the school goes on day by day like clockwork. Most of +our teachers have been connected with the institutions for a number +of years, and are as much interested in it as I am. In my absence, Mr. +Warren Logan, the treasurer, who has been at the school seventeen years, +is the executive. He is efficiently supported by Mrs. Washington, and by +my faithful secretary, Mr. Emmett J. Scott, who handles the bulk of my +correspondence and keeps me in daily touch with the life of the school, +and who also keeps me informed of whatever takes place in the South that +concerns the race. I owe more to his tact, wisdom, and hard work than I +can describe. + +The main executive work of the school, whether I am at Tuskegee or not, +centres in what we call the executive council. This council meets twice +a week, and is composed of the nine persons who are at the head of the +nine departments of the school. For example: Mrs. B.K. Bruce, the Lady +Principal, the widow of the late ex-senator Bruce, is a member of the +council, and represents in it all that pertains to the life of the girls +at the school. In addition to the executive council there is a +financial committee of six, that meets every week and decides upon the +expenditures for the week. Once a month, and sometimes oftener, there +is a general meeting of all the instructors. Aside from these there are +innumerable smaller meetings, such as that of the instructors in +the Phelps Hall Bible Training School, or of the instructors in the +agricultural department. + +In order that I may keep in constant touch with the life of the +institution, I have a system of reports so arranged that a record of the +school's work reaches me every day of the year, no matter in what part +of the country I am. I know by these reports even what students are +excused from school, and why they are excused--whether for reasons of +ill health or otherwise. Through the medium of these reports I know each +day what the income of the school in money is; I know how many gallons +of milk and how many pounds of butter come from the dairy; what the bill +of fare for the teachers and students is; whether a certain kind of meat +was boiled or baked, and whether certain vegetables served in the dining +room were bought from a store or procured from our own farm. Human +nature I find to be very much the same the world over, and it is +sometimes not hard to yield to the temptation to go to a barrel of rice +that has come from the store--with the grain all prepared to go in the +pot--rather than to take the time and trouble to go to the field and dig +and wash one's own sweet potatoes, which might be prepared in a manner +to take the place of the rice. + +I am often asked how, in the midst of so much work, a large part of +which is for the public, I can find time for any rest or recreation, +and what kind of recreation or sports I am fond of. This is rather +a difficult question to answer. I have a strong feeling that every +individual owes it to himself, and to the cause which he is serving, +to keep a vigorous, healthy body, with the nerves steady and strong, +prepared for great efforts and prepared for disappointments and trying +positions. As far as I can, I make it a rule to plan for each day's +work--not merely to go through with the same routine of daily duties, +but to get rid of the routine work as early in the day as possible, and +then to enter upon some new or advance work. I make it a rule to clear +my desk every day, before leaving my office, of all correspondence and +memoranda, so that on the morrow I can begin a NEW day of work. I make +it a rule never to let my work drive me, but to so master it, and keep +it in such complete control, and to keep so far ahead of it, that I will +be the master instead of the servant. There is a physical and mental +and spiritual enjoyment that comes from a consciousness of being +the absolute master of one's work, in all its details, that is very +satisfactory and inspiring. My experience teaches me that, if one learns +to follow this plan, he gets a freshness of body and vigour of mind out +of work that goes a long way toward keeping him strong and healthy. I +believe that when one can grow to the point where he loves his work, +this gives him a kind of strength that is most valuable. + +When I begin my work in the morning, I expect to have a successful and +pleasant day of it, but at the same time I prepare myself for unpleasant +and unexpected hard places. I prepared myself to hear that one of our +school buildings is on fire, or has burned, or that some disagreeable +accident has occurred, or that some one has abused me in a public +address or printed article, for something that I have done or omitted +to do, or for something that he had heard that I had said--probably +something that I had never thought of saying. + +In nineteen years of continuous work I have taken but one vacation. That +was two years ago, when some of my friends put the money into my hands +and forced Mrs. Washington and myself to spend three months in Europe. I +have said that I believe it is the duty of every one to keep his body in +good condition. I try to look after the little ills, with the idea that +if I take care of the little ills the big ones will not come. When I +find myself unable to sleep well, I know that something is wrong. If I +find any part of my system the least weak, and not performing its duty, +I consult a good physician. The ability to sleep well, at any time and +in any place, I find of great advantage. I have so trained myself that +I can lie down for a nap of fifteen or twenty minutes, and get up +refreshed in body and mind. + +I have said that I make it a rule to finish up each day's work before +leaving it. There is, perhaps, one exception to this. When I have an +unusually difficult question to decide--one that appeals strongly to the +emotions--I find it a safe rule to sleep over it for a night, or to +wait until I have had an opportunity to talk it over with my wife and +friends. + +As to my reading; the most time I get for solid reading is when I am +on the cars. Newspapers are to me a constant source of delight and +recreation. The only trouble is that I read too many of them. Fiction +I care little for. Frequently I have to almost force myself to read a +novel that is on every one's lips. The kind of reading that I have the +greatest fondness for is biography. I like to be sure that I am reading +about a real man or a real thing. I think I do not go too far when I say +that I have read nearly every book and magazine article that has been +written about Abraham Lincoln. In literature he is my patron saint. + +Out of the twelve months in a year I suppose that, on an average, I +spend six months away from Tuskegee. While my being absent from the +school so much unquestionably has its disadvantages, yet there are at +the same time some compensations. The change of work brings a certain +kind of rest. I enjoy a ride of a long distance on the cars, when I am +permitted to ride where I can be comfortable. I get rest on the cars, +except when the inevitable individual who seems to be on every +train approaches me with the now familiar phrase: "Isn't this Booker +Washington? I want to introduce myself to you." Absence from the school +enables me to lose sight of the unimportant details of the work, and +study it in a broader and more comprehensive manner than I could do on +the grounds. This absence also brings me into contact with the best +work being done in educational lines, and into contact with the best +educators in the land. + +But, after all this is said, the time when I get the most solid rest and +recreation is when I can be at Tuskegee, and, after our evening meal is +over, can sit down, as is our custom, with my wife and Portia and Baker +and Davidson, my three children, and read a story, or each take turns in +telling a story. To me there is nothing on earth equal to that, although +what is nearly equal to it is to go with them for an hour or more, as we +like to do on Sunday afternoons, into the woods, where we can live for +a while near the heart of nature, where no one can disturb or vex us, +surrounded by pure air, the trees, the shrubbery, the flowers, and the +sweet fragrance that springs from a hundred plants, enjoying the chirp +of the crickets and the songs of the birds. This is solid rest. + +My garden, also, what little time I can be at Tuskegee, is another +source of rest and enjoyment. Somehow I like, as often as possible, to +touch nature, not something that is artificial or an imitation, but +the real thing. When I can leave my office in time so that I can spend +thirty or forty minutes in spading the ground, in planting seeds, in +digging about the plants, I feel that I am coming into contact with +something that is giving me strength for the many duties and hard places +that await me out in the big world. I pity the man or woman who has +never learned to enjoy nature and to get strength and inspiration out of +it. + +Aside from the large number of fowls and animals kept by the school, I +keep individually a number of pigs and fowls of the best grades, and +in raising these I take a great deal of pleasure. I think the pig is +my favourite animal. Few things are more satisfactory to me than a +high-grade Berkshire or Poland China pig. + +Games I care little for. I have never seen a game of football. In cards +I do not know one card from another. A game of old-fashioned marbles +with my two boys, once in a while, is all I care for in this direction. +I suppose I would care for games now if I had had any time in my youth +to give to them, but that was not possible. + + + +Chapter XVI. Europe + +In 1893 I was married to Miss Margaret James Murray, a native of +Mississippi, and a graduate of Fisk University, in Nashville, Tenn., who +had come to Tuskegee as a teacher several years before, and at the time +we were married was filling the position of Lady Principal. Not only is +Mrs. Washington completely one with me in the work directly connected +with the school, relieving me of many burdens and perplexities, but +aside from her work on the school grounds, she carries on a mothers' +meeting in the town of Tuskegee, and a plantation work among the women, +children, and men who live in a settlement connected with a large +plantation about eight miles from Tuskegee. Both the mothers' meeting +and the plantation work are carried on, not only with a view to helping +those who are directly reached, but also for the purpose of furnishing +object-lessons in these two kinds of work that may be followed by our +students when they go out into the world for their own life-work. + +Aside from these two enterprises, Mrs. Washington is also largely +responsible for a woman's club at the school which brings together, +twice a month, the women who live on the school grounds and those who +live near, for the discussion of some important topic. She is also +the President of what is known as the Federation of Southern Coloured +Women's Clubs, and is Chairman of the Executive Committee of the +National Federation of Coloured Women's Clubs. + +Portia, the oldest of my three children, has learned dressmaking. She +has unusual ability in instrumental music. Aside from her studies at +Tuskegee, she has already begun to teach there. + +Booker Taliaferro is my next oldest child. Young as he is, he has +already nearly mastered the brickmason's trade. He began working at this +trade when he was quite small, dividing his time between this and class +work; and he has developed great skill in the trade and a fondness for +it. He says that he is going to be an architect and brickmason. One of +the most satisfactory letters that I have ever received from any one +came to me from Booker last summer. When I left home for the summer, I +told him that he must work at his trade half of each day, and that the +other half of the day he could spend as he pleased. When I had been away +from home two weeks, I received the following letter from him: + +Tuskegee, Alabama. + +My dear Papa: Before you left home you told me to work at my trade half +of each day. I like my work so much that I want to work at my trade all +day. Besides, I want to earn all the money I can, so that when I go to +another school I shall have money to pay my expenses. + +Your son, + +Booker. + + +My youngest child, Ernest Davidson Washington, says that he is going to +be a physician. In addition to going to school, where he studies books +and has manual training, he regularly spends a portion of his time in +the office of our resident physician, and has already learned to do many +of the duties which pertain to a doctor's office. + +The thing in my life which brings me the keenest regret is that my work +in connection with public affairs keeps me for so much of the time away +from my family, where, of all places in the world, I delight to be. I +always envy the individual whose life-work is so laid that he can spend +his evenings at home. I have sometimes thought that people who have this +rare privilege do not appreciate it as they should. It is such a rest +and relief to get away from crowds of people, and handshaking, and +travelling, to get home, even if it be for but a very brief while. + +Another thing at Tuskegee out of which I get a great deal of pleasure +and satisfaction is in the meeting with our students, and teachers, and +their families, in the chapel for devotional exercises every evening at +half-past eight, the last thing before retiring for the night. It is an +inspiring sight when one stands on the platform there and sees before +him eleven or twelve hundred earnest young men and women; and one cannot +but feel that it is a privilege to help to guide them to a higher and +more useful life. + +In the spring of 1899 there came to me what I might describe as almost +the greatest surprise of my life. Some good ladies in Boston arranged +a public meeting in the interests of Tuskegee, to be held in the Hollis +Street Theatre. This meeting was attended by large numbers of the best +people of Boston, of both races. Bishop Lawrence presided. In addition +to an address made by myself, Mr. Paul Lawrence Dunbar read from his +poems, and Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois read an original sketch. + +Some of those who attended this meeting noticed that I seemed unusually +tired, and some little time after the close of the meeting, one of the +ladies who had been interested in it asked me in a casual way if I had +ever been to Europe. I replied that I never had. She asked me if I had +ever thought of going, and I told her no; that it was something entirely +beyond me. This conversation soon passed out of my mind, but a few days +afterward I was informed that some friends in Boston, including Mr. +Francis J. Garrison, had raised a sum of money sufficient to pay all the +expenses of Mrs. Washington and myself during a three or four months' +trip to Europe. It was added with emphasis that we MUST go. A year +previous to this Mr. Garrison had attempted to get me to promise to go +to Europe for a summer's rest, with the understanding that he would be +responsible for raising the money among his friends for the expenses +of the trip. At that time such a journey seemed so entirely foreign to +anything that I should ever be able to undertake that I did confess I +did not give the matter very serious attention; but later Mr. Garrison +joined his efforts to those of the ladies whom I have mentioned, and +when their plans were made known to me Mr. Garrison not only had the +route mapped out, but had, I believe, selected the steamer upon which we +were to sail. + +The whole thing was so sudden and so unexpected that I was completely +taken off my feet. I had been at work steadily for eighteen years in +connection with Tuskegee, and I had never thought of anything else but +ending my life in that way. Each day the school seemed to depend upon +me more largely for its daily expenses, and I told these Boston friends +that, while I thanked them sincerely for their thoughtfulness and +generosity, I could not go to Europe, for the reason that the school +could not live financially while I was absent. They then informed me +that Mr. Henry L. Higginson, and some other good friends who I know do +not want their names made public, were then raising a sum of money which +would be sufficient to keep the school in operation while I was away. At +this point I was compelled to surrender. Every avenue of escape had been +closed. + +Deep down in my heart the whole thing seemed more like a dream than +like reality, and for a long time it was difficult for me to make myself +believe that I was actually going to Europe. I had been born and largely +reared in the lowest depths of slavery, ignorance, and poverty. In my +childhood I had suffered for want of a place to sleep, for lack of food, +clothing, and shelter. I had not had the privilege of sitting down to a +dining-table until I was quite well grown. Luxuries had always seemed to +me to be something meant for white people, not for my race. I had always +regarded Europe, and London, and Paris, much as I regarded heaven. And +now could it be that I was actually going to Europe? Such thoughts as +these were constantly with me. + +Two other thoughts troubled me a good deal. I feared that people who +heard that Mrs. Washington and I were going to Europe might not know all +the circumstances, and might get the idea that we had become, as some +might say, "stuck up," and were trying to "show off." I recalled that +from my youth I had heard it said that too often, when people of my +race reached any degree of success, they were inclined to unduly exalt +themselves; to try and ape the wealthy, and in so doing to lose their +heads. The fear that people might think this of us haunted me a good +deal. Then, too, I could not see how my conscience would permit me to +spare the time from my work and be happy. It seemed mean and selfish in +me to be taking a vacation while others were at work, and while there +was so much that needed to be done. From the time I could remember, I +had always been at work, and I did not see how I could spend three or +four months in doing nothing. The fact was that I did not know how to +take a vacation. + +Mrs. Washington had much the same difficulty in getting away, but she +was anxious to go because she thought that I needed the rest. There +were many important National questions bearing upon the life of the race +which were being agitated at that time, and this made it all the harder +for us to decide to go. We finally gave our Boston friends our promise +that we would go, and then they insisted that the date of our departure +be set as soon as possible. So we decided upon May 10. My good friend +Mr. Garrison kindly took charge of all the details necessary for the +success of the trip, and he, as well as other friends, gave us a great +number of letters of introduction to people in France and England, and +made other arrangements for our comfort and convenience abroad. Good-bys +were said at Tuskegee, and we were in New York May 9, ready to sail +the next day. Our daughter Portia, who was then studying in South +Framingham, Mass., came to New York to see us off. Mr. Scott, my +secretary, came with me to New York, in order that I might clear up the +last bit of business before I left. Other friends also came to New York +to see us off. Just before we went on board the steamer another pleasant +surprise came to us in the form of a letter from two generous ladies, +stating that they had decided to give us the money with which to erect a +new building to be used in properly housing all our industries for girls +at Tuskegee. + +We were to sail on the Friesland, of the Red Star Line, and a beautiful +vessel she was. We went on board just before noon, the hour of sailing. +I had never before been on board a large ocean steamer, and the feeling +which took possession of me when I found myself there is rather hard +to describe. It was a feeling, I think, of awe mingled with delight. We +were agreeably surprised to find that the captain, as well as several of +the other officers, not only knew who we were, but was expecting us and +gave us a pleasant greeting. There were several passengers whom we +knew, including Senator Sewell, of New Jersey, and Edward Marshall, the +newspaper correspondent. I had just a little fear that we would not be +treated civilly by some of the passengers. This fear was based upon +what I had heard other people of my race, who had crossed the ocean, say +about unpleasant experiences in crossing the ocean in American vessels. +But in our case, from the captain down to the most humble servant, we +were treated with the greatest kindness. Nor