THE AUTHOR AND REV". HARRY KNIGHT.
''ONE IS YOUR MASTER, EVEV CHKIST, AND ALL YE ARE
BRETHREN"—THE SON OF GOD.
THE WHITE SIDE OF
A BLACK SUBJECT
ENLARGED AND BROUGHT DOWN TO DATE.
B IPfndfcatfon of tbe Hfro-Bmerlcart IRace.
FROM THE LANDING OF SLAVES AT ST. AUGUSTINE,
FLORIDA, IN 1565, TO THE PRESENT TIME.
BY
REV. NORMAN B. WOOD,
THE "WELL-KNOWN HISTORIAN AND LECTURER.
AMERICAN PUBLISHING HOUSE,
352, 354 and 356 Dearborn St.
CHICAGO, ILL.
1897
Copyrighted by the Author.
All Rights Reserved.
30et>fcatfom
To my faithful wife, without whose assistance I could
not have completed this work with my ministerial duties.
To my dear old classmate and special friend,Rev. Geo. W.
Taylor of Bellefontaine, Ohio, who has become a convert
to my theory, that the best way to obliterate the chasm
between the two sections is for the Southern boys to come
North and select their wives.
— ^Fo that prince among men, Dr. William H. Whitsitt, of
the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary of Louisville,
who inspired the author when a student in his class-room
with some of his own love for, and enthusiasm in historical
investigation.
To these three, as a small token of esteem, this volume is
dedicated by
The Author.
PREFACE.
"Oh, that . , . mine adversary had written a book." Job
XXXI. 35.
If good old Job had adversaries, we can hardly
hope to escape, especially after discussing a subject
fully and fearlessly about which good men honestly
differed for nearly two and one half centuries. We
believe, however, that our position is in accord with
the teaching of God's word and the verdict of hu¬
manity and modern civilization.
President Cleveland's motto during his first presi¬
dential campaign was, "Tell the truth." We havte
tried to make that our watchword, as a historian
should; and have hewn to the line regardless where the
chips fell.
We wish to say in this connection, that much of
this work is in the nature of a compilation, as is the
case with all works of a historical character.. We
have tried to give credit to each author quoted; how¬
ever, we are under special obligations to Dr. Geo.W.
Williams,the leading colored historian who rendered
aid in our chapters on "Slavery Before the Revolu¬
tion," and "The Colored Troops Fought Nobly." We
received help from the works of Wm. Wells Brown,
a colored author, on the chapter,"He Fought to Free
his Master."
Other works of helpfulness were Frederic May Hol¬
land's "Life of Frederick Douglass," Henry Wilson's
"Rise and Fall of the Slave Power," Tanner's "Mar-
7
PREFACE
tyrdom of Lovejoy," "Life of Wm. LIuyd Garrison,"
by his sons, and another "Life of Garrison" by Row¬
land Johnson, "Biography of Sojourner Truth,"
Fannie Kemble's "Diary of Life on a Georgia Plan¬
tation," Banyard's "Plymouth and the Pilgrims,"
Hollis Read's "Negro Problem Solved," Wendell
Phillip's "Toussaint L'Ouverture," and The Colored
Men's Directory.
And now we send this volume forth to the r'eading
public, "with malice toward none, with charity for
all." N. B. W.
CONTENTS
Chapter
Page
I.
Brotherhood
ii
II.
Our Brother in Chains
37
III.
The Dutch Slaver and the Mayflower. .
56
IV.
Slavery Before the Revolution
83
V.
He Fought to Free His Master
io5
VI.
Slavery in Freedom
128
VII.
The Agonizing, Cruel Slavery Days
149
VIII.
Underground Railroads and Fugitive
Slaves
16s
IX.
Forerunners of Freedom. Joh>j ei.-wn,
the Protomartyr
190
X.
"The Colored Troops Fought Nobly"...
239
XI.
Exodus to the North and West. Its
Cause and Cure
2(
XII.
My Old Kentucky Home
2oo
XIII.
Some Prominent Negroes
311
XIV.
Marvelous Progress
349
XV.
Retrospective and Prospective
366
XVI.
Afro-American Progress up to Date
391
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGB.
1. Frontispiece 1
2. Blanche K. -Bruce . 88
3. Abraham Lincoln... 39
4. Booker T. Washington 60
5. Tuskegee Institute 61
6. P. B. S. Pinchback 80
7. Mrs. H. B. Stowe 81
8. John M. Langston 100
9.' U. S. Grant 101
10. Ida B. Wells-Barnett * 120
11. Clinton B. Fisk 121
12. George W. Williams 170
13. George W. Cable 171
14. Cissereitta Jones (Black Patti) . 216
15. Henry H. Garnett 217
16. Bishop D. A. Payne 240
17. Samuel R. Lowery, Silk Culturist 241
18. Robert Smalls 262
19. Amanda Smith 263
20. Frederick Douglass 310
21. William Moore 311
22. Toussaint L'Ouverture 320
23. Indian and Negro Contrasted... 321
24. Phillis Wheatley 328
25. Paul Lawrence Dunbar 329
26. Sojourner Truth. 334
27. Colored Regiment in New York City. 335
28. I. Garland Penn 394
29. Negro Building, Atlanta Exposition. 395
30 Negro Building, Tennessee Centennial Exposition,
Nashville 405
THE WHITE SIDE OF A BLACK
SUBJECT.
CHAPTER I.
BROTHERHOOD.
"For one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are breth¬
ren."—The Son of Qod.
• 'God that hath made the world, and all things therein . .
. . hath made of one blood all nation s of men to dwell on all
the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before
appointed and the bounds of their habitation."—The Apostle Paul.
Many years ago traducers of the Negro race,
eager to justify slavery and to apply a soothing
lotion to their own conscience, advanced the
theory that the Negro did not belong to the human
family. Perhaps the wish was father to the
thought. Many of this class treated their slaves
in the most cruel and dehumanizing manner, until
they began to believe the Negro was not human.
But this theory is so much at variance with the
teachings of God's Word, ethnology, as well as
the dictates of humanity, and of common sense,
that we shall reply to it, much as General Grant
did to the long speeches with which he was bored
11
12
THE WHITE SIDE OF
in his tour around the world, "with flashing
silence."
If any still hold this position, after the marvelous
progress of the Colored Freedmen of America in
the past thirty years, it were futile to argue with
them.'
Others, wise in their own conceit, took the more
advanced position that the Negro is a human be¬
ing, but they assumed that he descended from
Adam through Cain; and some of them thought
that slavery was the "mark of Cain," while others
of this school claimed that the black skin and
wooly hair was that mark. Thus did the doctors
disagree in details, though holding to the same
theory in the main.
This position hardly merits a serious reply,
since every Sunday-school pupil ten years of age,
of average intelligence, knows that the descendants
of Cain, "who was of that wicked one and slew
his brother," perished in the flood (Gen. vi. 23),
and that God repeopled the world through Noah,
who was descended from Seth, the third son of
Adam. But the pro-slavery advocates, some of
them ministers of the gospel, were determined to
torture the Bible into upholding their peculiar in¬
stitution; by proving from it that the Negro was
an inferior race against whom an irrevocable curse
had been pronounced. When they found their
other positions untenable, they fell back in good
order to a proof text which they perverted into as
cunningly devised a piece of sophistry as the devil
fever used to entrap the children of men. It looked
so plausible on its face that it was calculated to
deceive the very elect, unless the elect were close
A BLACK SUBJECT
students of ethnology and Old Testament history.
The proof text in question was the curse pro¬
nounced by the patriarch Noah upon his grand¬
son Canaan: And he said, "Cursed be Canaan;
a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren."
(Gen.IX. 2 5-)They could now cry, "Eureka," and
no doubt rolled it under their tongues like a sweet
morsel, for
This was the verse they long had sought,
And mourned because they found it not.
I have known blear-eyed, wife-beating drunk¬
ards who could quote one verse of scripture; but
it was Paul's admonition to Timothy to "drink
no longer water, but "use a little wine for thy
stomach's sake and thine often infirmities." It
never dawned upon the man who quoted this scrip¬
ture that his own name was not Timothy and that
the only thing the matter with his stomach was
the fact that it was burned out with mean whisky,'
and to take more was simply adding fuel to the
flame. So with "Cursed be Canaan;" plenty of
men, especially in the slave states, could quote this
verse who were utterly ignorant of the rest of the
Bible.
Mrs. Stowe, in her "Uncle Tom's Cabin," tells
of an ignorant slave-catcher whose version of it was
about as follows: "Don't the good book say, 'Cust
be what's-his-name ?' " The only verse he pretended
to know, and he did not know that.
A text which has been so often perverted into a
warrant for kidnaping and enslaving the sable
sons of Africa that a more favored race might live
by the sweat of other men's faces instead of their
own, according to God's decree, cannot be passed
14
THE WHITE SIDE -OF
by with impunity, so we will quote the whole
passage and show that it has always been
perverted:
"And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he
planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine,
and was drunken; and he was uncovered within
his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw
the nakedness of his father, and told his two breth¬
ren without. And Shem and Japhethtook a gar¬
ment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and
went backward, and covered the nakedness of
their father: and their faces were backward, and
thep saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah
awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger
son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be
Qanfaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto
■^his brethren. And he said, Blessed- be the Lord
God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in
the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his serv¬
ant." (Gen. IX. 20-27.)
Dr. P. S. Henson is responsible for the state¬
ment that a certain student of zoology and natural
history defined a crab as a "red fish that runs
backwards." Upon which the Professor said:
"Young gentleman, your definition is quite good,
but there are three little mistakes; in the first
place a crab is not a fish, in the second place it is
not red, in the third place it does not run back¬
wards." So with this warrant for enslaving the
Negro in "Cursed be Canaan." In the first place
this language was not prophetic, because
A prophet was moved by a Spirit divine,
While Noah was moved by the spirit of wine.
A BLACK SUBJECT
i-5
The fact is the old man, though a preacher of
righteousness one hundred and twenty years be¬
fore the flood, had sadly fallen from grace. There
is not a single passage to show that he ever
preached after his miraculous deliverance. He
became worldly-minded, planted a vineyard, made
wine, and, piteous spectacle! got drunk and ex¬
posed his nakedness. We do not believe that
God would have honored a drunken man with the
gift of prophecy when His inspired word plainly
says no drunkard can enter the kingdom of God.
In the second place, it was limited to Canaan, an
innocent party, who had nothing to do with the
insult to Noah, and does not include Ham the cul¬
prit. The line of blessing or cursing descends in
the natural way; it does not flow up-strearp. We
read of God "visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation;" but nowhere do we read that the
sins of the children shall be visited upon the
parents.
That the curse was pronounced against an inno¬
cent party is evidence that it was not divinely in¬
spired, but the incoherent utterance of an intoxi¬
cated nian. Inspiration would have made no mis¬
take in regard to the guilty one, while the frenzy
of drunkenness often causes men to turn upon
their best friends.
In the third place, granting that it applied to
Canaan, it did not affect the Negro race, for the
best reason in the world—the negro did not de¬
scend from Canaan, the youngest son of Ham, but
from Cush, the eldest son. It is claimed on good
authority that the Negro race is an amalgamation
of the sons of Cush and Misraim.
i6
THE WHITE SIDE OF
In the first verse of the chapter containing the
supposed curse, we read, "And God blessed Noah
and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful,
and multiply, and replenish the earth." There is
no exception in this case; each of the three sons
received a blessing, and when God has bestowed
a blessing it is not in the province of any man to
set it aside, and substitute a curse in lieu of it,
especially a man who disgraced his old age by
being both drunk and disorderly.
The evidence shows that Noah did not intend
to include Ham and his three other sons in this
malediction. This is shown first, by the careful
omission of their names. Second, by the explicit
use of Canaan's name.
A true prophecy inspired of God is sure of ful¬
fillment; and the best evidence that this was not
a true prophecy, is in the fact that it was never
fulfilled. It was of man and it came to naught.
But had' this prophecy been of God we would have
found all of Canaan's posterity in bondage, and
all of Shem's descendants in the full enjoyment
of freedom.
Dr. Meade says: "There never has been a son
of Ham who has shaken a scepter over the
head of Japheth. Shem has subdued Japheth,
and Japheth has subdued Shem; but Ham never
subdued either." The Docter has certainly read
history to little purpose, to make such a state¬
ment, because all authorities agree that Egypt was
peopled by Misraim, the second son of Ham; and
the Shemites or Hebrews were in bondage to the
Hamites or Egyptians for centuries.
According to Herodotus, Diodorus and Mane-
A BLACK SUBJECT
*7
tho, the ancient historians, Rameses II., surnamed
the Great, was the most illustrious of Egyptian
kings. Though but a youth when he began to
reign, he determined to conquer the world. Col¬
lecting a vast army of six hundred thousand foot
soldiers, twenty-four thousand horse, and twenty-
seven war chariots, he began his career of con¬
quest. He built a fleet of four hundred war ships
on the Rod Ssa, ths first ever constructed by
Egyptians, and conquered by land and water the
seacoast and islands as far as India. Landing his
army, he pushed his conquest to the Ganges, and
beyond; then turning to the north, he subdued
Scythia as far as the river Tanais, which divided
Asia from Europe. Crossing over into Thrace, he
continued his career until checked by the severe
climate and scarcity of foDd. Everywhere in his
triumphant march he erected pillars with this in¬
scription: "This land Sesostris, king of kings
and lord of lords, conquered with his arms." After
nine years the victorious monarch returned laden
with spoils of war, and captives of many conquered
nations. So this great warrior must have con¬
quered the greater portion of western Asia, and
the edge of Europe. Was not this a clear case
in which "a son of Ham" has "shaken a scepter"
over the heads of both Shem and Japheth?
Long before this, Melchizedek the Canaanite,
whose name implied, "king of righteousness," re¬
ceived a tenth of all his spoils from Abraham the
Shemite. The fact is the Canaanites, so far from
becoming a nation of slaves, were among the great¬
est of the ancient people; building the three
greatest maritime cities, Tyre, Sidon and Car-
iB THE WHITESIDE OF
thage. They planted their colonies throughout the
ancient world, while their fleets of commerce and
exploration were on every sea.
Who has not heard of Tyrian purple, worn only
by emperors, kings and nobility, and manufac¬
tured exclusively by the Canaanites? When Solo¬
mon wanted cedar of Lebanon for the Temple of
God, he obtained it from the Phoenicians or Ca-r
naanites. When he wanted chief architects for
the building, he found them among the same people.
When he wanted navies on the Mediterranean and
Red seas to obtain the products of distant lands,
Hiram king of Tyre, the Canaanite, supplied him
with both ships and sailors.
But, says an objector, did not Noah say,
"Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan
shall be his servant?" Were not Solomon and
his people Shemites, and were not King Hiram
and his people servants to Solomon, and did not
this fulfill Noah's prophecy? Yes, they served
Solomon faithfully and well, but they did it not
because they were slaves, but because they were
well paid for it.
In i Kings V. io-ii, we read, "So Hiram
gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees according
to his desire, and Solomon gaye Hiram twenty
thousand measures of wheat for food to his house¬
hold, and twenty measures of pure oil: thus gave
Solomon to Hiram year by year." In I Kings
IX. II, we read, "Now Hiram the King of Tyre
had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir
trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,
that then King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities
in the land of Galilee."
A BLACK SUBJECT
*9
We incline to believe that twenty cities, with
twenty thousand measures of wheat, and twenty
measures of pure oil, "year by year,"was liberal
pay for the work performed by Hiram's men. Al¬
most any nation would submit gracefully to a
similar curse of servitude.
Phoenicia was only a narrow strip of mountain
and sandy beach along the Mediterranean Sea,
about one hundred and eighty miles long by
twenty at its greatest width. The people engaged
in commerce and became the most skillful sailors
in the ancient world. They often supplied the
surrounding nations with ships and sailors. Rid-
path, in his history of the world, stated that in
the year 611 B. G. Neko II., of Egypt, built a
navy 011 the Red Sea which was manned by Phoe¬
nician sailors, and sent to explore the coasts of
Africa. "In the first summer of their voyage, and
again in their second, these hardy seamen landed,
pitched a camp, sowed grain and gathered a har¬
vest. In the third season they returned to Egypt
by way of the Mediterranean, having accom¬
plished with great toil and peril the circumnavi¬
gation of Africa." Who performed this greatest
feat of navigation recorded of the ancients? The
Canaanites and their kinsmen t.he Mizraimites, all
of them descendants of Ham. So "cursed be
Canaan," did not seem to affect this case.
The only hint of the Canaanites expiating a
curse is found in the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah, the driving out of the Canaanites, and
other kindred tribes, by the Israelites under Josh¬
ua, and the enslavement of the Gibeonites. But
there is not the slightest hint that this was done
THE WHITE SIDE OF
in fulfillment of the curse pronounced by Noah.
In regard to the destruction of the wicked cities
of the plain,the reason was assigned in Gen. XVIII.
20—"And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom
and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is
very grievous," etc. In Deut. XX. 17-18 we read,
"But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely,the
Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and
the PerLzzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as
the Lord thy God hath commanded thee: That
they teach you not to do after all their abomi¬
nations, which they have done unto their gods."
In both these cases God commanded the destruc¬
tion of these people because of their sin. In regard
to the Gibeonites who established a treaty with
Joshua and saved their lives, we read in Joshua
IX. 22-23—"And Joshua called for them, and
he spake unto them, saying, Wherefore have ye
beguiled us, saying, We are very far from you;
when ye dwell among us. Now therefore ye are
cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from
being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers
of water for the house of my God " Were they
enslaved because of Noah's curse? Not a hint of
it, but because they-had lied to Joshua and be¬
guiled him into njaking a treaty with them and
swearing that he would not wage war against
them. As he could not exterminate them, he
would punish them by slavery.
Israel did not exterminate the .Canaanites or
enslave any of them except the Gibeonites.
Hence "a servant of servants shall he be," was
never fulfilled. Moreover Israel waged war against
the Moabites, and utterly exterminated the Ama-
A BLACK SUBJECT
lekites, by the command of God (Exodus XVII.
14), when the first descended from Lot, and the
other from Esau, hence Shemites and near rela¬
tives to Israel.
What of the progenitors of the Negro race?
The Bible account is very clear. "And the sons
of Ham; Cush,- and Mizraim, and Phut, and
Canaan. And the sons of Cush, Seba and Havi-
lah and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah; and
the sons of Raamah, Sheba, and Dedan. And
Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one
in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the
Lord: wherefore it is said, even as Nimrod the
mighty hunter before the Lord. And the begin¬
ning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and
Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out
of that land went forth Ashur, and builded
Nineveh And Canaan begat Sidon
his first-born, and Heth, and the Jebusite, and
the Amorite, .... and afterwards were
the families of the Canaanites spread abroad, and
the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as
thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza. . . ..
These are the sons of Ham, after their families,
after their tongues, in their countries, and in their
nations." Here is an. excellent sketch of the family
of Ham, including an account of his sons Cush
and Canaan, and their children.
We find that Cush was the oldest son of Ham,
and the father of six sons, of whom Seba and
Nimrod were the greatest and best known. As
Seba is mentioned first and Nimrod last, it would
seem to indicate that the former was the eldest,
and the latter the youngest of his sons.
22
THE WHITE SIDE OF
According to Josephus (Ant. II., X., 2), "Seba,
'The Men,' was the ancient kingdom of Meroe,
shut in like an island by the branches of the Nile;"
and forming a part of what is now Nubia. A
position which was on the direct caravan route
between India and Arabia on the east and the in¬
terior of Africa on the west and south; bringing
great wealth to the country at large, especially
the cities.
There are two other references to Seba in the
Bible (Isa. XLV. 14 and XVII. 2-7), where we
learn that its people were famous for their stature,
strength and bravery; "a people terrible from of
old," destroying all who opposed them. Herod¬
otus also referred to them, as the tallest and hand¬
somest of men, often living to the age of one
hundred and twenty years, or more. They also
chose their king for his stature and strength.
These people were undoubtedly Negroes; And it
was probably from among these people, according
to Josephus, that Moses, the man of God, got his
Ethiopian wife. (Antiquities, Book II., Chapter
10), (Numbers XII.)
Nimrod was the founder of the Babylonian
empire, while Nineveh was founded by a Baby¬
lonian colony led by Asshur, Nimrod's ser¬
vant, who named the city for Ninus the son of
Nimrod, Thus we find that the Cushites, the ac¬
knowledged ancestors of the Negro race, founded
the two greatest of the ancient inland cities, Baby¬
lon and Nineveh. We also find that a grandson
of Cush, Sheba, founded the wealthy kingdom
which bore his name, and whose queen made the
memorable visit to Solomon the magnificent.
A BLA CK SU±>j E CT
23
While the Canaanites founded the three greatest
of the maritime cities: Sidon, named for Canaan's
first-bona son,; Tyre, and Carthage in North Africa.
We think the following is a logical statement of
the case. Whereas Noah got drunk and cursed
Canaan, an innocent party; and whereas this curse
was never fulfilled; therefore, all to whom these
presents may come, greeting: Pagan, infidel or
pirate, are hereby empowered to kidnap and en¬
slave all the sable Africans who are descended
from Cush—not Canaan. We are here reminded
of the statement of Liliuokalani, the recent de¬
throned queen of Hawaii, that the best blood of
the English flowed in her veins, because her
"grandfather devoured Captain Cook."
Profane history endorses this account of the
sacred historian. Ridpath says: "The term
Hamitic has been derived from one of the sons of
Noah, and has been adopted from Biblical lan¬
guage. It is used by ethnologists and historians
to designate that branch of the human race which,
taking its rise somewhere between the Caspian
and the Persian Gulf, held its course westward
through Chaldea; branched to the south around
the sea-line of Arabia into Eastern Africa; en¬
tered by a direct route to the west the valley of
the Nile, and further on peopled the whole, coast
of Northern Africa."
Josephus in Book I., Chapter VI., Sec. 3, says:
"The children of Ham. possessed the land from
Syria and Amanus, and the mountains of Libanus,
seizing upon all the maritime ports and keeping
them as their own. Of the four sons of Ham,
time has not at all hurt the name of Chus (Cush),
24
THE WHITE SIDE OF
for the Ethiopians over whom he reigned are even
at this day, both by themselves, and by all men
in Asia, called Chusites (Cushites ) The memory
also of the Mesraites (Mizraimites) is preserved
in their name, for all who inhabit the country
called Egypt Mestre, are called Egyptian Mes-
trians."
Herodotus also stated that "Sabachus became
master of Egypt, and after reigning over it fifty
years, abdicated the throne and returned to Ethio¬
pia, his own country." This man must have been
highly skilled in the science of government and
war to have reigned over a conquered people for
fifty years.
He further states in Book III.: "When Cam-
byses of Persia had made himself master of Egypt
about 500 B. C., he made an attempt to conquer
Ethiopia also, but failed. He found the Ethi¬
opians equal to the Egyptians in refinement and
intelligence, and superior in military skill. In
order to facilitate his designs, Cambyses sent
spies with presents to the Ethiopian monarch, on
pretense of being desirous of establishing a treaty
of alliance with him. Said the spies: 'Cambyses,
sovereign of Persia, from his anxious desire of be¬
coming your friend and ally, has sent us to com¬
municate with you, and to desire your acceptance
of these presents, from the use of which he
himself derives the greatest pleasure.'"
Perhaps the Ethiopian king had heard of the
Trojan's warning to "beware of the Greek bearing
presents," and thought the same advice might ap¬
ply to the Persians. Certain it is he declined to
accept the present, and made this memorable re-
A BLACK SUBJECT
25
ply: "The King of-Persia has not sent you with
these presents from any desire of obtaining my
alliance, neither do you speak the truth, who, to
facilitate the unjust designs of your master, are
come to examine the state of my dominions; if he
were influenced by principles of integrity, he would
be satisfied with his own, and not covet the posses¬
sions of another, nor would he attempt to reduce
those to servitude from whom he has received no
injury. Give him, therefore, this bow, and in my
name speak thus to him: 'The King of Ethiopia
sends this counsel to the King of Persia: when his
subjects shall be able to bend this bow with the
same ease that I do, then, with a superiority of
numbers,he may venture to attack the Macrobian
Ethiopians. In the meantime let him be thank¬
ful to the gods that the Ethiopians have not been
inspired with the same ambitious views of extend¬
ing their possessions.' "
Thus did this Ethiopian king evince great wis¬
dom in detecting sophistry, and repelling conspir¬
acy. He was, moreover, magnanimous in.permit¬
ting these spies to depart in peace, who came to
him with a lie and a bribe.
As might have been expected, when Cambyses
heard the report of his spies he was furious; he
started at once from Thebes, and the historian says,
"before he had performed one fifth part of his
journey the provisions he had with him were totalty
consumed. They proceeded to eat the beasts that
carried the baggage, till these failed. Soon- they
were reduced to. herbs, and when they struck the
desert they were forced to killand eat every tenth
man. . Cambyses now: became .horrified, and re¬
turned to Egypt with a remnant of his army."
26
THE WHITE SIDE OF
The scholarly Dr. Geiki& says: "The descent
of all mankind from Noah is of course a renewed
testimony by Scripture to the unity of the human
race—a doctrine so intimately connected with the
Divine plan of Redemption, and so vital to the
brotherhood and mutual sympathy of man with
man."
Innumerable texts of scripture could be quoted
proving the unity of the human race, or as it is
often expressed, "the fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of man." In Gen. III. 20, we read,
"And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because
she was the mother of all the living." The same
thought is substantiated by the Apostle in I. Cor.
XV. 22, "For as in Adam all die even so in Christ
shall all be made alive." Just before the confu¬
sion of tongues and dispersion at Babel, we find this
language, "And the Lord said, Behold, the peo¬
ple is one, and they have all one language." Gen.
XI. 6. In the ninth verse we read, "From thence
did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face
of all the earth." Thus we find their language
was confused, and they were scattered abroad,
and as there were three sons of Noah, it is a rea¬
sonable and natural supposition that they were
divided into three great families from which sprang
all the nations that peopled the earth.
According to Ridpath,'"the best classification
adopted by ethnologists, at the present day, is
that which divides mankind into three races:
Black, Brown,and White or Ruddy races. These
discriminations on the line of color were as strong
drawn at the day-dawn of authentic history as
they are to-day, and are therefore rightly employed
A BLACK SUBJECT
27
as the best criteria by which to distinguish one
race from another."
Blumenbach classes mankind into five races, the
Caucasian or White; the African or Black; the
American or Red; the Mongolian or Yellow; and
the Malayan or Brown. But Cuvir agrees sub¬
stantially with Ridpath in a classification of the
whole into only three varieties, the White, Black
and Yellow, which is certainly the most simple
and correct. This great naturalist regards the
American aborigines as belonging to the same
class as the yellow race of Asia, from whom they
probably sprang.
This trinal division is in' keeping with the fol¬
lowing legend, which we learned from an Indian
chief. The Great Spirit created three men; and
placed them in the world; and as they were made
in the image of God they were all white. Wish¬
ing to test their skill, he sent them on a journey,
in which there was a mud-bottom stream to cross.'
When they came to the stream two of them hes¬
itated, but the other plunged bravely in and waded
across.riling up the mud as he went; seeing which,
the others followed. When all were safely over
it was found that the first was still white, being
only slightly discolored; the second was red; the
last, crossing when the stream was thoroughly
stirred up, came out black. They now found three
bundles awaiting them. The white man was dis¬
posed to be generous, and gave his companions
their choice. The black man chose the largest,
which contained a spade, a shovel and a hoe, in¬
dicative of ,the fact ihat he was predestined to use
those tools. The red man selected the next larg-
THE WHITE SIDE OF
est bundle, and behold, it contained a tomahawk,
a bow and arrows. This left the smallest bundle
for the white man; which contained a book, pen,
ink and paper. This of course meant that the
white man should use these implements; and as
the peii is mightier than the tomahawk or the
spade, it indicated that he should rule the world.
The question is often asked, If God "hath made
of one blood all the nations of men,"etc., and Noah's
curse was never .fulfilled or did not apply to the
Negro, why is it that his skin is black? We will
first answer this question, Yankee like, by asking
another. Why is it, when the question of color is
considered, they always select the poor black man
for a victim, and make the burden of proof rest
upon him or his friends? According to the general
belief of the world, there are three other colored
races besides the Negro; but who ever asked this
question of the Red, Brown or Yellow race? Why
is it not as plausible to say that one of these
colors is the mark of Canaan? Especially since we
have seen that the Negro did not descend from
Canaan but from Cush, and that the Canaanites did
not people Africa, except Carthage, while they did
people many sections of Europe, Asia and the Is¬
lands of the Sea. Answering the question we have
raised, we would say, that ever since they com¬
pelled Simon of Cyrene, an African and a Negro
("according to the best commentators), to bear the
cross of Christ (Mat. XXVII. 32), that long-suffer¬
ing race has been the burden-bearer of humanity.
He has borne the burden of ignorance, odium,
barbarous treatment, unrequited toil, and of semi-
Starvation under the lash, incident to human
A BLACK SUBJECT
29
slavery,which it makes one's soul sick to contem¬
plate.
Perhaps it is not an exaggeration to say that
ten times more of the children of Cash have been
doomed by man's inhumanity and cupidity to
life-long slavery and suffering than all the rest of
the human family combined. Many so-called
Christian nations gloried in enslaving them.
God's holy apostle said, "We then that are strong
ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not
to please ourselves," but with mankind might has
always been right, and as the poor despised African
belonged to a weak race of people, the strong na¬
tions combined against him.
It was natural to construe the black skin and
wooly hair which God had given them, and for
which they were in no way responsible ("for no
man by taking thought can add one cubit to his
stature, or make one hair black or white"),into an
imaginary mark of Cain, or curse of Canaan. The
Negro was therefore regarded as legal prey, and
fit only for servitude, notwithstanding the fact
that the Son of God said, "One is your master
even Christ; and all ye are brethren."
There are several theories advanced by scientific
men {o account for the black skin of the African
race. And it is evident that this people received
their typical impressions in the early ages of the
pre-historic period,when all things were in aplas¬
tic condition, "like wax to receive, and like mar¬
ble to retain."
Herodotus was called the father of history, yet
he did not write until two thousand years after
the flood. He had traveled extensively in Egypt
30 THE WHITE SIDE OF
and other parts of Africa, and informed us that
there were Nubians, or Africans, in Xerxes army.
Speaking of a certain Colony which settled on the
eastern shore of the Black Sea, he said they must
have come from Egypt,because they were "black in
complexion and wooly-haired."
Kam, or Cham, is the ancient name of Egypt,
and meant dark or swarthy. In Hebrew it signi¬
fies hot. The ancient Egyptians were undoubt¬
edly black, but became in time a mixed race of
people. We find that Cush, Ethiopia and black
are synonymous terms. The prophet Jeremiah
seems to have known that the Ethiopians were
Negroes, or people with black skins, when he asked,
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leop¬
ard his spots?" The Greek word "Ethiop" means
sunburn. So we have a hint here how they came
by their black skins. Luther's German has for
the word "Ethiopia," Negro-land, the country of
the blacks.
Scientists tell us that conditions of the atmos¬
phere seem to be necessary to produce blackness
of complexion: great heat, and excessive dryness.
Hence the predominant color of the inhabitants
of the hot and dry regions of tropical Africa and
Asia is black; while white is the prevailing hue
of the nations in the neighborhood of the Polar
Ocean; such as Tartars, Laps, Fins, and Esqui¬
maux. Any exception to this rule, such as the Eng¬
lish in India and Africa, or the Negro in New Eng¬
land or Canada, are exotics recently planted far
from the place where their progenitors were
bleached or darkened in past ages. The same is also
true of the flora and fauna. The flowers of the
A BLACK SUBJECT
north are almost invariably white, while the arctic
rabbit is spotless white, and the fox and polar
bear are either snow white or pale yellow. Darker
colored animals and flowers of every hue are found
in the tropics.
Professor Fontaine has well said, "This variety
of the human race or type of mankind was pro¬
duced by various instrumentalities. But the prin¬
cipal causes of the change into types is what nat¬
uralists term habitat—the locality in which men
live; its climate, soil and productions, and their
occupations and habits, mould them into their pe¬
culiar,forms and aspects, and make them in the
lapse of ages different from other nations from
whom they have been long separated. If the dur¬
ation of their dissociation from others has continued
for many centuries, the men will all look like
brothers and the women like sisters of one family."
Thus was the black race of Africa formed. It is
also the opinion of Aristotle, Strabo, Alexander,
and Blumenbach, that climate, temperature and
mode of life have more to do with giving color
than anything else. It has been shown that men,
animals, and flowers all partake of the chameleon
nature and are affected by their surroundings. But
mere color is no index of race; there are many other
people in Africa besides the Negro. And a close
observer at the World's Fair could have seen
black people from all over the tropical world, in¬
cluding many of the islands of the Indian and Pa¬
cific oceans.
Sometimes a comparatively short period suffices
to completely metamorphose a white into a black
race. The Portuguese who established a colony on
32 THE WHITE SIDE OF
the coast of Africa a few centuries ago have been
succeeded by descendants blacker than the sur¬
rounding Africans.
In conversation with an intelligent and scholarly
Jew recently, he remarked that his people were of
every complexion, according to the climate they
inhabited, from the darkness of a Hindoo or Negro
to the fairness of a Dane.
A work known as "Buchanan's Researches in
Asia" contains a statement that two colonies of
Jews settled in ancient times in Hindostan, and
have remained there to the present day. "Those
in the neighborhood of Cochin, called the black
Jews, say that they settled there during the reign
of Nebuchadnezzar,soon after he carried into cap¬
tivity the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, about the
year B. C. 588. They show all the peculiarities
of the chosen people. They have their copies of
the law, and are familiar with their history. They
have been a separate people from the Hindoos, yet
the climate of India has tanned their skins black
as the darkest of the natives."
Another colony of Jews, originally from India
settled on the coast of Africa, and a few hundred
years sufficed to make their descendants as black
as Negroes.
According to Dr. Geikie, "The privations of ]the
natives of Connemara, incident to the famine of
1847, were remarked as having led to a change
in the whole physical type; the jaws becoming
prominent as in the Negro, and the whole man
affected. It is to be remembered, moreover, that a
modification of structure or color once introduced
becomes permanent, and that circumstances may
A BLACK SUBJECT
33
lead to it to the most surprising extent in a very
short time, as in the lower animals."
No doubt the malformation in some cases of our
brother in black, especially in the wilds of Africa,
where they have been the victims of the most heart¬
less barbarity for centuries, is due to this cause.
But he is none the less our brother, and we should
rather pity him for what he has suffered and extend
to him a helping hand than degrade him still more
in the scale of humanity.
Under the broiling sun of Africa and the other
tropical countries the black skin and thick woolly
hair is a great blessing to the' natives, because it
enables them to endure the intense heat. White
skins soon blister by the sun, but black skin never
blisters. We have seen this demonstrated time
and again on the farms in Kentucky. It is said
God in his providence has given them thicker skulls
to cover the brain for the same reason. But this
by no means implies that the quality of the brain
itself is inferior to that of the thin-skulled race of
people. For instance, an effeminate dude might
be supposed to have a thin skull, or else he would
be so top-heavy he could not walk. But no dude
can compare with Frederick Douglass, J. Stella
Martin, Dr. J. W. C. Pennington, Rev. Henry H.
Garnett, or a thousand others we could mention,
who at one period of their lives were regarded as
things,chattels, beasts of burden, with "no rights
a white man was bound to respect."
We imagine we hear an unreconstructed pro-
slavery man say, "Why! don't the Bible teach
slavery? Did not Paul send back Onesimus to his
former master, Philemon?" Truly, but did you
34 THE WHITE SIDE OF
ever read the account of that transaction closely
and without the green goggles of prejudice? To
the law and to the testimony. "I beseech thee for
my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my
bonds: which in time past was to thee unprofit¬
able, but now profitable to thee and to me: whom
I have sent again: thou therefore receive, that is,
mine own bowels: whom I would have retained
with me that in thy stead he might have minis¬
tered unto me in the bonds of the gospel: but
without thy mind would I do nothing; that thy
benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but
willingly. For perhaps he therefore departed for
a season, that thou shouldest receive him forever:
not now as a servant, but above a servant,a brother
beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto
thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord! If thou
count me therefore a partner, receive him as my¬
self. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee
aught, put that on mine account. . . . Hav¬
ing confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee,
knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say."
Philemon 10-21.
Yes, we find that Paul sent a bond servant who
was converted at Rome, to his former master; but
he sent him with a letter wherein he urged the
master, another convert of his,to receive Onesimus,
"not now as a servant, but above a servant, a
brother beloved." And in another place he says,
"Receive him as myself." Moreover, he had so
much confidence in the master, Philemon, that as
he expressed it, "I wrote unto thee, knowing that
thou wilt also do more than I say."
There is no chapter in the Bible that teaches
A BLACK SUBJECT
35
the common brotherhood of man more beautifully
than this short epistle. Yet it has been tortured
a thousand times to prove that the infamous Fugi¬
tive Slave Law was just and based upon the holy
scriptures, even when it legalized the slave catcher
with his bloodhounds in seizing and dragging back
to the hell of plantation slavery the pitiful victim
of man's inhumanity; where instead of being re¬
ceived as "a brother beloved," as in the case of
Onesimus, he was delivered to whatever cruel pun¬
ishment an enraged master or overseer chose to
inflict.
Brotherhood and human equality seems to have
been a favorite theme with Paul, the grandest of
all the apostles. In Galatians III. 28, he says,
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
bond nor free, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
And in Romans II. n, he says, "For there is no
respecter of persons with God." He informed the
men of Athens—"the eye of Greece, and the foun¬
tain of learning and philosophy—that "God that
made the world and all things therein. . . hath
made of one blood all nations of men." This grand
truth implies that "we being many, are one body
in Christ,and every one members one of another;"
and we should therefore "be kindly affectioned
one to another with brotherly love, in honor pre¬
ferring one another." (Rom. XII. 5-10.)
In His last interview with his disciples before
His death, the Son of God uttered a prayer to the
Father for his chosen and righteous, who shall shine
lamong the races of coming ages, "that they may
be one, even as we are one." Those words were
both a prayer and a prophecy, sure of fulfillment,
36 THE WHITE SIDE OF
in that day when the Lord shall make up his jew¬
els. For "princes shall come out of Egypt;" and
"Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto
God."
CHAPTER II.
OUR BROTHER IN CHAINS.
"Forth sprang the ambush'd ruffians on their prey,
They caught, they bound, they drove them far away,
The white man bought them at the mart of blood;
In pestilential barks they crossed the flood.
Then were the wretched ones asunder torn,
To distant isles to separate bondage borne;
Denied, though sought with tears, the sad relief,
That misery loves—the fellowship of grief."
—Montgomery.
Cochin truly says, "Over the entire surface of
the globe the races who compel others to labor,
without laboring themselves, fall to decay." Much
light is thrown upon the degradation of Africa
when it is remembered that at one period of her
history nine-tenths of her resident population
were slaves to the other tenth.
African slavery in the New World had its origin
in the fact that the inhuman barbarity of the
Spaniards had well nigh exterminated the inoffen¬
sive Indians of Hispaniola, the kindest and most
hospitable people known to history. In fifteen
years from the discovery of America, they were
reduced from one million to less than sixty thou¬
sand To save them from utter extermination,
Bartolomes de las Casas advised Charles V., suc-
37
38
THE WHITE SIDE OF
cessor to King Ferdinand of Spain, to send African
slaves to take the place of the Indians. This self-
appointed adviser had accompanied Columbus
on his second voyage, and though a Dominican
monk, made no effort to restrain his countrymen
in their atrocious cruelty.
It is unnecessary to add, this suggestion was
acted upon, and the most stupendous crime in the
annals of the world's history was instituted.
We desire in this chapter to consider first, the
manner in which slaves were supplied to the
traders; second, the horrors of the middle pas¬
sage; and third, the magnitude of the crime.
When the British Parliament began to collect
evidence concerning the African slave trade, as
early as 1791, great astonishment was expressed
both as to its extent and diabolical cruelty. Indeed
it hardly seems credible that; men could be guilty
of such fiendish inhumanity to the brute creation,
much less their fellow men; but we are forced to
take the evidence of those who were actually en¬
gaged in this traffic in human lives, for such it
was.
In Africa slaves were obtained in a number of
different ways, generally from the interior of the
country. Large numbers were seized as prisoners,
in wars waged for this one purpose. Indeed most
of the wars of Western Africa were instigated to
obtain a supply of victims for the slave ships.
Another source of supply was the sale of crimi¬
nals, for adultery, theft, murder, and witchcraft;
occasionally for debt.
In the investigation by parliament, Mr. Penny
stated that "some are made slaves in consequence
BLANCHE K.BRUCE.
A BLA CK SUBJECT
39
of gambling, of which they are very fond." . Per¬
haps this is where our colored boys get their pro¬
pensity for "craps." "They stake themselves;
first a leg, then an arm, lastly the head; and when
they have lost that, they surrender themselves as
slaves. If a man stake and lose a leg only, he
continues gambling until he has lost the whole of
himself, or is cleared."
Sometimes a strong man would overpower and
kidnap a weak one, or a woman to sell into
slavery.
Rev. Mr. Baggs, chaplain to Commodore Thomp¬
son during two voyages, speaking of the western
coast of Africa said: "The revenue of the kings
of"the country depends on the sale of slaves. Their
code of laws is made subservient to the slave-
trade.- They therefore strain every nerve to ac¬
cuse and condemn their own subjects." Still Chris¬
tian England and America tempted these poor be¬
nighted heathen rulers to sell their own people;
and some Americans,at least, went one step fur¬
ther in infamy and sold their own sons and daugh¬
ters! But perhaps the largest number of slaves
were obtained by a well organized wholesale sys¬
tem of kidnaping. In pursuing their plan they
surrounded a village at midnight, and after apply¬
ing the torch to the combustible huts, would seize
the able-bodied men and women," cruelly murder¬
ing the young children, the aged and infirm, by
the light of their burning home. Should any escape
to the mountains,or hide in caverns, their relentless
pursuers guarded the springs and streams; or built
fires in the mouth of the caves, until they were
either suffocated or willing to barter away liberty
4© THE WHITE SIDE OF
for a precarious life of suffering. The poor victims
were now chained together, and marched off at
point of spears, to a fate more cruel than that of
their murdered families. Often their course was
through fields of cacti, whose sharp thorns would
lacerate and tear their flesh; or over the rugged
mountain side, where sharp and flinty stones
would cut their bare feet, causing them to leave
blood-stained tracks at every step.
In this journey to the seashore for hundreds of
miles, numbers fell from sheer exhaustic n and
were left to be devoured by the wild beasts.
On reaching their destination they are penned up
in barracoons, where they become victims to epi¬
demics which often destroy one third or even one
half of their number, before the arrival of a slave-
trader. The first to arrive take the pick of the
lot, rejecting the diseased, the maimed, the insane,
—in a word the unsalable; these are murdered
in cold blood. Still the most barbarous phase
of this atrocity remains to be told. Sometimes
on reaching the slave mart, there was no s'hip to
load, or the market was overstocked, in which case
the maintenance of these poor souls fell to the
Government; and as the Government was all
vested in the king, he ordered these few who would
rate as "prime, a—one," to be picked out; the
others, always a large majority, had their hands
pinioned behind their backs, and with weights at¬
tached to their necks, were thrown into the river to
become the prey of crocodiles.
The King of Loango, who boasted that he could
load eight slave ships a week, when he found no"
market for his prisoners, rather than incur the
A BLACK SUBJECT
4i
expense of feeding them, gave orders for them to
be taken to the side of a hill, a little beyond the
town, and coolly knocked on the head. And there
is no evidence that these slave buyers ever remon¬
strated with them, or tried to check these whole¬
sale murders. In an investigation before the
British Parliament, a number of heartrending
statements were made in proof of the fact that the
rejected slaves were unmercifully beaten, or cruelly
murdered, often before the white fiend's eyes. A
few of which we will quote before we pass from
this part of the subject.
Mr. Dalzell testified that he "purchased a son,
of his father, who sold him to avoid the punish¬
ment which the son had incurred for stealing from
a white manwhich,the witness adds, "was never
pardoned in Dahomey."
Mr. Mathews refused to buy a slave accused of
witchcraft, whereupon "they tied a stone around
his neck and threw him into the'sea."
Sir George Yonge stated that he "saw a beau¬
tiful child, about five years old, brought from the
Bullam shore, opposite Sierra Leone. As the child
was too young to be an object of trade, the person
who had him to sell gave him no food and threat¬
ened to throw him into the river. Si«r George, to
save his life, offered a quarter cask of Madeira for
him, which was accepted,—brought him to Eng¬
land, and made a present of him to the Marquis
of Landsdown." He understood the child had
been kidnaped.
Mr. Arnold, surgeon on board a slaver, testified
that "one day a woman with a child in her arms
was brought to be sold, The captaiii refused to
42
THE WHITE SIDE OF
purchase her, not wishing to be plagued with a
child on board. So she was taken back to shore.
On the following morning she was again brought
to us, but without the child, and apparently in
great sorrow. The black trader' admitted, 'the
child had been killed in the night to accommodate
the sale.' "
Mr. Penny, having made eleven voyages as cap¬
tain of different slavers, spoke from an extensive
experience when he said: "I have been repeatedly
informed that slaves brought for sale and rejected
by the slave-dealers on account of disease or other¬
wise, are almost invariably destroyed as not worth
their food."
Robert Dale Owen says of this testimony
before Parliament, that we have just quoted:
"What a lifting of the veil upon a terrible series
of atrocities is there, even in these brief ex¬
tracts, coldly and dispassionately worded as they
are! For what a catalogue of crimes were they
responsible who sent slavers to the African coast!
What wars have they not stirred up! What mur¬
ders instigated! What temptations have they not
presented to the cupidity of savage sovereign and
subject alike! If the King of Dahomey, or some
other royal barbarian, perverted criminal law to
obtain convictions as a source of revenue,if a black
trader put to death the infant that the mother
might be salable,—who were the tempters of such
acts? Who the original authors of this wickedness?
The horrors of the middle passage were surpassed
by these that necessarily preceded it."
This official evidence aroused the people of
England and created such a strong public senti-
A BLACK SUBJECT
43
ment against the slave trade, it was abolished in
1807; but it must be borne in mind that the British
Parliament had been collecting evidence since
I79i,a period of sixteen long years.
All the sufferings we have described in this
chapter are but preliminary to what we will
now consider. "Never," says the great and
good Wilberforce, "can so much misery be
found condensed in so small a space as in the
slave-ship daring the middle passage."
Captain Parrey was sent to Liverpool by the
English Government in 1788 to get the dimensions
of vessels employed in the African slave-trade;
He was given the plan and sections of the "Brooks,"
a ship of two hundred and ninety-seven tons bur¬
den, well known as a slaver. The owner stated
that the room allowed to each slave was as fol¬
lows: "For men, each six feet by sixteen inches.
For women, each five feet ten inches, by sixteen
inches. For boys, five feet by fourteen inches.
For girls, each four feet six inches by twelve
inches." At these measurements Captain Parrey
calculated that she could carry four hundred and
seventy slaves. But it was afterward found
that she did carry six hundred and seven
of these poor victims, which was about two
to a ton. So that the width allowed to the men
was reduced to less than twelve and a half inches,
and that of the others to still more cramped agony.
What shocking hints of human depravity and
human suffering are here furnished by this cool
calculation!
Lord Palmerston, speaking in the House of
Lords in 1844, about the slave-ships, truly says:
44
THE WHITE SIDE OF
"A Negro has not as much room in them as a
corpse in a coffin."
' This crowding the ship with at least one-fourth,
and sometimes one-third more than the vessel
was intended to hold, was in accordance with a
mathematical calculation, much as extra casks of
wine are put into a ship designed to compensate
for loss by leakage and evaporation. The captain
and master knew only too well that a large num¬
ber would die from grief, asphyxia, or other dis¬
eases brought on by close confinement in the
reeking hold. Besides, they were often thrown
overboard as soon as their lives were despaired of.
We were pained on reading of African kings
coolly ordering the wholesale murder of their ill-
fated slaves, rather than feed them when the slave
market was overstocked, or there was no ship to
load. Nevertheless Lord Palmerston gives an in¬
cident which happened in 1738, where a white
Christian was guilty of coolly murdering all his
slaves, and we know from other sources this was a
very common practice. Said he: "A man named
Collingwood was carrying slaves tq Jamaica, the
ship took a wrong course, water and provisions
became scanty. Knowing that if the negroes
died of famine the owners would lose the insurance
of them, while they would be entitled to this pre¬
mium if it were proved that he had been com¬
pelled by the perils of the sea to sacrifice the
cargo, the captain did not hesitate to precipi-
cate one hundred and thirty-two living beings into
the waves."
Mr. William James testified to a similar inci¬
dent. "In the year 1779, being master of the
A BLACK SUBJECT
45
Hound, sloop-of-war, and coming from the Bay
of Honduras to Jamaica, he fell in, off the Isle of
Pines, with two Liverpool Guineamen on the Mid¬
dle Passage, commanded by Captains Ringmaiden
and Jackson, who had imprudently missed the
island of Jamaica. Captain Nugent gave them
chase and came up with them. Upon boarding
the ship I found them in great distress, both on
account of provisions and water. I asked the
captains why they did not go into the watering
places at the west end of the Isle of Pines, near
Cuba. They replied that 'they had attempted it,
but got into shoal water.' I then asked them
what they intended to do with their slaves if they
had not fallen in with the Hound. They replied,
'To make them walk the plank,'—that is to jump
overboard. I asked them again why they did not
turn a number of the slaves on shore at the Isle
of Pines, and endeavor to save the rest. They
replied again that 'in such case they could not
have recovered the insurance, and that the rest
would have gotten on shore."'
America's most impartial historian, Bancroft,
said of the middle passage: "The horrors of the
passage corresponded with the infamy of the
trade. Small vessels, of little more than two
hundred tons' burden, were prepared for the
traffic, for these could most easily penetrate the
bays and rivers of the coast; and quickly obtain¬
ing a lading, could soonest hurry away from the
deadly air of Western Africa. In such a bark,
five hundred negroes and more have been stowed,
exciting wonder that men could have lived, within
the tropics, cribbed in so few inches of room. The
46
THE WHITE SIDE OF
inequality of force between the crew and the cargo
led to the use of manacles; the hands of stronger
men were made fast together and the right leg of
one was chained to the left leg of another. The
avarice of the trader was a partial guarantee of
the security of life, as far as it depended upon
him; but death hovered always over the slave-
ship. The negroes, as they came from the higher
level to the seaside, poorly fed on the sad pilgrim¬
age, sleeping at night on the damp earth, without
covering, and often reaching the coast at unfavor¬
able seasons, imbibed the seeds of disease, which
confinement on board ship quickened into feverish
activity. There have been examples where one
half of them—it has been said, even, where two-
thirds of them, perished on the passage."
The poor creatures, thus stowed away like so
much inanimate cargo, often found their lives a
burden too grievous to bear, and attempted self-
destruction, sometimes by refusing to eat, some¬
times ,by jumping into the sea.
Partly to prevent suicide, and partly to insure
against an insurrection, the Negro men were
chained together two and two, the chain being
fastened at different intervals to the deck. When
the weather was fair, they were brought on deck
each day and forced by fear of the cat-o'-nine¬
tails, to exercise, or dance as it was called, in
their ' chains.- The frequency of suicide by star¬
vation caused those slaves who did not eat to be
regarded with suspicion and punished severely.
Captain Hall, a slave trader, has known cases
where slaves were cruelly punished for not eating,
supposed to be from obstinacy, when in reality it
A BLACK SUBJECT
47
was from indisposition, and in some instances the
slaves so punished have been found dead next
morning. So they even tried to deny him the
poor privilege of committing suicide to escape his
cruel tormentors. They seemed to think that a
slave that .could eat and would not eat, should be
made to eat by cramming the food down his throat
when he was dying.
They never chained the women or children, but
gave them more freedom than the men; still,
judging from a statement made by James Arnold,
a surgeon on a slaver, even the weaker sex were
treated very babarously. He deposed that "when
the women were sitting by themselves below he
had heard them singing, but always at these times,
in tears. Their songs contained the history of
their separation from their friends and country.
These songs were so disagreeable to the captain,
that he has taken them up and flogged them in so
terrible a manner, for no other reason than this,
that he (Mr. Arnold) has been a fortnight or
three weeks in healing the incisions made."
We are here reminded of a similar incident of
Bible history, recorded by the Psalmist. "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."
Up to this point there is a striking resemblance
between the Hebrew captives en route for Babylon,
and the poor native Africans on the slave ship.'
But notice the contrast in the treatment they re¬
ceived at the hands of their masters. "For there
they that carried us away captive required of us a
song; and they that wasted us required of us
48
THE WHITE SIDE OF
mirth,saying, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
It was refined cruelty to thus demand a song from
those whose hearts were breaking at the thought of
being exiled forever from their native land. How¬
ever, the captain of the slave ship of modern his¬
tory was guilty of more severe barbarity in thus
cruelly scourging the bare backs of their helpless
slave women, for no other offense except they
did the very thing the Hebrew captives were re¬
quired to do, sang of their native land.
In stormy weather, when the billows would rock
the ship to and fro, and the slaves were kept be¬
low, the death rate was very great. An instance
is recorded of a ship which carried only one hun¬
dred and forty slaves, meeting with a storm which
lasted eighteen hours; they lost in less than a day
more than one third of their number.
A great many cruel circumstances combined to
increase the death roll. Those in authority never
seemed to take sufficient fresh water for a voyage,
as we learn from Mr. William James, who says of
his experience on board the Britannia, "Their
rooms were so hot and intolerable that they were
continually calling out for water, and they gener¬
ally came upon deck in a sweat. They were
served twice a day with water which was given
them in a tin cup of such dimensions as to hold
not quite half a pint." Think of it, you who can
breathe the sweet free air of heaven as God in¬
tended you should, and go every hour if you
choose to the cool, clear spring, or "the old oaken
bucket," to quench your thirst. Now, there was
no excuse for this cruelty; for God had created
mighty rivers of fresh water all along the western
A BLACK SUBJECT
49
coast of Africa. Indeed, next to fresh air, of
which they were also deprived, fresh water was
the cheapest commodity in the universe.
There is only one explanation for this sin of
omission, and that is, Satan himself must have
commanded these ships. But God is just, and
we doubt not all of those engaged in the African
slave trade have rendered their accounts, and
been justly dealt with.
The slaves were subject to dysentery, the dread¬
ful coast fever, and many other diseases, caused
by the fetid air, and the confinement of human
beings often for days and nights together, in a
space of from twelve to sixteen inches each,
Rev. John Newton, who by the grace of God
became a hymn-writer and Christian minister,
was at one time the mate on a slave-ship. The
transition from a life of piracy on a slave-ship
to one of piety on the ship of Z\on, is strikingly
described by his own hymn.
'^Amazing grace! how sweet the soun i.
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see."
In speaking Qf his connection with the slaver,
he stated that on his first voyage they lost one-
third of their number of slaves by death, and
added that on a later voyage they did not lose a
single one; and admits that this is "the only in¬
stance of the kind ever known." On being asked
the probable cause of this exemption of fatality,
he ascribed it to the fact that, "with room for
two hundred and twenty slaves, the number for
which his cargo was calculated, they carried
THE WHITE SIDE OF
ninety only." He also expressed an opinion that
the "far greater part of the wars in Africa would
cease if Europeans would cease to tempt them by
offering goods for slaves," and added, "I believe
the captives reserved :for sale are fewer than the
slain."
Quite a contrast is presented between John
Newton, and one described by Rev. Hollis Read.
"An intelligent and excellent English minister was
once called to visit a man then on his death-bed,
who had been for many years engaged in the
African slave trade. He had been commander of
a swift and successful ship, but had been often
compelled to throw his poor captives to the sharks
in the sea, to save his vessel frcm being captured
by a man-of-war, or to lighten it in the storm;
and had passed through the various terrible
scenes incident to the prosecution of that infamous
traffic. And now he was dying, in the full ma¬
turity of his powers, and in the midst of pecuniary
prosperity and social comfort. The minister spake
to him of repentance. "Repentance,"was his reply,
"I cannot repent! You have seen many sorts of men,'
sir, and perhaps you think you have seen the most
wicked and most desperate among, them. Btit I tell
you that you don't know anything about an Afri¬
can slave trader. His heart is dead. Why, sir,
I know perfectly well—I understand it fully— that I
shall die in spite of everything; and I know that I
shall go to hell. There is no possible salvation
for me. It is perfectly impossible but I shall be
lost. And yet, it don't move me in the least. I am
just as indifferent to it as ever I was in my life."
And so he died; with despair perfected into in-
A BLACK SUBJECT
51
sensibility and death; the very fires of Divine
wrath, as they flash upon his face, not starting
a sigh or a pulse of emotion. His heart was
"deadf'
We come now to briefly consider the magnitude
of the crime of the African slave trade. It is im¬
possible to do more than approximate the number;
but those who know most about it, estimate it the
highest.
When the matter was under consideration in
the House of Lords in 1844, Lord Palmerston
said: "According to the report of Messrs. Ven-
derwelt and Buxton, from one hundred and twen¬
ty thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand
slaves are landed annually in America. It is cal¬
culated that of three negroes, seized in the interior
of Africa, to be sent into slavery, but one reaches
his destination; the two others die in the course of
the operations of the slave trade. Whatever may
be the number transported, we must triple it to
obtain the true number of human beings whom
this detestable traffic kidnaps every year from
Africa."
He then refers to the various sources of mortality
which we have already considered, and draws the
conclusion that if one hundred and fifty thousand
slaves landed annually *in America the slave trade
robbed Africa each year of three or four hundred
thousand of her sable children. It is also con¬
sidered that all the crimes of the human race
will not exceed those which have been caused by
the African slave trade.
Robert Dale Owen had positive knowledge
that out of sixty thousand seven hundred and eighty
52
THE WHI1E SIDE OP
slaves shipped from Africa, fourteen thousand three
hundred and eighty-nine died on the voyage, or
twenty-three and two-thirds per cent. This, too,
among people taken in the very prime of life.
Often the epidemics prevalent among the Ne¬
groes were communicated to the sailors, con¬
stantly exposed as they were. According to Sir
John Younge, "a Guinea-ship seldom returns with
more than half her complement of sailors;" while
others estimate the loss at from twenty to twenty-
five per cent.
It was regarded a bloody battle when ten per
cent of the soldiers engaged were killed or wound¬
ed. The loss at Gettysburg did not rate as high.
What terrible suffering must have been endured
by those poor souls in their voyage of eight or ten
weeks on board the slave ships; their ranks twice
decimated! Nothing to look forward to but sep¬
arations, and a life of unrequited toil, would
almost crush a heart of stone. And this gigantic
crime, that a portion of God's people should live
by the labor of another portion, was committed
for more than three hundred years, and embraced
tens of millions of souls.
When we consider the means employed in Africa
to furnish cargoes for slave-ships, the destructive
wars waged for prisoners, the marauding kidnap¬
ers burning villages, and slaughtering those who
were too young or too old, while they seized as
slaves those in the prime of life; the deaths on
the long journey to the coast, and" again in the
fever-haunted barricoons, as well as the pestilen¬
tial hold of the slave-ships, we cannot think Lord
Palmerston exaggerated when he said we must
A BLACK SUBJECT
53
triple the number of slaves actually landed in Amer¬
ica, to get the total number consigned to death
or slavery by this traffic, from its inception in
Africa until the end of the voyage in America.
It is generally conceded that twelve and one-half
millions were actually landed in the New World-
Multiplying this by three, we have thirty-seven
and one-half millions. As it is estimated that three
millions were thrown overboard alive, and as these
figures are more likely under than over the true
estimate, we can, with Hollis Read and others,
safely call ft in round numbers forty millions of
the sons and daughters of Africa who have been
enslaved or destroyed by this diabolical traffic in
the souls and bodies of our fellow men.
It seems almost incredible that a great principle
in political economy, in national, moral and Chris¬
tian religion, should be openly violated for more
than three centuries; yet such is history.
It is inexplicable, how this succession of bar¬
barous outrages against God's people, numbering
a great nation, could have been endorsed by
public opinion, sanctioned by law, and upheld by
solemn treaty; when every stage of its progress
was marked by such flagrant enormities as only
the most degraded could conceive.
Only once during his administration was Pres¬
ident Lincoln known to promptly and sternly
refuse mercy; this was in the case of an African
slave trader. It seems" the man had served his
sentence in prison; but was still held in default
of one thousand dollars fine. The man wrote
to the President, frankly acknowledging his guilt,
was very pathetic in his appeal on paper, but the
54 THE WHITE SIDE OF
President was unmoved. "I could forgive the
foulest murder for such an appeal," he said,
"for it is my weakness to be too easily moved
by appeals for mercy; but the man who could go to
Africa, and rob her of her children, and sell them
into endless bondage, with no other motive than
that of getting dollars and cents, is so much worse
than the most depraved murderer, that he caii
never receive pardon at my hands. No; he may
rot in jail before he shall have liberty by any act
of mine."
This was the sentiment of every true philan¬
thropist of every country; especially when they
considered that to all this loss'of life there must
be added the demoralization of the African slave
trade; by bringing the natives in contact with'the
most abandoned men on earth, it utterly extermi¬
nated every vestige of morality. It destroyed
industry, encouraged polygamy,and the most un¬
bridled pollution and licentiousness the world has
ever known .
The mental degradation was almost as great as
the moral, tending to brutalize the natives, dwarf
their minds, and preclude all thoughts of im¬
provement.
It divided the people into two classes, resulting
in the stronger oppressing the weak; cultivating
in the one class the ferocity of the tiger pouncing
upon his prey, while the other cl^ss might be
compared to the hunted deer in the forest, ever
on the alert and never safe from bondage, a
hundred fold worse than death.
It annihilated society, rendering happiness,
property, life itself, utterly insecure. Often a
A BLACK SUBJECT
55
man would build a good home, raise a large family,
but as soon as his children were large enough to
tempt the cupidity of a petty chieftain, some
dark night the torch would be applied to his
house, the salable children seized for the slave-
ship, while the parents and the younger ones
were cruelly butchered.
But what are the Christian nations doing for
Africa now, to compensate for the thousand and
one evils inflicted upon her in the past? It is
true they have sent a few explorers, and a few
missionaries, and planted two or three colonies.
But this is more than offset by the tawdry gew¬
gaws, beads and trinkets,firearms and gunpowder,
tobacco, opium, whisky and rum, which is sent
to them on every ship. When will Christian
nations decide that poor heathen Africa has suffered
enough, and stay their ruthless and inhuman
destruction?
CHAPTER III.
THE DUTCH SLAVER AND THE MAYFLOWER.
"They planted them together—our gallant sires of old,
Though one was crowned with crystal snow and one with solar
gold,
With gory hands and reeking brows, amid the mighty fray
Which surged and swelled around them on that memorable day"
When they planted Independence as a symbol and a sign,
They struck deep soil and planted the palmetto and the pine."
Virginia L. French.
Nearly all the world has heard of the Mayflower
which brought the Pilgrims over in 1620 but com¬
paratively few people know that the first Cavaliers
came to the shores of Virginia in the good ships
Discovery, Good Speed, and the Susan-Construe
in 1607. Few events of importance are recorded
from the settlement of Jamestown until the ever
memorable year, 1619.
It was near the close of summer of that year,
when the colonists were surprised to see the sail
of a distant ship entering the estuary of the James
River. In an instant the cannon was fired as a
signal for all to assemble, which they .promptly
did, seizing their weapons as they came, thinking
the alarm might be caused by a dreaded Indian
attack. But their consternation was quickly turned
56
A BLACK SUBJECT
57
into wonder, when they discovered a ship ap¬
proaching. They naturally supposed it was an
English vessel sent out by the London Company;
but a nearer inspection revealed the peculiar shape
and flag of a Dutch man-of-war.
The thrifty Hollanders had come in to find a
market for their African slaves among the planters
at Jamestown.
The transaction is recorded by the historian of
this period in the following significant words:
"About the last of August came in a Dutch man-
of-war that sold us 20 Negars."
An admirer of the scholarly John Calvin said
of one of his lectures, "Every word weighed a
pound;" judged by the baneful results of African
slavery thus introduced, every word of this brief
record must have weighed a ton, for they chron¬
icled the entering wedge of an institution which
was destined to split the Nation, and cancer-like
afflict the body politic nearly two and a half
centuries, and in its death throes to deluge the
land in the blood of a fratricidal war.
This year was also memorable for the organiza¬
tion of the House of Burgesses, which was
the first Legislative body assembled in America;
and the importation of ninety "highly respect¬
able" young women, who were sent over by the
London Company to become wives of the planters.
The company had taken "extraordinary care
and diligence" in the selection. They had "good
testimony of their honest life and carriage," which
was enclosed with the name of each one for the
benefit of the husband. No wonder these Virginia
mothers, although mated to idlers, gold seekers,
THE WHITE SIDE OF
and adventurers, without stability of character,
gave to the world a people which rivaled the de¬
scendants of the Pilgrim Fathers, and in some
respects excelled them.
Their passage was fixed at one hundred and
twenty pounds of the best leaf tobacco, which
was cheerfully paid by their husbands. The young
brides were well pleased,and writing back induced
sixty more of their marriageable friends, "agreeable
persons, young and incorrupt," to come over the
next year. But this time the London Company
raised the price of transportation to one hundred
and fifty pounds of tobacco,but there is no record
of any planter protesting or refusing the goods at
the advanced price. This was the first and most
successful matrimonial bureau of which we have
read.
Thius we find in this remarkable year, the Virginia
planters received two among God's greatest
blessings, self-government and noble,good wives;
and one of the Devil's greatest curses, slavery.
Four important effects grew out of the cultiva¬
tion of tobacco in this country. It encouraged the
planters to clear the land and work it on a large
scale. It built up a steady and profitable trade
with Europe. It was an incentive for the better
class of emigrants with capital, and energetic far¬
mers, to come over to Virginia and engage in the
new industry. It introduced and encouraged the
importation of Negro slaves, as the cheapest means
of carrying on great plantations.
Finding the ship load of sand which Newport
took to England contained no gold, the excite¬
ment of the gold seekers abated, and all who
THE WHITE SIDE OF
59
were not utterly worthless and incorrigible
(spurred on, it may be, by their energetic wives)
began the cultivation of tobacco extensively, as
a means of getting gold. It soon became the
leading industry, and almost superseded money,
for public officers and even clergymen received
their salaries in it. For a time it was cultivated
in the streets of Jamestown. Several years the
planters, in their eagerness for tobacco to export,
neglected to raise sufficient crops of corn, which
came near causing famines.
The one crop idea thus early seen has been a
favorite blunder not only with Virginia, but
throughout the South, from that day to the present
time.
One of the heroes of this period was John Rolfe,
the energetic young Christian planter, who was not
only the pioneer tobacco grower, but the first of
the English colonists to make a convert to Christi¬
anity among the Indians. By his marriage to
the daughter of Powhatan, he probably saved the
infant colony from destruction by the Indians.
As is well known, the noted patriot-and states¬
man, John Randolph of Roanoke, and other "F. F.
V.'s," were proud to trace their genealogy to Rolfe
and Pocahontas, or Lady Rebecca as she was
rechristened.
But the greatest man among them was Captain
John Smith, the real founder of Virginia, who had
the executive ability of Bradford, and the bravery
and chivalry of Miles Standish. What these two
Pilgrim Fathers combined were to Plymouth, that
and more Smith was to Jamestown. But it must
be remembered that his greatness is more promi-
6o
A BLA CK SUBJECT
nent, from being contrasted with the incompe¬
tency of most of his associates, while the Pilgrim
Fathers were all alike great.
Several times Smith pacified or intimidated the
threatening Indians, and procured by barter suf¬
ficient corn to keep the vagabonds and idlers
(which King James insisted on sending over) from
starvation. - He thus wrote to the London Com¬
pany: "When you send again, I entreat you rather
send but thirty carpenters, husbandmen,gardeners,
fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers up of
tree-roots well provided, than a thousand of
such as we have."
When Smith was appointed Governor, he was
an inspiration to the industrious, but a terror to
the lazy. He introduced the apostolic law that
"if any would not work neither should he eat."
This had a very salutary effect, but unfortunately
his term of office was short; being terribly injured
in a powder explosion, he returned to England in
1609 and never again visited Virginia.
Smith left the Colony in a prosperous condition,
with four hundred and ninety people, but in six
months by disease, famine and the attacks of
the Indians, they were reduced to sixty; and
these in despair had abandoned the settlement,
and in their boats were at the mouth of the river
when they met Lord Delaware in a ship from
England, with a company of immigrants and
abundant supplies. Of course they gladly returned
to Jamestown.
Money was made very rapidly by raising tobacco,
but it impoverished the soil equally fast. This,
however, was a matter of no moment, as large
ROF. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON SCHOOL.
A BLACK SUBJECT 61
farms and plenty of slaves became the "order, and
as fast as a piece of land was exhausted, a larger
field was ready to take its place.