was this kindness confined +to those who were connected with the steamer; it was shown by all the +passengers also. There were not a few Southern men and women on board, +and they were as cordial as those from other parts of the country. + +As soon as the last good-bys were said, and the steamer had cut loose +from the wharf, the load of care, anxiety, and responsibility which I +had carried for eighteen years began to lift itself from my shoulders at +the rate, it seemed to me, of a pound a minute. It was the first time in +all those years that I had felt, even in a measure, free from care; and +my feeling of relief it is hard to describe on paper. Added to this was +the delightful anticipation of being in Europe soon. It all seemed more +like a dream than like a reality. + +Mr. Garrison had thoughtfully arranged to have us have one of the most +comfortable rooms on the ship. The second or third day out I began +to sleep, and I think that I slept at the rate of fifteen hours a day +during the remainder of the ten days' passage. Then it was that I began +to understand how tired I really was. These long sleeps I kept up for a +month after we landed on the other side. It was such an unusual feeling +to wake up in the morning and realize that I had no engagements; did not +have to take a train at a certain hour; did not have an appointment to +meet some one, or to make an address, at a certain hour. How different +all this was from the experiences that I have been through when +travelling, when I have sometimes slept in three different beds in a +single night! + +When Sunday came, the captain invited me to conduct the religious +services, but, not being a minister, I declined. The passengers, +however, began making requests that I deliver an address to them in the +dining-saloon some time during the voyage, and this I consented to do. +Senator Sewell presided at this meeting. After ten days of delightful +weather, during which I was not seasick for a day, we landed at the +interesting old city of Antwerp, in Belgium. + +The next day after we landed happened to be one of those numberless +holidays which the people of those countries are in the habit of +observing. It was a bright, beautiful day. Our room in the hotel faced +the main public square, and the sights there--the people coming in +from the country with all kinds of beautiful flowers to sell, the women +coming in with their dogs drawing large, brightly polished cans filled +with milk, the people streaming into the cathedral--filled me with a +sense of newness that I had never before experienced. + +After spending some time in Antwerp, we were invited to go with a part +of a half-dozen persons on a trip through Holland. This party included +Edward Marshall and some American artists who had come over on the +same steamer with us. We accepted the invitation, and enjoyed the trip +greatly. I think it was all the more interesting and instructive +because we went for most of the way on one of the slow, old-fashioned +canal-boats. This gave us an opportunity of seeing and studying the real +life of the people in the country districts. We went in this way as far +as Rotterdam, and later went to The Hague, where the Peace Conference +was then in session, and where we were kindly received by the American +representatives. + +The thing that impressed itself most on me in Holland was the +thoroughness of the agriculture and the excellence of the Holstein +cattle. I never knew, before visiting Holland, how much it was possible +for people to get out of a small plot of ground. It seemed to me that +absolutely no land was wasted. It was worth a trip to Holland, too, just +to get a sight of three or four hundred fine Holstein cows grazing in +one of those intensely green fields. + +From Holland we went to Belgium, and made a hasty trip through that +country, stopping at Brussels, where we visited the battlefield of +Waterloo. From Belgium we went direct to Paris, where we found that Mr. +Theodore Stanton, the son of Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, had kindly +provided accommodations for us. We had barely got settled in Paris +before an invitation came to me from the University Club of Paris to be +its guest at a banquet which was soon to be given. The other guests were +ex-President Benjamin Harrison and Archbishop Ireland, who were in Paris +at the time. The American Ambassador, General Horace Porter, presided at +the banquet. My address on this occasion seemed to give satisfaction to +those who heard it. General Harrison kindly devoted a large portion +of his remarks at dinner to myself and to the influence of the work at +Tuskegee on the American race question. After my address at this banquet +other invitations came to me, but I declined the most of them, knowing +that if I accepted them all, the object of my visit would be defeated. +I did, however, consent to deliver an address in the American chapel the +following Sunday morning, and at this meeting General Harrison, General +Porter, and other distinguished Americans were present. + +Later we received a formal call from the American Ambassador, and were +invited to attend a reception at his residence. At this reception we +met many Americans, among them Justices Fuller and Harlan, of the United +States Supreme Court. During our entire stay of a month in Paris, +both the American Ambassador and his wife, as well as several other +Americans, were very kind to us. + +While in Paris we saw a good deal of the now famous American Negro +painter, Mr. Henry O. Tanner, whom we had formerly known in America. It +was very satisfactory to find how well known Mr. Tanner was in the field +of art, and to note the high standing which all classes accorded to him. +When we told some Americans that we were going to the Luxembourg Palace +to see a painting by an American Negro, it was hard to convince them +that a Negro had been thus honoured. I do not believe that they were +really convinced of the fact until they saw the picture for themselves. +My acquaintance with Mr. Tanner reenforced in my mind the truth which +I am constantly trying to impress upon our students at Tuskegee--and on +our people throughout the country, as far as I can reach them with +my voice--that any man, regardless of colour, will be recognized and +rewarded just in proportion as he learns to do something well--learns to +do it better than some one else--however humble the thing may be. As +I have said, I believe that my race will succeed in proportion as it +learns to do a common thing in an uncommon manner; learns to do a thing +so thoroughly that no one can improve upon what it has done; learns +to make its services of indispensable value. This was the spirit +that inspired me in my first effort at Hampton, when I was given the +opportunity to sweep and dust that schoolroom. In a degree I felt that +my whole future life depended upon the thoroughness with which I cleaned +that room, and I was determined to do it so well that no one could find +any fault with the job. Few people ever stopped, I found, when looking +at his pictures, to inquire whether Mr. Tanner was a Negro painter, a +French painter, or a German painter. They simply knew that he was able +to produce something which the world wanted--a great painting--and the +matter of his colour did not enter into their minds. When a Negro girl +learns to cook, to wash dishes, to sew, or write a book, or a Negro boy +learns to groom horses, or to grow sweet potatoes, or to produce butter, +or to build a house, or to be able to practise medicine, as well or +better than some one else, they will be rewarded regardless of race or +colour. In the long run, the world is going to have the best, and any +difference in race, religion, or previous history will not long keep the +world from what it wants. + +I think that the whole future of my race hinges on the question as to +whether or not it can make itself of such indispensable value that the +people in the town and the state where we reside will feel that our +presence is necessary to the happiness and well-being of the community. +No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual, +and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is long left without +proper reward. This is a great human law which cannot be permanently +nullified. + +The love of pleasure and excitement which seems in a large measure to +possess the French people impressed itself upon me. I think they are +more noted in this respect than is true of the people of my own race. In +point of morality and moral earnestness I do not believe that the French +are ahead of my own race in America. Severe competition and the great +stress of life have led them to learn to do things more thoroughly and +to exercise greater economy; but time, I think, will bring my race to +the same point. In the matter of truth and high honour I do not believe +that the average Frenchman is ahead of the American Negro; while so far +as mercy and kindness to dumb animals go, I believe that my race is far +ahead. In fact, when I left France, I had more faith in the future of +the black man in America than I had ever possessed. + +From Paris we went to London, and reached there early in July, just +about the height of the London social season. Parliament was in session, +and there was a great deal of gaiety. Mr. Garrison and other friends had +provided us with a large number of letters of introduction, and they +had also sent letters to other persons in different parts of the United +Kingdom, apprising these people of our coming. Very soon after reaching +London we were flooded with invitations to attend all manner of social +functions, and a great many invitations came to me asking that I deliver +public addresses. The most of these invitations I declined, for the +reason that I wanted to rest. Neither were we able to accept more than +a small proportion of the other invitations. The Rev. Dr. Brooke +Herford and Mrs. Herford, whom I had known in Boston, consulted with +the American Ambassador, the Hon. Joseph Choate, and arranged for me to +speak at a public meeting to be held in Essex Hall. Mr. Choate kindly +consented to preside. The meeting was largely attended. There were many +distinguished persons present, among them several members of Parliament, +including Mr. James Bryce, who spoke at the meeting. What the American +Ambassador said in introducing me, as well as a synopsis of what I said, +was widely published in England and in the American papers at the time. +Dr. and Mrs. Herford gave Mrs. Washington and myself a reception, +at which we had the privilege of meeting some of the best people in +England. Throughout our stay in London Ambassador Choate was most kind +and attentive to us. At the Ambassador's reception I met, for the first +time, Mark Twain. + +We were the guests several times of Mrs. T. Fisher Unwin, the daughter +of the English statesman, Richard Cobden. It seemed as if both Mr. and +Mrs. Unwin could not do enough for our comfort and happiness. Later, for +nearly a week, we were the guests of the daughter of John Bright, now +Mrs. Clark, of Street, England. Both Mr. and Mrs. Clark, with their +daughter, visited us at Tuskegee the next year. In Birmingham, England, +we were the guests for several days of Mr. Joseph Sturge, whose father +was a great abolitionist and friend of Whittier and Garrison. It was +a great privilege to meet throughout England those who had known and +honoured the late William Lloyd Garrison, the Hon. Frederick Douglass, +and other abolitionists. The English abolitionists with whom we came +in contact never seemed to tire of talking about these two Americans. +Before going to England I had had no proper conception of the deep +interest displayed by the abolitionists of England in the cause of +freedom, nor did I realize the amount of substantial help given by them. + +In Bristol, England, both Mrs. Washington and I spoke at the Women's +Liberal Club. I was also the principal speaker at the Commencement +exercises of the Royal College for the Blind. These exercises were held +in the Crystal Palace, and the presiding officer was the late Duke of +Westminster, who was said to be, I believe, the richest man in England, +if not in the world. The Duke, as well as his wife and their daughter, +seemed to be pleased with what I said, and thanked me heartily. Through +the kindness of Lady Aberdeen, my wife and I were enabled to go with a +party of those who were attending the International Congress of Women, +then in session in London, to see Queen Victoria, at Windsor Castle, +where, afterward, we were all the guests of her Majesty at tea. In our +party was Miss Susan B. Anthony, and I was deeply impressed with the +fact that one did not often get an opportunity to see, during the same +hour, two women so remarkable in different ways as Susan B. Anthony and +Queen Victoria. + +In the House of Commons, which we visited several times, we met Sir +Henry M. Stanley. I talked with him about Africa and its relation to the +American Negro, and after my interview with him I became more convinced +than ever that there was no hope of the American Negro's improving his +condition by emigrating to Africa. + +On various occasions Mrs. Washington and I were the guests of Englishmen +in their country homes, where, I think, one sees the Englishman at his +best. In one thing, at least, I feel sure that the English are ahead of +Americans, and that is, that they have learned how to get more out of +life. The home life of the English seems to me to be about as perfect as +anything can be. Everything moves like clockwork. I was impressed, +too, with the deference that the servants show to their "masters" and +"mistresses,"--terms which I suppose would not be tolerated in America. +The English servant expects, as a rule, to be nothing but a servant, and +so he perfects himself in the art to a degree that no class of servants +in America has yet reached. In our country the servant expects to +become, in a few years, a "master" himself. Which system is preferable? +I will not venture an answer. + +Another thing that impressed itself upon me throughout England was the +high regard that all classes have for law and order, and the ease and +thoroughness with which everything is done. The Englishmen, I found, +took plenty of time for eating, as for everything else. I am not +sure if, in the long run, they do not accomplish as much or more than +rushing, nervous Americans do. + +My visit to England gave me a higher regard for the nobility than I had +had. I had no idea that they were so generally loved and respected by +the classes, nor had I any correct conception of how much time and +money they spent in works of philanthropy, and how much real heart they +put into this work. My impression had been that they merely spent money +freely and had a "good time." + +It was hard for me to get accustomed to speaking to English audiences. +The average Englishman is so serious, and is so tremendously in earnest +about everything, that when I told a story that would have made an +American audience roar with laughter, the Englishmen simply looked me +straight in the face without even cracking a smile. + +When the Englishman takes you into his heart and friendship, he binds +you there as with cords of steel, and I do not believe that there are +many other friendships that are so lasting or so satisfactory. Perhaps +I can illustrate this point in no better way than by relating the +following incident. Mrs. Washington and I were invited to attend a +reception given by the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, at Stafford +House--said to be the finest house in London; I may add that I believe +the Duchess of Sutherland is said to be the most beautiful woman in +England. There must have been at least three hundred persons at this +reception. Twice during the evening the Duchess sought us out for a +conversation, and she asked me to write her when we got home, and tell +her more about the work at Tuskegee. This I did. When Christmas came +we were surprised and delighted to receive her photograph with her +autograph on it. The correspondence has continued, and we now feel that +in the Duchess of Sutherland we have one of our warmest friends. + +After three months in Europe we sailed from Southampton in the steamship +St. Louis. On this steamer there was a fine library that had been +presented to the ship by the citizens of St. Louis, Mo. In this library +I found a life of Frederick Douglass, which I began reading. I became +especially interested in Mr. Douglass's description of the way he was +treated on shipboard during his first or second visit to England. In +this description he told how he was not permitted to enter the cabin, +but had to confine himself to the deck of the ship. A few minutes after +I had finished reading this description I was waited on by a committee +of ladies and gentlemen with the request that I deliver an address at +a concert which was to begin the following evening. And yet there are +people who are bold enough to say that race feeling in America is not +growing less intense! At this concert the Hon. Benjamin B. Odell, Jr., +the present governor of New York, presided. I was never given a more +cordial hearing anywhere. A large proportion of the passengers were +Southern people. After the concert some of the passengers proposed that +a subscription be raised to help the work at Tuskegee, and the money to +support several scholarships was the result. + +While we were in Paris I was very pleasantly surprised to receive the +following invitation from the citizens of West Virginia and of the city +near which I had spent my boyhood days:-- + +Charleston, W. Va., May 16, 1899. + +Professor Booker T. Washington, Paris, France: + +Dear Sir: Many of the best citizens of West Virginia have united in +liberal expressions of admiration and praise of your worth and work, and +desire that on your return from Europe you should favour them with +your presence and with the inspiration of your words. We must sincerely +indorse this move, and on behalf of the citizens of Charleston extend +to your our most cordial invitation to have you come to us, that we may +honour you who have done so much by your life and work to honour us. + +We are, + +Very truly yours, + +The Common Council of the City of Charleston, + +By W. Herman Smith, Mayor. + + +This invitation from the City Council of Charleston was accompanied by +the following:-- + +Professor Booker T. Washington, Paris, France: + +Dear Sir: We, the citizens of Charleston and West Virginia, desire to +express our pride in you and the splendid career that you have thus +far accomplished, and ask that we be permitted to show our pride and +interest in a substantial way. + +Your recent visit to your old home in our midst awoke within us the +keenest regret that we were not permitted to hear you and render some +substantial aid to your work, before you left for Europe. + +In view of the foregoing, we earnestly invite you to share the +hospitality of our city upon your return from Europe, and give us the +opportunity to hear you and put ourselves in touch with your work in a +way that will be most gratifying to yourself, and that we may receive +the inspiration of your words and presence. + +An early reply to this invitation, with an indication of the time you +may reach our city, will greatly oblige, + +Yours very respectfully, + +The Charleston Daily Gazette, The Daily Mail-Tribune; G.W. Atkinson, +Governor; E.L. Boggs, Secretary to Governor; Wm. M.O. Dawson, Secretary +of State; L.M. La Follette, Auditor; J.R. Trotter, Superintendent of +Schools; E.W. Wilson, ex-Governor; W.A. MacCorkle, ex-Governor; John +Q. Dickinson, President Kanawha Valley Bank; L. Prichard, President +Charleston National Bank; Geo. S. Couch, President Kanawha National +Bank; Ed. Reid, Cashier Kanawha National Bank; Geo. S. Laidley, +Superintended City Schools; L.E. McWhorter, President Board of +Education; Chas. K. Payne, wholesale merchant; and many others. + + +This invitation, coming as it did from the City Council, the state +officers, and all the substantial citizens of both races of the +community where I had spent my boyhood, and from which I had gone a +few years before, unknown, in poverty and ignorance, in quest of an +education, not only surprised me, but almost unmanned me. I could not +understand what I had done to deserve it all. + +I accepted the invitation, and at the appointed day was met at the +railway station at Charleston by a committee headed by ex-Governor W.A. +MacCorkle, and composed of men of both races. The public reception was +held in the Opera-House at Charleston. The Governor of the state, the +Hon. George W. Atkinson, presided, and an address of