In spite of the baneful effects of the slave sys¬
tem, for as Henry Clay said, "slavery was a
curse to the master and a wrong to the slave," in
spite of the character (or want of character)of the
first settlers, Virginia produced some of the noblest
statesmen and incorruptible patriots, as well as
some of the finest society of the New World.
Like her oldest and fairest daughter, Kentucky,
the "Old t Dominion" was ' but a synonym for
chivalry, hospitality, good cheer, and sociability.
For what the early fathers lacked, was more than
made up by the superior qualities of the imported
mothers of Virginia. The Father of his country
gave his mother the credit of making him what he
was, and Mother Washington is one of the few
women to whom a monument has been built by a
grateful people. And there were contemporary
mothers just as patriotic and competent, as the
following incident of the Revolution demonstrates.
"In one of Tarlton's marauding expeditions into
the interior of Virginia, his troops stopped to
breakfast at the plantation of old Major Hardy.
All those of the household that drew the sword
were with Washington, but they had by no means
carried off all the pluck and patriotism.
The good lady received her visitors with such
spirit and dignity that it seemed she still consid¬
ered her house her own, and she still appeared to
give with haughty hospitality what her unwelcome
guests would have taken as a matter of course.
The officers who breakfasted in the house were
62
THE WHITE SIDE OF
awed into respect by her manner, and her houses
and barns were spared a fate that befell many
others. But the passage of such a troop was like
a visit of locusts. Fodder-stacks had disappeared,
granaries were emptied, meat houses were rifled,
pig-pen and poultry yard silent as the grave. The
matron contemplated the devastation with swell¬
ing indignation. All gone—all. If they had been
Washington's troopers she would have gloried in
the sacrifice; but to be forced to feed the host of the
oppressor—to give nourishment and strength to
those who might soon meet her husband and sons
in battle—that was hard indeed.
The Negroes had returned from their hiding-
places, and stood grouped around, with eyes fixed
upon their mistress, but not daring to break the
silence. Presently an old Muscovy drake crept
out from beneath the corn-crib, where he had
taken refuge during that Reign of Terror. The
sight of this solitary and now useless patriarch
was the feather that broke the camel's back. The
matron's patience gave way under it. "Jack,"
she screamed, "catch that duck!"
With the instinct of obedience, Jack pounced
upon the wheezing waddler. "Now mount that
mare—mount instantly!"
With countenance of ashy hue, and staring eyes,
Jack obeyed the order.
"Now ride after the soldiers, ride for your life.
Give my compliments to Colonel Tarlton—mind,
to no one else—the officer on the black horse—
give him my compliments, and tell him your mis¬
tress says he forgot to take that duck."
Away went the messenger in full speed after
the retreating cohorts.
A BLACK SUBJECT 63
"Well, Jack, did you deliver that message?"
"Sartin, missus." "To Colonel Tarlton himself?"
"Sartin, missus." "And what did he say?" "He
put duck in he knapsack, and say he much 'bleeged."
Those old Virginia gentlemen were so hospitable
in the ante-bellum days they would almost go out
into the highways and compel gentlemanly look¬
ing strangers to come in, that their houses might
be filled with visitors.
Porte Crayon (David H.Strother) had been doing
the White Sulphur Springs and Natural Bridge,
in company with his sister and two charming
young lady cousins in a carriage with a Negro
driver. Stopping for refreshments at a village
tavern on the return trip, he was just beginning
a conversation with Boniface, when he was
approached by an elderly gentleman, whose dress
and deportment showed him to be one of the lords
of the land, an old school Virginia gentleman, a
genuine "F. F. V." As he is a sui generis, fast
disappearing (more's the pity) we will do what he
fain would have us, spend a little time with him.
Squire Hardy, for such was his name, engaged
in a conversation with Porte Crayon, and finding
him agreeable company, and perhaps a distant
relative, soon had the entire party transferred to
his roomy old mansion, two miles in the country.
Everybody was delighted as soon as they en¬
tered the house. The old lady left off in the mid¬
dle of a cut of yarn she was winding from the
hands of a small ebony-hued maid, to welcome
her guests, and Crayon was entertained for two
hours with the genealogy of the family. It was
ascertained beyond a doubt that they were related.
64 THE WHITE SIDE OF
This interesting discovery was confirmed next
morning, by a message from an aged domestic,
Aunt Winnie, who informed Mr. Crayon that she
had nursed his father, and insisted on receiving a
visit from him at her cabin.
Aunt Winnie was a person of too much impor¬
tance on the estate to be slighted, so the visit was
made in due form next morning.
Her little whitewashed cabin stood at no great
distance from the "great house," and was fitted up
with due regard to the comfort of the aged occu¬
pant, not forgetting the ornamental, in the shape
of highly colored lithographs and white fringed
curtains.
"Lord bless us!" said the old woman, "don't
tell me dis is mass' Nat's son. Mussy on us!
What you got all dat har on your face, like wild
people? Good gracious! can't tell who de boy do
look like on account of dat har!"
Crayon smiled at the old nurse's comments, and
having made the donation usual on such occasions,
turned to depart. "Thankee, young master; Lord
bless you. You'se 'mazin' good lookin' in de
back, anyhow!"
Aunt Winnie was supposed to be upwards of a
hundred years old, and could count among her
descendants children of the fifth generation, one
of whom stood at her side when she received
Crayon. She walked with difficulty, but her eyes
were bright, and her other faculties apparently
complete Her memory was excellent, and her
narratives of the olden times were replete with
interest. She it was who told the story of Colonel
Tarlton and the Muscovy drake.
A BLACK SUBJECT
6 5
Squire Hardy, the genial host, pretended to
despise all modern elegance and luxuries, but his
wife and daughters always carried their point and
got whatever they desired. On one occasion, after
a visit to Richmond, his wife and daughters con¬
cluded that the parlor looked bare and old fash¬
ioned, and it was decided by them that a change
was necessary.
"What!" said he, in a towering passion, "isn't
it enough that you spend your time and money in
vinegar to sour sweet peaches, and sugar to
sweeten crab-apples, that you must turn the house
you were born in topsy-turvy? God help us!
we've a house with windows to let the light in,
and you want curtains to keep it out; we've plas¬
tered the walls to make them white, and now you
want to paste blue paper over them; we've waxed
floors to walk on, and we must pay two dollars a
yard for a carpet to save the oak plank! Be gone
with your nonsense, ye demented jades!"
The squire smote the oak floor with his heavy
cane, and the rosy petitioners fled from his pres¬
ence laughing. In due time, however, the parlors
were furnished with carpets, curtains, paper, and
all the fixtures of modern luxury. The ladies were
of course delighted, and it was plain to see that
the worthy man enjoyed their pleasure, as much
as they did the new furniture.
Here we will leave him in the bosom of his fam¬
ily, and turn to the Mayflower, and see for what it
stood.
Anybody of people but the Pilgrims would have
planned to arrive in a new and inhospitable
country in pleasant weather, so they would have
66 THE WHITE SIDE OF
had plsnty of time to. provide food arid prepare
for winter; not so the Pilgrim Fathers; they never
seemed to have studied their own comfort, and
landed on that bleak and frozen shore just as
winter was approaching. Before spring they had
buried half of their colony, including Governor
Carver, but when the Mayflower set sail for Eng¬
land not one of the pilgrims returned in her; they
had a fixed determination and were bound to stay.
The saying, "The Puritans were persons who
came to America to enjoy religious liberty and pre¬
vent others from securing the same blessing,"
would have been quite witty if it were only true.
The country was as large then as now, with only
two or three little settlements on the coast, and
those who differed from them were at perfect lib¬
erty to move on.
The fact is, the Puritans and Pilgrims sought
freedom of worship for themselves, not for all
mankind.
It remained for the great and good Roger Wil¬
liams, whom they banished (not without cause),
to found a colony whose chief corner-stone was
civil and religious liberty for all. Thus Providence
became a city of refuge for the oppressed and
persecuted of all nations, where they might enjoy
perfect "soul liberty," and freedom of conscience.
And the leaven of this principle (for which Baptists
have contended from time immemorial) has light¬
ened the entire nation and become the constitu¬
tional law of a great people.
The immortal idea of Roger Williams is thus
embodied in our constitution: "Congress shall
make no law respecting an establishment of re-
A BLACK SUBJECT 67
ligion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
In time Plymouth was overshadowed and ab¬
sorbed by the Puritan colony at Boston. Hence
the terms Pilgrim and Puritan are so often used
interchangeably.
The principles of the Pilgrims soon permeated
Massachusetts, then New England, and finally the
whole nation felt its influence. It was like a flam¬
ing beacon upon a hill which after it has diffused
its light and heat around, tinges the distant hori¬
zon with its glow.
Before noting the contrast between the Cavalier
and Puritan, we will briefly consider, the points of
resemblance. Both were English, and sent out
under the auspices of the two colonization and
mercantile associations, known as the London
Company, and Plymouth Company. Neither colony
reached the destination for which it embarked.
As Bancroft stated, "the first Virginia colony,
sailing along the coast of North Carolina, was by
a favoring storm driven into the magnificent bay
of the Chesapeake. The Pilgrims, having chosen
for their settlement the country near the Hudson,
the best position on the whole coast, were con¬
ducted, through some rryscalculation, to the most
barren and inhospitable part of Massachusetts."
' Each doomed to bondage the Indians and pur¬
chased African slaves. One had their warlike
chieftain in the person of Captain John Smith,
the other in Miles Standish.
One has said, "A story without a love-
plot is like a bush without a rose, or a
flower without perfume " But the Cavaliers and
Puritans each had a genuine loye story which was
68
THE WHITE SIDE OF
full of interest. Mention has already been made
of the romantic marriage of Rolfe and Pocahontas,
and the distinction of their descendants; but the
first marriage of the Puritans is still more remark¬
able.
This was solemnized May 12, 1621, between
Mr. Edward Winslow and Mrs. Susannah White,
widow of William and mother of Peregrine White,
the first "white" child born in New England:
Hence she was the first mother, and afterwards
the first bride of New England Moreover, she
became the wife of one distinguished governor,
and mother of another.
The importation of wives by the Cavaliers is
not without a flavor of poetry and a spice of
romance; while the affair of the heart, in which
Miles Standish and John Alden were rivals for the
affections of Priscilla the Puritan maiden, has
been immortalized by America's greatest poet.
Still the contrast between the two sections is more
striking than the similarity. In the first place,
they were actuated by entirely different motives
in coming to form a settlement in the New World.
As is well known, the early Cavaliers expected to
find a new El Dorado with gold beyond the dreams
of avarice, and those who came later purposed
to cultivate tobacco to gain wealth. But the
Puritans did not expect to increase their wealth
or improve their situation. When King James
asked, "How intend ye to gain a livelihood in the
new country?" they replied, "By fishing at first."
Though they did not expect gold, yet by means
of their trained intellects, their habits of industry,
their variety of occupations and inventive inge-
A BLACK SUBJECT 69
nuity, even with an inhospitable climate, they
made the sandy beach and bleak hillside blossom
like a rose, and soon had more wealth than the
Cavaliers who came mainly to seek it. This is
remarkable when it is remembered that the Cava¬
liers had a genial climate, a rich soil and plenty
of slaves to cultivate it.
What the House of Burgesses was to the Cava¬
lier, the Town-meeting was to the Pligrims. But
there was this difference: the House of Burgesses
was composed of representatives of plantations—•
later, of counties—and was never designed to be
a meeting of the whole people; while in the Town-
meeting, all public matters were freely discussed and
decided—there laws were made, and every man
met his neighbor on equal terms. There was es¬
tablished what could not be found elsewhere, ex¬
cept in Switzerland, "a government of the people,
by the people, and for the people." That of the
Cavaliers became a government of the people, by
the politicians, for the money.. The result was that
in the South the few did the thinking for the
masses. Consequently the leaders became very
skillful politicians, not only controlling their own
states but the nation as well. This was due to
actual ability, and the fact that they kept a threat
of secession suspended over Congress.
Of the fifteen Presidents from Washington to
Lincoln, nine were Southern men, of whom seven
were Virginians by birth. Of the six others, at
least two, and perhaps three were Northern men
with Southern principles.
The most of the Cavaliers had but one profession,
politics, yet they prosecuted that with phenomenal
7°
THE WHITE SIDE OF
zeal and success. But the Pilgrim Fathers cared
so little for office, that in 1632 it was enacted that
if any man was elected to the office of Governor,
and would not serve, he should be fined twenty
pounds sterling, and half this amount was the
penalty for declining to accept the office of coun¬
cil. What a contrast is here presented to the
hoard of hungry candidates of this period, scram¬
bling and contending for office!
The Cavaliers had a few good colleges, but
practically no public school system. The poorer
class of white citizens, that in the North were
"the honest yeomanry, the country's pride," were
in the South kept steeped in ignorance, degra¬
dation and petty crime. But these latter people,
variously called Crackers, Sandhillers, Clayeaters
and poor whites, were indirectly ruined by the
withering cur?e of slavery.
Channing wrote,"Slavery is the calamity of our
Southern brethren, and not their crime." To
which we answer yes, especially the poor whites of
the South, because slavery dishonored toil. La¬
bor was the disgraceful portion of Negro slaves.
Hence to show their independence and superiority
over the Negro, the poor whites "toiled not,
neither did they spin."
How did they live? They existed. Said Fan¬
nie Kemble, the wife of a Georgia planter, "No
white man of any class puts his hand to work of
any kind soever. This is an exceedingly dignified
way of proving their gentility, for the lazy planters
who prefer a life of semi-starvation and barbarism
to the degradation of doing anything themselves;
l?ut the effect on the poorer whites of the country
A BLACK SUBJECT
7i
is terrible. I speak now of the scattered white
population, who, too poor to possess land or slaves,
and having no means of living in the towns, squat,
as it is appropriately termed, on other men's land
or government districts, till evicted by the right¬
ful proprietors. These wretched creatures will
not labor,for they are white, and labor belongs to
slaves alone. They are hardly protected from
the weather by their rude shelter. Their food is
supplied by hunting, fishing, and stealing from
the cultivated patches of the nearest plantation.
Their clothes hang about them in filthy tatters,
and the combined squalor and fierceness of their
appearance is frightful. This population is the
direct outgrowth of slavery."
John H. Aughey, in his work, "The Iron Fur¬
nace," tells of two men of the low white class,
who actually traded wives. It seems that Bill
wanted to go to Texas, but his "ole gal" refused to
budge; while Dick was perfectly contented where
he was, but his wife, much younger than himself,
was not satisfied with her surroundings. In talk¬
ing over the situation one day, a bright thought
struck Bill. "Dick," said he, "s'posin' we swap
wives?" "Well," said Dick, "s'posin' we do?"
"I'll gub ye an eben swap." "Nary time," said the
other; "you wouldn't 'spect a man to gub ye a
young filly for an old mar, would ye?" "Naw,
never think of that. What boot will ye take?"
"Best shot-gun and $10.00." "Too much; gub ye
the worst shot-gun and $5 00." Good 'nough, if
the 'oman's is willin'." The "omans," like Barkis,
were willin',each stipulating that she might retain
her child, and the exchange was effected.
72
THE WHITE SIDE OF
The poor whites were allowed to vote, but the
♦planters held all the offices. They passed laws
making these despised people patrol the country,
to catch fugitive slaves with hounds, and do all
their menial work. Having no education, they were
easily duped by their self-constituted leaders.
Not so New England. In 1635 provision for
establishing a public school in Boston was made.
This was the commencement of the common
school system. In a few years, free instruction
was provided for every white child in Massachu¬
setts. The example was soon copied by all New
England, and before many years it spread to the
middle and other Northern states. Not satisfied
with thus leading the world in public schools, the
next year the General Court voted four hundred
pounds, or the entire year's tax of the colony, to
found a college at Cambridge, then called New¬
town. This is said to be the first instance in
which the people through their representatives
gave their own money to found an institution of
learning. Two years later Rev. John Harvard, a
Baptist minister, left his library of three hundred
and twenty volumes, and seven hundred and fifty
pounds, to endow the University which bears his
name.
It must not be forgotten that the Pilgrims were
all well educated men. Many of them were
known in Europe for their talents and acquire¬
ments.
The public schools, and town-meetings, were
great educators for the masses. The people were
eager to learn, and believed in free speech.
Southern advocates of the rightfulness of slavery
A BLACK SUBJECT
were invited to participate in joint discussion, and
gladly heard from the lecture platform. But the
advocates of slavery denied free speech at the
South. Garrison and Parker would have been
put to death had they gone South and attempted
to lecture. They even suppressed the circulation
of anti-slavery literature, by rifling the mails, and
insisted that the subject should not be agitated at
all. But this plea was effectually answered by
Lowell, when he said: "To be told that we ought
not to agitate the question of slavery, when it is
that which is forever agitating us, is like telling a
man with the fever and ague on hirn to stop shak¬
ing and he will be cured."
The pro-slavery element instituted gag-law, and
determined to crush out all opposition to their
"peculiar institution;" and many of the anti-slavery
statesmen who had been loudest in denouncing
slavery were effectually silenced. But there was
one woman's voice that knew no silence, and with
her strong yet sympathetic heart, Mrs. Stowe, in
"Uncle Tom's Cabin,"pleaded the cause of the poor
Negro slave in twenty languages.
Perhaps next to "Uncle Tom," the work which
created the strongest sentiment against slavery
was Helper's "Impending Crisis of the South: How
to Meet it." This book was written by a poor
white of North Carolina, and proved conclusively
that slavery was fatal to the interest of the non-
slave-holding whites of the South.
This argument, supported by figures, was unan¬
swerable. But alas, so far as his class was con¬
cerned,it was like casting pearls before swine, for
most of the poor whites could not read. This
74
THE WHITE SIDE OF
fact alone saved slavery from being doomed to de¬
struction there and then, for at least seven voters
out of ten in the slave states were non-slave-holding
whites. A compend of this book, published in a
cheap form for gratuitous distribution at Washing-
ington, made many converts to anti-slavery
principles.
For many years the irrepressible conflict was
waged on the floor of Congress with the prepon¬
derance of argument in favor of the anti-slavery
faction. Said Mr. Badger of North Carolina, in
the United States Senate, "Is it not hard, if I
should emigrate to Kansas, that I should be for¬
bidden to take my old mammy (slave nurse) along
with me?" To which B. F. Wade replied, "We
have not the least objection to the Senator's
migrating to Kansas and taking his old mammy
with him. We only insist that he shall not be
permitted to sell her after he has taken her there."
It was by no means true that all north of Mascn
and Dixon's line were anti-slavery, and all south
of it pro-slavery. Lincoln himself probably de¬
scended from the Cavaliers, and belonged to the
better class of poor whites of Kentucky. Cassius
M. Clay of Kentucky was one of the ablest- abo¬
litionists of the nation, while Garrison was mobbed
in Boston under the shadow of Faneuil Hall, and
Lovejoy was killed at Alton, Illinois. But in the
main the principles of the Pilgrims permeated the
North, and that of the Cavaliers, the South.
The first public building erected by the Pilgrims
was a combined fort and church. With Crom¬
well they thought "he that prays best, and preaches
best, will fight the best." They prayed on the eve
A BLACK SUBJECT
75
of battle, and were disposed to "trust in God and
keep their powder dry." But the same was true
of Washington, R. E. Lee and Stonewall Jack¬
son.
The anecdote of Stonewall Jackson's Negro
body servant, who said before a battle, "The Yan¬
kees will ketch it to-day, for massa Tom prayed
three times las' night," is well.known.
- These body servants usually had an "easy place
and received kind treatment. A case in point is
mentioned by a correspondent for the Century.
This Uncle Tom was the body servant to the
gallant General B of South Carolina, who
had left one leg in the Mexican war. Tom ac¬
companied his master on his summer visit to Sara¬
toga. Here he was induced to attend an abolition
meeting. A real Southern slave, a victim of the
cruelties just rehearsed, was an object of interest.
A kind hearted disciple of Garrison was so moved
upon that he offered Tom money with which to
effect his escape. To the disgust and indignation
of all present Tom declined it.
"I'm powerful 'bleeged," said he, "but I doan'
know nuthin' 'bout all dis! I gits my keepin' at
de hotel and dese clo'es; and 'fore God, I doan'
have nuthin' to do all de summer but shine one
boot a day."
Tom's master, with characteristic Southern ar¬
dor, threw himself into the war frenzy of i860,
He boasted that he could stand, on his one foot
and rout a whole regiment of Yankees with, his
derringer. "Why," said he, "the Yankees won't
fight; I will drink all the blood they spill." But
one of the first to fall was his gallant son, and the
proud father did not long survive him.
76
THE WHITE SIDE OF
Had this general taken the pains to consult the
historical status of his own state, South Carolina,
and compare it with Massachusetts during the
Revolutionary struggle, he would have seen nothing
to justify him in sneering at the Yankees for
cowards.
According to George Livermore, the total num¬
ber in the Colonial army was 231,959 troops. Of
these Massachusetts alone furnished 67,907. All
the states south of Pennsylvania combined, fur¬
nished but 59,493, or 8,414 less than the old Bay
State. New England alone equipped and main¬
tained 118,350, more than half the entire number
in use.
"It is hardly an exaggeration to state that more
Whigs of New England were sent to the aid of
Carolina, and are now buried in her soil, than she
sent from it to every scene of strife from Lexing¬
ton to Yorktown."
South Carolina, with a Northern arihy to help
her, could not, or would not, preserve her own
capital.
When Putnam of Connecticut heard of the fight
at Concord and Lexington, he left his plow in the
furrow and started at once for Cambridge. When
Stark heard the same news in New Hampshire he
was sawing pine logs. Closing the gate of his
mill he started at once for Boston in his shirt
sleeves. Soon an army of 15,000 Puritan sol¬
diers was ready for the Cavalier commander-in-
chief.
During the Revolution every male citizen of
Rhode Island between the ages of sixteen and sixty
is said to have fought for independence.
A BLACK SUBJECT
77
The inference drawn by Mr. Livermore is that
a large majority of the citizens of South Carolina
of that period were Tories, and British sympa¬
thizers, This, he thinks, is shown by the great
number from that state who flocked to the British
standard after the fall of Charleston. He conceded,
however, that the patriotism of the partisan gen¬
erals, Marion, Sumpter and Pickens, and the
conduct of the noble women of the state, saved
them from disgrace.
The descendants of the stalwart Pilgrims con¬
tributed their full quota to the patriotism and
valor of the struggle for independence. In 1774
they determined to use the famous Forefather
Rock as fuel to increase the flame of indignation
against the oppression of England. When it was
raised by means of powerful screws, it divided
without any apparent causa. This was considered
a good omen, signifying that they would be sepa¬
rated from the mother country. Half of it was
transported to the place selected, and a flag raised
over it containing this brief,stern motto: "Liberty
or death." A monument was afterwards built
over it containing the namas of the forty-one
signers of the compact on board the Mayflower.
The other half was reduced to fragments and scat¬
tered far and wide throughout the country.
D3 Focqueville said of- it: "Thisrock has be¬
come an object of veneration in the United States.
I have seen bits of it carefslly preserved in several
towns of the U lion. D:>es not this sufficiently
show that all hum in pDWer and .greatness is in
the soul of man? H^re is a stone which the feet
of a few outcasts pressed for an instant and the
stone becomes famous."
78 THE WHITE SIDE OF
Wendell Phillips said of this stone: "Neither do
I acknowledge, sir, the right of Plymouth to the
whole rock. No, the rock underlies all America;
it only crops out here. It has cropped out a
great many times in our history. You may rec¬
ognize it always. Old Putnam stood upon it at
Bunker Hill, when he said to the Yankee boys,
'Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes.'
Jefferson had it for a writing desk when he drafted
the Declaration of Independence, and the statute
of Religious Liberty for Virginia. Lovejoy rested
his musket upon it, when they would not let him
print at Alton, and he said 'Death or Free
Speech.' Garrison had it for an imposing stone,
when he looked into the faces of seventeen mil¬
lions of angry men and printed his sublime pledge:
'I will not retreat a single inch, and 1 will be
heard.' When Alexander H. Stevens made his
great speech accepting the Vice-Presidency of the
Southern Confederacy, he said in substance: 'Sla¬
very, the stone which the builders rejected,is now
the chief corner stone of the Confederacy.'"
This view differed materially from that of
President Davis as published in his "Rise and
Fall of the Southern Confederacy," Mr. Davis
emphatically denied that slavery was the cause of
the war. And General R. E. Lee stated to John
Le^burn at Baltimore: "So far from engaging in
a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that
slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly
for the interests of the South. So fully am I sat¬
isfied of this a3 regards Virginia especially, that I
would cheerfulfy have lost all I have lost by the
war, and have suffered all I have suffered, to have
this object attained."
A BLACK SUBJECT
79
Why," in the name of truth, did not these ven¬
erable leaders of the South tell us what they con¬
sidered the real cause of the war? General Lee
was a grand man and Christian warrior, and colo¬
nized the most of his slaves in Liberia before the
war. But the fact remains that though he re¬
pudiated slavery as the cause of war, both he and
Mr. Davis seemed to have exhausted their inge¬
nuity in vain to invent any other cause. In the
abssnce, therefore, of any justification, we are forced
to believe with half the South, all the North and
ths rest of the civilized world, that the only cause
for which the South fought was human slavery.
Mr. Davis refers to African servitude among us
as "confessed to be the mildest and most humane
of all institutions to which the name 'slavery' has
ever been applied."
Confessed whsn, and by whom? By the slave
holders themselves, and their sympathizers, such
men as Jefferson Divis, who, to say the least of it,
was personally interested and not a fair witness.
"Mankind is ever weak,
And little to be trusted;
If self the wavering balance strike,
It's seldom right adjusted."
The strongest argument Mr. Davis advanced in
justification of secession, stripped of its verbiage,
might be stated as follows: Whereas, George
Cabot, United States Senator from Massachusetts,
during Washington's administration; Colonel
Timothy Pickering, Secretary of War, under
Washington; and Hon. Josiah Quincy, congress¬
man from Massachusetts; and some of the "hot
spurs" of the legislature of that state, did at differ-
8o THE WHITE SIDE OF
ent times threaten to secede from the Union and
establish a separate government of the New Eng¬
land and adjoining states; therefore the South
was perfectly justifiable both in threatening and
enacting the threat, even when it involved the
treasonable action of firing on the Nation's flag,
and instigating a long and bloody war.
The weakness and sophistry of this argument is
apparent on its face. He assumed that secession
was right of itself, which is a false premise, for when
the colonies went into the Union, there was not
the slightest reservation of the right to withdraw
from it at option. In the next place he tries to
justify the treasonable "action of "the South because,
forsooth, a few prominent men at the North
threatened to separate from the Nation in its early
history, before the bands which bound the states
together were cool from the process of welding.
Is there no difference between the idle threat of a
few men, whose council was repudiated by their
state, and the preconcerted action of the South?
"We live in deeds, not words'.
In facts, not figures on the dial."
Moreover, Pickering explicitly disavows hostile
feeling toward the South as follows: "While thus
contemplating the only means of maintaining our
ancient institutions in morals and religion and our
equal rights, we wish no ill to the Southern states
and those naturally connected with them." But
the South was the aggressor. Confident in her
own prowess, she seemed determined to provoke
the North to war. For during the administra¬
tion of Buchanan, his secretary of the Treasury,
Howell Cobb embezzled $6,000,000 in gold, sent
P. B. S. PINCHBACK.
MBS. H. B. STOWE.
A BLACK SUBJECT
81
it South, and then resigned to accept office under
the Confederacy. The secretary of the navy scat¬
tered the war ships to the "four winds," while the
Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, emptied the
arsenals of the North of twelve hundred cannons
and one hundred and fifty thousand stand of arms,
valued at eight ^millions, and joined the Confeder¬
acy. Then, when all things were ready, came seces¬
sion and rebellion. But Uncle Sam and Aunt
Columbia spanked their wayward and naughty
children soundly and brought them back home.
And now the better element of the Southern
people are glad the curse of the Dutch Slaver is
eliminated from their fair land; and in their heart
of hearts, they are glad the old flag waves over
one glorious united nation.
Still we do believe that had the Puritan settled
Virginia, and the Cavalier Massachusetts, the ques¬
tion involved would have remained the same, but
the Puritan would have fought for slavery, and the
Cavalier for freedom. This theory is strengthened
when it is remembered that the first American
slaver, "The Desire," was fitted out at Salem, or
Marblehead, Massachusetts, in 1636. And we
are forced to believe that the only reason slavery
did not flourish in the' North was because it was
found unprofitable on account of the short sum¬
mers, and severe winters. It is but just to state
that while the descendants of the Puritans were
noted for their love of liberty, their broad culture,
their industry and inventive ingenuity, their lit¬
erary attainments, and business capacity, the
sons of the Cavaliers were brave and chivalrous,
whole-souled and hospitable; and while they hated
82 THE WHITE SIDE OF
their enemies with great bitterness, they loved
their friends" with a love that was more than love."
They took naturally to law, politics and society.
Foreign visitors cor 'idered them the most compan¬
ionable and attractive people of America. And,
now that the cause of all trouble—slavery—is re¬
moved, and the two sections, eaqh great in their
own way, are cultivating the arts of peace,
we look forward with eager hearts to the Twen¬
tieth century, when North and South will be
merged into the more comprehensive term, America,
and no matter what threatening powers may in¬
vade our land, we will have a people "whose po¬
lar star is Duty, whose staff is Justice, and whose
goal is Liberty."
CHAPTER IV.
SLAVERY BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
The first African slaves were brought to the
New World in the year 1565, in the English ship
"Jesus," commanded by Sir John Hawkins, under
the patronage of "Good Queen Bess." Thus we
find that exactly three hundred years from the
landing of this first cargo of two hundred and fifty
chained slaves at St. Domingo, our martyred
President went to his God bearing the shackles
of four million freedmen.
The demand for these slaves grew out of the
fact that Spanish cruelty had exterminated the in¬
offensive Indians found on the islands, and it was
found necessary to have Negro slaves to cultivate
the plantations.
The hearty sons'of Africa not only survived the
oppressive cruelty of their heartless task-masters,
but in time they rebelled against them, and under
their invincible "Black Prince," Toussaint, killed
them in battle or drove them from the island.
Thus, as Bancroft well says, "Hayti, the first
spot in America that received African Slaves,
was the first to set the example of African Lib¬
erty."
He also says the sovereigns of England, espec¬
ially Elizabeth and Anne, "participated in the
83
84 THE WHITE SIDE OF
hazard, the profits and the crimes, and became
at once smugglers and slave merchants."
We are horrified at this depravity, and yet his¬
tory is repeating itself; Christian England and
America are > to-day, with the approval of their
rulers, sending opium to China and rum to Africa.
As we purpose showing how slavery spread to
the different colonies, we will take a hasty glance
at each of them, in the order of its introduction.
Virginia, 1619:—It seems to be a mooted ques¬
tion among historians, as to whether the Dutch
ship landed the first slaves of the thirteen original
colonies at Jamestown, Virginia,in 1619 or 1620.
We find as much authority for the one year as the
other; but upon the whole we are inclined, with
Ridpath, Williams and others, to favor 1619 as
the correct date.
However,the first slaves that landed in what is now
the United States, were brought to Florida at the
founding of St. Augustine in 1565, by Pedro Men-
endez de Aviles, who entered into a compact with
his sovereign, Philip II. of Spain, in which he
obligated himself to take with him five hundred
slaves.
In Virginia the institution of slavery grew very
slowly at first, and the Negroes were regarded as
chattels; but an act was passed in 1705 declaring
them to be real estate.
The slaves had no personal rights, and could
not leave the plantation to which they belonged,
without a written pass from their master. If one
dared to lift a hand against a Christian (?) or white
man, he received thirty lashes, and if he resisted
punishment, was liable to be killed with impunity,
A BLACK SUBJECT 85
and his murderer was guiltless in the eyes of the
law. Trial by jury was denied him, and more
than five meeting together was considered felony,
and punishable by death.
We read of slaves given in part payment to
clergymen for preaching to whites, but no record
of any one preaching to Negroes. A few Negroes
were emancipated for meritorious services, but a
law passed in 1699 required them to leave the
colony within six months of securing their liberty.
New York, 1628:—Slavery was introduced at this
time; but the kind-hearted Dutch treated their
Negro slaves with much humanity. The institu¬
tion was mainly patriarchal. Manumission of
slaves for meritorious services, or prompted by
justice, was quite frequent. Under this mild sys¬
tem the Negroes were correspondingly happy.
They married and were given in marriage, they
sowed and reaped a good share of the fruits of
their labor. While there were no schools-for
them, there were no laws against their receiving
instruction when their work was done.
There is not found in all history a greater con¬
trast than is presented by the treatment accorded
these slaves by the humane Dutch, and that of
their English conquerors. In 1702 an act was
passed making it unlawful to trade with Negro
slaves, on pain of fine or imprisonment.
"Not above three slaves were allowed to meet
together, on pain of being whipped by a justice
of the peace, or sent to jail."
In 1710 the city of New YorK passed an ordi¬
nance forbidding slaves appearing in the streets
after dark without a lighted lantern, on penalty
86
THE WHITE SIDE OF
of being locked up in the watch-house that night,
and sent to prison the next day until the master
paid the fine; after which the slave received fifty
lashes and was discharged.-
A slave market was erected at the foot of Wall
Street, where slaves were sold daily to the highest
bidder. Negroes had no family relation, but lived
together b'y common consent. Even free Negroes
had no property, land, schools or other privileges.
Thus their lives were spent in a huge sepulcher
and they were buried in a common ditch after
death. This horrible state of affairs culminated
in the so-called "Negro plot" of 1741. In Febru¬
ary of that year the house of Robert Hogg, a
merchant of New York City, was robbed of fine
linen, medals, silver coin, etc. The case was given
to the officers of the law to arrest and punish the
guilty parties. They pushed the case with such
zeal that aided by a "diseased public conscience,
inflamed by religious bigotry, accelerated by hired
liars, and consummated in the blind and bloody
action of a court and jury who imagined them-
selvs sitting over a powder magazine," they per¬
petrated in the name of law the darkest and most
cruel deed in American history.
From May nth to August 29th, one hundred
and fifty-four Negroes were cast into prison, four¬
teen of whom were burned at the stake, eighteen
hanged, seventy-one transported, and the remain¬
der pardoned. All because a few Negroes stole
goods from a prominent merchant, "and the peo¬
ple imagined a vain thing," namely, that a plot
was made by the Negroes to murder the whites
and burn the city. Some of the poor wretches
A BLACK SUBJECT 87
resorted to accusing others, hoping so to obtain
pardon thereby, until the jail was filled to over¬
flowing. The slightest accusation of this kind
was welcomed, and distorted into positive proof
of guilt. Moreover, it must be remembered that
the "Negroes were considered heathen, and there¬
fore not sworn, by the court; that they were not
allowed counsel; that the evidence was indirect,
contradictory, and malicious; while the trials were
hasty and unfair."
Ia time all believers in the "Negro Plot" were
converted to the opinion that the zeal of the
magistrates had not been "according to knowl¬
edge," and that there was no competent evidence
to show that there had been an organized plot.
Every fair historian now condemns the heartless
and bloodthirsty magistrates.
Every law passed by the legislature of New
York prior to the Revolution, tended to curtail
the Negroes' rights, until their condition was
little removed from the brute. Nor did "Our
Brother in Black" fare much better in the other
colonies.
Massachusetts, 1633:—We come now to con¬
sider slavery in the "Old Bay State." It must
have been introduced before 1633, for we read
that during that year some Pequod Indians found
a Negro up in a tree who was lost and trying to
find his way home. The Indians were frightened,
so ran to the white settlement and reported they
had seen the Devil.
As early as 1637 some of the Pequod Indians,
"who would not endure the yoke or be obedient
servants," were sent to the Bermudas and ex-
88 THE WHITE SIDE OF
changed for Negroes. Sometimes slaves received
kind treatment, but as often cruel;.depending en¬
tirely upon the disposition of the master.
"Negro children were considered an incum¬
brance in the family, and when weaned, were given
away like young puppies," as we learn from the
famous Dr. Dunlap.
The great and good missionary to the Indians,
John Eliot, "had long lamented with a bleeding
and burning passion, that the English used their
Negroes but as their hcrses or their oxen, and
that so little care was taken about their immortal
souls;" therefore he requested their masters for
several miles around to send their slaves to him
that he might instruct them "in things of their
Everlasting Peace." But he did not live long
enough to make much progress in this noble work.
As might have been expected in cultured Massa¬
chusetts, there were those wise and humane enough
to realize that a Negro with learning, was a more
valuable slave for the acquisition.
Richard Dalton, of Boston, a ripe scholar and
great linguist, becoming afflicted with weak eyes,
determined to teach his Negro boy Csesar to read
Greek. So proficient did the boy become, that
he could read aloud to his master any Greek author
almost as readily as English.
The "Boston Chronicle" of September 21st,
1769, has the following advertisement: "To be
sold, a likely little Negro boy, who can speak the
French language, and very fit for a valet."
Emboldened by this evidence of capacity for
mental culture, and fitness for citizenship, the
Negroes demanded the privilege of British subjects.
A BLACK SUBJECT
89
As there was imminent prospect for war with the
mother country, the colonists were conciliatory to
them, knowing they would prove a factor for
or against them in case of war.
The famous decision of Lord Mansfield about
this time, in the Summersett case, tended to in¬
spire a hope in the breast of the slaves of Massa¬
chusetts, It may be briefly stated as follows:
Charles Stewart, of Boston, was in London with
his Negro slave, James Summersett, when the
slave was taken sick, and .abandoned by his mas¬
ter, who seemingly did not care whether he lived
or died. The Negro,recovering,obtained employ¬
ment. When the master heard of it, he had him
arrested and put on board a ship about to sail for
Jamaica, where he was to be sold.
Some friends of the Negro made affidavits, and
obtained a writ of habeas corpus. In the ensuing
trial Lord Mansfield gave his decision in the fol¬
lowing words: "The state of slavery is of such a
nature that it is incapable of being introduced on
any reasons, moral or political, but only by posi¬
tive law, which preserves its force long after the
reasons, occasions, and time itself from whence
it was created is erased from memory. It is so
odious that nothing can be suffered to support it
but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, there¬
fore, may follow from the decision, I cannot say
this case is allowed or approved by the law of
England, and therefore the Black must be dis¬
charged."
Of course this decision produced universal joy
among the Colonial Negroes, and it caused the
question to arise, as to whether the Colonial
THE WHITE SIDE OF
governments could pass acts legalizing that which
was contrary to the law of England.
Maryland, 1634:—-This colony was united with
Virginia until 1630; consequently slavery was reg¬
ulated by the laws of the "Old Dominion" up to
that time. Thus when the English Catholics un¬
der Lord Baltimore settled Maryland in 1634,
they found slavery had preceded them.
The slaves here were worked in a great variety of
employments, such as cultivating tobacco, chop¬
ping, learning the different mechanical trades, han¬
dling light crafts along the water courses, fishing
and taking oysters. This created a great demand for
Negroes, and their number increased very rapidly.
The period of one hundred and forty-four years,
from the founding of the Colony to the Revolu¬
tion, is described as "one long starless night of
oppression and outrage."
As a sample of the brutality of the laws govern¬
ing Negroes, an Act was passed in 1723, where
the penalty of a Negro or other slave striking a
white person was to have his ears "cropt on order
of a justice." The Mosaic law taught "an eye for
an eye and a tooth for a tooth," but in this code
both ears were forfeited for one blow. In 1729 a
still more inhuman Act was passed, by which Ne¬
groes and other slaves found guilty of certain
crimes, should be hanged, and afterwards the
bodies quartered and exposed to public view.
Cannibals would go only one step further; they
would eat them after being quartered.
They capped the climax in 1752 by passing an
Act'forbidding emancipation by "last will and
testament, or giving freedom to Negro slaves in
A BLACK SUBJECT
9i
any way." Thus, like the horse or ox, the Negro
of Maryland was absolute property for life. He
was simply in the eyes of the law an upright,
reasoning, talking animal; nothing more nor less.
Delaware, 1636:—Vincint, the historian of this
Colony, shows that slavery existed" on the Dela¬
ware River as early as 1636.
The record shows that Peter Alricks, Calvert,
D'Hinoyossa, and two Indian chiefs, met in
council in September, 1661, to arrange a treaty.
At this time it was agreed to furnish the Dutch
every year three thousand hogsheads of tobacco,
provided the Dutch would "supply them with
Negroes and other commodities." Thus we find an
inter-Colonial traffic in slaves established.
We infer that slaves were frequently manumit¬
ted in this Colony, from the fact that an Act
was passed in 1739 providing that good security
should be given in case of manumission, that the
county should not be at any charge by reason of
sickness or incapacity for self-support on the
part of said slave. Upon the whole, the Negro
fared better in Delaware«than in some of the other
colonies. But even here he had no rights of any
kind.
.Connecticut, 1646:—There is a strong presump¬
tive evidence that slavery existed here from the
beginning, certainly since 1646, in spite of a law
passed in 1642, which read as follows: "If any
man stealeth a man or mankind, he shall be put
to death. Exodus XXI. 16."
Of course this law was a dead letter, but the
growth of slavery in this colony was very gradual.
It is refreshing to read of an Act passed in 1702
92 THE WHITE SIDE OF
for the benefit of a certain class of slaves. It
seems that certain heartless masters were in the
habit of working their slaves until they were de¬
crepit and worn out in their service, and when
they were no longer profitable, emancipated them
to live on charity or starve. They would then
pose as those who had done noble deeds. But
the law-makers were not deceived, and passed an
Act compelling the owners of such slaves, or their
heirs, to provide for them in their old age, even if
they had liberated them by turning them out like
an old horse to die.
We are glad to note that the law was rigidly
enforced. But let no man imagine that a slave
life in this Colony was "a flowery bed of ease."
Often was he publicly flogged for the high crime
and misdemeanor of being out the night before
without a pass from his master. And to make
matters worse, if he used any strong epithets, or
gave vent to his feelings in defamatory language,
while undergoing punishment, he was subject to a
double dose of the same medicine, by special Act
passed in 1730.
Perhaps, like a man we have heard of, he com¬
forted himself with the thought that he could not
do such a law justice, and therefore said nothing.
The man referred to was a proverbial record-
breaker in profanity. He was drawing a load of
apples up a steep hill, when the end board came
out and all the apples rolled out of the wagon
pell-mell to the bottom of the hill. Thinking he
could not do the occasion justice, the man simply
folded his arms and said nothing.
When the mutterings of the impending war
A BLACK SUBJECT
93
were heard in the distance, the colonists were
aroused to the inconsistency of fighting for free¬
dom while holding slaves in cruel bondage. Nor
were they blind to the fact that their Negroes
could be induced b^ kind treatment to help them
against the common enemy. Accordingly the
following Act was passed in 1774: "No Indian,
Negro or mulatto slave shall at any time hereafter
be brought or imported into this state, by sea or
land, from any place or places whatsoever, to be
disposed of, left or sold, within this state." Thus
we find that Connecticut tried to alleviate the
condition of her slaves, and legislate against the
nefarious traffic.
She should have taken one more step and liber¬
ated the slaves she had at this time, but had she
done so, doubtless England would have repealed
the Act, as she did in the case of Pennsylvania and
New Hampshire. We think it might be recorded
of .Connecticut, "She hath done what she could."
Her sable sons showed their appreciation of her
kindness by fighting nobly to free their masters in
the Revolutionary struggle.
Rhode Island, 1647:—It is supposed slavery was
introduced in this year. It remained for this liberty-
loving little colony to pass the first positive Act
against slavery recorded in modern history. It
was passed in 1652 by the General Court, and is
worded as follows: "Whereas, there is a common
course practiced among Englishmen to buy Ne-
gers, to that end they may have t'hem for service
or slaves forever; for the preventinge of such prac¬
tices among us, let it be ordered that no blacke
mankind or white being forced by covenant bond.
94
THE WHITE SIDE OF
or otherwise, to serve any man or his assignees
longer than ten years, or until they come to bee
twenty-four years of agef if they bee taken in un¬
der fourteen, from the time of their cominge with¬
in the liberties of this Collonie. And at the end
or terme of ten years to sett 1:hem 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,bee or they
shall forfeit to the Collonie forty pounds."
We rejoice that this little Colony, founded by
Roger Williams, the friend of the oppressed, the
defender of civil and religious liberty, should put
herself on record in this manner. It is about the
kind of law one would expect from "Little
Rhodie." But it is deplorable that it was abortive
and became a dead letter, since it was not backed
up by public sentiment, either in the Colony or
the mother country. For it is notoriously true
that slavery flourished here even with this law
upon the statute books.
No doubt some good came of the law, for as
Bancroft well says, "the law was not enforced,
but the principle lived among the people." For
we read that when Acts were passed imposing
fines on "housekeepers" for entertaining slaves
after nine o'clock at night, they paid their fines
cheerfully and continued to treat the slaves kindly.
This shows that the leaven of the anti-slavery law
was permeating the Colony.
New Jersey, 1664:—Slavery was introduced here
before the formation of a separate colony, and
probably near the same time it appeared in New
Netherlands.
A BLACK SUBJECT
95
The record of early history in New Jersey in
meager, but enough is known to show the slaves
received kinder treatment here than in any of the
other colonies. This was the invariable rule where
the population was composed largely of Quakers
and Dutch. With the exception of an Act pro¬
tecting slaves from drunkenness, by punishing those
who sold or gave them rum, few laws of impor¬
tance touching slavery were passed for many years.
An Act passed by the Legislature of East Jersey
in 1664 provided for the trial of "Negroes and
other slaves for felonies punishable with death,"
to be by a jury of twelve persons before three
justices of the peace; for theft, before two justices;
the punishment by whipping. To the glory of
New Jersey be it said this was the only Colony
that gave to the Negro that coveted boon, the
right of trial by jury. In most of the other colonies
the Negro was convicted even before the mock
trial, often without the shadow of justice. But
here I doubt not he had both shadow and sub¬
stance. Verily in this Colony, "the lines had
fallen unto him in pleasant places."
The example of the Quakers for teaching the
colored people was contagious, for others gave
them instruction, and encouraged the preaching
of the gospel unto them. It is believed that free
Negroes were enlisted in military companies of this
Colony. And the law of 1760 implies that slaves
for life could be enlisted by obtaining permission
from their masters.
South Carolina, 1665:—The entire slave popu¬
lation of South Carolina was regarded as chattel
property absolutely. The solemnity of a jury was
g6
THE WHITE SIDE OF
never allowed them Bat in case of "burglary,
robbery, burning of houses, killing or stealing of
any meat or other cattle, or other petty injuries,
as maiming one of another, stealing of fowls, pro¬
visions, or such like trespass, or injuries," he was
tried for his life before two justices and three
freeholders, who often sentenced him to death for
the most trivial offence. '
The code of laws of South Carolina for the cor¬
rection of slaves stands without a parallel for
cruelty. For striking a white man, he was severely
whipped for the first offence, for the second
whipped still more severely, had his nose slit, and
face burned, and for the third offence a cruel death
was his portion. If any Negro, slave or free, tried
to persuade some other slave to run off out of the
colony, he received on conviction forty lashes and
was branded on the forehead with a red-hot iron,
that "the mark thereof might remain." Any white
man meeting a Negro might demand of him to
show his ticket; and on refusal could "beat, maim
or assault him." And if such slave could not be
taken,to "kill him."
Such codes trained the white people into a brood
of tyrants. Even the "poor, white trash," who
did not own a Negro, would knock them down,
and throw them off the sidewalk in wanton cruelty;
while the overseer who was most disposed to beat
and torture the poor Negro received the highest
salary. The young white boys took their cue
from their fathers and overseers, and it was a com¬
mon sight to see them in their sports, whip in hand,
threatening or punishing the little Negroes,
In time a reaction took place, for it dawned
A BLACK SUBJECT
97
upon the planters that a Negro could do more
labor with less abuse, especially where it was
bestowed by those having no authority. A law
existed against teaching a Negro to read or write,
but for obvious reasons there was more leniency
shown them some years before the Revolution.
North Carolina, 1669:—The code of laws pro¬
posed by Dracho for Athens is said to have been
written in blood, because of its severity. The
constitution and code of laws drafted by John
Locke for the government of North Carolina, might
be described as written in blood with a goose-quill.
Surely a more brutal, unwieldy and asinine code
was never proposed for the government of a crude
young colony, but little removed from a backwoods
settlement, in the world's history. All of the in¬
soluble problems of political economy of the past,
much of the visionary speculation of the future, was
dumped into a common heap by this absurd instru¬
ment. In short.it might be defined as a conglomer¬
ation of heterogeneous inconsistencies. The poet
assures us that,
"Kings and Lords may flourish or may fade,
A breath can make them as a breath has made,
But the honest yeomanry, the country's pride,
When once destroyed can never be supplied."
The Locke constitution was an insult to hu¬
manity and designed to wrest from the yeomanry
what few rights were conferred by the Magna
Charta.
We read that "no elective franchise could be
conferred upon a freeholder of less than fifty
acres," while "all executive power was vested in
the proprietors themselves, or the nobility."
98
THE WHITE SIDE OF
According to Bancroft: "The instinct of aris¬
tocracy dreads the moral power of a proprietary
yeomanry; the perpetual degradation of the culti¬
vators of the soil was enacted. The leet-men or
tenants, holding ten acres of land at a fixed rent,
were not only destitute of political franchise, but
were adscripts of_the soil; under the jurisdiction
of the lord without appeal; and it was added,
'all the children of leet-men shall be leet-men,
and so to all generations."' It seems, then, that
tenants were but little more then serfs or slaves;
and if they, Anglo Saxons as they were, received
such treatment at the hands of these petty lords,
so-called, what mercy could the poor Negro ex¬
pect? "If they have called the master of the
house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call
them of his household ?"
By way of numbering largely and for political
purposes, they received the Negro slaves into the
established church. But in the" constitution we
find this language: "Every freeman of Carolina
shall have absolute power and authority over his
Negro slaves of what opinion or religion soever;"
thus his humanity was conceded, and a little
regard had for his soul, but his body was the ab¬
solute property of a brutal owner who "neither
feared God nor regarded man." While Negroes
were received into the church, there is no record
of any effort made in or out of the church to give
them instruction or banish their dark clouds of
ignorance, superstition and crime.
While traveling from one plantation to another,
a Negro was required to take the most frequented
road or path; and if found in any other,except in the
A BLACK SUBJECT
99
company of a white man, he was liable to be seized
by the owner of the land through which he was
passing,and hit forty lashes. If one Negro enter¬
tained another from a different plantation, at
night, the only time they could visit, he was sub¬
ject to twenty lashes on his bare back, while the
guest received forty in the same manner. Still
there was one clause of humanity in this code
which is commendable. In case a poor half-
starved slave was found guilty of stealing hogs or
corn, damages could be recovered against his
master in the county or general court. But we
turn from this to a brutal act where a slave guilty
of giving false testimony, "should have one ear
nailed to the pillory, and there stand for the space
of one hour, the said ear to be cut off, and there¬
after the other ear nailed in like manner, and cut
off at the expiration of one other hour " The
Locke constitution seemed to create an insatiable
thirst for blood, so much so, and the murder of
slaves became so frequent, that the Legislature
was forced to call a halt, by refusing to pay for
the slaves killed.
New Hampshire, 1679: —Public sentiment of this
Colony was decidedly opposed to Negro slavery,
and the Governor used his authority to manumit
a slave March 14, 1684. Belknap's History of
New Hampshire thus records the fact: "The
governor tould Mr. Jeffery's Negro hee might goe
from his master, hee would clere him under hande
and sele, so the fello no more attends his mas¬
ter's conscernes." In their criminal code we find
this article: "If any man stealeth mankind, he
■shall be put to death, or otherwise grievously
100
THE WHITE SIDE OF
punished." It is safe to infer that this law would
not have been a dead letter in this Colony as it
was in Massachusetts and Connecticut; but un¬
fortunately England rejected the whole code as
"fanatical and absurd." The Governor of this
Colony, backed by public sentiment, determined to
do all he could to prevent legal recognition of
slaves; but in this he was opposed by the author¬
ity of the Crown, as the following order of 1761
would indicate: "You are not to give your assent
to, or pass any law imposing duties on Negroes
imported into New Hampshire."
The severe climate mitigated against their prof¬
itable use; so few Negroes found their way into
the Colony. While some were treated with great
kindness, others through neglect, poorly clad and
fed, were often hurried to premature graves. This
called for an Act in 1718 for restraining inhuman
severities inflicted upon servants and slaves; a
portion of which we quote from "Freedom and
Bondage," as follows: ,"If any man smite out the
eye or tooth of his man servant or maid servant,
or otherwise maim or disfigure them much, unless
it be by mere casualty, he shall let him or her go
free from his service If any person or persons
whatever in this province shall willfully kill his
Indian or Negro servant or servants, he shall be
punished with death." Probably this is the only
Colony that ever passed a law inflicting the death
penalty on a man for murdering a Negro slave.
Pennsylvania, 1681:—It is to the credit of the
Quakers that one of their number, Francis Daniel
Pastorius, drafted the first protest against slavery
issued by any religious body in America, This
JOHN M. LANGSTON.
A BLACK SUBJECT
101
was written in 1688, and adopted by the German-
town Friends, and by them sent to the monthly
meeting, and thence to the yearly meeting at
Philadelphia. The original of this ^remarkable
document was found by Nathan Kite of Philadel¬
phia in 1844. Referring to the slaves it said:
"Have not these Negroes as much right to fight for
their freedom as you have to keep them slaves?"
It prophesied the time would come,
' 'When from the gallery to the farthest seat,'
Slave and slave owner shall no longer meet,
But all sit equal at the Master's feet."
It also boldly denounced "the buying, selling,
and holding men in slavery, as inconsistent with
the Christian religion." But when this memorial
came for action before the yearly meeting, it was
voted "not proper then to give a positive judg¬
ment in the case/' Still in 1696 the yearly meet¬
ing pronounced in unmistakable language against
importing more slaves, and adopted measures
tending to the moral improvement of those in the
Colony. George Keith denounced slavery "as con¬
trary to the religion of Christ, the rights of man,
and sound reason and policy."
The pious philanthropist, William Penn, tried
in vain to embody his anti-slavery sentiments into
the law of the province.
He encouraged his people by example and in¬
fluence to treat the poor Negro with great kind¬
ness and justice, and we see the Society of Friends
did more to ameliorate the condition of slaves
than any other religious body. On the seventh of
June, 1712, a bill was passed emancipating slaves
by law, but was repealed by Queen Anne, the
notorious slave merchant.
102
THE WHITE SIDE OF
Georgia, 1732: — General John Oglethorpe, the
founder and first Governor of Georgia, has received
much unmerited praise from the casual reader of
history bejcause he opposed the introduction of
slavery into that Colony. But his opposition was
based on political and prudential motives, rather
than philanthropy. Dr. Stevens, the Georgia
historian, informs us that even Oglethorpe owned
a plantation and Negroes in South Carolina, about
forty miles above Savannah.
England was- anxious to have a strong settle¬
ment of white men on her southern boundary, to
protect her from the Spanish Colony on the south,
and the Indians on the west; so it was thought
the introduction of Negroes would be unfavorable
to this scheme, as they were apt to desert to the
Spanish. But the reasons assigned by the trustees
for prohibiting slavery were: #"1. Itsexpense,
both in buying and keeping a Negro slave. 2. It
would induce to idleness and render labor degrad¬
ing. 3. The settlers being freeholders of fifty acres
each, requiring only one or two extra hands for
their cultivation, the German servants would be
more profitable than black."
Moreover, it was claimed that the cultivation of
silk and wine requiring skill rather than strength
and endurance, whites were better adapted to it
than Negroes.
As the colony grew,England became determined
to carry out her original policy;but the settlers were
equally resolved to have Negroes. The constant
toast of the authorities was "the one thing need¬
ful," Negroes; they even smuggled them into the
Colony. The opposition weakened, and in 1748
A BLACK SUBJECT
103
Rev. Martin Bolzins wrote to the trustees as fol¬
lows: "Things being now in such a melancholy
state, I must humbly beseech your honors not to
regard our, or our friends petition against Negroes."
Even the great George Whitefield used his ut¬
most influence in favor of bringing Negroes into
the Colony. It seems that he had a visionary
scheme to build an orphanage in Georgia for the
benefit of Indian children.
Through the bounty of his friends, Whitefield
owned two small plantations; one in South Caro¬
lina, where slaves were employed, the other in
Georgia, where only free help was used. In his
letter to the trustees of Georgia, he rejoices in the
success of the plantation in South Carolina, ena¬
bling him to support a great many orphans, but
deplores the fact that the one in Georgia was a
failure, and concludes by saying: "This confirms
me in the opinion I have entertained for a long
time, that Georgia never can or will be a flour¬
ishing province without Negroes are allowed."
.What a contrast is presented by Whitefield's
view and that of a nobler and grander contem¬
porary reformer, John Wesley, whose name will
be fragrant while time lasts. Said he: "Slavery
is, in and of itself, the execrable sum of all
villainies."
We wonder if Whitefield ever considered that
one reason why his South Carolina plantation was
profitable, was because it was run on the economi¬
cal plan of half starving*.and overworking the
poor slaves, stimulated as they were by the over¬
seer's lash We wonder, too, if he considered that
slavery was the prime cause of making an orphan-
xo4 THE WHITE SIDE OF
age necessary, since this cruel system produced
more orphans among the Indians and Negroes than
all other agencies combined. Did he take into
account the character of labor then used on Georgia
plantations, such as were obtained by emptying
the jails and almshouses of England; men who
were by nature and practice crminals and vagrants,
of whom it might have been said, "they toil not,
neither do they spin?" Lastly, we wonder if this
great preacher ever noticed closely the language
of his Lord, "One is your Master,even Christ; and
all ye are brethren." Under the influence of
Whitefield and others, slavery was introduced in"
1749, Thus the seeds of slavery were sown in
this the youngest and fairest of the original thir¬
teen colonies. Some of the terrible harvest was
reaped by the swords of Sherman's army in that
never to be forgotten march through the state;
during which they burned and wasted the country,
"sixty miles in latitude, three hundred to the
main." Verily, "God is not mocked: for whatso¬
ever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
CHAPTER V.
HE FOUGHT TO FREE HIS MASTER.
"He saved ethers; himself he cannot save." Matt. XXVII, 42.
It was said that Marshal Ney fought five hun¬
dred battles for France, and not one against her,
and yet he was shot as a traitor to his country.
So in reading the annals of history, we see the
Negro fought to gain and perpetuate the liberty of
this country, in every prominent war, from the
French and Indian to the Rebellion, while he
himself was forced to remain in bondage.
We read of no greater inconsistency or more
indefensible farce, than to call this the land of
freedom, when millions of her people were slaves,
including some of the most gallant defenders of
this country or their descendants.
When we meet together on "the day we cele¬
brate," our orators are prone to ring the changes
on the American eagle, Washington and the brave
patriots of '76; but who ever heard a Fourth of
July orator refer to La Fayette and the French,
or the other brave foreigners, but for whom our
cause would probably have failed?
When was a reference in such a speech, made to
the part performed by the black men in that glori¬
ous struggle for freedom? It would almost seem
105
io6
THE WHITE SIDE OF
that a systematic effort was made to consign these
swarthy heroes to oblivion, and obliterate their very
names from the page of history. But we are glad to
know that the effort was a futile one. Still, while
ourdatas are somewhat fragmentary,they are am¬
ple for a sketch, and we doubt not, the greater
part of the story which perhaps will never be
known was fully equal to this sample: —
There is positive proof that at least two .Negroes
of Virginia, Israel Titus and Samuel Jenkins, fought
under Braddock and Washington in the French
and Indian war. The first died at Williamstown,
Massachusetts,in 1855,about one hundred and ten
years of age. A sketch of his life was published
in the Springfield Republican of about that date.
Samuel Jenkins is. ^thought to have been about
one hundred and fifteen years did when he died at
Lancaster, Ohio, in 1849. The Lancaster Gazette
of that period gave a brief sketch of his life, re¬
markable in many respects.
There were doubtless others in this war who
lived and died unknown to fame, their names and
records having been lost.
The protomartyr of the Revolutionary war was
Crispus Attucks, a Negro, who was the leader in
the Boston massacre on that memorable 5th of
March, 1770. Attucks led the citizens in the
.charge, shouting, "The way to get rid of these
idlers is to attack the main guard; strike at the
root; this is the nest!" These were perhaps his
last words, as his men threw a shower of clubs,
stones and brickbats at the soldiers, which they
returned with a galling fire. Attucks was the
first to fall, being conspicuous on account of his
A BLACK SUBJECT
107
height, which was six feet and two inches, and the
still more important fact that he was in advance
of his men. Two others, Samuel Gray and Jonas
Caldwell,were killed, while Samuel Maverick and
Patrick Carr, an Irishman, were mortally wounded.
Attucks and Caldwell were buried from Faneuil
Hall, afterwards called the "Cradle of Liberty,"
the other two from their homes, but all four in one
common grave, with the following epitaph on their
monument.
"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."
Crispus Attucks was a man of some learning,
and sometime before his tragic death indited the
following letter to the .Tory Governor of Massa¬
chusetts:
"To Thomas Hutchinson:—You will hear from
us with astonishment. You ought to hear from
us with horror. You are chargeable before God
and man with our blood. The soldiers were but
passive instruments, were machines; neither moral
nor voluntary agents in our destruction, more than
the leaden pellets with which we were wounded.
You were a free agent. You acted coolly, de¬
liberately, with all that premeditated malice, not
against us in particular, but against the people in
general,, which, in the sight of the law, is an in
gredient in the composition of murder. You will
hear further from us hereafter.
"Crispus Attucks "
And he (fid hear, and the world has heard of
this liberty-loving hero and patriot. For by his
io8 THE WHITE SIDE OF
death and" that of his fellow patriots the torch of
liberty was kindled in Boston never to be extin¬
guished.
Every schoolboy has read of Major Pitcairn,
who commanded the British regulars in the fight
at Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775, shout¬
ing to the militia: "Disperse,you rebels; lay down
your arms and disperse!" And when they stood
their ground, how he ordered his men to fire,
which command they obeyed, killing seven of the
patriots, the first martyrs of the Revolution. But
it is not as well known that one of those who fell
that day was a Negro; and that his death and
that of his fellow martyrs was avenged by another
Negro, the brave Peter Salem, who killed Major
Pitcairn while leading his men in the charge at the
battle of Bunker Hill.
This Peter Salem was born and lived at Farm-
ington, Massachusetts, and was probably a slave
until the beginning of the Revolution. He served
faithfully throughout the entire war.
There were quite a number of the sons of Africa
fighting side by side with their countrymen of the
white race at Bunker Hill, several of whom were
conspicuous for their bravery, among them Salem
Poor, Titus Coburn,Alexander Ames,Barzilai Lew,
and Cato Howe, each of whom received a pension.
This fact is established by the painting of Colonel
Trumbull, who witnessed this battle from Roxbury
and reproduced it upon canvas in 1786. He re¬
produced several Negroes in the front ranks fight¬
ing valiantly, with visible results. Indeed, as
Henry Wilson stated, "it is hardly too much to
say that some of the most heroic deeds of the war
A BLACK SUBJECT
log
of Independence were performed by black men."
The following incident is a case in point. When
Major General Prescott commanded the British
troops at Newport, Colonel Barton, with a black
soldier named Prince, determined to capture him;
and considering the fact that he was surrounded
by his guard, with a large number of British sol¬
diers quartered near,together with a fleet of ships;
it was a remarkably successful stratagem. In com¬
pany with "Black Prince," several other Negroes,
and a detachment of the militia, Colonel Barton one
dark night started in boats from a house about five
miles above Newport. Muffling the oars, and
avoiding the ships, they came on as noiselessly as
possible, landing a short distance from the hotel,
where he knew General Prescott had established
his headquarters. It was arranged that Colonel
Barton should take the lead, followed by Prince
a short distance behind, while some of the other
men brought up the rear.
When the Colonel drew near the hotel,
the sentinel presented his gun and challenged
him, but he continued to advance, throwing
the sentinel off his guard by talking about
rebel prisoners, and denouncing the rebels in
general. Again the sentinel demanded the pass¬
word; he replied that he did not have the pass¬
word, but was loyal to his country. By this
time he was near the sentinel, when,suddenly seiz¬
ing his gun,he struck it to one side and wrenched
it from his hand. Prince now seized the soldier
in his vice-like grip, and having been bound and
gagged he was handed over to the other men who
had come up.
THE WHITE SIDE OE
The Colonel and Prince now drew their weapons
and rushed into the hotel office, where they met
the landlord and demanded that he should show
them General Prescott's room; he at first refused,
but being threatened with instant death, he pointed
to the room above, The Colonel and Prince now
hurried up to this room, and finding it locked, the
brave Negro burst in the door with his head, and
seized General Prescott in bed. Seeing that re¬
sistance was useless and knowing that the slight¬
est outcry meant death, he surrendered to his
captors, was soon in the boat and conveyed within
the American lines. He was afterwards exchanged
for General Lee, an American officer of eqi?al
rank.
George W. Williams, the leading colored his¬
torian, estimates from official sources that there
were not less than three thousand colored soldiers
in the revolution, including Negro soldiers from
every Northern colony, scattered throughout the
white regiments; while. Rhode Island raised a
colored regiment commanded by Colonel Chris¬
topher Green, and Connecticut raised a black bat¬
talion of soldiers commanded in part by Colonel
David Humphrey. But, as usual, Little Rhode Island
was the most consistent of the thirteen colonies;
she first made freemen of her black sons before
permitting them to fight for freedom, and indeed
it is not surprising that this regiment proved to
have as gallant soldiers as any in the Revolution.
The Negro troops turned the tide in the battle of
Rhode Island, which was pronounced by Lafay-
iT^e "the best fought battle of the war."
\rnold, in his history of the above named state,
A BLACK SUBJECT
hi
thus referred to it: "It was in repelling these
furious onsets that the newly raised black regi¬
ment under C^onel Green distinguished itself by
deeds of valor. Posted behind a thicket in the
valley, they three times drove back the Hessians
who charged repeatedly down the hill to dislodge
them."
One admirable trait that characterized this
black regiment was devotion to their officers.
This was nobly demonstrated in the attack made
upon the American lines near Croton River, on
the thirteenth of May, 1781. Colonel Green,
their gallant commander, was cut down and mor¬
tally wounded; but the enemy's saber only reached
him through the bodies of his faithful guard of
blacks, who hovered over him to defend him and
fought-until everyone of them was killed. Leon-
idas and the Spartans at Thermopylae did no more,
fruly didTristam Burgess say in Congress in 1828,
"No braver men met the enemy in battle."
We are indebted to William C. Nell's work on
Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, 'for
valuable information, including the following ad¬
dress, which was delivered in 1842, before the
Congregational and Presbyterian Anti-Slavery
Society, at Francestown, New Hampshire, by Dr.
Harris, a Revolutionary veteran. It is of great
interest, because it is an eye-witness describing
what he had actually seen. Said he, after giving
some of his own exploits: "There was a black regi¬
ment, yes, a regiment of Negroes, fighting for our
liberty and independence—not a white man among
them but the officers—stationed at what was called
a flanking position, that is, upon a place which
ii2 THE WHITE SIDE OF
the enemy must pass .in order to come round in
our rear, to drive us from the fort. This pass
was everything, both to the enemy and us. Had
the colored soldiers given way before the enemy
or been unfaithful, all would have been lost.
"Three times in succession were they attacked,
with most desperate valor and fury, by well dis¬
ciplined and veteran troops, and three times did
they successfully repel the assault, and thus pre¬
served our army from capture. They fought
through the war. They were brave, hardy troops.
They helped to gain our liberty and independence.
"Now, the war is over, our freedom is gained—
what is to» be done with these colored soldiers,
who have shed their best blood in its defense ?
Must they be sent off out of the country, because
they are black? Or must they be sent back into
slavery, now they have risked their lives and shed
their blood to secure the freedom of their masters?
I ask, what became of these noble ' colored
soldiers? Many of them, I fear, were taken back
to the South, and doomed to the fetter and the
chain.
"And why is it that the colored inhabitants of
our nation, bofn in this country, and entitled to
all the rights of freedom, are held in slavery?
Why, but because they are black! I have often
thought that, should God see fit, by a miracle,
to change their color, straighten their hair, and
give their features and complexion the appearance
of the whites, slavery would not continue a year.
No, you would then go and abolish it with the
sword, if it were not speedily done without. But
it a. suitable cause for making men slaves be-
A BLACK SUBJECT
ii3
cause God has given them such color, such hair
and such features as he saw fit?"
Simon Lee, the grandfather of William Wells
Brown, on his mother's side, was a slave in Vir¬
ginia, and served in the Revolution; although
honorably discharged with the other Virginia
troops, at the close of the war, he was sent back
to his master, where he spent the remainder of
his life in toiling on a tobacco plantation. Such
is the injustice toward the colored American, that,
after serving in his country's struggle for freedom
he is doomed to fill the grave of a slave!
La Fayette, in his letter to Clarkson, said: "I
would never have drawn my sword in the cause of
America, if I could have conceived that thereby I
was founding a land of slavery."
The following incident from Theodore Parker
shows that other black veterans of the Revolution
were remanded to slavery, and doubtless there
were many such cases. A sea-captain of Massa¬
chusetts who commanded a small brig, which
plied between Carolina and the Gulf States, said
to Mr. Parker, "One day at Charleston a man
came and brought to me an old Negro slave.
He was very old and had fought in the Revolution,
and had been much distinguished for bravery and
other soldierly qualities. vIf he had not been a
Negro, he would have become a captain at least,
perhaps a colonel. But in his old age, his master
found no use for him, and said he could not afford
to keep him. He asked me to take the Revolu¬
tionary soldier and carry him South and sell him.
I carried him to Mobile and tried to get as good
and kind a master for him as I could, for I didn't
"4
THE WHITE'SIDE OF
like to sell a man who had fought for his country.
"I sold the old Revolutionary veteran for a hun¬
dred dollars to a citizen of Mobile, who raised
poultry,and he set him to tend a hen coop." Mr.
Parker remarked that he supposed the South
Carolina master, "a true gentleman," drew the
pension till the soldier died. Then turning to the
sea captain, whom he knew to be an anti-slavery
man, he asked: "How could you do such a thing?"
"If I had not done it," he replied, "I never could
have received another bale of cotton, nor hogs¬
head of sugar, nor anything to carry from or to
any Southern port."
Theodore Parker also stated that in his day
workmen, while excavating for the foundations of
the large dry goods stores of New York city, un¬
earthed a large number of human skeletons. On
investigation they proved to be the bones of Colored
American soldiers, who fell in the battle of Long
Island in 1776. They were carted off to fill up a
chasm, and thrown on the beach to make the
foundations of warehouses, like any other rubbish
of the city. Had they been white men they would
have been buried anew, but as they were only
Negroes who had died for their own and their
masters' country, this was their fate.
Hon. Calvin Goddard, of Connecticut, states
that he was instrumental in securing, under Act of
1818, the pensions of nineteen colored soldiers. "I
cannot," he says, "refrain from mentioning one
black man, Primus Babcock, who proudly pre¬
sented to me an honorable discharge from service
during the war, dated at the close of it, wholly in
the handwriting of George Washington. Nor can I
A BLACK SUBJECT
tI5
forget the expression of his feelings when in¬
formed, after his discharge had been sent to the
War Department, that it could not be returned.
At his request it was written for, as he seemed in¬
clined to spurn the pension and reclai.ni the dis¬
charge."
There is a pathetic anecdote told of Baron
Steuben, at the time the American army disbanded.
"A black soldier with his wounds unhealed, utterly
destitute, stood on the wharf just as a vessel
bound for his distant home was getting under way.
The poor fellow gazed at the vessel with tears in
his eyes, and gave himself up to utter despair.
The warm-hearted foreigner noticed his emotions,
and inquiring into the cause of it, took his last
dollar from his purse and gave it to him, while
tears of sympathy trickled down his cheeks. Over¬
whelmed with gratitude, the poor wounded soldier
hailed the ship and was received on board. As it
moved out of the wharf he cried back to his noble
friend on shore, 'God Almighty bless you, Master
Baron."'
We have already stated that Connecticut raised
a battalion of colored soldiers, who were among
the bravest in the American army. Some of them
even immortalized their names as heroes "who
were not born to die," as the following letter from
Parker Pillsbury of New Hampshire, to William C.
Nell, clearly indicates: "The names of the two
brave men of color who fell with Ledyard at the
storming of Fort Griswold, were Lambo Latham
and Jordan Freeman. All the names of the slain
at that time,, are inscribed on a marble tablet,
wrought into the monument—the names of the
n6 THE WHITE SIDE OF
colored soldiers last, and not only last, but a
blank space is left between them and the whites;
in genuine keeping with the "Negro Pew distinc¬
tion—setting them not only below all the others,
but by themselves, even after that. And it is
difficult to say why. They were not last in the
fight.
"When Major Montgomery, one of the leaders in
the expedition against the Americans, was lifted
upon the walls of the fort by his soldiers, flourish¬
ing his sword and calling on them to follow him,
Jordan Freeman received him on the point of a
pike, and pinned him dead to the earth (see
Historical Collections of Connecticut); and the name
of Jordan Freeman stands away down last on the
list of heroes—perhaps the greatest hero of them
all." But what of the other black hero who was
with hinj? We will let a nephew of his, William
Anderson, of New London, Connecticut, tell the
story.
"September 6th, 1781, New London was taken
by the British, under the command of that arch
traitor, Benedict Arnold. The small band com¬
posing the garrison retreated to the fort opposite,
in the town of Groton, and there resolved either
to gain a victory or die for their country. The
latter pledge was faithfully redeemed and by none
more gallantly than the two colored men; and if
the survivors of that day's carnage tell truly, they
fought like tigers and were butchered after the
gates were burst open. One of these men was the
brother of my grandmother, by the name* of Lam¬
bert, but called Lambo, since chiseled on the marble
monument by the American classic appellation of
A BLACK SUBJECT 117
'Safmbo.' The name of the other black man was
Jordan Freeman.
"Lambert was living with a gentleman in Groton
by the name of Latham; so of course he was called
Lambert Latham. Mr. Latham and Lambert, on
the day of the massacre, were working in a field
at a distance from the house. On hearing the
alarm upon the approach of the enemy, Mr. Latham
started for home, leaving Lambert to drive the
oxen up to the house. On arriving at the house,
Lambert was told that Mr. Latham had gone up
to the fort. Unyoking the oxen from the wagon
and making all secure, he started for the point of
defense, where he arrived before the British began
the attack.
"The assault on the part of the British was a
deadly one, and manifestly resisted by the Ameri¬
cans, even to the clubbing of their muskets after
their ammunition was expended; but finally the
little garrison, of brave defenders was reducJed to
a handful, and could hold out no longer.
"On the entrance of the enemy, the British
officer inquired, 'Who commands'this fort?' The
gallant Ledyard replied, 'I once did; you do now,'
—at the same time handing him his sword, which
was seized, and immediately run through his body
to the hilt by the officer. This was the commence¬
ment of an unparalleled slaughter.
"Lambert,being near Colonel Ledyard when he
was slain, retaliated upon the officer by thrusting
his bayonet through his body. Lambert in re¬
turn received from the enemy thirty-three bayonet
wounds, and thus fell, nobly avenging the death
of his commander. These facts were given me on
THE WHITE SIDE OF
the spot, at the time of the laying of the corner¬
stone, by two veterans who were present at the
battle."
We learn from Kent's Commentary that the
Legislature of New York passed an Act during
the Revolutionary War granting freedom to all
slaves who > should serve in the army for three
years, or until regularly discharged.
The Hartford Review for September, 1839,
gives the following account of a colored man by
the name of Hamet, living at that time in Middle-
town, Connecticut, who was formerly owned by
Washington:—"Hamet is, according to his own
account, nearly one hundred years old. He draws
a pension for his services in the Revolutionary war,
and manufactures toy drums for his support. He
has a white wife and one child His hair is white
with age and hangs matted together in masses over
his shoulders. He retains a perfect recollection
of his Massa and Missus Washington, and has
several mementoes of them. Among these there
is a lock of the General's hair, and his service
sword. He converses in three or four different
languages,—the French, Spanish and German, be¬
sides his native African tongue."
Another black veteran, Oliver Cromwell, served
six years and nine months under Washington's
immediate command, and received an honorable
discharge in Washington's own handwriting, of
which he was very proud.. He received a pension
of ninety-six dollars annually. Was in the battles
of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Monmouth
and Yorktown, at which place he claims to have
seen the last man killed. He enlisted in a company
A BLACK SUBJECT 119
commanded by Captain Lowery, attached to the
second New Jersey Regiment, under the command
of Colonel Israel Shreve. He brought up seven
sons and seven daughters, who reached the age of
maturity. He was a man of strong natural ability
—never using tobacco or liquor in any form. He
was more than a hundred years of age when he
died at his native town, Columbus, New Jersey,
January 24, 1853.
Another Revolutionary hero, Charles Bowles, .
was born in 1761, and at the age of twelve was
placed in the family of a Tory. But he was too
patriotic to be co.ntented with his home, and two
years later found him in the American army a
servant to an officer. When sixteen years of age
he became a regular soldier, serving faithfully to
the end of the war. ' He then went to New
Hampshire and engaged in farming. He obtained
a pension, became a Baptist preacher of some
prominence, and died in 1843, at the ago of eighty-
two.
Rev. Henry F. Harrington wrote an article on
General Washington and Primus Hall, body serv¬
ant to Colonel Pickering, of Massachusetts, which
was published in the June issue of Godey's Lady's
Book, 1849.
"On one occasion, the General was engaged in
earnest conversation with Colonel Pickering in his
tent, until after the night had fairly set in. Head¬
quarters were . at a considerable distance, and
Washington signified his preference to stay with
the Colonel over night, provided-he had a spare
blanket and straw. 'O, yes,' said Primus, whso
was appealed to; 'plenty of straw and blankets—
plenty.'
120
THE WHITE SIDE OF
"Upon this assurance,Washington continued his
conference with the Colonel until it was time to
retire to rest. Two humble beds were spread,
side by side, in the tent, and the officers laid
themselves down, while Primus seemed to be busy
with duties that required his attention before he
himself could sleep. He worked or appeared to
work, until the breathing of the prostrate gentle¬
men satisfied him that they were sleeping; and
then seating himself upon a box or stool, he leaned
his head on his hands to obtain such repose as so
inconvenient a position would allow. In the
middle of the night Washington awoke. He
looked about and descried the Negro as he sat.
He gazed at him awhile, and then spoke. 'Pri¬
mus,' said he, calling; 'Primus!' Primus started
up and rubbed his eyes. ' 'What, General?' said
he.
"Washington rose up in his bed. 'Primus,' said
he, 'what did you mean by saying that you had
blankets and straw enough? Here you have given
up your blanket and straw to me, that I may
sleep comfortably, while you are obliged to sit
through the night.' 'It's nothing, General,' said
Primus. 'It's nothing. I am well enough. Don't
trouble yourself about me, General, but go to sleep
again. No matter about me, I sleep very good.'
"'But it is matter—it is matter,' said Washing¬
ton, earnestly. 'I cannot do it,Primus. If either
is to sit up, I will. But I think there is no need
of either sitting up. The blanket is wide enough
for two. Come and lie down here with me.' 'Oh,
no!' said.Primus, starting, and protesting against
the proposition. 'No; let me sit here. I'll do
IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT.
CLINTON B. FISK.
A BLACK SUBJECT
121
very well on the stool.' 'I say, come and lie down
here!' said Washington authoritatively. 'There is
room for both, and I insist upon it!' He threw
open the blanket as he spoke, and moved to one
side of the straw. Primus professed to have been
exceedingly shocked at the idea of lying under
the same covering with the commander-in-chief,
but his tone was so resolute and determined that
he could not hesitate. He prepared himself, there¬
fore, and laid himself down by Washington; and
on the same straw, and under the same blanket,
the General and the Negro servant slept until
morning."
Seymour Burr lived in Connecticut; he was a
slave to a brother of Colonel Aaron Burr, from
whom he received his name. His master treated
him kindly, but the slave sighed for freedom and
was resolved, if possible, to obtain it. Persuading
a number of other slavey to go with him, they
seized a boat, intending to join the British army,
that by so doing they might become freemen.
Nevertheless their owners pursued and overtook
them, and being heavily armed the slaves surren¬
dered.
Mr. Burr did not punish Seymour, but asked
him why he had left such a kind ma'ster. The
Negro replied that he wanted his liberty. The
master consented that the Negro should join the
American army, on condition that the master
should receive the bounty money and the slave be
free at the close of the war. Accordingly he en¬
listed in the seventh regiment, commanded by
Colonel Brooks of Medford.
He was with his company in the siege of Fort
122
THE WHITE SIDE OF
Catskill, where they endured great suffering from
cold and starvation, until at last relieved by the
arrival of General Washington, who was overjoyed
on finding them unexpectedly alive, and holding
the fort.
He served faithfully until the close of the war,
receiving a pension. He afterwards married an
Indian woman and established a home at Canton,
Massachusetts. His wife survived him, dying in
1852, having lived more than five score years.
Jeremy Jonah (colored) also served valiantly in
the same Regiment, afterwards obtaining a pen¬
sion. He lived near Seymour Burr, and the two
old comrades often made a night of it, after the
manner of veterans, fighting their battles over
again.
On August 16, 1777, .the "Green Mountain
Boys," aided by troops from New Hampshire and
a few from Massachusetts,commanded by General
Stark, captured the left wing of the British army
near Bennington. When the prisoners, to the
number of between seven and eight hundred, were
collected to be tied on either side of a rope, it
was found to be too short. The General called
for more, but there was none at hand. In this
emergency the patriotic wife of Hon. Moses Rob¬
inson stepped forward and said: "General, I
will take down the last bedstead in the house and
present the rope to you on one condition. When
the prisoners are all tied to the rope, you shall
permit my Negro man to harness up my old mare
and hitch the rope to the whiffletree, mount the
mare, and conduct the British and Tory prisoners
out of town." The General willingly accepted Mrs.
A BLACK SUBJECT
123
Robinson's proposition. The Negro mounted the
mare, grinning from ear to ear, and thus con¬
ducted the left wing of the British army into Mas¬
sachusetts, on their road to Boston.
The following instance of Negro wit is often
told. After Cornwallis surrendered at York-
town, an acquaintance of his, a colored soldier,
stepped up to him quite elated, and remarked:
"You used to be called Cornwallis, but it is Corn¬
wallis no longer; it must now be Cobwallis, for
General Washington has shelled off all the corn."
The gallant historian is proud to record the he¬
roic deed of Molly Pitcher, whose husband was
killed in the battle of Monmouth, and she took
his place at the cannon, until the end of that bat¬
tle. But here is the record of a black heroine who
faithfully discharged all the duties of a soldier for
nearly a year and a half.
The following extract is a copy of one of the
Resolutions of the General Court of Massachusetts
during the session of 1791-2:—"XXIII. Resolu¬
tion on the petition of Deborah Gannett, granting
her ,£34 for services rendered in the Continental
army..
"On the petition of Deborah Gannett, praying
for compensation for services performed in the
late army of the United States. Whereas, it ap¬
pears to this Court that the said Deborah Gannett
enlisted under the name of Robert Shurtliff in
Captain Webb's company in the 4th Massachusetts
Regiment, on May 20th, 1782, and did actually
perform the duty of a soldier, in the late army of
the United .States, to the 23rd day of October,
1783, for which she has received no compensa-
124
THE WHITE SIDE OF
tion; and whereas it further appears that the said
Deborah Gannett exhibited an extraordinary in¬
stance of female heroism, by discharging the duties
of a faithful, gallant soldier, and at the same time
preserving the virtue and chastity of her sex unsus¬
pected and unblemished, and was discharged from
the service with a fair and honorable character *
therefore, Resolved, That the treasurer of this
commonwealth be, and hereby is, directed to issue
his note to the said Deborah for the sum of thirty-
four pounds, bearing interest from October 23,
1788."
Prince Richards was a pensioned Revolutionary
veteran, of East Bridgewater. When a slave he
learned to write with a charred stick, thus show¬
ing a burning desire for learning, even against the
command of his master, and perhaps, the law of
the state.
At the close of the war, John Hancock pre¬
sented the colored company called "The Bucks"
with a beautiful and appropriate banner, bearing
his initials, as a token of his appreciation of their
courage and patriotism during the struggle. "The
Bucks," under command of Colonel Middl,eton,
marched through Boston, halting in front of the
Hancock mansion on Beach Street, where the
Governor and his son united in presenting the
banner.
One of the most brilliant exploits of the Revo¬
lution was the capture of Stony Point by Mad
Anthony Wayne. But it must not be forgotten
that the countersign and password, "The Fort
is Ours," was obtained by the shrewdness of a
patriotic Negro who was in the habit o* selling
A BLACK SUBJECT
125
strawberries to the British. This same Negro
guided the troops through the inky darkness, to the
causeway over the marsh, around the foot of the
hill. Then going in advance up the hill, he gave
the countersign to- the sentinel and engaged him
in a friendly conversation, always keeping his
back down the hill, until he was suddenly seized
from behind and gagged; the rest was easy.
The historian will tell us that Washington
planned, and Wayne executed this glorious exploit;
but we maintain that but for this nameless black
hero, the impregnable Stony Point could not have
been taken.
We also read of the brig on which Jack Grove
(colored)was steward; while sailing from the West
Indies to Portland in 1812, it was captured by a
French vessel, whose commander placed a guard
on board. Jack urged his commander to make an
effort to retake the ship, but the captain saw no
hope. Again he urged him, saying: "Captain
McLellan, I can take her myself if you will only
let me go ahead " But the captain was ^rather
cowardly and checked him, warning him not to
hint such a thing, as there was danger in it. But
Jack, disappointed and disgusted with him, though
not daunted, rallied the men on his own hook.
Captain McLellan and the rest,inspired by his ex¬
ample of courage and leadership, joined them, and
the attempt resulted in victory. They weighed
anchor and took the vessel into Portland. The
owner of the brig offered Jack fifty hogsheads of
molasses for his brave deed; but Jack demanded
one half of the brig, which being denied, he em¬
ployed two Boston lawyers and brought suit. We
126
THE WHITE SIDE OF
were unable to learn how the case terminated.
The artist has vied with the historian in pro¬
claiming the fact that the black men were among
the bravest of the brave, with Perry in the squad¬
ron fight of Lake Erie, and Jackson at-New Or¬
leans. What student Qf history has not read Jack¬
son's eloquent tribute to his brave colored fellow
soldiers, after that glorious victory which they
helped him to gain?
In the Chicago Tribune of February 26, 1894,
Simon Young said in reply to the proposition of
the Knights of Labor to deport the Negroes to
Africa: "We are part and parcel of this country.
Why,only to-day we buried from No. 3331 Dear¬
born Street old Captain Jackson, a Mexican war
veteran, whose father fought in the war of 1812,
and his grandfather worked a musket in the Revo¬
lutionary set-to. Our blood and brawn and brain
helped to make this country. This is our home,
and we're going to stay at home." Rev. Peter
Williams of New York said on one occasion: "We
are natives of this land; we ask only to be treated
as well as foreigners. Not a few of our fathers
suffered and bled to purchase its independence;
we ask only to be treated as well as those who
fought against it. We have toiled to cultivate it,
and raise it to its present prosperous condition;
we ask only to share equal privileges with those
who come from distant lands to enjoy the fruits of
our labor."
Let us smother all the wrongs we have endured.
Let us forget the past. If we are brethren let
us yield ourselves to charity, and let us concede
the fact that many times have our dusky brothers
A BLACK SUBJECT
127
shown their power, their energy, their skill, in
behalf of'their friends, their masters, their country!
Can we be so thoughtless—yea, so.heartless as to
begrudge them a place, a home in this broad land
of ours for which they have fought, bled, and
many of them died to save?
CHAPTER VI.
SLAVERY IN FREEDOM.
"United States, your banner wears
Two emblems—one of fame;
Alas, the other that it bears
Reminds us of your shame.
The white man's liberty in types
Is blazoned on your stars;
But what's the meaning of your stripes?
They mean your Negroes' scars."
—Campbei L.
The noble heroes and patriots who survived
the Revolutionary struggle, in which one of the
main issues was "equal right to all and exclusive
privileges to none," must have been impressed
with the inconsistency of holding their fellow men
in cruel bondage. Certain it is Vermont separated
from New York in 1777, and in framing her state
constitution she forever prohibited slavery. How¬
ever, Pennsylvania, through the influence of the
Quakers, was the first of the original thirteen colo¬
nies to abolish the system, which she did by adopt¬
ing a measure of gradual emancipation in 1780.
A little later in the same year Massachusetts abol¬
ished slavery by her state constitution.
In 1784 Jefferson proposed an ordinance to con¬
gress, prohibiting slavery in all the western country
above the parallel of 31 north latitude, to go into
128
A BLACK SUBJECT
129
effect after the year 1800. To his infinite regret
and lasting sorrow, this was lost by one vote.
This great statesman afterwards wrote concerning
it: "The voice of a single individual wcfuld have
prevented this abominable crime. Heaven will not
always be silent; the friends to the rights of hu¬
man nature will in the end prevail."
When the constitution was adopted, the leading
question considered was, how to obtain a harmo¬
nious union of all the colonies; how to fuse these
distinct governments, with different interests, into
one strong government. Weakened as they were
by the long and bloody war with the Mother Coun¬
try; bankrupt and almost discouraged, they were
willing for harmony and unity on almost any
terms. Accordingly, we find the framers of the
constitution compromising and using ambiguous
language in regard to slavery right in the consti¬
tution itself.
The words slave, slavery, or Negro, are syste¬
matically avoided, and they are spoken of as "per¬
sons bound to service," and "three-fifths of all
other persons." But it nowhere says how bound,
and an honest constitutional judge construing this
clause to harmonize with the Declaration of In¬
dependence (which preceded and was in a sense
the basis of the constitution), would certainly have
decided that "bound to service" meant in equity,
"bound by contract to service," not forced under
the lash, without any contract, and for the entire
benefit of the so-called master class.
The framers of the constitution differed widely
as to whether the Negroes should be regarded as
persons or property? It was finally settled that
130 THE WHITE SIDE OF
they were neither absolutely the one nor the other,
but partook of both qualities; and it was provided
that five slaves should count as three freemen,
in the apportionment for representatives and for
direct taxation. As an expounder of the compro¬
mise on this basis said, the slave was considered
"as divested of two-fifths of the man." This is
why the constitution was claimed by both sides
in the "irrepressible conflict." This instrument
was necessarily compromising as touching slavery,
but we should be very charitable in reviewing it,
when we consider that an unconditional pro-slav¬
ery, or anti-slavery constitution, would not have
been adopted by the members of the constitution,
nor ratified by the different states. The leadership
of Washington and the wisdom of Franklin were
strained to their utmost before this question was
finally settled by compromise,in the constitutional
convention.
Even then, as might have been expected, slavery
would not remain settled, for while not strictly in
the constitution, it was not expunged from it, and
proved to be a veritable "Old Man of the Sea,"
riding on the back of the constitution, seeking to
strangle it, until, drunken with the wine of its own
violence,it was shaken off and crushed in the war
of the Rebellion.
Theodore Parker illustrates slavery and the con¬
stitution as follows: "There is an old story told
by Hebrew rabbis, that before the flood there
was an enormous giant called Gog. After the flood
had got into the full tide of successful experiment,
and every man was drowned except those taken into
the ark, Gog came striding along after Noah, feel-
A BLACK SUBJECT
ing his way with a cane, as long as a mast of the
"Great Eastern." The water had only come up
to his girdle. It was then over the hill-tops and
still rising—raining night and day. The giant hailed
the Patriarch. Noah put his head out of the win¬
dow, and said, 'Who is there?' 'It is I,' said Gog.
'Take us in; it is wet outside!' 'No,' said Noah;
'you're to big; no room. Besides, you've a bad
character. You may get on top if you like,' and
he closed the window. ' Go to thunder,' said Gog;
•I will ride after all.' And he strode after him,
wading through the waters; and mounting on top
of the ark, with one leg over the larboard and the
other over the starboard side, he steered it just as
he pleased and made it rough weather inside.
. "Now in making the constitution, we did not
care to take in Slavery in express terms. It looked
ugly. We allowed it to get on top astride, and
now it steers us just where it pleases." Hence the
question, Could slavery find shelter behind the con¬
stitution of the United States? received almost as
many different answers as there were men at¬
tempting it. To this great question the abolition¬
ists, led by Garrison, replied, "Yes, therefore
away with the constitution." "Yes," replied the
anti-abolitionists, "therefore let slavery alone."
"No," said the anti-slavery Whigs,"for the consti¬
tution is not a pro-slavery instrument." "No,"
said Gerrit Smith, "for slavery, in the nature of
the case, cannot find a shelter behind anything
that bears the name of law; the constitution that
offered shelter to slavery would have no validity.
The question whether or no slavery finds shelter
behind the constitution, is wanting in pertinency;
there is no such question."
132 THE WHITE SIDE OF
This was substantially the view of Frederick
Douglass, who defended it against all gainsayers,
with great boldness and power.
Whatever the constitution might be, no one
could question the fact that the Declaration of In¬
dependence, the Magna Charta of American Lib¬
erty, was anti-slavery, when it published to the
world the following glorious principles: "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, govern¬
ments are instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the go.verned."
Remember the equality and liberty were not
limited to the white, black or red men, for all were
in the colonies at that time, but it emphatically
says all men; it includes all races, and excludes
none. The pursuit of happiness was also guaranteed
unto all men, by this instrument, but was there
any happiness for the poor souls driven like
galley-slaves, and treated like beasts of burden?
Moreover,we read that "Governments are insti¬
tuted among men, deriving their powers from the
consent of the governed." When did the Negro
ever give his consent, or, indeed, when was he ever
consulted as to how he should be governed from
the " time he was kidnaped by piratical man-
stealers in Africa, until he escaped their clutches
at death?
At its conclusion we find this passage: "And
for the support of this Declaration, with a firm
reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,
A BLACK SUB/ECT
133
we mutually pledge to each ether our Lives, our
Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." In view of the
treatment the Negro received, mainly because he
was black, this reliance on the "protection of
Divine Providence" appears sacrilegious, and this
pledge of "sacred honor," a farce.
Can it be that this palladium of Liberty, penned
by the immortal Jefferson, was superseded by the
constitution and thrown aside as a cast-off gar¬
ment? It certainly appears so. For if any re¬
gard had been paid to this Declaration of Inde¬
pendence, slavery would not have cursed the na¬
tion a single year.- For it was an unmitigated
curse, its advocates being judges. Henry Clay
himself said, "Slavery is a curse to the master
and a wrong to the slave." Its cloven foot was
shown even in drafting this important instrument.
It may not be known to all our readers that part
of the original document drawn up by the com¬
mittee consisting of Jefferson, Adams, Livingston,
Sherman and Franklin, was rejected and stricken
out in deference to slavery, but such is an un¬
doubted historical fact.
. The first draft of the Declaration of Independ¬
ence can be seen in the American Philosophical
Society of Philadelphia, an institution founded by
Franklin. It contains this forcible language:
"He," (King George III.), "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, capti¬
vating and carrying them into slavery in another
hemisphere, or to incur a miserable death in their
transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the
134 THE WHITE SIDE OF
opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of tRe
Christian King of Great Britain. Determined to
keep open market where men should be bought and
sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppress¬
ing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to re¬
strain this execrable commerce."
Mr. William Chambers, the English traveler
and author, considers this original draft of our
Declaration the greatest archaeological curiosity
in America.
Thus a union embracing the Southern colonies
could only be obtained by withdrawing this scath¬
ing rebuke, and prostituting liberty to slavery.
In fact, we are forced to the conclusion that the
Declaration of Independence, contrary to the de¬
sign of those who drafted it, never had the valid¬
ity of law. Though announcing the doctrine of
human equality and inalienable rights, it proved
to be, as far as effectiveness was concerned,only a
respectable piece of buncombe, simply words. Cer¬
tain it was, when the surrender at Yorktown ended
our allegiance to the mother country, we had sim¬
ply exchanged masters. This country was no
longer owned and governed by King George ancl
his Parliament, but from the day of the surrender
at Yorktown, 1781, to the day of a still greater
surrender at Appomattox in 1865, a period of nearly
eighty-five years, this country was ruled with a
rod of iron by a domineering minority, in the form
of an aristocracy of Southern slave holders, aided
by Northern sympathizers. Hence the surrender
at Appomattox secured liberty to the white man
at the North as well as the black slave at the
South.
A BLACK SUBJECT
135
Since then the Declaration has meant what its
language would imply, and this glorious old ex¬
punged paragraph should be restored. At the
time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution
in 1787, it was generally believed that slavery
would die out in all the states. A ma.n would not
have been laughed to scorn had he predicted that
Maryland, Delaware and Virginia would be free
states in his lifetime. Seven states had already
abolished slavery, or were preparing to do so.
And it must be borne in mind that the constitu¬
tion abolished the African slave trade after the
year 1 808, though why this clause was never en¬
forced is not apparent. Certain it is, public senti¬
ment was gaining ground against slavery even in
Georgia, as is shown by the fact that one of her
representatives stated on the floor of the House,
without contradiction, "that there was not a man
in Georgia who did not wish there were no slaves,
and everybody believed they were a curse to the
country."
Several influences contributed to mould public
opinion against slavery at this time. First in
order of importance, as we have already seen, was
the Declaration of Independence. Second, the
bravery of the colored soldiers in the war of In¬
dependence. Having aided his master in break¬
ing the yoke of oppression, it was inconsistent for
the black man to continue a servant in
"The land of the free and the home of the brave."
Third, the opposition of abolition societies, and
religious bodies, particularly the Quakers, who
were most aggressive; the Methodists,who resolved
136 THE WHITE SIDE OF
in general conference that "slave-keeping was hurt¬
ful to society, and contrary to the laws of God,
man and nature;" and the Baptists especially in
Rhode Island. Fourth, the influence and exam¬
ple of such fathers of the Republic as Washing¬
ton, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Hamilton and
Madison. Fifth, the fact that it had been demon¬
strated that slavery did not pay.
Washington and Jefferson both opposed the
idea of buying or selling Negroes off the planta¬
tions to which they belonged, and both proved by
their personal experience that a large number of
Negroes on a Virginia plantation was an economi¬
cal failure. Supporting his numerous slaves brought
Jefferson to poverty in his old age. Washington,
in a private letter written while President, ex¬
presses an opinion that slavery must soon be abol¬
ished in Virginia and Maryland, and as is well
known, manumitted his own slaves by his last
will.
Neither Jefferson nor Adams had any part in
framing the constitution, as they were both ab¬
sent.at foreign courts. They held identically the
same views on the slavery question, for in a letter
written about this time Jefferson expressed a
strong desire that the slave trade, and slavery itself,
might be abolished; while John Adams never
owned a slave during his life, because of his ab¬
horrence to slavery.
Franklin, as president of the Pennsylvania abo¬
lition society, earnestly besought Congress to give
immediate attention to the subject of slavery.
He further petitioned, "that you will be pleased
to countenance the restoration of liberty to those
A BLACK SUBJECT.
*37
unhappy men, who are degraded into perpetual
bondage; and that you will discourage every
species of traffic in persons of our fellowmen."
Hamilton, while secretary of the New York abo¬
lition society, received a request from La Fayette,
proposing himself as a fellow member of his soci¬
ety. And Madison in the constitutional con¬
vention urged the members to strike out the section
delaying the prohibition of the slave trade until the
year 1808, saying: "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."
Of course such statesmen and patriots as these
would create a strong public sentiment against
slavery, which was fast spreading over the entire
nation. But an event occurred in 1793 which
turned the tide in favor of slavery, and benefited
the planter more than the Fugitive Slave law.
"What," asked Webster, "created the new feel¬
ing in favor of slavery in the South, so that it be¬
came a cherished institution, no evil, no scourge,
but great religious, social and moral blessing?"
To answer the question in a sentence we would
say, the invention of the cotton-gin. This was
due to the mechanical skill of Eli Whitney of
Massachusetts. Young Whitney, while engaged in
school-teaching, was making his home at the hos¬
pitable mansion of Mrs. General Nathaniel Green,
on her Georgia plantation, where he perfected his
invention with the aid of his kind partner, Mrs.
Green.
Prior to this invention it was the work of
138 THE WHITE SIDE OF
a man for one whole day to separate a pound
of cotton fiber from the seed; but by the use of
this machine one man could do the work of fifty
or more.
Undoubtedly the wealth of the South was aug¬
mented by this -invention more than any other,
or perhaps all others combined. Instead of being
grateful to Whitney for conferring untold wealth
upon them, some neighboring planters broke into
the house where it was kept and stole his inven¬
tion; so that much of his life was embittered by
tedious and expensive lawsuits for the recovery
of his rights. Whitney, however, invented a gun
after this from which he realized a fortune. The
cotton-gin, by making slave labor profitable,
tended to rivet the chains more firmly on these
unfortunate people. In the same year of this in¬
vention, a duty of three cents a pound was placed
on cotton, which stimulated its production.
The slave territory was extended by the pur¬
chase of Louisiana in 1803, of Florida in 1819,
and the annexation of Texas in 1845. Slavery
had been quickened in the border states, Mary¬
land, Virginia and Kentucky, which had been in
fair way to abolish it altogether as unprofitable in
the raising.of grain, tobacco and live stock Sad
to relate, some of the most conscientious Chris¬
tian people of these states, and the District of
Columbia, engaged in the disreputable business of
raising slaves for the Southern market, the same
as they did mules or cattle, and kept this up as
one of the main sources of weath until slavery
was overthrown.
The first Fugitive Slave law was passed in 1793,
A BLACK SUBJECT
139
the same year of Whitney's cotton-gin. It grew
out of the fact that a free Negro had been kid¬
naped in Pennsylvania, by three white ruffians,
and carried to Virginia. When the Governor of
Pennsylvania could not get him from the Governor
of Virginia, he called the attention of President
Washington to it, who in turn brought it before
Congress, and urged them to take some action in
the matter. The result was the passage of this
first Fugitive Slave Bill. But the record does not
show what" became of the poor kidnaped free
Negro.
Such laws were not designed to give the Negro
any protection, but were all in sympathy with the
supposed master.
It may be said that from this time on the ag¬
gressive power was ever ready to "lengthen her
cords, and strengthen her stakes," and extend her
boundaries, by fair means if she could, foul if she
must; and the latter was usually adopted. Her
motto seems to have been "rule or ruin."
Everything was forced to bow submissive to the
Peculiar Institution. Her usual threat which she
hung suspended over the North like Damocle's
sword, was, "Do this or we will secede!" Even
the matchless Daniel WTebster had proven recre¬
ant to his early principles and bowed the knee to
this Baal, in his eagerness for a Presidential nomi¬
nation; while his no less distinguished contem¬
porary, Henry Clay, living midway between the
two sections, was ever ready to step in between
the belligerents with a cunningly devised compro¬
mise, as one-sided as that of the two boys who
found a knife jointly, and decided that the smaller
140 THE WHTTE SIDE OF
boy should own, and the larger should carry and
use it.
Even in the North there were many open sym¬
pathizers with slavery, while others were disposed
to apologize for it; but those in the main were
either concerned in manufacturing cotton, or ig¬
norant of the heartless cruelty of the institution.
The national capital was located on slave terri¬
tory, and her slave-pen became a great market,
where human cattle were daily disposed of to the
highest bidder, and was one of the most infamous
in the nation. The story is told of a woman who
escaped from it, and was pursued by four men
across the long bridge. She was fast gaining on
them, when they shouted to others on the Vir¬
ginia side, who ran to that end of the bridge to
intercept her. Seeing this,she uttered a wild cry
of despair and threw herself into the river, pre¬
ferring death to falling into the heartless hands of
her pursuers Another woman and two children
fled for protection to the steps of the capitol
building, and while the emblem of liberty floated
from its dome, she was forced to the slave-pen.
Perhaps the most baneful feature of slavery, from
a moral standpoint, was the unbridled license it
gave to amalgamation. I don't mean theoreti¬
cally—only the despised abolitionists were accused
of that—but real practical amalgamation, such as
men in power, and the most prominent statesmen
were notoriously guilty of. Well might Thomas
Jefferson say: "The best blood of Virginia runs
in the veins of her slaves." Jane Grey Svvisshelm,
in her "Half a Century," says: "One of Presi¬
dent Tyler's daughters ran away with the man she
A BLACK SUBJECT
141
loved, in order that they might be married, but
for this they must reach foreign soil. A young
lady of the White House could not marry the
man of her choice in the United States. The lovers
were captured, and she was brought to His Ex¬
cellency, her father, who sold her to a slave trader.
From that slave-pen she was taken to New Or¬
leans, by a man who expected to get twenty-five
hundred dollars for her on account of her great
beauty."
The same author gives some evidence that Har¬
rison and Taylor both preceded Lincoln as vic¬
tims of Southern plots. As it is rather startling,
or plausible, to say the least of it, we will quote it
in full. Said she of her visit to Washington dur¬
ing Taylor's administration, "Mr Taylor, the Whig
President, had pronounced the Fugitive Slave Bill
an insult to the North, and stated his determi¬
nation to veto it. Fillmore, the Vice-President,
was in favor of it. So Freedom looked to a man
owning three hundred slaves, while slavery relied
on a Northern man with Southern principles.
President Taylor was hated by the South, was
denounced as a traitor to his section, while South¬
ern men and women fawned upon and flattered
Fillmore When it became known
that the Fugitive Slave Bill could pass Congress,
but 'could not command a two-thirds vote to carry
it over the assured veto of President Taylor, he
ate a plate of strawberries, just as President
Harrison had done when he stood in the way
of Southern policy,and like his great predecessor,
Taylor died opportunely, when Mr. Fillmore
became president and signed the bill."
142
THE WHITE SIDE OF
She visited Charles Sumner while he was in the
Alleghany Mountains, recoveiing from the Brooks
assault. Referring to it, she said: "In talking
with Mr. Sumner during that visit, I learned that
the same doctor attended both President Harrison
and President Taylor in their last illness, and used
his professional authority to prevent their friends
seeing them until the fatal termination of their
illness was certain. Also, that it was that same
doctor who was within call when Brooks made his
assault on Sumner; took charge of the case, and
made an official statement that the injury was
very slight, gave it a superficial dressing and
sought to exclude every one from the room of his
patient. Said Sumner: 'I shuddered when I
recovered consciousness, and found this man be¬
side me.' He dismissed him promptly, and did
not hesitate to say that he believed he would not
have recovered under his treatment. When the
South seceded, this useful man left Washington
and joined the Confederacy."
This is certainly a very strong chain of circum¬
stantial evidence that Lincoln and Garfield'were
not our only martyred Presidents.
The following is from a letter written by the
celebrated Irish orator and statesman, Daniel
O'Connell. It was written at Dublin, October
nth, 1843, to his fellow countrymen in America,
concerning slavery, which they were disposed at
that time to endorse or apologize for: "You say
the Negroes are naturally an inferior race. That
is a totally gratuitous assertion on your part. In
America you can have no opportunity of seeing
the Negro educated. On the contrary, in most of
A BLACK SUBJECT
your states it is a crime—sacred Heaven!—a crime
to educate even a free Negro! How,then, can you
judge of the Negro race, when you see them de¬
spised and condemned by educated classes—reviled
and looked down upon as inferior? The Negro
race has naturally some of the finest qualities.
They are naturally gentle, generous, humane, and
very grateful for kindness. They are brave and
as fearless as any other of the race of human be¬
ings; but the blessings of education are kept from
them, and they are judged of, not as they would
be with proper cultivation, but as they are ren¬
dered by cruel and debasing oppression.
"It is as old as the days of Homer, who truly
asserts that 'the day which sees a man a slave takes
away half his worth.' Slavery actually brutalizes
human beings. It was about sixty years ago when
one of the Sheiks, not far south of Fez, in Morocco, *
who was in the habit of accumulating white slaves,
upon being strongly remonstrated with by a
European Power, gave for his reply that, by his
own experience he found it quite manifest that
white men were of an inferior race, intended by
nature for slaves; and he produced his own bru¬
talized white slaves to illustrate the truth of his
assertion. And a case of an American with a
historic name—John Adams—is quite familiar.
Some twenty-five years ago—not more—John
Adams was the sole survivor of an American crew
wrecked on the African coast. He was taken
into the interior as a slave of an Arab chief. He
was only for three years a slave, and the English
and American consuls having been informed of a
white man's slavery, claimecl him and obtained
H4
THE WITITE SIDE OF
his liberation. In the short space of three years
he had become completely brutalized; he had
completely forgotten the English language, with¬
out having acquired the native tongue. He spoke
a kind of gabble, as unintellectual as the dialects
of most of your Negro slaves; and many months
elapsed before he recovered his former habits
and ideas.
"We cannot bring ourselves to believe that you
breathed your natal air in Ireland—Ireland, the
first of all the nations on the earth that abolished
the dealing in slaves. The slave trade of that
day was curious enough, a slave trade in British
youths—Ireland, that never was stained with Negro
slave trading—Ireland, that never committed
offense against the men of color—Ireland, that
never fitted out a single vessel for the traffic in
blood on the African coast.
"We ask you to exert yourselves in every
possible way to put an end to the internal
slave trade of the states. The breeding of
slaves for sale is probably the most immoral
and debasing practice ever known in the world.
It is a crime of the most heinous kind, and
if there were no other crime committed by
the Americans, this alone would place the advo¬
cates, supporters and practicers of American
slavery in the lowest grade of criminals It is no
excuse to allege that the Congress is restricted
from emancipating slaves by one geneial law.
Each particular slave state has that power within
its own precincts; and there is every reason to be
convinced that Maryland and Virginia would have
followed the example of N^w York, and long ago
A BLACK SUBJECT
*45
abolished slavery, but for the diabolical practice
of 'raising,' as you call it, slaves for the Southern
market of pestilence and death.
"Irishmen! sons of Irishmen! descendants of the
kind of heart and affectionate disposition, think,
oh! think only with pity and compassion on your
colored fellow creatures in America. Offer them
the hand of kindly help. Soothe their sorrows.
Scathe their oppressor. Join with your country¬
men at home in one cry of horror against the op¬
pressor; in one cry of sympathy with the enslaved
and oppressed,
'Till prone in the dust slavery shall be hurl'd,
Its name and nature blotted from the world.'
"Irishmen, I call upon you to join in crushing
slavery, and in giving liberty to every man and
every caste, creed, or color.
"D. O'C."
These soul-stirring sentiments are quite differ¬
ent to those of another Irishman, who was in the
act of marrying a Planter's widow. When the
minister asked, "Do you take this woman to be
your lawfully wedded wife?" he replied, "Yis,your
riverance, and the Naygurs too."
Henry Wilson, in his "Rise and Fall of the
Slave Power," informs us that when the news of
the French Revolution of 1848, in which the King
was deposed and driven into exile, reached Wash¬
ington, it was the occasion of great rejoicing.
President Polk sent a message to Congress in
which he announced the event, and stated that
"the world has seldom witnessed a more interest¬
ing and sublime spectacle than the peaceful rising
of the French people, resolved tQ secure for them¬
selves enlarged liberty,"
146 THE WHITE SIDE OF
On the same day a series of resolutions were
introduced into the House expressing satisfaction
that "the sentiment of self-government is com¬
mending itself to the honorable consideration of the
more intelligent of nations;" and announcing the
hope that "down-trodden humanity may succeed
in breaking down all forms of tyranny and oppres¬
sion;" and tendering their "warmest sympathies to
the people of France and Italy in their present
struggle."
The following amendment was offered by Mr.
Ashmun of Massachusetts, that "we especially
see an encouraging earnest of. their success in
the decree which pledges the government of France
to early measures for the immediate emancipation
of all slaves in the colonies." The following
amendment to the amendment was offered by Mr.
Schenck of Ohio, "recognizing, as we do, that
there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude."
This was followed by a speech from Mr. Hillard
Qf Alabama, in which he said, "I solemnly believe
that the time has come when kingcraft has lost its
hold upon the human mind. The world is wak¬
ing from its deep slumber, and mankind begin to
see that the right to govern belongs, not to
crowned kings, but to the great masses."
He was not ready to recognize the doctrine of
human equality per se. He referred to Mr. Ash-
mun's amendment as "a matter which does not
belong to it," and defiantly asserted that all over
the South there was a determination on the part
of the masters to maintain the claim on their
slaves, "with a courage and firmness which nothing
A BLACK SUBJECT
H7
can intimidate or shame." The same inconsis¬
tency was displayed by Mr. Haskell of Tennessee,
who stated that the kingdoms of Europe "were up¬
heaving beneath the throb of liberty which was
animating the bosoms of the people, and that it
was from this country tlhat they had caught the
flame;" he then declared that he was "sick and tired
of this continual thrusting in this subject of slav¬
ery," which tended "to stop the progress of free¬
dom, to injure this government itself, and put out
this light toward which with hope were turned the
eyes of the down-trodden world."
The handful of anti-slavery members made gal¬
lant fight defending their principles, and pointing
out the gross inconsistency of singing paeans over
the triumph of liberty in France, and at the same
instant expressing a determination to perpetuate
a more cruel and despotic tyranny in this Republic.
Mr. Giddings, seeing this inconsistency, said:
"Look from that window, and you will see a slave-
pen, whose gloomy walls in mute but eloquent
terms proclaim the hypocrisy of the deed," After
reminding the House that all this is sustained by
laws passed by Congress, he continued, "Will not
the French cast back all such pretended sympathy
with abhorrence? Will they not look with disgust
on such deception and hypocrisy when they see a
nation of slave dealers tendering their sympathy
to a free people ?"
About this time seventy«seven slaves of Washing¬
ton attempted to gain for themselves that freedom
they had just heard so highly eulogized for others.
They doubtless reasoned that if freedom was a
glorious boon for th<? French peasant—and had
148 THE WHTTE SIDE OF
not the Southern statesmen said so?—it could not
be wrong for them to desire it.
An old gentleman in Kentucky advised his neigh¬
bor's sons to enlist for the Mexican war; but was
terribly worried when two of his own sons took
his advice. So in this case, liberty was a glorious
thing for their neighbors across the ocean, but not
to be even thought of in this (so-called) land of
the free.- So the schooner Pearl, in which these
slaves embarked for freedom, was overtaken at
the mouth of the Potomac, and forced to return
to Washington with its unfortunate passengers.
Having been committed to jail, they fell int® the
hands of the merciless slave dealers and received
the dreaded doom of being sent South.
Among these poor victims of man's cruelty and
lust, was the. be'autiful quadroon, Emily Russell,
a sweet, amiable, gentle Christian girl. She,with
the others, was suffered to be bought by the cruel
Baltimore slave dealers, who fixed her ransom at
eighteen hundred dollars on the shameful plea
that she was the most beautiful woman in all that
country. She was consigned to the South. But the
sun of her life was about to set below the horizon,
and death came to her relief in all the vigor and
freshness of girlhood, saving her froip what prob¬
ably would'have been a life of misery, and causing
her mother to exclaim: "The Lord be thanked.
He has heard my prayers at last."
Though ignorant, helpless, crushed in spirit,
weighed down with hardship and cruel bereave¬
ment, they were still human, and as true and affec¬
tionate hearts beat within their breasts as any that
throbbed beneath lighter skins.
CHAPTER VII.
THE AGONIZING, CRUEL SLAVERY DAYS.
"And man, whose heaven-erected face
The smiles of love adorn,
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!"
—Burns.
We would gladly pass by this chapter in silence,
for it must be painful alike to writer and reader.
But as the surgeon must harden his heart while
he probes the wound, that he may apply a healing
lotion; so the historian must record the facts
however heart-rending, that he may perchance sug¬
gest a remedy.
As has been stated, slaves were found to be
profitable for labor, only in the Southern states,
where the semi-tropical crops, rice, indigo, sugar
and cotton were produced. This includes those
states from Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and
Missouri, southward. Then the ..question might be
asked, Why did not these four states either manu¬
mit their slaves or sell them to the Southern plan¬
ters, and thereby stop an unprofitable business, and
restrict the slave territory? Simply "because the
love of money is the root of all evil." For while
slaves were not profitable in the border states for
labor, they were profitable for propagating the
race, increasing the numbers; and to have sold off
all the slaves of those states would have been to.
kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
149
THE WHITE SIDE OF
When it was found that the raising of grain,live
stock, and so forth, by slave labor was unprofit¬
able, many slaves were sent South, where they
brought a high price; but enough were reserved
for cultivating the farms and to increase the num¬
bers, so as to again flood the market. For, hor¬
rible to relate, in the four border states and the
District of Columbia, the slaves themselves be¬
came one of the large products of export. Accord¬
ing to "Wilson's Rise and Fall of the Slave Power
in America," "this traffic had become so enormous
that in 1836 it was estimated that the number sold
from the single state of Virginia was forty thou¬
sand, yielding a return of twenty-four millions of
dollars. It was in fact the great business, licensed
and protected by laws, advertised in the papers
and recognized as one of the branches of legiti¬
mate production and trade." But of course there
were humane men even in the South,"whose hearts
were grieved at the cruel traffic conducted around
them. They denounced in vehement and scathing
language a barbarous custom which tore the infant
from its mother's yearning breast, that the one
might be sold and the other left; scattering fam¬
ilies, severing husbands and wives never to meet
again, until they met at the bar of a just God as
common accusers of an inhuman master. There
are times when ties of blood hold us but loosely;
still a day comes when nature asserts itself, and
no acquired affection has the power over us that is
wielded by the love we are born to; and we can
but appreciate the melancholy scene the song-writer
describes: —
A BLACK SUBJECT
"I am thinking to-day of dem years dat's passed away,
When dey tied me up in bondage long ago;
In old Virginny state, it was there we separate,
And it fill my heart with misery and woe.
Dey took away my boy, he was his mother's joy,
From a baby in de cradle we him raise;
Oh! dey put us far apart and dey broke de old man's heart
In dem agonizing,cruel slavery days."
Even one of the governors of South Carolina,
in a message to the Legislature, denounced "this
remorseless and merciless traffic, the ceaseless
dragging along the streets and highways of a crowd
of suffering victims to minister to insatiable
avarice."
A Presbyterian synod of Kentucky refers to the
slave caufle often seen there as proclaiming "the
iniquity of our system." It adds, "There is not a
village that does not behold the sad procession of
manacled victims."
A Southern editor wrote of such a procession he
saw passing through his city, "with heavy, galling
chains riveted on their person, half naked, half
starved," traveling to the plantations of the South,
where "their miserable condition will be second
only to the wretched creatures in hell."
The pathetic scene as described by the following
verse was often enacted.
"One night I went to see her, but she's gone, the neighbors say,
The white man bound her with his chain;
They have taken her to Georgia for to wear her life away,
As she toils in the cotton and the cane."
A Baltimore journal of this period said: "Deal¬
ing in slaves has become a large business; estab¬
lishments are made in several places in Maryland
152 THE WHITE SIDE OF
and Virginia, at which they are sold like cattle.
These'places of deposit are strongly built, and well
supplied with iron thumb-screws and gags, and or¬
namented with cow-skins, oftentimes bloody."
One of Virginia's most gifted sons of his day,
Thomas Jefferson Randolph, said in the Legislature
of that state, in 1832, that "the state was one
grand menagerie, where men are reared for the
market like oxen for the shambles." He even
considered the domestic slave trade much worse
than foreign; for in the latter, said he, "only
strangers in aspect, language and manner" are
taken; while in the former the master class sells
those he has "known from infancy, into a strange
country, among a strange people, subject to cruel
taskmasters." Evidently an extensive traffic was
carried on in slaves all through the South, as the
papers of that period were filled with such adver¬
tisements as "Cash for Negroes," "Negroes for
sale," and "Negroes wanted."
By actual count, four thousand and one hundred
Negroes were advertised for sale in sixty-four
newspapers of the eight slave states in the last two
weeks of November, 1852. We have quoted thus
from Southern authority; so also is the following
curious advertisement which appeared in the New
York Independent of March 1850, copied from the
Religious Herald, a Baptist paper of Richmond,
Virginia: "Who wants thirty-five thousand dol¬
lars in property? I am desirous to spend the balance
of my life as a missionary, if the Lord permit, and
therefore offer for sale my farm, the vineyard ad¬
jacent to Williamsburg and also
about forty servants, mostly young and likely, and
A BLACK SUBJECT
153
rapidly increasing in number and value." Truly
consistency is a jewel, but this good man (?) evi¬
dently was a stranger to it.
Perhaps the most demoralizing phase of the slave
trade was the fact that fathers would often sell
for the Southern market their own children with¬
out the slightest compunctions of conscience. But
how were these poor creatures treated when once
they arrived at their destination on the Southern
plantations, weary and foot-sore, galled by their
heavy chains? All that these poor victims of un¬
requited toil could expect to get out of this life
was food and clothing, and a place to shelter them,
and did they always get that? The Secretary of
the Treasury obtained a report from forty-six sugar
plantations of Louisiana; according to this, the
cost of feeding and clothing an able-bodied slave
was thirty dollars per year. Olmstead, who has
traveled extensively through the South, estimates
that ten dollars would be necessary for clothing,
which would leave only twenty dollars for food,
or five and one-half cents per day. He then asks,
"Does the food of a first-rate laborer anywhere in
the free world cost less?" Corn-meal was the in¬
variable article of food, though sometimes at rare
intervals, bacon, molasses or rice was provided.
A Louisiana cotton planter furnished De Bow,
author of "De Bow's Resources of the South and
West," an itemized estimate of the expense of a
cotton crop. In this the cost of feeding a hun¬
dred slaves, furnishing the overseer's table, and
the hospital, was estimated at seven hundred and
fifty dollars for the year. This was seven dollars
and a half for each slave, or less than three cents
154 THE WHITE SIDE OF
per day. From the same planter De Bow also
learned that the cost of furnishing shoes, clothes,
and beds for one hundred slaves, also sacks to
gather cotton, did not exceed seven hundred and
fifty dollars per annum. This statement accounts
for the fact that all the slaves on the cotton and
sugar plantations invariably looked ragged and
dirty. • The supply" of food for slaves was fixed by
the Legislature of several Southern states.
Louisiana required that meat should be furnished,
but this law became obsolete. North Carolina
fixed the daily allowance of corn. And yet to¬
day Southern statesmen are fond of assuring us that
they have always "opposed all sumptuary laws."
It might be added that they prohibited any one
selling or giving whisky to their Negroes. But
since the war they have bitterly opposed Prohi¬
bition as a sumptuary law.
In the cotton, sugar and rice districts the slaves
were systematically overworked. In South Car¬
olina the legal limit of a day's work on a cotton
plantation was fixed at fifteen hours. But during
the picking season the slaves labored sixteen
hours under the driver's lash; while on the sugar
plantations of Lousiana, during the grinding season,
eighteen were exacted, often with no Sunday's
rest. Think of it, you free laborers, who very
properly draw the line at about half of this time,
with good wages and Sunday rest.
Patrick Henry said of the overseer of his day,
"They are the most abject, degraded, and unprin¬
cipled race." Time and new conditions did not
improve them, for the historian Rhodes says of
them, "They were generally ignorant, frequently
A BLACK SUBJECT
*55
intemperate, always despotic and brutal. Their
value was rated according to the size of the cot¬
ton crop they made, and with that end in view
they spared not the slaves, who always worked
under the lash." Even Chancellor Harper, who
wrote a strong defense of slavery ..says: "It is true
that the slave is driven to labor by stripes."
The fact is demonstrated that, the Negroes were
often overtasked to their permanent injury,from the
complaint made by Southern agricultural journals
of the bad policy of thus wasting human property.
But nothing was said about the inhumanity of
thus killing slaves by abuse.
A stout Negro driver, chosen because of his un¬
usual cruelty, followed each gang of working slaves,
urging them on with loud voice and the cracking
of his long whip.
A tradesman in Alabama told Olmstead that if
the overseers raise "plenty of cotton, the owners
never ask how many niggers they kill." Olmstead
also learned that "a determined and perfectly re¬
lentless overseer could get almost any wages he
demanded, for when it . .uame known that such a
man had made more bales to the slave than his
competitors, every planter would try to get him."
The name Alabama means, "Here we rest," but
this certainly did not apply to the poor colored
people.
"If you don't work faster, or if you don't work
better, I will have you flogged," was often heard,
and seldom an idle threat.
In Olmstead's "Cotton Kingdom,"he quotes from
an overseer who said: "Why,sir, I wouldn't mind
killing a nigger more than I would a dog." Fannie
THE WHITE SIDE OF
Kemble is responsible for the statement, that the
sugar planters of Louisiana unhesitatingly avowed
that they found it upon the whole their most
profitable plan to work off (kill with labor) their
whole number of slaves about once in seven years
and renew the whole stock. They proceeded to
adopt this plan, as we have seen, by working dur¬
ing the grinding season eighteen hours per day,
and seven days for a week, contrary to the laws
of God, man and nature.
Again quoting from Rhodes: "No one can won¬
der that it was a painful sight to see slaves at work
in the cotton field. Their besotted and generally
repulsive expression, their brute-like countenances,
on which were painted stupidity,indolence, duplic¬
ity, and sensuality; their listlessness; their dogged
action; the stupid, plodding, machine-like manner,
in which they labored, made a sorrowful picture
of man's inhumanity to man." General Sherman,
while living in Louisiana, observed that "the field
slaves were! treated like animals."
Frederick Douglass, speaking of one period in his
life, said: "My natural elasticity was crushed; my
intellect languished; the disposition to read de¬
parted; the cheerful spark that lingered about my
eye died out; the dark night of slavery closed in
upon me, and behold a man transformed to a
brute."
As is generally known, cotton was the main crop
raised by slave labor, and the great hope of the
Southern Confederacy. Their leaders believed
two errors, and from these drew a false conclusion.
First, they said, cotton cannot be grown without-
slave labor; and second, England cannot exist
A BLACK SUBJECT
157
without Southern cotton, ergoy England must
come to "the gigantic relief" of the Southern Con¬
federacy.
According to De Bow's estimate in 1850 of the
three million one hundred and seventy-seven
thousand slaves in the South, one million eight
hundred thousand were employed in cotton cul¬
ture. The motto of the planter seemed to be,
"Let us buy more Negroes to raise more cotton,to
buy more Negroes to raise more cotton," and so
on ad infinitum. The same year there were only
three hundred and forty-seven thousand, five hun¬
dred and twenty-five slave holders, who with their
families numbered about two millions. The entire
white population of the South was six million one
hundred and twenty-five thousand; consequently
less than one third of the white people of the slave
states could have been in any way benefited by
this "peculiai institution," and more than seven
millions bond and free either labored for them, or
were controlled by this aristocracy.
The curse of slavery fell hardest upon the wom¬
en, those who were least able to bear it, as the
following quotations from Fanny Kemble's Jour¬
nal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation will
show. Said she: "On my husband's.first visit to
his estate he found that the men and the women
who labored in the fields had the same tasks to
perform. This was a noble admission of female
equality, was it not? And thus it had been on the
estate for many years past. He, of course, altered
the distribution of the work, diminishing the quan¬
tity done by the women." Fanny Kemble had a
woman's sympathy for the slave women of her hus-
158
THE WHITE SIDE OF
band's plantation, and did all in her power to al¬
leviate their condition. She noted with burning
shame the general lewdness and gross immorality
prevalent among the slaves.
The increasing of families was indirectly encour¬
aged without the slightest restriction. A woman
seemed to think that "the more she added to her
master's property by bringing new slaves into the
world,the more claim she would have upon his con¬
sideration and good will. This was perfectly evi¬
dent to me from the meritorious air with which the
women always made haste to inform me of the
number of children they had, and the frequent
occasions on which the older slaves would direct
my attention to their children, exclaiming, 'Look,
missis! plenty little niggers for you and little
missis!"'
Sad to relate, this idea seems to have been instilled
into the slaves almost from childhood, as the follow¬
ing from the same author shows: "On my return
home I was met by a child (as she seemed to me)
carrying a baby, in whose behalf she begged me
for some clothes. On making some inquiry I was
amazed to find that the child was her own; she
said she was married and fourteen years old; she
looked much younger even than that, poor creature.
Her mother, who came up while I was talking to
her, said she did not herself know the girl's age;
how horribly brutish it ail did seem, to be sure!"
A short time after this several slave women
called on her at the great house; and this is what
she says of two of them: "Among others, a poor
woman called Mile, who could hardly stand for
pain and swelling in her limbs; she had brought
A BLACK SUBJECT
159
fifteen children into the world, nine of them hav¬
ing died; for the last three years she had become
almost a cripple with chronic rheumatism,yet she
is driven every day to work in the field. She held
my hands, and stroked them in the most appeal¬
ing ways, while she exclaimed, 'Oh, my missis!
my missis! me neber sleep till day for de pain,'and
with the day her labor must again be resumed. I
gave her flannel and sal volatile to rub her poor
dwelled limbs with; rest I could not give her—rest
from her labor andherpain—this mother of fifteen
children.
"Another of my visitors had a still more dismal
story to tell; her name was Die; she had had six¬
teen children, fourteen of whom were dead. They
had strained her arms up to be lashed I asked
her what she meant by having her arms tied up.
She said their hands were first tied together, some¬
times by the wrists and sometimes, which was
worse, by the thumbs, and they were then drawn
up to a tree or post, so almost to swing them off
the ground, and then their clothes rolled round
their waist, and a man with a cowhide stands and
stripes them. I give you the woman's words.
.She did not speak of this as anything strange, un¬
usual, or especially horrid and abominable."
One more extract concerning the manner in
which her husband's slaves were fed. Said she to
the lady friend for whom she wrote the journal:
"How do you think Berkshire County farmers1
would relish laboring hard all day upon two meals
of Indian corn or hominy? Such is the regulation
on the plantation, however, and I beg you to bear
in mind that the Negroes on this estate are gener-
160 THE WHITE SIDE OF
ally considered well off. They go to the field at
daybreak, carrying with them their allowance of
food for the day, which toward noon, and not till
then, they eat"; cooking it over a fire which they kin¬
dle as best they can, where they are working.
Their second meal in the day is at night, after
their labor is over, having worked, at the very
least, six hours without intermission of rest or
refreshment since their noonday meal, properly
so-called, for it was meal and nothing else." She
also stated that their houses were miserable little
squalid hovels, swarming with vermin, crowded
to suffocation, and so poorly ventilated that in
that hot climate it was almost impossible to get
a breath of fresh air. The same was in a measure
true "of the so-called slave hospitals.
Jane Grey Swisshelm, sometimes called the
"Fanny Kemble of America," in her book entitled
"Half a Century," speaking of the time she lived
in Louisville, Kentucky, almost fifty years ago,
said: "While I lived on that dark and bloody
ground, a Negro was beaten to death in an open
shed, on the corner of two public streets, where
the sound of the blows, the curses of his two tor¬
mentors, and his shrieks and unavailing prayers
for mercy were continued for a whole forenoon,
and sent the complaining, air shuddering to the
ears of thousands, not one of whom offered any
help.
"Passing a crowded church on a Sabbath after¬
noon, I stepped in, when the preacher was descant¬
ing on the power of religion, and, in illustration,
he told of two wicked young men in that state,
who were drinking and gambling on Sunday motn-
A BLACK SUBJECT
161
ing, when one said: 'I can lick the religion out of
any nigger.'
"1 he other would bet one hundred dollars
that he had a nigger out of whom the religion
could not be licked. The bet was taken and
they adjourned to a yard. This unique nigger
was summoned, and proved to be a poor old
man. His master informed him he had a bet on
him, and the other party commanded him to 'curse
Jesus,'on pain of being flogged until he did. The
old saint dropped on his knees before his master,
and pleaded for mercy, saying: 'Massa! Massa!
I cannot curse Jesus!. Jesus die for me! He die
for you, Massa. I no curse him; I no curse Jesus!'
"The master began to repent. In babyhood he
had ridden on those old bowed shoulders, then
stalwart and firm, and he proposed to withdraw
the bet, but the other wanted sport and would
win the money. Oh! the horrible details that the
preacher gave of that day's sport, of the lashings,
and faintings, and revivals, with washes of strong
brine, the prayers for mercy, and the recurring
moan, 'I no curse Jesus, Massa! I no curse
Jesus. Jesus die for me, Massa; I die for Jesus!'
"As the sun went down Jesus took him, and his
merciless master had sold a worthless nigger for
one hundred dollars. But the only point which
the preacher made was that one in favor of re¬
ligion: When it could so support a Nigger, what
might it not do for one of the superior race?"
A female member of the Fourth St. Methodist
Church was threatened with discipline, for nailing
her cook to the fence by the ear with a ten-penny
nail. The preacher in charge witnessed the punish-
162
THE WHITE SIDE OF
ment from a back window of his residence. Hun¬
dreds of others witnessed it, called by the shrieks
of the victim; and his reverence protested on the
ground that "such scenes were calculated to injure
the church."
The following is an extract from a letter written
by Rev. John H. Aughey, a brilliant young Pres¬
byterian minister, who fled from the South to save
his life shortly after penning these lines, having
been an eye-witness to many of the scenes.
"Kosciusko, Atlanta Co., Mississippi, December
25, 1861.
"Mr. William Jackman.
"Dear Sir:—Your last kind and truly welcome
letter came to hand in due course of mail. . . .
"In your letter you desired me from my stand¬
point to give you my observations of the workings
of the peculiar institution, and an expression of
my views as to its consistency with the eternal
principle of rectitude and justice. In reply I will
give you a plain narrative of facts. On my ad¬
vent to the South, I was at first# struck with the
fact that the busy hum of labor had in some meas¬
ure ceased. What labor I did observe progress¬
ing was done with little skill and mainly by Ne¬
groes. I called upon the Rev. Dr. R. J. Breck-
enridge, to whom I had a letter of introduction,
who treated me with the greatest kindness, invit¬
ing me to make his home my home when I visited
that section of the country. On leaving his
house, he gave me some-directions as to the road
I must travel to reach a certain point. 'You will
pass,' said he, 'ablacksmith's shop, where a one-
A BLACK SUBJECT 163
eyed man is at work—my property.' The phrase,
'my property,' I had never before heard applied
to a human being, and it grated harshly upon my
ears. But it grated much more harshly a week
after this to hear the groans of two such chattels,
as they underwent a severe flagellation, while
chained to the whipping-post, because they had,
by half an hour, overstayed their time with their
families on the adjoining plantation. The next
peculiar abomination of the peculiar institution
which I observed was the licentiousness engendered
by it. Mr. D. F— of Madison County, Kentucky,
had a white family of children, and a black, or
rather mulatto family. As his white daughters
married he gave each a mulatto half-sister, as a
waiting-girl or body-servant.
"Mr. B— of Marshall County, Mississippi, lived
with his white wife till he had grandchildren, some
of whom came to school to me, when he repudi¬
ated his white wife, and attached himself to a very
homely African, who superintends his household,
and rules his other slaves with rigor. Mr. S— of
Tishomingo County, Mississippi, took a Negro for a
wife, and had a large family of mulatto children.
He once brought this woman to chujch at Rienzi,
to the great indignation of the white ladies, who
removed to a respectable distance from her. I
preached recently to a large congregation of slaves,
one-third of which were as white as myself. Some
of them had red hair and blue eyes. If there are
any marked characteristics of their masters' fami¬
lies, the mulatto slaves are possessed of these char¬
acteristics.
"I never knew a pious overseer—never! There
164 THE WHITE SIDE OF
may be many, but I never saw one. Overseers, as
a class, are worse than the slaveholders themselves.
They are cruel, brutal, licentious, dissipated and
profane. They always carry a loaded whip, a
revolver and a bowie-knife. These men have the
control of women, wfiom they often whip to death.
Mr. P—,who resided near Holly Springs, had a
Negro woman whipped to death while I was at his
house during a session of Presbytery. Mr. C—
of Waterford, Mississippi, had a woman whipped
to death by his overseer. But such cruel scourg-
ings are of daily occurrence.
"Colonel H—, a member of my church,told me
yesterday that he ordered a boy, who he supposed
was feigning sickness, to the whipping-post, but
that he had not advanced ten steps towards it
when he fell dead!—and the servant was free from
his master. During our conversation, a girl passed.
'There is a girl,' said he, 'who does not look very
white in the face owing to exposure, but when I
strip her to whip her I find she has a skin as fair
as my wife.'
"Mrs.T— recently whipped a boy to death within
half a mile of my residence. A jury of inquest
returned a verdict that he came to his death by
cruelty, but nothing more was done. Mrs. M—
and her daughter, of Holly Springs, abused a girl
repeatedly. She showed her bruises to some of
my congregation, and they believed them fatal.
She soon after died. Mrs. S—, a member of my
church,has several maimed Negroes from abuse on
the part of the overseer. I am residing on the banks
of the Yock-a-nookany, which means 'meander¬
ing' in the Indian tongue. In this vicinity there
A BLACK SUBJECT 165
are large plantations, cultivated by hundreds
of Negroes. The white population is sparse.
Every night the Negroes are brought to a judg¬
ment-seat. The overseer presides. If they have
not labored to suit him, or if their task is unful¬
filled, they are chained to a post and severely
whipped. The victims are invariably stripped, to
what extent is at the qption of the overseer.
"Mr. C—■ of Waterford, Mississippi, punished
his Negroes by slitting the soles of their feet with
his bowie-knife! One man he put into a cotton-
press and turned the screw till life was extinct.
He stated that he only intended to alarm the man,
but carried the joke too far. I have heard women
thus plead, in piteous accents, when chained to
the whipping-post and stripped: 'O my God,
master! don't whip me! I was sick! Indeed I
was sick! I had a chill and the fever is on me
now! I haven't tasted a morsel- to-day! You
know I works when I is well! O, for God's sake
don't whip a poor sick nigger! My poor chile's
sick too! Missis thinks its dyin'! O master, for
the love of God, don't cut a poor distressed woman
wid your whip! I'll try to do better, ef you'll
only let me off this once!'