welcome was made +by ex-Governor MacCorkle. A prominent part in the reception was taken by +the coloured citizens. The Opera-House was filled with citizens of both +races, and among the white people were many for whom I had worked when +I was a boy. The next day Governor and Mrs. Atkinson gave me a public +reception at the State House, which was attended by all classes. + +Not long after this the coloured people in Atlanta, Georgia, gave me +a reception at which the Governor of the state presided, and a similar +reception was given me in New Orleans, which was presided over by the +Mayor of the city. Invitations came from many other places which I was +not able to accept. + + + +Chapter XVII. Last Words + +Before going to Europe some events came into my life which were +great surprises to me. In fact, my whole life has largely been one of +surprises. I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant, +unexpected encouragements of this kind if he makes up his mind to do his +level best each day of his life--that is, tries to make each day reach +as nearly as possible the high-water mark of pure, unselfish, useful +living. I pity the man, black or white, who has never experienced the +joy and satisfaction that come to one by reason of an effort to assist +in making some one else more useful and more happy. + +Six months before he died, and nearly a year after he had been stricken +with paralysis, General Armstrong expressed a wish to visit Tuskegee +again before he passed away. Notwithstanding the fact that he had lost +the use of his limbs to such an extent that he was practically helpless, +his wish was gratified, and he was brought to Tuskegee. The owners of +the Tuskegee Railroad, white men living in the town, offered to run a +special train, without cost, out of the main station--Chehaw, five miles +away--to meet him. He arrived on the school grounds about nine o'clock +in the evening. Some one had suggested that we give the General a +"pine-knot torchlight reception." This plan was carried out, and the +moment that his carriage entered the school grounds he began passing +between two lines of lighted and waving "fat pine" wood knots held by +over a thousand students and teachers. The whole thing was so novel and +surprising that the General was completely overcome with happiness. He +remained a guest in my home for nearly two months, and, although almost +wholly without the use of voice or limb, he spent nearly every hour in +devising ways and means to help the South. Time and time again he said +to me, during this visit, that it was not only the duty of the country +to assist in elevating the Negro of the South, but the poor white man +as well. At the end of his visit I resolved anew to devote myself more +earnestly than ever to the cause which was so near his heart. I said +that if a man in his condition was willing to think, work, and act, I +should not be wanting in furthering in every possible way the wish of +his heart. + +The death of General Armstrong, a few weeks later, gave me the privilege +of getting acquainted with one of the finest, most unselfish, and most +attractive men that I have ever come in contact with. I refer to the +Rev. Dr. Hollis B. Frissell, now the Principal of the Hampton Institute, +and General Armstrong's successor. Under the clear, strong, and +almost perfect leadership of Dr. Frissell, Hampton has had a career of +prosperity and usefulness that is all that the General could have wished +for. It seems to be the constant effort of Dr. Frissell to hide his own +great personality behind that of General Armstrong--to make himself of +"no reputation" for the sake of the cause. + +More than once I have been asked what was the greatest surprise that +ever came to me. I have little hesitation in answering that question. It +was the following letter, which came to me one Sunday morning when I was +sitting on the veranda of my home at Tuskegee, surrounded by my wife and +three children:-- + +Harvard University, Cambridge, May 28, 1896. + +President Booker T. Washington, + +My Dear Sir: Harvard University desired to confer on you at the +approaching Commencement an honorary degree; but it is our custom to +confer degrees only on gentlemen who are present. Our Commencement +occurs this year on June 24, and your presence would be desirable +from about noon till about five o'clock in the afternoon. Would it be +possible for you to be in Cambridge on that day? + +Believe me, with great regard, + +Very truly yours, + +Charles W. Eliot. + + +This was a recognition that had never in the slightest manner entered +into my mind, and it was hard for me to realize that I was to be +honoured by a degree from the oldest and most renowned university in +America. As I sat upon my veranda, with this letter in my hand, tears +came into my eyes. My whole former life--my life as a slave on the +plantation, my work in the coal-mine, the times when I was without food +and clothing, when I made my bed under a sidewalk, my struggles for an +education, the trying days I had had at Tuskegee, days when I did +not know where to turn for a dollar to continue the work there, the +ostracism and sometimes oppression of my race,--all this passed before +me and nearly overcame me. + +I had never sought or cared for what the world calls fame. I have always +looked upon fame as something to be used in accomplishing good. I have +often said to my friends that if I can use whatever prominence may have +come to me as an instrument with which to do good, I am content to have +it. I care for it only as a means to be used for doing good, just as +wealth may be used. The more I come into contact with wealthy people, +the more I believe that they are growing in the direction of looking +upon their money simply as an instrument which God has placed in their +hand for doing good with. I never go to the office of Mr. John D. +Rockefeller, who more than once has been generous to Tuskegee, without +being reminded of this. The close, careful, and minute investigation +that he always makes in order to be sure that every dollar that he gives +will do the most good--an investigation that is just as searching as if +he were investing money in a business enterprise--convinces me that the +growth in this direction is most encouraging. + +At nine o'clock, on the morning of June 24, I met President Eliot, the +Board of Overseers of Harvard University, and the other guests, at the +designated place on the university grounds, for the purpose of being +escorted to Sanders Theatre, where the Commencement exercises were to be +held and degrees conferred. Among others invited to be present for the +purpose of receiving a degree at this time were General Nelson A. Miles, +Dr. Bell, the inventor of the Bell telephone, Bishop Vincent, and the +Rev. Minot J. Savage. We were placed in line immediately behind the +President and the Board of Overseers, and directly afterward the +Governor of Massachusetts, escorted by the Lancers, arrived and took his +place in the line of march by the side of President Eliot. In the line +there were also various other officers and professors, clad in cap and +gown. In this order we marched to Sanders Theatre, where, after the +usual Commencement exercises, came the conferring of the honorary +degrees. This, it seems, is always considered the most interesting +feature at Harvard. It is not known, until the individuals appear, upon +whom the honorary degrees are to be conferred, and those receiving these +honours are cheered by the students and others in proportion to +their popularity. During the conferring of the degrees excitement and +enthusiasm are at the highest pitch. + +When my name was called, I rose, and President Eliot, in beautiful and +strong English, conferred upon me the degree of Master of Arts. After +these exercises were over, those who had received honorary degrees were +invited to lunch with the President. After the lunch we were formed in +line again, and were escorted by the Marshal of the day, who that year +happened to be Bishop William Lawrence, through the grounds, where, at +different points, those who had been honoured were called by name and +received the Harvard yell. This march ended at Memorial Hall, where +the alumni dinner was served. To see over a thousand strong men, +representing all that is best in State, Church, business, and +education, with the glow and enthusiasm of college loyalty and college +pride,--which has, I think, a peculiar Harvard flavour,--is a sight that +does not easily fade from memory. + +Among the speakers after dinner were President Eliot, Governor Roger +Wolcott, General Miles, Dr. Minot J. Savage, the Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, +and myself. When I was called upon, I said, among other things:-- + +It would in some measure relieve my embarrassment if I could, even in +a slight degree, feel myself worthy of the great honour which you do me +to-day. Why you have called me from the Black Belt of the South, from +among my humble people, to share in the honours of this occasion, is not +for me to explain; and yet it may not be inappropriate for me to suggest +that it seems to me that one of the most vital questions that touch +our American life is how to bring the strong, wealthy, and learned into +helpful touch with the poorest, most ignorant, and humblest, and at the +same time make one appreciate the vitalizing, strengthening influence of +the other. How shall we make the mansion on yon Beacon Street feel +and see the need of the spirits in the lowliest cabin in Alabama +cotton-fields or Louisiana sugar-bottoms? This problem Harvard +University is solving, not by bringing itself down, but by bringing the +masses up. + + * * * * * + +If my life in the past has meant anything in the lifting up of my people +and the bringing about of better relations between your race and mine, I +assure you from this day it will mean doubly more. In the economy of God +there is but one standard by which an individual can succeed--there is +but one for a race. This country demands that every race shall measure +itself by the American standard. By it a race must rise or fall, succeed +or fail, and in the last analysis mere sentiment counts for little. +During the next half-century and more, my race must continue passing +through the severe American crucible. We are to be tested in our +patience, our forbearance, our perseverance, our power to endure wrong, +to withstand temptations, to economize, to acquire and use skill; in our +ability to compete, to succeed in commerce, to disregard the superficial +for the real, the appearance for the substance, to be great and yet +small, learned and yet simple, high and yet the servant of all. + + +As this was the first time that a New England university had conferred +an honorary degree upon a Negro, it was the occasion of much newspaper +comment throughout the country. A correspondent of a New York paper +said:-- + +When the name of Booker T. Washington was called, and he arose to +acknowledge and accept, there was such an outburst of applause as +greeted no other name except that of the popular soldier patriot, +General Miles. The applause was not studied and stiff, sympathetic and +condoling; it was enthusiasm and admiration. Every part of the audience +from pit to gallery joined in, and a glow covered the cheeks of those +around me, proving sincere appreciation of the rising struggle of an +ex-slave and the work he has accomplished for his race. + + +A Boston paper said, editorially:-- + +In conferring the honorary degree of Master of Arts upon the Principal +of Tuskegee Institute, Harvard University has honoured itself as well +as the object of this distinction. The work which Professor Booker T. +Washington has accomplished for the education, good citizenship, +and popular enlightenment in his chosen field of labour in the South +entitles him to rank with our national benefactors. The university which +can claim him on its list of sons, whether in regular course or honoris +causa, may be proud. + +It has been mentioned that Mr. Washington is the first of his race +to receive an honorary degree from a New England university. This, in +itself, is a distinction. But the degree was not conferred because Mr. +Washington is a coloured man, or because he was born in slavery, but +because he has shown, by his work for the elevation of the people of the +Black Belt of the South, a genius and a broad humanity which count for +greatness in any man, whether his skin be white or black. + + +Another Boston paper said:-- + +It is Harvard which, first among New England colleges, confers an +honorary degree upon a black man. No one who has followed the history of +Tuskegee and its work can fail to admire the courage, persistence, and +splendid common sense of Booker T. Washington. Well may Harvard honour +the ex-slave, the value of whose services, alike to his race and +country, only the future can estimate. + + +The correspondent of the New York Times wrote:-- + +All the speeches were enthusiastically received, but the coloured man +carried off the oratorical honours, and the applause which broke out +when he had finished was vociferous and long-continued. + + +Soon after I began work at Tuskegee I formed a resolution, in the secret +of my heart, that I would try to build up a school that would be of +so much service to the country that the President of the United States +would one day come to see it. This was, I confess, rather a bold +resolution, and for a number of years I kept it hidden in my own +thoughts, not daring to share it with any one. + +In November, 1897, I made the first move in this direction, and that was +in securing a visit from a member of President McKinley's Cabinet, +the Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture. He came to deliver +an address at the formal opening of the Slater-Armstrong Agricultural +Building, our first large building to be used for the purpose of giving +training to our students in agriculture and kindred branches. + +In the fall of 1898 I heard that President McKinley was likely to visit +Atlanta, Georgia, for the purpose of taking part in the Peace Jubilee +exercises to be held there to commemorate the successful close of the +Spanish-American war. At this time I had been hard at work, together +with our teachers, for eighteen years, trying to build up a school that +we thought would be of service to the Nation, and I determined to make +a direct effort to secure a visit from the President and his Cabinet. I +went to Washington, and I was not long in the city before I found my way +to the White House. When I got there I found the waiting rooms full of +people, and my heart began to sink, for I feared there would not be much +chance of my seeing the President that day, if at all. But, at any rate, +I got an opportunity to see Mr. J. Addison Porter, the secretary to the +President, and explained to him my mission. Mr. Porter kindly sent my +card directly to the President, and in a few minutes word came from Mr. +McKinley that he would see me. + +How any man can see so many people of all kinds, with all kinds of +errands, and do so much hard work, and still keep himself calm, patient, +and fresh for each visitor in the way that President McKinley does, I +cannot understand. When I saw the President he kindly thanked me for the +work which we were doing at Tuskegee for the interests of the country. I +then told him, briefly, the object of my visit. I impressed upon him the +fact that a visit from the Chief Executive of the Nation would not only +encourage our students and teachers, but would help the entire race. He +seemed interested, but did not make a promise to go to Tuskegee, for the +reason that his plans about going to Atlanta were not then fully made; +but he asked me to call the matter to his attention a few weeks later. + +By the middle of the following month the President had definitely +decided to attend the Peace Jubilee at Atlanta. I went to Washington +again and saw him, with a view of getting him to extend his trip to +Tuskegee. On this second visit Mr. Charles W. Hare, a prominent white +citizen of Tuskegee, kindly volunteered to accompany me, to reenforce my +invitation with one from the white people of Tuskegee and the vicinity. + +Just previous to my going to Washington the second time, the country +had been excited, and the coloured people greatly depressed, because of +several severe race riots which had occurred at different points in the +South. As soon as I saw the President, I perceived that his heart was +greatly burdened by reason of these race disturbances. Although there +were many people waiting to see him, he detained me for some time, +discussing the condition and prospects of the race. He remarked several +times that he was determined to show his interest and faith in the race, +not merely in words, but by acts. When I told him that I thought that +at that time scarcely anything would go farther in giving hope and +encouragement to the race than the fact that the President of the Nation +would be willing to travel one hundred and forty miles out of his way to +spend a day at a Negro institution, he seemed deeply impressed. + +While I was with the President, a white citizen of Atlanta, a Democrat +and an ex-slaveholder, came into the room, and the President asked his +opinion as to the wisdom of his going to Tuskegee. Without hesitation +the Atlanta man replied that it was the proper thing for him to do. This +opinion was reenforced by that friend of the race, Dr. J.L.M. Curry. +The President promised that he would visit our school on the 16th of +December. + +When it became known that the President was going to visit our school, +the white citizens of the town of Tuskegee--a mile distant from the +school--were as much pleased as were our students and teachers. The +white people of this town, including both men and women, began arranging +to decorate the town, and to form themselves into committees for the +purpose of cooperating with the officers of our school in order that the +distinguished visitor might have a fitting reception. I think I never +realized before this how much the white people of Tuskegee and vicinity +thought of our institution. During the days when we were preparing for +the President's reception, dozens of these people came to me and said +that, while they did not want to push themselves into prominence, if +there was anything they could do to help, or to relieve me personally, +I had but to intimate it and they would be only too glad to assist. In +fact, the thing that touched me almost as deeply as the visit of the +President itself was the deep pride which all classes of citizens in +Alabama seemed to take in our work. + +The morning of December 16th brought to the little city of Tuskegee +such a crowd as it had never seen before. With the President came Mrs. +McKinley and all of the Cabinet officers but one; and most of them +brought their wives or some members of their families. Several prominent +generals came, including General Shafter and General Joseph Wheeler, who +were recently returned from the Spanish-American war. There was also a +host of newspaper correspondents. The Alabama Legislature was in session +in Montgomery at this time. This body passed a resolution to adjourn +for the purpose of visiting Tuskegee. Just before the arrival of the +President's party the Legislature arrived, headed by the governor and +other state officials. + +The citizens of Tuskegee had decorated the town from the station to +the school in a generous manner. In order to economize in the matter +of time, we arranged to have the whole school pass in review before the +President. Each student carried a stalk of sugar-cane with some open +bolls of cotton fastened to the end of it. Following the students the +work of all departments of the school passed in review, displayed on +"floats" drawn by horses, mules, and oxen. On these floats we tried +to exhibit not only the present work of the school, but to show the +contrasts between the old methods of doing things and the new. As an +example, we showed the old method of dairying in contrast with the +improved methods, the old methods of tilling the soil in contrast with +the new, the old methods of cooking and housekeeping in contrast with +the new. These floats consumed an hour and a half of time in passing. + +In his address in our large, new chapel, which the students had recently +completed, the President said, among other things:-- + +To meet you under such pleasant auspices and to have the opportunity +of a personal observation of your work is indeed most gratifying. The +Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute is ideal in its conception, and +has already a large and growing reputation in the country, and is +not unknown abroad. I congratulate all who are associated in this +undertaking for the good work which it is doing in the education of its +students to lead lives of honour and usefulness, thus exalting the race +for which it was established. + +Nowhere, I think, could a more delightful location have been chosen for +this unique educational experiment, which has attracted the attention +and won the support even of conservative philanthropists in all sections +of the country. + +To speak of Tuskegee without paying special tribute to Booker T. +Washington's genius and perseverance would be impossible. The inception +of this noble enterprise was his, and he deserves high credit for it. +His was the enthusiasm and enterprise which made its steady progress +possible and established in the institution its present high standard +of accomplishment. He has won a worthy reputation as one of the great +leaders of his race, widely known and much respected at home and abroad +as an accomplished educator, a great orator, and a true philanthropist. + + +The Hon. John D. Long, the Secretary of the Navy, said in part:-- + +I cannot make a speech to-day. My heart is too full--full of hope, +admiration, and pride for my countrymen of both sections and both +colours. I am filled with gratitude and admiration for your work, and +from this time forward I shall have absolute confidence in your progress +and in the solution of the problem in which you are engaged. + +The problem, I say, has been solved. A picture has been presented to-day +which should be put upon canvas with the pictures of Washington and +Lincoln, and transmitted to future time and generations--a picture which +the press of the country should spread broadcast over the land, a most +dramatic picture, and that picture is this: The President of the United +States standing on this platform; on one side the Governor of Alabama, +on the other, completing the trinity, a representative of a race only a +few years ago in bondage, the coloured President of the Tuskegee Normal +and Industrial Institute. + +God bless the President under whose majesty such a scene as that is +presented to the American people. God bless the state of Alabama, which +is showing that it can deal with this problem for itself. God bless the +orator, philanthropist, and disciple of the Great Master--who, if he +were on earth, would be doing the same work--Booker T. Washington. + + +Postmaster General Smith closed the address which he made with these +words:-- + +We have witnessed many spectacles within the last few days. We have seen +the magnificent grandeur and the magnificent achievements of one of the +great metropolitan cities of the South. We have seen heroes of the war +pass by in procession. We have seen floral parades. But I am sure +my colleagues will agree with me in saying that we have witnessed no +spectacle more impressive and more encouraging, more inspiring for our +future, than that which we have witnessed here this morning. + + +Some days after the President returned to Washington I received the +letter which follows:-- + +Executive Mansion, Washington, Dec. 23, 1899. + +Dear Sir: By this mail I take pleasure in sending you engrossed copies +of the souvenir of the visit of the President to your institution. +These sheets bear the autographs of the President and the members of the +Cabinet who accompanied him on the trip. Let me take this opportunity of +congratulating you most heartily and sincerely upon the great success +of the exercises provided for and entertainment furnished us under your +auspices during our visit to Tuskegee. Every feature of the programme +was perfectly executed and was viewed or participated in with the +heartiest satisfaction by every visitor present. The unique exhibition +which you gave of your pupils engaged in their industrial vocations was +not only artistic but thoroughly impressive. The tribute paid by the +President and his Cabinet to your work was none too high, and forms +a most encouraging augury, I think, for the future prosperity of your +institution. I cannot close without assuring you that the modesty shown +by yourself in the exercises was most favourably commented upon by all +the members of our party. + +With best wishes for the continued advance of your most useful and +patriotic undertaking, kind personal regards, and the compliments of the +season, believe me, always, + +Very sincerely yours, + +John Addison Porter, + +Secretary to the President. + +To President Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial +Institute, Tuskegee, Ala. + + + +Twenty years have now passed since I made the first humble effort at +Tuskegee, in a broken-down shanty and an old hen-house, without owning +a dollar's worth of property, and with but one teacher and thirty +students. At the present time the institution owns twenty-three hundred +acres of land, one thousand of which are under cultivation each year, +entirely by student labour. There are now upon the grounds, counting +large and small, sixty-six buildings; and all except four of these have +been almost wholly erected by the labour of our students. While the +students are at work upon the land and in erecting buildings, they are +taught, by competent instructors, the latest methods of agriculture and +the trades connected with building. + +There are in constant operation at the school, in connection with +thorough academic and religious training, thirty industrial departments. +All of these teach industries at which our men and women can find +immediate employment as soon as they leave the institution. The only +difficulty now is that the demand for our graduates from both white and +black people in the South is so great that we cannot supply more than +one-half the persons for whom applications come to us. Neither have we +the buildings nor the money for current expenses to enable us to admit +to the school more than one-half the young men and women who apply to us +for admission. + +In our industrial teaching we keep three things in mind: first, that the +student shall be so educated that he shall be enabled to meet conditions +as they exist now, in the part of the South where he lives--in a word, +to be able to do the thing which the world wants done; second, that +every student who graduates from the school shall have enough skill, +coupled with intelligence and moral character, to enable him to make a +living for himself and others; third, to send every graduate out feeling +and knowing that labour is dignified and beautiful--to make each +one love labour instead of trying to escape it. In addition to the +agricultural training which we give to young men, and the training +given to our girls in all the usual domestic employments, we now train +a number of girls in agriculture each year. These girls are taught +gardening, fruit-growing, dairying, bee-culture, and poultry-raising. + +While the institution is in no sense denominational, we have a +department known as the Phelps Hall Bible Training School, in which +a number of students are prepared for the ministry and other forms +of Christian work, especially work in the country districts. What is +equally important, each one of the students works half of each day at +some industry, in order to get skill and the love of work, so that when +he goes out from the institution he is prepared to set the people with +whom he goes to labour a proper example in the matter of industry. + +The value of our property is now over $700,000. If we add to this our +endowment fund, which at present is $1,000,000, the value of the total +property is now $1,700,000. Aside from the need for more buildings and +for money for current expenses, the endowment fund should be increased +to at least $3,000,000. The annual current expenses are now about +$150,000. The greater part of this I collect each year by going from +door to door and from house to house. All of our property is free from +mortgage, and is deeded to an undenominational board of trustees who +have the control of the institution. + +From thirty students the number has grown to fourteen hundred, coming +from twenty-seven states and territories, from Africa, Cuba, Porto Rico, +Jamaica, and other foreign countries. In our departments there are one +hundred and ten officers and instructors; and if we add the families of +our instructors, we have a constant population upon our grounds of not +far from seventeen hundred people. + +I have often been asked how we keep so large a body of people together, +and at the same time keep them out of mischief. There are two answers: +that the men and women who come to us for an education are in earnest; +and that everybody is kept busy. The following outline of our daily work +will testify to this:-- + +5 a.m., rising bell; 5.50 a.m., warning breakfast bell; 6 a.m., +breakfast bell; 6.20 a.m., breakfast over; 6.20 to 6.50 a.m., rooms +are cleaned; 6.50, work bell; 7.30, morning study hours; 8.20, morning +school bell; 8.25, inspection of young men's toilet in ranks; 8.40, +devotional exercises in chapel; 8.55, "five minutes with the daily +news;" 9 a.m., class work begins; 12, class work closes; 12.15 p.m., +dinner; 1 p.m., work bell; 1.30 p.m., class work begins; 3.30 p.m., +class work ends; 5.30 p.m., bell to "knock off" work; 6 p.m., supper; +7.10 p.m., evening prayers; 7.30 p.m., evening study hours; 8.45 p.m., +evening study hour closes; 9.20 p.m., warning retiring bell; 9.30 p.m., +retiring bell. + +We try to keep constantly in mind the fact that the worth of the school +is to be judged by its graduates. Counting those who have finished +the full course, together with those who have taken enough training to +enable them to do reasonably good work, we can safely say that at least +six thousand men and women from Tuskegee are now at work in different +parts of the South; men and women who, by their own example or by +direct efforts, are showing the masses of our race now to improve their +material, educational, and moral and religious life. What is equally +important, they are exhibiting a degree of common sense and self-control +which is causing better relations to exist between the races, and is +causing the Southern white man to learn to believe in the value of +educating the men and women of my race. Aside from this, there is the +influence that is constantly being exerted through the mothers' meeting +and the plantation work conducted by Mrs. Washington. + +Wherever our graduates go, the changes which soon begin to appear in the +buying of land, improving homes, saving money, in education, and in +high moral characters are remarkable. Whole communities are fast being +revolutionized through the instrumentality of these men and women. + +Ten years ago I organized at Tuskegee the first Negro Conference. This +is an annual gathering which now brings to the school eight or nine +hundred representative men and women of the race, who come to spend +a day in finding out what the actual industrial, mental, and moral +conditions of the people are, and in forming plans for improvement. Out +from this central Negro Conference at Tuskegee have grown numerous state +and local conferences which are doing the same kind of work. As a result +of the influence of these gatherings, one delegate reported at the last +annual meeting that ten families in his community had bought and paid +for homes. On the day following the annual Negro Conference, there is +the "Workers' Conference." This is composed of officers and teachers who +are engaged in educational work in the larger institutions in the South. +The Negro Conference furnishes a rare opportunity for these workers to +study the real condition of the rank and file of the people. + +In the summer of 1900, with the assistance of such prominent coloured +men as Mr. T. Thomas Fortune, who has always upheld my hands in every +effort, I organized the National Negro Business League, which held its +first meeting in Boston, and brought together for the first time a large +number of the coloured men who are engaged in various lines of trade +or business in different parts of the United States. Thirty states were +represented at our first meeting. Out of this national meeting grew +state and local business leagues. + +In addition to looking after the executive side of the work at Tuskegee, +and raising the greater part of the money for the support of the school, +I cannot seem to escape the duty of answering at least a part of the +calls which come to me unsought to address Southern white audiences and +audiences of my own race, as well as frequent gatherings in the North. +As to how much of my time is spent in this way, the following clipping +from a Buffalo (N.Y.) paper will tell. This has reference to an occasion +when I spoke before the National Educational Association in that city. + +Booker T. Washington, the foremost educator among the coloured people of +the world, was a very busy man from the time he arrived in the city the +other night from the West and registered at the Iroquois. He had hardly +removed the stains of travel when it was time to partake of supper. +Then he held a public levee in the parlours of the Iroquois until eight +o'clock. During that time he was greeted by over two hundred eminent +teachers and educators from all parts of the United States. Shortly +after eight o'clock he was driven in a carriage to Music Hall, and in +one hour and a half he made two ringing addresses, to as many as five +thousand people, on Negro education. Then Mr. Washington was taken in +charge by a delegation of coloured citizens, headed by the Rev. Mr. +Watkins, and hustled off to a small informal reception, arranged in +honour of the visitor by the people of his race. + + +Nor can I, in addition to making these addresses, escape the duty +of calling the attention of the South and of the country in general, +through the medium of the press, to matters that pertain to the +interests of both races. This, for example, I have done in regard to +the evil habit of lynching. When the Louisiana State Constitutional +Convention was in session, I wrote an open letter to that body pleading +for justice for the race. In all such efforts I have received warm and +hearty support from the Southern newspapers, as well as from those in +all other parts of the country. + +Despite superficial and temporary signs which might lead one to +entertain a contrary opinion, there was never a time when I felt more +hopeful for the race than I do at the present. The great human law that +in the end recognizes and rewards merit is everlasting and universal. +The outside world does not know, neither can it appreciate, the struggle +that is constantly going on in the hearts of both the Southern white +people and their former slaves to free themselves from racial prejudice; +and while both races are thus struggling they should have the sympathy, +the support, and the forbearance of the rest of the world. + + +As I write the closing words of this autobiography I find myself--not +by design--in the city of Richmond, Virginia: the city which only a +few decades ago was the capital of the Southern Confederacy, and where, +about twenty-five years ago, because of my poverty I slept night after +night under a sidewalk. + +This time I am in Richmond as the guest of the coloured people of the +city; and came at their request to deliver an address last night to both +races in the Academy of Music, the largest and finest audience room in +the city. This was the first time that the coloured people had ever +been permitted to use this hall. The day before I came, the City Council +passed a vote to attend the meeting in a body to hear me speak. The +state Legislature, including the House of Delegates and the Senate, also +passed a unanimous vote to attend in a body. In the presence of hundreds +of coloured people, many distinguished white citizens, the City Council, +the state Legislature, and state officials, I delivered my message, +which was one of hope and cheer; and from the bottom of my heart I +thanked both races for this welcome back to the state that gave me +birth. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Up From Slavery: An Autobiography, by +Booker T. Washington + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UP FROM SLAVERY: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY *** + +***** This file should be named 2376.txt or 2376.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/7/2376/ + +Produced by Internet Wiretap, An Anonymous Project Gutenberg +Volunteer, and Dan Muller + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + +[Illustration] + + + Why is the Negro + Lynched? + + + BY THE LATE + + FREDERICK DOUGLASS. + + + Reprinted by permission from “The A.M.E. Church + Review” for Memorial Distribution, by a few + of his English friends. + + + BRIDGWATER: + PRINTED BY JOHN WHITBY AND SONS, LIMITED. + 1895. + + + + +_We have felt that the most fitting tribute that we, of the Anti-Caste +movement, can pay to the memory of this noble and faithful life is to +issue broadcast--as far as the means entrusted to us will allow--his +last great appeal for justice (uttered through the pages of “The A.M.E. +Church Review” only a few months before his death). A slanderous charge +against Negro morality has gone forth throughout the world and has been +widely credited. The white American has had his say both North and +South. On behalf of the accused, Frederick Douglass claims, in the name +of justice, to be heard._ + + +Copies can be obtained free from the Editor of “Anti-Caste,” Street, +Somerset, England. + + + + + Why is the Negro Lynched? + + (“THE LESSON OF THE HOUR.”) + + + BY THE LATE + + FREDERICK DOUGLASS. + + + _Reprinted by permission from the “A.M.E. Church Review.”_ + + + + +I. + + +THE AFRO-AMERICAN PEOPLE INDICTED ON A NEW CHARGE. INTRODUCTORY--THE +WRITER’S CLAIM TO BE HEARD.