"These piteous plaints only roused the ire of
their cruel task-masters, who sometimes knocked
them down in the midst of their pleadings. One
beautiful Sabbath morning, I stood on the levee
at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and counted twenty-
seven sugar houses in full blast. I found the
Negroes were compelled to labor eighteen hours
per day, and were not permitted to rest on the
Sabbath during the rolling season. The Negroes
166 THE WHITE SIDE OF
of most plantations have a truck patch, which they
cultivate on the Sabbath, I have pointed out the
sin of thus laboring on Sunday, but they plead
necessity; their children, they stated, must suffer
from hunger if they did not cultivate their truck
patch, and their masters would not give them
time on any other day.
"Negroes, by law, are prohibited from learning
to read. This law was not strictly enforced in Ten¬
nessee and some other states till within a few
years past. I had charge of a Sabbath school for
the instruction of the blacks in Memphis, Tennes¬
see, in 1853. This school was put down by the
strong arm of the law in a short time after my
connection with it ceased. In Mississippi a man
who taught slaves to read or write would be sent
to the penitentiary instanter. The popular plea for
this wickedness is that if they were taught to read
they would read the abolition documents; and if
they were taught to write, they would write them¬
selves passes, and pass northward to Canada. Such
advertisements as the following often greet the eye:
'Kansas War.—The undersind taks this metod of
makkin it noan that he has got a pack of the best
nigger hounds in the South. My hounds is well
trand, and I has had much experience a huntin
niggers, havin follered it for the last fifteen years.
I will go anywhar that I'm sent for, and will ketch
niggers at the follerin raits. My raits fur ketchin
runaway niggers $10 per hed, ef they's found in
the beat whar thar master lives,$15 if they's found
in the county and $50 if they's tuck out on the
county. N. B.—Pay is due when the nigger is
tuck. Planters ort to send fur me as soon as thar
niggers runs away, while thar track is fresh.'
A BLACK SUBJECT
167
"Every night the woods resound with the deep-
mouthed baying of the bloodhounds. The slaves
are said by some to love their masters; but it re¬
quires the terrors of bloodhounds and the fugitive
slave law to keep them in bondage. You in the
North are compelled to "act the part of the blood¬
hounds here, and catch the fugitives for the plant¬
ers of the South. Free Negroes are sold into
bondage for the most trivial offenses; slaveholders
declare that the presence of free persons of color
exerts pernicious influence upon their slaves.
They therefore are very desirous of getting rid of
these persons, either by banishing from the state or
enslaving them. The Legislature of Mississippi
and other states passed laws for their expulsion.
The Governor of Missouri vetoed the law in that
state, on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.
The question is often asked, Is slavery sinful in
itself? My observation has been extensive, em¬
bracing eight slave states, and I have never yet
seen any example of slavery that did not seem
sinful. If slavery is not sinful in itself, I must
have always seen it out of itself. I have observed
its workings during eleven years among a profess¬
edly Christian people, and pronounce it an unmit-
igated curse.
"John H. Aughey.
"To Mr. William Jackman,
"Amsterdam,
"Jefferson County, Ohio."
CHAPTER VIII.
UNDERGROUND RAILROADS AND FUGITIVE SLAVES.
"I hear another voice: 'The poor
Are thine to feed;
Turn not the outcast from thy door,
Nor give to bonds and wrong once more
Whom God hath freed.'"
—Whittier.
The necessity for this so-called "Railroad" grew
out of the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of
1850, which established courts and commissioners
unknown to the constitution, and was certainly
the most inhuman law passed by a civilized coun¬
try in the nineteenth century.
The most common act of benevolence to a fugi¬
tive slave had to be kept a profound secret. The
penalty for giving or selling a meal to one of the
passengers on this Road, or helping them on their
way, was imprisonment and one-thousand dollars
fine; while those who aided and encouraged
slaves to escape, were subject to a long term in
the penitentiary.
Naturally when the better element of the people
found that this infamous law, passed at the dic¬
tation of the slave power, was diametrically op¬
posed to the golden rule, and the example of Him
who "went about doing good," they believed with
the apostles that they "ought to obey God rather
168
A BLACK SUBJECT 169
than men," and rightly spurned this law by hero¬
ically helping the poor bondmen to the free states
and Canada, the Mecca of the fleeing slaves. The
result was a spontaneous uprising and banding to¬
gether of determined men and women from Maine
to Kansas, with many stations and starting points
through the South, which on account of its rapid
transit, unity of action and secret operation, was
called the Underground Railroad. There is said
to have been four main trunk lines across the
state of New York, and several through Ohio and
southern Michigan. But how was it operated?
Like other railroads, it had its officers, engineers,
conductors, ticket agents, train dispatchers, sta¬
tions, hotels and lunch counters. Its business
was conducted with great harmony, profound se¬
crecy and perfect fidelity.
Unlike other railroads, when it ceased to exist,
it divided its immense profits among its passengers,
who invested it in large tracts of land in Canada,
in building dwellings, barns, churches, school-
houses, factories of all kinds, and in stocking, im¬
proving and cultivating farms.
The poor slaves, groaning under cruel bondage,
and sighing for freedom, often heard of this Road
in various ways; sometimes a Northern traveler
would show them how to find the north star and
hint that in that direction lay liberty, and that he
would find friends to help him on his way. Fre¬
quently a .slave who had escaped would get a
friend to write back to a benevolent neighbor,
and tell him all about it, who, in turn, would in¬
form the Negroes of his neighborhood. But more
often they found out about this Road by a per-
170
THE WHITE SIDE OF
fectly organized system of communication and co¬
operation, established even in the South.
There have always been scattered throughout
the South people who hated slavery, and had
compassion on the poor victims of this American
despotism. Such individuals have known, or
made it a point to find out and communicate with
others of "like faith and order," northward of
them at convenient stages, who had acquaintances
in the free states, and could be depended upon to
help the fugitive on his way to freedom.
Thus lines were formed from the South to the
very borders of Canada, and while they may have
been more or less zigzag, they always trended
northward and the fleeing black man found them
safe and reliable. If he succeeded in escaping
his pursuers until he reached the second or third
station, he was seldom overtaken.
Samuel J. May estimates that more than twenty
thousand found homes in Canada, while hundreds
ventured to remain in the free states. The busi¬
ness was managed with such prudence and cau¬
tiousness that few of those engaged in it realized
the penalties provided. Yet some of the noblest
of earth suffered martyrdom, as victims of the
cruel fugitive slave law.
Rev. John Rankin, of Ohio, was fined one thou¬
sand dollars, besides serving a term in prison. Rev.
C. T. Torry died in a Virginia prison.
W. L. Chaplin, of Massachusetts, became'editor
of the Albany Patriot in 1844. In 1850, while in
Washington as correspondent for his own paper,
he was induced to aid two young men, slaves of
Robert Toombs and Alexander H. Stephens of
GEO. W. CABLE.
A BLACK SUBJECT
171
Georgia, to escape. Surprised in the act, he was
arrested and imprisoned, charged with abducting
slaves. Having been a prisoner five months, he
was released on the enormous bail of twenty-five'
thousand dollars. Knowing that if convicted he
would certainly be sent to the penitentiary for a
long term of years or perhaps for life, his friends
decided that the bail must be forfeited and paid.
His own little property was sacrificed, and this
large amount was finally raised, mainly through
the princely beneficence of that grand philan¬
thropist, Gerrit Smith.
Calvin Fairbank spent seventeen years and four
months in the Kentucky penitentiary at Frankfort
for the glorious crime of "Nigger Stealing." Daring
this time, he is said to have received thirty-five
thousand stripes on his bared body.
About the year 1840 Captain Jonathan Walker
of Massachusetts took a contract to build a section
of a proposed railroad in Florida, employing a
number of Negroes in its construction. Being a
Christian and kind-hearted man he treated his men
with kindness, permitting them to eat at the same
table with himself, and bow the knee to a com¬
mon heavenly Father around a common altar. As
a natural consequence, he gained the respect and
love of his men, who in 1844 persuaded him to
aid them in an attempt to escape in an open boat
to an island not far distant, belonging to England.
All went well until the captain was taken vio¬
lently sick, and the fugitives, having no knowledge
of navigation, were at the mercy of wind and
wave, until picked up by the crew of a wrecking
sloop and conveyed to Key West, where he was
THE WHITE SIDE OF
imprisoned, until sent to Pensacola. Arriving
here, he was chained to the floor of a cell, where
two days before a man had committed suicide,
the floor being still covered with blood.
In his trial in the United States court, he was
sentenced "to be branded on the right hand with
the capital letters, 'S. S.'; to stand in the pillory
one hour; to pay as many fines as there were slaves
•stolen;' to suffer as many terms imprisonment;
to pay the costs, and to stand committed until the
fines were paid."
The execution of these sentences began at once.
The initials of the words "Slave Stealer" were
branded upon his hand, by a brutal United States
marshal. He stood an hour in the pillory, during
which, while utterly helpless, he was pelted with
rotten eggs by a cowardly, renegade "Northern
man with Southern principles."
He was now sent to prison, where he remained
eleven months with a heavy chain on his leg, which
was never removed even for changing his cloth¬
ing. Money was raised by his friends to pay his
fines and he was liberated in 1845.
The effort thus made to stigmatize and heap
odium upon this noble hero and philanthropist,
recoiled on the national Government, whose craven
cowardice and heartless ignominy was alone
responsible for it. Whittier enshrined this event in
a grand patriotic poem, and completely turned the
tables, making "S. S." a badge of honor indicative
of the "heroic spirit of an earlier,better day."
"Then lift that manly right hand, bold plowman of the wave,
Its branded palm shall prophesy Salvation to the Slave;
Hold up its fire-wrought language, that whoso reads may feel
His heart swell strong within him, his sinews change to steel.
A BLACK SUBJECT
173
Hold it up before our sunshine, up against our Northern air.
Ho! men of Massachusetts, for the love of God look there!
Take it henceforth for your stan dard, like the Bruec's heart of
yore;
In the dark strife closing round ye, let that hand be seen before."
According to Henry Wilson, Thomas Garrett, a
Quaker of Delaware, was the most prominent and
successful agent of the Underground Railroad,
continuing the good work for more than fifty years;
he assisted nearly three thousand slaves to escape
from bondage. During this long time he kept
open house for the poor fugitives, and was con¬
sidered the good Samaritan of the Delaware. In
1848 James Bayard, afterwards United States
senator, headed a prosecution against him before'
Judge Taney, for abducting two slave children.
Of course he was convicted—they invariably were,
and fined so heavily as to sweep all his property
away, rendering him almost penniless at the age
of sixty- When the auctioneer had knocked off
his last piece of property to pay the fines, he re¬
marked that he hoped he would "never be guilty
of doing the like again." To which the good
Quaker replied, "Friend,I haven't a dollar in the
world, but if thee knows a fugitive who needs a
breakfast,send him to me." Never was a grander
sentence uttered, and we doubt not the angel in
heaven recorded it with a smile of approval.
It is gratifying to read that he outlived the cruel
system which converted his neighbors into perse¬
cutors; that, like Job of old, he was more pros¬
perous in the latter part of his life than ever be¬
fore, living to a ripe old age in peace and tran¬
quility. And when he passed away, the whole
THE WHITE SIDE OF
community realized that they had sustained the
irreparable loss of one of God's noblemen. He
chose for his pallbearers, representatives of the
race for whom he had spent his life.
Levi Coffin of Cincinnati, another Quaker, was
familiarly called the President of this Road; he was
a man of high social position and sterling worth.
It is estimated that he has been instrumental in
aiding between two and three thousand slaves to
escape.
It must not be forgotten that those who man¬
aged this Road were, for the most part, philan¬
thropists and noble Christian men and women;
while on the other hand the slave hunters and over¬
seers were, with an occasional exception, as cruel
and remorseless as their own bloodhounds.
The managers availed themselves of a great
variety of facilities for traveling; lumber-wagons,
carriages, stage-coaches, canal, ferry and steam¬
boats, also ships and railroads, were all used when
needed.
Sometimes in the Southern cities such precau¬
tions were taken as to render it next to impossible
for a slave to escape detection. Even then he
did not despair, but would risk his life for a pros¬
pect of liberty, by getting his friends to box him
up and send him to a Northern city as express or
freight.
William Still, colored, has written the best his¬
tory of the Underground Road we have seen. In
it he mentions several who were boxed up and so
escaped in spite of extra vigilance. William Box
Peel Jones arrived at Philadelphia from Baltimore
in 1859. He belonged to one Robert Carr, a gro-
A BLACK SUBJECT
175
cer and commission merchant, who had sold a
number of slaves, one at a time, and William
preferred the box to the auction block. He was a
little unfortunate in the choice of a box, there not
baing sufficient room to straighten out his»legs;
the cramped position causing such intense, pain he
was almost forced to scream out. At last he
fainted away, but when he revived the pain was
less intense. Arriving in Philadelphia Sunday
morning, just seventeen hours from starting, he
was met by the same friend who had boxed him
up, he having come through on the cars. Although
it was Sunday morning,this friend managed to get
his piece of freight from the vessel. His joy was
very great on being released, and as soon as he
had recovered sufficient strength and use of his
limbs he was on his way to Canada, the friend re¬
turning to Baltimore.
Henry Box Brown was boxed up in Richmond,
Virginia, by his friend James A. Smith. The ex¬
act size of the box was two feet eight inches deep,
two feet wide, and three feet long. Having been
supplied with a large gimlet, a bladder of water,
and a few biscuits, he got inside, was nailed up,
and five hickory hoops were put around the box.
It was now marked, ''Wm, H. Johnson, Arch
Street, Philadelphia. This side up with care,"
and sent by Adams Express. Sometimes the
notice, "This side up with care," did not avail; for
miles he was on his head. At last, after twenty-
six long weiary hours, the box and contents arrived
at its destination.
In the afternoon of the same day Mr. McKim,
a member of the vigilance committee in Philadel-
176
THE WHITE SIDE OF
phia, received the following telegram: "Your case
of goods is shipped and will arrive to-morrow
morning early." The box was brought at once to
the anti-slavery office, where William Still, Prof.
C. D. Cleveland and Lewis Thompson were in¬
vited to be present at the "opening." When all
was ready Mr. McKim rapped quietly on the lid
of the box and called out, "All right!" Instantly
came the answer, "All right, sir!" Soon the hick¬
ory hoops were cut, the top of the box removed,
when he arose, ringing wet with perspiration, and
said, "How do you do, gentlemen?"
After resting a few moments he remarked that
before leaving Richmond he had selected for his
arrival hymn, if he lived, the Psalm beginning,
"I waited patiently for the Lord, and He heard
my prayer." Most feelingly did he sing the hymn,
to the delight of his small audience.
After spending some time resting and straighten¬
ing his limbs at the hospitable home of James and
Lucretia Mott, and remaining two days with Wm.
Still, he left for Boston. Mr. Samuel A. Smith,
the shoe dealer, who boxed him up in Richmond,
did the same thing for two others, but was de.
tected and spent seven years in the Virginia peni¬
tentiary, a martyr to the cause of freedom.
The following advertisement appeared in the
Baltimore Sun: "One hundred and fifty dollars
reward. Ran away from the subscriber Sunday
night, twenty-seventh inst., my Negro girl Lear
Green, about eighteen years of age, black com¬
plexion, round features, good-looking and ordi¬
nary size; she had on and with her when she left
a tan-colored silk bonnet, a plaid silk dress, a light
A BLACK SUBJECT
177
muslin de laine, also one watered silk cape, and
one tan-colored cape. I have reason to be confident
that she was persuaded off by a Negro man named
William Adams; black, quick-spoken, five feet ten
inches high, a large scar on one side of his face,
running down in a ridge by the corner of his
mouth, about four inches long, barber by trade,
but works mostly about taverns, opening oysters,
etc. He has been missing about a week; he had
been heard to say he was going to marry the above
girl and ship to New York, where, it is said, his
mother resides. The above reward will be paid
if the said girl is taken out of the state of Mary¬
land and returned to me; or fifty dollars if taken
in the state'of Maryland. James Noble, No. 153
Broadway, Baltimore."
Lear Green, so particulary described in this ad¬
vertisement, deserved to be ranked among the
heroines of this century. She is said to have been
a "dark brown color," instead of "black," (fear of
complimenting a slave often led to a false descrip¬
tion) and possessed a countenance of peculiar mod¬
esty and grace. Her young mistress was very ex¬
acting and overbearing towards her;so she resolved
to take the advice of her lover, William Adams,
and thereby gain her freedom and a husband at
the same time. All the avenues of travel at this
time were so closely guarded there seemed but
one chance to escape, the trial of which required
heroic courage. But it was decided to make this
attempt, for what will a woman not encounter or
what obstacles will she not overcome for the
double motive of love and a prospect of liberty?
An old sailor's chest was procured; a quilt, a
178
THE WHITE SIDE OF
pillow and a few articles of clothing, with a small
quantity of food and a bottle of water, were put
into it, and Lear getting inside, the top was closed
and strong ropes tied around it, leaving a small
crevice between the edge of the chest and the top.
The chest with its contents was soon ptored away
among ordinary freight on one of the Ericson
line of steamers.
The mother of her intended, a free woman,
agreed to come as a passenger on the same boat
and look after this precious piece of freight.
The rules of the company assigned colored pas¬
sengers to the deck, which was the very place this
woman wanted, so as to be as near the chest as
possible. Dilring the night, when all was still,
she could not refrain from opening the lid a little
to see if her charge lived, and give her a breath
of fresh air.
At the end of eighteen hours they landed at
Philadelphia. Soon the chest and living freight
were taken to the home of friends of the mother,
on Barley Street. Later the chest and its late
occupant were removed to the residence of William
Still, who had her photographed in the chest.
In due time she was sent on to Elmira, New York,
where she married her lover, William Adams, and
they lived happily together in that city.
E. M. Pettit, in his "Sketches of the Under¬
ground Railroad," mentions a number of interest¬
ing escapes, among the rest that of a mother and
little daughter seven years of age, named respec¬
tively Statie and Lila, who escaped in a box from
Washington, D. C., to Warsaw, New York. Statie
was a very proficient house servant, belonging to
A BLACK SUBJECT
179
a man by the name of Limes, living just opposite
Washington on the Virginia side. Her master,
owning more slaves than he could employ, hired
out a number of them, their wages constituting his
income. Statie was allowed to hire herself out on
condition that she paid her master ten dollars a
month, and furnished clothing for her little girl,
who, like the mother, was nearly white, and quite
attractive.
At first she hired herself to a farmer named Bar¬
bour, who was very kind to her and the child.
Afterwards being offered much larger wages by a
hotel keeper in Washington, she accepted the
place, hoping to save enough money to buy her
child's freedom. She would return to her master
every three months, to see her child and pay him
the wages. On one of these trips she learned of his
intention to sell her little girl, and resolved at
once to make her escape and take the child with
her.
With the aid of her kind friend Mr. Barbour, a
plan was soon arranged. It happened that Bar¬
bour had formerly lived in New York, and he now
told his neighbors'he was going to make a visit to
his friends in that state. He had a splendid team,
and a good strong spring-wagon. Procuring a box
to fit his wagon, he put into it straw and quilts,
plenty of provision and water.
According to previous appointment, he met the
mother and daughter at night just outside of Wash¬
ington, and Statie and Lila were soon comfortably
stored away, en route towards the north star. Mr.
Barbour passed himself off for a Yankee clock
peddler, a veritable Sam Slick, and as he paid
180 THE WHITE SIDE UF
his hotel bills, drove a good wagon and team, no
questions were asked. When out of sight of settle¬
ments, the fugitives would sometimes get out to
pick berries, and when it was safe to do so, would
walk about in the night for exercise. Thus they
made the long journey through Pennsylvania to
Warsaw, New York. . Here he met Col. Charles
O. Shepard of Attica, a popular member of the
State Senate, who was there attending court. Col.
Shepard was the very agent of the Underground
Railroad he was in quest of; so Mr. Barbour gave
his two passengers into his keeping, and he took
them to Attica when he returned.
On account of its having been published in the
papers, the master heard of them and employed
slave-hunters to recapture and return them. But
the men he sent were almost mobbed,so were glad
to return without them. So mother and daughter
lived happily together in Wyoming County, New
York.
A gentleman took his little daughter with him
to the Legislative Hall at Springfield to hear Owen
Lovejoy make his great speech in favor of the bill
to repeal the "black law" of Illinois.
Mr. Lovejoy showed that he had much of the
same spirit of his martyred brother Elijah P., by
denouncing the Fugitive Slave Law, as not only
unjust and wicked, unnatural and dangerous to
the stability of a freergovernment, but also degrad¬
ing and an outrage on every principle of humanity
and religion. He endorsed the Underground Road
in all its principles and results, and closed his
speech with the following immortal words: "In so
doing I accept the consequences of wicked legis-
A BLACK SUBJECT
181
lation, and let it be known that Owen Lovejoy,
of Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois, will hold
himself ready at all times to give advice, food,
shelter and aid in every possible way in the pursuit
of freedom, to any poor, panting fugitive from the
horrors of American slavery, so help me Almighty
God."
On their way home the little girl asked, "Is
that man an abolitionist?" "Yes," said he. "Well,
papa, are you an abolitionist too?" "Yes," he
replied, "but I was such a fool I did not know it!"
What Lovejoy thus expressed was the senti¬
ment of thousands of people of the free states,
who'regarded the Fugitive Slave Bill as little short
of an indirect attempt to abolish Christianity, and
as absurd as the Pope's Bull against the comet.
Mr. Pettit related the following interesting story
of Margaret, who, with her mother, was owned by
a family who gave her religious instruction, and
she became very pious. At the age of sixteen she
went with her young mistress, who had married
a planter living on the "Eastern Shore." Margaret
married at the age of twenty; but in less than a
year her husband was torn from her frantic em¬
brace and sold South.
She incurred the displeasure of her master by
grieving over her fondly cherished husband, and
refusing to take another. In order to break her
spirit, and bring her to terms, he put her into the
tobacco field and instructed his brutal overseer to
work her to the utmost of her ability, which com¬
mand was enforced up to the day of the birth of
her child. At the end of one week she was driven
again to the field and compelled to perform a full
182
THE WHITE SIDE OF
task. It was customary at this time to have nur¬
series on the plantation,presided over by aged and
decrepit slaves, where mothers could leave their
infants during working hours. But this privilege
was denied to Margaret; she was obliged to leave
her child under the shade of a bush in the field,
returning to it but twice during the long day.
On going to the child one evening, she found it
apparently insensible, exhausted with crying, and
a large serpent lying across it. Although she felt
it would be better for both herself and child if it
were dead, yet her mother's heart impelled her
to make an effort to save it, so by caressing and
careful handling she revived it. As soon as she
heard its feeble wailing cry, she vowed to deliver
her boy from the cruel power of slavery or die in
the attempt. Falling un her knees like Hannah
of old, she gave the child into God's keeping, and
prayed for strength to enable her to perform her
vow, for grace and patience to sustain her in
suffering, toil, and hunger. Then pressing the child
to her bosom, she fled with all speed, her course
being northward. Having gone a mile or two,
she was overtaken by Watch, the old house dog.
Watch was a large mastiff, somewhat old, but he
and Margaret had become great friends. She
feared it would not be safe to let him go with her;
still the dog had determined to go, and a mastiff
has a will of his own, so she resumed her flight
followed by her faithful escort.
At daybreak she hid herself in the border of a
plantation, and was soon asleep. At dusk she
was aroused by the noise of slaves returning to
their quarters. Seeing a woman linger behind,
A BLACK SUBJECT
183
she went up to her and telling her troubles, asked
for food. About midnight the woman returned
with a supply, which she divided with Watch, and
immediately started on her journey.
The second day after she left, a slave-hunter,
with his dogs, was employed to catch and return
her. He started with a dog and three puppies,
thinking, no doubt, that as the game was only a
woman and baby it would be a good time to train
the young dogs. He did not find her as easily as he
expected, however, but about noon of the second
day the old dog struck her trail where Margaret
had made her little camp the day before; so she
bounded off with renewed vigor, leaving the man
and puppies far in the rear. The puppies soon
lost the trail where Margaret forded the streams,
and the old dog was miles away, leaving the hunter
without a guide. Meantime Margaret had been
lying in the woods on the banks of a river, intend¬
ing to start again as soon as it was dark, when she
was startled by the whining and nervous action of
Watch, and listening,she heard the distant bay of
a bloodhound. The peril of her situation now
flashed upon her. She expected to witness the
mangling of her babe by the savage brute, and
then be torn to pieces herself. But she did not
lose presence of mind, however, and determined
to sell her life and that of her child as dearly as
possible; she fastened him to her shoulder, and
procuring a stout club waded out as far as she
could into the river or inlet, which was too wide
and deep to ford at this point.
Meantime the mastiff lay with his nose between
his feet, watching the coming foe. The hound, ren-
184 THE WHITE SIDE OF
dered more fierce by the fresh track, came bound¬
ing on with her nose to the ground, scenting her
prey, and seemed not to see Watch, until, leaping
to pass over him, she found her throat seized by
the massive jaws of the mastiff. The struggle was
terrible but brief, for the mastiff did not loosen
his jaws until the hound was dead.
Margaret returned to the bank and would have
embraced her brave deliverer, but fearing this was
but the advance of a strong pack, she threw the
dead hound into the river and pushed on up the
stream.
A few hours after this she fell in with friends,
who hid her several days, then sent her to Phila¬
delphia, from there to New York City over the
Underground Road. Here she became a cele¬
brated trained nurse, and was in great demand by
invalids. She made a host of friends and earned
a competency. Renting a comfortable house, she
kept the faithful old mastiff until he died of old
age some years afterwards.
Her boy, whom curiously enough, like Hannah
of old, she named Samuel, obtained the rudiments
of an education at a school in West Chester
County. Afterwards, at the home of Gerrit Smith,
he enjoyed the advantages of a thorough edu¬
cation; became a devoted and eloquent minister
of the gospel in the Congregational church. Like
his mother, he was so black it was said to grow
dark when he entered a room; but it grew light
when he began to speak. Samuel afterwards
went to England, and was sent by the British
government on a mission of importance to Jamaica.
Samuel J. May, in his "Recollections of the
A BLACK SUBJECT 185
Anti-Slavery Conflict," mentions several interest¬
ing incidents of his personal experience as a sta¬
tion agent. "On one occasion," said he, "while
living at Syracuse, a squalid mortal came to my
back-door with a note stating that he was a pas¬
senger on the Underground Road. 'O massa,'
said he, 'I'm not fit to come into your house.'
'No,' I replied, 'you are not now, but soon shall
be.' So, stepping in, I got a tub of warm water,
with towels and soap. He helped me with them
into the barn. 'There,' said I, 'give yourself a
thorough washing and throw your clothing out
upon the dirt heap.' He set about his task with
a good will, and I returned to the house and brought
out to him a complete outfit of cjean clothing,
from a deposit kept supplied by my parishioners.
"He received each article with unspeakable thank¬
fulness, but the clean white shirt, with collar and
cravat, delighted him above measure. I found
hini to be a man of much natural intelligence, but
ignorant of letters. He had had a very hard mas¬
ter and exulted on his new-found freedom. After
remaining with me two days,he went on to Canada."
Quite a contrast is shown, by the following in¬
cident. . One Saturday night Mr. May's eldest son
came to the parlor door and said, "Here, father,
is another living epistle to you from the South,"
and ushered in a fine looking, well dressed young
man. Mr. May took his hand in welcome and
said: "But this is not the hand of one who has
been doing hard work; it is softer than mine."
"No sir," he replied, "I have not been allowed to
do work that would harden my hands. I have
been the slave of a very wealthy planter in Ken-
THE WHITE SIDE OF
tucky, who kept me only to drive the carriage for
mistress and her daughters, to wait upon them at
table and accompany them on their journeys. I
was not allowed even to groom the horses, and
was required to wear gloves when I drove.".
Mr. May noticed he used good language, and
pronounced it correctly, and remarked, "You must
have received some instruction; I thought the laws
of the slave states sternly prohibited the teaching
of slaves." "They do, sir," he replied, "but my
master was an easy man in that respect. My
young mistresses taught me to read, and got me
books and papers from their father's library. I
have had much leisure time and have improved it."
By further conversation it was shown that he
was familiar with a considerable number of the
best American and English authors in poetry and
prose. Mr. May now asked, "If you had such an
easy time, and were so much favored, why did you
run away?" "O, sir," he answered, "slavery at
best is a bitter draught. Under the most favored
circumstances, it is bondage and degradation still.
I often writhed in my chains, though they sat on
me so lightly compared to others. I was often on
the point of taking wings for the North, but the
words of Hamlet would come to me, 'Better to
"bear those ills we have,than fly to others we know
not of,' and I should have remained with my mas¬
ter had it not been that I learned a few weeks ago
he was about to sell me to a particular friend of
his, then visiting him from New Orleans. I sus¬
pected this evil was impending over me from the
notice the gentleman took of me and the kind of
questions he asked me.
A BLACK SUBJECT 187
"At length, one of my young mistresses, who
knew my dread of being sold, came to me, and
bursting into tears, said, 'Harry, father is going to
sell you!' She put five dollars into my hand and
went weeping away. With that, and with much
more money I had received from time to time,
and saved for this hour of need, I started that
night and reached the Ohio River before morning.
I immediately crossed to Cincinnati and hurried
on board a steamer, the steward of which was a.
black man of my acquaintance. He concealed
me until the boat had returned to Pittsburg.
There he introduced me to a gentleman he knew
to be friendly to us colored folks That gentle¬
man sent me to a friend in Meadville, and he di¬
rected me to come to you."
Mr. May told him that since he was a coach^
man and waiter, he could get him an excellent
situation in that city; which would enable him to
live comfortably until he was acquainted with
Northern manners and customs, and something
better presented itself. But Harry hastily replied,
"O, I thank you, sir, but I shall not dare to stop
this side of Canada. My master, though kind to
me, is a proud and passionate man, He will never
forgive me for running away. He has already
advertised me, offering a large reward for my ar¬
rest and return to him. I am not safe here and
must go to Canada." So Monday afternoon he
left with a letter of introduction to a gentleman
in Kingston, where he arrived safely in a few days.
Mr. May also told of a beautiful octoroon who
came to him from New Orleans. Her story was
about as follows: "I was a slave in New Orleans;
188 THE WHITE SIDE OF
my master was concerned in a line of packet steam¬
ers that ply between New Orleans and Galves¬
ton. For the past few years he had kept me on
board one of his boats as the chambermaid. This
was rather an easy and not a disagreeable position.
I was very attentive to the lady passengers, es¬
pecially when they were seasick, and made many
friends. They often made me presents of clothes,
trinkets and money, and what was better, they
taught me to read. At each end of the route I
had days of leisure, which I improved as best I
could. I was often worried by the thought that I
was a slave, but as I was comfortable in other
respects, I might have remained in bondage, had
I not learned that my master was about to sell
me to a dissolute young man, and I knew it would
be a life much more to be dreaded than the bond¬
age I then endured; so at once I determined to
escape.
"Being much of the time at the wharf in New
Orleans, I could readily distinguish the vessels of
the different nations. So I went to one I knew
was an English ship, on board of which I saw a
lady—the captain's wife. Asking and obtaining
permission to come on board, and encouraged by
her kind manner, I revealed to her my secret and
my wish to escape. She could hardly be persuaded
that I was a slave, being, as I supposed, the child
of my master; but when all doubt was removed
she readily consented to take me with her to New
York.
"I succeeded in getting what money ' had saved
and all my clothes on board, so we sailed next
day. The captain was equally kind and I was
A BLACK SUBJECT 189
able to pay as much as he would take for my
passage. On arriving in New York the captain
took pains to inquire for abolitionists, and being
directed to Mr. Lewis Tappan, took me with him
to the good gentleman. Mr. Tappan provided
for my safety in that city, and the next day sent
me to Mr. Myers at Albany, on my way to you."
Mr. May kindly offered to find her a place in
some one of the best families in Syracuse; but she
was afraid to remain there. She had seen in New
York City her master's advertisement offering five
hundred dollars for her restoration to him. She
was positive there were slave-hunters on her track.
Two men in the train between Albany and Syra¬
cuse had annoyed and alarmed her by their close
observation. One had seated himself by her side
and tried to engage her in conversation, and to
look through her veil. At length he asked her to
take off the glove of her left hand; by this she
knew that he had seen the advertisement stating
that one finger on the left hand was minus a joint.
Instead of complying with this rude request she
called the conductor, who gave her a seat by a
lady, so reached Syracuse in safety.
After remaining with -Mr. May several days,
passing the time by reading French, he sent her
to Kingston, Canada, where she was no longer a
slave, but as God intended, enjoying her freedom.
CHAPTER IX.
FORERUNNERS OF FREEDOM. JOHN BROWN, THE
PROTOMARTYR.
On a marble monument at Canton Centre,
New York, is to be seen this inscription: "In
memory of Captain John Brown, who died in the
Revolutionary War, at New York, September 3rd,
1776. He was the fourth generation from Peter
Brown, who landed from the Mayflower at Plym¬
outh, Massachusetts, December 22, 1620."
With such ancestors, the subject of this sketch
could hardly fail to be a liberty-loving, slavery-
hating patriot. John Brown, known in history as
"Ossawatomie Brown," was born in Torrington,
Connecticut, May 9th, 1800. He was nearly six
feet tall, slender, wiry, and of dark complexion.
His brow was prominent, with slightly Roman
nose, which gave him quite a commanding appear¬
ance. He had great self-possession, conscientious-
nass and strong will-power. He was quick in his
motions and elastic in his tread.
When Congress gave the Free State settlers of
Kansas no protection, but was in reality trying to
drag the territory into the Union with a slave
constitution, many anti-slavery men rushed into
Kansas, determined to maintain their rights and
dispute every inch of ground, even if it led to a
border war, as indeed was the inevitable result,
100
A BLACK SUBJECT
Among the champions of freedom who went to
Kansas were John Brown and his sons. He was
not in sympathy with either of the anti-slavery
or political parties then in existence, but with his
friends and followers formed a little party of his
own which advocated carrying the jvar into the
enemies' ranks, and aggressive measures for the
freedom of slaves. In a speech at Ossawatomie
about this time, he said: "Talk is a national in¬
stitution,but it does no good to the slaves." He also
said to a personal friend: "Young men must learn
to wait. Patience is the hardest lesson to learn. I
have waited twenty years to accomplish my pur¬
pose." These are the words of a practical, ju¬
dicious leader, who had deep convictions of duty,
a strong hold on truth, and "a conscience void of
offense towards God and man." In short, he was
a born ruler and leader of men, but had the mis¬
fortune to be a little in advance of public sen¬
timent on the question of how to get rid of the
hydra-headed monster, slavery.
One of Captain Brown's most successful expe¬
ditions was that in which he liberated eleven slaves
in Missouri, conducted them through Iowa and
Illinois to Canada, that haven of escaped slaves.
I think it was -in 1847 that John Brown ac¬
cepted an invitation to visit Boston- from George
L. Stearns, who proffered to pay his expenses.
A full account of this visit was given by Mrs.
Stearns in a letter. It was arranged for him to
meet certain friends of freedom on Sunday, as
this was the only time convenient to all parties. It
was feared Brown would not approve of this, but
he said in his characteristic way: "Mr. Stearns,!
THE WHITE SIDE OF
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." Mr. Stearns' oldest son, then
a boy -eleven years old, was greatly fascinated by
this strange, kind-hearted man, and after obtain¬
ing his father's permission, he brought out his
spending money and gave it to Brown, saying:
"Captain Brown, will you buy something with this
money for those poor people in Kansas, and
sometime will you write to me and tell me what
sort of a little boy you were?" "Yes, my son, I
will, and God bless you for your kind heart," he
answered.
One of his sayings in Boston is quoted by Mrs.
Stearns in the same letter, as follows: "Gentle¬
men, I consider the Golden Rule and the Decla¬
ration of Independence one and inseparable; and
it is better that a whole generation of men, wom¬
en and children should be swept away, than that
this crime of slavery should exist one day longer."
She also tells of her baby boy, little three year old
Carl, coming into the room as Captain Brown
was talking; and how he stood and looked at him
intently with his beautiful, beaming eyes; but as
the good man was simply irresistible to children,
the little boy was soon on his knee playing with
his beard or nestling his head in his bosom. We
read,"A man may smile and smile and be a villain
still;" but my observation teaches me that one
who loves and is beloved by children is apt to be
a candid and a noble man. Captain Brown had
the same experience with the children of Frederick
Douglass, when boarding in the family at Rochesr
ter, January, 1858. One of them still says: "The
A BLACK SUBJECT
193
sun seemed to rise and set with me in John
Brown." He even demonstrated his love for chil¬
dren by his request concerning the kind of mourn¬
ers he wanted at his funeral, as mentioned in his
last letter, which we will read farther on.
In the latter part of 1847 J°hn Brown and
Frederick Douglass spent the night together at
Springfield, Massachusetts. The conversation
which then took place between them is quoted
from Frederick May Holland's work. In it Doug¬
lass tells his own story as follows: "He touched
my vanity at the outset in this wise: 'I have,'
he said, 'been looking over your people during the
last twenty years, watching and waiting for heads
to rise above the surface, to whom I could safely
impart my views and plans. At times I have
been almost discouraged, but lately I have seen a
good many heads popping up, and whenever I see
them, I try to put myself in communication with
them.' John Brown's plan,as it was then formed
in his mind, was very simple and had much to
commend it. It did not, as some suppose, directly
contemplate a general uprising among the slaves,
and a general slaughter of the slave masters, but
it did contemplate the creation of an armed force,
which should constantly act against slavery in
the heart of the South. He called my attention
to a large map upon the wall, and pointed out to
me the far-reaching Alleghanies, stretching away
from New York into the Southern States. 'These
mountains,' he said, 'are the basis of my plans.
God has given the strength of these hills to free¬
dom. They were placed here by the Almighty
for the emancipation of your race. They are full
THE WHITE SIDE OF
of natural forts, where one man for defense will
be equal to a hundred for attack. They are full
of good hiding places, where a large number of
brave men could be concealed and for a long time
baffle and elude pursuit. I know these mountains
well, and could take a body of men into them
there, despite all the efforts Virginia could make
to dislodge and drive me out of them. My plan,
then, is this: to take about twenty-five brave
men into those mountains, and begin my work on
a small scale, supply them with arms and pro¬
visions, and post them in companies of five on a
line of twenty-five miles. These shall for a time
busy themselves in gathering recruits from the
neighboring farms, seeking and selecting the most
daring and restless spirits first.' In this part of
the work,he said, the utmost care was to be taken
to avoid treachery and discovery. Only the most
conscientious and skillful of his men were to be
detailed for this perilous duty. With care and
enterprise, he thought, he could soon gather a
force of one hundred hearty men, who would be
content to lead the free and adventurous life to
which he proposed to train them. When once
properly drilled, and each man had found the place
for which he was best suited, they would begin
the work in earnest. They would run off the
slaves in large numbers. They would retain the
strong and brave and send the weak ones North
by the Underground Railroad. His operations
would be enlarged with the increasing number of
his men, and they would not be confined to one
locality. He would approach the slaveholders in
some cases at midnight, and telj them they must
A BLACK SUBJECT
195
give up their slaves, and also let them have their
best horses upon which to ride away. Slavery,
he said, was a state of war, in which the slaves
were unwilling parties, and that they therefore
had a right to anything necessary to their peace and
freedom. He would shed no blood, and would
avoid a fight, except when he could not escape
from it and was compelled to do it in self-defense.
He would then, of course, do his best. This
movement, he said, would weaken slavery in two
ways. First, by making slave property insecure,
it would make such property undesirable. Sec¬
ondly, it would keep the anti-slavery agitation
alive, and public attention fixed upon the subject,
and thus finally lead to the adoption of measures
for the abolishing of the slave system altogether.
He held that the anti-slavery agitation was in
danger of dying out, and that it needed some such
startling measures as he proposed, to keep it
alive and effective. Slavery, he said, had nearly
been abolished in Virginia by the Nat Turner in¬
surrection; and he thought his plan of operation
would speedily abolish it in both Maryland and
Virginia. He said his trouble was to get the right
kind of men with which to begin the work, and
the means necessary to equip them. And here he
explained the reason for his simple mode of living,
his plain dress, his leather stock. He had adopted
this economy in order to save money with which
to arm and equip men to carry out his plan of
liberation. This was said by him in no boastful
terms. On the contrary, he said he had already
delayed his work too long, and that he had no
room to boast either his zeal or his self-denial.
ig6
THE WHITE SIDE OP
From eight o'clock in the evening till three o'clock
in the morning, Captain John Brown and I sat
face to face, he arguing in favor of his plan, and
I finding all the objections I could against it.
Now mark! This conversation took place fully
twelve years before the blow was struck at Har¬
per's Ferry, and his plan was even then more than
twenty years old. He had, therefore, been watch¬
ing and waiting all these years for suitable heads
to rise up, or •pop up,' to use his expression,
among the sable millions, to whom he could safely
confide his plan, and thus nearly forty years had
passed between this man's thoughts and his act."
The last interview between John Brown and
Frederick Douglass took place in an old stone
quarry near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, August
20th, 1859. There were only four men present
at this council of war, if it might be so termed;
Douglass and a colored man named Shields Green,
who had recently escaped from slavery in South
Carolina, John Brown, and his secretary Mr.
Kagai. Douglass now learned for the first time
that Brown had changed his plan, and meditated
an attack on Harpfer's Ferry at once and running
the risk of getting to the mountains afterwards.
With his usual far-seeing sagacity, Douglass told
Brown he was running into a steel trap, and urged
him to desist, as it could result only in ruin to him¬
self, and injury to the cause they both loved. But
it was unavailing; the man of iron will had made
up his mind, and nothing could turn him from his
purpose. When Douglass was about to separate
from him, having declined to join him in his un¬
dertaking, Brown made one more pathetic appeal,
A BLACK SUBJECT
197
and putting his arms around him in a manner more
than friendly, he said: "Come with me, Doug¬
lass; 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
me hive them."
Alas! how sadly mistaken he was in his theory
remains to be seen.
John Brown purchased or leased a small farm
about six miles from Harper's Ferry,on the Mary¬
land side, July, 1859, and established here his head¬
quarters and arsenal. He had one hundred and
two Sharp's rifles, sixty-eight pistols, fifty-five
bayonets, twelve artillery swords, four hundred
and eighty-three pikes, one hundred and fifty
broken handles of pikes, sixteen picks, forty
shovels, besides quite a number of other appurte¬
nances of war.
Captain Brown expected to make his attack on
Harper's Ferry on the night of October 24th,
1859; but while in Baltimore in September, he
was under the impression that there was a con¬
spiracy in his camp. Fearing he would be betrayed
and his plans frustrated, he determined, without
informing his Northern friends, to strike the first
blow on the night of October 17th.
The story is soon told. He was made a prisoner
October 19th, and remained until November
7th without a change of clothing or medical aid.
Forty-two days from the time of his imprisonment
he was hanged, after a mock trial, by Governor
Wise of Virginia. That this so-called raid was
ill-timed and premature, all will agree; but the
motive which inspired him to action was certainly
198 THE WHITE SIDE OF
a desire to imitate the example of Him who came
"to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty
to the captives, and the opening of the prison to
them that are bound."
Whittier very pathetically describes the scene:
"John Brown of Ossawatomie, they led him out to die;
And lo! a poor slave mother with her little child pressed nigh;
Then the bold blue eye grew tender, and the old harsh face
grew mild,
As he stooped between the jeering ranks and kissed the negro's
child."
He had gone into Virginia to save life, not to
destroy it. This is proven by a statement made
before the fight at Harper's Ferry: "And now,
gentlemen, let me press this one thing on your
minds. You all know how dear life is to you, and
how dear your lives are to your friends, and in re¬
membering that, consider that the lives of others
are as dear to them as yours are to you. Do not,
therefore, take the life of any one if you can pos¬
sibly avoid it; but if it is necessary to take life in
order to save your own, then make sure work of
it." After the fight at Harper's Ferry he also
said: , "I never did intend murder, or treason, or
the destruction of property, or to excite or incite
slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection. The
design on my part was to free the slaves."
Congressman. Vallandigham of Ohio, who ex¬
amined him in court, said afterwards in a speech:
"It is in vain to underrate either the man or the
conspiracy. Captain John Brown is as brave and
resolute a man as ever headed an insurrection.and
in a good cause, and with a sufficient force, would
have been a consummate partisan commander.
A BLACK SUBJECT
199
He has coolness, daring, persistency, stoic faith
and patience, and a firmness of will and purpose
unconquerable! He is furtherest possible removed
from the ordinary ruffian, fanatic or madman."
South Carolina, Missouri and Kentucky each
sent a rope to hang him. But the one from Ken¬
tucky proving the strongest, was selected and used.
It seems a little paradoxical that Kentucky, the
home of Henry Clay the "Great Compromiser" of
slavery, and the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln
the great emancipator of slavery, should furnish
the rope to hang John Brown, the forerunner of
Lincoln, and one of the noblest and best men of
any age or country.
His last letter was written to Mrs. George L.
Stearns, his Boston friend at whose home he was
entertained, and is as follows:
"Charlestown, Jefferson Co., Va., 29th Nov.,
1859.
"Mrs. George L. Stearns,
Boston, Mass.
"My Dear Friend:—No letter I have received
since my imprisonment here has given me more
satisfaction or comfort than yours of 8th inst. I
am quite cheerful, and never more happy. Have
only time to write you a word. May God forever
reward you and all yours. My love to all who
love their neighbors. I have asked to be spared
from having any mock 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
THE WHITE SIDE OF
boys and girls, led by some old gray-headed slave
mother.
"Farewell, farewell. Your friend,
"John Brown."
Mr. Stearns helped to go through the formality
of a defense, but it was in vain.
A well organized plan was made to rescue him,
conducted by the brave Colonel James Montgomery
of Kansas, but the prisoner sent word to them
that his sense of honor to his jailer, Captain Acvis,
prevented him from walking out should the door
be left open.
A satchel belonging to Captain Brown was
found when he was taken prisoner, containing let¬
ters which implicated Frederick Douglass. Warned
by his friends, Douglass escaped first to Canada and
from there to England. Buchanan's marshals were
hot on his trail,coming to Rochester six hours after
he left. Governor Wise made requisition on the
executives of New York and Michigan, but the bird
had flown. To show the temper of the Governor
when he found his prey had escaped, I will quote
from his speech made in Richmond, December 21,
of the same year. He said, with tremendous ap¬
plause: "Oh, if I had had one good, long, low,
black, rakish, well-armed steamer in Hampton
Roads, I would have placed her on the Newfound¬
land Banks, with orders, if she found a British
packet with that Negro on board, to take him. And
by the eternal gods, he should have been taken—
taken with very particular instructions not to hang
him before I had the privilege of seeing him well
hung."
A BLACK SUBJECT
201
It seems that the death of John Brown and his
followers had not mollified the rage of Governor
arid people. It might be said of Brown that, like
Samson, he accomplished more in his death than
during his life, for he lighted the torch of freedom,
which was never extinguished. For though John
Brown's body lay moulderng in the tomb, his soul
went marching on, until freedom was proclaimed
to four millions of slaves.
II. Calvin Fairbank:—The-subject of this sketch
is living at Angelica, New York, now upwards of
eighty years of age. Although broken in health, he
still takes great interest in passing events and
keeps up an extensive correspondence with his
friends. We have exchanged several letters with
him and are glad to give him his true place
in history by the side of Garrison, Brown
and Lovejoy. Some years ago he wrote an inter¬
esting history of his life, and has recently pub¬
lished another book giving an exceedingly interest¬
ing account of "How the Way was Prepared" for
the emancipation of slaves. He is a hero who has
spent long years in jail in testimony of his de¬
votion to the cause of human freedom. His
career, one of daring and suffering, almost sur¬
passing belief, has been unique and without paral¬
lel. The story of his life is best told in his own
words and way:
"I was born in Pike, New York, eighty years
ago. In my childhood my father was a farmer,
but later he became a lumberman, engaged with an
uncle of mine in clearing up a tract of timber land
near Olean, the lumber from which they floated
down the Alleghany and Ohio rivers and sold in
202
THE WHITE SIDE OF
the Cincinnati markets My father and mother were
Methodists, and one of the most vivid recollections
of my childhood is of going with them when I was
about twelve years eld to attend a quarterly meet¬
ing held in another town a dozen miles or so from
Hume, N. Y., where we then-lived. We remained
over night, and as the large attendance at the
meeting had filled every house in the town, I, be¬
ing a boy,was sent to sleep at the home of an ex-
slave family, the head of which had made his es¬
cape from Virginia some years before. Child
though I was, the stories of the suffering and mis¬
ery endured by slaves which the old Negro told
me that night, as we sat together on the stone
hearth in front of the open fireplace, settled the
course of my after-life. I resolved, if I lived, to
help right the great wrongs with which I had thus
been made acquainted, and though it was not until
many years later that I came to know of the ex¬
istence of the Underground Railroad and the
American Anti-Slavery Society, my resolution
grew stronger as I grew older, and only needed
fitting opportunity to bear fruit. The opportunity
came in the spring of 1837, just before I was
twenty-one years of age, when my father sent me
down the river to Cincinnati in charge of a raft
of lumber. It was a morning in April, sharp,
crisp and clear, and we were rounding a bend in
the Ohio River just below Wheeling when I caught
sight of a strapping darky, an ax flung over his
shoulder, jogging along on the Virginia bank of
the river, singing as he went:
"De cold, frosty morning make a niggah feel good,
Wid de ax on de shoulder he go jogging to de wood "
A BLACK SUBJECT
203
"'Halloo, there! where are you going?' I called
to him. 'Gwine choppin' in de woods!' 'Chop¬
ping for yourself?'
"'Han't got no self.' 'Slave, are you?' 'Dat's
what I is.' 'Why don't you run away?' 'Case
I don't know where to go.' 'I'll show you where
to go.' 'White man mighty onsartin; niggah more
so,' he said, shaking his head doubtfully.
"We talked for some time, I all the while urg¬
ing him to make the break for the North, whither
his wife had already escaped. Finally he asked
where I was from, and when I told him from New
York state my reply seemed to settle it, for he
dropped his ax and jumped onto the' raft. I pushed
off and we swung over to the Ohio side. As we
touched the shore the darky, whose name was
Johnson, danced a jig for joy. I directed him to
the house of a man named Snyder, who lived near
by and who, I had been told, kept a station on the
Underground Railroad, and continued on my«way
down the river. When I came back I learned that
Johnson had remained in hiding for some time
with the Snyders and had finally gone, no one
knew where. I had now got my hand in as a
slave stealer, and was anxious for more work" to
do. On the same trip down the river, near the
mouth of the Little Miami, I helped across the
Ohio a family of seven, Stewart by name, four
men and three women, all of them over six feet
tall.
"After I had marketed my lumber at Cincinnati
I took passage on a steamer for Pittsburg. The
steamer stopped at Maysville, Kentucky, to take
on freight, and while it was loading I went for
204 THE WHITE SIDE OF
a walk about the town. On one of the back streets
I met an extremely pretty girl of sixteen or seven¬
teen who seemed in deep distress. I asked her what
was the matter and she told me that she was a
slave—you would not have known it from her color
—and was trying to escape from her master, a
man who lived a few miles out in the country
from town, and who also was her father. I took
the girl back to the steamer and introduced her to
my sister, explaining to the clerk and captain that
I had met her in Maysville by appointment. No
questions were asked, and we made the trip to
Pittsburg in safety. She was exceedingly bright
and a skilled musician, and, I remember, made a
deep impression on some of the male passengeis,
one of whom went so far as to ask the privilege of
corresponding with her. She settled in New York,
finally married well, and is now living in San
Francisco in more than comfortable-circumstances.
vIn June, 1838, I was again in Cincinnati sell¬
ing lumber, and while there heard of a slave
family of fourteen, a few miles below the city, in
Kentucky, who were anxious to escape. I engaged
a scow and with a Negro named Casey paddled
them across the river to the Ohio side. We were
closely followed by their owner and a posse of
officers, but succeeded in throwing them off the
scent. Next day Henry Boyd, a wealthy Cincin¬
nati colored man, guided the runaways in safety
to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, whence they were sent
further North. This made twenty-three slaves I
helped to liberty before I was as many years old.
"I was anxious for a better education than the
common schools I had thus far attended afforded
A BLACK SUBJECT
205
me, and to secure it entered the seminary at Lima,
N. Y., in 1839. Later I became a student at
Oberlin College, Ohio, from which institution I
graduated in 1844. While a student at Oberlin I
made the acquaintance of Gerrit Smith, Joshua
R. Giddings, Theodore Parker and other abolition
leaders, and became thoroughly imbued with their
ideas, coming to hold with Smith that the Federal
constitution, instead of countenancing slavery,
positively forbade it. During my college vacations,
in order to obtain money with which to continue
my studies, I taught school in Lexington, Ken¬
tucky. One of the first friends I made in Lexing¬
ton was Cassius M. Clay. He was then, as now, a
large-hearted^ noble-minded man, and an attach¬
ment sprang up between us which to-day is as
warm as ever. In those days he was editing the
True American, the only anti-slavery paper pub¬
lished in the South. His boldness in attacking the
lion in its very den, as it were, produced the most
violent opposition, and upon a number of occasions
I was among those who guarded his printing plant
from destruction by mobs. Once, I remember, I
manned for two days and nights a cannon loaded
with grape and canister posted in front of his
office door. There were one or two more cannons
about the premises, and a mob, had it visited us,
would have received a warm reception.
"One day in August, 1841, word came to me
that an escaped slave, named Coleman, with his
wife and three children, were in hiding in Lexing¬
ton. The poor creatures had made their way
from East Tennessee, but their owner was hot on
their track, and they were afraid to go further
206 THE WHITE SIDE OF
without a guide I left my school in charge of
another, and started with them toward the Ohio
River at night and on foot. We traveled for six
nights, lying in hiding during the day. We finally
reached the Ohio, opposite Ripley, and crossed
the river in a skiff, Just after we had crossed I
saw a Negro boy run along the Kentucky shore and
disappear. I suspected he was trying to escape,
and went back to help him. I found him behind
a log in the swamp, and. got away with him,
though men with bloodhounds were hunting the
boy at the time.
"In April, 1842, I was in Covington, Kentucky,
and while there was told of the case of Emily
Ward, a handsome girl of eighteen, two-thirds
white, who had been sold and was about to be
taken South to become the mistress of her pur¬
chaser. She was kept in an attic facing the river.
I went at nightfall, and attracting her attention by
tossing pebbles against the windows, threw up to
her,tied to a stone, a note telling her I had come to
help her escape. By the same means I got up to
her first a cord with a bundle of men's clothes
fastened to it, and finally a stout rope. She put
on the clothes, and crawling through a rear win¬
dow of the room in which she was locked, slid
down the rope to the ground. When we were a
few feet away from the house we met her master,
who apologized for unintentionally brushing against
me in the darkness. The girl's case was known to
everyone in Covington, and I did not dare to hire a
boat to take us across to Cincinnati for fear of de¬
tection; so we got on board a raft, eight by twenty
rods, containing one million feet of boards and one
A BLACK SUBJECT
207
hundred thousand shingles, worked by twelve men
besides myself, the pilot. Once in Cincinnati, we
were safe. I took Emily to the house of Levi
Coffin, Superintendent of the Underground Railroad
in that department, and turned her over to him.
He found her a comfortable home and she did well.
"Five days after helping Emily Ward to escape
I again crossed the Ohio at night on a log. This
time I had for" a companion John Hamilton, a
mulatto. He was a man of superior natural ability
and made his mark. After the war he returned
South and became a State Senator in South Car¬
olina, only to be murdered by the Ku-Klux. This
was my last log trip, but within a.week I rescued
the Stanton family, father,'mother and six children.
They had been sold and were about to be sent to a
Louisiana sugar plantation. I packed them in the
bottom of a load of straw bought just out of Cov¬
ington ostensibly for livery use, and drove them
in safety to Cincinnati, where Levi Coffin sent
them North over the Underground Railroad.
"In August of the same year I spent several
weeks in Montgomery County, Kentucky, as the
guest of Richard McFarland. A girl of sixteen was
anxious to escape and applied to me for help.
Starting on a clear, moonlight night, we drove be¬
fore noon next day to Lexington, a distance of ninety
miles. On the way we were overhauled by a brother
of McFarland, who was searching for a lost slave.
When I heard the man's name my heart rose in
my mouth, but by putting on a bold front I suc¬
ceeded in getting off without disclosing the identity
of myself and companion. My scruples against so
gross a breach of hospitality as stealing the prop-
2O8 THE WHITE SIDE OF
erty of my host were fully overcome by the fact
that both the girl and her mother were the chil¬
dren of their master. Kate was a pretty blonde,
with blue eyes and flaxen hair, showing not the
slightest trace of Negro blood. From Lexington I
took her to Cincinnati and gave her into the care
of Gamaliel Bailey, editor of the National Era, one
of the noblest and bravest soldiers in the abolition
army. Later, Kate's mother, brother and sister
escaped. The children were all educated by Mr.
Bailey and are still living in prosperous circum¬
stances.
"The most remarkable incident of this period of
my life occurred in March, 1843. One day in the
latter part of that month, while looking through
the jail at Lexington, my attention was attracted
to one of the prisoners, a young woman of ex¬
quisite figure and singular beauty. I asked the
jailer who she was, and to my surprise, for she
looked pure Caucasian, he told me that she was a
slave girl named Eliza and the daughter of her
master, who a few days later was to sell her upon
the block for the New Orleans market, impelled
by the jealousy of his wife because the slave girl
was superior to her own daughters. Then I talked
with the girl; I found that she was intelligent as
well as beautiful, and I resolved to exeVt every
effort to save so magnificent a creature from so
sad a fate. I told her I would go to Cincinnati
and do my best to raise the money with which to
purchase her freedom; if I obtained it I would be
back before the sale came off; if I did not return
she would at least have the sorry satisfaction of
knowing that I had done all I could. I hurried to
A BLACK SUBJECT
209
Cincinnati and sought out that old hero and apostle
of freedom, Levi Coffin. He gave me prompt and
generous assistance, and in a short time we raised
seven hundred dollars. I then laid the case be¬
fore Salmon P. Chase, afterwards Senator, Sec¬
retary of the Treasury, and Chief Justice, who
gave me two hundred more and went with me to
see Nicholas Longworth. The latter was worth
millions, but we were afraid nothing would come
of our appeal to him, but decided to make it, as it
cost us nothing. 'Mr. Longworth,' said Chase,
'do you consider yourself a Christian?'
"'I am not a very good one,' was the reply.
"'Well, we have got a case here that appeals to
both humanity and Christianity. Mr. Fairbank
will tell you about it.' I told the story. Long-
worth listened in silence, and when I was through
drew his check-book from a drawer and began fill¬
ing out a check. A moment later Longworth
wheeled around and handed me a check for one
thousand dollars. A number of well-to-do Negroes
raised and gave me several hundred dollars more,
and when I went back to Lexington, the day be¬
fore the time appointed for the sale, I carried two
thousand two hundred and seventy-five dollars.
Moreover, in my pocketbook was an agreement
signed by Chase, Longworth and William Howard,
another rich Cincinnatian, empowering me to
draw upon them, if necessary, to the extent of
twenty-five thousand. The sale took place and
was attended by fully two thousand people, drawn
there by descriptions of the girl's comeliness and
rumors of the effort that was to be made to save
her. The best people of the town were there, and
2io THE WHITE SIDE OF
a. number of strangers from Boston, New York and
Philadelphia were also present, curious and horror-
stricken, But one man appeared to bid against
me, a Frenchman from New Orleans, who I was
told made it his business to attend sales of young
girls and purchase them for a fate worse than
death. Eliza, when placed upon the block,seemed
ready to drop from fear and shame. The auction¬
eer began his work by pointing out her beauties,
concluding with, 'What .am I offered for her?'
'Five hundred,' I cried. The New Orleans man
instantly raised my bid, until I raised his last bid
to thirteen hundred, when he turned to me with
an ugly look and said: 'How high are you going
to bid?' 'Higher than you do, Monsieur,' I replied.
He turned away and raised my bid, and we kept
bidding until he turned to me and asked: 'How
high are you going?® 'None of your business, sir,
but you haven't enough money to buy this girl.'
The auctioneer grew impatient and cried, 'Give,
give.' Finally he dropped his hammer and tearing
open Eliza's waist, exposed a bust as perfect as
ever artist sculptured. 'Look, gentlemen,' he
cried. 'Who is going to lose a chance like this.
Here's a girl fit to be the mistress of a king.' 'Too
bad!' 'What a shame!' ran through the crowd at
sight of this indignity; but only to be followed by
greater exposure of the poor girl's person. The
hammer fell at fourteen hundred and eighty dol¬
lars, and the girl was mine. An instant later she
tottered back into the arms of her aunt in a deep
swoon. 'She is yours, young man,' said the
auctioneer. 'What are you going to do with her?'
'Free her, sir,' and my answer awoke a cheer,
A BLACK SUBJECT
211
which, rising to a Kentucky shout, rent the air.
As soon as they could be made out, I handed
Eliza the papers which formally set her free.
Four days after the sale I took Eliza to Cincinnati,
where she became a member of the family of
Gamaliel Bailey. Under his care she received a
finished , education, married well, and to-day is a
cheerful, charming matron. Only the members of
her immediate family know the history of her
early years; so you will understand why I do not
give her full name.
"Lewis Hay den, who served as a member of
the Massachusetts general court and in the Legis¬
lature of the same state, and who was long ago
one of the honored citizens of Boston, was when a
young man a slave, the property of Baxter and
Grant, owners of the Brennan House, in Lexing¬
ton. Hayden's wife, and his son, a lad of ten
years, when I first knew them, were the slaves
of Patrick Baine. On a September evening in 1844,
. accompanied by Miss D. A. Webster, a young Ver¬
mont lady who was associated with me in teach¬
ing, I left Lexington with the Haydens in a hack,
crossed the Ohio on a ferry the next morning,
changed horses and drove to an Underground Rail¬
road depot at Hopkins, Ohio, where we left Hayden
and his family. When Miss Webster and I re¬
turned to Lexington, after two days' absence, we
Were both arrested, charged by their master with
helping Hayden's wife and son to escape. We
were jointly indicted, but Miss Webster was tried
first and sentenced to two years' imprisonment in
the penitentiary at Frankfort.
"My cell-mate in the jail in which I was con-
212 THE WHITE SIDE OF
fined before my trial was Richard Moore, a young
mulatto, a slave under sentence of death for the
murder of his mistress, a Mrs. Turner. The thing
seemed impossible, but I determined to attempt
his and my own escape. A week or so before the
time set for his execution I suggested a plan for
four or five slaves to break jail, and in this way
secured two bars of iron, which I hid away. Early
on the Tuesday night previous to the Friday upon
which Moore was to hang, we attacked the wall of
our cell. All night we worked without rest; the
palms of my hands were worn to the tendons. We
had reached the last bowlder on the outside of the
four-foot wall when the city clock struck five. We
were half an hour too late. 'I am a dead man,'
said Moore, and fell almost to the floor. When
what we had done was discovered we were hand¬
cuffed together, and remained so day and night
until Moore was executed. Do you wonder that I
have never forgotten this experience?
"While my case was still pending I learned that
the Governor was inclined to pardon Miss Web¬
ster, but first insisted that I should be tried.
When called up for trial, in February, 1845, I
pleaded guilty and received a sentence of fifteen
years. A little later Miss Webster received her
pardon. I served four years and eleven months,
was released August 23, 1849, by Governor John
J. Crittenden, the able and patriotic man who
afterwards saved Kentucky to the Unionf. His
action was prompted by petitions in my behalf
from all parts of the North. I returned to the
Nortlr immediately after my release, and did what
I could do to prevent the passage of the Fugitive
A BLACK SUBJECT
213
Slave bill. After it became a law by the signature
of. President Fillmore, I resisted its execution
whenever and wherever possible.
"An incident which happened soon after I re¬
turned North showed me that my labors for the
slaves had not been in vain. In the autumn of
1849 I was *n Detroit, Michigan. In, talking over
my early experiences one day with General Lewis
Cass I told him of Sam Johnson, the first Negro
whom I had freed.
"'Why,' said the General, 'Johnson lives just
out of this city. He has told me the same story
a dozen times.' The General informed me that
Johnson drove into the city almost daily, and next
morning I waited at the place to which I had been
directed for his appearance. He finally came,
seated in a wagon loaded with grain and drawn
by a six-horse team. 'Whose team is that?' I
asked. 'Mine,' was the reply. 'Do you know
that I am your master?' I continued. 'Hain't
got no master,' said he gloomily. Then recognizing
who I was, he leaped from his seat with a joyful,
'Blessed if you hain't de chap dat sot me free,'
and caught me in his arms. He took me to his
home, a few miles from Detroit, and I found him to
be a. well-to-do farmer, owning a well-stocked
farm of one hundred and sixty acres, with his wife
and children about him. Living near the John¬
sons, and like them, contented and comfortable, I
found the Stewart and Coleman families, for whom
I had also lighted the path to freedom.
"My father had died of cholera at Lexington in
1849, while seeking to secure my release, and in
October, 1851, I went South to get the body and
214
THE WHITE SIDE OF
bring it back to our old home here in New York.
While waiting in Louisville for the cooler weather
which would permit a fulfillment of my mission, I
rescued a woman named Julia and her child.
Crossing the Ohio in a skiff at night, I took them
to an underground depot at Buckrams, Indiana I
saw the mother afterward at Windsor, Canada,
where she had married well. Two weeks later I
carried off Tamor, a bright mulatto girl of twenty
belonging to A. L, Shotwell of Louisville. I knew
the undertaking was an extremely dangerous one
and I laid my plans carefully. The girl met me
one evening at a certain gate, dressed for the oc¬
casion. We walked through the busiest part of
the city to the banks of the Ohio, which we crossed
in a leaky skiff, which I propelled with a piece of
board while Tamor kept the skiff from sinking by
constant bailing with a large cup which we had
brought along for the purpose. Resting as we
might, during the night, chased from one retreat to
another, I drove with her early next morning to a
railroad station twenty-four miles from the river,
and took her on the cars to Salem, Indiana, where
I left her with a friend. This was the last slave
whom I was ever able to help off. In fifteen
years I had, unaided and alone, freed forty-seven
slaves, besides lending assistance in many other
cases.
"The freeing of Tamor again cost me my own
liberty. One week afterwards I was kidnaped
from Indiana soil, and without process of law taken
to Louisville and lodged in jail. I was tried in
February, 1852, the owner of Tamor appearing as
my prosecutor, and though the evidence against
A SLACK SUBJECT 215
me was of the flimsiest.character, my reputation as
slave-stealer secured rny conviction. My sentence
was fifteen years at hard labor in the state prison.
My friends did little for me, and that was one rea¬
son why I fared so hard. They were afraid, so
intense was the feeling against me in Louisville,
that if they succeeded in securing my acquittal by
a jury, a mob would take it up and lynch me. My
own mind, however, was at rest on that point.
I would have taken part in any lynching that
might have been attempted and looked out for
myself.
1 "I returned to the prison at Frankfort in March,
1852. Captain Newton Craig, the warden under
whom I had served my first term, was still in
charge. What was known as the lease system
was then in vogue, the prison being leased to the
warden'for a certain sum a year, the warden look¬
ing to the labor of the prisoners for his profit.
The prison during all the years that it was my
home was in a horrible condition, unspeakably
filthy and miserably ventilated. During my first
imprisonment Craig had treated me kindly, but
his bearing when I came before him for the second
time plainly told me that my lot was to be a hard
one. x^fter being locked up for two days I was
brought before the warden in the prison chapel,
the Governor and other prominent citizens being
present, and denounced for what I had done. 'Mr.
Davis,' said the warden,/take Fairbank to the
hackling house and kill him.' To the hackling
house I accordingly went. This was where tfie
hemp, after being broken, was hackled. After a
month's work in the hackling shop I was sent to
THE WHITE SIDE OP
the spinning shop, and finally to the weaving shop,
where I remained for ten and a half years. While
in the hackling shop I received my first flogging
with the rawhide on the bare back, the blows cut¬
ting deep into the quivering flesh,
"Zeb Ward became warden of the prison in 1854.
He leased it at six thousand a year and made one
hundred thousand out of the lease in four years.
To do this he literally killed two hundred and fifty
out of three hundred and seventy-five prisoners.
Ward was one of the strangest men I ever knew,
physically handsome, socially magnetic, but utterly
devoid of heart or conscience. He was a gambler,
libertine and murderer under cover of the law.
When he took the keys of the prison he said:
"Men, I'm a man of few words and prompt
action. I came here to make money, and I'll do
it if I kill you all."
"He was as good as his promise. During his
wardenship and that of J. W. South, who suc¬
ceeded him in 1858, I received on my bared body
thirty-five thousand stripes, laid on with a strap of
half-tanned leather a foot and a half long, often
dipped in water to increase the pain. All the
floggings I received under Ward were for failure
to perform the tasks set for me to do, generally
weaving hemp—two hundred and eighty yards a
day being what I was expected to perform, an
utter impossibility. I was whipped, bowed over
a chair or some other object, often seventy lashes
four times a day, every ten blows inflicting pain
worse than death. Once I received one hundred
and seven blows at one time, particles of flesh
being thrown upon the wall several feet away.
CISSEREITTA JONES.
(Black Patti.)
HENRY HIGHLAND GARNETT.
A BLACK SUBJECT
My weight, which was one hundred and eighty
pounds when I entered the prison, was several
times reduced to one hundred and eighteen pounds.
I have seen new men in the hackling house fall at
their work, weak from flogging, and when taken
to the hospital die before morning from pneu¬
monia and the strap. A remarkable constitution
and great muscular strength were the only thing
that saved my life. As it was, I was an old man
at forty.
"But there was an occasional ray of sunshine in
my prison life. Interest in my case constantly
increased, and at last public opinion set in in my
favor.
"In February, 1858, having been pressed for
three years to do so, I stood in the prison chapel
and addressed an audience of several thousand
people, including the Governor and other state
officials. In the course of my sermon—I had
been ordained a minister just before my second
arrest—I told them that war was inevitable, and
thaj: when it came slavery would be swept away
like chaff. Lincoln was elected President, and in
less than five years war followed.
"In September and October, 1862, General
Bragg held Frankfort for six weeks, and during
that period three times rebel soldiers came to kill
me. Once with a rope in hand they came upon
me in the prison yard and asked me where they
'could find that damned nigger-stealer, Fairbank.'
I sent them another way, then hurried to Warden
Whitesides, a kindly and humane man,who took
charge of the prison in 1862, and he hide me. On
their second visit we got word of their coming and
2i8
THE WHITE SIDE OF
I was in hiding when they arrived. Their last visit
was unexpected, and they found me in the prison
kitchen. Brought to bay, I had to fight for my
life, I caught up an ax and planting myself in the
doorway,said: 'Come on, boys; ycu are not afraid
of me!' None of them seemed ii clined to attack
me first, and finally the whole party, several hun¬
dred strong, marched out.
"The freedom for which I had waited so long
came two years later. Among those whose friend¬
ship I gained during my confinement was Richard
T._ Jacobs, a wealthy planter of strong anti-slavery
tendencies, who had married a daughter of Thomas
H. Benton. Jacobs often talked about me with
his brother-in-law, John C. Fremont, and the lat¬
ter in turn told my story to President Lincoln,
who, as after events showed, was deeply impressed
by it. Early in 1864 General Speed S. Fry was
sent from Washington to Kentucky with orders to
enroll all Negroes whom he found fit for military
service. Thomas E. Bramlette, then Governor
of Kentucky, attempted to prevent General J^ry
from carrying out his orders, as President Lincoln
had expected he would, and was ordered to Wash¬
ington. Jacob s, who was Lieutenant Governor,
became Acting Governor. On his first day in
office General Fry said to him: 'Governor, the
President thinks it would be well to make this
Fairbank's day.'
"He called upon me that day and told me that
he was going to turn me loose. Counting my
previous imprisonment, I had spent seventeen
years and four months of the best part of my life
in prison. On the evening after my release I
A BLACK SUBTECT
enjoyed at the Capital Hotel in Frankfort a
cordial reception by the people of the city and
distinguished persons from other parts of Kentucky,
which I shall ever remember with pleasure as a
reunion after victory. Twenty-four hours later
I crossed the Ohio, and do not believe me senti¬
mental when I tell you that when I found myself
once more on the free soil of the Buckeye State I
knelt down and kissed the ground.
"In the following June occurred the event an¬
ticipation of which had strengthened and encour¬
aged me through all those dark and dreary years.
Previous to my second imprisonment I had been
betrothed to Mandana Tileston of Williamsburg,
Massachusetts. True as the magnet to the poles,
when misfortune again befell me she left her New
England home, engaged as a teacher, first in
Hamilton and then at Oxford, Ohio, waited and
watched over the border, supplied me with every
comfort within her power, worked and petitioned
for my release without ceasing, and faithful to the
last, refused honorable alliances to wait the un¬
certain fate of a prisoner. It was a happy day
indeed when we were married."
III. WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.
"Seven Grecian cities fought for Homer dead,
Through which the living Homer begged his bread."
If we estimate his life by labors performed,
sufferings, amounting almost to martyrdom, en¬
dured; unswerving devotion to the principles of
equal rights to all, William Lloyd Garrison was
Certainly the greatest of anti-slaye leaders. He
220
THE WHITE SIDE OF
was born in Newburyport, Mass,, December ioth,
1805. His mother's maiden name was Fanny
Lloyd; and his father, Abijah Garrison, though a
sea captain, possessed some literary ability and
ambition.
It is a little remarkable that the house in which
our hero was born was overshadowed by the
church under whose altar the remains of George
Whitefield were buried. Thus at the very spot
where the life's work of this great advocate of
slavery ended, God in his providence raised up a
greater and more zealous advocate of anti-slavery,
to rouse the people from the lethargy into which
Whitefield and his disciples wooed them.
In 1808 Abijah deserted "his wife and children,
never returning, leaving them to struggle for exist¬
ence as best they could. William Lloyd, or Lloyd
as his mother called him, was apprenticed when
quite young to learn the shoemaker's trade. Not
liking the work, he was next set to learn cabinet-
making. This proving uncongenial, his mother
secured him a place in a printing office, where he
mastered the business in happy contentment.
When but a youth, he wrote for the "Newbury-
port'Herald," and Boston papers; then at the end
of his apprenticeship, became the editor of a new
paper in Newburyport, called "The Free Press."
This paper was noted for its high moral tone,
but like the most of such "felt wants," its exist¬
ence was brief. We next find him in Boston,
editor of "The National Philanthropist," said to
be the first paper started to advocate the doctrine
of total abstinence from intoxicating drinks. The
motto of the paper was this truism, "Moderate
A BLACK SUBJECT
221
drinking is the down-hill road to drunkenness,"
which was at once expressive and original.
While editing this paper he became acquainted
with Benjamin Lundy, >and they felt mutual affin¬
ity of kindred spirits from the first.
In 1828 Mr. Garrison became editor of "The
Journal of the Times," in Bennington,^Vermont, a
paper established to support John Quincy Adams
for the Presidency. He earned his salary by ably
supporting Mr. Adams, but he also earned adverse
criticism by being the champion of temperance,
peace and the emancipation of slaves.
Among his exchanges was Lundy's "Genius of
Universal Emancipation." The reading of this
little monthly paper intensified his hatred of
slavery; so he wrote a petition to Congress for its
abolition in the District of Columbia. Having
obtained a large number of signatures by sending
it to the different postmasters of Vermont, he sent
it to Congress, where it caused no little commotion
on being read. In the fall of 1829, Mr. Garrison
went into partnership with his Quaker friend
Lundy; so "The Genius of Universal Emanci¬
pation" was enlarged and issued weekly at Balti¬
more, Md. But a difficulty presented itself to
the success of the paper under their joint manage¬
ment. Mr. Lundy favored a gradual emancipation,
while Mr. Garrison advocated immediate eman¬
cipation. At last, at the suggestion of Lundy, each
wrote from his own standpoint, signing his initials
to the articles.
The rage of the slave-holders knew no bounds
when Garrison demolished their sophistries and
subterfuges, by which they eased conscience, with.
222 THE WHITE SIDE OF
an invincible logic, and he insisted with voice of
thunder that it was their duty to "break every
yoke and let the oppressed go free."
About this time a vessel belonging to Francis
Todd of Garrison's native town, Nqwburyport,
took on a cargo of eighty slaves at Baltimore for
New Orleans. He at once denounced it in his
paper, saying it was not one whit better than if
the slaves had been brought from Africa; and the
law denounced foreign slave-trade as piracy. For
this he was arrested and fined fifty dollars, in de¬
fault of which he was sent to jail. To show that
his brave spirit was neither crushed nor daunted
by imprisonment, he spent his time in writing
against slavery, and inscribing sonnets on the walls
of his cell. One of them was as follows:
"Prisoner! within these gloomy walls close pent,
Guiltless of horrid crime or venal wrong—
Bear nobly up against the punishment,
And in thy innocence be great and strong!
Perchance thy fault was love to all mankind;
Thou didst oppose some vile, oppressive law,
Or strive all human fetters to unbind,
Or wouldst not bear the implements of war;—
What then? ' Dost thou so soon repent the deed?
A martyr's crown is richer than a king's!
Think it an honor with the Lord to bleed,
And glory midst in tensest sufferings!
Though beat, imprisoned, put to open shame,
Time shalt embalm and magnify thy name,"
John G. Whittier, the rising young Quaker poet,
had recently succeeded George D. Prentice as edi¬
tor of "The New England Review," at Hartford,
Connecticut, after Prentice had gone to Kentucky
A BLACK SUBJECT
223
to write the life of Henry Clay and edit "The
Louisville Daily Journal."
He was a friend to Mr. Garrison, who had pub¬
lished some of his maiden poems while editing
"The Free Press," and an admirer of Henry Clay.
Young Whittier knew that Mr. Clay was a slave¬
holder, but he also believed him a true friend of
freedom, judging from his effort to check the spread
of slavery and to ultimately abolish it in Ken¬
tucky. So he wrote the great statesman on behalf
of the "guiltless prisoner," at Baltimore, begging
.him to pay his fine and "let the captive go free."
Mr. Clay responded promptly, asking for partic¬
ulars and indicating an intention of complying with
the request. While matters were thus pending,
Arthur Tappan, a wealthy merchant in New York,
paid the fine and costs; so the prisoner was
released.
The partnership between Mr. Garrison and Mr.
Lundy was now dissolved, with the most cordial
feeling of friendship, which existed ever afterwards.
Seeing the apathy in regard to slavery, even in
liberty-loving Massachusetts, Garrison resolved
to start a paper to be called "The Liberator,"
right under the shadow of Bunker Hill, and near
Faneuil Hall, the "Cradle of Liberty."
The first number of this paper appeared in Jan¬
uary,1831, containing this expressive motto, "Our
Country is the World, Our Countrymen are all
Mankind." At the expiration of four months "The
Liberator" appeared with an engraved head in¬
cluding a pictorial representation of an auction,
with a bill tacked up offering for sale "slaves,
horses and other cattle." Near by is a whipping-
224
THE WHITE SIDE OF
post at which a Negro slave is receiving punish¬
ment. In the background is seen the capitol at
Richmond, with a flag floating over the dome in¬
scribed with the word "Liberty." Even Garri¬
son's friends trembled at his fearless denunciation
of slavery. One even suggested that he change
the name of his paper to "The Safety Lamp;" but
his only reply was, "I will be as harsh as truth,
and as uncompromising as justice; I am in ear¬
nest; I will not equivocate; I will not excuse, I
will not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard."
The following outrage on free speech is quoted
from the Columbia, S. C., "Telescope" of this pe¬
riod: "Let us declare, through the public jour¬
nals of our country, that the question of slavery
is not and shall not be open to discussion—that
the very moment any private individual attempts
to lecture us upon its evils and immorality, in the
same moment his tongue shall be cut out and cast
upon the dunghill."
New Orleans offered twenty thousand dollars
to any man or set of men who would seize Arthur
Tappan of New York, Garrison's benefactor.
While in the year 1831, the Legislature of
Georgia, the governor, Wilson Lumpbin, concur¬
ring, passed a resolution offering a reward of five
thousand dollars for the arrest, prosecution and
conviction under the laws of that state, of William
Lloyd Garrison, editor of "The Liberator."
The record of it is found in the laws of Georgia
for 1831, page 255. This of course was simply a
bribe to any ruffian to seize and kidnap these brave
defenders of Liberty.
On January sixth, 1832, in the midst of a tern-
A BLACK SUBJECT
225
pest of wind and hail, "The New England Anti-
Slavery Society" was organized, in the basement
of the African Baptist church in Belknap Street,
Boston. Of those present only twelve persons,
all white, signed the constitution, as follows:
William Lloyd Garrison, Oliver Johnson, Robert
B, Hall, Arnold Buffum, William J. Snelling,
John E. Fuller, Moses Thacher, Joshua Coffin,
Stillman B. Newcomb, Benjamin C. Bacon, Isaac
Knapp, Henry K. Stockton. These might be
called the "Twelve Apostles of Abolition;" but
with this humble origin the society grew into a
mighty influence against slavery. This was the first
association organized on the principle of immedi¬
ate emancipation Arnold Buffum was chosen
President, and William L. Garrison correspond¬
ing secretary.
The Quakers were in the main the friends of the
oppressed, and opposers of slavery, but even this
sect was by no means a unit in this particular, as
the following colloquy shows: "Well, Perez, I
hope thee's done running after the Abolitionists,"
said a leading Friend to one of his humbler
brethren. "Verily I have," said Perez; "I've
caught up with and gone just a little ahead of
them."
Henry Clay, and many statesmen and divines
of national reputation, favored the idea of colo¬
nizing the negroes in Africa, and a strong organ¬
ization know as "The American Colonization So¬
ciety" was formed. Mr. Garrison, having received
protests against this society from a number of
prominent colored men of many Northern cities,
published their protest, together with his own views,
226 THE WHITE SIDE OE
in a large pamphlet in the spring of 1832, called
"Thoughts on African Colonization." In it he
shows ten objections to the said society: "1. It
is pledged not to oppose the system of slavery.
2. It apologizes for slavery and slaveholders. 3,
It recognizes slaves as property. 4. It increases
the value of slaves. 5. It is the enemy of immedi¬
ate abolition. 6. It is nourished by fear and sel¬
fishness. 7. It aims at the utter expulsion of the
blacks. 8. It is the disparager of the free blacks.
9. It denies the possibility of elevating the blacks
in this country. 10. It deceives and misleads the
nation."
The society never fully recovered from this
pamphlet, which showed them up in their true
light. This colonization society, while claiming
to be in the interest of the Negro, never thought
of consulting a colored man, bond or free, any
more than a society for the prevention of cruelty
to animals would consult the animals they are
trying to protect. In sending the "niggers" from
a civilized to a barbarous land, it was—
"Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs but to 'go' and die."
Mr. Garrison crossed the ocean no less than
five times, his first trip occurring in the spring
of 1833, In London he was invited to an honor¬
ary seat in conference on the slavery question,
where he mingled with such men as Wilberforce,
Brougham, Macaulay, O'Connell, Burton and
Clarkson. He put into their hands his "Thoughts
on African Colonization," and brought home a
"Protest" against this colonization scheme, signed
A BLACK SUBJECT
by four of the great names I have mentioned and
others of equal weight.
He was sent as a delegate to the Anti-Slavery
Conference of London in 1840; but when he
learned that the conference refused to receive the
lady delegates on their credentials, he and those
who came with him took seats in the gallery as
spectators.
Mr. Garrison made his third voyage in 1846,
this time by invitation of the Glasgow Emanci¬
pation Society, who desired him to lecture against
the Free Church, for collecting money from the
Southern slaveholders.
His fourth visit to Europe was made in May,
1867, two years after the close of the war of the
rebellion. He joined his children in Paris, and
after attending the Exposition, went to London,
where a great public breakfast was held in his
honor, at St. James' Hall. Among those present
were Mr. F. H. Morse, the American consul in
London, John Bright, John Stewart Mill, and
other members of Parliament. John Bright pre¬
sided, and made the first speech. He crossed the
Atlantic for the fifth and last time in company
with his son Frank in 1877.
The Boston Mob, of "gentlemen of property
and standing," occurred October twenty-first, 1835.
The occasion of it was an advertised meeting of
the Boston Female Anti-Slavery society, to take
place at Anti-Slavery Hall, 46 Washington Street.
The mayor of Boston took no steps to prevent
or disperse the mob other than by being present
and commanding the ladies to retire. Seeing they
could hope for no protection," they adjourned to
228 THE WHITE SIDE OF
meet'again at the home of one of their number.
The mayor now advised Garrison to escape by a
window at the rear of the building. This he at¬
tempted to do, but was seized by the mob and
dragged through some of the prominent streets of
Boston with a rope about his body, amid the jeer¬
ing and curses of men thirsting for his blood. At
last the two strong men who1 supported him on
either side, and a few friends and policemen, with
superhuman effort forced their way with him into
the city hall. From here he was committed to
jail ostensibly as a disturber of the peace. After
being hustled into a carriage in waiting at the
door, which the mob tried in vain to upset or cap¬
ture, he was driven by a circuitous loute to the
jail and locked behind the prison bars. Was he
crushed and discouraged? No, a thousand times
no! It is true a new suit of clothes was torn to
shreds; it is true he was buffeted and bruised; it
is true he barely escaped with his life; but he
slept as sweetly that night as if he had been in
the bosom of his family. The next morning he
wrote on the walls of his cell the following lines:—
"William Lloyd Garrison was put into this cell
on Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 12th, 1835, to save
him from the violence of a 'respectable' and in¬
fluential mob who sought to destroy him for preach¬
ing the abominable and dangerous doctrine that,
'all men are created equal,' and that all oppres¬
sion is odious in the sight of God.
"Reader, let this inscription remain till the last
slave in this despotic land be loosed from his fet¬
ters."
A BLACK SUBJECT 229
"When peace within the bosom reigns,
And conscience gives the approving voice,
Though bound, the human form in chains,
Yet can the soul aloud rejoice.
"'Tis true my footsteps are confined,
I cannot roam beyond this cell,
But what can circumscribe the mind?
To chain the winds attempt as well!"
' 'Confine me as a prisoner—but bind me not as a slave.
Punish me as a prisoner—but hold me not as a chattel.
Torture me as a man—but drive me not as a beast.
Doubt my sanity—but acknowledge my immortality."
. Mr. Garrison, like the immortal Bunyan, seemed
to have his loftiest inspiration when behind the
prison bars. Like flowers which exude their fra¬
grance only when crushed or bruised, persecution
drove him to poetry. Garrison was released from
prison in the afternoon of the next day, and at
the request of the city authorities, took his wife,
who was in critical health, and left the city for a
few days, until the excitement abated. But he
lived to edit "The Liberator," until his demands
were granted, and four million slaves were made
free. This having been accomplished, in part
through the influence of his paper, he deemed it
unwise "to run the mill after the grist was out,"
and the last issue was published the last week in
December, 1865, making the paper cover the full
period of thirty-five years. But he continued the
same kind friend to the freedmen he had been to
the slave, until his labor ended with his life in
New York City, Saturday night about eleven o'clock
of May 24th, 1879, in the seventy-fourth year of
his age.
230 THE WHITE SIDE OF
IV. ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY.
Perhaps with the exception of John Brown's
attack at Harper's Ferry, or the bombardment of
Fort Sumter, no event in connection with slavery
produced more widespread excitement north and
south than the murder of Lovejoy at Alton,
Illinois, Nov,, 1837.
Before describing this startling event, it is well
to consider something of the man, and the circum¬
stances which led up to his untimely and cruel
murder.
He was born in Albion, Maine, November, 1802,
and was thirty-five years of age when killed by
the mob. His father, Daniel Lovejoy, was a Con¬
gregational minister and a graduate of the well
known college at Waterville, Maine.
When Elijah was a young man there was a
great tide of emigration from New England to the
mighty West; drifting with this tide, he came to
St. Louis, where after teaching school for a time,
he became editor of a Whig paper called the St.
Louis Times. The ready pen and stirring style of
the young editor soon brought the paper into
prominence, and made it a great expose of Whig
sentiment in Missouri and Illinois, and-he bid fair
to make his mark as a politician and moulder of
public sentiment.
In 1832 he experienced a remarkable conversion
to the Christian faith, and became deeply im¬
pressed with the duty of preaching the gospel.
Yielding to this conviction, he at once went east
and entered the Princeton Theological Seminary,
and the next year, 1833, was licensed to preach.
A few months after this he returned to St. Louis,
A BLA CK SUBJECT 231
where he was known as a ready writer, and soon
secured a position as editor of the "St. Louis Ob¬
server," the leading organ of the Presbyterians of
Missouri and Illinois. His was a remarkable ca¬
reer at this time, when we consider that he was
not converted until 1832, when he was thirty years
of age, and became a minister, and an influential
religious editor the next year; thus obtaining at
a single bound, among the cultured and conser¬
vative Presbyterians, that which with them was
often the work of a lifetime.
His biographer, Henry Tanner, who was with
him at the time of his death, describes Mr. Love-
joy as being "of medium height, broadly built,
muscular, of dark complexion, black eyes, with a
certain twinkle betraying his sense of the humor¬
ous, and with a countenance expressing great kind¬
ness and sympathy." He said further, "There
probably had not lived in this century a man of
greater singleness of purpose in bearing witness
to the truth, more courageous in maintaining
principle in the face of passionate opposition."
When we read quotations from the "St. Louis
Observer"of this period we are astonished that such
mild editorials should so provoke the wrath of the
pro-slavery people. But they were evidently de¬
termined to nip in the bud and crush out in its
incipiency, any agitation of the slavery question,
knowing their position was untenable, and could
not stand the light of investigation.
As a summary of his views at this time, I would
say he favored the idea of gradual emancipation
of slaves, to be followed up by colonization. Surely
this was a very mild view of the situation, when
THE WHITE SIDE OF
we consider that many of the Southern slave-hold¬
ers themselves advocated the same measure. But
his heart was grieved at the brutal treatment many
slaves of this period received at the hands of mas¬
ters and overseers. Here he thought the refoxm
should be thorough and immediate. "For," said
he, "it is fearfully true that many professed Chris¬
tians habitually treat their slaves as though they
had no irimortal souls, and it is high time such a
practice as this were abolished." But Garrison
and his associates were throwing red-hot shot into
the pro-slavery ranks. "The Liberator" and
"Emancipator" were read in St. Louis and en¬
raged the advocates of slavery. In their excite¬
ment they regarded all Abolitionists as one and the
same in their views, and persistently ignored Mr.
Lovejoy's plea for "cool and temperate argument,
supported by facts," and the following editorial
from his pen: "It has been with pain that we
have seen, recently, the heated and angry meet¬
ings and discussions which have taken place
amongst our eastern brethren of the abolition
and colonization parties."
The excitement increased during the summer of
1845, until the slaveholders of St. Louis were
not willing to have the subject discussed, however
mildly. The articles of Mr. Lovejoy, although
written in a kind, Christian spirit, became very
offensive to them. The slaveholders were ready
to tar and feather him, as an Abolitionist, while
the rabble termed him an amalgamationist. Yet
nothing was farther from his views.
It soon became evident that the main issue be¬
tween Lovejoy and his enemies was freedom of
A BLACK SUBJEC1
233
speech and the freedom of the press. He resolved
to defend this at all hazards, and they were equally
determined to suppress it.
Seeing he could have no protection in St. Louis,
fis^m insi.lt and threatened mob violence, Mr.
Lovejoy now determined to move his paper to the
then thriving city of Alton, Illinois, just above St.
Louis on the river. Alas! as is so often the case,
he escaped Scylla only to wreck on Charybdis,
as we shall see.
The "St. Louis Observer" of June 21, 1836,
announced the editor's intention, but before the
move could be made, some ruffians forced an en¬
trance into his office and destroyed much of the
property, including some of the editor's furniture,
which was broken up and thrown into the river.
The remnant, including the press, was shipped to
Alton, where it remained on the landing during
Sunday, and was broken to pieces and thrown
into the river before Monday morning. But a
public meeting was promptly held, in which the
citizens denounced those who destroyed the press
and raised money to buy a new one. The new
press was soon received and the first number of
the "Alton Observer" was issued September 8th,
1836.
For nearly a year Lovejoy enjoyed a period of
comparative tranquility, but it was only the calm
before the storm. Many Southerners and pro-
slavery men came to the thriving young city.
These could not tolerate even the mild anti-slavery
tone of the "Observer," and used their influence
with the "lewd fellows of the baser sort," who
were to be found in every western city, especially
THE WHITE SIDE OF
river towns. Then, too, the great dailies of St.
Louis continued to harass him, and insist that
"something must be done" to rid the country of
this pestilential fellow, who actually taught that
all men were created equal. This actually caused
a mob at Alton on Aug. 21st, 1836.
The mob first attempted to assault Mr Love-
joy on the street about nine o'clock at night, while
returning home from the drug-store with some
medicine for his sick wife. Having surrounded
him, the cry was, "Rail him, rail him," "Tar and
feather him!" Turning to the leaders, he said in
calm tone, "I have one request to make of you,
and then you can do with me what you please.
My wife is at home sick in bed; send one of your
number to take this medicine to her, and let it be
done without alarming her." This they promised
to do, and one of the men started with the medi¬
cine at once. But the calm demeanor of Lovejoy,
together with the self-sacrificing spirit in refer¬
ence to his sick wife, touched the hearts of some
of them and he was permitted to go home undis¬
turbed. But the same night they destroyed his
second press, type and other material; yet money
was quickly raised, partly from 'different states,
and partly from friends of free speech at Alton;
and a third press Was on hand September 21st,
1837. It was taken to a warehouse and stored.
The mayor, John M. Krum, offered to guard it,
and did so by placing one constable at the door
of the warehouse until about midnight. But, as
might have been expected, the officer had hardly
gone, when about a dozen ruffians broke in the
.\varehot\se door, dragged the press to the river and
A BLACK SUBJECT
235
after demolishing it, threw the fragments into
that common receptacle of Lovejoy's property,
the river. About ten days after this event, Mr.
Lovejoy, with his wife and babe, were spending
some time with his wife's mother at St. Charles,
Missouri. He had preached morning and evening
on that peaceful Sabbath, and about nine o'clock
was enjoying a conversation with his friend Rev.
Mr. Campbell, when a knock was heard at the
door. On opening it, he saw a number of men
on the portico and in the yard. The two leaders,
formerly from Virginia and Missouri, rushed into
the house and attempted to pull him out. But
with the help of his heroic wife, her mother and
sister, the two men were driven from the room.
The drunken mob again returned to the charge,
and rushing into the room, they attempted to drag
him out, and might have succeeded, had it not
been for his friend Campbell. It required the ut¬
most exertion of their united efforts to force the
mob from the room and clear the house. The
fiends even made a third attempt to force an en¬
trance, after which it was thought best for Love-
joy to leave the house that night. Groping through
the darkness to a house of a friend, he procured
,a horse and arrived at Alton the next day.
Money for a fourth press was raised.it is thought
by friends of free speech in Ohio, and was shipped
from Cincinnati to Alton. It was received by the
friends of Mr. Lovejoy, about midnight of No¬
vember 6, 1837, and stored in the warehouse of
Godfrey and Gilman, the leading firm in the city.
Mr. Gilman, one of the owners of the warehouse,
called for volunteers to guard it during the night;
236 THE WHITE SIDE OF
nineteen responded, among them Mr. Lovejoy.
The mob soon began to gather, when two of their
number, Keating and West, were unwisely admit¬
ted inside the building to confer with Mr.Gilman.
Of course they saw how few were on guard and
immediately demanded the surrender of the press,
threatening to blow or burn up the building in
case of refusal. Most of those in the warehouse
were anxious to fire on the mob from the window
as soon as they got in range, hoping to repulse
them at once. But Captain Long would not let
them fire until the mob was close up to the build¬
ing and had fired into the door. He then ordered
one of his men to return the fire; he did so and
killed one of the mob, a man named Bishop. This
caused a cessation of hostilities for a moment, but
the mob was soon reinforced by a lot of ruffians
who had been drinking to stimulate their courage.
They now made a desperate charge,shouting "Fire
the building, and shoot every Abolitionist as he
tries to escape!" An effort was now made to fire
•the building. For this purpose a long ladder was
placed on the side where there were no windows.
Soon a man mounted the ladder with a lighted
torch and attempted to set fire to the shingles,
which fortunately were damp with a heavy dew,
and slow to kindle into a flame. Captain Long
now called for volunteers to fight their way to the
ladder and throw it down. Amos B. Roff, Royal
Weller and Elijah P. Lovejoy,against the protest
of his friends, promptly attempted this fatal mis¬
sion. As they stepped from the door into the
bright moonlight a perfect fusillade was fired at
them from a pile of lumber near by. Roff and
A BLACK SUBJECT
237
Weller were both wounded,but the fire seemed to
be concentrated upon Mr. Lovejoy,who must have
been recognized in the bright moonlight. He re¬
ceived five balls in his body, but had strength
enough to run back into the house and up the
stairs, crying as he went, "I am shot! I am shot!
I am dead!"
These were his last words; his friends laid him
on the floor, where he instantly expired.
The mob then seized the fourth press and de¬
stroyed it. The citizens of Alton generally, ap¬
peared to sympathize with the mob; for when
Mrs. Graves, the wife of the Presbyterian pastor,
in his absence,rang the bell of her church, not far
off, until she exhausted herself, not one of the
citizens appeared to defend a minister who was
about to be murdered. It seems, too, that Mr.
Lovejoy rather expected to be murdered, as was
seen by, perhaps, the last public speech he made
after being mobbed at St. Charles. At his own
request he was buried at Alton. Thus lived and
died one of the noblest and bravest defenders of
free speech and civil liberty the century has pro¬
duced. Mob law was thus triumphant, but it
was a dear-bought victory for Alton. She could
destroy four presses for Mr. Lovejoy, but she
could not destroy that mighty palladium of liberty
throughout the Union. All the invective of con¬
temporary journalism was hurled at Alton. Com¬
merce shunned it as a plague-spot, and emigrants
avoided it as a valley of death. A store built by
Mr. Tanner at a cost of twenty-five thousand was
sold by him for less than half that amount, and
offered back to him for two thousand.
238
THE WHITE SIDE OF
Many of her best and wealthiest citizens moved
away. Her empty warehouses crumbled into the
river, or became the haunts for bat and owl.
As a city, it seemed to be under the bane of
Him who came "to proclaim liberty to^the cap¬
tives," saying also, "Touch not mine anointed
and do my prophets no harm."
CHAPTER X.
"the colored troops fought nobly."
"They struggled and fought, with courage fraught,
With love for the cause of the Nation;
They knew in the strife for the Union's life
They must buy Emancipation."
—George W. Williams.
From the time the first mutterings of Rebellion
were heard, and the war cloud no larger than a
man's hand appeared on our country's horizon,
the Negro believed, with an unswerving faith,
that slavery was the one cause of war; that God
was now ready to punish the despoiler, and let
the oppressed go free. The chorus of his favorite
song of this period was, "It must be now that the
kingdom am coming, and the year of jubilee."
Naturally he was anxious to do all in his power
to help save the country by putting down the Re-
bellion, and thereby proving himself worthy of the
coveted boon of freedom.
But alas for the suicidal policy of the Govern¬
ment, he was forced to conquer race prejudice,
and the most determined opposition, before he
was permitted to face the enemy on the field of
battle. In short, they did not believe that the
Negro would fight, and seemingly demanded that
he should prove himself a soldier before facing
the enemy; reminding one of the father who told
339
240
THE WHITE SIDE OF
his boys never to go near the water until they had
learned to swim; or the Irishman who could not
get on his boots until he had worn them awhile.
The New York "Times" of February 16, 1863, in
an editorial summed up the objections to enlisting
Negroes as follows: "First—That the Negroes
will not fight. Second—It is said that the whites
will not fight with them, that the prejudice against
them is so strong that our citizens will not enlist
or will quit the service if compelled to fight by
their side, and thus we shall lose two white soldiers
for one black one that we gain. Third—It is said
we shall get no Negroes—or not enough to prove
of any service. In the free states very few will
volunteer, and in the slave states we can get but
few, because the rebels will push them south¬
ward as fast as we advance upon them. Fourth—
The use of Negroes will exasperate the South.
We presume it will; but so will any other scheme
we may adopt which is warlike and effective in its
character and results. We are not ready with Mr.
Vallandigham, to advocate 'immediate and uncon¬
ditional peace.' The best thing we can do is to
possess ourselves in patience while the experiment
is being tried"
The President and Secretary of War and a large
majority of the generals in the army acted on the
theory, "This is a white man's war, and the Ne¬
gro has no lot or part in it." They seemed to be
blind to the fact that Negro slavery had been the
disturbing element in the nation for about a cen¬
tury and was the real casus belli, the election of
Lincoln being only the immediate occasion. More¬
over, the Union army was turned into a gigantic
slave-catching institution.
BISHOP DANIEL A. PAYNE.
SAMUEL R, LOWEEY.
A BLACK SUBJECT
Even General McClellan, "whose pen was
mightier than his sword," when commander-in
chief, paused long enough in his demands on the
war department for. more men (to drill and send
home on furloughs), to issue a proclamation from
"Headquarters, Army of the Potomac, July 7,
1862," in which among other things he announced
that "neither confiscation of property, political
execution of persons, territorial organization of
states, nor forcible abolition of slavery, should be
contemplated for a moment."
In a speech made in the early days of the war
at Worcester, Massachusetts,Charles Sumner said,
"I do not say carry the war into Africa, but carry
Africa into the war."
The honor of organizing the first regiment of
colored soldiers during the civil war belongs to
General David Hunter, who, while commanding the
Department of the South, gave the necessary or¬
ders from Port Royal, South Carolina, in May of
1862. General Hunter was in advance of public
opinion, however, and Hon. Edwin M. Stanton,
Secretary of War, wrote for full information con¬
cerning the matter. The reply of. General Hun¬
ter tended to bring public opinion up to his stand¬
ard; especially where he informed the Secre¬
tary of War that no regiment of "fugitive slaves"
had been organized in his department. He stated
that there was, "however, a fine regiment of per¬
sons whose late masters are 'fugitive rebels'—men
who everywhere fly before the appearance of the
national flag, leaving their servants behind them
to shift as best they can for themselves. So far,
indeed, are the loyal persons composing this regi-
242
THE WHITE SIDE OF
ment from seeking to avoid the presence of their
late owners, that they are now, one and all,work¬
ing with remarkable industry to place themselves
in a position to go in full and effective pursuit of
their fugacious and traitorous proprietors." Gen¬
eral Hunter explained to Mr. Stanton, that he was
acting under instructions issued by Hon. Simon
Cameron, late Secretary of War, to his predeces¬
sor General Thomas W. Sherman, who turned
them over to him for his instruction and guidance.
Said instruction authorized him "to employ all
loyal persons offering their services in defense of
the Union, and the suppression of this Rebellion."
He continues: "The loyal slaves everywhere
remaining on their plantations to welcome us, aid
us, and supply us with food, labor and infor¬
mation," filled this requirement exactly, and as they
were the only men who were loyal, he had organized
them into a regiment and detailed officers to drill
them. He closed his letter by stating, "The ex¬
periment of arming the blacks, so far as I have
made it, has been a complete and even marvelous
success. They are sober, docile, attentive and
enthusiastic; displaying great natural capacities
for acquiring the duties of the soldier. They are
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 auxii;aries."
With General B. F. Butler, the idea of using
Negroes as soldiers seems to have been a gradual
growth in grace, but he was at last soundly con¬
verted. While in Maryland he offered to co-operate
A BLACK SUBJECT
243
with Governor Hicks in suppressing any insurrec¬
tion of the slaves against the laws of the state.
In New Orleans he permitted a rebel slaveholder
to enter his camp, and seize a mulatto, who was
nearly white, after he had enlisted and donned
the Federal uniform. Before this, General Butler
had called the slaves who came into his lines,"con¬
traband of war" and set.them to work, thus rec¬
ognizing property in man, and rating Negroes
with mules, muskets or other munitions of war.
But he seemed to think more favorably of free
Negroes, and finding the idea growing popular at
the North, he on the twenty-second of August,
1862, issued an appeal to the free men of color
in New Orleans, to volunteer their services as
soldiers in defense of the Union, which met with
a hearty response. From this time on he was a
strong advocate of employing Negro soldiers, and
afterwards ably championed their cause on the
floor of Congress.
General John Charles Fremont, having been ap¬
pointed to the command of the Western Depart¬
ment with his headquarters at St. Louis, gave a
new claim to his title of "pathfinder" by finding
at once a way of success for the Union army, and
freedom for the slave, by the aggressive action of
an emancipation proclamation. This was issued
August thirty-first, 1861, It proclaimed that "the
property, real and personal, of all persons in the
State of Missouri who shall take up arms against
the United States, or shall be directly proven to
have taken active part with their enemies in the
field, is declared to be confiscated to the public
use, and slaves, if any they have, are hereby de-
THE WHITE SIDE OF
clared free men." You will observe that he did
not refer to Negroes as personal property or "con¬
traband of war," but free men.
President Lincoln regarded this proclamation
as premature, and annulled it; still it tended to
pave the way for his great Emancipation Procla¬
mation.
After the fall of Fort Donelson, February six¬
teenth, 1862, General Grant had backbone
enough to send out the following order, which
was the first of the kind issued during the war, and
was not only in accord with the highest military
wisdom, but consonant with the dictates of hu¬
manity and common sense.
"Headquarters, District of West Tenn.
Fort Donelson, Feby. 26, 1862.
"I. General Order No. 3, series 1861, from
Headquarters Department of Missouri, is still in
force and must be observed. The necessity of its
strict enforcement is made apparent by the nu¬
merous applications from citizens for permission to
pass through the camps to look for fugitive slaves.
In no case whatever will permission be granted to
citizens for this purpose.
"II. All slaves at Fort Donelson at the time of
its capture and all slaves within the line of military
occupation that have been used by the enemy in
building fortifications, or in any manner hostile to
the Government, will be employed by the quarter¬
master's department for the benefit of the Govern¬
ment, and will under no circumstances be per¬
mitted to return to their master.
"III. It is made the duty of all officers of this
A BLACK SUBJECT
245
command to see that all slaves above indicated are
promptly delivered to the chief quartermaster of
the district."
"By order of Brigadier General U. S, Grant.
"Joim A. Rawlins, A. A. G."
The "silent-man-on-horseback" did not often
speak, but when he did, it was to the point and
purpose.
The honor belongs to Governor Sprague of
Rhode Island for making the first official call for
Negro troops at the North. This appeal to the
colored citizens of that state was issued August
fourth, 1862. But the palm for actually raising
the first colored regiment was won by one of the
youngest of the sisterhood of states, even bleeding
Kansas. This regiment was recruited in the sum¬
mer and fall of 1862. Was organized at Fort
Scott by Colonel James M. Williams January
fourth, 1863, and was ready to take the field the
following May. It is thought the reason Kansas
led the Northern States in raising colored troops,
was the fact that she had not yet accomplished the
days of her mourning for the martyrdom of John
Brown.
Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, having ob¬
tained authority from Secretary Stanton to raise
a number of colored regiments, hurried home
from Washington and sent out his first order Feb¬
ruary ninth, 1863. But owirrg to past disappoint¬
ment, having been spurned and insulted when
they were eager to preserve their country, the re¬
sponse of the "persons of African descent" was not
hearty. Moreover, Massachusetts had but a small
246
THE WHITE SIDE OF
colored population. In this emergency the Gov¬
ernor sought help from the adjoining state. He
dispatched Mayor G. L. Stearns to lay the case
before the great leader and champion of his race,
Frederick Douglass, then living and publishing
his monthly at Rochester, New York.
As a result of the visit Mr. Douglass pub¬
lished a stirring appeal in the March number of
his monthly of that year. This appeal had the
desired effect; large numbers (including two of
Douglass' sons) went over into Massachusetts and
helped them fill up the ranks. When ready to
take the field they intended marching through
New York City, but the chief of police notified
Governor Andrew that he would be unable to pro¬
tect the colored troops from being mobbed by the
foreign ruffians, and rebel sympathizers who had
already tasted blood by mobbing inoffensive Ne¬
groes, looting and burning a colored orphan's
home.
Tammany is usually represented by a tiger,
but this time a dog in the manger would have
been more appropriate. Not wishing to compli¬
cate matters, or spill unnecessary blood, they
sailed around New York to meet the other rebels
in the South.
But a change of sentiment rapidly took place and
the colored troops scored a victory, even against
the mobocracy of the metropolis. When the
Twentieth Regiment Colored U. S. Troops was
ready to leave its rendezvous on Ricker's Island
for service, the members of the Union League
Club and other friends proposed to give it a recep¬
tion in New York City, but some of the committee
A BLACK SUBJECT
247
did not wish to expose the soldiers to mob vio¬
lence and were timid, to say the least. It was de¬
cided to inform the commander of the regiment,
Colonel Bartram, of their apprehensions, and ask
him if he thought he could get through the city.
To which the brave commander replied: "Give
me room to land my regiment, and if it cannot
march through New York, it is not fit to go into
the field." This settled the matter. The police
cleared a space for it to land at Thirty-sixth
Street; and with fixed bayonets, loaded muskets,
martial music and company front, they marched
through the most aristocratic streets of the city.
Their manly appearance and military bearing pro¬
duced the wildest enthusiasm and cheering among
the very cowardly ruffians who had wreaked their
vengeance on an orphan's home,a short time since.
The march became a triumphal procession, a per¬
fect ovation, as a hundred thousand loyal citizens,
including some of the most wealthy and refined
ladies and gentlemen, showed their approval by
encouraging plaudits, enthusiastic cheering, wav¬
ing handkerchiefs and showering them with bou¬
quets.
But if Frederick Douglass could by his match¬
less eloquence inspire his people to go to war, a
worthy contemporary, Aunty Sojourner Truth,
could by means of a song which she composed
keep up the inspiration after they reached the front.
She composed this song for "her boys," the colored
regiment from Battle Creek, Michigan, but it soon
became a favorite with all the colored soldiers.
An old veteran told the writer he once heard a black
regiment sing it just before a battle and they made
248
THE WHITE SIDE OF
the welkin ring, and inspired all who heard it.
Imagine a thousand Negro soldiers singing the
following lines to the tune of "John Brown's
Body."
THE VALIANT SOLDIERS.
We are the valiant soldiers who've 'listed for the war;
We are fighting for the Union, we are fighting for the law,
We can shoot a rebel farther than a white man ever saw,
As we go marching on.
Chorus.—
Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah, as we go marching on.
Look there above the center, where the flag is waving bright;
We are going out of slavery, we are bound for freedom's light,
We mean to show Jeff Davis how the Africans can fight,
As we go marching on.—Cho.
We are done with hoeing cotton, we are done with hoeing corn;
We are colored Yankee soldiers, as sure as you are born;
When Massa hears us shouting, he will think 'tis Gabriel's horn,
As we go marching on.—Cho.
They will have to pay us wages, the wages of their sin;
They will have to bow their foreheads to their colored kith and
kin;
They will have to give us houseroom, or the roof will tumble in,
As we go marching on.—Cho.
We hear the proclamation, massa, hush it as you will;
The birds will sing it to us, hopping on the cotton hill;
The possum up the gum tree couldn't keep it still,
As he went climbing on.—Cho.
Father Abraham has spoken, and the message has been sent;
The prison doors have opened and out the prisoners went
To join the sable army of African descent,
As we go marching on.—Cho.
A BLACK SUB/EC7'
249
But how did they behave themselves under fire,
what did they do in battle? They did what
would be naturally expected, when it is remem¬
bered that behind them were chains and slavery;
in their immediate presence the rebel procla¬
mation of "no quarter for Negroes," while before
them was the bright star of freedom beckoning
them on to a happier and independent life.
"They fought like brave men" nobly well;
"They piled the ground with" rebels slain;
"They conquered, but" a thousand fell,
"Bleeding in every vein."
Truly does George W. Williams, himself a
colored veteran, say in his "History of the Negro
Troops in the Rebellion," "The part enacted by
the Negro troops in the war of the Rebellion is the
romance of North American History." But it
may be objected that he is a partial witness. True,
but he was there, and a man who was present
certainly knows more about it than another who
was afraid to go. We will presently introduce
witnesses who were opposed to the use of the
Negro as a soldier.
Even President Lincoln remarked to Dr. Patten
of Chicago, when urged to press the Negro into
service, "If we were to arm them I fear that in a
few weeks the arms would be in the hands of the
rebels." So it was with many misgivings they
were at last permitted to face the enemy. Early
in their military career they were given an oppor¬
tunity to prove their valor by a desperate encoun¬
ter at Fort Wagner, Port Hudson, and the mine
explosion at Petersburg; still each time they met
the enemy like heroes and veterans, and by their
250
THE WHITE SIDE OF
indomitable courage and enthusiasm conquered
the prejudice of the Union men who at first op¬
posed their enlistment.
At Fort Wagner near Charleston the wealthy and
cultured young Colonel R. G. Shaw commanded
the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts colored regiment.
To get to this battle they had made a forced march
of a day and night without food or rest; over
shifting sands and under a broiling sun, during the
day, and through darkness and a drenching rain
at night. They reached General Strong's head¬
quarters at six o'clock on the memorable morning
just as they were forming the line of battle, and
without stopping for rest or food, they proudly
took their place at the head of the assaulting
column.
General Strong and Colonel Shaw each made
burning patriotic speeches inspiring their men to
be eager for deeds of valor or a glorious death.
After about half an hour General Strong gave the
order to charge, and onward swept the troops led
by the gallant Negro regiment, nor were they
checked by the galling fire from the ramparts of
Fort Wagner, or the destructive cross-fire which
raked them from Cummings Point and Sumter.
Rushing across the ditch with irresistible force, the
regiment reached the parapet and there planted
their flag. But at this critical moment the gallant
General Strong was mortally wounded, "and here,"
in the language of Williams, "the brave, beautiful
and heroip Colonel Shaw was saluted by death
and kissed by immortality." But his regiment in
this charge through the very jaws of death had
actually gained the inside of the fort, and had
A BLACK SUBJECT
251
they been strongly supported Wagner would un¬
doubtedly have been taken.
Colonel Shaw's regiment numbered about six
hundred enlisted men and twenty officers which
helped in this battle. Of the privates, thirty-one
were killed, one hundred and thirty-five wounded,
and ninety-two missing. Of the twenty-two
officers three were killed and eleven wounded.
Thus we find that more than half the officers were
killed or wounded, and nearly half of the privates
were either killed, wounded or missing. Although
the assault on Wagner was a military failure, for
in war nothing succeeds but success, still it. effec¬
tually demonstrated that the Negro troops were
among the bravest of the brave, and it tended to
silence the scoffing contempt and ridicule of the
stay-at-home Negro-doubters.
Delighted with their gallant conduct, General
Gillmore presented medals to the following soldiers
of the glorious Fifty-fourth colored regiment: Ser¬
geants Robert J. Simmons and William H. Carney;
Corporal Henry F. Peal and Private George Wil¬
son. In this charge John Wall, the Negro color
bearer, was killed, but William H. Carney seized
the standard and bore it to the parapet, but after
receiving several severe wounds, one of which
mangled his arm, he brought the tattered banner
to the rear in his clenched teeth, stained with his
■own blood, and shouted to his comrades, "Boys,
it never teched the ground!"
When a flag of truce was sent to the enemy to
claim Colonel Shaw's body, a rebel officer replied,
"We buried him with his niggers " They thought
thus to heap odium on this dead hero, but the
252
THE WHITE SIDE OF
effort was a failure. At the request of his parents,
the body was not disturbed, but the gallant ycung
officer.and his black comrades were permitted to
sleep on in a com-non grave. Thus united in life,
in death they were not separated.
" 'They buried him with his niggersl'
Together they fought and died;
There was room for them all where they laid him,
(The grave was deep and wide)
For his beauty and youth and valor,
Their patience and love and pain;
And at the last day together
They shall all be found again.
'They buried him with his niggers!'
Earth holds no prouder grave;
There is not a mausoleum
In the world beyond the wave
That a nobler tale has hallowed
Or a purer glory crowned,
Than the nameless trench where they buried
The brave so faithful found.
"They buried him with his niggers!"
A wide grave should it be;
They buried more in that shallow trench
Than human eye could see.
Ay, all the shams and sorrows
Of more than a hundred years
Lie under the weight of that Southern soil,
Despite those cruel sneers.
'They buried him with his niggers!'
But the glorious souls set free
Are leading the van of the army
That fights for liberty,
Brothers in death, in glory
The same palm branches bear,
And the crown is as bright over the sable brows
As over the golden hair."
A BLACK SUBJECT
253
The Union army was anxious to capture Port
Hudson, that the "Mississippi might go unvexed
to the sea."
Two of the colored companies or "Corps d'
Afrique," which had been organized by invitation
of General Butler at New Orleans, the First and
Third, took part in this their first engagement.
They numbered one thousand and eighty men, and
were commanded respectively by Colonel C. J."
Bassett, and Colonel Henry Finnegas. Though
comparatively raw recruits, they appeared eager for
the command to charge for the enemy's guns on the
bluff. At the word they moved off in quick time,
which was soon changed into double quick. The
rebels in the fort reserved their fire until the charg¬
ing column was within four hundred yards, then
instantly evey gun discharged a fusillade of death-
dealing missiles. In the midst of fearful slaughter
the shattered columns wheeled to the rear in good
order, reformed and again charged the enemy, but
the unceasing fire of grape, canister, minie-b-'ll
and sixty-two pound shot, were to much for in¬
fantry in the open field with no chance to return
the fire. Moreover, there was a deep bayou to cross
and an almost perpendicular bluff to scale before
the guns of the fort could be reached. •
Seeing it was impossible to take the fort from
these natural obstructions, Colonel Nelson dis¬
patched an aide to General William Dwight, then
in command, explaining the difficulty. To which
the General sternly replied, "Tell Colonel Nelson
I shall consider that he has accomplished nothing
unless he takes those guns." So they were again
sent into the jaws of death. Six times did these
THE WHITE SIDE OF
colored troops charge desperately into this veri¬
table slaughter pen, before the inexorable General
saw it was a useless waste of the lives of his brave
men, so ordered them back.
One of the most gallant men killed that day was
Captain Andre Cailloux of Company E, First
Regiment Native Guards. Though phenomenally
black, he was a gentleman of broad culture, com¬
manding presence, considerable wealth, and a
born leader of men. While urging his soldiers
on, first in English, then in French, his left arm
was mangled, but he faltered not. Leading his
company to the edge of that fatal bayou, a shell
struck him, and he fell dead with his face to the
enemy, like the hero that he was.
When the first regiment was i*eady to leave
New Orleans, the colonel, who for some cause was
not going, deliverd its colors with these words:
"Color guard, protect, defend, die for, but do not
surrender these flags." To which Anselmas Plan-
ciancois, *the color sergeant, on receiving them
nobly replied, "Colonel, I will bring back these
colors in honor, or report to God the reason why."
Poor Anselmas was gallantly bearing his colors in
front of the regiment, near the enemy's works,
when a shell cut away part of the beautiful banner,
together with part of the sergeant's head,and as he
embraced it in death it became baptized in his
blood and brains. Doubtless he reported to the
Great Commander-in-chief of us all, "the reason
why."
The following is an extract from a letter written
by a sable warrior, to a friend in Chicago, describ¬
ing the deeds of heroism performed by his com-
A BLACK SUBJECT
255
pany, in the tragedy of the crater at Petersburg:
"Thfe rebels poured a deadly fire upon us,
wounding Corporal Maxwell severely, and he was
compelled to let the colors fall. Corporal Stevens
then seized the colors and bore them up to the
top of the works. He was quickly cut down.
Corporal Bailey seized the flag and was killed in¬
stantly. Thomas Barrett, a colored private,
seized the colors and bore them up to the top of
the fort again He quickly fell dead. Captain
Brockay then seized the flag and was mortally
wounded and obliged to let the colors fall. Col.
John A. Bross of Chicago, attired in his full uni¬
form, with the evident intention of inspiring his
men, then seized the flag, rushed upon the top
of the fort, planted it upon the parapet, drew his
sword, took his hat in his hand, and cried:
•Rally, my brave boys, rally!' The boys did in¬
stantly rally up to him; but he quickly fell in
death."
We will not harrow the feelings of the reader
by portraying all the details of the heart-rending
Fort Pillow massacre. Suffice it to say that the
garrison included two hundred and ninety-five men
of the 13th Tennessee Union Cavalry,commanded
by Major W. F. Bradford, and two hundred and
sixty-two colored troops of the 6th U. S. Heavy Ar¬
tillery, making five hundred and fifty-seven all un¬
der the command of Major L. F. Booth,of the ar¬
tillery. On April twelfth, 1864, a strong rebel force,
under tl^e command of Major-General N. B. Forest
and General Chalmers, appeared before the fort
and demanded its surrender, which being refused,
they uttered the rebel yell of "No quarter!" and
256 THE WHITE SIDE OF
charged on the fort. After a desperate resistance
in which Major Booth, the commanding 6fficer,
was killed, the weak garrison overpowered and
the fort taken by assault; then began an indis¬
criminate massacre of men, women and children,
white and black, which has no equal in civilized
warfare. As fast as the Negroes surrendered they
were shot down. The wounded were dragged
into houses, and after the doors had been barri¬
caded the torch was applied and the houses and
contents burned; others were nailed to the doors
of burning houses, while a number were burned
alive. At least three fourths of the entire force
were annihilated, most of them after the fort was
taken. But never was a braver defense made.
What Thermopylae was to the Greco-Persian war;
what the Alamo was to the Mexican war, that
Fort Pillow was to the Rebellion. Right nobly
did the black troops avenge this massacre of their
comrades, on many hard-fought battle fields after
this, when the cruel rebel yell of "No quarter!"
was answered by their battle cry, "Remember Fort
Pillow!"
Volumes would be required to chronicle the
daring deeds of valor and patriotism performed
by thesS black heroes in the four hundred and
forty-nine battles in which they participated. We
can only sketch a few more instances of their
bravery. At Bermunda Hundred, they captured
seven pieces of artillery and six redoubts with their
connecting rifle pits. At Ship Island, they suc¬
cessfully repulsed rebel veterans twice their num¬
ber. At Millikin's Bend, the rebels came on like
madmen, shouting, "No quarter!" only to be
A BLACK SUBJECT
*57
soundly whipped and driven back by the Negro
troops, many of whom were raw recruits in their
first action. The rebels were glad to get for them¬
selves what they denied the Negro.
At Fort Powhatan, the ex-slaves repulsed the
very flower of Virginia chivalry, led on by the
valorous Fitz Hugh Lee. The fight lasted five
hours, during which the Virginia masters made
three desperate charges, only to be mowed down
like grass by the enemy from behind their fortifi¬
cations. Chivalry at last retired disgusted, his
ranks fearfully depleted, and the chattel having
gained the day.
Fort Harrison, five miles from Richmond, was
the key to the rebel position on the north of the
James. General Butler sent his Negro troops
under the invincible Birney to take this fort at
point of bayonet. The Confederate garrison cried
out tauntingly, "Come on, darkies, we want your
muskets " The darkies did come on in the face
of a galling fire, shouting, "Remember Fort Pil¬
low!" The cavaliers did not get the guns, but
received their contents, which checked the flight
of many, but the others ran for four miles, and
the fort was taken by the Negroes.
Of this exploit General Butler said on the floor
of Congress: "It became my painful duty,sir, to
follow in the track charging column, and there,
in a space not wider than the clerk's desk, and
three hundred yards long, lay the dead bodies of
five hundred and fifty-three of my colored com¬
rades, slain in the defense of their country, who
laid down their live's to uphold its flag and its
honor as a willing sacrifice; and as I rode along
258
THE WHITE SIDE OF
among them, guiding my horse this way and that
way, lest he should profane with his hoofs what
seemed t> me the sacred dead, and as I looked on
their bronzed faces upturned in the shining sun as
if in mute appeal against the wrongs of the coun¬
try for which they had given their lives, and whose
flag had only been to them a flag of stripes on
which no star of glory had ever shone for them —
feeling I had wronged them in the past, and be¬
lieving what was the future of my country to
them—among my dead comrades there I swore to
myself „a solemn oath: 'May my right hand for¬
get its cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof
of my mouth if I ever fail to defend the rights of
those men who have given their blood for me and
my country this day, and for their race forever;'
and God helping me, I will keep that oath."
A Negro soldier having been clad in rags all his
life, the very Federal garb he wore tended to inspire
him with self-respect and patriotism. He was on
picket duty in a Virginia town, when a Southern
sympathizer came along and shoved him off the
sidewalk. At this the soldier cried out," White man,
halt," but no attention was paid to him. Whereupon
he brought his musket to a ready, with an ominous
click of the trigger, and loudly shouted: "White
man, halt!" Hearing shoot in his tone, the man
stopped, and turning around found himself looking
down a gun barrel. His next order was, "White
man, come here;" this was obeyed, when the sol¬
dier remarked, "Dis nigger is of no particular ac¬
count, but you must 'spect dis uniform; white
man go on."
They fully comprehended the issues, as when
A BLACK SUBJECT
259
a former slave, standing guard and seeing his late
master brought in as a prisoner, thus greeted him:
"Ah, master, bottom rail on the top this time."
There were 178,975 colored volunteers, of
whom 141,252 were from the slave states and 37,-
723 from the free states. Of this large number
36,847 were killed, wounded or missing. As we
have stated, they participated in 449 battles, and
filled with distinction almost every military depart¬
ment of the Federal army. This was the largest
army of civilized Negroes of any war in the
world's history, ancient or modern, Christian or
pagan.
Massachusetts was the first state to commission
Negro officers; she had ten; Kansas three; and
the two regiments of Corps d' Afrique from New
Orleans had black officers.
It is believed there were at least seventy-five
colored men who bore commissions for a short
time in the Department of the Gulf. There were
also quite a number of colored surgeons and chap¬
lains who were given commissions.
The Negro historian, Williams, in his "Honor
Roll," gives a list of ten colored regiments which
were commanded by General Butler,and presented
with banners inscribed with the names of the places
where they won their laurels. He also has on
his "Roll " the names of sixty-seven heroes. Of
this number ten were publicly commended by the
General,twenty-four received medals for gallantry,
thirty were promoted for their deeds of valor,
while three others were doubly honored with
medals and promotion.
Secretary of War Stanton says of colored
260 1HE WHITE SIDE OF
troops at Petersburg: "The hardest fighting was
done by the black troops. The forts they stormed
were the worst of all. General Smith said they
cannot be excelled as soldiers."
Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas wrote Sena¬
tor Henry Wilson concerning Negro troops, "Ex¬
perience proves that they manage heavy guns very
well. Their fighting qualities have been fully
tested a number of times, and I am yet to hear of
the first case where they did not fully stand up to
their work. At Millikin's Bend, where I had three
incomplete regiments, one without arms until the
day previous to the attack, greatly superior num¬
bers of the rebels charged furiously up to the very
breastworks. The Negroes met the enemy on the
ramparts, whrere both sides freely used the bayonet,
and the rebels were defeated with heavy loss."
General Thomas Morgan, speaking of the cour¬
age of the Negro troops in the battle of Nashville,
said: "Those who fell nearest the enemy's works
were colored." Gen. James Blount says of the
First Colored Regiment at Henry Springs, Arkan¬
sas: "The Negroes were too much for the enemy,
and let me here say that I never saw such fighting
as was done by that Negro regiment. Too much
praise cannot be awarded them for their gallantry.
The question that the Negroes will fight is settled;
besides, they make better soldiers in every respect
than any troops I have ever had under my com¬
mand."
General Butler, in an address to the army of the
James before Richmond, October, 1864, made the
following statement concerning the campaign just
ended: "In the charge of the enemy's works by
A BLACK SUBJECT
26t
the colored division of the Eighteenth Corps at
Spring Hill New Market, better men were 7tever
better led, better officers never led better men. This
war is ended when a musket is in the hands of
every able-bodied Negro who wishes to use one."
Thus it is not an exaggeration to say that colored
troops turned the tide of war against slavery and
the Rebellion, in favor of freedom and the Union.
In proportion to numbers, they were equally
gallant and useful on the high seas, and in the
navy. During the month of June, 1861, the
schooner "S.J. Waring," bound from New York to
South America, was captured by the privateer "Jeff
Davis." A prize crew consisting of a captain, mate
and four seamen were put on board and the vessel
headed for Charleston. Three of the original
crew were retained on board; a Yankee, who was
put in chains, a German as steersman and a black
man named Wm. Tillman, the steward and cook
of the schooner, who was put to work at his busi¬
ness, and informed that he now belonged to the
Confederacy and would be sold on arriving at
Charleston. But the Negro was as brave as a lion,
and resolved that the ship should never reach
Charleston. With him to resolve was to act.
After putting the captain out of the way, he was
master of the cabin. Ascending the deck, he made
way with the mate. Seizing the mate's revolver,
he drove the crew below deck, and proclaimed
himself master of the ship. He then ordered the
release of the Yankee, whom he armed, and put
the enemy in irons.
With the stars and stripes flying, they turned
"The Waring" towards New York. A storm
•262
THE WHITE SIDE OF
arose, more men were needed to work the ship.
Tillman ordered the rebels to be released and
brought on deck. They were put to work, but in-
iormed that the least disobedience meant death.
Five days after this "The Waring" arrived in the
port of New York under the command of William
Tillman, the Negro patriot.
The New York "Tribune" said of this event: —
"To this colored man was the nation indebted for
the first vindication of its honor on the sea."
The Federal government awarded Tillman six
thousand dollars prize money for the capture of
the brig.
On the morning of May 13, 1862, the rebel
gunboat "Planter" was captured by her colored
crew, while lying in the port of Charleston, and
delivered to the Federal squadron then blockad¬
ing that port. Following is the dispatch from
Commodoie Dupont to the Secretary of War, an¬
nouncing the fact:
"U. S. Steamship, Augusta, off Charleston,
May 13, 1862.
"Sir:—I have the honor to inform you that the
rebel armed gunboat 'Planter' was brought out to
us this morning from Charleston by eight 'contra¬
bands,' and delivered up to the squadron. Five
colored women and three children are also on
board. She was the armed dispatch and transpor¬
tation steamer attached to the engineer depart¬
ment at Charleston, under General Ripley. At
four in the morning,in the absence of the captain,
who was on shore, she left her wharf close to the
government office and headquarters, with the
- .7
ROBERT SMALLS.
AMANDA SMITH.
A BLACK SUBJECT 263
Palmetto and Confederate flags flying,and passed
the successive forts, saluting as usual, by blowing
the steam whistle. After getting beyond the range
of the last gun, they hauled down the rebel flags
and hoisted a white one. 'The Onward,' the
inside ship of the blockading squadron, was about
to fire, when her commander discovered the white
flag. The armament of the steamer is a thirty-
two pounder on a pivot, and a fine twenty-four
pound howitzer. She has, besides, on her deck,
four other guns, one a seven inch rifle, which
were to be taken on the following morning to a
new fort. One of the four guns belonged to Fort
Sumter and had been struck in the rebel attack
on the muzzle.
"Robert Small,the intelligent slave, and pilot of
the boat, who performed this bold feat so skill¬
fully, is a superior man to any who have come
into our lines, intelligent as many of them have
been. His information has been interesting, and
portions of it of the utmost importance. The
steamer is quite a valuable acquisition to the
squadron, by her good machinery and light draught.
The bringing out of this steamer would have done
credit to any one. If in view of the Government,
the vessel will be considered a prize, I respectfully
submit to the Department the claims of the man
Small, and his associates.
"Very Respectfully, S. F. Dupont, Flag Officer
Commanding."
It is gratifying to be able to state that the
"Planter" was received as a prize and Robert
Small appointed captain. In this position he
264
THE WHITE SIDE OM
showed great courage and ability. The "Planter"
was ordered to Charleston just after that city was
taken and there Captain Small received a perfect
ovation.
We cannot shut our eyes to the verdict of his¬
tory, nor to the glamour of romance that sur¬
rounds many of our colored brethren, and are
compelled to admit that whether on land or sea,
in army or navy, there is but one verdict, "The
Colored-Troops Fought Nobly "
CHAPTER XI.
EXODUS TO THE NORTH AND WEST. ITS CAUSE AND
CURE.
"Stand not on the order of your going, but go at once."
Shakespeare.
The great hegira of the blacks from the South,
or "the Negro Exodus," as it was called, began
about February ist, 1879, The Negroes had all
heard of Kansas, made memorable by the strug¬
gles, on their behalf, of Jim Lane and John Brown,
and naturally when they decided to leave the
South they turned their eyes toward that "Prom¬
ised Land."
But what caused them to leave the South in
such large numbers? There were two answers to
this question, but both of them could not be true.
Said a Southern Democrat to a correspondent of
the "Atlantic Monthly" of that period: "1 tell you,
it's all owing to the radical politicians at the
North; they've had their emissaries down here,and
deluded the niggers into a very fever of emigration
with the purpose of reducing our basis of repre¬
sentation in Congress and increasing that of the
Northern states."
It has been shown repeatedly that nothing could
have been n^ore foreign to the truth than the state-
m
266
THE WHITE SIDE OF
ment just uttered; the movement had no political
significance except in the fact that the Negro
was denied a free ballot and fair count in the
South, and sought a country where he could have
both, with "none to molest or make him afraid."
Not one of the states in which they settled,
through the officials, invited them; but to their
credit be it said, they received them kindly when
they arrived. This was especially true of the
Prohibition Governor of Kansas, John P. St. John.
Not one dollar of public funds soever, national,
state or municipal, was used in buying land or
furnishing supplies for these poverty-stricken black
i migrants, and the only known contribution from
any man engaged in politics, was one hundred dol¬
lars from Vice-President Wheeler. Congress
could, without the slightest qualms of conscience,
vote away millions of acres of the richest lands to
railroad monopolies. The government could ap¬
propriate millions of acres of land and millions of
dollars in money to support the wild Indians,
many of them drinking, gambling, and living a
life of idleness, vagrancy, and crime. It could
wring from the people millions for the benefit of
railroad magnates, factory kings, the coffee and
the sugar trust, when every pound of Southern
sugar was made by the brawn and sweat of the
poor negro, but it could not give one dollar for
the benefit of the colored man, who had spent
two and one-half centuries in unpaid toil to en¬
rich the South, from which he is now forced to flee
empty-handed and almost naked. Verily consis¬
tency is a jewel.
AH the action taken by Congress was the adop-
A BLA CK SUBJECT 267
tion of a resolution offered by U. S. Senator D.
W. Voorhees of Indiana, providing for an investi¬
gation of the causes of the migration of the colored
people from the Southern to the Northern states.
Thus, with its usual recklessness, congress appro¬
priated thousands of dollars to find out what was
already known to every intelligent person, and al¬
most every schoolboy in the country, that the
Negroes were leaving the South because of syste¬
matic robbery, and political cruelties. Thousands
of dollars to ascertain the cause of the poor Ne¬
groes' distress, but not one cent to relieve it.
An intelligent Negro told the same correspondent
for the "Atlantic Monthly," who interviewed the
Bourbon democrat: "We've been working hard for
fourteen long, dreary years, and we ain't any bet¬
ter off than when we commenced." The same
statement was substantially made by many of
the dusky emigrants. "Now, Uncle Joe, what did
you come for?" "Oh law! Missus, I follers my
two boys an' the ole woman, an' then 'pears like
I wants a taste of votin' afore I dies, an' de ole
man doan' want no swamps to wade in afore he
votes, kase he must be Republican, ye see."
"Well, old Aunty, tell us what you think of leav¬
ing your old home." "I doan' have no home nohow,
if they shoots my ole man an' the boys an' give
me no money for de washin'."
A sprightly woman of twenty-five frankly stated:
"I hadn't much real trouble yet, like some of
my neighbors, who lost everything. We had a lot
an' a little house, an' some stock on the .place.
We sold all out kase we didn't dare stay when
votin' time came again. Some neighbors bet-
268
THE WHITE SIDE OF
ter. off than we, had been all broken up by a
pack of 'night-riders'—all in white, who scared
everybody to death, run the men to the swamps
before elections, run the stock off, an' set fire to
their places. A poor woman might as well be' killed
and done with it." Though not voters, and con¬
sequently free from personal assaults, the women
suffered as much from the general terrorism that
prevailed in certain districts, especially in Missis¬
sippi and Louisiana, as the men. "We might as
well starve or freeze to death in Kansas," they say,
"as to be shot-gunned here."
There is certainly just cause for complaint of
systematic extortion and robbery, through the in¬
iquitous "Plantation Credit System." The Negroes'
necessities have developed-at the cross-roads or
steam-boat landings an offensive class called mer¬
chants by courtesy, who are frequently Jews and
live by extortion. In any Northern or Western
community they would be called sharks, harpies,
or vampires, and would not be tolerated more
than one season. But many stores claiming to
do a legitimate credit business, are owned in whole
or in part by the planters, and were almost as
exorbitant. Every store-keeper has a cash and
credit price, and the latter was usually double
the former.
Besides, it is claimed on good authority, that
in Mississippi five years prior to the Exodus, not
one white man was convicted and punished for an
offense against a colored man, or made to pay a
debt due a colored man; while in Texas, Ala¬
bama and Georgia, laws were passed under which
freedmen were arrested for debts, and their labor,
A BLACK SUBJECT 269
(which is virtually themselves) sold at auction.
The usual bid was twenty-five cents per day, with
rainy days and Sundays deducted and* board ex¬
acted for them. The following items were
taken from a planter's contract, and store-keeper's
receipted bill,brought with them to Kansas: "Rent
of land for one season, five -and ten dollars per
acre" (more than its assessed valuation, and more
than it would bring at public sale). "Hire of mule
to cultivate crops, thirty dollars" (the mule was
sold at the end of the season for twenty-five dol¬
lars). "Mess pork thirty-five dollars per barrel.
Corn-meal, nine dollars per barrel. Bacon sides
and shoulders, twenty cents per pound. Common
brown sugar, twelve and one-half cent^per pound.