[A] + +I propose to give you a coloured man’s view of the so-called “Negro +Problem.” We have had the Southern white man’s view of this subject at +large in the press, in the pulpit and on the platform. He has spoken in +the pride of his power and to willing ears. Coloured by his peculiar +environments, his version has been presented with abundant repetition, +with startling emphasis, and with every advantage to his side of +the question. We have also had the Northern white man’s view of the +subject, tempered by his distance from the scene and by his different, +if not his higher, civilization. + +This quality and quantity of evidence, may be considered by some men as +all sufficient upon which to found an intelligent judgment of the whole +matter in controversy, and, therefore, it may be thought my testimony +is not needed. But experience has taught us that it is sometimes wise +and necessary to have more than two witnesses to bring out the whole +truth. Especially is this the case where one of such witnesses has a +powerful motive for suppressing or distorting the facts, as in this +case. I therefore insist upon my right to take the witness stand and +give my version of this Southern question, and though it shall widely +differ from that of both the North and South, I shall submit the same +to the candid judgment of all who hear me in full confidence that it +will be received as true, by honest men and women of both sections of +this Republic. + +There is one thing, however, in which I think we must all agree at the +start. It is that this so-called but mis-called Negro problem is one +of the most important and urgent subjects that can now engage public +attention. Its solution is, and ought to be, the serious business of +the best American wisdom and statesmanship. For it involves the honour +or dishonour, the glory or shame, the happiness or misery, of the whole +American people. It not only touches the good name and fame of the +Republic, but its highest moral welfare and its permanent safety. The +evil with which it confronts us is coupled with a peril at once great +and increasing, and one which should be removed, if it can be, without +delay. + + +EPIDEMIC OF MOB-LAW. + +The presence of eight millions of people in any section of this +country, constituting an aggrieved class, smarting under terrible +wrongs, denied the exercise of the commonest rights of humanity, +and regarded by the ruling class of that section as outside of the +government, outside of the law, outside of society, having nothing in +common with the people with whom they live, the sport of mob violence +and murder, is not only a disgrace and a scandal to that particular +section, but a menace to the peace and security of the whole country. +There is, as we all know, a perfect epidemic of mob law and persecution +now prevailing at the South, and the indications of a speedy end are +not hopeful. Great and terrible as have been its ravages in the past, +it now seems to be increasing, not only in the number of its victims, +but in its frantic rage and savage extravagance. Lawless vengeance is +beginning to be visited upon white men as well as black. Our newspapers +are daily disfigured by its ghastly horrors. It is no longer local but +national; no longer confined to the South but has invaded the North. +The contagion is spreading, extending and overleaping geographical +lines and state boundaries, and if permitted to go on, threatens to +destroy all respect for law and order, not only in the South but in all +parts of our common country, North as well as South. For certain it is, +that crime allowed to go unpunished, unresisted and unarrested, will +breed crime. When the poison of anarchy is once in the air, like the +pestilence that walketh in darkness, the winds of heaven will take it +up and favour its diffusion. Though it may strike down the weak to-day, +it will strike down the strong to-morrow. + +Not a breeze comes to us from the late rebellious states that is not +tainted and freighted with Negro blood. In its thirst for blood and +its rage for vengeance, the mob has blindly, boldly and defiantly +supplanted sheriffs, constables and police. It has assumed all the +functions of civil authority. It laughs at legal processes, courts +and juries, and its red-handed murderers range abroad unchecked and +unchallenged by law or by public opinion. If the mob is in pursuit of +Negroes who happen to be accused of crime, innocent or guilty, prison +walls and iron bars afford no protection. Jail doors are battered down +in the presence of unresisting jailors, and the accused, awaiting trial +in the courts of law, are dragged out and hanged, shot, stabbed or +burned to death, as the blind and irresponsible mob may elect. + +We claim to be a highly-civilized and Christian country. I will not +stop to deny this claim, yet I fearlessly affirm that there is nothing +in the history of savages to surpass the blood-chilling horrors and +fiendish excesses perpetrated against the coloured people of this +country, by the so-called enlightened and Christian people of the +South. It is commonly thought that only the lowest and most disgusting +birds and beasts, such as buzzards, vultures and hyenas, will gloat +over and prey upon dead bodies; but the Southern mob, in its rage, +feeds its vengeance by shooting, stabbing and burning their victims, +when they are dead. + +Now, what is the special charge by which this ferocity is justified, +and by which mob law is excused and defended even by good men North and +South? It is a charge of recent origin; a charge never brought before; +a charge never heard of in the time of slavery or in any other time in +our history. It is a charge of assaults by Negroes upon white women. +This new charge, once fairly started on the wings of rumour, no matter +by whom or in what manner originated, whether well or ill-founded, +whether true or false, is certain to raise a mob and to subject the +accused to immediate torture and death. It is nothing that there may +be a mistake in his case as to identity. It is nothing that the +victim pleads “not guilty.” It is nothing that the accused is of fair +reputation and his accuser is of an abandoned character. It is nothing +that the majesty of the law is defied and insulted; no time is allowed +for defence or explanation; he is bound with cords, hurried off amid +the frantic yells and curses of the mob to the scaffold, and there, +under its ghastly shadow, he is tortured, till by pain or promises, +he is made to think that he can possibly gain time or save his life +by confession--confesses--and then, whether guilty or innocent, he is +shot, hanged, stabbed or burned to death amid the wild shouts of the +mob. When the will of the mob is accomplished, when its thirst for +blood has been quenched, when its victim is speechless, silent and +dead, his mobocratic accusers and murderers of course have the ear of +the world all to themselves, and the world, hearing only the testimony +of the mob, generally approves its verdict. + +Such, then, is the state of Southern law and civilization at this +moment, in relation to the coloured citizens of that section of our +country. Though the picture is dark and terrible, I venture to affirm +that no man, North or South, can successfully deny its essential truth. + + +ATTITUDE OF UPPER CLASSES. + +Now the question arises, and it is important to know, how this state +of affairs is viewed by the better classes of the Southern States. I +will tell you, and I venture to say in advance, if our hearts were +not already hardened by familiarity with crimes against the Negro, we +should be shocked and astonished, not only by these mobocratic crimes, +but by the attitude of the better classes of the Southern people and +their law-makers, towards the perpetrators of them. With a few noble +exceptions, just enough to prove the rule, the upper classes of the +South seem to be in full sympathy with the mob and its deeds. There +are but few earnest words ever uttered against either. Press, platform +and pulpit are generally either silent or they openly apologise for +the mob and its deeds. The mobocratic murderers are not only permitted +to go free, untried and unpunished, but are lauded and applauded as +honourable men and good citizens, the high-minded guardians of Southern +virtue. If lynch law is in any case condemned by them, it is only +condemned in one breath and excused in another. + +The great trouble with the Negro in the South is that all presumptions +are against him. A white man has but to blacken his face and commit +a crime to have some Negro lynched in his stead. An abandoned woman +has only to start a cry, true or false, that she has been insulted +by a black man, to have him arrested and summarily murdered by the +mob. Frightened and tortured by his captors, confused, he may be, +into telling crooked stories about his whereabouts at the time when +the crime is alleged to have been committed, and the death penalty +is at once inflicted, though his story may be but the incoherency of +ignorance or the distraction caused by terror. + +In confirmation of what I have said, I have before me the utterances +of some of the best people of the South, and also the testimony of +one from the North, a lady of high character, from whom, considering +her antecedents, we should have expected a more considerate, just and +humane utterance. + +In a late number of the _Forum_, Bishop Haygood, author of the “Brother +in Black,” says that “The most alarming fact is that execution by +lynching has ceased to surprise us. The burning of a human being for +any crime, it is thought, is a horror that does not occur outside of +the Southern states of the American Union, yet unless assaults by +Negroes come to an end, there will most probably be still further +display of vengeance that will shock the world, and men who are just +will consider the provocation.” + +In an open letter addressed to me by ex-Governor Chamberlain, of South +Carolina, published in the Charleston _News and Courier_, in reply +to an article of mine on the subject of lynching, published in the +_North American Review_, the ex-Governor says: “Your denunciation of +the South on this point is directed exclusively, or nearly so, against +the application of lynch law for the punishment of one crime; the +existence, I suppose I might say the prevalence, of this crime at the +South is undeniable. But I read your article in vain for any special +denunciation of the crime itself. As you say, your people are lynched, +tortured and burned, for assault on white women. As you value your own +good fame and safety as a race, stamp out the infamous crime.” + +And now comes the sweet voice of a Northern woman, Miss Frances +Willard, of the W. C. T. U., distinguished among her sisters for +benevolence and Christian charity. She speaks in the same bitter tone +and hurls against us the same blasting accusation. She says in a letter +now before me, “I pity the Southerners. The problem in their hands +is immeasurable. The coloured race multiplies like the locusts of +Egypt. The safety of women, of childhood, of the home, is menaced in a +thousand localities at this moment, so that men dare not go beyond the +sight of their own roof tree.” Such, then, is the crushing indictment +drawn up against the Southern Negroes, drawn up, too, by persons who +are perhaps the fairest and most humane of the Negro’s accusers. Yet +even they paint him as a moral monster, ferociously invading the sacred +rights of woman and endangering the homes of the whites. + + +INCRIMINATION OF THE WHOLE RACE. + +Now, I hold, no less than his accusers, that the crime alleged against +the Negro is the most revolting which men can commit. It is a crime +that awakens the intensest abhorrence and tempts mankind to kill the +criminal on first sight. + +But this charge thus brought against the Negro and as constantly +reiterated by his enemies, is plainly enough not merely a charge +against the individual culprit, as would be the case with an individual +of any other race, but it is in large measure a charge constructively +against the coloured people as such. It throws over every man of colour +a mantle of odium, and sets upon him a mark of popular hate, more +distressing than the mark set upon the first murderer. It points the +Negro out as an object of suspicion, avoidance and hate. + +It is in this form of the charge that you and I and all of us are +required to meet it and refute it, if that can be done. In the opinion +of some of us it were well to say nothing about it, that the least said +about it the better. They would have us suffer quietly under the odium +in silence. In this I do not concur. Taking this charge in its broad +and comprehensive sense, the sense in which it is presented and as now +stated, it strikes at the whole coloured race, and, therefore, as a +coloured man, I am bound to meet it. I am grateful for the opportunity +now afforded me to meet it. For I believe it can be met and met +successfully. I hold that a people too spiritless to defend themselves +against unjust imputations, are not worth defending, and are not worthy +to defend anything else. + + + + +II. + + +THE DEFENCE--“NOT GUILTY.” CHARACTER OF THEIR ACCUSERS CHALLENGED. + +Without boasting in advance, but relying upon the goodness of my +cause, I will say here I am ready to confront ex-Governor Chamberlain, +Bishop Fitzgerald, Bishop Haygood and good Miss Frances Willard and +all others, singly or altogether, who bring this charge against the +coloured people as a class. + +But I want however, to be clearly understood at the outset. I do not +pretend that Negroes are saints and angels. I do not deny that they are +capable of committing the crime imputed to them, but utterly deny that +they are any more addicted to the commission of that crime than is true +of any other variety of the human family. In entering upon my argument, +I may be allowed to say again what should be taken for granted at the +start, that I am not a defender of any man guilty of this atrocious +crime, but a defender of the coloured people as a class. + +In answer, then, to the terrible indictment thus read, and speaking for +the coloured people as a class, I venture in their name and in their +stead, here and now, to plead “not guilty,” and shall submit my case +with confidence of acquittal by good men and women, North and South, +before whom we are, as a class, now being tried. In daring to do this I +know that the moral atmosphere about me is not favourable to my cause. +The sentiment left by slavery is still with us, and the moral vision of +the American people is still darkened by its presence. + +It is the misfortune of the coloured people of this country that the +sins of the few are visited more or less upon the many. In respect to +the offenders, I am with General Grant and every other honest man. My +motto is, “Let no guilty man escape.” But while I say this, and mean to +say it strongly, I am also here to say, let no guilty man be condemned +and killed by the mob, or crushed under the weight of a charge of which +he is not guilty. + +I need not be told that the cause I have undertaken to support is not +to be maintained by any mere confident assertions or general denials, +however strongly worded. If I had no better ground to stand upon than +this, I would at once leave the field of controversy and give up the +coloured man’s cause to his accusers. I am also aware that I am here +to do in some measure what the masters of logic say is impossible to +be done. I know that I cannot prove a negative; there is one thing +that I can and will do. I will call in question the affirmative. I can +and will show that there are sound reasons for doubting and denying +this horrible charge of rape as the special and peculiar crime of the +coloured people of the South. I doubt it, and deny it with all my soul. +My doubt and denial are based upon three fundamental grounds. + +The first ground is, the well-established and well-tested character +of the Negro on the very point upon which he is now so violently and +persistently accused. I contend that his whole history in bondage and +out of bondage contradicts and gives the lie to the allegation. My +second ground for doubt and denial is based upon what I know of the +character and antecedents of the men and women who bring this charge +against him. My third ground is the palpable unfitness of the mob to +testify and which is the main witness in the case. + +I therefore affirm that a fierce and frenzied mob is not and ought not +to be deemed a competent witness against any man accused of any crime +whatever, and especially the crime now in question. The ease with which +a mob can be collected, the slight causes by which it can be set in +motion, and the element of which it is composed, deprives its testimony +of the qualities necessary to sound judgment and that which should +inspire confidence and command belief. Blinded by its own fury, it is +moved by impulses utterly unfavourable to a clear perception of facts +and the ability to make an impartial statement of the simple truth. +At the outset, I challenge the credibility of the mob, and as the mob +is the main witness in the case against the Negro I appeal from the +judgment of the mob to the judgment of law-abiding men, in support of +my challenge. I lay special emphasis on the fact that it is the mob +and the mob only that the country has recognised and accepted as its +accredited witness against the Negro. The mob is its law, its judge, +jury and executioner. I need not argue this point further. Its truth +is borne upon its face. + +But I go further. I dare not only to impeach the mob, I impeach and +discredit the veracity of men generally, whether mobocrats or otherwise +who sympathise with lynch law, whenever or wherever the acts of +coloured men are in question. It seems impossible for such men to judge +a coloured man fairly. I hold that men who openly and deliberately +nullify the laws and violate the provisions of the Constitution of +their country, which they have solemnly sworn to support and execute, +are not entitled to unqualified belief in any case, and certainly not +in the case of the Negro. I apply to them the legal maxim, “False in +one, false in all.” Especially do I apply this maxim when the conduct +of the Negro is in question. + +Again I question the Negro’s accusers on another important ground; +I have no confidence in the veracity of men who publicly justify +themselves in cheating the Negro out of his constitutional right to +vote. The men who do this, either by false returns, or by taking +advantage of the Negro’s illiteracy, or by surrounding the ballot box +with obstacles and sinuosities intended to bewilder him and defeat his +rightful exercise of the elective franchise, are men who should not be +believed on oath. That this is done and approved in Southern States is +notorious. It has been openly defended by so-called honest men inside +and outside of Congress. + +I met this shameless defence of crime face to face at the late Chicago +Auxiliary Congress, during the World’s Columbian Exposition, in a +solemn paper by Prof. Weeks, of North Carolina, who boldly advocated +this kind of fraud as necessary and justifiable in order to secure +Anglo-Saxon supremacy, and in doing so, as I believe, he voiced the +moral sentiment of Southern men generally. + +Now, men who openly defraud the Negro of his vote by all manner of +artifice, who justify it and boast of it in the face of the world’s +civilization, as was done by Prof. Weeks at Chicago, I hardly need +say that such men are not to be depended upon for truth in any case +where the rights of the Negro are involved. Their testimony in the +case of any other people than the Negro would be instantly and utterly +discredited, and why not the same in this case? Every honest man will +see that this point is well taken. It has for its support common +sense, common honesty, and the best sentiment of mankind. On the other +hand, it has nothing to oppose it but a vulgar, popular prejudice +against the coloured people of our country, a prejudice which we all +know strikes men with moral blindness and renders them incapable of +seeing any distinction between right and wrong where coloured people +are concerned. + + +THE NEGRO’S CLEAN RECORD DURING WAR TIME. + +But I come to a stronger position. I rest my denial not merely upon +general principles but upon well-known facts. I reject the charge +brought against the Negro as a class, because all through the late war, +while the slave-masters of the South were absent from their homes, in +the field of rebellion, with bullets in their pockets, treason in their +hearts, broad blades in their bloody hands, seeking the life of the +nation, with the vile purpose of perpetuating the enslavement of the +Negro, their wives, their daughters, their sisters and their mothers +were left in the absolute custody of these same Negroes, and during all +those long four years of terrible conflict, when the Negro had every +opportunity to commit the abominable crime now alleged against him, +there was never a single instance of such crime reported or charged +against him. He was never accused of assault, insult, or an attempt to +commit an assault upon any white woman in the whole South. A fact like +this, though negative, speaks volumes, and ought to have some weight +with the American people on the present question. + +Then, again, on general principles, I do not believe the charge, +because it implies an improbable change, if not an impossible change +in the mental and moral character and composition of the Negro. It +implies a radical change wholly inconsistent with the well-known facts +of human nature. It is a contradiction to human experience. History +does not present an example of a transformation in the character of any +class of men so extreme, so unnatural and so complete as is implied in +this charge. The change is too great and the period for it too brief. +Instances may be cited where men fall like stars from heaven, but such +is not the usual experience with the masses. Decline in the moral +character of such is not sudden, but gradual. The downward steps are +marked at first by slow degrees and by increasing momentum, going from +bad to worse as they proceed. Time is an element in such changes, and I +contend that the Negroes of the South have not had time to experience +this great change and reach this lower depth of infamy. On the +contrary, in point of fact, they have been, and still are, improving +and ascending to higher and still higher levels of moral and social +worth. + + +EXCUSES FOR LYNCHING--DELICACY OF SUBJECT; POSSIBILITY OF CRIMINAL’S +ESCAPE FROM JUSTICE. + +Again I utterly deny the charge on the fundamental ground that those +who bring the charge do not and dare not give the Negro a chance to +be heard in his own defence. He is not allowed to show the deceptive +conditions out of which the charge has originated. He is not allowed to +vindicate his own character from blame, or to criminate the character +and motives of his accusers. Even the mobocrats themselves admit that +it would be fatal to their purpose to have the character of the Negro’s +accusers brought into court. They pretend to a delicate regard for +the feelings of the parties alleged to have been assaulted. They are +too modest to have them brought into court. They are, therefore, for +lynching and against giving a fair trial to the accused. This excuse, +it is needless to say, is contemptible and hypocritical. It is not +only mock modesty, but mob modesty. Men who can collect hundreds