Rice, twelve and one-half cents per pound. Mo¬
lasses, common black strap,one dollar and twenty-
five cents per gallon. Tobacco (ordinary "dogleg"),
one dollar and fifty cents per pound. Cotton drill¬
ing, forty cents per yard. Domestic prints, fif¬
teen and sixteen cents per yard."
By a strange coincidence, the man who sold these
particular goods was one of a delegation of planters
who came from the South to Kansas to persuade
some of the best of the Negroes to return. When
confronted with this bill, he acknowledged that it
was genuine, and in his own hand-writing. It is
unnecessary to state that he got no Negroes to re¬
turn with him.
The poor unsuspecting Negro, unable to read
or calculate, and paying such prices as we have
quoted, generally found himself from twenty-five
to two hundred dollars in debt at the end of each
year. This, of course, necessitated another en-
270 THE WHITE SIDE OF
gagement for the next year, in order to pay that
debt, then another engagement, until the poor
Negro was a veritable slave, for it was impossible
to get out of debt. But political persecution was
as patent a factor in causing the Exodus, as sys¬
tematic robbery.
When a prominent pastor of St. Louis said a
few years ago at a National Baptist Anniversary:
"In the South the whites are going to rule, by
fair means if they can, but they are going to rule,"
he expressed the sentiment of the Solid South,
and they were absolutely unscrupulous in their
methods, especially after they became thoroughly
exasperated with the carpet-baggers, and ^Negro
rule in the South, during the period of reconstruc¬
tion.
Many of the Negroes were terrorized by "night-
riders," "Kuklux," or "bull-dozers," as they were
variously called, and driven to the swamps just
before elections. Numbers were murdered out¬
right, as the following letter from General. P. H.
Sheridan, written from New Orleans, January
loth, 1875, shows:
"Since the year 1866, nearly thirty-five hundred
persons, a great majority of which were colored
men, have been killed and wounded in this state.
In 1868 the official record shows that eighteen
hundred and eighty-four were killed and wounded.
From 1868 to the present time no official investi¬
gation had "been made and the civic authorities, in
all but a few cases, have been unable to arrest,
convict or punish the perpetrators; consequently
there are no correct records to be consulted for
information. There is ample evidence, however,
A BLACK SUBJECT
to show that more than twelve hundred persons
have been killed and wounded during this time,
on account of their political sentiments. Fright¬
ful massacres have occurred in the parishes of Bas-
sier, Caddo, Catahoula, Saint Bernard, Grant, and
Orleans. . . . Human life in this state is
held so cheaply that when men are killed on ac¬
count of political opinions the murderers are
regarded rather as heroes than as criminals in the
localities where they reside."
In the year 1.867-8, a reign of terror prevailed
in Louisiana. A massacre of Negroes began in St.
Landry parish Sept. 28, 1868, lasting from three
to six days, and resulting in the killing of from
three to four hundred men. "Thirteen captives
were taken from the jail and shot, and a pile of
twenty-five dead bodies were found burned in the
woods." As a result of this campaign, not one
Republican vote was cast in the election which
followed a few days later, though prior to this
they had a registered majority of one thousand
and seventy-one.
A similar massacre occurred between the 20th
and 30th of Sep., 1867, lasting three or four days.
In this there were two hundred Negroes killed.
There were one thousand nine hundred and thirty-
eight Republican votes in the parish by official
registry, but at the ensuing election only one
Republican vote was cast.
About forty Negroes were killed in Caddo parish
during the month of October, 1868. The result
of this massacre was, that General Grant only
received one vote out of a Republican registered
vote of 2,894.
272 THE WHITE SIDE OF
It is shown from official sources that over one
thousand Negroes were whipped, maimed, or mur¬
dered for political reasons in the months of Sept,
Oct , and Nov., 1867, with the result that out of
47,923 registered Republican votes,only 5,360 were
cast for General Grant. The same policy was
pursued in the Presidential campaign of 1876 and
with a like- result.
When it became as much as a poor Negro's life
was worth to persist in voting the Republican
ticket, he did what might have been expected un¬
der the circumstances, stopped voting. Now,
among business men of our Northern cities voting
is considered a disagreeable duty, because it takes
them away from the pursuit of wealth for a few
hours. It never seems to occur to them that it would
be money in their pockets, to attend the nominating
conventions and ward meetings, to nominate and
elect men who would be a help and honor to their
country. The result is, the saloon keepers, gam¬
blers, and hoodlums run the politics of our North¬
ern cities. But the Negro of the South (especially
Louisiana and Mississippi) regarded the ballot as
forbidden fruit, and desired it with as much eager¬
ness "as the hart panteth after the water brooks."
Governor St. John had in his office over three
thousand letters on file, from the Negroes of- the
South, and the burden of their inquiry was: "Can
we be free, can we have work,and can we have our
political rights?" Surely they made a very modest
request.
There were two charitable organizations de¬
signed to aid these colored emigrants until they
could obtain homes or employment. The first
A BLACK SUBJECT
was organized at St. Louis in 1878. This was
known as "The Refugee Relief Board." Its Presi¬
dent was the famous colored minister and friend
of his race, Rev. Moses Dickson, the founder of
the International Order of "Twelve Knights and
Daughters of Tabor."
The Exodus proper-had not commenced or was
just in its infancy, but this sagacious colored leader
seemed to expect his people en route for the mighty
West, so made ready to receive them at St. Louis,
and help them on to their destination. This so¬
ciety received and cared for about sixteen thousand
men, women and children, fleeing from Southern
oppression. It was the medium for collecting and
distributing to those needy ones thousands of
dollars in money; also hundreds of boxes contain¬
ing clothing and provisions.
The other society was organized in May, 1879,
as, "The Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association,"
with headquarters atTopeka. This was composed
of the state officers, with a few other leading citi¬
zens, and was designed to provide for the destitute
emigrants who had come among them, rather than
to encourage others in coming.
Mrs. Comstock, a kind, motherly old Quaker
lady, came forward and offered her services free of
charge. She was then in her sixty-fourth year,
having spent twenty-five years of her life in reliev¬
ing suffering humanity.
John M. Brown was appointed general superin¬
tendent of the Freedmen's Relief Association; he
proved to be the right man for the place, and as
great a benefactor to the negro as"01d John Brown."
When the facts of their destitution were known,
THE WHITE SIDE Of
together with its true cause, the hearts of a great
people were touched. Money, food and clothing
poured into the Association, and during the year
about forty thousand dollars in money and five
hundred thousand pounds of clothing and bedding
were distributed.
Mrs. Comstcok was well known, even in England,
for her noble deeds of philanthropy; her friends
there sent her eight thousand dollars in money, and
fifty thousand pounds of goods. One third of the
remainder was furnished by the society of Friends,
and the Christian women of America contributed
a large amount in small sums, through their mite
societies and sewing-circles. Ohio led the states in
the amount of their contribution; followed by New
York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, Illi¬
nois and Iowa in the order named; but nearly every
state sent something. The largest individual gift
was one thousand dollars from John Hall, a Quaker
of West Chester, Pennsylvania.
During their first year the freedmen got pos¬
session of twenty thousand acres of land, and culti¬
vated three thousand of it. They also accumulated
thirty thousand dollars, and built three hundred
cabins and dug-outs. But this was not accom¬
plished without prodigious labor, and overcoming
difficulties apparently insuperable.
Henry Carter, a refugee, who in 1879 had come
to Kansas from Tennessee, started on foot from
Topeka to Dunlap, a distance of sixty-five miles.
He was accompanied by his wife, who carried their
bed-clothes, while he carried his tools. By 1880
he had forty acres of land cleared, and had made
the first payment. He had built a good stone
A BLACK SUBJECT
275
cottage, sixteen by ten feet, owned a good horse,
two cows, etc., having earned his money by daily
labor on sheep ranches and elsewhere in the neigh¬
borhood. In one instance a black man in Graham
County "broke" five acres of raw prairie with a
common spade.
According to the report of John M. Brown,
Superintendent of the Relief Association, about
sixty thousand refugees had ccme to the state of
Kansas to live, up to February of 1880. Nearly
forty thousand of them were in a destitute condi¬
tion when they arrived, and had been helped by
the Association. They had received sixty-eight
thousand dollars, which had been used to the best
advantage possible under all circumstances. Of
the number reported, five thousand had gone to
other states, thirty thousand had settled in the
country on their own or rented lands, or hired out
to the farmers, leaving about twenty-five thousand
in or around the different towns or cities of Kan¬
sas.
Referring to the fact that the refugees managed,
by the help of this Association, to get through the
winter in tolerable comfort, a correspondent for
Scribner's Monthly of that period remarks: "For¬
tunately, they long ago learned to be content with
a very meager diet,, and seem able to make a feast
on what would haunt white persons with visions of
starvation. fGimme a sack o' meal an' a side o'
meat,' said one of them, 'an' my folks kin git along
han'som', and many of them did get along through¬
out the winter with little more than corn-bread and
bacon—and there were chickens roosting in the
neighborhood too. All things considered, they
276 THE WHITE SIDE OF
have given convincing evidence of their disposition
to work, and to be honest, and sober, and frugal. . .
Such as got work at any price, did not ask assist-'
ance; those who were compelled to apply for aid
did it slowly, as a rule, and rarely came a second
time. Not a single colored tramp was in Kansas
all winter; and only one colored person was con¬
victed of any crime."
• Stearns has beautifully said, "God tempers the
wind to the shorn lamb." This certainly was true
in the case of these poor, half-clad colored refu¬
gees from man's oppressions, who blindly yet
beautifully trusted "de good Lord," with a faith
that was seldom equaled, for the first winter of
their stay in Kansas was the mildest in the history
of that state. As one of their preachers expressed
it, "God seed dat de darkies had thin clo's, an'
he done kep'de cole off."
The state officers in time withdrew from the
Relief Association, and left its work in the hands
of representatives of the different denominations,
with immediate executive control vested in the
Society of Friends. The Negro found, as in the
anti-slavery struggle, that a Friend in need was a
Friend indeed. Too much praise cannot be given
to this band of philanthropists, whose hearts were
ever touched by the cry of distress. But the effort
of the Friends was promptly and ably seconded by
the ether denominations, and right nobly was the
arducus task performed.
The Southern people were greatly agitated over
this wholesale emigration of their laboring class.
For in their moments of calm reflection they
knew full well that three things were indispensable
A BLA CK SUBJECT
277
to the South, the Negro, the mule, and cotton;
and as their white men would not work, the Negro
and mule were necessary adjuncts to a cotton crop.
The exodus wrung from a number of independent
Southern Journals a confession of the fiendish
practice of bulldozing and kukluxing, by their de¬
mands that such practice should be abandoned be¬
fore it drove all the better class of Negroes from the
South. In short, the Southern leaders began to
realize that they must treat the Negro justly, and
give him his political rights, or lose his labor; and
the only way to stop the exodus was fair treatment
to those who remained The subject was also dis¬
cussed from the pulpit and rostrum of the South.
C. K, Marshall, D,D.,of Vicksburg, Mississippi,
in an address on the exodus delivered January 21,
1880, seems to favor the idea, but urges the Ne¬
groes to go tor Africa, "the land of their fathers,"
instead of remaining in this country. If the gentle¬
man had noticed the large number of mulattoes all
over the South, and especially in Vicksburg, he
would have decided with us, that the negro was
already in the land of his fathers.
As might have been expected, this Southern
white man is blinded by prejudice, and cannot do
the Negro justice. Hear him: "Trades they cannot
learn. Ask the 'Trades Unions' of Boston, New
York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore how many Ne¬
groes belong to them? And the answer would be,
nearly none,practically none." But he does not tell
us why the Negro does not learn trades—Simply
because he is debarred from them, -on account of
his black skin and because of his "previous con¬
dition of servitude." But if the Negroes of the
278 THE WHITE SIDE OF
South do not learn trades (because they are not
permitted), no more, as a rule, do the Southern
white men, with nothing on earth to prevent them
but their own indolence and foolish pride, a legacy
of their "peculiar institution." Our best mechanics
are still the Yankee and the foreigner.
Nevertheless the good Doctor continues, un¬
mindful of the fact that his whole argument is a
straddle, and series of contradictions. The paren¬
theses, of course,are ours:"Briefly view the situation
from what point of the political, social, and indus¬
trial compass you may, the Negro must forever re¬
main a dwarf on American soil." Near the close
of his address he says, "They will return (to Africa)
with stalwart physical, manly vigor," ( he has just
said 'he must forever remain a dwarf') womanly
culture, refinement, and piety. They will carry a
higher type of intelligence, and a wider range of
powers than was dreamed of by their most enlight¬
ened ancestral seers; a knowledge of science, agri¬
culture, mechanism, law, medicine, and divinity."
(How can they learn all this except among other
people?) "They will go back with the Bible, the
hymn-book, and the knowledge of the one true
God, and Jesus Christ the adorable Savior. They
will build the school-house, the college, the uni¬
versity," (if in Africa, why not here?) "they will
issue periodicals from their own presses, cloth from
their own looms, shoes from their own shops, coin
from their own mints, cargoes of merchandise from
their own wharves, justice from their own courts,
and laws from their own congress." If the Negro
must "forever remain a dwarf," and "trades they
cannot learn,"as Mr. Marshall has informed us, how
A BLACK SUBJECT
279
can the colored man accomplish all these mighty
deeds he predicts, in Africa? And if he can do
all this in Africa, and we do not question it, why
can he not do it, and more, in happy, free Amer¬
ica, 'the land of his fathers?' We believe he can
and will. The Negro certainly has greater facul¬
ties for acquiring knowledge, and picking up trades,
in spite of the Trades Union, in this great free
country, than he could hope to enjoy among the
uncivilized Negroes of the Guinea Coast.
Here is the black man's home and here he will
remain. He is over nine millions strong, and a
peace-loving, native-born American citizen. And
if the Trades Union continue to debar him, he will
simply have a Trades Union of his own, where the
young colored men can learn trades.
The worthy Doctor's statements are not only
contradictory, but he is plainly trying to resurrect
that old dead and buried African Colonization So¬
ciety, which Wm. Lloyd Garrison rendered an
object of ridicule, by showing that in the zenith
of its glory, a great many more slaves were brought
from Africa each year than the Society had ever
sent there during all the years of its existence.
Contrast, if you please, this strange address,
which was clearly made for buncombe, with the
following manly and eloquent review of the ex¬
odus by a colored statesman and orator, Hon
John M. Langston, ex-minister to Hayti. This
address was delivered by invitation, before the
Emigrant Aid Society, at Lincoln Hill, Washington,
D. C., October 7, 1879.
"Herodotus tells of a Scythian general who, re¬
turning with his army after a protracted expe-
28O THE WHITE SIDE OF
dition, found their slaves had taken possession of
their households, their wives and the management
of public affairs. He counseled his comrades to
throw away their weapons, their arrows and their
darts, and meet their opponents without any means
of defense save the whip which they used upon
their horses Said he: 'Whilst they see us with
arms, they think themselves our equals in birth
and importance, but as soon as they shall see us
with whips in our hands, they will be impressed
with a sense of their servile condition and resist
no longer.' The plan was adopted and proved a
success. This illustrates the feeling generally
entertained between the old master and his former
slaves.
"How shall the American ex-slave, who has served
for two hundred and forty-five years in slavery,
be released from the control of a class heretofore
his masters? The history of the world offers but
one solution to this question, and that solutionis
found in his exodus. Let him go forth, w-here
sympathy and the recognition of liberty and usual
rights are accorded him; where labor is to be per¬
formed; where struggle is to be made, where the
stern realities of life are to be met; there let him
demonstrate his courage, his self-reliance, his
manly independence. Under such new conditions,
his capacities, his power, and his efforts will win
the crown which befits the brow of noble man¬
hood. . . The South has not changed a great
deal for the better. Nor has the feeling of the
non-slave-holding class of the South undergone
any material change with respect to the freedmen.
Indeed, it seems to be true-that this class hates
A BLACK SUBJECT 281
the colored man more now than when he was a
slave, and stands ready at the command of ther
aristocratic class to do its bidding even to the
shedding of his blood. As showing that this con¬
dition oi affairs is true, and that little advance¬
ment has been made, one has only to pronounce
in your hearing certain terrible words coined in
connection with the barbarous, cruel treatment that
has been meted out to the emancipated class of
Mississippi, Louisiana, and other states formerly
slave-holding. What is the meaning of the frightful
words'Kuklux,' 'Bulldozers,' and the terrible ex¬
pressions, 'the shot-gun or Mississippi policy?'
The meaning is clear. It is that neither the old
slave-holding spirit, or the old slave-holding purpose
or control is dead in the South; that plantocracy,
with its fearful power and influence, has not passed
away; that the colored American under it, is in a
condition of practical enslavement, trodden down
and outraged by those who exercise control over
him. Such things will continue so long as the spirit
of slavery exists in the South; so long asthefreed-
inan consents to remain in a condition more terrible
than any serfage of which history gives account.
How can this condition of things be broken up?
How can the master class be made to realize that it
is no longer slave-holding, and the slave has been set
free? And how can the freedman be made to feel
and realize that having been emancipated,practical
liberty is within his reach, and that it is his duty to
accept and enjoy it, with its richest fruits?
"To the intelligent and sagacious inquirer, there
can be, as it seems to me, but a single answer. It is
this. Let the freedman of the South, as far as
282
THE WHITE SIDE OF
practicable, take from the old plantocracy, by his
exodus, the strong arms, broad shoulders, stalwart
bodies, which, by compulsion, have been made to
prop and sustain such system too long already in
this day of freedom. Let him stand from beneath,
and the fabric will fall, and a new and necessary
reconstruction will follow.
" But is it possible to transfer all the freedmen from
the Southern part of the country? Perhaps not.
It is, however, possible and practicable to so reduce
the colored laborers of the South by emigration to
the various states of the North and West, as to
compel the land-holders—the planters—to make
and to observe reasonable contracts with those
who remain, to compel all white classes there to
act in good faith, and address themselves to nec¬
essary labor upon the plantation, as well as else¬
where obeying the law and respecting the rights
of their neighbors.
"Even the exodus movement just commenced,
small as it is, insignificant as it appears to be, has
produced in this regard a state of feeling in the
South which justifies entirely the opinion here ex¬
pressed. Where shall he go? It has already been
indicated that the North and West furnish the
localities open to the freedman and to which he
should go. It certainly would not be wise for him
in large numbers to settle in any one state of the
union; but even in thousands, he would be received,
welcomed to kind, hospitable homes in the various
states of the sections named, where labor, edu¬
cational advantages, and the opportunity to rise
as a man, a citizen and a voter would be furnished
him.
A BLACK SUBJECT 283
Objections—" But it is claimed that the Negro
should remain in the South and demand of the
Government protection from the "wrongs which
are perpetrated against him. Here it must be
remembered that in emigrating from the South to
the North or West, the freedman is simply moving
from one section of our common country to an¬
other, simply exercising his individual right to go,
when and where it suits his convenience and ad¬
vantage. In the next place, it is in exercising such
constitutional rights that he leaves a section of the
country where slavery has created a barbarous and
oppressive public sentiment, the source of all the
abuses which he suffers.
"But it is claimed that the freedman cannot en¬
dure a Northern and Western climate, that the
winters are too severe for him.
"Never was a greater mistake. While it is true
the colored man, as he goes North into colde'r re¬
gions, adapts himself with ease to the climate. In
no part of our country does he show more robust
health, finer physical development and endurance,
and consequent longevity,than in the Western and
Northern portion of our country. It is where the
zymotic and malarial disorders prevail, that the
Negro sickens and dies, and this is abundantly
shown in the fearful death rate that is given by
sanitarians, as connected with the warm and
tropical regions of our own and other countries.
"Again it is urged that the freedman is too poor
to emigrate. Those who urge this objection ought
to remember, that it is the poor and oppressed in
all ages and in all countries who have emigrated.
One never emigrates only as he seeks to improve
284
THE WHITE SIDE OF
his condition, to relieve himself and family of want,
to escape oppression and abuse. It is wise for the
poor, starving, oppressed Irishman to quit the
country of his nativity to seek a new home in our
goodly land, where opportunity of culture, the ac-
fcumulation of wealth, advancement and success
await his endeavors. Then let no man either des¬
pise or oppose the exodus of the freedrnan, who
now, realizing his real condition, emigrates from
the old plantation and Negro quarter, from the
scene of his former enslavement, from the hateful
and oppressive control of a stupid and tyrannical
landed aristocracy, from poverty, from ignorance,
from degradation, to a home among those who
value freedom, free institutions, educational and
material, moral and Christian worth, individual
efforts and achievement—to a home among those
who, loyal to God and man, never fail to give
sympathy, success and hospitable welcome to the
needy son of Ireland, or the yet more needy son of
Mississippi, who comes seeking, not only liberty,
but the opportunity to labor,to live and achieve in
their midst. I do most reverently and heartily ac-
pept the lesson contained in the words: 'I have
surely seen the affliction of my people which are
in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of
their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows and I am
come down to deliver them out of the hand of the
Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land
unto a good land, and large, unto a land flowing
with milk and honey.'"
One of the best plantation songs we have heard,
was written by Thomas P. Westendorf, commem¬
orative of this event, entitled:
A BLACK SUBJECT 285
GOING FROM DE COTTON FIELDS.
"I's going from de cotton fields, I's going from de cane,
I's going from de ole log hut dat stands down in de lane;
De boat am in de ribber dat hab come to take me off,
's gone and jined de 'Exodus' dat's making for de Norf.
Dey tell me out in Kansas, dat's so many miles away,
De colored folks am flocking, 'cause dey're getting better pay-,
I don't know how I'll find it dar, but I is bound to try,
So when de sun goes down to-night I's going to say good-bye.
Chorus,—I's going from de cotton fields,
And ah! it makes me sigh;
For when de sun goes down to-night,
I's going to say good-bye.
"But Dinah she don't want to go, she says we're getting old,
She's 'fraid dat she will freeze to death, the country am so cold;
De story 'bout de work and pay she don't believe am true,
She's begged me not to do the thing dat I am bound to do.
And so I's sold de cabin and de little patch of groun',
Dat good ole master gave us, when de Yankee troops came down;
My heart am awful heavy, and de tears am in my eye,
For when de sun goes down to-night I's going to say good-bye.
Chorus.—
"It grieves me now to leave the place where I was born and bred,
To leave de friends dat's living, and de graves of dem dat's dead;
De flow'rs dat grow where master sleeps will miss my tender care,
No hand like mine will ever go to keep dem blooming there.
But den de times hab got so hard, and I is ole and poor,
De hungry wolf am looking in and snarling at my door;
I's got to help de chil'ren some before I comes to die.
So when de sun goes down to-night I's going to say good-bye."
Chorus.—
CHAPTER XII.
MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME.
"The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home,
'Tis summer, the darkies are gay;
The corn top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom,
While the birds make music all the day.
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,
All merry, all happy and bright;
By'n by hard times comes a-knocking at the door:
Then, my old Kentucky home, good-night!"
Some of the pioneer settlers of Kentucky, con¬
temporary with Boone and Kenton, brought their
negro servants with them. Naturally these shared
with their masters the hair-breadth escapes and
perilous' adventures of th^t period, and often dis¬
played bravery unsurpassed.
In Collin's history of Kentucky, the following in¬
cident is recorded: "In the year 1781 or 2, near
Crab Orchard, in Lincoln County, a very singular
adventure occurred at the house of a Mr. Woods.
One morning he left his family, consisting of a
wife, and daughter not yet grown, and a lame Negro
man, and rode off to the station near by, not ex¬
pecting to return until night. Mrs. Woods, being
a short distance from her cabin, was alarmed by
discovering several Indians advancing towards it.
She instantly screamed loudly in order to give the
alarm, and ran with her utmost speed, in the hope
of reaching the house before them. In this she
286
A BLACK SUBJECT
287
succeeded, but before.she could close the door the
foremost Indian had forced his way into the house.
He was instantly seized by the lame Negro, and
after a short scuffle, they both fell with violence,
the Negro underneath.
"Mrs. Woods was too busily engaged in keeping
the door closed against the party without to at¬
tend to the combatants, but the Negro, holding the
Indian tightly in his arms, called to the young girl
to take the ax from under the bed and dispatch
him by a blow on the head. She immediately at¬
tempted it, but the first attempt was a failure. She
repeated the blow and killed him. The other In¬
dians were at the door endeavoring to force it open
with their tomahawks. The heroic Negro now rose
and proposed to Mrs. Woods to let in another,
andthey would soon dispose of the whole of them
in the same way. The cabin was only a short dis¬
tance from the station, the occupants of which,
having discovered the perilous situation of the fam¬
ily, fired on the Indians and killed another, when
the remainder made their escape."
Not even the name of this black hero is given,
when he justly merited his freedom fot this brave
deed.
Mrs. Connelly's "Story of Kentucky" gives the
following incident:
"When Kentucky was first settled, a night at¬
tack was made by a band of Indians upon the
home of Edmund Cabell, during his absence in Vir¬
ginia. The family were left in the care of an uncle
to Mrs. Cabell, and black Sam, a brave, able-
bodied slave.
"The day preceding the massacre had been very
288
THE WHITE SIDE OF
hot and sultry, so Sam was sleeping on a bunch of
hay in the edge of the woods. About midnight he
was awakened by a blaze of light at the cabin,
which he now discovered to be in flames. At the
same instant he saw that the house was surround¬
ed by Indians,who now began a general massacre
of the family, all of whom, with one exception, were
killed by the light of their burning home. The
exception was a little girl, who was carried out of
the building by one of the Indians and laid down
about halfway between the house and where our
colored hero was crouching behind the hay. The
Indians now returned to the house to get more
plunder; this was Sam's opportunity; creeping cau¬
tiously through the grass and weeds at imminent
danger of being seen by the light of the burning
house, or attracting the attention of the Indians
by any disturbance he might make among the
bushes.
"Providence favored him,and he reached the child
in safety, clasped her in one strong arm, and retraced
his steps in the same cautious manner. He was well
acquainted with the child, and managed to keep
her quiet, until there was quite a distance between
him and the Indians. He aimed for the nearest
Fort and traveled all night. About noon next
day, having lost his direction, he was weak from
hunger and exhaustion. He found a spring of
water, and ripe berries which kept him and the
child from starving. Traveling for the most part
at night, and hiding at every sound for fear of
Indians, he reached the Fort with the little girl,
both of them more dead than alive, for they had
spent three nights and a portion of the intervening
days in the woods.
A BLACK SUBJECT
289
"Sam now returned to his master's farm to look
after whatever live stock was left. And when the
master returned from Virginia and was viewing
the blackened ruins of his once happy home, faith¬
ful Sam appeared before him, and kept him from
utter despair, by giving him the first intelligence
that little Augusta, the darling of his heart, was
alive and safe at the Fort.
" Mr. Cabell now gladdened Sam's heart by telling
him that he .had brought his family with him from
Virginia, in consideration of his faithfulness and
lonely condition in the wilderness. So Sam was in
some measure rewarded for his heroism and fidelity.
"Augusta Cabell became in time one of the most
beautiful young ladies in Kentucky, and was very
grateful to her dusky defender.""
On March 22, 1794, William Bryant, of Lincoln
County, advertised for his negro man, Sam, and
offered ten dollars reward for securing him, so that
the owner could get him again. This was the
first slave advertised in Kentucky. Such adver¬
tisements became quite common, not only in this
state but throughout the South,sometimes offering
rewards for runaway slaves, alive or dead. There
were, perhaps, fewer such advertisements in Ken¬
tucky papers than any Southern state.
The truth is, in the words of N. S. Shaler, "the
Negroes of Kentucky were not generally suffering
from any bonds that weighed heavily upon them.
Slavery in Kentucky was of the domestic sort; that
is, it was, to most of their race, not a grievous bur¬
den to bear. This is well shown by the fact that
thousands of them quietly remained with their
masters in the counties along the Ohio River,
THE WHITE SIDE OF
when in any night they might have escaped across
the border.
"Still the Underground Railroad System, although
it did not free many slaves in Kentucky, greatly
irritated the minds of their owners, and even of the
class that did not own slaves."
"Perhaps," wrote Mrs. Stowe, "the mildest form
of the system of slavery is to be seen in the state
of Kentucky. The general prevalence of agricul¬
tural pursuits of a quiet and gradual nature, not
requiring those periodic seasons of hurry and pres¬
sure that are called for in the business of more
Southern districts, makes the task of the Negro a
more healthful and reasonable one, while the mas¬
ter, content with a more gradual style of acqui¬
sition, had not those temptations to hard-hearted-
ness which always overcome frail human nature,
when the prospect of sudden and rapid gain is
weighed in the balance with no heavier counter¬
poise than the interests of the helpless and un¬
protected."
There is much truth in this statement, but it
occurs to me as a Kentuckian, and the son of a
slave-holder, that a number of circumstances con¬
tributed to make the lot of the Kentucky slave
much easier than those in the cotton or sugar belt.
In the first place, the nature of the country is
better adapted to labor, being for the most part
elevated and rolling. As there are no swamps to
produce chills and fever, it is a remarkably healthy
country, with a delightful and invigorating cli¬
mate. Then too, in the agricultural portions of
the state, instead of vast plantations of thousands
of acres, and a 'small army of slaves, driven from
A BLACK SUBJECT
291
morning until night by a brutal overseer, or still
more brutal negro driver, small farms and few
slaves were the rule. As a general rule the Ken¬
tucky kraier, or one of his sons, managed the
farm without the aid of a regular hired overseer,
although he would often put one of the slaves in
for foreman. This foreman was generally the best
worker and most trustworthy hand on the farm,
and was 'expected' to lead, not drive the work.
It must not be forgotten that the Kentucky
staples, such as live stock, the cereals, tobacco
and hemp (she leads the world in the two last),
did not yield" such immense profits as to tempt the
cupidity of the farmers, or require such forced and
exhausting labor. We are also inclined to the
opinion that this mild form of servitude was largely
due to the fact that the average Kentucky farmer
was and is a whole-souled, big hearted man. Hap¬
py, prosperous, and well-fed himself, he liked to
have even his slaves share in his good cheer.
Patty B- Semple, a correspondent for the At¬
lantic Monthly, writing "of an old Kenutcky home
in the ante-bellum days, says: "After breakfast,
there was always a group of Negroes about the
porch, each one armed with a tin cup or plate,
and waiting for the daily allowance of molasses,
sugar, and coffee to be given out from the store¬
room, hoping also for some special tidbit from
the family table." We do not recall having read
any account like that about any other state
In describing the Blue' Grass farmer, she does it
so perfectly that we know she must have been
there. "He was not a hard master, although per¬
haps not a particularly indulgent one. A practical
THE WHITE SIDE OF
farmer, he insisted that the work should be prop¬
erly done, and to keep the indolent, careless Negroes
up to the mark required an immense amount of
oversight. His horse was saddled before break¬
fast, and he was mounted, and about the farm
early and late, knowing the old maxim that the
eye of the master will do more work than both
his hands. He went to bed early, usually rose
between three and four o'clock in the morning,
and smoked a meditation pipe on the back porch
before any one else was about, and then at 'sun¬
up' his stentorian voice would be heard starting
the hands. His constant companion was a corn¬
cob pipe filled with Kentucky tobacco, which was
always lighted by a live coal, and one of the most
common sounds about the place was his call to
one of the little darkies, 'Bring me a coal of fire,
Polly,' or Lizzie, or Tom, as the case might be.•
The piece of glowing wood was carried in a pair
.of short tongs from the kitchen fire, and as he blew
away the ashes and applied it to his pipe, he put
good-natured, teasing questions to the little Negro
who had brought it. These colloquies were the
source of infinite enjoyment to him and embar¬
rassment to his victim, who stood uneasily on
one foot, twisting the other about and boring into
the ground with one great toe, until the tongs
were handed back with some extravagant compli¬
ment, and the interview ended."
We are inclined to believe what contributed
most to alleviate the condition of the Kentucky
plave was the constant lashing of conscience. A
large number, perhaps a majority of the pec pie
of the state did not believe slavery was right. Now,
A BLACK SUBJECT
293
we know this bare statement, unbacked by strong
evidence, would not pass unchallenged; but the
evidence, is at hand. There is abundant proof
that the conscience of the great body of the people
was ever sensitive concerning the right of one
man to own another.
The-institution was recognized at first, simply
because most of the early settlers were from the
slave-holding states and brought their slaves with
them. From an early period they began to eman¬
cipate them, and to place statute restriction on
their importation.
When the new constitution was to be adopted,
thirty thousand votes, representing the wealthiest
and most intelligent slave-holders, were cast in
favor of an open clause,by which gradual emancipa¬
tion should become a law, as soon as practical.
One religious denomination after another denounc¬
ed slavery as a moral evil. Additional proof that
there was a growing sentiment against this insti¬
tution and in favor of a gradual emancipation, is
found in Dr. J. Freeman Clark's "Anti-Slavery
Days." He was a citizen of Kentucky from 1833
to 1840; and states that slavery existed there in a
comparatively mild form, and the sentiment of
the better class of people was decidedly against it,
for the reason that they considered it a wrong and
an evil, that should be abolished.
A young man from Boston called upon Dr.
Clark in Louisville, and was invited to take a drive
with him into the country to visit some of the
plantations. The Boston youth was a member of
one of the very conservative New England families
who opposed abolition as a fanatical movement,
294
THE WHITE SIDE OF
and thought the abolitionists endangered the safety
of the union.
The first place they came to was the home of
Judge Jno. J. Marshall, who belonged to one of
the old families of Virginia and Kentucky, Mrs.
Marshall being the sister of Jno. G. Birney, after¬
wards a candidate for the Presidency on the Free
Soil ticket.
As the Marshalls owned slaves, and there were
a large number of Negro children about the yard,
the young man thought it opportune to speak fa¬
vorably of the institution. "Mrs. Marshall," said
he, "I think our people at the North are very much
mistaken in attacking slavery as they do. It seems
to me there is nothing so very bad about it." Mrs.
Marshall replied: "It will not do, sir, to defend
slavery in this family. The Marshalls and the
Birneys have always been abolitionists." Of course
the young man was surprised at that statement
coming from the wife of a slave-holder, but a still
greater surprise awaited him at the next house at
which they called, the home of Judge John Speed,
who had a large plantation and about sixty slaves.
The Boston youth, thinking no doubt that Mrs,
Marshall was an exceptional person, and it would
be safe this time to advocate slavery, said: "Judge,
I do not see but the slaves are as happy as our
laboring classes at the North." "Well." answered
the Judge, "I do the best I can to make my slaves
comfortable; but I tell you what it is, you cannot
make a slave happy, do what you will. God Al¬
mighty never meant a man to be a slave, and he
cannot be happy while he is a slave." The young
man continued in amazement, "But what can be
A BLACK SUBJECT
295
done about it, sir? They are not able to take care
of themselves, if they were free. How could they
manage if slavery were abolished?"
"I think I could show you three men on my
plantation," replied Judge Speed, "who might go
to the Kentucky legislatureI am inclined to believe
they would make just as good legislators as the
average men that you find there now " This state*-
ment, coming from such a source, astonished the
young man still more; but it was a plain state¬
ment of the exact truth.
With the Kentuckian's characteristic fondness for
fair play,the question in all its bearings was freely
discussed. "The Louisville Journal," then edited by
Geo. D, Prentice, was ever ready to welcome and
print articles showing the evils of slavery.
Dr. Clark recalls a discussion in Louisville which
lasted three nights; in that time the'whole ques¬
tion of slavery was covered; one side assuming
that it was right, and a good thing, and ought to
be maintained; and the other that it was an evil,
morally, socially, and politically, and as such
should be abolished. This was not an ordinary
debate, some of the most cultured and intelligent
gentlemen in the city, including Dr. Clark, partici¬
pating on either side, and, strange as it may seem,
a majority were on the side of those who con¬
tended that it was an evil and a wrong.
The best article on slavery in Kentucky we have
seen was written by James Lane Allen. In his
"Uncle Tom at Home in Kentucky," he quotes the
following extract from a letter to him from Mrs.
Stowe, dated Apr. 30, 1886: "In relation to your
letter, I would say that I never lived in Kentucky,
296
THE WHITE SIDE OF
but spent many years in Cincinnati, which is sep¬
arated from Kentucky only by the Ohio River,
which, as a.shrewd politician remarked, was nearly
dry one half of the year and frozen the other. My
father was president of Lane Theological Seminary
at Walnut Hills, near Cincinnati, and with him I
traveled and visited somewhat extensively in Ken¬
tucky, and there became acquainted with those
excellent slave-holders delineated in Uncle Tom's
Cabin, I saw many counterparts of the Shelbys—
people humane, conscientious, just and generous,
who regarded slavery as an evil and were anxiously
considering their duties to the slave. But it was
not till I had finally left the West, and my hus¬
band was settled as professor in Bowdoin College,
Brunswick, Maine, that the passage of the fugi¬
tive slave law and the distress that followed it
drew this from me."
Thus we find that Mrs. Stowe testifies to the
fact that there was a strong undercurrent of intense
opposition to slavery in Kentucky at that time, and
that the slaves she saw there were well treated.
A close analysis of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" will
impress one with the thought that she first intro¬
duced the reader to slavery in Kentucky, because
it was of the mildest form; that she might cap the
climax by an introduction to Legree's Red River
cotton plantation, where it was seen in its most
hideous and brutalizing aspect.
Another proof that the slaves in this state fared
better than elsewhere, is seen in the code of laws
framed to regulate slavery. According to this, "if
slaves were inhumanly treated by their owner, or not
A BLACK SUBJECT
297
supplied with proper food and clothing, they could
be taken from them and sold to a better master."
A few cases are recorded, of slaves who had been
liberated and sent to Canada,voluntarily returning
into service under their former masters.
Even in Kentucky there were slave-holders,and
slave holders, some good, some bad, ar.d some
very bad. Those w ho were .kindest to their slaves
were ready to put down an abolitionist,whom they
regarded as interfering with their affairs, and bit¬
terly hated.
The saddest feature of slavery in this state was
the internal slave trade. That negroes were regu¬
larly raised for the Southern market cannot te
denied. That in some cases brutalized white men
sold their own sons and daughters, knowing them
to be such, goes unchallenged; but these were the
exceptions rather than the rule.
The sentiment of a majority of their people be¬
ing against it, the slave trade was not as large as
is generally believed. Sometimes a farmer would
have among his slaves one that was unruly and
even vicious; such a one was invariably sold
South. But the chief reason for which slaves were
sold was embarrassment by debt on the part of their
master. In this case it often happened that the
most valuable slaves on the farm were sold, as in
the case of Uncle Tom, for the rascally slave
buyers,knowing the master's condition, would have
none but the best.
There is a hint of the cause of such sales, in
the pathetic strain, seldom appreciated:
"By'n b& kard times comes a-knocking at the door;
Then my Old Kentucky Home, good-night."
On one occasion, all the slaves in a tobacco field
298
THE WHITE SIDE OF
dropped their hoes and chased a rabbit the dogs had
started. A meddlesome neighbor reported the fact
to their master. But he received the indignant an¬
swer from the old gentleman, "Sir, I'd have whipped
the last black rascal of 'em if they hadn't run 'im!"
A sketch of slavery in Kentucky would be incom¬
plete without some mention of Cassius Marcellus
Clay, "the noblest Roman of them all;" certainly
the greatest of Southern Abolitionists, and perhaps
the equal of any in the nation. This remarkable
man is the son of General Green Clay, and was born
in Madison County, Oct. 19, 1810. After taking a
course of study at Transylvania University, Lexing¬
ton, the same school Jefferson Davis attended, he
graduated at Yale College in 1832.
He took a great interest in politics when a young
man, and represented Madison and Fayette Counties
each in the Legislature, where he made a brilliant
record.
He issued the first copy of the "True American,"
from Lexington, June 3, 1845. This paper was de¬
voted to the overthrow of slavery in Kentucky. It
required great courage in those turbulent times to
edit an anti-slavery paper in the South. It seemid
like bearding the lion in his den. But Cassius M.
Clay was the "boldest of all the enemies of slavery."
His soul was aflame with hatred and disgust for hu¬
man servitude. Naturally a paper edited by such a
man would be a powerful philippic hurled against the
detested institution; and while it made many friends
for the cause he espoused, it heated its enemies seven
times more than they were wont to be heated.
Accordingly on Aug. 18, 1845, there was a great
mass meeting held in Lexington, of citizens from all
over central Kentucky,irrespective of party. At this
meeting it was resolved that the press and materials
A BLACK SUBJECT
299
of the "True American" should be sent beyond the
confines of the state. A committee carefully boxed
up all his outfit and shipped it, expenses prepaid, to
Cincinnati; after which they sent Mr. Clay the ad¬
dress of the house to which they consigned it, subject
to his order.
The Kentuckian's love of fair play is again reflected
in this incident, when it is remembered that in the
case of Lovejoy the pro-slavery ruffians from Mis¬
souri and Illinois murdered him outright, after* de¬
stroying four presses.
Mr. Clay afterwards obtained judgment against
two of the committee for twenty-five hundred dollars,
which was paid by citizens of Fayette and adjoining
counties.
Mr. Clay commanded the Old Infantry in the Mex¬
ican War. Returning home,he was presented with
a sword for gallant conduct. He was also minister
to Russia in 1861, Major General of Volunteers in
1862, and again minister to Russia from 1863 to '69.
He was once nominated for governor of Kentucky,'
with George P. Blakey of Logan County on the
ticket for lieutenant governor.
He now resides at his beautiful home, White Hall,
Kentucky. The sunset of his long life is as peaceful
and quiet as his earlier years were turbulent.
His nephew and namesake, Cassius M. Clay,Jr ,of
Bourbon County, is ijow a strong candidate for gover¬
nor. This Mr. Clay has been a member of the Ken¬
tucky Legislature, and was President of the late con¬
stitutional convention of that state. As he is from
the county where the author spent his "boyhood's
happy hours," and where his people still live, most
of whom are Clay men, and as he is thoroughly
competent to fill the high place to which he aspires,
it is to be hoped he will be elected.
3oo
THE WHITE SIDE OF
The two greatest sons of Kentucky were Henry
Clay and Abraham Lincoln, for she claims them both,
the one by adoption, the other by birth. Each was
strangely identified with the question of slavery; each
was a pure patriot who loved his country; each was
strictly conscientious in the belief that his own view
was the true solution to the vexatious problem, and
for the best interests of the nation. Kentuckians al¬
ways believed in Henry Clay; her cardinal points of
political faith might be summed up in the dictum,
" There is a just God who presides over the destiny oi
nations,and Henry Clay is his prophet." But this heros.
worship was not confined to Kentucky. I remembei
when a boy hearing Theodore Tilton deliver a lecture
at Paris. In speaking of his visit to Henry Clay's
grave and monument, while at Lexington the day
before, he said: "As I neared that sacred spot I im¬
agined I heard a voice saying unto me, 'Put off thy
shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground.' " It is an imposing,awe-in¬
spiring monument Kentucky has erected over his re*
mains, and can be seen several miles from Lexingtor,
in almost any direction,
Illinois has built a still more imposing monument
in honor of her greatest adopted son, at Springfield.
The author stood once and viewed first the monu¬
ment, and then a group of dusky freedmen, as, with
heads reverently uncovered and tears in their eyes>
they were gazing at Lincoln's statue, that the image
might be photographed on their minds and hearts.
It would not have taken them long to decide that
Lincoln was not only a greater man than Clay, but
in some respects the greatest man America ever pro¬
duced.
The contrast between the great compromiser and
the great emancipator might be stated in this way.
A BLACK SUBJECT'
301
Henry Clay said, "I would rather be right than to be
President," but he was neither right nor President.
Lincoln made no such boast,but he was both right
and President. Clay no doubt did the best he could
for his day and generation, under all circumstances.
He was frequently misunderstood and misquoted, be¬
cause his enemies would persistently put the words of
Cassius M. Clay, the abolitionist, into the mouth of
Henry Clay, the compromiser; the opposite paity
could not, or would not, understand that there were
two Clays from Lexington, Kentucky, each of whom
was a prominent politician and statesman, and the
leader of his party in that state, but their views on
the slavery question were as wide apart as the two
poles.
An amusing incident is told by Mrs. Pickard. It
seems that Mr. Clay had a favorite servant named
Aaron, who was his carriage driver. He was very
competent, but would take a drink of whisky every
opportunity, and sometimes become intoxicated. "On
one occasion he drove Mrs. Clay into Lexington,
and while she was shopping, he was drinking. By
the time she was ready to go home Aaron was inca¬
pable of driving.
"Much to her mortification,she was compelled to
hire a driver in order to get home. Justly indignant,
she resolved that Aaron should be punished; so she
told her husband all about it. Calling the overseer
to the house the next morning, Mr. Clay repeated
the circumstance and instructed him to take the
offender to the carriage house and give him a light
whipping. "Now,do it quietly, said he, and be sure
not to cut his skin. I don't want to hear any dis¬
turbance. Do it as gently as possible."
The overseer assented and went out. One of the
maids happened to overhear the conversation, and
302
THE WHITE SIDE OF
slipping out of the house,she told Aaron all about it.
"Forewarned is forearmed, and fortifying himself
with a drink of whisky, he meekly responded to the
overseer's call and went with him into the carriage
house, and the door was fastened on the inside. 'I
am sorry to have to whip you,' said the overseer,
'but it is Mr, Clay's orders; he said your drinking
habits had annoyed your mistress and you must be
punished.' 'Well, if Massa say so, then it must be
so, but you needn't tie me—I won't be tied!' 'Very
well,' replied the overseer, throwing down the rope,
'you need not be tied if you will stand still; but you
must takeoff your coat.' 'Yes, sir, but if I takes off my
coat to be whipped, you ought to take yourn off first,
to whip me!'
"The overseer saw that he had been drinking and
knew he must indulge his whims if he would obey
Mr. Clay's orders and keep quiet; so he pulled off his
coat, and the slave laid his beside it. Next followed the
two'vests. 'Now your shirt, Aaron,' said he. 'Yes,sir,
but you must take off yourn first.' This was going
farther for quiet's sake than the overseer had intended,
but he thought it would be best to humor him. Ha
had long wished for a chance to humble Aaron, and
the time had come. But behold! no sooner had hq
lifted his arms to pull his shirt over his head, than
Aaron seized the garment, a strong new one, and
twisting it around his neck, held him fast. Then
catching the whip, he applied it vigorously to the
overseer's naked back,raising the skin at every stroke.
His victim screamed and threatened him with ven¬
geance, but all in vain; the blows fell hard and
fast.
"Mr. Clay heard the outcry and grew angry. 'I told
him,' said he, 'to make no noise, and to be sure not
to whip the poor fellow severely. He must be cut-'
ting him to pieces.'
A BLACK SUBJECT
303
"He hastened to the carriage house and heard the
whizzing of the whip as it descended on the sufferer's
back. 'Open the door,' he cried! 'Didn't I tell you
not to whip him hard? Open the door, I say.' "
"'O, Mr. Clay! it's Aaron whipping me! I haven't
given him a blow.'
" 'Aaron,' cried the master, 'open the door!' In¬
stantly the slave obeyed. With his right hand, in
which he still held the whip that he had used to such
good purpose, he opened the door, while with his left
he retained his vice-like grasp of the twisted shirt.
His face was all complacency, yet his eyes twinkled
with mirth, and a roguish smile lurked at the corner
of his mouth.
"Mr. Clay stood for a moment mute with astonish¬
ment. But when he fully comprehended the strange
scene, he burst into a hearty laugh, and although the
overseer, as soon as he was released, proceeded to
explain to him the manner in which he had been
caught, and insisted that he should now be allowed
to whip Aaron, his arguments were lost. The mas¬
ter quietly expressed his opinion that there had been
whipping enough—it was not necessary to go any
farther."
Almost my earliest recollection was the sale which
followed my father's death, at the old homestead in
Fayette County. I remember after the miscellaneous
assortment of farming implements, stock, grain,etc,,
was disposed of,the negroes were put up on the block
and knocked off to the highest bidder. And when
Uncle Lewis, the foreman,who had made me whistles
and toys,and let me ride with him to the field and back,
was put up, and his age was inquired, and his teeth
and muscles examined much as they did the horses at
the barn, it cut me to the heart. But when I after¬
wards saw Aunt Ann, my black "mammy," who had
THE WHITE SIDE OF
carried me in her arms and nursed me on her bosom,
and my little black playmates, who were as dear to
me as any I ever had, put up and disposed of, the iron
entered my soul. Child as I was, I knew that what
I that day witnessed was wrong; and as first impres¬
sions are the most lasting, I have never for a mo¬
ment thought differently. My opposition to slavery,
thus aroused, has grown with my growth and strength¬
ened with my strength, until now "I loathe, abhor,
my very soul with strong disgust is stirred, when¬
ever I hear or write or tell of this dark institution of
hell."
My oldest sister married a well-to-do farmer, stock-
dealer, and slave-holder in southern Kentucky. After
my mother's family moved to Paris, this sister, with
her husband, baby girl and nurse, came on a few
weeks' visit. My mother's cook, Aunt Dinah, was
very industrious, but a genuine Guinea negro and a
veritable virago. She ruled over the nurse and house
girl with a rod of iron, for she frequently brandished
the poker, as she scolded and berated them for some
misdemeanor. Every one on the place except the
mistress, stood in awe of her.
Now, my little niece was devoted to her nurse
Ellen; and though little more " than a baby, was a
precocious child; she seldom spoke, but when she did
it was plain and pointed.
Of course this little tot stood in awe of Aunt Dinah
and seldom played around the kitchen. But one day
when the cook was administering her usual tongue
lashing to the nurse, the baby girl plucked her apron
to attract attention, and said, her eyes flashing, "I
thinks you treats my Ellen mighty mean!" At this
the cook jumped back and threw up both hands in
amazement, and sa;d, "Fo de Lord, whar dat chile
come from? never know'd she could talk!" She never
abused Ellen af:er this.
A BLACK SUBJECT
305
On one occasion while visiting relatives in the
country I went fishing in company with my cousin,a
boy older and larger than myself. We had good luck
and caught a nice string of small fish.
Late in the afternoon, a black girl, nearly grown,
named Seeley,rode out into the pasture on horseback
where we were, to drive up the cows. Like every
other town boy, I was eager for a ride, and as my
cousin was willing to carry the poles and fish, I was
soon on the horse behind the girl, and we were gal¬
loping to the back part of the pasture.
Just as she was whipping the horse into still greater
speed, the girth broke, and the saddle turning, threw
us both to the ground with violence. She landed on
her feet and was not hurt, but I broke a leg by the
fall. My cousin, who saw the accident, turned back;
between them they caught the horse, and having re-
saddled it, put me on its back, and while one of them
led the horse, the other walked by my side and sup¬
ported the broken leg.
The girl was in great distress, and said "she knew
the white folks would kill her for that." My cousin
thought so too, and to prevent her being severely
punished, who was not in any way to blame, except
that she rode too Jast thinking to please me, we con¬
trived a very plausible explanation of the accident.
"Let us tell them," said the girl, "that you raised up
a rock to get a fishing worm, and accidentally let it fall
back against your leg and broke it." This we agreed
to do, and even decided which rock it was, namely,
the one nearest the stump at the end of the dam.
Well, it was a deliberate falsehood, but I believe the
recording angel blotted it out under the circumstances.
For years afterwards the identical rock that feil
against the boy's leg and broke it, was pointed cut
to passers-by.
3o6 THE WHITE SIDE OF
Every one has read of "Jimmie Butler and the owl,"
but I propose to tell you about Tom Butler and the
mule. The circumstance happened on my Uncle's
farm, about seven miles from Paris, where I spent
several vacations when a boy. There were seven
hundred acres in the farm, and of course he employed
a good many hands, mostly Negroes. Among them
was this Tom Butler, a young man about twenty years
of age; and with the work stock, was a big one-eyed
sorrel mule named Jack, who could jump a fence even
if it was mule high, and throw his rider without any
apparent effort. One day I was riding him out to
work, when Tom Butler rattled his shoes, while sit¬
ting on the fence on the blind side of the mule; im¬
mediately he arched his back and shot skyward; I
found myself on the ground,but not hurt. My cousin,
iwho was manager, happened to see it, and made the
Negro get on the mule, and took me up behind him
on his horse. We rode on ahead and left the other
hands to follow. Now we had occasion to go up on
one Side of a "branch" through the corn-field to get
to our work. Here there were some tall horse weeds
beside the path. At the suggestion of my cousin, I
concealed myself in those weeds, armed with a long,
sharp stick. • When the mule and his rider came
along I punched him in the ribs on the blind side with
my stick; you can readily imagine what happened.
My cousin was looking backward at the time, and he
declared that the mule's feet actually got up higher
than the corn tassels. The first jump was not suffi¬
cient to throw him, for though the Negro was elevated
some distance in the air, he fell back straddle of the
mule.
Jack now saw that he had more than an ordinary
rider, and as he had never failed before, and had his
reputation at stake, he arched his back and shot up-
A BLACK SUBJECT
307
ward like a rocket; and the Negro, well, he fell flat
on his back in the mud and water of this little creek.
I fully expected a fight or a foot race, but no, the
good-natured fellow was not hurt; he arose, pulled
himself out of the mire, and with a grin on his face
said, "We is eben now; less quit."
After my sister was left a widow, I made my home
with her for five years, and managed her farm and
other business. Tobacco was the great staple, and
in its culture we sometimes had poor whites from
Tennessee, and colored people, as tenants or hired
hands. But the blacks were infinitely more satisfac¬
tory. They had been taught to work in a cruel and
exacting school, and the lesson was well learned.
Among the black people on the place was an intelli¬
gent mulatto named .Griffin Taylor, and his family.
He had belonged to a wealthy but hard master; had
also been a soldier during the war. He was now get¬
ting old, and being afflicted with rheumatism,so that
he worked under great pain and disadvantage, and
having a large family, he was always hard pressed
to make a living. I remarked to him one day,
"Griffin,did you not fare better when a slave than you
do now?"
"Boss," was the reply,"have you read the fable of
the fat cur dog and the lean wolf? Well, in those
days I was a fat cur dog; I was fed,passably clothed,
and well worked, and if I ventured off the farm at
night without a pass I was liable to be well whipped.
I was simply chained to the place, a mere machine
or animal. Now I am like that lean wolf; I have a
hard scuffle to get enough-to eat, but I am free to go
where I please and no man can stop me. Better a
thousand fold liberty with poverty, than plenty with
slavery." And this sentiment is practically endorsed
by all with whom I have ever talked on the subject.
3oS THE WHITE SIDE OF
It wis at this time I made a Study of the Negro
race. I found much in their dispositions and char¬
acters that was admirable. In the first place, they
were ambitious to excel in their work. This ambition
could be aroused by just and honest settlements, by
discreet and honest commendation, not flattery, and
by getting up a friendly rivalry between two cham¬
pions, or set of hands. Put them on their honor and
show that you have confidence in them, and you will
seldom find your confidence misplaced.
For instance, my sister had for a cook a colored
auntie, Aunt Mandy, or "Black Mammy" as we some¬
times called her. She was brought up and trained
under the old regime, and the very soul of honor.
My sister and her family could go and leave her any
length of time, knowing that when "they returned,
everything would be in as good condition' as when
they left.
In the Blue Grass Region,most of the Negroes have
settled in little villages of their own, around the large
towns.. Here the more thrifty of them own their
homes, and others can rent on reasonable terms.
The men go in numbers and work for the farmers
from Monday morning until Saturday night. There
are no better farm laborers in America than those
Kentucky black men. The women, however, are not
inclined to be as industrious. Often during harvest
or thrashing, a farmer can get more help than he
wants of the very best quality, but his wife can
hardly get help in the kitchen for love or money,
when at the nearest colored town there are scores of
strong young women absolutely idle; they will not
go into the country to work. Still a few of the wom¬
en are as industrious as the men.
The colored farm hands have monopolized the work
in hemp, especially cutting and breaking; this is due
A BLACK SUBJECT
309
to the fact that such work is very heavy, and un¬
pleasant owing to the dust which is constantly flying.
White men cannot endure the dust and refuse to
work at it.
The work they seem to take the most pride in is
around the stable where the trotting or race horses
are trained. Here the negro is in his glory as a rub¬
ber, rider, driver, or even trainer; for some of the
most successful premium and race winners in Ken¬
tucky have no other trainers but colored men. They
take as much pride in a horse they train or drive in
a race, as the owner, and of course could not be
bribed to "throw off" a race.
However, a colored man could not fail to take in¬
terest in horses if he lived in that favored state; it is
pimply contagious, especially around Lexington, the
fast horse center of the universe. Office and parlor
of the leading hotels are filled with paintings of horses
in the very poetry of motion. If two men are en¬
gaged in a ft earnest conversation, nine times out of
ten they are talking "horse." I was in the Phoenix
Hotel office one day, when a gentleman introduced
two others as follows: "Allow me to present my
friend Colonel Blank, better known as the owner of
Membrino." Indeed "horseology," to coin a word, is
considered one of the essential accomplishments of a
Blue Grass belle; while the young men imagine the
"halo around the moon to be a glorious celestial
race track."
Another characteristic of the Negro I have often
noticed. They are never willing to acknowledge that
they are perfectly well; you can often hear a conver¬
sation about like this: "How you do dis mo'nin' ?"
"I'm tol'able."
"How you.Uncf Dick?" "I'm tol'able, bless God!"
"How Rachel"She's tol'able." "How Unc'
THE WHITE SIDE OF
Billy?" "He's tol'able." "The chil'un all well?"
"Yes'um, dey all tol'able." When probably every
individual inquired about was in almost perfect
health.
However, we think with Judge W. M. Beckner
of the Winchester Democrat, that "the Negro pop¬
ulation of Kentucky is of a better class than that of
the cotton states."
The circle of those who recognize the "Brother in
Black" as a useful element in the social forces of the
South, is widening from year to year.
He has a record of moral and intellectual inprove-
ment without a parallel in the history of the world.''
FREDERICK DOUGLASS,
WILLIAM MOORE.
CHAPTER XIII.
some prominent negroes.
I. Frederick Douglass:—It is not known just
when this remarkable man was born; but he supposes
it was in February, 1817, in the village ofTuckahoe,
Maryland.
His mother's name was Harriet Bailey, and he re¬
members that she was the only black person in the
village who could read; he also recollects that she
was quite black and glossy; and as he is many shades
lighter, his father must have been a white man.
Frederick had an older brother named Perry, and
four sisters. His mother, as if anticipating his future
career of greatness,gave him a name in keeping with
it; she called him Frederick Augustus Washington
Bailey; but after his escape, wishing to conceal his
identity, he took the name he has since borne.
The Negroes on his master's plantation received
the usual cruelty accorded slaves in Maryland at this
time. Many were the floggings the boy witnessed,
which brought blood from the backs of the victim of
an overseer's lash.
However, there were a few bright spots in his plan¬
tation life to which he could look back with pleasure.
His master's daughter, Mrs. Thomas Auld, called
by, the slaves "Miss Lucretia," treated him with great
kindness; indeed he became quite a pet with her, and
often when hungry, his usual condition, would sing
under her window, receiving for his pay a slice of
311
312
THE WHITE SIDE OF
bread and butter. When struck on the forehead
by another slave boy, she it was who dressed his
bleeding wound.
After this, he was sent by his master to Baltimore,
where his new mistress, the wife of Hugh Auld, was
very kind to him, and began teaching him to read;
but was prevented by her husband, who said in the
presence of the boy, that "learning would ruin any
nigger" and if Fred was .taught to read the Bible it
would be impossible to keep him a slave. The words
of his master were treasured up by our young hero,
who resolved at all hazards to get learning, and with
all his getting to "get understanding."
He always carried a Webster's spelling book in his
pocket, and induced his little white playmates to give
him instructions. He turned bootblack, and earned
fifty cents with which he bought a "Columbian Ora¬
tor, "and read with such avidity he might be said to
have devoured it.
In 1834 Frederick's master hired him to one Covey,
a prominent Methodist in the same county, who talked
religion on Sunday to his slaves, and prayed before
them morning and evening; but his treatment of
them was not in keeping with his profession. When
he had been there but a.few days, Covey sent him
with a yoke of unruly oxen to draw in wood from the
forest. This would have been a difficult task for an
experienced ox driver; but our hero had never driven
oxen before, and as might have been expected, they
became unmanageable, tangling themselves and the
cart, until it was hard work releasing them; however,
this was finally accomplished, and with his load on
he started to the house; but the oxen ran away even
with the load on the cart;breaking the gate to pieces,
they almost crushed the driver between the wheel
and the gate-post. He did not reach the house until
A BLACK SUBJECT
313
late noon, but Covey at once ordered him back for
a second load; and following after saw what had been
done. He now cut three black gum sprouts, noted
for their toughness, from four to six feet long; tearing
off Frederick's clothes,he wore them out on his bare
back, one at a time, and his coarse shirt kept the
sores rubbed and open for weeks. On another oc¬
casion during a hot afternoon in August, Frederick
was taken deathly sick while carrying wheat to a fan.
Covey saw him lying on the ground, and with a brutal
kick in the side, ordered him to rise; he made an
effort and fell back, but a second heavy kick brought
him to his feet, only to fall helpless on attempting
to pick up the tub of wheat and chaff. Upon which
Covey struck him over the head with a stick, causing
the blood to gush out, saying,"I will cure your head¬
ache." His victim was still tt>o weak to rise.and was
left bleeding in a fence corner. The flow of blood
relieved his dizziness, and he determined to go and
complain to his master; seeking a moment when
Covey's back was turned, he crept into the woods,
where,after resting a while,he made his way almost
exhausted to St. Michaels, and reported to Captain
Auld, only to be sent back the next day. He did not
present himself before Covey until Sunday morning,
having spent Saturday night with a slave named
Sanday and his wife, who gave him food and minis¬
tered to his wants. Brother Covey received him
kindly, for it was the Sabbath,and the good man (?)
was just starting to church.
He attempted to whip Fred once more after this,
but the worm turned on him. The slave had noticed,
"men are whipped oftenest who are whipped easiest."
He determined to resist, and did so with such suc¬
cess that he drew blood from Covey without losing a
drop himself.
3H
THE WHITE SIDE OF
He never attempted to whip him afterwards. He
was a slave four years longer, but was never again
whipped, for whenever it was attempted he always
gave as good as he received, sometimes better.
In 1835-6 he was hired from his master by one Mr.
Freeland; here he received kind treatment, and found
a way to open a Sunday-school. He also determined
to preach the gospel, and after all had retired'to b$d
would go out and address the pigs as "Dear Breth¬
ren."
After this, he was sent to Baltimore and appren¬
ticed to a ship-builder. From here he escaped, dis¬
guised as a sailor, and fled to New York. Here he
was joined by his sweetheart, Anna Murray of Balti¬
more, a free woman of color, and they were married.
The bride and groom pushed 011 to New Bedford,
where he hoped to get work at his trade, that of
calking ships.
He worked in New Bedford at shoveling coal, saw¬
ing wood, digging cellars, or any other odd job that
came to hand, until he finally secured work at calk¬
ing whalers in the ship yard.
On August nth, 1841, he was invited for the first
time to address an audience of white people in a con¬
vention at Nantucket. He arose with fear and trem¬
bling,being much embarrassed, but managed to stam¬
mer through a short speech, wherein he thanked the
champions of liberty for what they had done and
were doing for his enslaved race. He made a good
impression, however, and after urgent solicitation
opened the convention next morning.
Douglass on this occasion and afterwards, amused
the people and proved that he had been a slave, by
giving the following extract from a slave-holding
minister's sermon to an audience of slaves on the
text, "Servants,obey in all things tyour masters,
A BLACK SUBJECT
315
"The Lord in His Providence sent pious souls over
to Africa—dark, heathen, benighted Africa, to bring
you into this Christian.land, where you can sit be¬
neath the droppings of the sanctuary and hear about
Jesus. The Lord has so established things that only
through the channel of obedience can happiness flow.
For instance—Sam, the other day, was sent out by
his master to do a piece of work that would occupy
about two hours and a half. At the expiration of
that time, Sam's master went out; and, lo and be¬
hold! there lay Sam's hoe in one place, and Sam in
another, fast asleep. The master remembered the
words of scripture: 'He that knoweth his master's
will and doeth it not shall be beaten with many
stripes!' So Sam was taken up and whipped, so that
he was disabled from doing any work for the space
of three weeks and a half. For only through the
channel of obedience can happiness flow."
It was after he had spoken at Oakland, Ohio, that
one Irishman remarked to another: "And what do
you think of that for a Naygur?"
"Be aisy," was the answer, "he's only half a Nay¬
gur."
"And if half a Naygur can speak like that, what
could a whole one do?"
His companions soon learned it was wise to have
Douglass the last speaker on the program, if they
wanted to hold their audience to the end.
At Grafton, Massachusetts, he advertised his own
meeting by ringing a bell through the streets and
crying, "Notice! Frederick Douglass,recently a slave,
will lecture on American slavery, on Grafton Common,
this evening at seven o'clock." He was greeted by
a great audience, and offered the largest church in
town for his other meetings.
His matchless eloquence was the "Open Sesame"
which secured this favor.
316
THE WHITE SIDE OF
Having written the true "Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass," he thought it discreet to put
the ocean between him and his enraged master for a
season. Accordingly he embarked for Liverpool
Aug. 16, 1845.
His book was eagerly read on board, and an in¬
vitation extended to its author to deliver an address
upon the saloon-deck. This he attempted to do;
but a number of Southern slave-holders on board in¬
terrupted him by giving the lie to everything he said
and shaking their fists under his nose. The captain
was at last forced to clear the deck, and even threat¬
ened to put the leader of the mob in irons. An ac¬
count of this suppression of free speech on the high
sea was published in the English papers and gave the
black orator an immense amount of free advertising;
so that his lecturing tour through Ireland, Scotland
and England was almost an ovation. While in Ire¬
land, Father Mathew gave him a soiree, and admin¬
istered to him the temperance pledge. In making a
speech in St. Patrick's Temperance Hall, Douglass
said of those who spoke of the Irish as slaves, that
"they do not sufficiently distinguish between certain
forms of oppression, and slavery. Slavery is not
what takes away any one right or property in man; it
takes away man himself, and makes him the property
of his fellow. It is what unmans man, takes him from
himself, dooms him as a degraded thing, ranks him
with the bridled horse and muzzled ox, makes him a
chattel, a marketable commodity, to be swayed by
the caprice, and sold at the will of his master."
At Belfast, Jan, 6, 1846, the local branch of the
British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society presented
him with a Bible splendidly bound in gold. He re¬
marked on receiving it, "I accept thankfully this
Bible; and while it shall have the best place in my
A BLACK SUBJECT
3i7
house, I trust also to give its precepts a place in my
heart."
While in London he was lionized because of his
oratorical gifts.
He took breakfast with Sir John Bowring, and
met Lord Brougham and Douglas Jerrold.
A young man from one of our Southern states was
being entertained by an English gentleman, who said,
"I want particularly to have you look at my bust of
your countryman, Mr. Douglass." "With the utmost
pleasure,-" he answered. "Senator Douglass is one
of our most distinguished men." What was his
amazement when he discovered that the bust was of
our hero and in black marble!
While he was in England Mrs. Ellen Richardson
collected money and bought Douglass' freedom from
Hugh Auld, and his papers were presented to him on
his return to America; but he told his English friends
in his parting address, that he had just as much right
to sell Hugh Auld, as Auld had to sell him; and said
*he, "If any of you are disposed to make a purchase
to-night just say the word."
Mr. Douglass began to publish the "North Star,"
at Rochester, New York, Dec. 3, 1847. was ag¬
gressive and ably edited from the first. But in order
to avoid confusion, he changed its name with the
fourth volume to "Frederick Douglass' Paper."
"For," said he, "there were I know not how many
stars in the newspaper firmament." He furnished
each member of Congress a copy of his paper, with
good results. In 1858 he started a magazine called
"Douglass' Monthly," mainly for circulating in Eng¬
land. The weekly paper was merged in the "Monthly"
in August, 1860.
On one occasion, Mr. Douglass received the fol¬
lowing letter: "I have been informed that you had
318 THE WHITE SIDE OF
an only daughter, and that you desire her to marry a
whight man; whereupon you give $i 5,000 or $20,000
dollars to any respectable whight man that would
marry her and cherish her through life. If there is
any truth in this report, P. S. let me know and
I will marry your daughter on these conditions, and
will endeavor to make myself agreeable."
To which Douglass in replying remarked, that as
a total stranger his correspondent should have given
at least one reference, and then continued: "You
date from Auburn, and tell me to direct to Auburn,
but do not name the street. Pardon me for regard¬
ing this as a suspicious circumstance. You may be an
inmate of the State Prison, or on your way there; a
fact which you see would interfere with the fulfill¬
ment of your part of the proposed bargain, even if I
could fulfill the part you assign to me. You want
$15,000 or $20,000; this is a common want, and you
are not to blame for using all honorable means to
obtain it. But candor requires me to state, that if
you were in every respect a suitable person to be
bought for the purpose you name, I have not the
money to buy you. I have no objection to your com¬
plexion; but there are certain little faults of gram¬
mar and spelling, as well as other little points in your
letter, which compel me to regard you as a person
by education, manners, and morals, wholly unfit to
associate with my daughter in any capacity whatever.