and +thousands of their kind, if we believe them, thirsting for vengeance, +and can spread before them in the tempest and whirlwind of vulgar +passion, the most disgusting details of crime, connecting the names +of women with the same, should not be allowed to shelter themselves +under any pretence of modesty. Such a pretence is absurd and shameless +upon the face of it. Who does not know that the modesty of womanhood +is always and in every such case an object for special protection in +a court of law? On the other hand, who does not know that a lawless +mob, composed in part of the basest men, can have no such respect for +the modesty of women, as has a court of law. No woman need be ashamed +to confront one who has insulted or assaulted her in any court of law. +Besides, innocence does not hesitate to come to the rescue of justice, +and need not even in this case. + +Again, I do not believe it, and deny it because if the evidence were +deemed sufficient to bring the accused to the scaffold by a verdict of +an impartial jury, there could be and would be no objection to having +the alleged offender tried in conformity to due process of law. + +The only excuse for lynch law, which has a shadow of support in it is, +that the criminal would probably otherwise be allowed to escape the +punishment due to his crime. But this excuse is not employed by the +lynchers, though it is sometimes so employed by those who apologise for +the lynchers. But for it there is no foundation whatever, in a country +like the South, where public opinion, the laws, the courts, the juries, +the advocates, are all against the Negro, especially one alleged to be +guilty of the crime now charged. That such an one would be permitted +to escape condign punishment, is not only untenable but an insult +to common sense. The chances are that not even an innocent Negro so +charged would be allowed to escape. + + + + +III. + + +THE THREE STAGES OF NEGRO PERSECUTION. THEIR OBJECT--HIS +DISFRANCHISEMENT. + +But I come to another fact, and an all important fact, bearing upon +this case. You will remember that during all the first years of +reconstruction, and long after the war, Negroes were slain by scores. +The world was shocked by these murders, so that the Southern press +and people found it necessary to invent, adopt and propagate almost +every species of falsehood to create sympathy for themselves, and to +formulate excuses for thus gratifying their brutal instincts against +the Negro; there was never at that time a charge made against any Negro +involving an assault upon any white woman or upon little white children +in all the South. During all this time the white women and children +were absolutely safe. During all this time there was no call for Miss +Willard’s pity, or for Bishop Haygood’s defence of burning Negroes to +death, but killing Negroes went on all the same. + +You will remember also that during this time the justification for +the murder of Negroes was said to be Negro conspiracies, Negro +insurrections, Negro schemes to murder all the white people, Negro +plots to burn the town and to commit violence generally. These were +the excuses then depended upon, but never a word was then said or +whispered about Negro outrages upon white women and children. So far +as the history of that time is concerned, white women and children +were absolutely safe, and husbands and fathers could leave their homes +without the slightest anxiety for the safety of their families. But +now mark the change and the reasons for the change. When events proved +that no such conspiracies, no such insurrections as were then pretended +to exist, and which were then paraded before the world in glaring +headlines in the columns of nearly all our newspapers, had ever existed +or were even meditated--when these excuses had run their course and +had served their wicked purpose, when the huts of the Negroes had been +searched, and searched in vain for guns and ammunition to prove these +charges against the Negro, and no such proof was found, when there +was no way open thereafter to prove these charges against the Negro, +and no way to make the North believe in them, they did not even then +bring forward the present allegation, but went on harassing and killing +Negroes just the same. But this time they based their right to kill on +the ground that it was necessary to check the domination and supremacy +of the Negro and to secure the absolute rule of the Anglo-Saxon race. + +It is important to notice and emphasize here the significant fact that +there has been three distinct periods of persecutions of the Negroes +in the South, and three distinct sets of excuses for this persecution. +They have come along precisely in the order they were most needed. Each +was made to fit its special place. First, you remember, as I have said, +it was insurrection. When that wore out, Negro supremacy became the +excuse. When that was worn out, then came the charge of assault upon +defenceless women. I undertake to say that this orderly arrangement and +periodicity of excuses are significant. They mean something, and should +not be overlooked. They show design, plan, purpose and invention. +And now that Negro insurrection and Negro domination are no longer +defensible as an excuse for Negro persecution, there has come in due +course another suited to the occasion, and that is the heart-rending +cry of the white women and little white children. + +Now, my friends, I ask what is the manifest meaning of this charge at +this time? What is the meaning of the singular omission of this charge +during the two periods preceding the present? Why was not this charge +made at that time as now? The Negro was the same man then as to-day. +Why, I ask again, was not this dreadful charge brought forward against +the Negro in war times and in reconstruction times? Had it existed +either in war times or during reconstruction, does any man doubt that +it would have been added to the other charges and proclaimed upon the +house-tops and at the street corners, as this charge is at present? + +I will answer the question: or you yourselves have already given the +true answer. For the plain and only rational explanation is that there +was at the times specified no foundation for such a charge, or that the +charge itself was either not thought of, or if thought of it was not +deemed necessary to excuse the lawless violence with which the Negro +was then pursued and killed. The old charges already enumerated were +deemed all sufficient. + +Things have changed since then, and the old excuses are not now +available. The times have changed, and the Negro’s accusers have +found it necessary to change with them. They have been compelled to +invent a new charge to suit the times. The old charges are no longer +valid. Upon them the good opinion of the North and of mankind cannot +be secured. Honest men no longer believe that there is any ground to +apprehend Negro supremacy. Times and events have swept away these old +refuges of lies. They were once powerful. They did their work in their +day and did it with terrible energy and effect, but they are now cast +aside as useless. The lie has lost its ability to deceive. The altered +times and circumstances have made necessary a sterner, stronger and +more effective justification of Southern barbarism, and hence we have, +according to my theory, to look into the face of a more shocking and +blasting charge than either Negro supremacy or Negro insurrection. + +I insist upon it that this new charge has come at the call of new +conditions, and that nothing could have been hit upon better calculated +to accomplish its brutal purpose. It clouds the character of the Negro +with a crime the most shocking that men can commit, and is fitted to +drive from the criminal all pity and all fair play and all mercy. It +is a crime that places him outside of the pale of the law, and settles +upon his shoulders a mantle of wrath and fire, that blisters and burns +into his very soul. + +It is for this purpose, it seems to me, that this new charge, unthought +of and unknown in the times to which I have referred, has been largely +invented and thundered against us. It is for this purpose that it has +been constantly reiterated and adopted. It was intended to blast and +ruin the Negro’s character as a man and a citizen. I need not tell you +how thoroughly it has already done its work. The Negro may and does +feel its malign influence in the very air he breathes. He may read it +in the faces of men among whom he moves. It has cooled his friends; +it has heated his enemies and arrested at home and abroad, in some +measure, the generous efforts that good men were wont to make for his +improvement and elevation. It has deceived his friends at the North +and many good friends at the South, for nearly all of them, in some +measure, have accepted this charge against the Negro as true. Its +perpetual reiteration in our newspapers and magazines has led men and +women to regard him with averted eyes, dark suspicion and increasing +hate. + +Some of the Southern papers have denounced me for my unbelief in this +charge and in this new crusade against the Negro, but I repeat I do +not believe it, and firmly deny the grounds upon which it is based. +I reject it because I see in it evidence of an invention called into +being by a well-defined motive, a motive sufficient to stamp it as a +gross expedient to justify murderous assault upon a long enslaved and +hence a hated people. + +I not only reject it because it bears upon its face the marks of being +a fraud, a make-shift for a malignant purpose, but because it has +sprung upon the country simultaneously, and in manifest co-operation +with a declared purpose and a well-known effort, and I may say a +fixed determination to degrade the Negro by judicial decisions, by +legislative enactments, by repealing all laws for the protection of the +ballot, by drawing the colour line in all railroad cars and stations +and in all other public places in the South, thus to pave the way to +a final consummation which is nothing less than the Negro’s entire +disenfranchisement as an American citizen. It is to this great end +that all the charges and complaints against the Negro are directed +and are made to converge. This is and has been from first to last the +grand and all-commanding object in view. It is a part of a well-devised +reactionary movement against the Negro as a citizen. The old master +class are wise in their day and generation. They know if they can once +divest the Negro of the elective franchise and nullify his citizenship, +the partition wall between him and slavery will no longer exist, and no +man can tell where the reaction will stop. + + +THE ATTACK LESS UPON CRIME THAN COLOUR. + +Again, I do not believe it, and deny it, because the charge is not so +much against the crime itself, as against the colour of the people +alleged to be guilty of it. Slavery itself, you will remember, was a +system of unmitigated, legalised outrage upon black women of the South, +and no white man was ever shot, burned or hanged for availing himself +of all the power that slavery gave him at this point. + +To sum up my argument on this lynching business, it remains to be +said that I have shown that the Negro’s accusers in this case have +violated their oaths, and have cheated the Negro out of his vote; +that they have robbed and defrauded the Negro systematically and +persistently, and have boasted of it. I have shown that when the Negro +had every opportunity to commit the crime now charged against him, he +was never accused of it by his bitterest enemies. I have shown that +during all the years of reconstruction, when he was being murdered +at Hamburg, Yazoo, New Orleans, Copiah and elsewhere, he was never +accused at that time of the crime now charged against him. I have +shown that in the nature of things no such change in the character +and composition of a whole people, as this implies, could have taken +place within the limited period allowed for it. I have shown that those +who accuse him dare not confront him in a court of law and have their +witnesses subjected to proper legal inquiry. I have shown from the very +constitution of a mob, the slight causes by which it may be created, +and the sentiment by which it is impelled, it cannot be depended upon +for either truth or justice. I have shown that its sole aim is to +execute, not to find a true verdict. And showing all this and more, I +have shown that they who charge the Negro with this foul crime, in +such circumstances, may be justly doubted and deemed unworthy of belief. + + + + +IV. + + +OBJECTIONS ANSWERED: PECULIARITIES OF SOUTHERN SENTIMENT. LACK OF +RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE. + +But I now come to a grave objection to my theory of this violent +persecution. I shall be told by many of my Northern friends that my +argument, though plausible, is not conclusive. It will be said that +the charges against the Negro are specific and positive, and that +there must be some foundation for them, because, as they allege, men +in their normal condition do not shoot, hang and burn their fellow men +who are guiltless of crime. Well! This assumption is very just and +very charitable. I only wish that something like the same justice and +the same charity shall be shown to the Negro. All credit is due and +is accorded to our Northern friends for their humane judgment of the +South. Humane themselves, they are slow to believe that the mobocrats +are less humane than themselves. Their hearts are right but their heads +are wrong. They apply a general rule to a special case. They forget +that neither the mob nor its victims are in a normal condition. Both +are exceptions to the general rule. The force of the argument against +my version of the case is the assumption that the lynchers are like +other men and that the Negro has the same hold on the protection of +society that other men have. Neither assumption is true. The lynchers +and mobocrats are not like other men, nor is the Negro hedged about by +the same protection accorded other members of society. + +The point I make, then, is this. That I am not, in this case, dealing +with men in their natural condition. I am dealing with men brought up +in the exercise of irresponsible power. I am dealing with men whose +ideas, habits and customs are entirely different from those of ordinary +men. It is, therefore, quite gratuitous to assume that the principles +that apply to other men, apply to the lynchers and murderers of the +Negro. The rules resting upon the justice and benevolence of human +nature do not apply to the mobocrats, or to those who were educated in +the habits and customs of a slave-holding community. What these habits +are I have a right to know, both in theory and practice. Whoever has +read the laws of the late slave states relating to the Negroes, will +see what I mean. + +I repeat, the mistake made by those who, on this ground, object to +my theory of the charge against the Negro, is that they overlook the +natural influence of the life, education and habits of the lynchers. +We must remember that these people have not now and have never had any +such respect for human life as is common to other men. They have had +among them for centuries a peculiar institution, and that peculiar +institution has stamped them as a peculiar people. They were not before +the war, they were not during the war, and have not been since the war, +in their spirit or in their civilization, a people in common with the +people of the North, or the civilized world. I will not here harrow up +your feelings by detailing their treatment of Northern prisoners during +the war. Their institutions have taught them no respect for human life, +and especially the life of the Negro. It has, in fact, taught them +absolute contempt for his life. The sacredness of life which ordinary +men feel does not touch them anywhere. A dead Negro is with them now, +as before, a common jest. + +They care no more for the Negro’s rights to live than they care for +his rights to liberty, or his right to the ballot or any other right. +Chief Justice Taney told the exact truth about these people when he +said: “They did not consider that the black man had any rights which +white men were bound to respect.” No man of the South ever called in +question that statement, and no man ever will. They could always shoot, +stab, hang and burn the Negro, without any such remorse or shame as +other men would feel after committing such a crime. Any Southern man, +who is honest and is frank enough to talk on the subject, will tell you +that he has no such idea as we have of the sacredness of human rights, +and especially, as I have said, of the life of the Negro. Hence it is +absurd to meet my arguments with the facts predicated of our common +human nature. + +I know that I shall be charged with apologising for criminals. +Ex-Governor Chamberlain has already virtually done as much. But there +is no foundation for such charge. I affirm that neither I nor any other +coloured man of like standing with myself has ever raised a finger +or uttered a word in defence of any man, black or white, known to be +guilty of the dreadful crime now in question. + +But what I contend for, and what every honest man, black or white, has +a right to contend for, is that when any man is accused of this or any +other crime, of whatever name, nature, degree or extent, he shall have +the benefit of a legal investigation; that he shall be confronted by +his accusers; and that he shall, through proper counsel, be allowed to +question his accusers in open court and in open daylight, so that his +guilt or his innocence may be duly proved and established. + +If this is to make me liable to the charge of apologising for crime, +I am not ashamed to be so charged. I dare to contend for the coloured +people of the United States that they are a law-abiding people, and I +dare to insist upon it that they or any other people, black or white, +accused of crime, shall have a fair trial before they are punished. + + +GENERAL UNFAIRNESS--THE CHICAGO EXHIBITION, ETC. + +Again, I cannot dwell too much upon the fact that coloured people are +much damaged by this charge. As an injured class we have a right to +appeal from the judgment of the mob, to the judgment of the law and to +the justice of the American people. + +Full well our enemies have known where to strike and how to stab us +most fatally. Owing to popular prejudice, it has become the misfortune +of the coloured people of the South and of the North as well, to have, +as I have said, the sins of the few visited upon the many. + +When a white man steals, robs or murders, his crime is visited upon +his own head alone. But not so with the black man. When he commits a +crime, the whole race is made responsible. The case before us is an +example. This unfairness confronts us not only here but it confronts us +everywhere else. + +Even when American art undertakes to picture the types of the two +races, it invariably places in comparison, not the best of both races +as common fairness would dictate, but it puts side by side and in +glaring contrast, the lowest type of the Negro with the highest type +of the white man and then calls upon the world to “look upon this +picture, then upon that.” + +When a black man’s language is quoted, in order to belittle and degrade +him, his ideas are often put in the most grotesque and unreadable +English, while the utterances of Negro scholars and authors are +ignored. To-day, Sojourner Truth is more readily quoted than Alexander +Cromwell or Dr. James McCune Smith. A hundred white men will attend a +concert of counterfeit Negro minstrels, with faces blackened with burnt +cork, to one who will attend a lecture by an intelligent Negro. + +Even the late World’s Columbian Exposition was guilty of this +unfairness. While I join with all other men in pronouncing the +Exposition itself one of the grandest demonstrations of civilization +that the world has ever seen, yet great and glorious as it was, it was +made to show just this kind of injustice and discrimination against the +Negro. + +As nowhere in the world, it was hoped that here the idea of human +brotherhood would have been grandly recognized and most gloriously +illustrated. It should have been thus and would have been thus, had +it been what it professed to be, a World’s Exposition. It was not +such, however, in its spirit at this point; it was only an American +Exposition. The spirit of American caste against the educated Negro +was conspicuously seen from start to finish, and to this extent the +Exposition was made simply an American Exposition instead of a World’s +Exposition. + +Since the day of Pentecost there was never assembled in any one place +or on any one occasion a larger variety of peoples of all forms, +features and colors and all degrees of civilization, than was assembled +at this World’s Exposition. It was a grand ethnological object lesson, +a fine chance to study all likenesses and all differences of mankind. +Here were Japanese, Soudanese, Chinese, Singalese, Syrians, Persians, +Tunisians, Algerians, Egyptians, East Indians, Laplanders, Esquimaux, +and, as if to shame the educated Negro of America, the Dahomeyans +were there to exhibit their barbarism and increase American contempt +for the Negro intellect. All classes and conditions were there save +the educated American Negro. He ought to have been there, if only to +show what American slavery and American freedom have done for him. The +fact that all other nations were there at their best, made the Negro’s +exclusion the more pronounced and the more significant. People from +abroad noticed the fact that while we have eight millions of colored +people in the United States, many of them gentlemen and scholars, +not one of them was deemed worthy to be appointed a Commissioner, +or a member of an important committee, or a guide or a guard on the +Exposition grounds, and this was evidently an intentional slight to +the race. What a commentary is this upon the liberality of our boasted +American liberty and American equality! It is a silent example, to +be sure, but it is one that speaks louder than words. It says to the +world that the colored people of America are not deemed by Americans as +within the compass of American law, progress and civilization. It says +to the lynchers and mobocrats of the South, go on in your hellish work +of Negro persecution. You kill their bodies, we kill their souls. + + + + +V. + + +NEGRO SUFFRAGE: ATTEMPT TO ABRIDGE THE RIGHT. THE LOWLY NEED ITS +PROTECTION. + +But now a word on the question of Negro suffrage. It has come to be +fashionable of late to ascribe much of the trouble at the South to +ignorant Negro suffrage. That great measure recommended by General +Grant and adopted by the loyal nation, is now denounced as a blunder +and a failure. The proposition now is, therefore, to find some way to +abridge and limit this right by imposing upon it an educational or some +other qualification. Among those who take this view of the question are +Mr. John J. Ingalls and Mr. John M. Langston, one white and the other +colored. They are both distinguished leaders; the one is the leader +of the whites and the other is the leader of the blacks. They are +both eloquent, both able, and both wrong. Though they are both Johns, +neither of them is to my mind a “St. John,” and not even a “John the +Baptist.” They have taken up an idea which they seem to think quite +new, but which in reality is as old as despotism, and about as narrow +and selfish as despotism. It has been heard and answered a thousand +times over. It is the argument of the crowned heads and privileged +classes of the world. It is as good against our Republican form of +government as it is against the Negro. The wonder is that its votaries +do not see its consequences. It does away with that noble and just idea +of Abraham Lincoln that our government should be a government of the +people, by the people and for the people and for _all_ the people. + +These gentlemen are very learned, very eloquent and very able, but I +cannot follow them in this effort to restrict voting to the educated +classes. Much learning has made them mad. Education is great but +manhood is greater. The one is the principle, the other the accident. +Man was not made as an attribute to education, but education as an +attribute to man. I say to these gentlemen, first protect the man and +you will thereby protect education. Do not make illiteracy a bar to the +ballot, but make the ballot a bar to illiteracy. Take the ballot from +the Negro and you take from him the means and motives that make for +education. Those who are already educated and are vested with political +power have thereby an advantage which they are not likely to divide +with the Negro, especially when they have a fixed purpose to make +this entirely a white man’s government. I cannot, therefore, follow +these gentlemen in a path so dangerous to the Negro. I would not make +suffrage more exclusive but more inclusive. I would not have it embrace +only the élite, but I would have it include the lowly. I would not +only include the men, but would gladly include the women, and make our +government in reality, as in name, a government by the people, of the +people, and for the whole people. + +But, manifestly, it is all nonsense to make suffrage to the coloured +people, the cause of the failure of good government in the Southern +states. On the contrary it is the lawless limitation of suffrage that +makes the trouble. + +Much thoughtless speech is heard about the ignorance of the Negro in +the South. But plainly enough, it is not the ignorance of the Negro +but the malevolence of his accusers, which is the real cause of +Southern disorder. It is easy to show that the illiteracy of the Negro +has no part or lot in the disturbances there. They who contend for +disfranchisement on this ground, know, and know very well, that there +is no truth whatever in their contention. To make out their case, they +must show that some oppressive and hurtful measure has been imposed +upon the country by Negro voters. But they cannot show any such thing +and they know it. + +The Negro has never set up a separate party, never adopted a Negro +platform, never proclaimed or adopted a separate policy for himself or +for the country. His assailants know this and know that he has never +acted apart from the whole American people. They know that he has +never sought to lead, but has always been content to follow. They know +that he has not made his ignorance the rule of his political conduct, +but he has been guided by the rule of white men. They know that he +simply kept pace with the average intelligence of his age and country. +They know that he has gone steadily along in the line of his politics +with the most enlightened citizens of the country and that he has never +gone faster or farther. They know that he has always voted with one or +the other of the two great political parties. They know that if the +votes of these parties have been guided by intelligence and patriotism, +the same must be said of the vote of the Negro. Knowing all this, they +ought to know also, that it is a shame and an outrage upon common +sense and fair dealing to hold him or his suffrage responsible for +any disorder that may reign in the Southern States. Yet while any lie +may be safely told against the Negro and will be credited by popular +prejudice, this lie will find eloquent tongues, bold and shameless +enough to tell it. + +It is true that the Negro once voted solidly for the candidates of the +republican party; but what if he did? He then only voted with John +Mercer Langston, John J. Ingalls, John Sherman, General Harrison, +Senator Hoar, Henry Cabot Lodge and Governor McKinley and many of the +most intelligent statesmen and noblest patriots of whom this country +can boast. The charge against him at this time is, therefore, utterly +groundless and is used for fraud, violence and persecution. + +The proposition to disfranchise the coloured voter of the South in +order to solve the race problem, I therefore denounce as a false and +cowardly proposition, utterly unworthy of an honest and grateful +nation. It is a proposition to sacrifice friends in order to conciliate +enemies; to surrender the constitution for the lack of moral courage to +execute its provisions. It is a proclamation of the helplessness of the +Nation to protect its own citizens. It says to the coloured citizen, +“We cannot protect you, we therefore propose to join your oppressors. +Your suffrage has been rendered a failure by violence, and we now +propose to make it a failure by law.” + +Than this, there was never a surrender more dishonorable, more +ungrateful, or more cowardly. Any statesman, black or white, who +dares to support such a scheme by any concession, deserves no worse +punishment than to be allowed to stay at home, deprived of all +legislative trusts until he repents. Even then he should only be +received on probation. + + +DECADENCE OF THE SPIRIT OF LIBERTY. + +Do not ask me what will be the final result of the so-called Negro +problem. I cannot tell you. I have sometimes thought that the American +people are too great to be small, too just and magnanimous to oppress +the weak, too brave to yield up the right to the strong, and too +grateful for public services ever to forget them or to reward them. +I have fondly hoped that this estimate of American character would +soon cease to be contradicted or put in doubt. But events have made me +doubtful. The favour with which this proposition of disfranchisement +has been received by public men, white and black, by republicans as +well as democrats, has shaken my faith in the nobility of the nation. +I hope and trust all will come out right in the end, but the immediate +future looks dark and troubled. I cannot shut my eyes to the ugly facts +before me. + +Strange things have happened of late and are still happening. Some of +these tend to dim the lustre of the American name, and chill the hopes +once entertained for the cause of American liberty. He is a wiser man +than I am who can tell how low the moral sentiment of the Republic may +yet fall. When the moral sense of a nation begins to decline, and the +wheels of progress to roll backward, there is no telling how low the +one will fall or where the other will stop. The downward tendency, +already manifest, has swept away some of the most important safeguards +of justice and liberty. The Supreme Court, has, in a measure, +surrendered. State sovereignty is essentially restored. The Civil +Rights Bill is impaired. The Republican party is converted into a party +of money, rather than a party of humanity and justice. We may well ask, +what next? + +The pit of hell is said to be bottomless. Principles which we all +thought to have been firmly and permanently settled by the late war +have been boldly assaulted and overthrown by the defeated party. +Rebel rule is now nearly complete in many states, and it is gradually +capturing the nation’s Congress. The cause lost in the war is the cause +regained in peace, and the cause gained in war is the cause lost in +peace. + +There was a threat made long ago by an American statesman that the +whole body of legislation enacted for the protection of American +liberty and to secure the results of the war for the Union, should +be blotted from the national statute book. That threat is now being +sternly pursued and may yet be fully realised. The repeal of the laws +intended to protect the elective franchise has heightened the suspicion +that Southern rule may yet become complete, though, I trust, not +permanent. There is no denying that the trend is in the wrong direction +at present. The late election, however, gives us hope that the loyal +Republican party may yet return to its first love. + + + + +VI. + + +DELUSIVE COLONISATION SCHEMES. + +But I now come to another proposition, held up as a solution of the +race problem, and this I consider equally unworthy with the one just +disposed of. The two belong to the same low-bred family of ideas. + +It is the proposition to colonize the coloured people of America in +Africa, or somewhere else. Happily this scheme will be defeated, +both by its impolicy and its impracticability. It is all nonsense to +talk about the removal of eight millions of the American people from +their homes in America to Africa. The expense and hardships, to say +nothing of the cruelty attending such a measure, would make success +impossible. The American people are wicked, but they are not fools; +they will hardly be disposed to incur the expense, to say nothing of +the injustice which this measure demands. Nevertheless, this colonizing +scheme, unworthy as it is of American statesmanship, and American +honour, and though full of mischief to the coloured people, seems to +have a strong hold on the public mind, and at times has shown much life +and vigor. + +The bad thing about it is, that it has, of late, owing to persecution, +begun to be advocated by coloured men of acknowledged ability and +learning, and every little while some white statesman becomes its +advocate. Those gentlemen will doubtless have their opinion of me; I +certainly have mine of them. My opinion is, that if they are sensible, +they are insincere; and if they are sincere, they are not sensible. +They know, or they ought to know that it would take more money than +the cost of the late war, to transport even one half of the coloured +people of the United States to Africa. Whether intentionally or not, +they are, as I think, simply trifling with an afflicted people. They +urge them to look for relief where they ought to know that relief is +impossible. The only excuse they can make for the measure is that there +is no hope for the Negro here, and that the coloured people in America +owe something to Africa. + +This last sentimental idea makes colonization very fascinating to the +dreamers of both colours. But there is really no foundation for it. + +They tell us that we owe something to our native land. This sounds +well. But when the fact is brought to view, which should never be +forgotten, that a man can only have one native land and that is the +land in which he is born, the bottom falls entirely out of this +sentimental argument. + +Africa, according to her colonization advocates, is by no means modest +in her demands upon us. She calls upon us to send her only our best +men. She does not want our riff-raff, but our best men. But these are +just the men who are valuable and who are wanted at home. It is true +that we have a few preachers and laymen with a missionary turn of mind +whom we might easily spare. Some who would possibly do as much good by +going there as by staying here. By this is not the colonization idea. +Its advocates want not only the best, but millions of the best. Better +still, they want the United States Government to vote the money to send +them there. They do not seem to see that if the Government votes money +to send the Negro to Africa, that the Government may employ means to +complete the arrangement and compel us to go. + +Now I hold that the American Negro owes no more to the Negroes in +Africa than he owes to the Negroes in America. There are millions of +needy people over there, but there are also millions of needy people +over here as well, and the millions in America need intelligent men of +their number to help them, as much as intelligent men are needed in +Africa to help her people. Besides, we have a fight on our hands right +here, a fight for the redemption of the whole race, and a blow struck +successfully for the Negro in America, is a blow struck for the Negro +in Africa. For, until the Negro is respected in America, he need not +expect consideration elsewhere. All this native land talk, however, +is nonsense. The native land of the American Negro is America. His +bones, his muscles, his sinews, are all American. His ancestors for two +hundred and seventy years have lived and laboured and died, on American +soil, and millions of his posterity have inherited Caucasian blood. + +It is pertinent, therefore, to ask, in view of this admixture, as well +as in view of other facts, where the people of this mixed race are to +go, for their ancestors are white and black, and it will be difficult +to find their native land anywhere outside of the United States. + +But the worst thing, perhaps, about this colonization nonsense is, that +it tends to throw over the Negro a mantle of despair. It leads him to +doubt the possibility of his progress as an American citizen. It also +encourages popular prejudice with the hope that by persecution or by +persuasion, the Negro can finally be dislodged and driven from his +natural home, while in the nature of the case he must stay here and +will stay here, if for no other reason than because he cannot well get +away. + +I object to the colonization scheme, because it tends to weaken the +Negro’s hold on one country, while it can give him no rational hope of +another. Its tendency is to make him despondent and doubtful, where he +should feel assured and confident. It forces upon him the idea that he +is for ever doomed to be a stranger and a sojourner in the land of his +birth, and that he has no permanent abiding place here. + +All this is hurtful; with such ideas constantly flaunted before him, he +cannot easily set himself to work to better his condition in such ways +as are open to him here. It sets him to groping everlastingly after the +impossible. + +Every man who thinks at all, must know that home is the fountain head, +the inspiration, the foundation and main support, not only of all +social virtue but of all motives to human progress, and that no people +can prosper, or amount to much, unless they have a home, or the hope of +a home. A man who has not such an object, either in possession or in +prospect, is a nobody and will never be anything else. To have a home, +the Negro must have a country, and he is an enemy to the moral progress +of the Negro, whether he knows it or not, who calls upon him to break +up his home in this country, for an uncertain home in Africa. + +But the agitation on this subject has a darker side still. It has +already been given out that if we do not go of our own accord, we +may be forced to go, at the point of the bayonet. I cannot say that +we shall not have to face this hardship, but badly as I think of the +tendency of our times, I do not think that American sentiment will ever +reach a condition which will make the expulsion of the Negro from the +United States by any such means, possible. + +Yet, the way to make it possible is to predict it. There are people +in the world who know how to bring their own prophecies to pass. The +best way to get up a mob, is to say there will be one, and this is what +is being done. Colonization is no solution, but an evasion. It is not +repentance but putting the wronged ones out of our presence. It is not +atonement, but banishment. It is not love, but hate. Its reiteration +and agitation only serves to fan the flame of popular prejudice and to +add insult to to injury. + +The righteous judgment of mankind will say if the American people could +endure the Negro’s presence while a slave, they certainly can and ought +to endure his presence as a free man. + +If they could tolerate him when he was a heathen, they might bear +with him now that he is a Christian. If they could bear with him when +ignorant and degraded, they should bear with him now that he is a +gentleman and a scholar. + +But even the Southern whites have an interest in this question. Woe to +the South when it no longer has the strong arm of the Negro to till its +soil, “and woe to the nation when it shall employ the sword to drive +the Negro from his native land.” + +Such a crime against justice, such a crime against gratitude, should it +ever be attempted, would certainly bring a national punishment which +would cause the earth to shudder. It would bring a stain upon the +nation’s honour, like the blood on Lady Macbeth’s hand. The waters of +all the oceans would not suffice to wash out the infamy. But the nation +will commit no such crime. But in regard to this point of our future, +my mind is easy. We are here and are here to stay. It is well for us +and well for the American people to rest up on this as final. + + +EMANCIPATION CRIPPLED. LANDLORD AND TENANT. + +Another mode of impeaching the wisdom of emancipation, and the one +which seems to give special pleasure to our enemies, is, as they say, +that the condition of the coloured people of the South has been made +worse by emancipation. + +The champions of this idea are the only men who glory in the good old +times when the slaves were under the lash and were bought and sold +in the market with horses, sheep, and swine. It is another way of +saying that slavery is better than freedom; that darkness is better +than light, and that wrong is better than right; that hell is better +than heaven! It is the American method of reasoning in all matters +concerning the Negro. It inverts everything; turns truth upside down, +and puts the case of the unfortunate Negro inside out and wrong end +foremost every time. There is, however, nearly always some truth on +their side of error, and it is so in this case. + +When these false reasoners assert that the condition of the emancipated +slave is wretched and deplorable, they partly tell the truth, and I +agree with