You evidently think your white skin of great value;
I don't dispute it; it is probably the best thing about
you; yet not even that valuable quality can commend
you sufficiently to induce even so black a Negro as
myself to accept you as his son-in-law."
Can any fair-minded man read the foregoing letter
and still insist that the Negro is an inferior race?
When the war came on, Douglass did all he could
A BLACK SUBJECT
319
with tongue and pen, to have the Negroes enlisted
to help fight for their own freedom; two Of his sons,
Charles, and Lewis H., afterwards Sergeant-Major,
enlisted. Mr. Douglass afterward,called on Presi¬
dent Lincoln, in the interest of fair treatment to
Negro soldiers. The following extract is from a
speech delivered in Philadelphia, Dec. 4, 1863:
"When I went in, the President was sitting in hi&
usual position, I was told, with his feet in different
parts of the room, taking it easy. As I came in and
approached him the President began to rise, and he
continued rising, until he stood over me; and reach¬
ing out his hand,he said, 1 Mr. Douglass, I know you;
I have read about you and Mr. Seward has told me
about you;' putting me quite at ease at once. He
told me that I had made a speech somewhere in New
York and it had got into the papers, and among other
things I had said that if I were callecj upon to state
what I regarded as the most disheartening feature of
our present military situation, it would not be the
various disasters experienced by our armies and
navies, on flood and field, but it would be the tardy,
hesitating, vacillating policy of the President of the
United States. And the President said to me, 'Mr.
Douglass, I have been charged with being tardy,and
vacillating,but I do not think that charge can be sus¬
tained; I think it cannot be shown that when I have
once taken a position I have ever retreated from it.'
"I told him that he had been somewhat slow in pro¬
claiming equal protection to our colored soldiers and
prisoners; and he said the country needed talking up
to that point. He hesitated in regard to it, when he
felt the country was not ready for it. He knew that
the colored man was a despised man, and that if he
at first came out with such"a proclamation, all the
hatred which is poured on the head of the Negro race
THE WHITE SIDE OP
would be visited on his administration. He said that
there was preparatory work needed, and that this
work had now been done. And continued, 'Remem¬
ber this, Mr. Douglass: Milliken's Bend, Port Hud¬
son, and Fort Wagner are recent events; and these
were necessary to prepare the way for this very proc¬
lamation of mine.' I thought it was reasonable,but
came to the conclusion that while Abraham Lincoln
will not go down to -posterity as Abraham the Great,
or as Abraham the Wise, or as Abraham the Elo¬
quent, although he is all three—wise, great, and
eloquent, he will go down to posterity, if the country
is saved, as Honest Abraham; and going down thus,
his name may be written anywhere in this wide world
of ours side by side with that of Washington without
disparaging the latter."
I think one of the best things Douglass ever said
was in a jubilee meeting held in Faneuil Hall, Boston,
just after Richmond was taken. Said he: "I tell you
the Negro is coming up. He is rising. Why, only
a little while ago, we were the Lazarus of the South;
the Dives of the South was the slave-holder. But
now a change has taken place. That rich man is lift¬
ing up his eyes in torments down there, and seeing
Lazarus in Abraham's bosom; and he is all the time
calling on Father Abraham to send L&zarus back.
But Father Abraham says, 'If they hear not Grant
and Sherman, neither will they be persuaded though
I send Lazarus unto them.' I say, we are way up
yonder now, no mistake."
The war over, Mr. Douglass continued to support
the Republican party, and was appointed by Presi¬
dent Hayes Marshal of the District of Columbia. He
presided over the colored people's convention at
Louisville, July, 1880. In May, 1881, he was appointed
Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia.
TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
THE INDIAN.
A BLACK SUBJECT
321
When Harrison was plected President he appointed
him Minister to Hayti. And at the World's Fair
Mr. Douglass had general charge of the exhibit from
that Republic.
Fred Douglass is unquestionably America's great¬
est colored man, and will go down in history as one
of her greatest orators. A gentleman who heard his
great oration on Lincoln at the Rochester Court¬
house, said: "I have heard Webster and Clay in their
best moments, Channing and Beecher in their high¬
est inspirations; I never heard truer eloquence. I
never saw profourider impression."
Colonel F. W.Higginson said of Douglass: "I have
hardly heard his equal in grasp upon an audience,
in dramatic presentation, in striking at the pith of an
ethical question and in single illustrations and
images."
Most of Frederick Douglass* public life was spent
at a period which tried men's souls and tended to
produce great orators; but he showed that he was
more than an orator; he was a statesman of sound
judgment, and was almost invariably right. Gar¬
rison claimed that the constitution was pro-slavery,
and even favored secession and disunion as a means
c f putting down slavery. But Douglass maintained
that the constitution, if rightly interpreted, was em¬
phatically anti-slavery; And he rightly favored fight¬
ing for emancipation under the constitution and the
stars and stripes. He also favored arming the strong
black hand as well as the white, and this was the
very policy which proved a success.
IT. Toussaint L'Ouverture:—The subject of this
sketch was born about the year 1745, on what was
called the Breda estate, near the town of Cape Hay-
tien, Hayti. His lull name was Francois Dominique
Toussaint. He earned the surname IVQuverture
THE WHITE SIDE OF
cause of his great prowess in battle. An admiring
Frenchman said of him/' Cet homme fait 1' ouverture"--
"This man makes an opening everywere." After this
his soldiers called him L'Ouverture, "the opening."
Toussaint showed such marked intelligence, and
purity of conduct, as to give him great influence over
his fellow slaves, and attracted the attention of the
manager of the plantation, M. Bayou de Libertas,
who taught him reading, writing and arithmetic.
This was a great accomplishment, when we consider
that only one slave in ten thousand possessed these
elements of knowledge. His master also made him
postilion, a position which gave him advantage over
the plantation hands.
When the insurrection took place in 1791 Toussaint
was urged to join them, but he declined until he had
aided his benefactor M. Bayou, and his family on
board a ship to escape to Baltimore.
St, Domingo was a bone of contention between
the Spanish and French. Finding the latter weak¬
ened by being divided into opposing factions of Re¬
publicans and Bourbon Loyalists, the Spanish deter¬
mined to seize the whole island. In their extremity
the French invited the English of Jamaica to come
to their relief. At first the Governor of Jamaica sent
them a few hundred soldiers; afterwards, the English
government sent General Maitland, who landed with
four thousand troops and gained great success.
The French Governor now saw he had as much
to fear from his English allies as his Spanish foes,
for England had determined to seize the island for
her own.
In his extremity, the Governor thought of the mu-
lattoes who had assisted him in putting down an in¬
surrection of the "whites five years before. But he had
forfeited his solemn oath to grant (hern civil priv
A BLACK SUBJECT
323
ileges, and they would not be deceived a second time.
He now thought of the enslaved blacks, and sent
a deputation to Toussaint, who even then had great
influence with his people. But he was a diplomatist,
and asked the envoys,"Where are your credentials?"
"We have none," was the answer. "Then," said
he, "I will have nothing to do with you." The en¬
voys next went to Francois and Biassou, two other
slave leaders of considerable influence, and said, "Arm,
assist the government to put down the Spanish on
one side, the English on the other."
Having been previously advised by Toussaint, who,
like Cromwell, preferred not to be in the lead at first,
they placed themselves at the head of fifteen thou¬
sand blacks, who had been supplied with arms from
the government arsenal. This was in August, 1791.
With the help of this army of blacks, Blancbelande
gained the ascendency over the combined Spanish
and English, and was reinstated as Governor. Hav¬
ing accomplished this, the black leaders, speaking for
their people, said to the Governor they had created,
"Now grant us gradual emancipation, give us one
day in seven; give us one day's labor; we will buy
another and with the two buy a third, and so even¬
tually be free." Surely this was a very mild request,
coming from men who had saved his government from
overthrow. But the same Blanchelande, who was
false to his mulatto benefactors, proved doubly false
to his black allies. He sneeringly replied, "Disarm!
Disperse!" But they stood their ground, and replied,
"The right hand that has saved you, the right hand
that has saved the island for the Bourbons, may per¬
chance clutch some of our own rights." Thus began
the insurrection. The Blacks refused to disband or
lay down their arms, as they had been mortified by
two insults. First, their commissioners sent tQ meet
324 THE WHITE SIDE OF
the French Committee were ignominiously dismissed;
after this Francois, their general, being summoned to
a second conference, went to it on horseback, at¬
tended by two officers. Here he met a young French
lieutenant, who had known him as a slave, who see¬
ing him in the uniform of an officer, became enraged
and struck him a heavy blow with his riding-whip
across the shoulders. The Negro troops did not hear
of the insult to their commander for twenty-four
hours. When they did, the cry was heard, "Death
to every white man!" They soon had fifteen hundred
white prisoners ranged in front of the camp, intend¬
ing to shoot them. Just at this critical time, Tous-
saint reached the camp, having been offered the
position as second in command. Mounting a hill in
front of the army, he gained their attention and said
in a loud voice heard by all: "Brothers, this blood
will not wipe out the insult to our chief; only the
blood in yonder French camp can wipe it out. To
shed that is courage; to shed this is cowardice, and
cruelty besides." They heard his words and the lives
of fifteen hundred men were saved. Shortly after¬
wards he became the commander-in-chief of the
black army, and in seven years' time accomplished
the following results:
He conquered the Spanish, even in their own cities,
over which he caused the French banner to wave; he
fought pitched battles with the English general, Mait-
land, whom he defeated, with great slaughter, but
afterwards he permitted him to retreat with the rem¬
nant of his army to Jamaica; he subdued the mulat-
toes to his sway, and when the French army turned
on their general, Loveaux, and put him in chains,
Toussaint defeated them, rescued Loveaux from
prison and placed him at the head of his army. The
Frepch,in their gratitude, now named him General-in-
BLACK SUBJECT
325
Chief of the armies of St: Domingo. From this to the
position of governor of the island was for Toussaint
but a short step.
Under his government the island continued happy
and prosperous.
In the year 1800 he appointed a committee of nine
to draft a constitution for him. Out of this number
there were eight white proprietors, and one mulatto,
not a single Negro- or soldier in the number. With
the instinct of a true statesman he said to this com¬
mittee: "Put at the head of the chapter of commerce
that the ports of St. Domingo are open to the trade
of the world." Catholic as he was, he took his place
beside Roger Williams in securing to all, religious
liberty, for he said to the committee: "Make it the
first line of my constitution that I know no difference
between religious beliefs."
This constitution worked admirably during the
time it was tried, even if it did make Toussaint Pres¬
ident for life with the power to choose hj^ successor.
The commerce of the world visited St. Domingo, her
coffers were filled, and her plantations, worked by
free labor, blossomed like the rose.
The same year in which the constitution was
drafted, Toussaint made the following proclamation:
"Sons of St. Domingo.come home; we never meant
to take your houses and your lands. The Negro only
asked that liberty which God gave him. Your houses
wait for you, your lands are ready J' And the exiled
planters returned from-Baltimore and New Orleans,
from Madrid and Paris, and lived contentedly on their
estates, protected by the pledged word of this black
ruler, which was never broken. Then turning to his
armies—in their rags and poverty, he said: "Go back
and work on these estates you have conquered; for .
an empire can be founded only on order and industry,
&nd you can learn these virtues only there,"
326
THE WHITE SIDE OF
Within a week his army was transformed into
laborers.
Thus did Toussaint establish what bid fair to be
the best governed republic on earth. But this very
fact was an eyesore to Napoleon Bonaparte, who was
about to seize the crown of France. Moreover, Tous¬
saint had written Napoleon a letter in which occured
this language, "The first of the blacks, to the first of
the whites." And when the satirists of Paris spoke
of Toussaint as the "Black Napoleon," it enraged
Bonaparte more than the defeat of his army by this
Negro chieftain.
So Napoleon called a council and asked, "What
shall I do with St. Domingo?" The slave-holders
present said, "Give it to us." But a letter was read
from Colonel Vincent, formerly private secretary to
Toussaint, and his answer was: "Sire, leave it alone;
it is the happiest spot in your dominions; God raised
this man to govern, races melt under his hand. He
has saved you this island; for I know of my own
knowledge that, when the Republic could not have
lifted a finger to prevent it, George III. offered him
any title and any revenue if he would hold the island
under the British crown. He refused and saved it
for France." But Napoleon had already decided
what to do before calling the council. He had sixty
thousand idle republican soldiers, and he dare not
seize the crown until they were sent to a distant realm,
or the ocean rolled between him and them. Accord¬
ingly in an evil hour he put thirty thousand of them
under the command of his brother-in-law, Leclerc,and
sent them to Hayti, with instructions to overthrow
the Republic, bring Toussaint a prisoner to France,
and re-establish slavery on the island.
Toussaint,in company with his friend Christopher,
fodq on fcorsebaqlt to the WtefQ extremity of the
A BLACK SUBJECT
327
island, where from a high promontory he saw the ap¬
proaching fleet.
Counting the ships, he found they numbered sixty,
each crowded with the best drilled, best armed soldiers
in all Europe. He then exclaimed to Christopher:
"All France has come to Hayti; they can only come
to make us slaves; and we are lost!" He now de¬
plored his misplaced confidence in Napoleon which
caused him to disband his army. But he resolved to
give the invaders a warm reception antl sell his liberty
and that of his people as dearly as possible. Ac¬
cordingly he issued the following proclamation:
"My children, France comes to make us slaves;
God gave us liberty; France has no right to take it
away. Burn the cities, destroy the harvests, poison
the wells, show the white man the hell he comes to
make;" and they obeyed him.
Marching into battle singing the Marseillaise Hymn,
the Negro soldiers under such a leader were invin¬
cible, and at first routed the invading army in every
encounter.
Defeated in battle, Leclerc resorted to lying, and
issued this proclamation:
"We do not come to make you slaves; this man
Toussaint tells you lies; join us and you shall have
the rights you claim." Deceived by these lying
promises, all the officers laid down their arms except
Pierre, Toussaint's brother, Christopher and Dessal-
ines; finally these, too, went over to the enemy, and
the great leader was left alone, with a remnant of his
army. He now sent the following message to Le¬
clerc. "I will submit. I could continue the strug¬
gle for years,—could prevent a single Frenchman
from safely quitting your camp. But I h'ate blood.
I have fought only for the liberty of my race:
Qvjarantee that, I wiU submit eo^e in," Hetpok
328
THE WHITE SIDE OF
the oath to be a true citizen, and the French general
swore on the same crucifix, that the island should be
free, and that Toussaint should be faithfully pro¬
tected. But the white man never intended to keep
that sacred oath, as all the circumstances show. Le-
clerc was struck by the contrast between his own
splendidly equipped soldiers and the ragged followers
of the black commander, whose arms were in keeping
with their clothes, and he said to him,"L'Ouverture,
had you continued the war, where could you have
got arms?" "I would have taken yours," was the
Spartan-like answer.
The story is soon told. Relying upon the pledges of
Leclerc, Toussaint, who never broke his word to
friend or foe, retired to his plantation, only to be
treacherously seized in the night, and conveyed on
board a man of war,bound for France. As he caught
the last glimpse of bis beloved Hayti.he remarked to
the captain, "You think you have rooted up the tree
of liberty, but I am only a branch; I have planted
the tree so deep that all France can never root it
up."
He was taken to Paris, and incarcerated in prison
Here the great (?) Napoleon sent Caffarelli, one of
his secretaries, to interrogate him concerning supposed
buried treasures. After listening a few minutes he
answers, "Young man, it is true I have lost treasures,
but they are not such as you come to seek."
Toussaint was now sent, as a prisoner to the Chat¬
eaux de Jouxand confined in a stone dungeon twelve
by twelve feet, with a single narrow window, looking
out on Switzerland's mountains of snow. It is said
that ice covered the floor in winter, and dampness in
summer. From this dungeon tomb he wrote the
following letter to Napoleon:—-"Sire, I am a French
citizen. I never broke a law, By the grace of God,
rw0©a
U& WHENCE
A £lACJ£ SUZJMCT 329
I have saved for you the best island of your realm.
Sire, of your mercy grant me justice."
This letter was never answered. And when Na¬
poleon learned that five francs a day were allowed
him fortood and fuel, he cut it down to three. Still
the iron constitution did not yield to slow assassina¬
tion fast enough, and the jailer was ordered to go
into Switzerland with the keys of the dungeon, and
remained four days. When he returned the Black
Prince was dead.
This sad event was in April of 1803, and when it
became known raised a cry of horror, and indignation
against Napoleon, who would thus destroy in this bar¬
barous manner one of the noblest and bravest of the
African race. But God is just, and twelve years
afterward the imperial assassin was a closely guarded
prisoner on the rocky island of St. Helena, whining
his life away, saying "he did not live, he simply ex¬
isted."
In a few years he died of disappointment and a
broken heart; and nothing he accomplished while
living exists. Even the monarchy for which he fought
so many battles, has been superseded by a republic.
Contrast this with the fact,that while no monument
marks the resting place of Toussaint, thus cruelly mur¬
dered, still the republic he founded exists to-day as
a memorial of his valor and statesmanship.
It is significant, too, that the last claimant of the
Bonaparte dynasty, Prince Napoleon, was killed by
the Zulus in Africa, the very people from which
Toussaint sprang, the blood of whose kings flowed in
his veins.
"Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they
grind exceeding small. Though with patience he
stands waiting,with exactness grinds he all."
III. Phillis Wheatley:—This remarkable colored
THE WHITE SIDE OF
girl was brought, in 1761, an. a slave ship from
Africa to the Boston slave market, and purchased by
Mrs. John Wheatley.a benevolent and cultured lady.
When bought she was naked except a piece of dirty
carpet around her loins. She was thin and sick from
a rough, tedious sea voyage, for her constitution was
delicate at best. Impressed by her intelligent coun¬
tenance and modest demeanor, she ^as selected from
a large number of slaves.
It was the intention at first to teach her the duties
of a house servant; but clean clothing and good food
wrought such a change for the better, that her mis--
tress decided to instruct her in letters. She was only
eight years old and proved a very apt pupil; in less
than a year and a half she had mastered the English
language sufficiently well to read the most difficult
portions of the Bible. She also mastered writing with
equal ease, and in four years from the time she was
taken out of the slave market could carry on an in¬
teresting correspondence upon many topics. Her
amiable disposition and budding intellect attracted
the attention of the refined and cultured of Boston,
who gave her encouragement by lending her books
and conversing with her upon literary subjects.
Having acquired a fairly good English education,
she began the study of Latin, and soon became so
proficient that she made an admirable trahslation of
one of Ovid's tales, which was published in Boston
and republished in England, where it was heartily
commended by many of the reviews.
When asked what she remembered about her home
in Africa she replied, "Nothing except the fact that
ev^ry morning my mother poured out water before
the rising sun." She could not help but. contrast
this with the worship of the true and only living God,
andthis child of Africa became deeply pious. In 1770,
A BLACK SUBJECT
331
at the age of sixteen, she was happily converted and
united with the congregation at the "Old South Meet¬
inghouse." Four years afterwards, her master man¬
umitted her. But the New England climate was too
severe for one of her studious and sedentary habits,
with delicate constitution, and she began to go into
a decline. At the suggestion of eminent physicians,
her adopted mother, for such she proved herself to
be, sent her on a voyage to England, in care of her
son, who was going on business. Some years previous
to this Phillis had developed a great talent for poetry,
which she had cultivated to the utmost. Indeed her
reputation was well established, and had preceded
her to England. Her rare conversational powers
and charming demeanor took London by storm.
Soon the nobility, thoughtful people, and press,
united in extolling the name of Phillis Wheatley, the
African poetess.
Her poems were first published in Boston in 1770.
But her admiring friends prevailed upon he,r to bring
out a second and better edition in London in 1773.
This was a small octavo volume of about one hun¬
dred and twenty jpages, comprising thirty-nine pieces.
It was dedicated to the Countess of Huntingdon, and
contained a picture of the poetess, and a letter of
recommendation signed by the governor and lieuten¬
ant-governor of Massachusetts, with many other re¬
liable citizens of Boston,including her master; estab¬
lishing the fact that all the poems contained in the
book were written by Phillis. For the poems were
so excellent, strangers were disposed to question their
originality.
During Phillis' stay in England, Mrs. Wheatley
grieved herself sick about her adopted daughter. She
would talk to her picture by the hour, and pointing
it out to friends, exclaim with all a mother's pride:
332
THE WHITE SIDE OF
"See! Look at my Phillis! Does she not seem as
though she would speak to me?"
When she could endure the separation no longer,
she sent an urgent request to Phillis to return at once
to Boston. This she hastened to do and found her
kind benefactor at death's door. She was only able
to comfort her for a short time before the end came.
Mr. Wheatley and his daughter soon followed her
to the grave.
Young Mr. Wheatley made his home in England;
so Phillis was alone in the "wide, wide world."
The historian Sparks informs us that "she soon
after received an offer of marriage from a respectable
colored man of Boston, named John Peters.
"In an evil hour, he was accepted; and though he
was a man of talents and information, he proved
utterly unworthy of the distinguished woman who
honored him with her alliance."
Her married life was brief and unhappy. One babe
gladdened her heart, only to die early. Having been
tenderly brought up, she naturally expected the same
treatment from her husband, but was doomed to a sad
disappointment. Peters became jealojis and rtiorose,
and subjected her to cruel treatment.
Her delicate constitution gave way, and she went
into a hasty decline, from which she died December
fifth, 1784, in the thirty-first year of her age, loved
and mourned by all who knew her.
She was certainly one of the most remarkable char¬
acters in history. Her life reads more like a romance
than the statement of historical facts. From a con¬
dition of nudity in a slave-ship she worked her way
up until she conquered the social caste of Boston and
London, and was dined, and praised by the cultivated
and refined of two continents.
George W. Williams says of her, "She addressed
A BLACK SUBJECT
333
a poem to General Washington that pleased the old
warrior very much. We have never seen it, though
we have searched diligently^"
Mr. Sparks says of it, in his Life of Washington,
"I have not been able to find among Washington's
papers this letter and poem addressed to him. They
have doubtless been lost."
Thus we see a distinguished biographer, and no
less distinguished historian, both "searched diligently
for the poem and their conclusions were that it had
"doubtless been lost." But we are glad to inform
our readers that the poem in question was "not lost,
but gone before," to the publisher; sent by Washing¬
ton himself. And having obtained a copy at no little
trouble and pains, we shall give it in full, but will
first quote two letters germane to it.
"Cambridge, February 28th, 1886.
"Miss Phillis,—Your favor of the 26th of October
did not reach my hands till the middle of Decem¬
ber. Time enough, you will say, to have given an
answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of impor¬
tant occurrences, continually interposing to distract
the mind and withdraw the attention, I hope will
apologize for the delay, and plead" my excuse for
seeming neglect. I thank you most sincerely for your
polite notice of me, in the elegant lines enclosed;
and however undeserving I may be of such encomium
and panegyric, the style and manner exhibit a strik¬
ing proof of your poetical talents; in honor of which,
and as a tribute justly due to you, I would have pub¬
lished the poem, hsid I not been apprehensive, that
while I only meant to give the world this new in¬
stance of your genius, I might have incurred the im¬
putation of vanity. This and nothing else, deter¬
mined me not to give it place in the public prints.
"If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near
334 THE WHITE SIDE OF
headquarters, shall be happy to see a person so fa¬
vored by the Muses, and to whom nature has been so
liberal and beneficent in her dispensations. I am,
with great respect, your obedient, humble servant,
"George Washington."
This is about the kind of a letter we would expect
from a man who was noble enough to emancipate his
own slaves, that they might enjoy that liberty for
which he imperiled his life.
The following letter accompanied the poem, dedi¬
cated to Washington just before he took command
of the Continental army.
"General Washington, Sir: —
"I have taken the liberty to address your excellency
in the enclosed poem, and entreat your acceptance,
though I am not insensible to its inaccuracies. Your
appointment by the Continental Congress to be Gen¬
eralissimo of the armies of North America, together
with the fame of your virtues,excites sensations not
easy to suppress. Your generosity, therefore, I pre¬
sume, will pardon the attempt.
"Wishing your excellency all possible success in the
great cause you are so generously engaged in, I am
your excellency's most obedient, humble servant5
"Phillis Wheatley.
"Providence, October 26, 1775."
his excellency, general washington.
"Celestial choir! enthroned in realms of light,
Columbia's scenes of glorious toils i write;
While freedom's cause her anxious breast alarms,
She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
See Mother Earth her offspring's fate bemoan,
And nation's gaze at scenes before unknown;
See the bright beams of heaven's revolving light
Involved in sorrows and in veil of night
SOJOURNER TRUTH.
Negro soldiers fighting for the Union. The 54th Massachusetts in 1863, passing through New York City, the first complete regiment of
negro troops called to duty. Ordered to proceed to South Carolina. So great was the prejudice at the North against negro soldiers, that the
chief of police in the city of New York informed the war department that he feared the regiment would be subjected to insult in case it
passed through that metropolis. His fears appear to have been groundless, as the regiment passed on its way.
A BLACK SUBJECT
33.5
The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair,
Olive and laurel bind her golden hair;
Wherever shines this native of the skies,
Unnumbered charms and recent graces rise.
Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates
How pour her armies through a thousand gates;
As when Eolus heaven's fair face deforms,
Enwrapped in tempest and a night of storms;
Astonished ocean feels the wild uproar,
The refluent surges beat the resounding shore;
Or thick as leaves in Autumn's golden reign,
Such and so many moves the warrior's train.
In bright array they seek the world of war,
Where high unfurled the ensign waves in air.
Shall I to Washington their praise recite?
Enough, thou knowest them in the fields of fight.
Thee, first in peace and honor we demand,
The grace and glory of thy mortal band.
Famed for thy valor, for thy virtue more,
Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore.
One Century scarce performed its destined round
When Gallic powers Columbia's fury found;
And, so may you, whoever dares disgrace
The land of freedom's heaven-defended race.
Fixed are the eyes of nations on the scales,
For in their hopes Columbia's arm prevails.
Anon, Britannia droops the pensive head,
While round increase the rising hills of dead.
Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia's state,
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.
Proceed great chief; virtue on thy side;
Thy every action let the goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine
With gold unfading, Washington, be thine."
IV Sojourner Truth,—The Libyan Sibyl: — It is
not known when this remarkable woman v, a born,
as it was not customary to keep a rec - i t such
trivial events as the birth of a slave-child i i ^ much
THE WHITE SIDE Of
is known, she was manumitted by an act of the legis¬
lature of New York in i8n, by which all slaves forty
years of age were liberated at once, the others in
1828, and the children on reaching their majority.
Her former name was Isabella, that of her parents,
James and Betsey, slaves of Colonel Ardinburgh, who
belonged to that class called Low Dutch; he lived in
Hurley, Ulster County,New York.
She remembered that her parents, Bomefree and
Mau-mau-Bett, after having all their children, whom
God had intended as the prop and stay of their de¬
clining years,sold away from them, were emancipated
when they became old and well nigh helpless. But
this was little more than liberty to starve or perish
from cold, for they were given to understand that they
could expect no help from the very people who had
been enriched by thier unpaid toil for more than half
a century.
At nine years of age, Isabella was sold for one
hundred dollars to one John Nealy of Ulster County,
New York. She thinks her sale was connected in
some way with a flock of sheep. The trials of her
life dated from this period, or as she expressed it,
"Now the war begun." She knew nothing of the
English language, while the Nealys could not talk
Dutch. Mr. Nealy, however, could understand that
language, but neither mistress nor maid could under¬
stand the language of the other. This naturally led
to frequent misunderstanding, and punishment for
poor Isabella. She was often slapped over for bringing
the wrong article to her mistress. She suffered ter¬
ribly from cold, her feet becoming badly frozen. And
while they gave her plenty to eat, they also gave her
plenty of whippings; often for no other reason than
her inability to understand what she was told to do.
One Sunday morning she was sent to the barn,
A BLACK SUBJEC1
337
where she found her master waiting for her with a
bundle of rods in his hand. Stripping her to the waist,
and tying her hands before her, he gave her the most
cruel flogging she ever received. Her flesh was deeply
lacerated, the blood streaming to the barn floor, the
scars remaining to her dying day. And she never
knew why she was so cruelly whipped.
. Often afterwards she stated,"When I hear'em tell
of whippin' women on the bare flesh, it makes my
flesh crawl, an' my very hair rise on my head! Oh
my God, what a way is this of treatin' human
bein's!" She now remembered her mother's instruc¬
tion to pray to God in time of trouble, and at once
obeyed, begging God to send her father, who was
still living, and through him to provide a kinder mas¬
ter.
This prayer (and indeed all her prayers) was
promptly answered. In a short time her poor old
father came to see her. When he started away she
followed him to the gate, and unburdened her heart.
He promised to do what he could and in a short
time sent a rough but kind-hearted man, by the name
of Schriver, who purchased Isabella of her master
for one hundred and five dollars. Schriver lived
about six miles distant, and owned a large farm, but
left it unimproved, while he engaged in fishing, and
keeping a hotel. He and his family were coarse,
ignorant, and profane, but honest, kind-hearted peo¬
ple. Here Isabella was kindly treated, but learned
from their example to swear like a trooper. Her work
consisted of carrying fish, hoeing corn, bringing roots
and herbs from the woods for beers, and going on
errands to the Strand for a jug of molasses or liquor.
Naturally instead of improving in morals she retro¬
graded, during the year and a half she spent there.
Her next master was John J. Dumont, to whom
338 THE WHITE SIDE OF
she was sold for seventy pounds in the year 1810.
He also lived in Ulster County, near the town of New
Paltz. She remained with him until the fall of 1827.
Mr. Dumont was a kind-hearted man, but his wife
was not accustomed to Negroes and disliked Isabella
from the first.
Mrs. Dumont employed two white girls; one of
them, named Kate, became jealous of Bell (as they
now called her for short) on account of the master's
praise, and was very overbearing towards her. Thus
she was praised and complimented by her master, who
declared she could do more than half a dozen common
people; while her mistress replied that "the reason
she accomplished so much work, was because she did
not half do it." In proof of which she called atten¬
tion to the potatoes which Bell had cooked for
breakfast, and showed that they had a dingy, dirty
look; remarking, "This is a fine specimen of Bell's
work, but it is the way all her work is done." Even
the master scolded this time, and commanded her to
be more careful in the future on pain of punishment,
while Kate joined heartily in the censures, wishing
to please the mistress.
Isabella had done her best to have those potatoes
nice and clean, and was much distressed at her poor
success, and inability to account for it. In this dilem¬
ma Mr. Dumont's daughter Gertrude, a kind-hearted
girl of about ten years of age, offered her sympathy
and aid. It was agreed between them that Gertrude
should be called in the morning when Bell arose, and
they would wash the potatoes thoroughly, and that
Gertrude should watch them while Bell was milk¬
ing. This plan was carried out in full; but presently
Kate came into the room,requesting Gertrude to "go
to her mother;" but she kept her place in the corner,
watching closely. Presently she saw Kate pick up a
A BLACK SUBJECT
339
large chip covered with ashes and deliberately dash
them into the kettle. Then Gertrude cried out,"Oh,
Poppee!" (her word for father.) "Poppee! Kate has
been putting ashes in among the potatoes! I saw
her do it! Look at those that fell on the outside of
the kettle! You can now see what made the pota¬
toes so dingy every morning, though Bell washed
them clean!" Gertrude soon made the fraud as pub¬
lic as the censure had been. The master was prouder
of Bell than ever, while the mistress and Kate were
both deeply mortified. She tried after this vindica¬
tion harder than ever to please her master, working
almost night and day in the effort.
Some time after this a strong attachment sprung
up between Bell and a slave named Robert, belong¬
ing to an English neighbor named Catlin. But the
Englishman forbade him to visit Bell, and ordered
him to take a wife from among his fellow slaves.
Still Robert continued to follow his inclination, and
make clandestine visits. One Saturday afternoon,
learning that Bell was sick, he boldly went to see
her. But Catlin and his son followed him, and as
soon as he reached the object of his affections, they
both fell upon him like madmen, cursing, and beat¬
ing him over the head and face with heavy canes.
The blood spurted from his face, and they would
probably have beaten him to death had not the mere
humane Dumont interfered, telling the brutal ruffians
they had beaten him already too much, they could no
longer spill human blood on his premises; he would
have "no nigger killed there."
The Catlins now took a rope and tied his hands
behind his back so tight that Mr. Dumont compelled
them to loosen it, saying that "no brute, much less a
man, could be tied that way where he was."
Mr. Dumont also followed them home as Robert's
34°
THE WHITE SIDE OF
protector, and succeeded in cooling their wrath be¬
fore he left them.
Bell had witnessed the whole scene from her win¬
dow, and was shocked at the cruel treatment of poor
Robert, for whom she had the warmest affection, and
whose only crime in the eyes of his master was his
love for her.
Both now became obedient chattels,each marrying
a fellow slave, if the farce of a union liable to be
annulled at the caprice of the master can be called a
marriage.
In process of time, she became the mother of five
children; and carried the youngest in her arms when
she "walked" away from Mr. Dumont's house in
1827.
By the conditions of the act of the New York leg¬
islature she would have been free July 4, 1828. Mr.
Dumont,in consideration of the long years of faithful
service, promised to give her free papers one year in
advance of this date. But when the time came he
backed out on the trivial plea that her hand had been
disabled during the past year, and she could not per¬
form as much work as formerly. In vain did she re¬
mind him of his own statement, that she did more
work during those past years than several ordinary
slaves. Surely working night and day for long years
would more than make up for a disabled hand one
year. But as he still refused, she determined to take
the matter into her own hands, and without his con¬
sent. She started one fine morning just before day¬
light, her baby on one strong arm, a bundle of food
and clothing, on the other. Night found her at the
home of Mr. and Mrs. Van Wagener, to whom she
had been directed by a neighbor. Here she was
kindly received and given employment. In a short
time Dumont found her. She anticipated this and
A BLACK SUBJECT
34i
resolved to settle it with him at once. As soon as
they met, his salutation was, "Well, Bell, so you've
run away from me?" "No, I did not run away, I
walked away by daylight, and all because you had
promised me a year off my time." His reply was,
"You must go back with me." Her decided answer
was, "No,I won't go back with you." He said, "Well,
I shall take the child." This also was as firmly de¬
nied. Mr. Isaac Van Wagener now interposed, and
bought her service for the remainder of the year for
twenty dollars. Dumont also exacted five dollars
for the baby, and then left; but not until he heard
Mr. Van Wagener tell Isabella not to call him master,
adding, "There is but one Master; and he who is your
Master is my Master." Thus ended her life as a
slave.
"Sojourner once visited Mrs. Harriet B. Stowe at
her home; in the course of a conversation the question
was asked: —
"Well,Sojourner,did you always go by this name?"
"No, 'deed,my name was Isabella; but when I left
the house of bondage, I left everything behind. I
wa'n't goin' to keep nothin' of Egypt on me, an' so
I went to the Lord an' asked him to give me a new
name. An' the Lord give me Sojourner, because I
was to travel up an' down the land.showin' the peo¬
ple their sins, an' bein' a sign unto them. Afterward
I told de Lord I wanted another name, 'cause every¬
body else had two names; an' de Lord give me Truth,
because I was to declare the truth to de people."
A few years after this, she felt called of God to
labor for the salvation of souls, and the good of her
own oppressed people.
Though never able to read or write, she kept her
friends busy reading the Bible to her, and answering
her numerous letters. She had a remarkable mem-
342 THE WHITE SIDE OF
ory, learning long hymns by hearing them only once,
and could repeat many chapters in the Bible from
hearing them read a few times. Moreover she had
marvelous power with God and man, and a natural
eloquence and repartee seldom equaled.
On one occasion she was at a Woman's Rights
Convention, where the ministers in the town turned
out, and taking issue with the ladies, by their soph¬
istries, turned the public sentiment against them,
leaving the ladies and their cause in utter despair,
when Sojourner stepped to the ,front and snatched a
victory from the jaws of defeat. Hear her: —
"Well, chil'ern, what's all dis here talkin' 'bout?
Dat man ober dar say dat women needs to be helped
into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, an' to have
de bes' place everywhar. Nobody eber help me into
carriages, or ober mud puddles, or gives me any bes'
place (and raising herself to her full height and her
voice to a pitch like rolling thunder, she asked),
an' ar'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 pow¬
er.) I have plowed, an' planted, an' gathered
into barns, an' no man could head me—an' ar'n't
I a woman? I could work as much, an' eat as
much as a man when I could git it, an' bear de
lash as well—an' ar'n't I a woman? I have born
thirteen children an' seen 'em mos' all sold off into
slavery, an when I cried out with a mother's grief,
none but Jesus heard—an' ar'n't I a woman? Den
dey talks 'bout dis ting in de head—what dis dey call
it?'1 "Intellect," whispered some one near. "Dat's
it,honey. What's dat got to do with woman's rights
or niggers' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint
an' yourn holds a quart, wouldn't ye be mean not to
let me have my little half-measure full?" And she
A BLACK SUBJECT
343
pointed her finger and sent a keen glance at the min¬
ister who had made the argument. The cheering
was long and loud.
"Den dat little man in black dar, he say woman
can't have as much rights as man,cause Christ w'an*
a woman. Whar did your Christ come from ?"
Rolling thunder could not have stilled that crowd
as did- those deep, wonderful tones, as she stood
there with outstretched arms and eye of fire. Rais¬
ing her voice still louder, she repeated, "Whar did
your Christ come from? From God and a woman.
Man had nothing to do with him." Oh! what a rebuke
she gave the little man!
Turning again to another objector,she took up the
defense of mother Eve, and ended by asserting that
"if de fust woman God ever made could turn the
world upside down, all 'lone, dese togedder ought
to be able to turn it back an' git it right side up agin,
an' nowdey is askin' to doit, de men better let 'em."
Hundreds rushed up to shake hands, and congrat¬
ulate this glorious old mother and bid her Godspeed
on her mission of 'testifyin.' concernin' de wickedness
of dis 'ere people."
While Parker Pillsbury was speaking at an aboli¬
tion meeting one Sunday afternoon, and criticising the
churches in regard to slavery, a furious thunderstorm
came up. A young Methodist arose, and interrupt¬
ing the speaker, said he was "fearful God's judgment
was about to fall on him for daring to sit and hear
such blasphemy; that it made his hair almost rise
with terror." Here a voice was heard above the rain,
wind and thunder, saying: "Child,do not beskeered;
you are not goin' to be harmed. I don't speck God's
ever hearn tell on ye."
She got up a fine Thanksgiving dinner, for the
Battle Creek Colored Regiment, then encamped at
344 THE WHITE SIDE OF
Detroit. While soliciting for the "boys," she met one
man who refused to donate, making rude remarks
about niggers, the war, etc. Much astonished, she
asked, "Wno are you?" "I am the only son of my
mother," he answered To which she replied, "I am
glad der are no more," and passed on.
During the war she met an old Northern Demo¬
cratic friend, who asked her what business she now
followed. She quickly answered, "Years ago, when
I lived in the city of New York, my occupation was
scouring brass door-knobs; but now I go about
scouring copperheads "
Just'before the war she held a number of meet¬
ings in Ohio, and hit the apologists of slavery
sledge-hammer blows. At one of these meetings a
man interrupted her and said, "Old woman, do you
think that your talk about slavery does any good?
Do you suppose people care what you say? Why, I
don't care any more for your talk than I do for the
bite of a flea." "Perhaps not," she answered,"but the
Lord willin', I'll keep you scratchin'."
Sojourner was an inveterate smoker. Some years
before her death, a friend asked her if she believed
the Bible. "Certainly," she answered. He contin¬
ued, "The Bible says 'no unclean thing can enter the
Kingdom of Heaven.' Now what can be more filthy
than the breath of a smoker?" "Yes chile," she^an-
swered, "but de Bible also say, 'He which is filthy
let him be filthy still.' . Besides, when I goes to
Heaven I 'spect to leave my breff behin' me." How¬
ever, she soon became convinced that it was wrong,
and discontinued it. When told it would affect her
health, she answered, "I'll quit ef I die." She did
quit and lived!
On another occasion she attended a large reform
A BLACK SUBJECT
345
meeting where there were a number of speakers of
national reputation. But in spite of this fact, a long-
winded person mounted the platform and worried
the people until half had left, and the others were
groaning in spirit. At last he paused to take a long
breath; when Sojourner rose up in the back part of
the audience and said, "Chile, ef de people has no-
whar to put it, what is de use? Sit down, chile, sit
down!" He sat down.
She made a fine point on the Constitution the year
the weevil destroyed so much wheat. Said she:
"Chil'ern,I talks to God, an' God talks to me. Dis
mornin' I was walkin' out, an' I got ober de fence
into de field. I saw de wheat a holdin' up its hSad
lookin' very big. I goes up an' takes holt ob it. You
believe it, dare was no wheat dire? I says, 'God,'
(speaking the name reverently) 'what is de matter
wid dis wheat?' an' he says to me, 'Sojourner, dare
is a little weasel in it.' Now I hears talkin' about de
Constitution, an' de rights ob man. I comes up an'
I takes holt ob dis Constitution. It looks mighty
big, an' I feels for my rights, but dar aint any dar.
Den I says, 'God, what ails dis Constitution?' He
says to me, 'Sojourner, dar is a little weasel in it."'-
Volumes were written about the Negro and the
Constitution, but here was a volume in a few sen¬
tences.
Harriet Beecher Stowe says of her: "I never knew
a person who possessed so much of that subtle, con¬
trolling personal power, called presence, as she."
Wendell Phillips stated, that he has known a few
words from her to electrify an audience. In proof of
this he cites the question she asked Frederick Doug¬
lass,who was speaking in Faneuil Hall at one of the
darkest periods of the abolition struggle. Douglass
was sad,—almost ready to despair, when she lifted
346 THE WHITE SIDE OF
her long finger and asked, loud enough to be heard by
all, "Frederick, is God deadf That was all she
said, but it was enough.
In Calvin Fairbanks' account of Sojourner's inter¬
view with President Lincoln, he states that he and a
friend were standing in the White House, when she ap¬
proached the marshal and said: "I want to see Presi¬
dent Lincoln." "Well,the President is busy, and you
can't see him now." "Yes, I mus' see him. If he
knew I was here, he'd come down an' see me." Fi¬
nally the marshal went to the President's room with
a statement of the case, when the President said:
"I do believe she is Sojourner Truth. Bring her up
here."
Up she went, and we approached near enough to
catch glimpses and hear the words of greeting. "So¬
journer Truth, how glad I am to see you!" To which
she replied, "Mr. President, when you first took your
seat I feared you would be torn to pieces, for I lik¬
ened you unto Daniel, who was thrown into de lions'
den, an' ef de lions did not tear you to pieces, I knew
dat it would be God dat had saved you; an' I said ef.
he spared me I would see you befo' de fo' years ex¬
pired, an' he has done so, an' now I am here to see
you for myself. I never hearn of you befo' you was
talked of for President." He smilingly replied, "I
had heard of you many times before that." The
President purchased her book; then handing him a
photograph of herself, she said, "It's got a black face,
but a white back, an' I'd like one of yours, with a
green back." No man enjoyed a joke more than
President Lincoln; and putting his fingers into his
vest pocket, he handed her a ten dollar bill, remark¬
ing: "There is my face with a gieen back."
The following is from one of" her dictated letters":
"He then showed me the Bible presented to him
A BLACK SUBJECT
by the colored people of Baltimore, and it is beautiful
beyond description. After I had looked it over, I
said to him: 'This is beautiful indeed;the colored peo¬
ple have given this to the head of the government,
and that government once sanctioned laws that
would not permit its people to learn enough to enable
them to read this book.. And for what? Let them
answer who can.'
"He took my little book,and with the same hand
that signed the death warrant of slavery, he wrote as
follows:
" 'For Aunty Sojourner Truth, Oct. 29, 1864. A.
Lincoln.'"
Sojourner remained a year at Arlington Heights,
instructing the freed women in habits of economy,
neatness and order. She sometimes addressed large
numbers of them, and on one occasion exclaimed, "Be
clean! be clean! for cleanliness is godliness."
She was disgusted with the Government's policy
of giving food to the Negroes, without making any
effort to teach them to be self-supporting. Her plan
was to colonize the freedmen out West. She trav¬
eled over many states securing signers to a petition
to Congress for her pet scheme.
Rev. George Schorb of Evanston, Illinois, heard her
lecture at Topeka, Kansas,in the interest of her col¬
onization scheme. He said, "She was more than a
hundred years old, but her voice filled a large audi¬
torium, and she held her audience with ease." In
fact at this period she seemed to renew her youth,
her hair turned black in streaks, second sight and
second hearing came to her, her wrinkles vanished,
and she looked younger than she did tweny years be¬
fore. .
She obtained thousands of signatures to her peti¬
tion to Congress, and although that body took no
348
THE WHITE SIDE OF
action, her efforts gave an impetus to the exodus of
the colored people to the West, a few years after¬
wards.
In reviewing her life we can but wonder what she
might not have been, had she, when young, received
kind treatment, and a thorough education. Referring
to Horace Greeley, she said, "You call him a self-made
man; well,I am a self-made woman." She certainly
was, and the world was better for her long sojourn
in it. For she went about doing good, until she
passed to her reward from Battle Creek, Michigan,
November 26, 1883.
CHAPTER XIV.
MARVELOUS PROGRESS.
"Stamp improvement on the wings of time."
Thirty-one years ago, four millions of poverty-
stricken freedmen were turned loose by Lincoln's
proclamation, upon the cold charity of the world,
to survive or perish as the case might be.
These people were grossly ignorant, for it was a
criminal offense to instruct them; they were almost
destitute of clothing, and no better provided with
money or food; but God gave them brawny arms
which had been trained to work in a severe school.
Despite the fact that they have been persecuted,
and forced to bear a burden of odium because of
their color and condition, they have made a progress
which has been the astonishment of their friends, and
the envy of those who spell Negro with a little n and
two g's.
The history of the Afro-American progress might
be summed up in four distinct periods; first,the $lave
or chattel, when they were rated as animals; second,
contraband of war, a name given to them by Gen¬
eral B. F. Butler; third, freedmen, first applied to
those whom Lincoln's proclamation made free;fourth,
freemen. Each of these is a step forward tbwards
that higher plane, manhood and citizenship, vhen
the term freemen will mean the same for the black
as the white man. This is not now the case, nor has
349
35°
THE WHITE SIDE OF
it been since the overthrow of the so-called Negro
rule in the South, which was accomplished by the
most glaring fraud and cruelty, such as are conjured
up at the mere pronunciation of those horrible terms,
"Mississippi, or shot-gun policy," "Kuklux Klan,"
"Intimidation," and "Bulldozing," which is a word
coined to express the idea of tying a Negro up and
giving him a bull's dose by cutting his back all to
pieces, simply because he was guilty of the heinous
crime of voting for the man or party of his choice.
Should all this fail to overcome the majority, they
would empty the ballot box of the wrong kind, and
stuff it with the right sort of ballots.
In this way was the Negro rule, or, more properly
speaking,the "carpet bagger," and "scalawag" misiule
overthrown. The ruling class claimed that the end
justifies the means, and they were absolutely unscru¬
pulous in the matter. These methods were very
effective, reducing the Negro vote from a majority to
nothing.
This intimidation practically disfranchises the
Negro vote and is responsible for the so-called "Solid
South."
The black man is a Republican in principle. Fred¬
erick Douglass once said, "For the Negro the Re¬
publican party is the deck, all else but sea."
In the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and South
Carolina the Negroes outnumber the whites, and yet
these states are as solid for Democracy as any in the
South.
While in school at Louisville, we had a special
friend from South Carolina, and another from Missis¬
sippi. On one occasion they were both in our room
at the same time, when we began discussing politics.
We asked them why their states always went Dem¬
ocratic, when the Negroes, who were Republicans,
A BLACK SUBJECT
35i
largely outnumbered the whites. One of them an¬
swered, "It is true the Negroes can out-vote us, but
we can beat them counting.7' The other explained that
in his state they had what he called the eight ballot
system, with eight boxes, each properly labeled to
receive the ballots; as most of the Negroes could not
read the ballot or the name on the box, they were
certain to get the ballots in the wrong box, in which
case they were thrown out. "Had you no judges?"
we asked. "Certainly," said he, "but they were all
like the jug handle,on one side, our side." And this
miserable farce was called voting.
In 1880 Mississippi had 130,278 colored voters, or
a majority of 22,024. Now there are less than one
hundred colored votes in thirty-three counties, with
a white majority in.every county in the state. In
Noxubee County, there are now four colored voters,
or one to each one hundred and fifty colored men;
while Yazoo County, with its six thousand black men
of voting age, has only tfine registered votes, and
Lowndes has one colored voter to three hundred and
ten men.
Th-e Negro population gives Maryland one repre¬
sentative in Congress, Virginia four, North Carolina
three, South Carolina four, Georgia five, Florida one,
Missouri one, Kentucky two.Tennessee two,Alabama
four, Mississippi four, Louisiana three, Texas three,
and to Arkansas three. Which makes forty repre¬
sentatives the Negroes are entitled to, and yet they
have only one of thefr color in Congress and only
six Republican representatives from these fourteen
Southern States.
1 he man on whom rests the weighty responsibility
of representing more than seven millions of his race,
is Hon. G. W. Murray of South Carolina. He is of
pure Negro blood, splendid physique; and afineora-
352
THE WHITE SIDE OF
tor. He delivered the oration last commencement
before the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute
of Alabama, which was highly praised by all who
heard it, white and black.
Said a Democratic leader to a colored friend of
mine, "You are just a tool for the Republican party."
"True," was the reply, "but most of my life I was a
mule for the Democrats, who fought to keep me in
slavery, and I prefer to be a tool for the Republicans,
who fought to give me freedom."
This sentiment permeates the rank and file of an
overwhelming majority of the colored voters, North
and South, yet of late years they have become more
independent in politics. A few are now found in all
parties; while many are studying their own interest,-
and that of their color, and are for the party which
actually does the most for the Negro. This is as it
should be; and while the Brother in Black has long
since despaired of getting his full share of political
rights, he is far from satisfied with the few meager
crumbs which fall from the rich man's table. The
Republican party has been his best friend, and as he
has both memory and gratitude, it is safe to predict
that he will adhere to that party for some time to
come.
Among the most prominent colored leaders in
politics, are Hon. Frederick Douglass; Hon. B. K.
Bruce, ex-United States Senator from Mississippi,
ex-Register of the United States Treasury, and ex-
Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia;
H on. P. B. S. Pinchback,ex-Governor of Louisiana.
Hon, John R. Lynch, - ex-Congressman from Mis¬
sissippi, was appointed by President Harrison fourth
Auditor of the United States Treasury. Hon. John
M. Langston, of Washington, D. C., ex-Minister to
Hayti, is said to be the most prominent civil lawyer
A BLACK SUBJECT
353
among his people. The celebrated orator, Hon. J.
Milton Turner of St. Louis, was the first colored
man appointed Minister to Liberia.
Hon. H. R. Revels of Mississippi was the first black
man elected to the United States Senate; while
Hon. E. D. Bassett was the first colored minister to
Hayti.
The acknowledged leader of the colored Democrats
is Hon. Chas. H. J. Taylor the present incumbent
of the office of Recorder of Deeds for the District of
Columbia. Born in slavery, he graduated from Ober-
lin College, studied law at Ann Arbor University,
•and began its practice first at Leavenworth, Kansas,
then at Atlanta, Georgia. He finally located in
Kansas City, where he was elected assistant City
Attorney by the Democrats, and began the publica¬
tion of his weekly paper, "The American Citizen."
Pesident Cleveland appointed him Minister to Liberia
in 1887, and recently to his present position.
The ablest colored prohibitionist is John H. Hector
of California. The author met and heard him at the
National Prohibition Convention which assembled at
Louisville some years ago. There were many prom¬
inent leaders of that grand moral party, from all over
the nation; but none could move the audience with
matchless eloquence, like Black Hector. Among
other good things he said, "Fellow citizens, I am in
favor of protection on wool, but it is the wool that
grows on my own, and my boys' pates."
The colored man has made great progress in the
accumulation of wealth, and under the most discour¬
aging conditions. The man who did not own him¬
self, could not be expected to have advanced ideas
of owning anything else. When the Israelites started
from the land of bondage, they helped themselves to
all the wealth they could lay their hands upon. When
354
2 HE WHITE SI Da. OF
Russia liberated her serfs she gave each of them three
acres of land, and agricultural implements with which
to till it. Not so the American Freemen, whose un¬
paid labor had helped to enrich the nation,especially
the South; he was sent from the house of bondage in
empty-handed destitution. The Russian serf is still
a pauper, and but for the ship loads of grain sent
over by the American pe'ople, might have terminated
his miserable existence during the recent famine.
The Negro is neither a tramp, a beggar nor a pau¬
per, but an industrious and thrifty wage.earner, and
accumulator of wealth. Without including the fifty-
six millions the white man stole from him, by bad
management of the Freedman's Savings Bank which
failed in 1871, the Afro-Americans' wealth is now
estimated at about $265,000,000.
To this add the church property and we have some¬
thing over $325,000,000, for thirty years' work.
The wealth accumulated by individuals is even
more creditable than this aggregation. Their fortunes
range from $50,000 up to $1,000,000. Following
are a few of the wealthy colored men.
In Mississippi, Hon. John R. Lynch of Natchez
is said to be worth from $60,000 to $80,000. Ex-
Senator B. K. ^Bruce is still richer, owning two fine
plantations in B jliver County. Also Ben Montgom¬
ery's sons, who made $200,000 by growing cotton.
In the cotton district near Pine Bluff,Arkansas, are
several Negroes, with fortunes ranging from $50,000
to $250,000. Of these J. C. Corbin is estimated to
be worth about $75,000. Ferdinand Havis is
thought to have between $75,000 and $100,000. J.
C. Jones has about $100,000, while his brother Wiley
Jones is etimated to be worth $250,000. He owns
nearly the entire street-car system in his city, two
good plantations, a large saw mill, working many
A BLA CK SUBJECT
355
hands, besides some valuable real estate. He is also
a large depositor in the leading bank of the city.
Wm. B. Jacks of Jefferson Springs is worth $80,-
000. Mr. Bo wen, at Birmingham, Alabama, became
rich by purchasing two acres in what is now the most
valuable part of that city and holding it until it be¬
came worth $500 to every dollar of the original cost.
Mr. Harris of Mobile is worth about $100,000, which
he made by leasing barber shops in the steamboats
on the Alabama River, just before the war. Wright
Cuney, once collector of the port of Galveston,
Texas, is worth $150,000. There are Negroes in
Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia
who are worth $100,000. In Washington, D. C.,
John H". Cook and William Wormley are the richest
colored men.
In New York there are at least twelve colored men
who are worth from $100,000 to half a million each.
Two are physicians, with incomes from their profes¬
sions o£ $25,000 a year. Henry Thomas left his
heirs $150,000. Dr. McDonald of New York is
rated at $200,000. Mr. Roselle, of Williamsburg,
left nearly $500,000 at his death John Tenycke has
$500,000; while Mrs. Gloster of Brooklyn is esti¬
mated as worth $700,000.
In Louisiana there are thirty-two Negroes worth
from $50,000 to $300,000. Deslonde, who was Sec¬
retary of State during Gov. Kellog's last term,belongs
to this class. Antoine Dubuclet, State Treasurer under
Kellog, is quiet wealthy. The Jonberts, Dumasis,
Macartes, are all wealthy and cultured, having re¬
ceived their education in Paris. Ex-Gov. Pinchback
is thought to be worth about $250,000.
Aristide Mary represents $500,000, consisting of
one of the best blocks in .New Orleans. The author
saw this property a few years ago. Mr. Mary inher-
356
THE WHITE SIDE OF
ited a portion of his wealth from his mother. He,
too, was educated at Paris, and has one of the finest
libraries in the South,in Spanish, French, and Italian
classics.
The only Negro millionaire is Francois Delacroix,
who was the chattel of le Chevalier F. de la Croix,
an old time Creole gentleman of New Orleans. This
Negro was a skillful tailor, and was allowed to pur¬
chase his freedom for $2,000; shortly after which he
opened an establishment of his own, which became
the leading one in New Orleans, famous alike for its
high prices, and the cut and quality of the garments.
He imported his fabrics direct from Paris ^nd kept the
most skillful Parisian workmen to make them. Con¬
sequently he received for his dress suits, thirty to
forty per cent more than New York or Philadelphia
merchants demanded.
He made the most of his -fortune by making loans
at three per cent a month, and although he loaned it
to "young bloods," with no security but thqjr "word
of honor," he never lost one per cent of his principal.
He and his former master always maintained the
most friendly feeling for each other. The old Creole
would often say, "Ha! dat nigger of mine, he heap
richair dan hees master." He died about 1870, when
the fact of his wealth became known.
Thorny Lafon, who died recently at New Orleans,
leaving about one half his estate, or al quarter of a
million,to endow educational and charitable institu¬
tions, "exclusively for whites," has shown his gener¬
osity as well as his freedom from race prejudice.
The Negro is also laying up for himself treasures in
heaven. He is pre-eminently religious. Even when
a slave he fell in love with the white man's God.
When the cause of the Southern Confederacy was
desperate, Gen. Lee suggested to President Davis to
A BLACK SUBJECT
357
proclaim a day of fasting and prayer for victory. To
which Mr. Davis replied,"The prayers of the Negroes
have accumulated so thick around the throne of
grace, I fear God would never hear our prayers."
And his fears were well grounded.
Two important things, in a religious sense,are true
of the Afro-American citizens. First,there are more
professing (Protestant) Christians among them in
proportion to numbers than of any body of people in
the world.
Second, they give more liberally for the support of
the gospel and general religious work, in proportion
to their wealth, than any body of believers since the
days of the Apostles.
Following are the statistics of colored membership
in the Protestant denominations:
CHURCHES. COMMUNICANTS.
Colored Baptists ^. 1,483,533
African Methodist Episcopal 500,000
African M. E. Zion 314,000
Methodist Episcopal Church 165,000
Presbyterian (North) 16,660
Cumberland Presbyterian 15.000
Disciples of Christ 15,000
Congregational in the South 7,209
Christians 5 000
Union American M. Episcopal 3.500
Protestant Episcopal 4,000
Union African Methodist Protestant 3,000
M. E. Church (South) 653
Southern Presbyterian 267
Total 2,752,822
By these figures, the Baptists have 214,244 more
members than all the others combined. The various
branches of the Methodists estimated together make a
gocd second, as they number 1,206,153.
As to the progress of the colored race along educa¬
tional lines, Mr. T. Garland Penn estimates that now
about 4,000,000 can read, and nearly all of these can
write. He also stated that in r«no. within .a fraction
358
THE WHITE SIDE OF
of one half of the eligible children are reported in
schools. There are 2,000 colored school teachers
and 1,786,880 pupils- At least 200,000 colored boys
and girls are to-day private students. The Afro-
American controls 116 schools of higher training,
with 15,000 students. There aje enrolled in the In¬
dustrial and Mechanical departments of the colored
schools nearly -6,000 y( ung people. The Negro youth
is debarred from the Trade's Unions except in a few
cases in the South; but a remedy for this trouble is
found in these Industrial schools, where they produce
mechanics equal to the best; who would be strong
competitors in all trades, but for the unreasonable
race prejudice, which will gradually disappear.
Northern philanthropists, teachers and mission¬
aries have made a specialty of developing "Christ's
image in ebony," by doing for the South what she had
neither the inclination or ability to do for herself. .
In that 'excellent book, "Our Brother in Black,"
Bishop Haygood of Georgia makes this statement:
"Suppose these Northern teachers had not come,that
nobody had taught the Negro, set free, and citizens!
The South would have been uninhabitable by this
time,"
We cannot realize how the Northern teachers who
have gone South to instruct the colored people,have
suffered. Many of them were refined and sensitive
women who would have been at home in the best
Southern society; but they were ostracized socially,
they were insulted on the street, they had contempt
and odium -heaped upon them in a thousand ways;
some, of the men at least, have been tied up and
cruelly flogged, for the unpardonable crime of teach¬
ing colored children. A case of this kind was reported
recently from Texas.
This state of affairs is too illogical and unreason-
A BLACK SUBJECT
359
able to exist much longer. It is simply nonsense to
assume that it is all right for a white man to practice
law for a Negro, to practice medicine in 'his family,
to employ him, to buy from him, to sell to him; but
not respectable to preach to him or instruct his chil¬
dren.
We have seen smiling clerk and proprietor in
Southern stores follow colored women to the door
and say with a polite bow, "Call again,ladies,please;"
when probably if Northern teachers of colored schools
had gone into that store, they would have been
waited on, if at all, with the utmost coldness. We
have known cases in which the sons and daughters
of excellent Southern families, offering to go as mis¬
sionaries to Africa to instruct the benighted heathen,
were regarded as heroes and heroines. But had they
taught the Negroes around them they would have
.been tabooed and ostracized socially. Consistency
is a jewel.
John C. Calhoun once said: "Slaves are inferiors,
and hence their condition. They must be cared for by
their superiors. When I find a Negro who under¬
stands the Greek verb, I will believe he is the equal
of the white,and should be given his freedom." How
could he expect a Negro to know the Greek verb,
when it was unlawful to teach him the English al¬
phabet at that time. But the world moves and now
W. S. Scarborough, a colored Professor of Wilber-
force University, has written a Greek text-book; and
W. R. A. Palmer, A. M , B D., a native of Cal¬
houn's own state, is Professor of Greek language in
Claflin ' University, Orangeburg, South Carolina.
Professor Palmer is a classical graduate of Howard
University, and of Drew Seminary.
A few months ago, Mrs. Harriet Hayden, formerly
the chattel of a Kentucky slave owner, who escaped
360
THE WHITE SIDE OF
to Canada with her husband and child through the
Underground Railroad, left $5,000 to found a fellow¬
ship in Harvard University for the benefit of poor,
deserving, colored students. Preference given to those
studying medicine.
To-day there are about seven hundred Negro phy¬
sicians in the United States;four hundred and seven¬
teen are full graduates of medical schools, and one
hundred and fifty graduates in pharmacy. A colored
physician of Jackson, Tennessee, a graduate of Me-
harry Medical School, publishes a magazine known
as the "Medical and Surgical Observer." While col¬
ored physicians and trained nurses manage the Prov¬
ident Hospital, one of the best in Chicago. There
are sixty-six colored dentists, enjoying a large prac¬
tice.
According to R. C. O. Benjamin, Secretary of the
Colored National Bar Association, there are six hun¬
dred colored lawyers, among whom are men of emi¬
nent ability including one Circuit Court Commissioner,
several Judges, numbers of clerks of Court, several
City, District and Commonwealth Attorneys. There
are also colored Deans and Professors in * their law
schools.
Since 1863, about five hundred books and pam¬
phlets have been published by colored authors. They
edit, own and publish two hundred and eighty-seven
journals and four magazines; they have a National
Press Association, and their own book-publishing
houses.
The Afro-American is developing into an inventor
of no mean ability. The record of the Patent Office
at Washington City shows that he has been granted
patents on more than one hundred inventions. Just
the other day one of the race took out a patent for
an autormtic car coupler, which is paid to be perfect,
and for which he has refused $5~
A BLACK SUBTECT 361
The colored race, with meager encouragement,has
shown great talent in art. A picture, "Under the
Oaks," by E. N. Bannister, of Providence, Rhode
Island, was awarded a medal of the first class at the
Centennial Exposition of Philadelphia in 1876. This
picture was purchased by a Boston gentleman for
$1,500.
C. E. Porter of Hartford, Connecticut, has a studio
in New York,and exhibits his pictures in the National
Academy of Design in that City.
H. O. Tanner of Philadelphia is the greatest col¬
ored artist. He studied at first in the Academy of
Fine Arts of his native city; and has exhibited in the
art galleries of New Yorlf, Chicago, Louisville, Cincin¬
nati, Washington and Paris. He is a member of the
American Art Association of Paris; and the past two
years has been a student in the Institute of France,
under Jean Laurens and Benjamin Constant. He has
won prizes for two sketches, "Peasant Life in Brit¬
tany," and "The Deluge."
Mr. Tanner has a theory that the picturesque in the
Afro-American can best be interpreted by one of that
race; and exhibited the past winter a picture showing
one phase of Negro life, which he called "The First
Lesson." This is regarded by art critics as the finest
thing he has produced. It represents an old Negro
teaching a boy to play the fiddle. This picture is
now on exhibition in the salon of Paris, and has been
purchased for the Hampton Institute. Another of
his pictures, "The Bagpipe Lesson," has been pur¬
chased for $1,000 by the colored citizens of his native
city, and presented to the Academy there". During
the past summer, Mr. Tanner was the guest of Dr.
George Gray of Evanston, Illinois; while there he
painted the portraits of the Doctor's parents,from old-
fashioned daguerreotypes,'reproducing a wonderfully
362
THE WHITE SIDE OF
life-like picture. It is called "Ohio in 1840." The
scene is the interior of a log house, with its bare floor
and walls. Supper is just over, the father sits with a
Bibie in his hand, while the housewife is spinning,
and a small boy (the Doctor himself) is building a cob
house on the hearth by the fire. The faces are ex¬
cellent and true to life, and the picture is admired by
all who see it. Mr. Tanner returned to France in
September.
There is at least one prominent representative of
the colored race in the art of sculpture, in the per¬
son of Miss Edmonia Lewis. When a young, ignor^
ant girl, she made her first visit to Boston, and saw
a statue of Benjamin Franklin. After looking at it
carefully, the germ of genius burst forth in the ex¬
clamation, "I can make a stone man!"
William Lloyd Garrison introduced her to a noted
sculptor of Boston, who set her to copying the model
of a human foot. Thus started in her career, she
has ascended the ladder of fame, and now has a studio
of her own in-Rome, where she has executed work
which is admired and praised by art critics. She has
enjoyed the patronage of noted men and women; her
best productions are busts of Abraham Lincoln,
Charles Sumner, "Forever Free," the Madonna,
Hager in the Wilderness, and "Hiawatha's Wooing."
The art in which the Negro excells, and wherein
he has shown the most native talent is music. The
Fisk Jubilee Singers have made the music of the
American Negro popular throughout the United
States and Europe, where they were greeted with
crowded houses, and won the applause of the most em¬
inent musicians, giving concerts in the presence of
kings and queens. This celebrated troupe consisted
of twelve musicians; it was named for General Clin¬
ton B. Fisk, and the proceeds of their concerts were
A BLACK SUBJECT
363
used to erect the splendid buildings of Fisk Univer¬
sity.
"Blind Tom," or Thomas Wiggins, the musical
wonder, has played before more people, and is per¬
haps better know than any Negro musician the world
has ever produced. Born in Georgia, May 25, 1849,
an imbecile from birth, he early developed musical
talent of a phenomenal kind. When but a child he
was sold to J. N.* Bethune of Virginia, who discovered
what a bonanza he had and took him on a tour
through this country and Europe when he was -but
eight years old. He created a great sensation every¬
where, and his master made a fortune out of him
though Tom received for himself only a bare living.
The author, when a boy, heard him, and remem¬
bers that he played Dixie with his right hand, Yan¬
kee Doodle with his left, and sang "Tramp, Tramp,
the Boys are Marching," all three at the same time.
He also played fine classical music to perfection from
once hearing it. In a piece of his own composition,
called the "Battle of Manasses," the firing of can¬
non, report of musketry, marching of troops and
playing of bands are reproduced to perfection, all
upon the piano.
But the greatest of all colored composers is Ed-
mond Dede, who was born in New Orleans Nov. 20,
1827. After receiving instruction on the violin from
his father, he set sail for Paris, the goal of his am¬
bition. Here he received instruction from the cele¬
brated Delphin Alard, Adams, and Halevy who were
engaged at the Grand Theater, of which Mr. Carpier
was then director.,
Leaving Paris, he went to Bordeaux, where he has
since resided. Here he composed, "Ppris,""Triomphe
de Bacchus," "Papillion Bleu," "La Phoceene," "La
Sensative," and many others too numerous to men,-
364
THE WHITE SIDE OF
tion, numbers of which were played at the Grand
Theater. Mr. Dede is one of the composers whose
talent Fetis has consecrated in his marvelous produc¬
tion "Les Musiciens Celebres." He is a member of
the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers of
Paris.
Gussie L. Davis is one of the most popular song
writers of our country. While the greatest Afro-
American prima donnas in America and perhaps in
the world are Mesdames Marie Selika, Cissereitla
Jones the "Black Patti," and Nellie Brown Mitchell.
The "Christian Educator" gives an account of a
band of thirteen colored orphans, ranging from six to
fifteen years, which it considers the second musical
wonder among colored people. "The band was orga¬
nized by Rev. W. H. Sherwood of Florida, and they
give concerts throughout the country to raise money
to build an orphanage in that state. They play with
equal facility upon string and wind instruments.
Moreover, they change places and instruments at
pleasure. Each boy can play any one of five or six
different horns. They write their own music, engrave
and print it. Dr. Sherwood himself taught them the
art of engraving.
"The leader of the band, George F. Thompson,fif¬
teen years of age, is a true disciple of Apollo. He
composes originally, transposes from key to key,
reads by sight rapidly and accurately, engraves, and
directs the orchestra. .In a spirited contest among
the best cornetists of St. Louis, Missouri, he won the
gold cornet."
Dr. Antonin Dvorak, the eminent Bohemian com¬
poser,made this remarkable statement: "I am now
satisfied that the Negro melodies must be the real
foundation of any serious and original school of com¬
posers to be developed in the United States. These
A BLACK SUBJECT
3 65
beautiful and varied themes are the product of the
soil, the folk songs of America, and your composers
must turn to them.
"In the Negro melodies of America I discover all
that is needed for a great and noble school of music.
They are pathetic, tender, passionate, melancholy,
solemn, religious, bold, merry, gay, or what you
will. It is music that suits itself to any mood or any
purpose. There is nothing in the whole range of com¬
position that cannot be supplied with themes from
this source."
CHAPTER XV.
RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE.
"Cast one longing, lingering look behind.1'
Gray.
"Can ye not discern the §igns of the times."
The Christ.
We think it opportune at this stage to glance at
Jie past and mention a few of the more prominent
colored people and' events, not mentioned elsewhere
in this-work.
Benjamin Bannecker, the self-educated philoso¬
pher, mathematician and astronomer, published an
almanac in Philadelphia for the years 1792-95. He
also made a clock of wood without pattern and as¬
sisted in surveying and laying out the city of Wash¬
ington. His achievements elicited the praises of
Jefferson and Franklin.
Alexandre Dumas, the renowned mulatto author,
in twenty-three years is said to have published more
novels, historical sketches, plays and travels than
any man that ever live3. Paul Cuffee was the first
practical Afro-American colonizationist. He took
thirty emigrants from New Bedford if> his own vessel
in 1815.
Charles L. Redmond, a powerful orator, was the
first colored man to take the platform as a regular
lecturer in the cause of anti-slavery in 1838. Ed¬
ward W. Blyden, president of Lnberia College, an
accomplished scholar and linguist, has the reputation
3fi«
A BLACK SUBJECT 367
of being one of the finest Arabic scholars in the world.
In the year i860 Edward Jordan of Jamaica was
knighted by Queen Victoria; while^ gallant France
has decorated a mulatto general with the star of a
grand officer of the Legion of Honor.
A colored planter now owns one of Jefferson
Davis' old plantations in Mississippi.
In 1734 Anthony William Amo, an African from
the Guinea coast, took the degree of Doctor of Phil¬
osophy at the University of Wittenberg, Germany.
Dr. Pennington, the famous colored Presbyterian
minister, received the degree of Doctor of Divinity
from the University at Heidelberg, Germany. Pro¬
fessor George B. Vashon was a fine lawyer and one'
of the best Latin, Greek and Hebrew scholars of
Afro-Americans. Rev. B. F. Lee came to Wilber-
force University as a hostler; afterwards becoming
president of that great school.
R. D. George, a Carolinian, is the largest land
owner, among his people, in the United States, a
tract of his land running through three counties.
Rev P. C. Lawrence of the A. M. E Church,
Charleston, S. C., is the leading colored astronomer
of the United States.' Dr. Alexander Crummell, a
graduate of Cambridge University, England, and at
one time president of Liberia College, is an author
and one of the greatest theologians and scholars of
his race.
Henry Diaz, a black man, was at one time com¬
mander of the Brazilian army. '
Dr. William Wells Brown of Cambridge, Massa¬
chusetts, author of "The Colored Patriots in the
American Revolution," "The Black Man," etc., is
one of the most prolific and perhaps the most emi¬
nent colored authors in America. Also Colonel Joseph
T. Wilson of Norfolk, Virginia, author of "The Black
Phalanx," has considerable reputation.
368 THE WHITE SIDE OF
Peter H.Clark, principal of Gains' High School,
Cincinnati, and Bishop D. A. Payne are said to be
as finely educated as any colored man in the United
States. The bishop is also a gifted poet. Three of
■ the finest elocutionists are Hallie Q. Brown, Hen¬
rietta Vinton Davis, and Ednorah Nahar. Mrs-
Frances E. Harper is considered the most eminent
lecturess among her people. Rev. J Price, president
of a colored railroad company, and president of
Zion Wesleyan Theological Seminar}', is one of the
leading colored orators in America.
"The Colored American," published in New York
City by Philip Bell, was the first colored newspaper
published in the United States. Dr. B. T. Tanner of
the "Christian Recorder" and the A. M. E. Church
Quarterly Review of Philadelphia, and Thomas For¬
tune of the "New York Globe," are two of the most
prominent colored editors in America. The first
colored daily paper was the "Daily Gazette," pub¬
lished by W. T. Scott, at Cairo, Illinois. Rev Rufus
L. Perry is a distinguished Baptist minister and the
editor of the Brooklyn, N. Y. Monitor.
Lieutenant O. H. Flipper was the first black man
to graduate from West Point. Howard University
is the most prominent colored law school'in the
United States. Prof. Richard T. Greener, for a num¬
ber of years dean of the Law Department of Howard
University, is one among the most cultured Afro-
Americans. There are three colored female lawyers
who bid fair to make their mark: Mary A. S. Carey,
Michigan; Louisa V. Bryant,Colorado; and Ida Piatt
of Illinois, who recently graduated with honors at
the Chicago College of Law, and was admitted to
the bar.
Amanda Smith, of the A. M. E. denomination, is
one of the most spiritual and eloquent exhorters ancl
A BLACK SUBJECT
369
lecturers of her race and sex in the world. She has
traveled extensively in America and Europe and her
power over an audience is wonderful.
Richard Allen was the first colored bishop in the
United States. A few of the colored pastors in
Chicago, some of whom we have met personally,
are John F.Thomas,an eloquent and influential Bap¬
tist pastor, and one of the acknowledged leaders in
his denomination; also Rev. Dr. Birch, a Baptist
who is held in high esteem by his people. Dr. J. M.
Townsend of the A. M. E Church is a pulpit orator
of superior ability. Dr. D. A. Graham,pastor of Bethel
A. M. E. Church, is noted for his untiring energy;
although comparatively young, he has held pastor¬
ates in several large cities. Dr. J. E. Thompson
rector of St. Thomas'Protestant Episcopal Church, has
been wonderfully blessed of the Lord in his work.
Rev. M. Jackson, pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church,
is strictly a self-made man. Born a slave in Virginia
in 1850, with little or no chance in early life to ac¬
quire an education, he has with untiring energy
worked himself up to his present position.
Chas. W. Norcross,a colored man of Aurora, 111.,
is a genius for crocheting lace. He makes 200 differ¬
ent patterns, and was awarded $25.00, the highest
prize, for a yard of fancy silk lace he exhibited in
the Woman's Building,Columbian Exposition. The
lace was then sold for $25:00.
Chicago is equally well provided with colored men
in other professions, especially law, medicine and
journalism. We have perused a number of their
papers, and find the "Conservator" and others to com¬
pare favorably with journals edited by white men.
In fact the progress made by the colored people
North and South along all lines since the war, is the
wonder of the age, and is only equaled by their good
37°
THE WHITE SiDE OF
behavior during that time which tried men's souls.
"No one who wore the blue," said President Lin¬
coln,"ever found the colored man untrue. The smoke
of his chimney and the lamp in the window were the
pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night,
to guide our boys from the starving prisons to the
protection of the stars and stripes."
"But," says an objector, "this very fact would
make the master class justly indignant at the Negro
for giving comfort and aid to their enemies." Grant
it. But the point we make is that his service at that
time merited the gratitude of every loyal Union man.
The colored man also earned a vote of thanks,
common justice and fair treatment from the slave¬
holders themselves on another score. There is not a
case recorded of a colored man attempting to take
revenge upon his former master for keeping him a
slave, but many cases in which they have provided
for tlieir master or mistress when they had become
reduced to poverty. General Sherman said of them
in the "North American Review": "Every Southern
gentleman who has a spark of knighthood left in his
nature should take off his hat to the old bondsman
who stayed at home to care for his mistress and the
young ladies while he was himself away fighting to
destroy his own government, and to ^ strengthen the
fetters which bound the slave to his master."
In a speech at Cleveland, Ohio, General Gordon
said: "The behavior of the black race was such that
while we were away, not one solitary white woman
was insulted by them in the entire Southern States."
These are the words of a Southern general who was
in a position to know. It was confidently expected
that there would be a general uprising among the
slaves, bat in this all parties were agreeably disap¬
pointed,
A BLACK SUBJECT
3 71
The Negro filled the unique position of being out¬
wardly loyal to his master's family,while praying for
and giving secret aid to the Union army, which was
his wisest policy. How has his fidelity been rewarded?
In the North,by a general discrimination against him
on account of his color, and a passive indifference
to his fate. In the South by a series of oppressive
laws designed to make him a slave in everything but
name; by instituting that abomination of desolation
the-plantation credit system, which keeps the Negro
a chronic debtor either to the planter or a shark at
the country store, where he is required to pay
double for everything he buys; by deliberately rob¬
bing them of their suffrage, contrary to the, constitu¬
tion; by sending colored men to the penitentiary for
the most trivial offense, and on evidence that would
not be considered in the case of a white man; by cruel
or unusual punishment or lynching inflicted by a mob
of lawless ruffians in the form of shooting, hanging,
burning at the stake, or torturing with red hot irons
in barbarity surpassing the Comanche Indian or the
cannibal.
In regard to the treatment the colored man has re¬
ceived from Northern people, this much is true. They
fought to give freedom to the slaves; but had it been
understood at the beginning that this was the in¬
tention, tens of thousands who wore the blue would
not have enlisted.
Northern philanthropists give liberally of their
wealth to build churches and industrial schools where
the Negro can hear the gospel preached, and acquire
an education, and a useful trade. This is as it should
be so far, but when the colored youth receives this
education and masters his trade, he is no longer con¬
tent to be a drudge, filling a place any ignorant man
could fill as well. He has what in a young white
372
THE WHITE SIDE OF
man would be called a laudable ambition to rise in
the world, or at least earn an honest living by his
education or trade. He goes North and applies for
work, perhaps at the factory owned by the very phi¬
lanthropist who gave the money to build the indus¬
trial school where he acquired his trade. But the
manager promptly informs him that they employ
none but white men. He next applies for work to
a wealthy contractor and builder, who says, "I need
workmen and would like to employ you, but were I
to do so the hands would object, and might go on a
strike; am sorry, but really can't* do anything for
you." The young man is almost in despair; he be¬
gins to regret that he made the great sacrifice work¬
ing early and late, with the most pinching economy,
to get an education and trade only to find it a hol¬
low mockery.
He must live somehow, and, debarred from the va¬
rious trades unions,he finally gets a position as bar¬
ber, waiter, or on a train or in a hotel. In a recent
address Prof. Booker T. Washington said: "The
Southern whites are unwilling io allow educated
colored people to ride with them in their railroad
cars and the white people of the North are unwilling
the skilled mechanic with a black face should work
within the shops while making the cars."
We are glad to state, however, that Judge Barr, of
the United States district court,by a decision of last
January repealed the Separate Coach Law of Ken¬
tucky. We are also glad to state that in the South
industrially trained colored men are now received
into a few of the Labor Unions. There they work with
white men upon the same scaffolding. A colored
contractor who employed some white men, built a
house for Dr Joseph PZ Roy when he lived at At¬
lanta, Ga, Colored men are also employed as loco-
A BLACK SUBJECT
3 73
motive firemen and brakemen on trains in the South.
But in the North they allow no colored firemen, and
have only begun to use colored brakemen.
There are said to be ten thousand porters, edu¬
cated young Afro- Americans, the very choice of the
race, working for two sleeping car companies at the
starvation pittance of fifteen dollars per month and
"tips," which are a very uncertain quantity,and paid
grudgingly because the traveling public feel under no
obligation to help pay the wages of employees of
these rich monopolies, A few of them combine the
office of sleeping car conductor with that of porter;
in such cases the pay is thirty-five dollars per month.
Since thesa companies get such a large number of
choice young colored men, why not let each man
preside over bis own car, filling both positions? Cer¬
tainly the men employed in the department that pays
enormous dividends should receive a decent living.
It is the duty of the North to see to it that colored
men who are trained mechanics shall no longer be
forced to earn their bread by menial employment.
Theyare native-born American citizens and have al¬
ways-fought for "Old Glory,"—never against her;
and common justice would dictate that they should
have as good a show as anarchists and foreigners who
do not know whether Cleveland is President or a man
by the name of Tammany.
In the South the Afro-American is the victim of a
quartet of infamies which for convenience we will
call, Class Legislation, Ballot-box-stuffing, Convict
Lease System and Lynch Law.
All of these, but especially the first, is designed to
reduce the colored men to a condition of virtual
slavery According to the code of Alabama for the
"Black Belt," the Negro is not allowed to have fire¬
arms in his possession, but the whites can have as
374
THE WHITE SIDE OE
many as they please. Every Negro is compelled to
let himself out by contract on terms practically settled
by the master; and if he does not do this within a
given time, is subject to arrest as a vagrant.
Since the United States supreme court declared the
Civil Rights bill unconstitutional, which it did in
1884, most of the Southern States have enacted
separate car laws, making it punishable by fine and
imprisonment for colored persons to ride in the same
railroad car with whites, unless in the capacity of serv¬
ants to them. The act usually requires "separate but
equal accommodations,'' but on the Southern theory
that anything is good enough for "niggers," little or
no attention is paid to the requirement of "equal ac¬
commodations." Frequently the colored coach is little
better than a cattle car. Generally one half the
smoking car is reserved for the colored car. Often
only a cloth curtain or partition run half way up
separates this so-called colored car from the smoke,
obscene language, and foul air of the smokers' half
of the car.
All classes and conditions of colored humanity,
from the most cultured and refined to the most de¬
graded and filthy, without regard to sex,good breed¬
ing or ability to pay for better accommodation, are
crowded into this separate, but equal (?) half car.- No
colored woman, however well educated, well dressed or
refined, can ride in a first class coach in any of these
states unless she is a nurse-maid traveling with a
white child.
Geo. W. Cable was traveling in Alabama one hot
night in September. At bedtime a remarkably neat
and tastefully dressed young mulatto woman, almost
white, came aboard with her little daughter As
usual, she was seated in the foul smelling "Jim Crow
car." At the next station nineteen -convicts came
A BLACK SUBJECT
375
on board chained together, and were taken into the
Negro car. The keeper told Cable he would take
them two hundred miles that night. Mr. Cable could
not endure the foul air but a moment. But that re¬
fined woman and her little child were doomed by a
cruel law to hear the clanking of those chains, and
breathe that fetid air the remainder of the night.
In regard to ballot-box-stuffing a good illustration
is given in the Congregationalist.
"When Mr. Moody was preaching in Washington
he asserted that if Jesus Christ should return to this
world in person and appear in that city, the people
would not consent to be governed by him. He asked
the audience if they would receive him, and to em¬
phasize his assertion he appealed to an aged colored
man sitting near the pulpit: 'Would you vote for
him?' The reply came promptly: ''Twouldn't do
no good. They wouldn't count my vote.'"
Congressman Thomas B. Reed, in an article in
the "Forum" on "National Control of Elections,"
made this logical statement: "If it be a race ques¬
tion, is there any reason why the white man of the
South should have two votes to my one? Is he alone
of mortals to eat his cake and have it too? Is he to
suppress his Negro and have him also? Among all
his remedies he has never proposed to surrender the
representation which he owes to the very Negro
whose vote he refuses.
"The Negro is human enough to be represented,
but not human enough to have his vote counted.
When they tell us that these are ignorant votes and
ought not to be counted, we answer—that ignorance
is everywhere, even in Democratic New York City.
"If a man thinks the same thing of the Republic
that I do, must there be an inquest held over his in¬
telligence before I can have his vote counted with
376 THE WHITE SIDE OF
mine in the government of the United States? In
the language of ex-Gov. Bullock of Ga., 'It is now
generally admitted with us that there is no more dan¬
ger to the body politic from an ignorant and vicious
black voter than from an illiterate and vicious white
voter '
"In one District of South Carolina there were 31,-
000 blacks and 6,000 whites, but a white man was
elected to congress.
"In Alabama the fourth District contained 27,000
blacks and 6,000 whites, and at every election the
Democratic candidate is returned."
The ex-speakpr thinks the remedy is state super¬
vision for state elections and federal supervision for
national elections.
Said he, "All we ask is that in national matters
the majority of the voters in this country may rule."
The Maine statesman is the "Old Hickory Jack¬
son" of this period; and it is safe to say if he was
President, an effort would be made to restore the
right of suffrage, and trial by jury to the Negro of
the South.
In regard to the Convict Lease System, the fol¬
lowing from the "People's Advocate," an Afro-Amer¬
ican journal of Atlanta, Ga., 011 the prison showing
of that state for 1892 is pertinent: "It is an astound¬
ing fact that ninety per cent of the state's convicts
are colored; 194 white males and 2 white females;
1,710 colored males and 44 colored females.
"Is it possible that Georgia is so color prejudiced
that she won't convict her white law-breakers? Yes,
it is just so, but we hope for a better day."
In South Carolina, census of 1880, there were
twenty blacks to thirteen whites; but in 1881 there
were committed to state's prison at Columbia four
hundred and six colored persons, and twenty-five
A BLACK SUBJECT
377
whites. Twelve colored men were sentenced to the
penitentiary for carrying concealed weapons; which
thousands of the state's white inhabitants are con¬
stantly doing with impunity. Fifteen others were
sentenced for assault and battery. The author would
not be surprised to hear that others were sentenced
to the penitentiary on a case of "plain drunk," since
Governor Tillman's state Dispensary Law was
passed.
Mr. Cable stated, "In Georgia there were of the
convicts in 1880, 102 whites and 1,083 blacks. Yet
of 52 pardons granted in the two years then closing,
22 were to the whites and only 30 to the blacks. Of
these 1,185 convicts of Georgia, those who were un¬
der sentences of ten years and over numbered 538,
although ten years, as the rolls show, is the utmost
length of time that a convict can be expected to re¬
main alive in a Georgia penitentiary. Six men were
under sentence for simple assault and battery—mere
fisticuffing.
"For larceny, three men were serving under sen¬
tence of twenty years, five were sentenced each for
fifteen years, one for fourteen years, six for twelve
years, thirty-five for ten years. In other words, a
large majority of these 1,185 convicts had for simple
stealing, without breaking in or violence, been vir¬
tually condemned to be worked and misused to death.
One man was under a twenty years' sentence for
hog-stealing."
What is true of these states is true of the convict
lease system everywhere. The record of vice, cruelty
and death thus fostered by the states, for revenue
only, -equals anything from Siberia.4
A correspondent writing to the Evening Star of
Washington, D. C., Sept. 27, '92. about convict
mining in Tennessee, stated, "Men who failed to
378. THE WHITE SIDE OF
perform their task were fastened to planks by the feet,
bent over a barrel, stripped and beaten with a strap.
Out of the fifty convicts worked in the mines, from
one to eight were whipped per day in this manner.
The work in the mines was difficult, and the air so
bad that men fell insensible and had to be hauled
out.
In regard to the food one of the convicts said the
pea soup was made from peas containing weevils, and
added, "I have got a spoonful of weevils off a cup of
soup." In many cases convicts were forced to work
in water six inches deep for weeks at a time, getting
out coal, with one fourth of the air necessary for a
healthy man to live in, forced to drink water from
stagnant pools when mountain springs were just
outside of the stockades.
• The death rate among the convicts is reported as
greater than the death rate of New Orleans in the
greatest yellow fever epidemic ever known. Men
and women are chained together, and from 20 to 25
children have been born in the Convict Camps.
A new warden of Alabama wrote of it: "The sys¬
tem is a better training school for criminals than any
of the dens of iniquity in our large cities. The
system is a disgrace to the state and the reproach of
the civilization and Christian sentiment of the age."
In short, slavery madte men cruel and unjust.
Since most of the victims are Negroes, those having
the matter in charge seemingly do not care to alle¬
viate their condition. Hence it is that in these piping
days of peace, we have every year, and every month
in the year, horrible cruelties at the convict camps
that would almost equal Libby or Andersonville.
This is mainly due to the fact that hard-hearted and
mercenary wretches pay the state a stipulated amount
for the privilege of working, starving and beating
A BLACK SUBJECT
379-
the prisoners to death; so as Mr. Cable says, ten
years is almost equal to a life sentence, under the
heartless lease system.
Do you ask why such a large proportion of the
convicts are Negroes? In the first place, every Negro
so convicted not only means an able-bodied slave for
the state, but every convict is disfranchised. In the
next place, throughout the South the Negro is de¬
barred from the elevating influences of concert and
lecture halls,Temperance Unions, Young Men's Chris¬
tian Associations and similar organizations. He is
thus left to grow up in ignorance and vice, often
gravitating to the saloons and gambling houses where
he is welcomed.
The main reason,however,is in the fact that all the
politics and all the machinery for making and exe¬
cuting the law of the South is in the hands of the
white men. Forty-nine fiftieths of the legislators of
the South, every governor, every judge,every sheriff,
every magistrate, nearly every constable and almost
every juror are white man. Hence it is that an over¬
whelming preponderance of the convicts are Negroes.
Deprived of every advantage, stripped of every
hope of evading the law by favor, or counsel which
he is unable to employ, there is no possibility of any
black man charged with any probable crime escap¬
ing the extremest penalty of the law. No one pre¬
tends to believe that a guilty Negro could possibly
escape conviction.
What, then,is the necessity fcr lynch law? Clearly
there is none. Then why has it become so common
in the South? The editor of a Southern religious
journal, who is also a distinguished minister, makes
editorial answers to this question. "The status of our
civilization then is: We have Anglo-Saxon law in
our American code for the Anglo-Saxon civiliza-
380
THE WHITE SIDE OF
tion, which it is; and then for the new race of Afri¬
can citizens, the inauguration of African law in the
form of lynch law . . So long as we have two
races so diverse in genius, so long will it. be neces¬
sary to adapt the forms of law to those special types
of humanity, and if the statute books do not furnish
them the abiding sense of justice vested in the mind
of the body politic will,"
We find,then, the sentiment of the South, as voiced
by this editorial, is one law, and one standard of
right for the white citizen and another law, and an¬
other standard of right for the black citizen.
As Judge Tourgee, "The Bystander," logically
puts it, "they would have us believe that code of
penal ethics would make color the most important
element of crime, the element by which the method
of trial, the amount of evidence, and the method of
punishment should be determined. By this code we
should have for colored ravishers of white women
lynch law; evidence need not disclose compulsion;
the penalty, burning, flaying, or hanging at the pleas¬
ure of the mob. The colored ravisher of a colored
woman punishable by law; but the white ravisher of
a colored woman punished neither by lynching nor
by law.
"Yet Rev. Dr. Morehouse, who has been for four¬
teen years the field secretary of the American Bap¬
tist Home M'ssion Society, a man not only noted for
piety and candor, but having opportunity which not
a score of men can rival for knowing the colored
man's views of this strange Christian civilization,
writes in the official organ of that society: «I most
firmly believe that if lynch law were equally and im¬
partially meted out more white criminals of this class
than Negroes would be put to death.'
"Think of it! A crime for which burning at the
A BLACK SUBJECT
381
stake in defiance of law is not only excused, but jus¬
tified by Christian ministers of the South when com¬
mitted by a colored man, is of so little consequence
when perpetrated by a white man against a colored
woman that no punishment is mild enough to express
the public disapproval. In a dozen states during a
quarter of a century not a single white man has suf¬
fered the penalty of the law for such wrong against a
colored woman.
"'The Bystander,' with fifteen years experience at
the bar and on the bench of a Southern state, has
never had a moment's doubt of the truth of Dr. More-
houses' statement."
A Negro huckster was driving his wagon through a
street of Richmond, yelling at the top of his voice,
"Tatoes-! Tatoes!" A black woman standing at a
gate said to him: "Hush yo' mouf, nigger, an' stop
makin' sich a fuss."
"Yo' heerd me then?" "Heerd yo'! I could hear yo'
a mile, yo' 'sterb de whole neighbo'hood." "Thanks;
I's holloin' to be heerd. Tatoes! Tatoes!"
The colored people and their friends are hollering
to be heard, especially in regard to lynching and the
fiendish barbarity which always accompanies it.
God has raised up a modern Deborah in the per¬
son of Miss Ida B. Wells, whose voice has been
heard throughout England and the United States,
wherever it was safe for her to go, pleading as only
she can plead for justice and fair treatment to be
given her long-suffering and unhappy people.
She is now engaged in lecturing and organizing
Anti-Lynching Leagues in many of the Northern
cities.
We believe the same God who raised up Moses and
Joshua to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage, the
same God who raised up Lincoln and Grant to "break
382 THE WHITE SIDE OF
every yoke, and let the oppressed go free," has raised
up this courageous and eloquent young woman that
in the language of the prophet,she might "cry aloud,
spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show
my people their transgression and their sins."
We believe that God delivered her from being
lynched at Memphis, that by her portrayal of the
burnings at Paris, Texas, Texarcana, Arkansas, and
elsewhere she might light a flame of righteous indig¬
nation in England and America which, by God's grace,
will never be extinguished until a Negro's life is as
safe in Mississippi and Tennessee as in Massachu-
settes or Rhode Island.
Why did they destroy her press at Memphis? For
the same reason that they destroyed Lovejoy's and
Clay's; because she had the courage of her convic¬
tions and told the truth relative to a lynching that
took place in Memphis at that time.
In March, 1892, the civilized world was shocked by
the news of a massacre of the most .revolting cruelty.
Three young colored men, the best known and most
popular of Memphis, were arrested and thrown into
jail.
They had a prosperous grocery business, while that
of a rival white grocer's declined. He was envious
of the colored man, and his plottings culminated in
him leading a party of roughs, some of whom had
been appointed deputies, in a raid upon their
grocery.
The colored men, not knowing there were any offi¬
cers of the law in the attacking party, resisted from
the inside of their building, and wounded two or
three, but they were able to be upon the street with¬
in a week. Three nights after this a band of mur¬
derers went to the jail, took the colored men a few
blocks, and riddled them with bullets.
A BLACK SUBJECT 383
The world was horrified, but Memphis was com¬
placent.
The murderers were well known, and it is said
some of them were officers of the law. No rewards
were offered, no steps taken to bring the guilty
ones to justice.
Miss Well's paper was the only one in the city that
-was courageous enough to vindicate the victims and
demand the punishment of their murderers. For this
her press was destroyed, her life threatened, and she
banished from the city.
We believe that had the Memphis papers de¬
nounced that crime, and demanded that its perpetra¬
tors be brought to justice at that time, the country
would not have been shocked as it was recently by
one of the most brutal and inexcusable murders in
the world's history, which took place near that city.
On the night of August 31, 1894, six Negroes had
been arrested charged with barn-burning; they were
chained together in a wagon en route from Kerrville to
Memphis.
The prisoners wefe under the charge of deputy
sheriff and detective W. S. Richardson, and A. T.
Atkinson, who was driying the wagon. When two
miles from Lucy, they came to a bridge . which was
unsafe. Turning off the road to go around it, they
were surrounded by fifty men with guns, and the
poor helpless victims, pleading for mercy, were shot
to pieces, and having been thrown out of the wagon,
another volley was poured into them in pure fiendish
wantonness after they were dead.
This was the last straw that broke the camel's
back; the tide turned; the Southern papers,especially
in Tennessee, are doing what the'y should have done
fifty years ago, denouncing the cowardly murders in
their own boundaries, and demanding that they shall
384 THE WHITE SIDE OF
be brought to the gallows. Criminal court was in
session at Memphis and Judge Cooper, who presides,
summoned Richardson before him, heard his state¬
ment, and believing him guilty of knowingly leading
the Negroes into a death trap, issued a warrant and
had him arrested. The judge now laid the matter
before the grand jury, and went in person to see
Governor Turney, who promptly offered $5,000 for
the arrest and conviction of the murderers. Eighteen
men are now in jail charged with this crime. The
plot has been laid bare in all its hideousness. Mem-
phi 3 has found out that the contempt of the civilized
world is a penalty not to be desired, as the following
editorial from one of her leading dailies, "The Com¬
mercial," demonstrates:
"Men of Memphis, men of Shelby County, brave,
chivalrous men of the South, shall this bloody record
stand against us? Can we look civilization in the
face while we stand thus accused? Can w*e be silent
and inactive and remain guiltless of the bloodshed
of these poor wretches and guiltless of the crimes
that are to foljow? Aside from all considerations
affecting our more selfish and material interests, this
case makes an appeal to humanity that nothing but
a heart of stone can resist. The widows and orphans
of these murdered men left helpless and • destitute
are human beings. They know and feel the agony
of grief'as your wives and children would know and
feel it under the same horrible circumstances. If
there be a God in heaven, his judgment must de¬
scend in wrath and fire upon a people that suffer
such things to be."
The newspapers and grand jury of Memphis have
done well, It now remains to be seen whether
there is a petit jury that dare convict, a judge that
will sentence, a governor who will not pardon, or a
sheriff who will execute these murderers.
A BLACK SUBJECT 385
It would not have been necessary for England to
have sent a committee over here to help us go to the
bottom of this matter, and publish the truth to the
world, if our own government had shown as great a
disposition to protect colored American citizens from
being burned in the South, as it did to prevent dead
hogs from being burned in the Chicago strike.
The party in power has no inclination to do any¬
thing for the Negro, and during Harrison's adminis¬
tration more than five hundred colored people were
lynched, and thirteen burned alive. Why will the
leaders of the two great national political parties
spend their time and the people's money on the floor
of congress and on the hustings, talking about the
everlasting tariff which never was, and never will be
settled? Well might ex-Senator Ingalls say, "The
tariff is only a word to juggle with."
Both parties are starving for a real live issue, but
looking on complacently when the larger part of <pne
eighth of the citizens of this republic-are practically
without vote or protection of law.
We love our country and pray God to speed the
day when the cry, "I am an American citizen," will
be as effective protection against unlawful wrong at
home or abroad, as was the cry, "I am a Roman
citizen!"
Judge Tourgee, who is excellent authority, made the
following statement recently in the "Inter Ocean."
"In a group of Southern States in most, if not all,
pf which murder, rape, arson and burglary are capi¬
tal crimes, only three white men have been executed
for crimes against colored citizens in a quarter of a
century. Every man who has not been asleep dur¬
ing that time knows these facts:
"1. That during that time more than twenty thou¬
sand col-red people have been killed in those states
by whi'e men.
386
THE WHITE SIDE OF
"2, That thousands of colored men's homes have
been broken open and the dwellers therein scourged
or slain,
"3, That thousands of colored women have been
outraged without the slightest penalty being inflicted.
"4. That it is just as safe for a white man to kill
a Negro in those states as it is for him to kill a dog."
Total of the lynchings from 1885 to Sep. 15th
1894, were 1,679. Lynchings by sections: Southern
states—1,398; Northern states—281. Lynchings by
races—
North. South.
Whites 248 Whites 394
Blacks 33 Blacks 1,004
Total 281 Total 1.398
One remarkable thing about these figures is the fact
that there are 394 lynchings of white men credited
to the South, against 281 white and black credited
to-the North during the same time. When the differ¬
ence in population between North and South is con¬
sidered and still there are 113 more white men
lynched in the South than there were in the North
of both races combined-, it would seem to contradict
the recent statements of Southern governors about
the law-abiding people of the South,
Of the 200 lynched in 1893, 159 were Negroes, 4
of them women. The crimes charged against them
were rape—52, murder—57, incendiarism—8, and
the rest miscellaneous crimes. According to the
Chicago Tribune's report for 1893, the lynchings
in the various States and Territories were as follows:
Alabama, 27; Arkansas, 12; Colorado, 1; Florida,
8; Georgia, 16; Idaho, 1; Illinois, 2; Indiana,
2; Iowa, 2; Kansas, 3; Kentucky, 11; Louisiana,
20; Michigan, 1; Minnesota, 2; Mississippi, 17;
Missouri, 4; Montana, 1; North Carolina, 3; North
A BLACK SUBJECT 387
Dakota, 1; South Carolina, 13; Tennessee, 14;
Texas, 8; Virginia, 15; Washington, 1; New Mex¬
ico, 6; Indian Territory, 5; Oklahoma, 4. Of the
total number there were 154 negroes, 30 whites,
5 Mexicans, 7 Indians, and 4 women. The record
of 183 in the South and 17 in the North needs no
comment.
The burnings at Texarcana and Paris, Texas, have
evidently disgusted the better people of Texas, for
only two lynchings are reported from that state in
eighteen months, and Governor Hogg seems anxious
to put down lawlessness in the bounds of his com¬
monwealth.
The worst feature of mob law is the fact that many
innocent men have fallen victims in Judge Lyncfh's
hurried and unreasonable court. But there are in¬
dications that reason will soon assert its sway, and
fair trial by jury take the place of a remorseless and
infuriated mob. We trust we are neither a pessi¬
mist nor an optimist, but to us the star of hope looms
up brightly on the future horizon of the colored
race.
One of the most hopeful signs of the times is the
eagerness with which the Negro attempts the solution
of his own problem. At a recent meeting of intelli¬
gent and representative colored men at Waycross,
Georgia, they declared that the assaulting of white
women by Negro men must cease. They demanded
it on the ground of safety to the whole race and
urged it on the ground of morals. The great body
of the Negro race North and South utterly reprobate
these terrible crimes, and their leaders are teaching
their people that it must stop. This is exactly right,
and the white leaders should give their people the
same lesson from pulpit, press and platform, in re¬
gard to colored women.
388 THE WHITE SIDE OF
In. the recent strikes in the coal mines of Pennsyl¬
vania, the places of the riotous Huns and Slavs
were filled by Negroes. The mine owners imported
these people from Southern Europe, hoping to find
them cheap labor; but they proved to be anarchists
and dear at any price, The mine owners now turned
to the peaceable and industrious Negroes, many of
whom will be employed in the mines hereafter. Dur¬
ing the Debs strike a colored leader of Chicago was
asked, "On which side are the colored people in this
tie up?" "On the outside," he promptly replied,
"and they will stay there."
That very strike was a blessing to the Negro race,
and for these reasons: In the first place it empha¬
sized the fact that the Negro is a peaceable citizen,
neither a striker nor anarchist. In the next place it
led to the employment of a number of them by the
railroad companies. This was but a commence¬
ment; and some of these places have been made per¬
manent and good will result.
Uncle Sam wanted deputies and guards; and the
black man came to his aid in large numbers. Sev¬
eral hundred were engaged and put to work, and
sustained the reputation they have earned as soldiers
in every war from the French and Indian down to the
Chicago strike.
H. A, Leonhenser, ist Lieut, of the 25th Infan¬
try, said of them, "Their fidelity, patience and cour¬
age, under the trying circumstances, are a lasting
credit to themselves and to the service of the United
States."
We desire to make a friendly suggestion for the
consideration of our colored friends whose cause we
have- tried to vindicate, First, heed the admonition
of G. W. Cable and keep your vote alive, but do
not let the white man know how you intend to vote.
A BLACK SUBJECT
385
Second, before the great national conventions are
held to nominate Presidential candidates let there
be a colored national convention held at some cen¬
tral point. Let it be a non-partisan representative
body of all colored leaders. Then adopt strong reso¬
lutions pledging each other and your race not to sup¬
port any party or presidential candidate who is not
plainly and unequivocally pledged to restore a free
ballot and trial by jury, to your brethren in the
South.
As long as the Republican party thinks it owns
the Negro vote because of their gratitude for the
freedom it gave them, that long will its Presidents
continue to have their "hands tied." But if it thinks
there is danger of losing the vote and influence of
more than eight millions of people,it can and will get
its hands untied and right your wrongs very quickly.
Third,since the Afro-American citizens had no recog¬
nition at the World's Columbian Exposition, we rec¬
ommend that an Afro-American World's Fair shall be
held in celebrating the Jubilee of Lincoln s Emanci¬
pation Proclamation,which will be January 1, 1913.
Should this suggestion be adopted,heap coals cf fire
on the white man's head by treating him as he should
have treated you in 1893. We cannot fail to see
the hand of God in the history of this people, and
the present signs of the times. Torn by cruel avarice
from Africa, they remained in bondage nearly two
and one-half centuries; long enough to become civi¬
lized and Christianized. In his own good time, God
snapped the fetters that bound them,' by the thun¬
derbolt of war. He then put it into the hearts of
Northern Christians to build schools and churches
where these black children could be educated and
hear the gospel.
Now he has brought into existence the great Congo
39°
THE WHITE SIDE
Free State of Africa, in extent and population larger
than all our Southern States. This is the garden spot
and best climate of Africa, and is under the protec¬
tion of the Christian nations of the earth. Colon¬
ists and educated colored missionaries are pouring
into its country from our Southern States. The Gov¬
ernment of Liberia is giving free lands, and tools
with which to work it.
This clearly indicates that God is going to redeem
Africa through his Afro-American children. And
while we do not believe the Southern Negro will ever
emigrate in a body to Africa—nor would we advise it
—we do believe enough of the leaven of Christianity
will go to lighten the whole mass of ignorance and
idolatry in the dark continent. In reviewing the past
and taking a glance into the future of -his race we
can but exclaim, "This is the Lord's doing and it is
marvelous in our eyes."
CHAPTER XVI.
AFRO-AMERICAN PROGRESS UP TO DATE.
" Let us, then, be up and doing,
With the heart for any fate ;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait"
Longfellow.
When people of other States ask us the question:
" What are the colored people of Illinois, and especially
those of Chicago, doing?" we reply, they are making
gratifying progress. It could not, in the nature of things,
be otherwise, living as they do in that favored State,
with its great metropolis throbbing with enterprise and
pulsating with gigantic achievement.
By way of answering such questions more in detail,
and at the same time encouraging the race to still greater
endeavor, we have determined to add one more chapter,
in which we will take a hasty glance at Chicago, and
then note some phases of recent progress elsewhere.
We have heard Chicago described as the " Negro's
Paradise," and in this great cosmopolitan place he does,
perhaps, enjoy as many privileges as elsewhere in
America ; but the saying of Mohammed, that "man can
have but one paradise, therefore he should prefer it
after death/' will apply to the Negro even in this favored
city.
It is true his children enjoy the same public-school
advantages as the whites ; but when the white boy and
his black schoolmate, who stood equally high in the
class, apply for a position, the white boy invariably gets
it, so that the chances for an intelligent colored youth
are limited. But in spite of this fact, and to the glory
391
392
THE WHITE SIDE OF
of the race be it said, the Negro is not a pauper, but
manages somehow to live without charity. In the dis¬
tribution of food and clothing last winter by the city
and benevolent societies to the army of starving poor
the black brother was conspicuous by his absence.
The writer of these lines has fed representatives of
most of the countries of Europe, and a few white Amer¬
icans, but not one Afro-American ever asked him for food or
money, though he is well known as a friend of the race.
The Chicago Negro has proven to be a successful pol¬
itician, for,4n spite of an imperfect organization, he fills
more good-salaried positions here than in any other city.
There are about 25,000 colored people in Chicago,
and they have fifteen places of worship, of which six are
Baptist, five are A. M. E., one A. M. E. Ziori, one M. E.,
one Presbyterian, and one Episcopal. The two leading
churches are Quinn Chapel, said to be one of the largest
and handsomest Negro churches in the world, of which
Rev. G. Booth is pastor, and the new Olivet Baptist
Church, now nearing completion, largely through the
herculean efforts of its pastor, Rev. J. F. Thomas.
Chicago has five Afro-American newspapers.
They are, The Conservator, ably edited by Mrs. Ida B.
Wells-Barnett, and claiming a larger city circulation
than all the other colored papers combined.
The Appeal, of which Cyrus Field Adams is editor.
This paper proudly claims the largest circulation of any-
paper of its class in the United States.
All About Us, is the name of a paper recently started
by F. P. Rawlings, late of Memphis, Tenn. We advise
the older papers to look w«ll to their laurels, for this
young man impressed us as a courteous gentleman, with
energy and force of character, who is a natural news¬
paper man. In his well-equipped office we saw for the
first time a Negro editor and white compositor, nor did it
impress us as anything incongruous.
The other papers are The Leader, edited by Lawrence
Newton, and The Bee, of which T. H. Crump is editor.
We have not seen a copy of either. An effort is also
being made to establish a colored daily in Chicago.
There are now 250 colored papers in this country.
A BLACK SUBJECT
393
A few of the prominent colored citizens of Chicago in
the professions or business are, Edward H. Morris, law¬
yer; W. H. Ward, assistant county attorney; F. L. Bar-
nett, assistant state's attorney; Edward H. Wright,
county commissioner; S. Laing Williams, attorney at
law; Lloyd G. Wheeler, large tailoring establishment;
Wm. F. Taylor, the only colored druggist; Wm. Johnson,
the only large shoe-dealer; Emanuel Jackson, the lead¬
ing undertaker; Geo. Shaw, the leading grocer; while
Mrs. John Jones is said to be one of the wealthiest peo¬
ple of her race in the city, and Charles H. Smiley is the
leading caterer, white or colored.
Moreover, Chicago has furnished colored men who
stand at the head of their professions in other cities, such
as Dr. Wm. Van Williams, late of this city, now surgeon
in charge of the Freedman's Hospital, Washington,
D. C. We called recently at the Provident Hospital and
Training School for Colored Nurses of this city, and
were shown through the various wards and departments
by the genial Superintendent, Dr. A. R. Abbot. This
institution, which is complete in all its appointments,
owes its existence largely to those big-hearted philan¬
thropists and friends of the race, Messrs. Armour, Kohl-
saat and Brewster. We noticed the medical and surgi¬
cal staff consisted of both races, the white predominat¬
ing, but the nurses were all neat, intelligent-looking
colored girls, while the patients were about equally di¬
vided between white and colored. We were very favor¬
ably impressed with the institution and its management,
and remarked afterwards, that should we become sud¬
denly ill or disabled while in Chicago, it was our request
to be sent to the Provident.
Among the most gifted colored people of this city is
Mrs. Fannie Barrier Williams, wife of S. Laing Williams,
the attorney. She first came into prominence during
the Columbian Exposition when she helped to win some
recognition of the American Negro from the Board of
Control by a surprising display of wit and eloquence.
She now lectures under the management of the Slayton
Lyceum Bureau of Chicago. Her most popular lectures
are:
394
THE WHITE SIDE OF
1. " What Will You do with Our Women ?"
2. "Religion and the American Negro."
3. "Prudence Crandall, or a Modern Canterbury
Tale."
4. "Opportunities and Responsibilities of American
Colored Women."
Mrs. Williams is also a correspondent of the Times-
Herald.
The leading colored poet of Chicago is William
Moore. This gentleman was born in New York City,
September 30, 1859, and early in life became a news¬
paper reporter, serving on the staff of T. Thomas For¬
tune, of the New York Age, and other papers.. Finding
that city somewhat slow, he came to Chicago, where he
has established a reputation as a poet, author, critic and
reporter for the Chicago Record. He is, moreover, quite
a gifted speaker, as was shown by his oration on the
Life and Times of James Edwin Campbell, a brother
poet of his own race.
Some of his best productions are "The Hand of
Ethiopia," an ode read before the Educational Congress
at the Columbian Exposition, " Songs and Sea Ballads/'
"The Token" (along poem), " Dinah" (a long poem),
"Sonnets," published in the New York Age, Frank Les¬
lie's Weekly and the Chautauquan, and said to be among
the best written by an Afro-American.
Mr. Moore is also President of the Twentieth Century
Club, and very popular. He has promised his friends
to publish a volume of poems, probably within the next
year. He gave us the following little gem for this
chapter:
CONSOLATION.
God knows where the dead find rest;
Somewhere, T know not where the peace may stay,
The sea breaks sweetly for the dead and day,
God knows, for God is Love and Love is Rest.
Love knows where the days find God;
Somewhere, I know not where the way may lie,
The morn wakes gently for the loved who die,
Love knows, for Love is Rest and Rest is—God.
WILLIAM MOORE.
I. GARLAND PENN.
NEGRO BUILDING, ATLANTA EXPOSITION.
A BLACK SUBJECT
395
Another colored gentleman who is popular, not only
in Chicago but throughout the state, is Major J. C.
Buckner, member of the Legislature and commander of
the 9th Battalion Illinois National Guards. Honorary
membership of the Chicago Zouaves was recently con¬
ferred upon him, the Major being the first of his race so
honored.
There is at No. 2940 South Park avenue, Chicago, a
colored lady who, estimated by her life of toil and sac¬
rifice for others, her spiritual gifts, her unswerving
faith in God, is, perhaps, one of the most remarkable
women of the race in this age; indeed, it is hardly an
exaggeration to say, of any race or any age. We refer to
Mrs. Amanda Smith, the well-known colored evangelist.
Calling at her home recently,we learned something of
her history.
She was born at Long Green, Md., January 23, 1837,
"removing to Pennsylvania shortly afterwards. Her
father, Samuel Berry, though a slave, was far above the
average in intelligence. He was, moreover, a man of
great strength and wonderful energy and endurance.
By working nights, holidays and extra hours, he earned
enough money to purchase his freedom, afterwards that
of his wife and five children.
Amanda had only about three months' schooling, but
this gave her a little start, and she improved every
opportunity to gain knowledge. She was converted
March 17, 1856, while living at Columbia, Pa. But
it was on the first Sunday in September, 1869, in Old
Green Street M. E. Church, New York City, that God
wonderfully blessed her soul with the fullness of his
love. Her work for the Lord took shape from that
time, and His leading has been marvelous.
In 1871 she went to England, where she remained
eighteen months, going from there to India. Here she
remained two years, preaching with wonderful power
in Calcutta, but returned to England in time for the
great Ecumenical Council held in City Road Chapel,
London.
The Lord now inclined her heart to go as a mission¬
ary to Africa and labor among the benighted people on
39*
THE WHITE SIDE OF
the West Coast. When asked what missionary society
sent her to Africa, she replied, " No society, for I was
past the age when they received missionaries. But God
sent me, and He sustained me for eight years while I
labored for Him there."
Landing at Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, she
remained a year, suffering part of the time from that
terrible African fever.
As soon as she recovered she began the work ever
dear to her heart of trying to win souls for Christ, and
her efforts were crowned with success.
While in Africa she met Bishop Taylor, with whom
she was a co-laborer for a brief time, but she was on the
West Coast two years before Bishop Taylor came.
Having lost all her children, except one daughter, who
is married and living in Baltimore, she adopted a native
boy and girl to be educated and sent back as mission¬
aries, but on the eve of leaving Africa for England she
and the girl , Francis were both taken sick and she was
forced to leave her with friends. She brought the boy
Bob to England, where he got a fair education, and
afterwards returned to Africa.
While in England in the spring of 1894, attending the
World's W. C. T. U. Convention, the Lord said to her:
te What have you done to help your own people in a
permanent way that will live after you are gone ?" She
answered the seemingly audible voice: " I must con¬
fess, Lord, it is little or nothing/' The next question
was: "Why not start an Industrial Orphans' Home
for colored children ?" She resolved that by the help of
God she would, and determined to comply with the
many requests of her friends and write her autobi¬
ography that the profits of it might be used for the pur¬
pose of founding this home. The Lord prospered her
undertaking. A twelve-room brick house in Harvey,
worth $6,000, has been secured at such a reduced price
as will enable her to pay for it. She says when this
home is paid for and in good running order, she will be
ready to say with Simeon, " Lord, now lettest thou thy
servant depart in peace."
Because of the fact that Mrs. Smith has held a great
A BLACK SUBJECT
397
many meetings in white churches and camp-meetings
all over the .country (and having wonderful power over
an audience, she is always in demand) some of her
race have taken exceptions and call her the " White
folk's Negro." Her only vindication is that with the
white people there was always an " open door " which
she was invited to enter, but of her own race it was
often true that she "came unto her own but her own
received her not." She is further vindicated by her
eight years' labor in Africa and the orphans' home for
Negro children she is now establishing.
Of the three companies employing the most Negro
help, Pullman and Wagner, the two sleeping-car com¬
panies, and H, H. Kohlsaat of the Bakery Lunch Com¬
pany, Pullman and Kohlsaat are at Chicago.
Just as the Grant monument is being unveiled it is re¬
freshing to read the following which is going the
rounds of the papers, because it shows that the race is
not only enterprising and grateful but disposed to do a
handsome thing which will link together the names of
its three great benefactors, Lincoln, John Brown and
Frederick Douglass.
The African Methodists of the state of Illinois will
build a memorial church at Springfield in honor of the
memory of Abraham Lincoln. It will be named the
Lincoln Memorial Church, and cost $80,000. The
structure will be built of gray stone, with modern
features and two spires, the main one reaching an attitude
of 150 feet. There will be three memorial windows. The
center one will be dedicated to Lincoln and the two
smaller to Frederick Douglass and John Brown. What
might be regarded as the most interesting feature will
be the memorial room, in which are to be kept slavery
relics of every cfescription—pictures of all the great
abolition leaders, an auction block, the Lovejoy print¬
ing-press, the rope which was used in hanging John
Brown, and whatever else can be gathered.
The building fund has been started by the St. Paul
African Methodist Episcopal Church,of which the Rev.
Jesse Woods, the originator of the idea, is the pastor.
An advisory committee has been given charge of the
398
THE WHITE SIDE OF
work. It is composed of the leading Methodists of the
state, together with State Auditor James McCulIough
and State Senators Bogardus and Templeton. State
Treasurer Henry L. Hertz is the custodian of the fund.
Work will commence some time this spring.
It is also gratifying to know that $25,000 have been
appropriated by the Illinois Legislature for the Elijah
P. Lovejoy monument.
Perhaps the man who is destined to be the greatest
poet of the race since Phillis Wheatley, is Paul Dunbar.
A few years ago he was an elevator boy at Dayton,
Ohio, and is still a comparative youth, but his lyrics
were approved by James Whitcomb Riley and Wm. D.
Howell, and " noisy fame was proud to win him." He
visited Chicago last January and was entertained by
W. F. Taylor, the druggist.
Young Dunbar is now in England, in company with
Major Pond, the man who makes a specialty of discov¬
ering and promoting Afro-American talent of the high¬
est order.
The following from the London Mail will be of inter¬
est to his many friends on this side :
Paul Dunbar—A Negro poet and reciter introduced himself to
London yesterday. Dunbar is a brawn Scotch patronymic, and the
Dunbars are mostly big men with whiskers of cayenne tint; but
Paul Dunbar grows wool above a face as black and bright as pol¬
ished ebony. He is a full-blooded Negro, born of African slave
parents in Dayton, Ohio, and he has come to London to make him¬
self known as a reciter of his own poems—the beauty and fine
philosophical spirit of which have made him famous in the country
which gave him birth. Yesterday afternoon Mr. Dunbar gave a
short reading from his own "Lyrics of Lowly Life." Of the four
poems selected, three, written in the Negro dialect, were given with
so much point and characteristic humor that the audience was
moved to enthusiasm. Mr. Dunbar knows how to make a nice
blend of the quaint and deeply serious ; as, for instance, in "When
Melindy Sings," the final stanzas of which run thus :
" Towsah, stop dat barkin', hyeah me'
Mandy, mek dat chile keep still.
Don't yo' heah de echoes callitv'
F'om de valley to de hill ?
Let me listen—I can hyeah it
Th'oe de bresh of angels' wings,
Sof' an' sweet. ' Swing low, sweet chariot,*
J5z Melindy sings."
A BLACK SUBJECT
399
In another vein, " The Poet and His Song," is a neatly-turned
lyric, the philosophical sentiment of which would have gladdened
the buoyant bosom of Mark Tapley, while from the dialect poems
Mr. Dunbar selected "Accountability" and "When de.Cohn Pone's
Hot," both of which he gave with genuine humor. Much of the
verse that is included in "Lyrics" was written while Dunbar was
an elevator boy, and in an introduction to the book Wm. D. How¬
ell's remarks that Dunbar was the only man of pure African blood
and American civilization to feel Negro life esthetically and express
it lyrically. The public will presently be able to judge his quality
for themselves.
Another colored lad of Ohio " woke up one morning
and found himself famous." We refer to D. J. Bundy,
of Cincinnati, whose name is now in every paper. The
following clipping from k Washington paper will explain
the case:
Congressman W. B. Shattuc, of Ohio, yesterday nominated D. J.
Bundy, a colored lad of Cincinnati, to a cadetship at Annapolis.
He has been urged to withdraw the name, but says he will stand by
the appointment. There has been some murmurs of disappointment
from the naval academy and threats of the students to resign.
" The boy earned the appointmeut fairly," said General Shattuc
to-day. " There was a competitive examination and two colored
lads, one of them Bundy, outstripped their Caucasian competitors.
One of them, however, proved to be over 20, and was therefore
debarred. I had told them the competition was open to every eli¬
gible boy in my district. Bundy, who won, is one of the handsom¬
est boys I ever saw. Yesterday I sent his name to the secretary of
the navy and he will be appointed. I have received no communica¬
tions from the students at Annapolis on the subject, but several
congressmen have told me that it was an unwritten law not to allow
a colored boy at Annapolis. They told me if I persisted it would
break up the school—that other students would resign.
"'Let them resign and be I replied. "That boy
earned his appointment fairly, and I'm going to see that he goes to
Annapolis and receives fair treatment, and if any outrages are per¬
petrated upon him, I will ask of congress an investigation into any
mistreatment to which he may be subjected. In this matter I only
want to be fair, and I am determined that Bundy shall have a
chance to show the metal that is in him."
This declaration has the right ring. The circumstances sur¬
rounding the appointment are such as to bring to the lad the sym¬
pathy of all fair-minded people. He has not be^en forced in, nor has
he, save by his merit, forced himself in. He has fairly earned the
appointment, and we are glad his congressman is a lover of justice,
a man ol resolution, and in every way worthy to represent the great
State he does.
THE WHITE SIDE OF
The following is from the Louisville Commercial:
There is kicking because a Negro boy in Ohio, on a competitive
examination, won an appointment to the naval school at Annapolis.
There is more kicking because a couple of Negro companies from
Virginia are to participate in the Grant monument parade, and the
Richmond Blues will, therefore, not take part. This is all silly.
There are a good many millions of Negroes in America, and they
are as good food for powder, as Falstaff said, as any white man. The
Negro soldiers in the Egyptian army have proved themselves the
best. It is not race prejudice that counts against them in this
country, but taste prejudice. A Negro, who aspires to do what has
heretofore been done by white men, is considered ""impudent," and
"impudence" in a Negro is very aggravating to white natives in this
country. All this will pass away, but it will take time.
There is still much of that foolish and illogical caste
prejudice in existence, and much of the lynching and
barbarous treatment of the Negro, particularly in the
South, is due to this fact.
But the'world moves. This prejudice is gradually
dying out; the crusades waged against lynching by
Judge Tourgee, Dr. Morehouse, Ida Wells-Barnett and
Frederick Douglass are bearing fruit. We thank God
that lynching has already reached the highest point, and
there is a steady decline, as the following statistics
from the Chicago Tribune demonstrate:
In 1892 the number of lynchings were....236
" 1893 " " ....202
" 1894 " '* <f ....190
<s 1895 " u " ....171
" 1896 " " «< 131
Up to May 1,1897, number of lynchings were 36
And to cap the climax, we have now a president
whom the colored people delighted to help elect. Who is
neither fishing nor duck-hunting, neither are his " hands
tied" And in his inaugural address he put himself on
record against this iniquity in the following unmistaka¬
ble language:
"Lynching must not be tolerated in a great and
civilized country like the United States, Courts not
mobs must execute the penalties of the law."
The Afro-American people did well to present such a
president that Bible as elegant as it could be manufac¬
tured, on which to take the oath of office,
A BLACK SUBJECT
401
We are glad to record the fact that a monument to
the memory of Frederick Douglass is now in process of
construction at Plymouth Park, Rochester, New York,
where he is buried. It will consist of a bronze statue
eight feet hight resting on a pedestal of granite nine
feet high. It will cost $10,000, and will probably be
unveiled the latter part of August or first week in Sep¬
tember next.
Congressman Geo. H. White, of North Carolina, is the
only colored representative in the LVth Congress. For
this reason the colored people of the District of Columbia
are urging Speaker Reed to appoint him a member of
the District Committee.
The Negro had no recognition worthy of the name at
the World's Columbian Exposition, but he fared better
with the Cotton States Exposition held in Atlanta, Ga.,
in 1895.
The managers remembered that the Negro had, to
say the least, contributed largely to the wealth and
greatness of the South, and an exposition which did not
recognize the Negro would be like the play of Hamlet
with Hamlet left out. Accordingly, the colored people
had a whole building and a creditable display, with I.
Garland Penn, of Lynchburg, Va., for chief.
This idea has been enlarged and improved upon by
the Tennessee Centennial Exposition which opened at
Nashville, May 1, 1897.
According to the reports in the papers the Negro
building is one of the handsomest structures in the
grounds. Some maintain it is the finest. It is 300 feet
long and 150 feet wide. It cost the people of Tennessee
about $12,000.
The building was paid for by the people of the Volun¬
teer state, with the exception of about $1,000 contrib¬
uted by the Negroes. It was presented to the black
race so that the Negro could have an opportunity to
show what he could do and what he had done toward
the intellectual and industrial progress of the country.
The structure is situated on the eastern shore of the
beautiful lake Watauga, not far from the entrance to
the exposition grounds. While many of the other struct-
402
THE WHITE SIDE OF
ures are larger and more imposing, none commands
more admiration for tasteful design and artistic beauty
than the Negro building. The structure has three stories
and a basement.
The colored people of Tennessee have worked hard
to make their exhibit a success. Professor Richard Hill
was chosen as chief of the department. He immediately
began to organize the Negroes of the state into working
committees.
In giving instructions to the chairmen of the different
committees Professor Hill told them he had nothing to
offer them but hard work. The chairmen responded
with a will, as the exhibition in the Negro building
shows. Moreover orators have been sent throughout
the country urging the race to make a splendid showing
at the exposition, and the success has been marvelous.
Relics of old plantation days have been sent to the
Negro building. The gradual growth of the race, intel¬
lectually and industrially, is shown throughout the ex¬
hibit.
In talking of the exhibit of the colored race and what
it meant, Chief Hill said:
" During the six months of the Tennessee Centennial
Exposition the Negro race will be on trial; its talents
and genius will be put to the test and its merits passed
upon. We have secured exhibits which we hope will
bespeak credit for our race—exhibits which will cause
the Anglo-Saxon race to deem us a meritorious people
worthy of encouragement, patronage and employment.
"We admire the spirit which prompted the erection
of the Negro building. We see a meaning in this rec¬
ognition.
" It is highly significant. Read the signs of the times.
We see that opinions are changing; we see that preju¬
dice is breaking down; we see the mighty Caucasian
race, in its onwafd march to a higher civilization, lead¬
ing the Negro race by the hand. We hope to see the
time come when it will deal with us with the same liber¬
ality as with other races. Nothing will be more beauti¬
ful than to see creatures of the same God dwelling to¬
gether on common-sense terms of friendship." Ths
A BLACK SUBJECT
403
Tennessee Centennial Exposition Commissioners for
Chicago are, Rev. J. E. Ford, chairman; S. Laing Wil¬
liams, secretary; Dr. J. Webb Curtis, Dr. A. R. Abbot,
E. H. Wright, W. L. Martin and R. M. Hancock.
The question is often asked, What is there to show
for the money and effort expended in the South during
the last quarter of a century? We will let that great
leader of his race, upon whose shoulders the mantle of
the lamented Douglass seems to have fallen-r—Booker T.
Washington—answer that question. Said he;
" Twenty-five years ago, perhaps, there was no state
in which the Ku Klux Klans and Negro school-house
burning prevailed as in North Carolina. Last week I
accepted an invitation to be present at the Colored
People's County Fair at Durham, N. C., and only six
weeks before had word been sent out through the coun¬
try that the fair would be held. This was the first
attempt at such an enterprise.
"Instead of the small, unimportant concern which I
expected to see, I was more than surprised and gratified
to find a large, three-story factory building filled from
top to bottom with the best samples of grain, grasses,
fruit, vegetables, tobacco, cooking, plain and fancy sew¬
ing, cabinet work, brick masonry, school work, includ¬
ing specimens of manual training; besides which, out¬
side of the building were to be found the finest pigs,
horses, cows, calves, poultry, etc. A man not -seeing
the color of the exhibitors would not have thought for
once that he was attending a colored fair, so good
were the exhibits and so excellent was the care and
taste with which everything was arranged and con¬
ducted.
" Several of the white citizens could not resist the
temptation to mingle their exhibits with those of the
colored people. Many of the white women asked to be
placed on the jury of awards; and the attendance on the
part of the white people was nearly as large as that of
the colored.
" In the afternoon it was my privilege to speak to the
citizens in the court-house, and here again one could see
that the barriers are fast burning away. At least one-
4©4 THE WHITE SIDE OF
half of the audience was composed of the leading white
people of the county.
" After I had spoken in the afternoon, I was more
than surprised to receive a courteous invitation from
the president and students of Trinity College, in Dur¬
ham, an old Southern college for white boys, to address
the faculty and students the following morning. This
was the first invitation I had received to address a white
college in the South. Notwithstanding, I was gratified
to see that both myself and the half-dozen colored citi¬
zens who called with me were treated with as much
consideration as could have been true of a Northern
college.
"After I had spoken, the president of the college, in
speaking to the three hundred students about their duty
to the Negroes, remarked: 'I have no patience with
the Southern white man who will give ten dollars to
educate the heathen in Africa and will not speak to a
colored man in his1 own town.'
" But what -has brought about this change ? Why this
friendly relation between the races, and this evidence of
progress on the part of the colored people ? First,
there is Trinity College for the white people, twelve
miles away is the State University for the white people,
besides excellent public schools in the City of Durham
for both races. But the main cause of this progress is
in the fact that in every part of this country there are
graduates from Hampton, Shaw University, Scotia
Seminary, Fisk University, Lincoln University, Biddle
University, Livingston College, Kittrell Industrial
School, as well as others. Those graduates are to be
found on the board of directors of the fair, among the
exhibitors, as pastors of the churches of all denomina¬
tions. When we can put the same number of educated
men in every county of every state there will be little of
the race problem left in ithe South."
Another recent correspondent from the South, this
time a white man, in giving his observations as to the
progress of the colored race in his vicinity says:
" The past ten years have brought many changes to
the Negroes, and changes for the better. They are
NEGRO BUILDING, NASHVILLE, TENN.
A BLACK SUBJECT
405
certainly accumulating some property. Very few of
them had horses and buggies ten years ago. They
nearly all walked to church, no matter how many miles
away; now very few walk to church at all. They are
buying land and putting houses on it; they own cows,
hogs and many things which show that they are learn¬
ing to spend their money to advantage.
The children all go to school as-soon as they reach six
years. They go when they have not enough corn-
bread to eat and scarcely clothes enough to keep them
from freezing. They buy their school books from the
white children, so that they caa pay for them in work,
and their clothing is bought in the same way."
You can not keep such a race dowrt. Ex-Senator
Bruce had. just such an experience when a boy as the
following incident, which, is taken from "Vaughn's Plea,'"
shows:
" While living in St. Louis a little, barefoot, ragged
urchiny peddling newspapers on the levee, he was one
day accosted by a gentleman who was hastily making
his way down, the levee, enroute to a steamboat which
was nearly ready to pull out upon its destination for the
lower Mississippi river, with :
" i Here, you little nigger, take this satchel and
carry it aboard that steamboat,* pointing to it, < or I'll
throw you in the river.'
The boy took a package nearly as big as himself
and hurried upon the steamboat. The owner of the
luggage came aboard just as the stage plank was being
pulled upon deck, and the e little nigger' had tp
hustle ashore without getting one cent for his service as
a carrier.
"Years passed by and the owner of the satchel was a
member of the United States Senate from the great
State of Missouri. His name was Lewis V. Bogy (pro¬
nounced Bozhee, with accent on the second syllable).
While Mr. Bogy was a senator Mr. Bruce was made a
member of the Senate from Mississippi. The Missouri
Senator had a bill pending which was of local import¬
ance. He went to Mr. Bruce, explained its importance,
and solicited his vote. The colored man promptly
«4o6
THE WHITE SIDE OF
responded that he would vote for the bill. He then
proceeded:
"'Senator Bogy, do you remember a little ragged
Negro that carried your carpet-bag to a steamboat,
years ago, at the St. Louis levee and only received a few
•curses for his service ?'
u 4 Yes,' said Mr. Bogy. ' What of it?'
"'Whv, I am that contemptible little nigger,' said
"Senator Bruce, 'and you owe me for that service yet.
Of course I will vote for your bill.'
t( Senator Bogy hastily made a computation of the
value of that service, with compound interest, and ten¬
dered payment, which was promptly refused. The
twain, however, repaired to the Senate restaurant, and
' smiled.' Bogy and Bruce remained firm friends until
the death of the former."
But this is not an isolated case, the fact is, all the race
leaders have "come up through tribulations." Imagine
Frederick Douglass, when a boy, winning marbles from
liis white playmates and giving them back on condition
they would hear his spelling lesson, and give him a little
instruction in reading his " Columbian Orator."
The earliest recollection of Booker T. Washington
was a one-room log hut on a large Virginia plantation.
When he became a youth he was working in a coal mine
in West Virginia, when he heard incidentally of Hamp¬
ton Institute. He started at once, determined to go
there and get an education. Knowing that he had not
a dollar with which to pay his traveling expenses, his
friends tried to discourage him, but he pressed on and
marvelous success has crowned his efforts.
He has the honor of being the first colored man intro¬
duced to an audience by a president of the United States.
The circumstance happened at Boston during Cleve¬
land's last administration.
His life's work began at Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1881,
in a small shanty and church with one teacher and thirty
ragged children. He soon inspired the colored people
—ground him by his example of industry and thrift. This
beginning, aided by appropriations from the
te, and generous contributions from the north, has,
A BLACK SUBJECT
under his leadership, developed into the noted Tuskegee
Normal and Industrial Institute.
There were in attendance last year 800 students from
nineteen states, under seventy-nine instructors. They
have 1,400 acres of land, of which 650 are cultivated by
the students, and thirty buildings, large and small, the
whole property being valued at $280,000.
Twenty-five industries have been organized, and the
whole work is carried on at an annual cost of about
$80,000, but two-fifths of this expense, so far, has gone
into the permanent plant.
He and others organized the Tuskegee Negro Con¬
ference, which meets every February, and is composed
of 800 representative colored men and women of the
Black Belt.
The following is quoted as a detailed statement of
the number of colored men employed in the government
positions at the national capital, together with the sal¬
aries received by them: Civil service commissioners, 1;
salary, $660. Executive mansion employes, 7; salaries,
$5,880. Employed in public buildings, 53; salaries,
$21,234. Department of state, 8; salaries, $22,780.
Treasury department, 336; salaries, $229,219.22. Inte¬
rior department, 254,* salaries, $303,208.11. War de¬
partment, 174; salaries, $116,340. Navy department,
38; salaries, $25,238. Department of justice, 8; salaries,
$6,040. Post-office department, 70; salaries, $68,020.
Agricultural department, 37; salaries, $19,760. Smith¬
sonian institute, 29; salaries, $14,880. Public printing
department, 204; salaries, $138,881.15. United States
senate, 36; salaries, $27,175. House of represent¬
atives, 28; salaries, $22,520. Congressional library, 4;
salaries, $4,120. Commissioners of the district who
name the appointees to local positions, 909; salaries,
$304,428. Office of the recorder of deeds, 19; salaries,
; Washington post-office, 68; salaries, $40,900. The
total number of colored employes is 2,393, and the
aggregate salaries foot up $1,370,623, giving an average
of $572.77 for each man. This seems to indicate that
the colored man has a chance to put his hand intc
Uncle Sam's pocket.
4o8 THE WHITE SIDE
Another encouraging feature is the fact that the col
ored race now has many warm friends among the very
men or their descendants who fought hardest to keep
them enslaved. The following is not an exceptional case:
The recent death of General Shelby, the noted South¬
ern fighter, calls to 'mind the fact that after the war he
became a radical Unionist and Republican. He was
appointed United States Marshal, ctnd as soon as he
went to work he appointed a colored man named . Lee
Jackson as a deputy*" This was criticised, by Shelby's
rebel friends", but he kept Jackson at work. '
In defending his action in making the appointment
Shelby said; ' 1 ~ '
u The young.man is competent to render effective
service in lines where white men cannot do as well.
I appointe'd him for efficiency, and have no patience
with that sentiment that gropes always among ±he
tombstones instead of coming out into the Taright
light of existing life and Conditions. The Negro was
always faithful to his people when a slave; he has been
no less faithful to his friends since he has become a free
man. - He is becoming useful in ways never dreamed of
before the war, and it is unmanly to deny him the right
to do for himself everything that will improve and bet¬
ter his condition. I am right in what I have done, and
by the right I propose to stand."
In view of the foregoing we think the race has no real
cause for despondency, but many reasons to "thank
God and take courage."
We leave with them as our parting exhortation these
inspiring lines:
" Courage,. Brother, do not stumble,
Though thy way be datk as night;
, One there is to guide the humble,
' Trust in Go,d and do the right. „
/' Men may hate thee, men may love thee,
Some may flatter, sotne may slight/
- Ceasfr from self and look above thee,
, Trust in <*pd and da the right."
FINIS*