them. I even concur with them in the statement that the +Negro is physically, in certain localities, in a worse condition to-day +than in the time of slavery, but I part with these gentlemen when they +ascribe this condition to emancipation. + +To my mind the blame does not rest upon emancipation, but the defeat of +emancipation. It is not the work of the spirit of liberty, but the work +of the spirit of bondage. It comes of the determination of slavery to +perpetuate itself, if not under one form, then under another. It is due +to the folly of endeavouring to put the new wine of liberty in the old +bottles of slavery. I concede the evil, but deny the alleged cause. + +The landowners of the South want the labour of the Negro on the hardest +terms possible. They once had it for nothing. They now want it for next +to nothing. To accomplish this, they have contrived three ways. The +first is, to rent their land to the Negro at an exorbitant price per +annum and compel him to mortgage his crop in advance to pay this rent. +The laws under which this is done are entirely in the interest of the +landlord. He has a first claim upon everything produced on the land. +The Negro can have nothing, can keep nothing, can sell nothing, without +the consent of the landlord. As the Negro is at the start poor and +empty-handed, he has had to draw on the landlord for meat and bread to +feed himself and family while his crop is growing. The landlord keeps +books; the Negro does not; hence, no matter how hard he may work or how +hard saving he may be, he is, in most cases, brought in debt at the end +of the year, and once in debt he is fastened to the land as by hooks of +steel. If he attempts to leave he may be arrested under the order of +the law. + +Another way, which is still more effective, is the practice of paying +the labourer with orders on the store instead of lawful money. By +this means money is kept out of the hands of the Negro, and the Negro +is kept entirely in the hands of the landlord. He cannot save money +because he gets no money to save. He cannot seek a better market for +his labour because he has no money with which to pay his fare, and +because he is, by that vicious order system, already in debt, and +therefore already in bondage. Thus he is riveted to one place, and is, +in some sense, a slave; for a man to whom it can be said, “You shall +work for me for what I choose to pay you, and how I shall choose to pay +you,” is, in fact, a slave, though he may be called a free man. + +We denounce the landlord and tenant system of England, but it can be +said of England as cannot be said of our free country, that by law no +labourer can be paid for labour in any other than lawful money. England +holds any other payment to be a penal offence and punishable by fine +and imprisonment. The same should be the case in every State in the +American Union. + +Under the mortgage system, no matter how industrious or economical the +Negro may be, he finds himself at the end of the year in debt to the +landlord, and from year to year he toils on and is tempted to try again +and again, but seldom with any better result. + +With this power over the Negro, this possession of his labour, you may +easily see why the South sometimes makes a display of its liberality +and brags that it does not want slavery back. It had the Negro’s +labour, heretofore for nothing, and now it has it for next to nothing +and at the same time is freed from the obligation to take care of the +young and the aged, the sick and the decrepit. There is not much virtue +in all this, yet it is the ground of loud boasting. + + +ATTITUDE OF WHITE RACE TOWARDS NEGROES. A NATIONAL PROBLEM. + +I now come to the so-called, but mis-called “Negro Problem,” as a +characterization of the relations existing in the Southern States. + +I say at once, I do not admit the justice or propriety of this formula, +as applied to the question before us. Words are things. They are +certainly such in this case, since they give us a misnomer that is +misleading and hence mischievous. It is a formula of Southern origin +and has a strong bias against the Negro. It handicaps his cause with +all the prejudice known to exist and anything to which he is a party. +It has been accepted by the good people of the North, as I think, +without proper thought and investigation. It is a crafty invention and +is in every way worthy of its inventors. + +It springs out of a desire to throw off just responsibility and +to evade the performance of disagreeable but manifest duty. Its +natural effect and purpose is to divert attention from the true +issue now before the American people. It does this by holding up and +pre-occupying the public mind with an issue entirely different from the +real one in question. That which is really a great national problem and +which ought to be so considered by the whole American people, dwarfs +into a “Negro Problem.” The device is not new. It is an old trick. It +has been oft repeated and with a similar purpose and effect. For truth, +it gives us falsehood. For innocence, it gives us guilt. It removes +the burden of proof from the old master class and imposes it upon the +Negro. It puts upon the race a work which belongs to the nation. It +belongs to that craftiness often displayed by disputants who aim to +make the worse appear the better reason. It gives bad names to good +things and good names to bad things. + +The Negro has often been the victim to this kind of low cunning. You +may remember that during the late war, when the South fought for +the perpetuity of slavery, it usually called the slaves “domestic +servants,” and slavery a “domestic institution.” Harmless names, +indeed, but the things they stood for were far from harmless. + +The South has always known how to have a dog hanged by giving him a bad +name. When it prefixed “Negro” to the national problem, it knew that +the device would awaken and increase a deep-seated prejudice at once +and that it would repel fair and candid investigation. As it stands, it +implies that the Negro is the cause of whatever trouble there is in the +South. In old slave times, when a little white child lost his temper, +he was given a little whip and told to go and whip “Jim” or “Sal,” and +he thus regained his temper. The same is true to-day on a large scale. + +I repeat, and my contention is that this Negro problem formula lays +the fault at the door of the Negro and removes it from the door of the +white man, shields the guilty and blames the innocent, makes the Negro +responsible, when it should so make the nation. + +Now what the real problem is, we all ought to know. It is not a Negro +problem, but in every sense a great national problem. It involves the +question, whether after all our boasted civilization, our Declaration +of Independence, our matchless Constitution, our sublime Christianity, +our wise statesmanship, we as a people, possess virtue enough to +solve this problem in accordance with wisdom and justice, and to the +advantage of both races. + +The marvel is that this old trick of misnaming things, so often +displayed by Southern politicians, should have worked so well for the +bad cause in which it is now employed; for the American people have +fallen in with the bad idea that this is a Negro problem, a question +of the character of the Negro and not a question of the nation. It is +still more surprising that the coloured press of the country, and some +of our coloured orators, have made the same mistake, and still insist +upon calling it a “Negro problem,” or a race problem, for by race they +mean the Negro race. Now, there is nothing the matter with the Negro, +whatever; he is all right. Learned or ignorant, he is all right. He is +neither a lyncher, a mobocrat or an anarchist. He is now what he has +ever been, a loyal, law-abiding, hard working and peaceable man; so +much so that men have thought him cowardly and spiritless. Had he been +a turbulent anarchist he might indeed have been a troublesome problem, +but he is not. To his reproach, it is sometimes said that any other +people in the world would have invented some violent way in which to +resent their wrongs. If this problem depended upon the character and +conduct of the Negro there would be no problem to solve; there would be +no menace to the peace and good order of Southern Society. He makes no +unlawful fight between labour and capital. That problem, which often +makes the American people thoughtful, is not of his bringing, though he +may some day be compelled to talk of this tremendous problem in common +with other labourers. + +He has as little to do with the cause of the Southern trouble as he +has with its cure. There is no reason, therefore, in the world, why +his name should be given to this problem. It is false, misleading and +prejudicial, and, like all other falsehoods, must eventually come to +naught. + +I well remember, as others may remember, that this same old falsehood +was employed and used against the Negro during the late war. He was +then charged and stigmatized with being the cause of the war, on the +principle that there would be no highway robbers if there were nobody +on the road to be robbed. But as absurd as this pretence was, the +colour prejudice of the country was stimulated by it and joined in the +accusation, and the Negro had to bear the brunt of it. + +Even at the North he was hated and hunted on account of it. In the +great city of New York his houses were burned, his children were hunted +down like wild beasts, and his people were murdered in the streets, all +because “they were the cause of the war.” Even the good and noble Mr. +Lincoln, one of the best and most clear-sighted men that ever lived, +once told a committee of Negroes, who waited upon him at Washington, +that “they were the cause of the war.” + +Many were the men who, in their wrath and hate, accepted this theory, +and wished the Negro in Africa, or in a hotter climate, as some do now. + +There is nothing to which prejudice is not equal in the way of +perverting the truth and inflaming the passions of men. + +But call this problem what you may or will, the all-important question +is: How can it be solved? How can the peace and tranquility of the +South and of the country be secured and established? + +There is nothing occult or mysterious about the answer to this +question. Some things are to be kept in the mind when dealing with this +subject and should never be forgotten. It should be remembered that, in +the order of Divine Providence, the “man, who puts one end of a chain +around the ankle of his fellow man, will find the other end around his +own neck.” And it is the same with a nation. Confirmation of this truth +is as strong as proofs of holy writ. As we sow we shall reap, is a +lesson that will be learned here as elsewhere. We tolerated slavery and +it has cost us a million graves, and it may be that lawless murder now +raging, if permitted to go on, may yet bring the red hand of vengeance, +not only on the reverend head of age, and upon the heads of helpless +women, but upon even the innocent babes in the cradle. + + + + +VII. + + +HOW THE PROBLEM IS SOLVED. + +But how can this problem be solved? I will tell you how it cannot +be solved. It cannot be solved by keeping the Negro poor, degraded, +ignorant and half-starved, as I have shown is now being done in +Southern States. + +It cannot be solved by keeping back the wages of the labourer by fraud, +as is now being done by the landlords of the South. It cannot be done +by ballot-box stuffing, by falsifying election returns, or by confusing +the Negro voter by cunning devices. It cannot be done by repealing all +federal laws enacted to secure honest elections. It can, however, be +done, and very easily done, for where there is a will there is a way. + +Let the white people of the North and South conquer their prejudices. + +Let the Northern press and pulpit proclaim the gospel of truth and +justice against the war now being made upon the Negro. + +Let the American people cultivate kindness and humanity. + +Let the South abandon the system of mortgage labour and cease to make +the Negro a pauper, by paying him dishonest scrip for his honest labour. + +Let them give up the idea that they can be free while making the Negro +a slave. Let them give up the idea that to degrade the coloured man +is to elevate the white man. Let them cease putting new wine into old +bottles, and mending old garments with new cloth. + +They are not required to do much. They are only required to undo the +evil they have done, in order to solve this problem. + +In old times when it was asked, “How can we abolish slavery?” the +answer was “Quit stealing.” + +The same is the solution of the race problem to-day. The whole thing +can be done simply by no longer violating the amendment of the +Constitution of the United States, and no longer evading the claims +of justice. If this were done, there would be no Negro problem or +national problem to vex the South or to vex the nation. + +Let the organic law of the land be honestly sustained and obeyed. Let +the political parties cease to palter in a double sense, and live up to +the noble declarations we find in their platforms. Let the statesmen of +our country live up to their convictions. In the language of ex-Senator +Ingalls: “Let the nation try justice and the problem will be solved.” + +Two hundred and twenty years ago the Negro was made a religious +problem, one which gave our white forefathers about as much perplexity +and annoyance as we now profess. At that time the problem was in +respect of what relation a Negro sustains to the Christian Church, +whether he was in fact a fit subject for baptism, and Dr. Godwin, a +celebrated divine of his time, and one far in advance of his brethren, +was at the pains of writing a book of two hundred pages or more, +containing an elaborate argument to prove that it was not a sin in the +sight of God to baptize a Negro. + +His argument was very able, very learned, very long. Plain as the truth +may seem, there were at that time very strong arguments against the +position of the learned divine. + +As usual, it was not merely the baptism of the Negro that gave trouble, +but it was as to what might follow such baptism. The sprinkling him +with water was a very simple thing and easily gotten along with, but +the slaveholders of that day saw in the innovation something more +dangerous than cold water. They said that to baptize the Negro and +make him a member of the Church of Christ was to make him an important +person--in fact, to make him an heir of Jesus Christ. It was to give +him a place at Lord’s supper. It was to take him out of the category of +heathenism and make it inconsistent to hold him a slave, for the Bible +made only the heathen a proper subject for slavery. + +These were formidable consequences, certainly, and it is not strange +that the Christian slaveholders of that day viewed these consequences +with immeasurable horror. It was something more terrible and dangerous +than the Civil Rights Bill and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments +to our Constitution. It was a difficult thing, therefore, at that day +to get the Negro into water. + +Nevertheless, our learned doctor of divinity, like many of the same +class in our day, was equal to the emergency. He was able to satisfy +all important parties to the problem, except the Negro, and him it did +not seem necessary to satisfy. + +The doctor was a skilled dialectician. He could not only divide the +word with skill, but he could divide the Negro into two parts. He +argued that the Negro had a soul as well as a body, and insisted that +while his body rightfully belonged to his master on earth, his soul +belonged to his Master in heaven. By this convenient arrangement, +somewhat metaphysical, to be sure, but entirely evangelical and +logical, the problem of Negro baptism was solved. + +But with the Negro in the case, as I have said, the argument was not +entirely satisfactory. The operation was much like that by which the +white man got the turkey and the Indian got the crow. When the Negro +looked for his body, that belonged to his earthly master; when he +looked around for his soul, that had been appropriated by his heavenly +Master; and when he looked around for something that really belonged to +himself, he found nothing but his shadow, and that vanished into the +air, when he might most want it. + +One thing, however, is to be noticed with satisfaction; it is this: +something was gained to the cause of righteousness by this argument. It +was a contribution to the cause of liberty. It was largely in favour +of the Negro. It was a plain recognition of his manhood, and was +calculated to set men to thinking that the Negro might have some other +important rights, no less than the religious right to baptism. + +Thus, with all its faults, we are compelled to give the pulpit the +credit of furnishing the first important argument in favour of the +religious character and manhood rights of the Negro. + +Dr. Godwin was undoubtedly a good man. He wrote at a time of much moral +darkness, and when property in man was nearly everywhere recognised as +a rightful institution. He saw only a part of the truth. He saw that +the Negro had a right to be baptized, but he could not all at once see +that he had a primary and paramount right to himself. + +But this was not the only problem slavery had in store for the Negro. +Time and events brought another and it was this very important one: +Can the Negro sustain the legal relation of a husband to a wife? Can he +make a valid marriage contract in this Christian country? + +This problem was solved by the same slave-holding authority, entirely +against the Negro. Such a contract, it was argued, could only be +binding upon men providentially enjoying the right to life, liberty, +and the pursuit of happiness, and since the Negro is a slave and +slavery a divine institution, legal marriage was wholly inconsistent +with the institution of slavery. + +When some of us at the North questioned the ethics of this conclusion, +we were told to mind our business, and our Southern brethren asserted, +as they assert now, that they alone are competent to manage this and +all other questions relating to the Negro. In fact, there has been +no end to the problems of some sort or other, involving the Negro in +difficulty. + +Can the Negro be a citizen? was the question of the Dred Scott +decision. Can the Negro be educated? Can the Negro be induced to work +for himself without a master? Can the Negro be a soldier? Time and +events have answered these and all other like questions. We have among +us Negroes who have taken the first prizes as scholars; those who +have won distinction for courage and skill on the battle field; those +who have taken rank as lawyers, doctors and ministers of the gospel; +those who shine among men in every useful calling; and yet we are +called a problem--a tremendous problem; a mountain of difficulty; a +constant source of apprehension; a disturbing social force, threatening +destruction to the holiest and best interests of society. I declare +this statement concerning the Negro, whether by good Miss Willard, +Bishop Haygood, Bishop Fitzgerald, ex-Governor Chamberlain, or by any +and all others, as false and deeply injurious to the coloured citizens +of the United States. + + * * * * * + +But, my friends, I must stop. Time and strength are not equal to the +task before me. But could I be heard by this great nation, I would +call to mind the sublime and glorious truths with which, at its +birth, it saluted and startled a listening world. Its voice, then, +was as the trump of an archangel, summoning hoary forms of oppression +and time honoured tyranny, to judgment. Crowned heads heard it and +shrieked. Toiling millions heard it and clapped their hands for joy. +It announced the advent of a nation, based upon human brotherhood and +the self-evident truths of liberty and equality. Its mission was the +redemption of the world from the bondage of ages. Apply these sublime +and glorious truths to the situation now before you. Put away your +race prejudice. Banish the idea that one class must rule over another. +Recognize the fact that the rights of the humblest citizens are as +worthy of protection as are those of the highest and your problem +will be solved, and--whatever may be in store for you in the future, +whether prosperity or adversity, whether you have foes without or foes +within, whether there shall be peace or war--based upon the eternal +principles of truth, justice and humanity, with no class having cause +for complaint or grievance, your Republic will stand and flourish for +ever. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +